anyone seen this ??
??
shareOvercooked Southern gothic. Only worthwhile if you are really into the actors in it. Director Arthur Penn had the film taken away from him by producer Sam Spiegel, who cut it the way he wanted to.
shareI’m watching it right now for the exact reasons you said; just to see all the famous actors in the same movie. Don’t know what you mean by “overcooked” but I figure I’ll recognize what you mean as I make my way through the movie
shareOvercooked=Brando (in full on sadomasochistic-beaten-up-Christ/Martyr-syndrome)
Still a great movie though (quite atmospheric)
Yep, I’m getting it loud and clear. Languid harmonica background. Hysterical overacting. Everyone drunk, corrupt and exhausted. Everyone depressed with unstated psychological wounds except for the honorable minority characters; put-upon, helpless over-sexed and barren women handcuffed to cuckolded men. Economic class exploitation. Shoehorned racism and sexism. It’s the 1960’s dream caricature of the South.
shareIf you dug this, then may I suggest 'Reflections In A Golden Eye' (if you haven't seen it already) as it shares similar traits?
shareFor me, I’m afraid it was a little too melodramatic and excessive with stacking-the-deck on the political message. I like movies where the characters are more three dimensional and the story more realistic rather than political. If you have recommendations in this regard, I certainly would appreciate hearing them.
shareBea South
As 'Ecarle' (eloquently) pointed out....this 'genre' spawned/transcended sub-genres.
I could only (off the top of my head) add 'The Sergeant' (1968) with Rod Steiger......it's just before Steiger descended into all-out 'theatrics' and major 'scenery-chewage' (which plagued his latter career) but off-beat/poignant/weighty enough for it's day (plus the debut for director, John Flynn)
There was a whole "movie cycle"(rather like the comic superhero cycle of today) back in the late fifties and much of the sixties called the "Southern Gothic" cycle.
Many of these were films made from the plays of Tennessee Williams -- A Streetcar Name Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, The Fugitive Kind, Summer and Smoke, Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana...all the way up to "Last of the Mobile Hot Shots" in 1970.
Meanwhile, a whole bunch of other writers and filmmakers got into the trend in their own works: The Long Hot Summer, Toys in the Attic...Reflections in a Golden Eye.
Robert Aldrich mixed the Southern Gothic with Psycho and got "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte."
"And Alfred Hitchcock himself dipped into Southern Gothic traditions(while setting his movie north in Maryland and Pennsylvania) in Marnie -- where at least one major messed-up character uses a Southern accent.
"The Chase" was part of this tradition -- written(as was Toys in the Attic) by Lillian Hellman and "goosing up" the usual Southern Gothic tradition with a more macho, violent and political bent.
Hellman may have been the problem here more than anyone else. Brando had his share of classics -- A Streetcar Named Desire among them -- but this script just wasn't good enough. For him or anyone else in it. It was panned on release and stands as a weird thing -- an all star cast in a prestige movie that plays like trashy melodrama.
But...it was of the "Southern Gothic" tradition.