Here is a
cringe-worthy piece on Natalie Wood. I've always liked Natalie and
I've liked her work generally, though she should never be confused with a
serious actor.
Here, the narrator points out that Natalie has a lot
of work to do when it comes to choosing her next picture: she also has to
choose the director, her co-stars, the production company, and so on.
He forgot: and write the script, compose the music, select the film
and lenses, edit, and
actually produce a story that is worth watching. This is the art form
turned on it's head. This is the sunflower telling the artist
how to paint.
You can tell she really thinks this is all "art" and so very serious and
all that, which is a shame, because what she did quite often-- as in "The
Great Race" was good fun and digestible, and she worked okay in "Splendor in
the Grass", at least partly because that was such a strange story.
Of course, Marni Nixon dubbed her vocals in "West Side Story" but why
would that be a problem? "West Side Story" isn't about anything real
in any case. We're entering an era where they will also dub your nose,
your eyes, your breasts: the public does not care about "real" or
"authentic". The public cares mainly about fantasy.
She just shouldn't get mixed up about just what it is she does.
2012-02-11
Index
"The Searchers" in consistently ranked way up there with the best of American
film, and is often listed as the best Western of them all. Is it really?
If it is, it must be the sweep and grandeur of it's vision, because the acting
is awful, and the story is absolute melodrama at times.
Just one example: when Ethan finally catches up with Debbie for the final time,
she rejects him and flees, and he chases her on horseback-- I assume this is a
stuntman, not Natalie Wood-- and catches up to her, and she tries to slash him
at first. Then he says, I'm taking you home. She looks into his
manly John Wayne eyes and immediately melts and hugs him.
John Ford couldn't be bothered to take even 30 seconds for the most important
dramatic transition in the entire movie? This is apex upon which the
entire narrative drive pivots! It's all over in about 10 seconds.
Even worse: the famous last scene, of John Wayne marching off into the sunset,
is far shorter than I bet you think you remember it. Check it out.
It's a fart of an ending. The audiences are already out in the lobby
before they "get" that Ethan just not the kind of man who could settle for a
first or even a second wife.
So it's a classic of the epic Hollywood genre, which means, a film that is all
surfaces and check-marks: close up, wide shot, pan shot, lighting, make-up,
hair, costume. The story isn't trivial: it's actually quite rich and
complex. Characters are developed. There's even a bit of grit, an
edge, some rawness to the drama. But that was all in the script.
What showed up on the screen was a lot of spectacle, and then actors standing on
their marks reading their lines.
And please don't give me that shit that all the movies of this era were like
that: they were not! Check "The Third Man" or "Marty". Or "Seven
Samauri" or "Rashomon" or "All about Even" or "Tokyo Story" or "Wild
Strawberries" or "La Strada" or "On the Waterfront", and so on.
Index
To understand Newt Gingrich, you need to rent a
copy of "The Searchers", John Ford's 1954 classic starring John Wayne as
Ethan Edwards, a world-weary civil war veteran-- and possible thief-- coming
home to his brother's farm for a spell. It is hinted that the real
love of his life is Martha, his brother Aaron's wife, and it is implied that
Aaron and Martha's daughter Debbie-- born shortly after Ethan left to fight
for the Confederacy-- might be Ethan's daughter.
Someone steals the cattle
one day and the men set off in pursuit. They shortly come to the
realization that the cattle theft was a diversion: the Comanche waited for
the men to leave and then burned down their houses and killed Aaron and
Martha and their son, Ben, and kidnapped their two girls: Debbie and Lucy.
When they first catch up to the Comanche, Ethan/Newt wants to charge
head-on into the camp slaughtering everybody. They are all pretty sure
that Debbie and Lucy would die in the assault so the militia
commander, Clayton, insists they sneak into the camp first to try to rescue
the girls. This leads them into a trap. which they barely escape with
their lives. They find Lucy's body shortly afterwards: she had been
raped and murdered. Newt was right. Only Newt was right.
All of the other men, we later learn, are either weak or foolish or greedy.
Only Newt can really save the girl, and he just wants to kill her.
The
militia give up and go home, but Ethan does not. He rides on,
searching.
A long time passes.
You see, Newt/Ethan believes that once
Debbie has adapted herself to Comanche culture, she will be "no good" any
more for any white family. So it becomes clear that he now intends to
just kill her, if he finds her.
I don't know for sure what "no good"
means. Clearly, she won't be a virgin. And it is utterly of a
piece with Conservative "character" that demands are made of other people's
virtue that obviously are not made of oneself. But does it also mean
that she might have become more like Newt: ruthless and capable of slitting
someone's throat if there was a necessity for it? So you wouldn't want
someone like that in your house. She's "no good". But then, why
would he want to kill her? Why not leave her with the Comanche?
And let them have her? Are you mad?
They don't deserve
her. They are not entitled to her. They are-- hoo boy!
Different, damnit!
Unlike Newt, John Wayne's Ethan actually fought in
a war. That makes him someone Conservatives admire deeply but never
emulate. War is for other people to fight, and for me to start.
I'm
pretty sure it wouldn't mean that she had become a lesbian, though -- hey,
this was the 50's-- you never know. It might have been part of that
richly textured and nuanced meaning of "no good".
When they next find Debbie-- after about 2 years of hunting for her--
Ethan gets set to kill her. He chases her on his horse, catches her,
but then decides to take her home instead. That is because even though
Newt is ruthless and brutal and convinced he knows exactly what is best for
everyone, he always does the right thing. But are they grateful?
No they are not. After delivering Debbie back to the white folk, the
door of the cabin famously closes on the receding image of Ethan walking
away. They just don't appreciate him. They don't realize that
without people like Ethan, those Comanche would be snatching up all of
our sons and daughters and enslaving them with excessive regulations and
onerous taxes.