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I really should not be writing this because of my huge bias and unabashed love for Nicholas Ray's film debut, which is adapted from the same novel as Altman's film, but I'm going to exercise my freedom of speech while I still have it.
Robert Altman was a subtle, interesting and sorely missed director. He had an acute eye for visual style, how the camera moves, setting of the times, and above all, the way people really talk--anyone can see a huge influence on the Coen Brothers. The Depression era-South is so fully realized in the smallest details like a bare light bulb and the gray skies give a definite look to a sour period of American history. But at two hours long, this is not for the "Speed" generation. Ray's "They Live by Night" is so well-remembered by cult fanatics and film critics for its fast pace and contemporary camera moves, and at 90 minutes you never want it to end.
Though ensemble casts are part of Altman's trademark, there never seems to be a center to the story, despite the love aspect. Ray gives you two naive kids hardened by their environments who you root for and are truly the beating heart of the movie. These two characters needed two actors to embody the frantic love-on-the-run, and Ray struck gold with Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger. You didn't need to do anything special to make the audience believe that these kids were so naive...they simply *were* the characters as much as the characters were them, with a mad-love that was truly convincing all the way through, their hardened outsides giving an edge to this otherwise by-the-book "Romeo and Juliet" story.
Altman, on the other hand, tries too hard to convince you that these actors are playing virginal, innocent lovers. While trying to make a 25-year-old Shelley Duvall look younger she looks like she's 5. There never seems to be the slightest hint of genuine romance or longing or passion in this love story, and it falls flat where it should be the strongest part of the whole story. Take the scene where Bowie asks Keechie if she's ever had a boyfriend before: partly because of the censorship issues of the 1940s, Ray couldn't show anything too explicit, so the most sensual moment is Keechie lovingly massaging Bowie's hurt back. This creates both a hidden, sexual longing between these innocents and reflects Keechie's tender, motherly care for Bowie. In Altman's version, the two simply share Coca Colas while sitting opposite each other, without much energy in the air. This film contains nudity, but there is no sense of reason for any of it.
While Altman is known for his subtlety, he lacks any of it here. One scene in particular hits you over the head with the notion that the story greatly parallels "Romeo and Juliet," during the sex scene, with radio broadcasts cut in between (and there are a lot of them in this movie, too) of a broadcaster saying something along the lines of, "We now return to the story of Romeo and Juliet...two tragic star-crossed lovers..." The jig is up, Altman. We get it.
Endings can nearly make or break a movie; Given Altman's nearly satirical edge to all his other movies, it's maybe unsettling that he went too far in the opposite direction, and he does go overboard with Bowie's death scene. He brings out the big guns, so to speak, with a long, "Bonnie and Clyde"-style shootout (in fact, it's a near copy of Arthur Penn's classic movie ending) with slow-motion photography and Shelley Duvall's Wilhelm screams. It's manipulative because he tries too hard to force emotions that weren't there to begin with. To me, Altman held his characters at a distance whereas Nicholas Ray was hugging them tight the whole time, and his unrequited love for Bowie and Keechie is what makes his ending so powerful. It is quick, raw and unrelenting. Bowie is dead, and all that is left is Cathy O'Donnell glowing under a harsh light, finally realizing the true love they could never express in words.
Altman claims to have never heard of or seen "They Live by Night" while he made "Thieves Like Us." It's too bad; he could've learned a thing or two from Ray's self-assured and poignant debut.
score /10
Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday 5 October 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1741222/ |
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12-3-2021 00:06:12