A Face in the Crowd
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Movie Reviews of A Face in the Crowd
Movie Review: One of the Greatest of ALL films....
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read others' comments here (and on IMDB) and having just watched its new DVD, I'll add my two cents. This has been one of my faves since first seeing it (too) long ago. Well, it is more relevant than ever and should be seen be everyone (literally)!! I notice some (likely younger) folks mentioned comparisons to some politicians, but indeed Lonesome Rhodes was based on the phenomenally successful (and notoriously haughty) radio & early TV host Arthur Godfrey. Yes, Godfrey discovered Julius La Rosa, but La Rosa probably got fired for asking for a raise (after becoming very popular, both on the show and solo records). Apparently Arthur, like Lawrence Welk, was a cheap prick who only paid scale -- no matter what the tenure or how successful were his performers.
"A Face In the Crowd" was most definitely social commentary, NOT satire; although, as one from that era, I can understand why it seemed so to many at the time. It's apparent why it inspired so many future talents! That this film was not nominated on its own merits due to political differences/grudges is a GD crime!!! Can't say why Andy Griffith wasn't, but he sure deserved it... Awesome!! So awesome, it actually effected his personal life.
Anyway, re: politicians, "A Face In the Crowd" was a prescient warning of the dangers of that new media (TV), thus akin to those who subsequently capitalized on its propaganda potential and the *science* of people's weakness of mistaking "image" for truth!
But Kazan was not simply a great director; he was perhaps the most socially conscious of all Hollywood directors!! And he was one of the greatest actors' directors; hence, one reason why you never saw an Andy Griffith act like this in film again! (The DVD also has an excellent up-to-date documentary about the making of AFITC and its genesis, with many pertinent historical tidbits re: Kazan.)
In just 21 films, Kazan directed at least 10 GREAT films:
"America, America" (1963), "Wild River" (1960), "Baby Doll" (1956), "East of Eden" (1955), "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "Panic in the Streets" (1950), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945).
In his films, 21 different actors had Oscar-nominated performances: James Dunn, Celeste Holm, Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Anne Revere, Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Jo Van Fleet, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock, and Natalie Wood -- of which Dunn, Holm, Malden, Leigh, Hunter, Quinn, Brando, Saint and Van Fleet ALL won Oscars for their performances in one of Kazan's movies.
Not too shabby, eh!?
Movie Review: Cognitive Dissonance
Summary: 5 Stars
My image of Andy Griffith as and actor and as a person has always been positive. I don't know him, he may be the biggest jerk in the world for all I know, but he has managed his public image well and has kept his name unsullied by sordid rumors, so I have always liked him.
If your image of Griffith is the same, and you have never seen this movie, brace yourself for the cognitive dissonance you will feel when you watch this! Griffith turns in a powerful performance as a hobo troubador who is "discovered" by a small-town radio host while in jail and then uses the opportunities that unfold to rocket to fame as a canny, folksy and cynical television entertainer and pundit.
My take after watching the movie is that Griffith's character, Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, was always self-centered but was quite the ladies man as well. He found with Patricia Neal's help that he could use his folksy manner to get what he wanted. He also found that simple folks fell for and identified with his cornpone stories. But it was his handlers who led him to believe his own press and that his insight was indispensable in every situation.
Kazan and Schulburg use the movie as a vehicle to show not only how television could be misused in politics, but also in advertising. With Rhodes as its spokesman, sales of a worthless energy pill soared and so Rhodes became a sought-after spinmeister in other areas as well. Television does for Rhodes what radio did for the real-life folksy musician/politician Pappy O'Daniel.
On the romantic side, Rhodes was a real skirt-chaser, full of promises but always with his eye out for his next conquest. His come-uppance came when he jilted the woman who had helped bring him to his great heights for the charms of a groupie-like baton-twirling teenager (Lee Remick) he met when a judge at a twirling contest. The cliche is that "hell hath no fury...", and the jilted Patricia Neal lost no time in conspiring to bring him down. She got her chance when she burst in to the studio and aired for the nation to hear all of Griffith's contemptuous comments about his fan base to the bunch of "hayseeds" he used as a focus group on his show. That put a quick end to his popularity and the ranting,raving ending is really something to witness! It is left to the viewer's imagination as to whether Griffith follows through on his threat to jump from his office tower if Neal leaves him.
I never heard of this movie until recently and bought it on the strength of a recommendation. I'm glad I did. You won't be sorry either when you add A Face In The Crowd to your DVD collection.
Movie Review: Beware of trolls in Media Land!
Summary: 5 Stars
Once upon a time, oh, about 1957, in the far-off northeastern corner of Arkansas lived a princess, Marcia Jeffries, who has a radio show. She calls it "A Face in the Crowd" because she believes she can coax "talent" from anyone.
One day she goes to the county jail for that face which, it turns out, belongs to Larry Rhodes. He speaks right up and says, "What's in it for me?," a phrase that becomes his magic words. She gives him the luminous name Lonesome Rhodes and puts him on her morning show where he becomes an immediate local hit. Here on radio he proves he can get people to do outrageous things just by asking. Lonesome has the stuff, star quality, and becomes a radio personality. No need of wands for Lonesome--he has his own magic: the raw vitality of animal magnetism even sight unseen.
Before long Marcia and Lonesome go to Memphis for his own television show.
On their way there, she learns he is really a warty toad inside that Prince Charming disguise, but as a princess is wont to do, she ignores it. In Memphis Lonesome is growing in influence and growing to fit inside that influence. He brings a black woman off the streets and asks the television audience to help raise money to rebuild her burned down house. More than enough money is raised. It's a magic kingdom, television is, with all kinds of far-reaching influence.
Lonesome proves he can sell anything his way-- by belittling the product or boosting the product. He becomes a "wielder of opinion, a man of influence, a strong hand of the elite to guide the masses," and is backed by a maker of presidents. At this point the toad has shed that skin to become a troll.
Meanwhile, what has happened to Princess Marcia? Who is the real knight who comes to the rescue? And what happens to that troll?
"A Face in the Crowd" is one of the most overlooked films about media manipulation, misuse and abuse of the power of mass appeal by a television personality, a dark look at behind-the-scenes television. What could have been a magic kingdom is twisted by the corruption of power into desolation.
The acting is mesmerizing, with kudos going to Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes and Patricia Neal as Marcia. New actor Walter Matthau excels as the intellectual writer behind the scenes, and Lee Remick as Everywoman in love with Lonesome Rhodes. Elia Kazan directs. The film should have been an Academy Award nominee, if not winner.
"A Face in the Crowd" is a must-see film and is as relevant today as the day it opened.
Movie Review: A Film for All Seasons
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never heard of this film until my friend who is a journalist said I must see it. She couldn't have been more on the money. Released in 1957 and directed by the brilliant if controversial Elia Kazan, "A Face in the Crowd" has to be even more relevant today than then. Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, the country bumpkin spouter of cliches--"the family that prays together stays together" is phenomenal. It is too bad that he never played this type character again but went on to be the folksy sheriff of Mayberry and later Matlock of network television. Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries, the woman behind Rhodes' ascension to stardom, comes off as she often does as a tough but vulnerable woman. Notice, by the way, how expressive her hands are. A very young Walter Matthau as the character who sees where Rhodes is heading is a great supporting actor as is Lee Remick, the woman Rhodes weds on an impulse after he has described baton twirling, which Remick does admirably, as "an American art form."
The movie is about the unholy alliance with television and politics. I saw characteristics of almost every political figure I can think of in this sobering must-see film: Rhodes has a mechanical applause maker for his television shows as he advises the senator who would be president to get rid of his quite obvious comb-over and to smile more. In today's political climate, candidates routinely hand out signs for supporters who are in line of the television cameras to hold at rallies. And presidents have focus groups to see where they should vacation. Another president carries his own luggage while boarding Airforce One to appear as one of the people. And political candidates play to our basest emotions and repeat over and over lies and half-truths. They will do anything to get elected. The candidate with the squarest jaw often gets into office. Does anyone believe for a minute that if the ex-governor of Alaska weighed 200 pounds and was five feet tall that anyone would listen to her brayings? Sadly, if Lincoln with his homely looks were alive today, he would never be elected president. It is widely believed of course that Nixon lost the race for president because he could not compete on television with the handsome and charismatic John Kennedy.
This movie deserves to be resurrected or someone like Oliver Stone should do a remake of the story.
Movie Review: Ho Ho Ho, I'm giving away the ending
Summary: 5 Stars
I am so fond of Budd Schulberg, and Andy Griffith went on to become among our biggest TV stars when I was a youngun, so I expected A FACE IN THE CROWD to keep me entertained. What I hardly expected was that TV would end up being exposed as a medium which thrives on the possibility of turning young people who have a talent for communicating in a way that reminds people of Will Rogers into sales entities for commercial and political hokum. I also watched "Hollywood Ending" (2002) this week, which featured Woody Allen as an aging director who takes multiple medicines to match the activities of his day, and explaining it, says, "And this one keeps me dry when it's raining." Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith) gets his start with a New York ad agency pushing pills that pep him up, but his ending is quite abrupt when a microphone is turned on to reveal his contempt for the folks he fools while the credits roll at the end of the show. That is not quite the ending, because after that he is at the top of a tall building and he feels like jumping off and you get to find out which other characters think it is such a good idea, they can hardly wait.
Modern democracy still depends on TV, or bombing television stations, in the case of those enemies who dare to broadcast propaganda about NATO or the sole surviving super power. I don't watch much TV myself, but I see little clips on the internet that engage in demeaning whoever is trashing powerful mainstream media interests at the moment. The global economy is skewed to cater to an audience which has a lot in common with those early TV viewers seeing the Lonesome Rhodes Cracker Barrel and political huckster hour. Politically, Baghdad has turned into a pill that is like the battle of Gettysburg, where people ought to remember which army came the furthest to fight. Political scandals often reveal a character flaw that fits right into Aristotle's views on irreconcilable pride in his theory of tragedy, like President Clinton's sexual pride when a female White House intern turns on the power of her thong underwear, or George W. Bush's power to fire any U.S. Attorney who has some ideas about justice being used as a tool to help American Indians, which he does not personally believe in. Not to mention who commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence.