Thursday, January 31, 2013

Movie Review: The Day of the Locust (1975) Dir. John Schlesinger

By train, by car, by bus, they came to Hollywood... in search of a dream.


The Day of the Locust by John Schlesinger
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Blurb: The Day of the Locust is a movie about Hollywood and its corrupting touch, about the American dream turned into a sun-drenched California nightmare. John Schlesinger and Nathanael West's Hollywood is not the glamorous "home of the stars" but a seedy world of little people, some hopeful, some despairing, all twisted by their by their own desires - from the ironically romantic artist narrator to a macho movie cowboy, a middle-aged innocent from America's heartland, and the hard-as-nails call girl would-be-star whom they all lust after. An unforgettable portrayal of a world that mocks the real and rewards the sham, turns its back on love to plunge into empty sex, and breeds a savage violence that is its own undoing, this movie stands as a classic indictment of all that is most extravagant and uncontrolled in American life.



Thoughts: John Schlesinger, director of superb dramatic cinema with a slightly surreal edge in throughout the sixties and seventies was the perfect choice to direct this Waldo Salt adaptation of the Nathanael West classic of American literature, set in Hollywoodland just prior to World War II, it depicts the alienation and desperation of a disparate group of individuals whose dreams of success have failed to come true in a daring, epic that is at times brilliant, and fills it with a series of razor edged performances, particularly that of Donald Sutherland and Oscar nominated Burgess Meredith.

Subtlety isn't the film's strong suit but the bigger than life quality is so much a part of it, and West's novel, that you accept it as part of a reality projected as fantasy style intended by the film maker which is only heightened by the intense and surreal nature of the ever growing scale of the key set pieces as the film builds to it's unforgettable finale.



It starts off very slowly, introducing you to the world of Hollywoodland in the Thirties; to Faye and her desire for wealth and fame, to her father Harry the forgotten star, to Tod the bright eyed artist, to Adore the obnoxious "child star" and Abe the angry dwarf but it builds in to something so much more via a series of unexpected and slightly surreal slice of life events. And then the climax, a sequence of events much more powerful that almost anything else I've seen from Hollywood and if you haven't read the novel really quite unexpected in it's content. As with the book until this point I was merely enjoying it but the effect the climax has on the overall reaction to the movie is incredible, making you reassess what has gone before.



This is not about the film industry or about shallow, rich people, it is so much more than that, it is about the effect of Hollywood and fame on the everyday reality of normal working class people.

John Schlesinger directed Midnight Cowboy, Billy Liar, Marathon Man, Darling and A Kind of Loving and still this one might just be the best of the lot.





6 comments:

  1. I've heard of this, but never seen it, which happens a lot on your blog. ;) It looks great, and Schlesinger is a director whose work I need to explore more of. Another film added to my watchlist. :)

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    1. Ha! Thanks Josh. Coming from you I take that as a major compliment. Out of curiosity, had you heard of the movie or the book?

      (see other comment for apology for being an absent blogging friend)

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  2. I'd heard of the movie. I think it was in a filmmaker's top 10 list, or I heard a director (Scorsese?) mention it in an interview.

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    1. I think you might be right about Scorsese talking it up, I think a lot of film makers talk about it actually. It's a film makers film in a lot of ways. It speaks about Hollywood, not in the same way Living in Oblivion talks about being an indie director but still similar.

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  3. Interesting post about a fascinating film. However, I would issue a style-alert for this sentence, which is in serious need of pruning:

    "Subtlety isn't the film's strong suit but the bigger than life quality is so much a part of it, and West's novel, that you accept it as part of a reality projected as fantasy style intended by the film maker which is only heightened by the intense and surreal nature of the ever growing scale of the key set pieces as the film builds to it's unforgettable finale."

    After your beautiful opening paragraph it's kin of a let-down. It feels like three sentences in one, with three "as"s and one measly comma. I think what you're saying is that the larger than life quality is apposite to novel and film. We accept it because it's there (?). There's also a circularity/redundancy in the "heightening" of the largeness by...large set pieces.

    A few tweaks is all it needs.

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    1. Hey Von, good comment, I'm truly grateful for the time you took to say hi and I must apologise for not replying sooner, been busy out in the world and haven;t given the old blog much love.

      I think I remember having issues with that paragraph when writing it but not nearly enough patience to edit myself.

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