Island in the Sun 1957

Just finished this valiant but bit stunted Hollywood production from the powerful producer Darryl F. Zanuck. Its a fairly respectful story of civil rights and labor class struggles in The Caribbean, featuring interracial commentary, very detailed direction and a fantastic cast including Joan Fontaine, Harry Bellafonte, James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie & a very young Joan Collins. But the film is way too shy in its radicalism. What could've been a huge platform for political reform and a hard defense of leftist ideas is a soft game of footsy from Hollywood intellectuals to an audience banking on their superior cultural dignity. Maybe I'm too cynical, but it felt too commercial to really deliver its message properly.

But I was very impressed technically by the structuring of subplots, preserved from the novel its based on I presume. The story sets up black vs white, rich vs poor, left vs right and gradually finds common ground for its very split audience. This was a great film in its day for the arena of glitzy escapist melodrama and cheap theatrics. It resists going that route and keeps a cool & realist pace of drama, which strengthens the tension and tragedy that builds. But I'm very intrigued by the morals of the film's ending. The right characters go punished, the expected congratulations are made and the status quo is maintained. Thats where the film fumbles.

I know they had to play to a post-war, working class white male demographic more than any other, but the film is about every other citizen in Western society, so the fact that his prejudices are preserved and his ego is boosted but the blacks are still essentially oppressed (just choosing a less oppressive version of their previous oppression) and the white liberals are the biggest victims and a bourgeoisie English lifestyle of exploitation & moral ambivalence goes forward happily is very Nazi. Also some fetish-y, objectifying shots of black extras. The power hierarchy set up by the film is still "white men > black men" instead of suggesting any true equality. And the film's treatment of mixed race people is as problematic as similarly "democratic" melodramas like Imitation of Life. Its only quaint right-leaning centrism by today's standards (which is still quite evolved for its time), but this film could've been much more if Zanuck fought the censors or studios for some real ideological bravery. Safe films like this that are too afraid to call themselves Left have led to the very dominantly conservative Hollywood studios we have now.

I do recommend this film for its acting, its tight script, lovely cinematography and solid production, but its not a major work you must rush to see. I imagine films like this inspired the New Wave & Neorealists the most as its close but no cigar.

*In retrospect it gets enough right and is a very beautiful films to be highly recommended and compared to today's Hollywood, but its not as great as some European films with the same subjects.

THX 1138 (Director's Cut) / Urban Cowboy / Night of the Demon

Watched the good part of THX 1138, the re-edited version from the 2000s. I didn't like my experience but I'm intrigued by the original 70s footage. I haven't seen the original film (but I do like the short film that inspired it), but this seems like a warped experience of a decent esoteric "futurist" film. A lot of it is lost with too much deleted footage of nothingness and pretty shiny objects. Very Kenneth Anger. Obviously very similar to Lucas' student films of cars driving. He's a technician who writes about technology so he can film technology. Thankfully he writes about the dangers to be avoided. He tries to make some political statement. Its topical, generational and not evergreen humor or referencing, but the rest of the film is so innovative and oddly moving, that I give it a pass. Hopefully the 70s cut is more watchable and less ridiculous and pretentious. Like WB took the film from Lucas when they saw how extreme & crazed his vision was. So this new version is the matured, successful, commercialized Lucas trying to correct his old mistakes or insert new theories. He's a fascinating director. As experimental as can be, yet as commercial as can be. I might re-review the Lucas remix after watching the original.

Urban Cowboy was a bore for me because it too predictable in its wholesomeness. And its wholesomeness seemed a bit cheated and dishonest. It tries to be Earthy and only erects a Broadway style of artificiality that is aesthetically tranquil but also lifeless dramatically. The plot is low on conflict and the resolution is ambiguous, tame and not even hopeful. The concept of the plot is good: two people marry quickly and then wonder if they should get divorced. They both find the ideal partner they've always lusted, but realize its better to settle for less because they belong together.

Both characters are written as dumb, impulsive, naive, selfish, incompetent and unaware of love's meaning. But they find love together. Thats a warm romantic type plot of the 1950s. But its dressed up in the culture of honky tonk big city cowboy culture. It paints a picture of accepted hopelessness and insulated ignorance. But its never satirical or cruel to them for being so imperfect. The kinds of films Robert Evans and other Hollywood filmmakers were starting to make after Coppola's Godfather were based on the realism and post-structuralism of the arthouse. But few grasped the original Neorealist movement and interpreted badly, Urban Cowboy being one.

Its glossy, crafted simply and somewhat true to its sources. But its not provoking thought, addressing issues or mining for truth outside of its inherited tropes & cliches. There are lots of films like this where Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney types, "All-American kids" triumph over the complex, damaged, truly vulnerable figures explored in foreign films. This is rightwing propaganda made in reaction to true art of radicals who were fighting oppression and economic ruin elsewhere. Hollywood films like this are sour and it highlights the drastic decline of quality after the 70s boom. Where everything became dumbed down beer for the masses to sleep easier. Lets study films like these but not give them too much credit beyond "pretty, watchable pap".

My horror pick was Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon in America because they still missed using the N-word). I've watched this film a few times as I've aged and it only grows bigger and better. This is a very, very classy, thoughtful, open-minded, fair study of the power of dark occult knowledge. Unfortunately, it was sold as a money-making popcorn horror film and the producer inserted some gratuitous, extremely dating monster footage in what was a pretty undated work of cinema from Jacques Tournier of "Cat People" fame. This truncated version isn't at all bad because of it, but you thirst for the original vision, especially when the significant edge of the final scene is lost because of too many dollars thrown at the screen. Check it out the UK version first and then move on to the U.S., trust me!