Review of A Face in the Crowd

Yes it's a bold statement. But A Face In the Crowd is Elia Kazan's best movie. Heck, I would rank it amongst the greatest films ever made. It's a shame that this film isn't as well known as his others. This is likely because it was a flop when initially released. However, time has only made this gem better. This film shows the rise of a no good but charismatic country boy who, thanks to his singing and a woman with an eye for talent, becomes a media personality with delusions of grandeur, that are feed by the people he dupes. It's amazing how this film seems to have predicted the rise of media personalities as influencers in our popular culture. You could make connections to numerous amounts of people of the day and today. It's relevance has increased even more in very recent years and it likely always will as long as we let people like this have influence over us. Andy Griffith is breathtaking in the role of Lonesome Rhodes. Kazan could be a tyrant (and a traitor to his friends) but he was a great director and managed to get some brilliant performances out of many actors. His charisma and magnetic personality make him a more then believable false prophet. Griffith seems primal, unreal, yet all to believable. If any performance deserved an Oscar, it was this one. Special mention must be made to Patrica Neal. She was such a talented actress and this is the best she ever was. She hates Lonesome but she loves him. She loves him, but hates that she allowed him to gain such power. The script but Budd Shulburg is brilliant. Even better then his script for On the Waterfront. If it wasn't for his dialogue, the message might not have come through as well as it did. His words are natural, unpretentious and easy to follow. It's like everyday conversation but in a cinematic format. This film should be required viewing. We need to wise up to people like Rhodes. He's not the type of person we should be following. Yet, so many are duped by these people and their cults of personality. A Face In the Crowd warned us, now we are paying the consequences.