Item #: 21148DV Category: CRIME Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (35 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Kevin Rayburn

Jun 21, 2005 @ 12:31:32

A Classic, but
A fast passenger train careens toward the camera in the middle of vast desert western expanse. Unsubtly we're being told that explosive drama is coming. In fact, this dramatic opening for the credits is the loudest thing that will happen for the next 80 minutes. The train stops in Black Rock, a ghost town in more ways than one, and the one-armed man who steps off the train will soon exhume the ghosts of the past. Black Rock is a town where the clock might as well be stopped; it's a place of inertia and ennui where life stopped years ago. A tragedy drapes and defines the town, and indeed binds everyone to this waterless place where no reasonable person should want to live. That a train should stop here--something that hasn't happened in years--seems to suggest that the clock has resumed ticking, that life has returned, that the day of reckoning (long put off) is now at hand. Spencer Tracy's Macreedy, a man of quiet, stalwart reserve, is a mysterious one-armed man dressed incongruously in a stifling black suit, so reserved and cool that he doesn't even break a sweat in the 100 degree inferno. It's probably not a spoiler to say that he's the good guy; while the bad guys, led by a cagey bigot played (as so often) by Robert Ryan, all wear lighter shaded and fitting clothes more suited for the terrain. Macreedy is an outsider; his mission unknown. As it turns out, we know as little about him as the townsfolk do. They want to know why he's being so tight-lipped and nosy, poking around to find the skeletons in the closet--and so do we. When the film ends, we're prompted to wonder: Why didn't he just state his purpose at the outset, complete his initial task, and leave? If he did that, of course, there would be no film. Stating what this mission is would be a spoiler, and the film depends on the excrutiatingly slow buildup to finding out the town's secret, but also the secret of the mysterious stranger's background and mission. How did he lose his arm? Why is he asking so many questions about a dead man? Is he a government agent, or just a friend of the dead man's family? These questions all get answered eventually, in satisfactory fashion. But until then, the film is very slow in its buildup. One gets the feeling of living in this limbo. Movement is repeated; Macreedy seems to cover the same ground; move in the same patterns. One's eyes begin to glaze over at the slowness of it all. Contemporary audiences with hyperkinetic expectations will probably bail on this film well before the final revelations, which, when they come, may also be blunted in impact due to some of the film's now less-topical post-WWII concerns. Without giving much away, let's just say that the movie has a social conscience typical of movies of the 40's and '50s as well as some noirish sensibilities (even though shot under a blaring white sun). One wonders if director John Sturges was influenced by Akira Kurosawa, epecially Rashomon with its concern about the past, and Seven Samurai, with its geometrically arrayed warriors ready to make a stand. In one scene in the 'town square' at a railroad crossing, Sturges arrays the town's menfolk across the length of the Cinemascope screen. Each seems to be facing the group yet looking away from one another; there's ample distance between them; a group cohesion, yet a mutual fear of their mutually shared dirty secret. It's an interesting shot. It suggest stasis but also tension. They're bound to this spot, to their secret and to fear of their leader. They're aimlessness personified, going nowhere. It's as if they WANT Macreedy to finally relieve them of the burden of the weight of guilt. As the film proceeds, their harassment of the stranger is increasingly violent, yet reserved enough to suggest they want a fair fight. The whole psychological battle reflects the way men relate in the world at large: competitive onesupmanship, constantly needling one another, even questioning each other's manhood to see who's cock of the walk. Tracy's armlessness becomes a symbol of impotence. His calmness in the face of mounting threats is seen as unmanly. Tracy proves his manliness and resourcefulness soon enough, though, in the action-packed, violent climax. Dean Jagger's alcoholic, panytwaist emasculated sheriff--who takes his orders from the baddie--is seen as the epitome of lost manhood. It must be mentioned that Anne Francis is in the cast, as a morally conflicted gal, but women have little place in John Sturges' manly films, and that is the case here. She's an MGM glamour girl stuck into the thing to no good purpose. Some of the dialogue, it must be said, is a little too elegant and sometimes poetically alliterative for credibility. And the villains, it must be said, show little dimension, though this is true of almost all films, even to the present. The film's slowness is understandable; the slow buildup of tension toward the revelations is necessary, but quite often it seems draggier than it should be. One could easily see this 81-minute film fitting into one hour with judicious cuts. The film is undoubtedly a classic, but one doesn't feel as ecstatic about it as one should when the revelations and resolutions come. All that said, this is an essential Hollywood movie of the '50s. *** Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - 2005, Kevin Rayburn

<[:-} winner of the led zepplin award for most creative use of a fire hose?
SPOILERS! as always, kevin has this movie nailed, but i had this sketchy comment almost finished before i saw his review had been posted. deep in several dimensions, this (color) movie manages to evoke the best qualities of the western and noir traditions. spencer tracy plays a wwii vet with a paralyzed arm, like bob dole. he's unemployed, having done something to tick off the man, and his character development made me think it must have been a whistleblower thing. probably dick tracy's brother, he's an "untouchable," unwilling to go with the goobers (good old boys). fate and honor lead him to a tiny town where the train seldom stops and the truth never sets foot. he walks tall over this nest of conspirators. i chuckled when he cranked an engine to get the gasoline flowing in the fuel line to fill a "molotov cocktail" bottle, and then used a necktie for the fuse! robert ryan, lee marvin, and ernest borgnine are superbly villainous. walter brennan makes a great reluctant hero. all the characters are three dimensional and convincing. anne francis has a cute but clueless role that doesn't do much for women, but she's perfect doing it. i couldn't stand to listen to more than a few minutes of the academic commentary in the dvd extras, but the commentator makes a good point when he pegs "bdabr" as a high profile exploitation movie. a few things detract from the film's impact. tracy's "crippled master" kung fu looks almost as weak as john wayne's last film fistfights. "bdabr" perpetuates the head in the sand delusion that the feds fight corruption, on the side of the angels. if karen silkwood could speak from the grave, i'm sure she'd disagree. "bdabr" is remarkable for being an early protest against institutional, xenophobic hostility toward east asians, but the name "komoko" sounds more like a gas company than a japanese man’s name. and why does the headlight burn after its shot out?

• GOODBYE UNCLE TOM
Snuff Film... (Tim)

• TAMPOPO
Awesome... (CMH)

• ROMERO
... (Sue)

• VAMPIRES VS ZOMBIES
horrible... (beachmonkey)

• PULP FICTION (COL ED)
a thrill ride... (Alan Hall)

• PERFUME
KINKY, DISTURBING... (DKB)

• BLACK MASK 2: CITY IF MASKS
not bad... (Dedeals)

• ELVIS ON TOUR
Elvis in Concert. ... (elvisandmeatloaf@aol.com)

• BORN YESTERDAY
A great performance... (micca)

• WONDERWALL
Why this film dserves more than a one star rating.... (Eric)

• PIT STOP (LTBX)
... (pike)

• BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE
... (pike)

• BIG BAD MAMA
... ()

• GOODBYE UNCLE TOM
MISUNDERSTOOD... (Caribba)

• MONKEY KUNG FU
the best... (melo70)

• PANTERA 3 WATCH IT GO
WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... (leo)

• HOUSE OF STRANGERS
FINE 1949 NOIR/DRAMA... (DKB)

• KEEP YOUR DISTANCE
LOCALLY SHOT DRAMA... (DKB)

• GOODBYE UNCLE TOM
a genius reality check 4 our race we may live in the white mans land & call it hme bt in doing that we deny the truth of our being. All brown skin people nomatta hw light r african rayalty ... (lady swirl)