Tag: Drama

Movie Review: “Days of Heaven”

Emma1 Comment

There is a pervading sadness to the movie, like a memory of something wonderful that could have been, that should have been, that almost was, and is all the more tragic because it was in your hands but slipped through your fingers. This is not a movie for everyone, but if you believe that film can be one of the highest forms of art, this is the film to see. 

–IMDB review

What is it really about?  Fleeting beauty. There aren’t any random shots in the film at all, each frame and edit is a word or period for thought and mood. What joys and disappointments to be found in life. The churning machines, the lighting, the chatter, the dialogue-free actions… 

–IMDB message board 

 

This is a very visually engaging and beautiful film that came out in 1978.  It was directed by Terrence Malick (mostly known for The Thin Red Line and The New World).  If you know his work, don’t worry, this movie is not overly long (only 94 minutes) and languorous!  The acting is subtle and the dialogue is simple, but you’ll be drawn in by the hopeful young characters and the natural beauty around them.  Oh, and the characters are beautiful, too!   

In the opening, Bill (Richard Gere- young and very striking), his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams- also youthful, but bright; wife of multi-talented Tony Shalhoub), and Bill’s pre-teen sister Linda (the narrator) are struggling to get by in pre-WWI Chicago. 
Bill, who has a short temper, gets into a fight (for no apparent reason) with an older man at his job; he unwittingly kills the man.  The self-made family travel (via train) to work on a wheat farm (during harvest time) in the Texas panhandle.  Bill and Abby, who are deeply in love and very comfortable with each other, pose as brother and sister in order to prevent “talk” about them.  

The Farmer (Sam Shepard- also a noted playwright; I think he resembled Viggo Mortensen as a young man) is wealthy, but looks sad and lives alone in his huge house (no relatives; single).  He becomes interested in Abby; Brooke Adams’ beauty is in her large expressive eyes.  The Farmer asks another employee about Abby, then one day, gathers up courage to speak to her.  After harvest, he suggests that she stay on to work on his farm.  The work would be easier, and it would be a more stable life.

When Abby mentions this idea to Bill, he doesn’t get jealous.  Bill overheard the doctor saying The Farmer doesn’t have long to live.  The family becomes friendly with the lonely man.  Very soon, we realize that The Farmer is in love with Abby.  The Farmer, who is kind and gentle, could give Abby a financially secure life.  But what will happen after she decides to marry The Farmer?  Will Bill be able to handle it?  (It’s not easy to be part of a love traingle!)  

 

I really like the shot below because it shows the harshness of their lives, though they are beautiful and young. 

The last 30 minutes are very interesting; the action picks up a lot!  Sam Shepard suits the role of a farmer very well with his tall, lean build and shy, quiet demeanor.  His character is easy to sympathize with!  Brooke Adams and Richard Gere look comfortable doing the hard labor of farmwork.  Gere grew up on a small farm in upstate New York.  You can believe that Abby and Bill are a loving couple, but their relationship is not (totally) secure.  I found her to be a very watcheable character.  It’s too bad that there wasn’t more dialogue- that’s what I like best in films.  However, you could see the conflict in the characters’ eyes, faces, body language. 

 

Check out this film when you’re in a reflective mood, or looking for something different from the ordinary.   

Classic Movie Review: “A Streetcar Named Desire”

Emma1 Comment

Captivating, troubled, unpredictable, vulnerable- these words could describe Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, and the characters they played in this multi-Oscar winning movie. A Streetcar Named Desire was re-mastered and re-released in 1993; I have that 2-disc director’s edition of the film containing 3 minutes of extra/extended scenes and loads of special features.  (I love special features!)  

Blanche: I don’t want realism.  I want magic!

One of Hollywood’s most successful and controversial directors, Elia Kazan, was hand-picked by playwright Tennessee Williams for this film.  Kazan had directed the Broadway play, too; his body of work includes: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Gentleman’s Agreement (starring Gregory Peck), East of Eden (starring James Dean; Marlon Brando tested for the part, too), and On the Waterfront (also with Brando).  All the major actors (Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden) had worked in theater.  Though Jessica Tandy was on Broadway, she wasn’t a big enough star, according to Warner Bros.  So, Vivien Leigh, who’d done the play in London, was brought on-board.

 

Stanley: Be comfortable. That’s my motto up where I come from. You gonna shack up here? Well, I guess I’m gonna strike you as being the unrefined type, huh?

Well-bred, well-educated Blanche DuBois (Leigh) travels (via train and streetcar, of course) from small-town Mississippi to visit her younger sister Stella (Hunter) in hot, crowded New Orleans.  Blanche, a sensitive woman, almost can’t believe to what depths her sister has sunk.  Stella and her husband make their home in a stuffy, run-down apartment in the French Quarter. Their rowdy neighbors/friends drink too much, gamble, and make noise around the clock.  But most shocking of all- Stella has married Stanley Kowalski (Brando in a star-making role).  Stanley is a crude, volatile, working-class man of Polish descent.  (There are derogatory remarks about his background, denoting the prejudice of that time.)  Blanche is definitely not shy speaking about Stanley’s faults!

 

Stanley: That’s pearls, Stella, ropes of ’em. What is your sister – a deep sea diver?

 

We realize quickly that Stanley resents the presence of Blanche (with her fine clothes, jewels, perfume, and criticism).  Perhaps he sees her as a threat to his relationship with Stella?  Blanche is herself nervous and guarding secrets beneath her genteel Southern belle facade.  (I won’t give you too many details!)  Stella senses something is wrong.  Why has Blanche come to visit before the end of Spring term?  (She’s a high school English teacher.)  How did she lose their family estate?  But Stella mainly wants to keep the peace in her home, because who knows what will set off her husband?

 

Stella and Stanley’s relationship is based on lust; this repulses Blanche (she calls it brutal desire).  

Stella: I wish you’d stop taking it for granted that I’m in something I want to get out of. 

 

Stella seems happy about her life while Blanche is in a precarious situation: aging (over 30) and nearly penniless.  Then, tall and quiet Mitch (Malden) takes an interest in Blanche.  Could Blanche find some happiness with Mitch? 

 

Mitch and Blanche

Mitch: I have never known anyone like you.

 

Brando, though not yet 30, is simply amazing in this film; you won’t be able to take your eyes off him!  Brando was considered “naturalistic” and “realistic”- an actor who broke the mold of leading man in the 1950s.  And because of his penetrating eyes, brooding face, and muscular physique, Stanley is both attractive and repugnant to us.  Stanley is a drunken brawler one minute, then a contrite and confused little boy the next.  There is “ambivalence” in Stanley and in Brando, as Kazan said, that makes us wonder at his motivations.  “Brando was a genius,” says Malden in a behind-the-scenes interview on the DVD.  Check out this movie classic ASAP!

      

You showed me a snapshot of the place with them columns, and I pulled you down off them columns…