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harry_david1
Reviews
A Child Is Waiting (1963)
Strong Indictment of the State
I'm not sure this movie functioned all that well as an entertainment, but as a pseudo-documentary, it was durned good.
Burt Lancaster is evil. His character at least. Only... he's not, he's just another functionary in a malignant institution, in this case, a facility for mentally retarded youth. As such, the rules of the system condition him to a certain kind of rationality, which may be the most humane kind available to a man in his office, but which nonetheless deals terrible blows to a young boy named Reuben.
I confess hereby, to have entered into viewing the movie a half hour in. So I all but missed the rearing of Reuben undertaken by his natural parents.
Reuben stands out in the institution no less than in civil society. I may be projecting, but I found significance in Lancaster's declaration: "We don't care much about IQs here." Whether or not IQs are a valid measure of intelligence, the concrete application seemed to be that Reuben was far from retarded. He suffered from something else.
The something else, it seemed quite clear, was the sort of tendency towards nihilistic fear that can only be expected to be found in boys who face contradictions and meaninglessness, without love.
And the institution's philosophy, under Lancaster, was rather expressly to forbid any love: love of a concrete sort, at least. Any attention which Judy Garland (as a newly hired social worker) directed towards the effectively motherless Reuben, would be, per Lancaster, a deprivation to the others; and, further, a hindrance to Reuben's own growth.
Only the State needs to ration love, or anything else for that matter; freely interacting individuals tend to find that gifts of love complement each other in a positive feedback loop.
And only the State believes that a child (or anything else) can and must be "produced" to the purpose of maximum usefulness to society, and by manner of sporadic lessons in facts rather than holistically working towards understanding. As Garland notes, she could teach Reuben music, sure, but "it's not enough." It's just another hyper-specialized skill when bestowed upon a shattered mind.
Enjoyably, the audience become privy to another element of the State's managerial nature, during the budget meeting. Lancaster argues for reasonable-sounding expenditures by the state government; the state's representatives, in turn, argue for the greater efficiency of distributing the tax levies upon citizen-subjects of greater production potential.
Enjoyable, that scene, because the viewer already knows what a sham the institution is, by nature. At one point, for instance, Reuben's reluctant father, addressing Lancaster, questions what the children even could possibly be conditioned for: "To wash dishes, or maybe tie strings around packages?" The father knows in his heart, and later acts accordingly by withdrawing Reuben, that he would far more nobly serve his child by helping to untangle his mind's knots, than to pursue the doctor's goals.
So, those reasonable budget requests, turn out in the viewer's mind to be ultimately arbitrary, and destructive in fact. The state's representatives, though, come away as the even worse human beings.
Well, heaven blessed Reuben to have a chance to see his parents, at the children's play, and, miraculously, he recites a lengthy monologue, no longer terrified to speak.
Unfortunately, the state resides in this world outside of the movie, and no less arrogates to itself tasks it has no business in.
High Noon (1952)
Ride on out, Mr. Cooper
I suppose I can see virtues in this, even if I don't feel them. It depicts a sort of heroism, and it is a Western, which already puts it in a good company. Erm... The Mexican lady might have made a good character in another film, if she too wasn't addled like the rest by preachy dialogue.
Otherwise...
* One more Hollywood film implicitly denigrating Quakers. During WWII there seem to have been dozens. (For instance, Yankees are invading in the 1860s, and heroically, a Quaker family comes to its senses to do the honorable thing.) Naturally I don't aim to judge a movie by its ideology, but this is the kind of movie that asks to be so judged; and while I'm not a Quaker myself, I can't help groan at every reformulation.
* Look, Mr. Cooper: If nobody wants to be your deputy in the entire durned town; and the only people this notorious murderer aims to be gunning for are you and your judge pal; and the judge pal early off decided to hit the road: Then what makes you a hero for sticking around?
As I see it: A cowardly town will eventually be preyed upon; in the West, sooner rather than later. If you, Mr. Cooper, aim to leave tomorrow anyhow... well. (On the other hand, the men of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN left their adopted Mexican village, and it felt fine.)
And: I should venture to say that it is cowardly for Mr. Cooper to stick around and put the townies in direct danger, simply because he disdains their civic character.
So, Frank Miller ought to be hanging with Mr. Cooper.
* Grace Kelly put in a real ...bland? lackluster? performance. Like unadulterated farina or grits. (Understood, it was her first big role.)
* I'd say John Wayne might have had a point when, as reported, they disdained the movie as "un-American." I don't have any truck for HUAC, and I'm not sure Wayne did either (but I wouldn't know that). But, Mr. Cooper stepping on his badge; generally being dispirited about his duties and about the town that didn't want him to help them -- why can't Coop just let the people live their lives as they please, 'stead of begging for help to serve his pride?
Coop, indeed, "...a man too proud to run away." Only everything in HIGH NOON indicates the audience ought to admire this stubborn pride.
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Good fun
I enjoyed this movie much. (Thank you, TCM Western festival. Why no SHANE though, will be eating my mind.)
I expect I ought to yield to the reputation of Kurosawa (THE SEVEN SAMURAI) as having done a far worthier production of the same storyline. But, I haven't seen that, and hence, I wasn't disappointed by Sturges' work.
"You are like the strong wind, blowing off a swarm of locusts." Nice speech by the Old Man at the end. And other expressions of this theme as well. Such as, Charles Bronson spanking one of his admiring young followers, for calling their fathers cowards: versus Bronson's idea that it takes a greater bravery than he has, to shoulder responsibility, than to gunsling like himself.
Ha ha, also: "When you die, we will avenge you, and keep fresh flowers on your grave." "Mighty fine compliment; I hope you won't be too disappointed if your plans fall through." Etc.
I second the commentator who said, it's engaging, but not quite emotionally gripping.
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Oy. I guess I'm old school
After watching so many great films on Turner Classic Movie's month long marathon of "every great Western (except Shane)", and particularly, after tonight's airing of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, this movie really stood out for what wasn't there.
To be honest, I couldn't watch more than 25 minutes before getting bored out of my mind. Yokels and Nazi-stereotypes, white trash... I hardly think it bespeaks a great film for a director to portray the South/West as backwards and evil. I mean, what could be more fundamentally orthodox these days?
I find myself fully agreeing with Critical Eye UK about this work. I might compare what it seemed to have done for the Western genre, as what Scorsese's nihilist GOODFELLAS and CASINO did for the mob genre.
We live in a senseless age, I gather, and an history-ignorant one tooso films like THE WILD BUNCH make it easy for us to trash all the character depth and ideals of the real people in eras bygone. We can't conceive of violence being anything other than the total war the 20th century wrought time and again, so of course, back in the West, they cared as little about "collateral damage" as modern states do. The thing is, though, that in frontier towns, any gang that acts like modern Hollywood villains do, will quickly find the blowback stops them in their tracks. Wars were more private, and more limited, with rules and conventions, because it was all too obvious that collective security is a myth.
Well, eh. I mightn't be opening my mouth, having seen so little, but as I said, the portion I saw left a real bad taste in my mouth.
Oh. Also. The opening scene. I suppose most viewers, accustomed to this style of filmmaking, managed to piece together what happened, and by and large appreciate the realism of the chaos. I reckon I've just about lost my understanding of the benefits of this style. If you want to feel what violence is like, go join the Army, or a gang, et al. If you want to see a good story, on the other hand, I should much rather know what the heck's going on, in some degree.
(To be clear, I love a good detective story, or suspense, etc., as much as anyone. But deliberate omissions of facts done by selecting certain scenes or dialogues for focus, is much more like real-life experience of knowledge-gaps, than the nihilism of, say, the opening scene of THE WILD BUNCH.)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
It was the Cotton Bowl, sister-woman.
I have just read through most of the comments on this great film. A few responses here, then, first. I disclose that I haven't seen the play on which it was based, and so was unencumbered by either false expectations or relevant expertise. And I "walked in" on the film when Big Daddy disembarked from his plane. I'm undecided whether that makes me mendacious, for hiding from my ignorance, or if that'd just be "Bull!"
Natasha thought "Guys might get bored". I notice on the demographics that men outnumber the women among voters, by a factor of 3-4. I suspect that reflects the centrality (to my -- male -- mind) of the male-male relationships: Brick-Big Daddy, and Brick-Skipper.
Maggie of course was a lead character, but -- firstly -- Taylor didn't imbue her with... well, with the life-spirit that her character unwittingly and eloquently claimed at film's end: "The gift of new life, sired by Brick." (I paraphrase.) Hence, Maggie didn't show any spiritual renaissance as the plot developed. I should be better off, though, remarking that, indeed, the plot gave her no *reason* to change, since (as I recall things) she didn't ever learn anything non-ephemeral. Maggie had a good bit of life in her; but her character was essentially a tool for the development of and between Brick and Big Daddy. Brick's reconciliation with his wife had everything to do with his newfound appreciation of the meaning of mendacity, and nothing to do with either Maggie's past or the manner in which she brought it to discussion in the present. My feeling was that Brick took to heart his father's purportedly cynical line about the world being a system of mendacity in which we must make love to wives we no longer love -- transformed, in Brick's action, into a healthy rejection of indispensible myths and indispensible truths.
So, to conclude that thought. Without presuming to speak against the pleasure a woman viewer might take in the film, guys have more than a few enthralling moments and themes for themselves. My take, at least, is that men, particularly (or perhaps even uniquely), must grapple with forging an identity reconciling Brick's loyalty to Skipper -- and other high-minded ideals -- with his eventual absolution -- and acceptance of a flawed reality.
At this point I can't remember what else I wanted to mention. I disagree with most of Telegonus' assessment, though (or: the portions I am qualified to judge). It didn't strike me as dated. Nor did I notice of the behind-the-scenes Williams, "he is out to enlighten his audience on sexual matters; also on life in the then still exotic Deep South. " (This may well be my shortcoming.) That is, how was it an attack on "Middle America"? Perhaps Telegonus refers to the theme that money can't buy love; I tend to see avarice as a perversion for the extremes of society, the vigilant elites and the covetous proles.
That'll do. Now I must sleep and face the day tomorrow without Kentucky bourbon and its "cold mechanical click".