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Reviews
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
family issues
A Woman under the Influence is one of the most beautifully acted films that I have seen in recent years. The Performances by Peter Faulk and Gena Rowlands are spectacular. While Rowlands plays the stand out role of a mother/wife, who has slowly and methodically grown distant and quite mad over the years of their marriage, I believe that Faulk's performance is just as impressive and equally mad. In dealing with a wife who is as immature as his own children, Faulk is reduced to dealing with her in extreme and embarrassing ways.
The tension begins when Nick, played by Faulk brings his co-workers back to his house in the morning after a long night shift, which probably was not the smartest idea because he had broken a long standing date with his wife the previous night. I suppose he brought them back for his own protection, thinking that maybe the presence of other might help to suppress an incident with his wife. Her bazaar awkward interactions build until Nick has to yell at Mabel (Rowlands). From there it only gets worse. Mabel's fickle and fragile mental state makes for a strange situation for her children. After practically kicking them out of the house in the morning, a few minutes later, she is begging for their presence once again. She waits in frantic anticipation for the bus to arrive and collects her children at the foot of the bus like a mother has not seen her kids for years. The way in which she acts towards the father of her children's play date is that of a twelve year old. The father does not seem comfortable at with leaving his children with a woman who he thought to be drunk, but later finds out just to be mad. After he tells her so, her demeanor immediately changes once again and she has a look of shame, like a child who has just been scorned by a disappointed parent. Faulk arrives in a fit of rage that seems a bit over the top. He strikes her and it is in this scene that one realizes the exhausting effects that his wife's strange behavior has on him. It drives him to lash out and act in equally irrational ways. His patience is constantly being tested.
This is a common theme throughout the movie. It seems that every family member seems to have the right idea of how to fix this family and is not afraid to voice their opinion. Nick's mother is one such character. One of the final scenes is when the family is gathered around the dinner table after Mabel's return from the hospital. Nick's mother and other family members refuse to accept Mabel's request to be alone with her immediate family thinking that the best thing for her is to have people around. This ends badly and Mabel is almost forced into a type of relapse. Nick is constantly trying to keep a dictatorial control over his family no matter what the cost - understandably so, as he has been pushed to this point psychologically and physically as he strikes Mabel into sanity once again.
The movie is a strange demonstration of family life. I think it's extremes are meant to display that all families have their problems and deal with them under their own circumstances. Is it right for others to intervene? Who makes that decision? The voyeuristic quality in which the film was shot also incites a feeling of guilt in the audience for witnessing such atrocities and also instills a feeling that they are a present member of the family and a first hand witness to the troubles that they are experiencing. The movie was enrapturing from beginning to end.
The Parallax View (1974)
where's the truth?
The Parallax View is a film dominated by feelings of paranoia and conspiracy. Even from the opening scene there is a feeling of uneasiness throughout the senator's journey through downtown Seattle and eventually ascending to his demise in the space needle. Even the height of the space needle overlooking the city gave me a general paranoid and tense feeling. This feeling is accented by the dissonant patriot tones of the music through out the movie.
The constant unrest is meant as an allegory to the recent assassinations of many prominent political leaders such as the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King Jr. Accompanied by the murders of these American icons are theories of conspiracy. This movie also demonstrates these fantastic ideas. Even Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty) has a difficult time believing his friend when she comes to tell him that people are after her. The murder of the senator had been 3 years ago and from what he could tell the four deaths that they had suffered had been from natural causes or from self inflicted fatalities like a car crash. Our protagonist is a macho, self righteous, ex-alcoholic who has a tendency towards being in the right time at the right place, but also has an adept ability of getting himself out of these tough situations. He defuses a potential crisis when warning the plane that there is a bomb aboard it. He thinks ahead and assumes a different identity, which of course is made easier by his assumed death and deals with the agent from The Parallax Corporation with sly acting and quick thought. His talent for resourcefulness is somewhat ungrounded being that he is only a journalist for a small paper, but still makes for an exciting hero.
In the end it seems almost apparent that Joseph's luck is going to run out especially after the murder of his boss, the only man other than himself who knows anything about the work that he is doing. However the tension of the closing scene in the gymnasium is exciting, stressful and unexpected. The framing of Joseph is craftily orchestrated with the assassin, as I saw it, being one of the band members. He would have never expected it. Staying consistent with many of the films of this era, the apocalyptic ending leaves the viewer with an edgy sentiment far after the movie has ended. However, I could not see the movie ending any other way. The paranoia felt throughout builds to the ultimate crescendo of the demise of Joseph Frady. His death accents the violence and corruption of the story. The final scene leaves the viewer questioning the credibility of the government and other masked agencies and leaves them wondering how deep and dark the conspiracy tunnel can run.
The Conversation (1974)
Is there privacy?
The Conversation is a brilliant conspiracy and paranoia film. Staying consistent with many of the films that we have viewed this semester, it is also an allegory of the times during the paranoia stricken early seventies. The turbulent years of Watergate during the Nixon administration (1972-1974) put the country in a fearful state. One in which they felt they could no longer trust their government or their privacy. This movie speaks to that mood perfectly with the character of Harry Caul (Gene Hackman). He plays a surveillance expert, and being in this line of work has seen how easy one can be monitored. Because of this, he has geared his life towards protecting his own privacy to the point where he has no real connection with anybody and is totally alone in life if not for his coworkers, who only know him as the best in the business. They are unaware if he has children or even a wife. His paranoia propels his desire to protect himself. It seems to be almost a sickness as he is able to speak his true feelings once drunk to the spy that Martin Stett (Harrison Ford) sent to infiltrate his lab and steal the tapes. He says that he wishes he was able to be intimate with someone, but was still unable to disclose anything about his personal life.
Being that paranoia is a valid response to the dark and deceitful things that had been going on around this time period, Francis Ford Coppola is able to instill that uneasy feeling in the viewer even if you are of this generation. A contrast can even be made today with George Bush's patriot act. Being that country is completely divided, it is not beyond the government's will or means to take certain rights breaking precautions to protect itself from any harm. At what cost do we sacrifice our right to privacy. Harry Caul would say no cost. Even with his guarded demeanor and isolated lifestyle, Harry is unable to free himself from being monitored himself. The climatic point is when Harry finally decides to do the right thing and ignore the objective aspect of his work. This in-turn makes him subject to the very surveillance he had been running from all of his life. The movie leaves the viewer with an eerie feeling that no matter how one lives his or her life, or what we think we know about our government, we could be completely and entirely wrong and unknowingly be subject to government interference and surveillance.
Chinatown (1974)
the greatest noir
Roman Polanski's Chinatown is by far one of the better neo noirs that I have ever seen. Despite the color instead of the classic black and white noirs of earlier times, Chinatown could easily be considered on the same level as its predecessors. L.A. Confidential does not seem to be in the same league. The movie's drab and macabre feeling resonates long after the movie ends. Staying consistent with many ground breaking movies of this period, the apocalyptic ending seems to be the only appropriate way to end this dark story. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway's performances are perfect for what the movie entitles. Robert Towne's script is near flawless. The twists and turns do not seem cliché and are there to propel the movie deeper and deeper into a winding abyss. The subject matter chosen for the film also serves the picture well. Los Angeles was built on the backs of the men who devised the plans for water engineering to provide the sprawling city with water. The two men who are credited with this feat are the lofty and idealistic Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), who believed that the water supply belonged to the public, and the greedy, power hungry Noah Cross (John Huston), who wishes to deprive the already dehydrated city for his own benefit. Herein lays the mystery that J.J. Giddis' (Jack Nicholson) character is trying to unlace. The corruption goes all the way up to the top including holds on the police department and other public officials. In the end, J.J. is able to uncover the scandal, but is rendered powerless by the elite of the L.A. scene. Not only does his attempt fail, but he himself is left feeling empty and helpless in the face of these powerful men, who he made the mistake of labeling as just human and subject to law like every other citizen. He is trapped just as was Hollis Mulwray who encountered a far more violent end. J.J. Giddis is conceived to be a wheeling and dealing character who only after his own fame and glory, although he would never admit it himself. He's an ex-cop who is driven by the prospect of making money and isn't afraid to wear it. However, when he is approached by Evelyn Cross Mulwray, his motives start to change. He is still after the fame of uncovering one of the more groundbreaking scandals of the time, but there also a human element that is entered into the context. He goes out of his way and puts his collar on the line for this abused woman. In the end the only decent thing that he has conceivably done in the last decade goes unrewarded and ends in tragedy. This beautifully written story is more than just a genre of film labeled "noir". It has all kinds of social implications as well. It depicts the fruitless toil of idealistic liberals waging a war against the insurmountable power of the elite and privileged, who only got that way through corruption and dishonest dealings. It is far more poignant to the turbulence of the 1970's than to the times of the 1930's.
The Last Detail (1973)
"I asked for my eggs over easy."
The Last Detail by Hal Ashby is much like John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy in that they are both road trip movies as well as buddy movies. They are about friendships that forged in extreme circumstances and the effect that these experiences have on each character's lives.
In the last detail, an unfortunate seaman by the name of Meadows (Randy Quaid) is condemned to jail for eight years for a misdemeanor crime he was unable to even complete. Being caught with his hand in the cookie jar after a mere forty dollars, he is consequently transported from a naval base in the south to the naval prison in Portsmouth, Maine. The last detail of a few veteran naval officers, namely Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) is to transport this eighteen year old, soon to be prisoner up the east coast.
The three gentlemen have never met before and all seem to have different interests. Billy and Mule are after some welcomed time off from the suffocating life on the naval base, while Meadows is drowning in his own depression. Billy is more of a lenient presence, while Mule seems to want to do his duty first and then relax. Soon the men form a bond. This bond and their relationship is what carry the movie. Meadows is an innocent and modest teenager who found his way into the navy because of a shop lifting problem. However, after hearing his story and spending time with the boy, the two officers realize the ludicrous charges that have been brought against such an undeserving soldier.
They take pity on him and decide to make his last days of freedom ones in which he will cross every right of passage yet to be undiscovered and make them days that he will never forget. As they gradually open up to each other, they grant the prisoner a certain degree of freedom beginning with the removal of the cuffs in the beginning of the movie. They get him drunk in Washington, D.C., involve him in his first fist fight in New York City and help him lose his virginity in Boston. Beyond these rights of passage, the officers also relate to the emotional side of Meadows. They allow him to visit his mother. What the two officers did not realize is that the journey they would take would be reciprocal. They all end up taking their guard down.
One of the more poignant lines in the film is when Meadows refers to the officers as his beast friends. Although he has only known them for less than a week, the sad fact is that these men are probably the closest friends that he has ever had. Mule and Billy have had much more life experience and are well versed in the details and idiosyncrasies that life involves. They connect with meadows because before this trip, he had been yet untouched by the worse side of life. His general doe eyed demeanor drives home the fact that he really does not deserve the treatment that he's receiving. Upon leaving the prison, I don't believe that Mule and Billy are so much angry with the way the ascending officer treated them as they are with the situation that Meadows is now faced with. "We could have prevented this.
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
running from what?
In the movie Five Easy Pieces, Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) is running away from something. However, he himself does not even know what it is that he is so afraid of. In the end he has a cathartic interaction with his father before he leaves. "I'm not running away from anything. I'm just getting away from things that get bad if I stay." I think even he has trouble believing this excuse himself. He is in classic denial of his own being. He is running away from himself. One can see evidence of this throughout the movie. In many instances he seems to burn bridges with acquaintances without even knowing why. He's not even sure why he left home anymore.
Although from an aristocratic and affluent back ground, Robert chooses to leave home to live the life of a vagrant. The opening shot is of Robert working on an oil rig. His night life consists of bowling and putting up with his girlfriend, Rayette (Karen Black) whom he seems to find absolutely repulsive. In the bowling ally, he is approached by two women who mistake him for someone else, each one dumber than the next. The next night he and his "friend" Elton (Billy Greenbush) have an affair with these two women without even thinking twice about it. These two women combined were probably less smart than Rayette, yet he pursues them for some cheap thrills. He knows that he does not want Rayette, but he figures as long as he's living this life, she seems to be the appropriate "fixture". Another scene that speaks to his lack of emotion towards anyone is that after Robert has reduced Rayette to tears in the bowling ally, he says, "No one would want to hit on you, you look pathetic." The first scene that Robert shows any sign of being a caring human being is when he goes to visit his sister in the music studio. He seems to truly care about her. When he hears the news about his father, it sparks the first time throughout the movie that he feels to have any responsibility or remorse. He has work and tends to go on a regular basis, but he is usually drinking before during and afterwards. He also quit his job and pondered leaving when Elton proposed he stay around and takes care of the responsibility of being a father. Entertaining the wishes of his sister and feeling slight remorse that the trip he took home was three years ago, he decides to take the trip.
When he reaches the house, he introduced to a woman who caches his attention immediately. While she seems only to be a diversion to dealing with reality of his situation, it seems that Robert develops some true feelings for her. They challenge each other equally instead of the empty and meaningless relationships that Robert had been involved with in the past. In their first extended conversation there is a beautiful panning shot of the entire room where Robert used to practice piano, which shows pictures of famous musicians, instruments and old family photos that ends on Catherine's tearing face. He falls for the one girl he meets with class throughout the whole movie. He is running from this bourgeois lifestyle but refuses to admit that this is who he is. He will never be attracted to the slumming and womanizing. "You don't even love yourself. How can you ask for love in return?" is Catherine's reply to Robert's pursuit.
The scene when Robert is face to face with himself looking in the mirror in the bathroom of the gas station is when he is finally honest with himself. He looks straight at himself and thinks about going back to the place where he was and leaving the place he has just come from. Although he has differences with his family, there is reciprocal love there. Back in California, all he has is a dead end. I think he makes the right choice.
Easy Rider (1969)
turbulent times
The helter-skelter way in which Easy Rider was shot is a sign of the times during the chaotic late 1960's. There was such turmoil, violence and uncertainty in the air. This movie serves as a barometer to the threatening mood. Wyatt (Wyatt Earp) and Billy (Billy the Kid) are two self-adorned modern cowboys. The scene in which they need to pull over and fix a wheel is paralleled by the two gentlemen applying a horse shoe to one of their horses while Billy and Wyatt are attaching a new wheel to their bike. Instead of their trusty steeds, they live a life of loneliness and seclusion on the open road as they take their motorcycles on a journey from Los Angeles to Louisiana with more than a few encounters in between. It is an attempt to recapture the old west. However, as is the theme of almost all of the westerns of moving east to west, the theme in Easy Rider is a migration from west to east.
The journey they set off take is sparked by a drug transaction they had just completed and are now on their way to live a life of simplicity in the Florida orange groves. While en route to this idealized utopia, they also take in what the great country of America has to offer them. However, as they get deeper and deeper into unfamiliar territory, the idea of America is getting farther and farther away. The first few scenes of the movie are majestic panoramas of the beautiful south west of America with awe inspiring sunsets. When picking up a hitch hiker, they happen upon a self sustaining commune is which the inhabitants live a simple and joyous. Billy, the hot headed high tempered friend of Wyatt (also known as captain America) has a bad experience and wants to leave, which sparks Wyatt's reluctant departure. This is where their idea of America begins to deteriorate.
They continue on and get deeper and deeper into the south. When joining a parade they see that life is not as easy going down in that part of country and realize that "their kind of people" is even less welcome. They are put in jail where they meet George (jack Nicholson). George is somewhat of an innocent alcoholic. He asks to see their "amazing machines", referring to their motorcycles, and barely knows that marijuana exists. The men form a bond and soon roll into a back country town where they and their ideals are not readily accepted. The locals, played by actual people rather actors, immediately begin to toss slurs at them and judge them by the way they are dressed and there is a constant attack, silly as it seems now, on their haircuts. They start to get the idea that this United States is far different from what they believed it to be. After being verbally coerced into leaving the men set up camp and are attacked by the anti hippie generation because of their fear, as George puts it, of what they represent to them. And the group represents true freedom. I believe this to be the most telling line of the movie as it speaks to what the country was going through in a very delicate time in its maturation.
Throughout the rest of the movie, the two protagonists', Wyatt and Bill, moods are changed. They don't what they've gotten themselves into. They reach one of their goals, which is Mardi Gras, but realize that maybe this isn't what they wanted. A well filmed LSD scene is incorporated into the script in which chaos ensues which symbolizes the turmoil of a nation. Upon reaching Florida, Wyatt questions whether this is what they really wanted. Did they really want to see the ugly side that their home had to offer. They would have been better off staying at the hippie commune because in the end, their ideals and life styles catch up with them when two rednecks shoot and kill them only because they didn't like the looks of them. The end of the movie is a haunting image of the disharmony of a country in disarray.
The Graduate (1967)
graduate comment
The Graduate is a perfect example of youthful alienation that many post graduates and young professionals were feeling during the sixties. The pressure and expectations of a stable future and income no matter what the field applied by society and an older generation did not mend with the wants and needs of the youthful and idealistic sixties generation. There are many examples throughout the movie in which the main character, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), feels put upon. The use of water imagery exemplifies this feeling of entrapment. The movie opens with an excellent scene in which Ben arrives at LAX and is moving along the conveyor belt on the long walkway through the airport. The fact that he is not moving by his own accord but is being pushed symbolizes his struggle throughout the movie. He feels as if forces not under his own control and dictating his future. The next scene is Ben's face behind his fish tank which gives the impression that he is under water. Water is used constantly: speaking to the idea that Ben is struggling to get his head above water in the sense that he is battling the expectations of his parents and his feelings of loneliness and alienation. When Ben is forced to display his awkward birthday present (a scuba suit) for his parent's friends, again more for their benefit than his, he is seeing the elated crowd through the mask of the scuba suit. All he can hear is the sound of his own breathing. His parents and their friends look like raving lunatics as they smile and clap. There is a definite feeling of aloneness and alienation. When he finally descends into the water, he attempts to resurface only to have his father push him right back into the water. This is a prefect example of the oppression that he feels. The end of the scene is Benjamin sitting idle at the bottom of the pool. There is a feeling of defeat as he succumbs to his parent's wishes. When Benjamin finally ventures down to the graduation party that his parents seemingly forced upon him (more for their benefit than his), he is escorted outside by one of his parents friends. "One word Ben, plastics." Plastic is the epitome of fake substance. Ben does not want a fake and meaningless future. He is looking for more than just a hollow way of making money and establishing a future, which seems to be the unbearable word that Ben has trouble passing his lips. Isn't there more? His parents give him a brand new car as a symbol of his coming out into society. When Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) asks him for a ride home, he tells her to just take the keys, and that he doesn't want them. The car is an omen to the oppression he feels. He even ends up leaving the car on the side of the road when he and Elaine (Katherine Ross) hop a bus to a relieving "nowhere".
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
great movie
Bonnie and Clyde was most definitely a microcosm of the youth rebellion happening during the mid and late sixties. It's breaking of the motion picture production code was a poignant stab by the director at the censorship of authority. Furthermore, the characters Bonnie and Clyde were considered to be folk heroes and champions for the disenfranchised and unheard youth of the United States. Bonnie was seen to be a hero for female freedom. For all of these reasons, Bonnie and Clyde was popular beyond precedent worldwide. Many considered Bonnie and Clyde as the vehicle which rewrote the national narrative. The feeling around the country was so dis-unified at the time, which is why so many of the reviews were split down the middle. There were the older and more conservative reviewers like Crowther, who panned the movie and named it a promoter of violence at a very fragile time ("These films of excessive violence only deaden (our) sensitivities and make slaughter seem a meaningless cliché). Then there were the younger and more radical reviewers who accepted the movie for the emotion it was meant to incite. The fact of the matter is that many people were offended by the movie, but failed to realize that underneath it all, a motion picture is intended to reach people. That fact is often not realized because of the watered down mush that Hollywood tends to churn out. If a movie enacts a reaction that monumental, there should be something done about it. Is that really the case? By the time this movie came out, no one remembered the thirties and twenties. The movie was obviously not meant to display a historical recount of those times. Instead, it was a statement of what many youths considered the status quo during the turbulent sixties. Cinema had become the favorite art form of the young. Youths connected with the movie because of its anti establishment tune. It was the "us or them" mentality. Many scenes throughout the movie construe the couple as heroes. The farmer who proclaims, "I'm bringing flowers to their funeral", after Bonnie and Clyde tell him to keep his money and get lost. Another instance is when they roll into a small community destroyed by the dust bowl, who are mesmerized by these mythic figures. They even give them what little water and food they have. Although many of the sixties generation's actions were not as violent and pronounced, they still carried the same ideal. They were burning bras, demonstrating against the state, evading the draft and experimenting with drugs. Bonnie was unlike any other female lead that had even been seen on screen. She robbed banks and wrote poetry about it. She committed crimes with the power and authority of man and furthermore she enjoyed it. She broke the complacent nurturing role of many women throughout film and rewrote a female hero. Faye Dunaway began trends in the sixties like wearing berets and it was noted by movie goers that she did not wear a brassiere.