Swoon
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Movie Reviews of Swoon
Movie Review: Beauty and the beasts
Summary: 4 Stars
Tom Kalin's 1992 film is a landmark of what Ruby Rich famously called "the new Queer Cinema," and though it's filled with flaws, it's so gorgeous and haunting that it stays with you long after you've forgotten other films that are objectively better. Like ROPE or COMPULSION before it, SWOON seems to dramatize what was known for decades as the Crime of the Century, the morder of fourteen year-old Bobby Franks by two brilliant and wealthy Chicago college students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who wanted to prove they could commit the perfect crime. Other version of the story have made the homoerotic nature of the relationship between Leopold and Loeb only implied: here Kalin makes it the absolute center of the story, and the film is as much about how frustrated two beautiful and gifted young gay men are when they cannot express their sexuality openly but have the money and the leisure to do almost anything else.
Certain sequences of the film are absolutely heartstopping in their beauty, in particular the beautifully photographed opening sequence of the pair's friends photographed against a hazy sky. There's a great deal of pleasure to be had in Kalin's ingenuity in creating 1920s sets and costumes and props to make the whole thing look authentic (though his trick of using anachronistic contemporary props--such as a push-button payphone--looks to be mostly a dodge he passes off as an hommage á Derek Jarman because he couldn't figure out how to get authentic props).
The problems with the film are that in the end it's a bit empty-headed. The analogy between gay men and criminals is done in a very heavy-handed manner, particularly at the end when Kalin has a montage of photos of "criminal types" that are clearly all his friends in real life. Moreover, the film seems to treat Leopold and Loeb as if they were mere martyrs to homophobia; very little is made of how much Bobby Franks and his parents suffered from their crime. (Bobby is hardly seen in the film at all, and when he is he's usually not photographed directly face-on.) It's one thing for Derek Jarman to present Edward II as being martyred on account of his sexuality; but Leopold and Loeb? Despite this, I recommend seeing the film if only for its cinematography and for the excellent performance of Craig Chester as Nathaniel Leopold.
Movie Review: A Vanity Murder And Its Aftermath
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a review for SWOON, a DVD release from Strand Releasing
of this 1992 film about the 1924 Leob and Leopold case concerning
the kidnapping and murder of 14-year old Bobby Franks.
As others have stated SWOON is not exactly a straight forward
telling of the crime but more an impressionistic examination of the
lives and atmosphere surrounding the two pre-adult
miscreants and something of a never before presentation of
how the crime happened from their own notes and confessions.
Of course this is all told in a surreal and impressionist style,
with some artistic speculation on their associates and
their mental states that led up to a "Crime of the Century."
This black and white film is, despite the artsy veneer, fairly graphic
in depicting the homosexual relationship between the two principals
as well as some of their party guests.
If nothing else, I would bet that SWOON is an emotionally accurate
depiction of what occured and for that it shoud be applauded. But by
concentrating on the murderers and their fate, the victim
is somewhat forgotten, which is a shame if you ask me.
But in a way young Bobby Franks is almost incidental to these two
self obssessed college students who really seemed to believe that what
they considered to be their superior intelligence almost gave them
the right to ccmmit the perfect crime.
SWOON does not really depict Clarance Darrow's dramatic plea for their
lives which is widely credited with keeping them from the gallows.
But it does depict their lives in prison and the fate of Dick Loeb
who did not survive his life sentence. SWOON does show Nathan Leopold
during his long sentence and afterwords during his parole.
All and all, SWOON is a fairly satisfying character study told
in a very stylistic and somewhat sensational manner for which I
give it a four star rating.
Movie Review: Trying to be all things to all people
Summary: 3 Stars
It turns out to be mediocre to everyone.
Swoon feels something like a rather lavish PBS documentary with some stylized, artsy murmuring and elaborate costumes and sets (except for the rather glaring touch-tone phones.) As a documentary, it feels forced, and needs lots of narrative ("On July 15, we this or that and I felt this or that.") However it leaves out any attempt at an examination about why these two men behaved the way they did and what the shaping forces were that created these arrogant, outwardly-polite murderers.
As a presumably entertaining movie, it lurches from one scene to another and lacks congruity and basics of story-telling (like a beginning or an end.) It is interesting, and there are glimmers of excellence, but mostly they get drowned out by costumes and smoking and narrative.
Worth seeing, but not entirely successful.
Movie Review: Gay Productions
Summary: 2 Stars
Story of the Leopold and Loeb
had a very gay bent, even though these two were homosexual,
the theme was suppose to be about their psyches and the trial
with the 82 witnesses, famous psychiatrists, Clarence Darrow and
the judge and states attorney....lots of short cuts, used a push button
phone in early 1920's...sorry, was not invented yet.
Was disappointed, but, was not a disaster.