The Front
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Andrea Marcovicci, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy, Woody Allen, Zero Mostel Brand: COL DVD: Region Code 99 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Extra tracks, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.85:1 Running Time: 95 minutes DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
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Movie Reviews of The Front
Movie Review: Biased but important reminder of a dark time
Summary: 4 Stars
I suppose first up, given some of the comments here, that it's worthwhile acknowledging that communism was a threat to the United States and the West in the 1950s, and that the CPUSA played a subversive role in supporting the foreign policy interests of the Soviet Union. How culpable were the one-time communist sympathisers in Hollywood is another matter entirely, however, and the crudity and narrow-mindedness of McCarthy was unworthy of a democratic nation. That the real danger of Soviet-style communism (both to the Americanist flagwavers and the progressive liberals and workers who understandably despised both the right and the CPUSA left) doesn't come across in this film is perhaps understandable: the personal hurt felt by all those who made it may over-ride their own sense of complicity. Unfortunate, but there you are. And it is a comedy.
As for the film itself, Allen is brilliant as Howard Prince, although once again, he seems to be playing Woody. The real star, however, is Mostel, whose bravura performance throughout puts you through the wringer with him.
The ending is ambiguous - his testimony before HUAC is supposedly carefully planned by him (without his counsel's knowledge), but instead Woody playing Woody (ie. with all the nervous tics and unfinished, stuttering sentences) gives the perhaps misleading impression that he's floundering, and therefore can leave viewers wondering whether his rebuke to the system was a political statement or merely a desperate outburst from one who was outwitted by a group of professionals.
Nevertheless, the film is v. enjoyable.