Rant of the Week

There is no Film like "Marty"

I played "Marty" in high school, in a play "cutting" that we did for drama class. I seem to remember that we put it on somewhere, for other students, for parents... I can't remember. I remember make-up and props. It must have been some kind of talent show. I think Jane Hunse played Marty's mother. I cannot remember who played Clara. I wish I had a video. Who was Clara?

The scene we did was that of Marty's mother urging him to go out, to the Waverly Ballroom, because her son-in-law says it's "loaded with tomatoes". Marty ridicules the notion. "That's rich." His mother keeps after him until he finally explodes, telling her that he has come to accept that whatever it is that women want in a man, he doesn't have it, and he's sick of having his heart torn out by thoughtless girls who don't even do him the courtesy of returning his calls. He doesn't want to get his hopes up only to be let down again. He won't go.

But he finally gives in, puts on his blue suit, and goes. Sure enough, more heartbreak and disappointment. But then... he meets a girl named Clara, a school teacher, who is-- to put it kindly "average looking". But Marty likes her. She's nice to him and easy to talk to. She likes him too. They go out. They have a good time. Marty thinks it's promising, but his buddies think she's a dog, so he doesn't ask her out again.

Even worse, his mother's friend warns her that once Marty finds a girl, he won't have time for her anymore. She suddenly realizes that she could be replaced. She reverses herself and discourages him from asking Clara out again.

Marty gives in and doesn't call Clara back. But after one too many nights hanging out with his friends, who seem to have no idea of what to do with themselves, Marty comes to his senses and calls Clara back and asks her out again.

"Marty" won an Oscar for best picture, proving that good guys sometimes finish first. Ernest Borgnine says it made his career-- a lucky stroke-- the role was intended for Martin Ritt. Ritt couldn't take the role: he had been blacklisted.

There are thousands of films that make you feel good about cops torturing and murdering criminals, and thousands of films that will trick you into thinking you are a good person because you feel warmly towards a minority or a disadvantaged person because, in the film, they are portrayed as attractive and grateful and they look like Sidney Poitier or Will Smith. A lot of films will try to convince you that Sandra Bullock doesn't really think she is attractive and that Morgan Freeman is black and that Bruce Willis sits around and drinks beer in his spare time.

But how many films do you know of require you to identify with a short, pudgy, ugly, unattractive butcher who is lonely? How many of you out there are short, ugly, working-class schmucks yourself? I thought so.