Saturday, February 03, 2007
BALDERDASH
Today's NYTimes Best Film was George Stevens' torquing of Dreiser's American Tragedy
Dreiser's complex story about the corruption of values in the capitalist system boils down to a love triangle between Montgomery Clift and a lower class dame (Shelley Winters) and an upper class dame (Elizabeth Taylor).
Of course, I have reduced Steven's complex story down to a single sentence and there you are.
It is mostly horseshit.
But, it does present a cynical view of 50's values. I can't object to that even if it is watered down.
Dreiser was raising his literary eyebrow to the same kind of thing in the 20's.
Life goes on. History repeats.
Clift is stunning. Young and dewy and as yet uncorrupted as his character is.
Taylor is Taylor.
The heavy lifting in this film is by Shelley Winters.
She was a great actress who was often asked to play troubled women. She did so sympathetically and powerfully.
I can only make a 3 out of Netflix5 for this I am afraid.
It has some great stuff in it but the fundamental romantic stuff is too icky to let go.
Maybe I just don't like Elizabeth Taylor.
She is the opposite of Winters. All glam, eye shadow, lip gloss. Shallow. The rich bad girl who never gets taken down.
Well, that is what they let her play. Of course there was National Velvet. She is a long way from that here.
Later, there was Virginia Woolf.
Pretty good.
It is the interminable mid-career that I don't like much.
