Wednesday, April 11, 2007
STEIGER/LUMET
Put that combination together and you have a recipe for deep drama, over the top performing, and relentless commentary.
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Lumet's
Add Geraldine Fitzgerald for some quiet redemption and a relentless score by Quincy Jones (our second in less than a week—Point Blank last Friday—and you have a balls to the wall movie that does not let up.
The story has an unusual turn as it shows the pawnbroker's complicity with his present dilemma.
By denying and repressing his past, he has so twisted his values and perspective that he cannot operate; he has lost his own humanity.
I do not imagine that this idea would hold up to a lot of scrutiny but it does keep us at a distance and withhold sympathy.
The pawnbroker's cage is a heavy duty metaphor.
Steiger is actually very good.
The wartime flashbacks are very upsetting particularly in the cattle cars and the contemporary situation is time-tense. Everything happens here in just a few days.
It is a pretty good movie and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
I wanted to like it more than that but I did not.
Labels: best films
