In the BFI's poll of film directors for its greatest films list in 2002, Linklater voted this as his number one. I haven't seen it and it is unavailable on DVD, but I am interested if this film has influenced his style. Could anyone shed any light on this?
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Yup, me too... couldn't find it anywhere for DL.
shareThis is true about Linklater. Check out the posting at http://www.tumundo.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=473
I went to this MFAH event where Linklater spoke in great lengths about this movie. He's hoping he can be on the Special Features of the DVD (if it ever comes out) where he can interview McLaine and any other living actors from this movie.
I love this movie, for the performances and how beautifully filmed it is and I like how you can really identify with these people's confusing emotions. I feel vindicated liking it so much after hearing it's Linklater's favorite film. It illustrates dysfunction and repression and frustration contrasted with the societal straightjacket each character can't seem to escape.
Ssssshh! You'll wake up the monkey!
Some Came Running is a kind of auteurists cult film and the best liked non-musical film made by Minnelli, it was a favourite of Godard's who made many allusions right down to the last shot in Contempt as well as Martin Scorsese later on. Scorsese even shows the last scene at the fairground in his doc on American movies.
It's also probably the apotheosis of the Hollywood 50's melodrama shot in 'Scope, sending the trail that had Doug Sirk's films as well as Nick Ray's Bigger Than Life and Rebel Without A Cause.
How much is a good nights sleep worth?
Linklater was laughing about how he doesn't think any of his movies directly borrow from this film, although some of his fans reminded him that he's made movies that begin on buses. I guess you could then make a case that the intro to Before Sunrise owed something to Minnelli's film without Linklater realizing it, haha.
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
This came after both of those Nick Ray films, so if anything, they were paving the trail for Some Came Running.
"Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
"Why do you find it so easy?"
"It's never BEEN easy!"
It's hardly a unique feature but yes, BEFORE SUNRISE and SLACKER begin with a lone male traveling to a new city. There are also scenes in an amusement park in BEFORE SUNRISE, and DAZED AND CONFUSED features an underage boy bluffing to buy liquor. The lead of BEFORE SUNSET is an author, and DAZED is the story of a hometown in the middle of America.
Then again, Linklater has never worked in an anamorphic or cinemascope ratio, nor has he come close to the dramatics of a melodrama very often in his direction. And the above similarities are superficial, for the most part. Why would he cite this film as his favorite?
It's likely he identifies with the Sinatra character and imagines how great it would be to have the admiration of society women and the critical validation they bestow, and yet be able to sleep with whomever he pleases and be excused by that same class by being put in a category with "great writers who have large appetites." Who wouldn't want what Sinatra has in this film - validation to hate the merchant class, the love of the common man (in the form of a loose woman) and admiration and money from the academic world along with fame of the literary sort. Creative types can see themselves readily in Sinatra's character - he's cool, talented and aloof and loyal subjects are always willing to take a bullet for him.
Yet, why does DAVE return to Parkman, and why has Linklater never left Austin? Maybe they prefer to remain big fish in small ponds.
But again, these are at best superficial claims. In truth, Linklater's thinking is in line with most autuerist directors who can see the line from Sirk and Minnelli's melodramas to Nick Ray's ensemble supported film REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, which harnessed the power of youth with its smattering of teenage cool, pop psychology and powerful cast telling a story that takes place over a single day, like the bulk of Linklater's early films, and seminal New Hollywood tales like NASHVILLE that attempted to explore the intersection of political thinking with membership in subcultures. The bond formed between actors and director on all of these films are a testament to the trust and respect for the craft of cinema, and are the real similarity. The task of a film director is to harness the energy of all collaborators unto a single purpose, and to create the environment where everyone can do their best work. The victory of a film like BEFORE SUNSET is in harnessing the literary talents of the actors, much in the way that Minnelli was able to see that Sinatra's ending was the better choice, or that his first take acting style had validity.
The only difference between a great film like SOME CAME RUNNING and some entertaining and sometimes good films like GARDEN STATE or BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, where an obvious stand-in for the screenwriter revisits his aging/dying/dead parents and still-in-the-sticks peers after having experienced the big city and minor success or failures in a career is that the characters of SCR are interested in maturity rather than maintaining some eternal youth. Author James Jones had a rich life to draw upon whereas stories written by movie nerds are always going to lack the depth of feeling a combat veteran-turned-novelist can muster.
And yet, beyond all that the true story of this film is about how someone cynical learns to accept the power of truly unconditional love. Perhaps that is why we all love the movie.
Dave returned to Parkman accidentally. Remember he said he got drunk with some buddies and mentioned he came from Parkman and when he presumably passed out, they put him on a bus headed there.
I guess the big question is why did he stay when he realized he was there?
Here's an interview where he talks at length about Some Came Running:
http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=1239