A Face in the Crowd
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Movie Reviews of A Face in the Crowd
Movie Review: Now, More than Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
To paraphrase George Santayana, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Today we live in an age of talking heads spouting demagoguery, stirring pots of ugly emotions, half-digested historical inaccuracies, and not-so-hidden agendas, to a population too lazy to read or know their own history. They, like Andy Griffin in this Elia Kazan movie about the early days of television with folksy "jes folks" pundits, are selling a new age version of snake oil.
Andy Griffin turns in a jaw dropping performance for people who only know him as Sheriff Andy or Matlock. His good ole boy charm gets progressively meaner, and it's clear he's on a mission - money and power. Politicos court him. He's willing to be courted.
The late Patricia Neal turns in an equally gripping performance as the media publicists who unleashes the genie from the bottle, and sticks around to love this unloveable mess. She finally does what she knows needs to be done. Walter Matthau turns in a great character performance as the script writer for this illiterate bumpkin. He's scratching his head - what does she see in this bum? It's a very topical film for today's media. It's also a really good film.
Let me finish with George Santayana: "History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there." Think of that sentence the next time you turn on the television and listen to some high-paid pundit give some spin on current events. Let the buyer beware!
Movie Review: Excellent, timely, scary, puts media into focus
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie tells us all about why some TV networks, TV commentators, and radio hosts are so popular, and gives us a direct slap in the face for believing these people in media as they direct our beliefs and emotions. We see a depiction of how cynical the media is (and always has been).
The movie will let you know that the saying is true: "It all happened before, and it will all happen again." We are incapable of remembering history, because so few of us even bother to look for the patterns. To our great everlasting peril.
Andy Griffith is incredible in this film. It's not over the top---as we can see the same script played out each day on cable TV and on radio.
As a side note, look up on Google Arthur Godfrey's early radio days on WJSV in Washington DC in the late 30's. The station, known on 1500 AM previously as WTOP, recorded an entire day, and you can hear Godfrey on the morning show, developing his style. Of interest is this too: WJSV was owned by the Ku Klux Klan, and was bought by CBS after CBS CEO William Paley discovered the Klan ownership and wanted to keep the station, but not under Klan ownership. The station originally was licensed to NYC under the NY Klan but was removed from the air in NY and moved to the VA area of DC as WJSV. I mention all this to illustrate that media has always been influential, from the start, and sometimes owned by the dark side--much like today.
Movie Review: Rise and Fall
Summary: 5 Stars
Andy Griffith succeeds in pulling off an act of pure madness in this chronicle of the rise and fall of a superstar.
A Face in the Crowd is a mezmerizing film from start to finish. You get introduced to the character Lonesome Rhodes as he lay passed out in a jail cell. A local radio news reporter, played by Patricia Niel, is scouting for new talent and happens to see this explosive accident waiting to happen sprawled across the floor. She wakes him up and convinces him to sing into her recorder for the program she hosts. He whips out his old guitar (the love of his life) tries to sober a little, then makes up an ol' tune on the spot. Thus begins the immediate success of Lonesome Rhodes. Unfortunately, when the big mouth antics of this loose cannon give away the true intentions of his heart, an incredible twist formulates and the world comes crashing down.
A face in the crowd is loosely based on a personality during the fifties known as the "IL Redhead" Author Godfrey. He was one of the biggest country sensation in 57, or the decade for that matter.
From beginning to end A Face in the Crowd is a 2 hour 5 minute journey that I couldn't shake. It should be considered for AFI's top one hundred list simply because it broke a mold unlike anyone had seen at that time. This should be required viewing for film buffs and lovers of great performances. ~SAOS~
Movie Review: No, Sir --*Not* Obama -- but Beck (and probably Olbermann too)
Summary: 5 Stars
On "Countdown" Keith Olbermann in his commentary frequently refers to a Fox demagogue as Glenn "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck. He is *not*, as a friend of mine first thought, referring to Dwight Yoakam's sentimental song: "Lonesome Roads". Olbermann's acid epithet is a savagely apt reference to Griffith's character in this film. Whatever your political leaning, you ought to be aware of the source and meaning of Olbermann's reference. And for those who think this film is over the top, you should watch Beck (and Olbermann as well, not just to be 'fair', but to see how contagious the demagogic style can be). Future historians will think we were all completely mad -- at least I hope they will.
As for FITC's "in-your-face-approach", I can remember when "Network" (1976?) was considered over-the-top "grand guignol" ("big-puppet theater") satire. It is now beyond passe; it is a template for actual media standards. Life does not appear to imitate art, art is a pale copy of life, sometimes at its worst. Yes, a more subtle film would have been more artistic and sophisticated, and that would have been whitewashing the subject. FITC is ugly, stupid, grotesque and outrageous -- appropriately so --, and if you have never seen it, or think that "Lonesome Rhodes" is the same as "Lonesome Roads", it is ominously timely, and well worth a look-see.
RDB
Movie Review: Exposes Cozy Relationships Between Entertainment Industry,Politics and Big Business
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is an indictment of the cozy relationships which exist between politics, entertainment & big business.
Andy Griffith, stars as "Larry Lonesome Roads" Who rises from a vagrant/drifter to a Political Public Relations expert which attempts to groom a senator for US President....How does this happen? Lonesome Roads starts out as an entertainer at a local radio station and ends up in NY rubbing elbows with the Madison Avenue Titans. As he becomes connected with big business sponsors they recognize his potential as a manipulator of public opinion in politics. "The General" retains Lonesome roads to promote a Senator he is backing for President.
The director of this movie, Elia Kazan, was subpeoned to testify before Congress to inform on Celebrities which were Communist Party members. In order to save/promote his Hollywood career as a director he testified. Perhaps this gave him enough political space to direct a movie which was not very well received in its time.
The real fear amongst Wall Street/Big Business/National Security Interests was a political platform for alternative foreign/domestic policies. In a watered down Gestapo/Stalinist like fashion the US govt purged the State Department,Press, labor movement, entertainment industry etc., of dissenting opinions.