The Misfits
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Movie Reviews of The Misfits
Movie Review: Gable and Monroe's last film
Summary: 4 Stars
Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Cliff, John Huston, and Arthur Miller. This should have been one of the best films ever made. That being said, it was a slight disapointment. It is a good film, but not up to the caliber of the cast, director and writer. But it is a film worth watching, a classic. It has a melancholy feel to it, but it is about the last chance of three disillusioned characters. Well worth watching. No extras on the dvd.Movie Review: Good/Weird/Very Arthur Miller
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a very good movie. It was also very weird at times. I was interested in this movie because I knew Aruthr Miller wrote it for Marilyn. The part she played was pretty much based on her, so I wanted to see what his view of her was. It was a good movie, a little weird, sad at times, but thats just Arthur Miller for you. I recommend watching it.Movie Review: Troubling, Deeply Flawed Movie Falls Short of Its Potential
Summary: 3 Stars
If ever there was a movie that you would hope would be a masterpiece, especially given the pedigree of talent involved, it may very well be this one. Legends abound throughout the production both in front of and behind the camera. Directed by John Huston and written by Arthur Miller, this is a movie about the last of the cowboys in what apparently was the only frontier left in the early 1960's, the Sierra foothills of Nevada. The last gasp act for these desperate men is to rope wild mustangs from a speeding pick-up truck, so they can sell the carcasses for dog food. It's an intriguing, fragile premise, but the treatment here seems too vaunted. Starring three screen luminaries of towering magnitude - Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, the film falls short of its lofty ambitions but not for lack of trying. There are isolated moments of great power and poignancy, but the core problem is really Miller's ponderous and rather misguided script, full of pretentious soliloquies that may work for Willy Loman but not for characters who are supposed to be inarticulate by their very nature. The net result is that you rather feel sorry for the actors as they put in a valiant effort to transcend the material. Miller wrote the screenplay expressly for his then-wife as their marriage was falling apart, and it's a miracle that Monroe ended up with a solid role that capitalized on her strengths given that his post-mortem tribute to her, "After the Fall" is a scathing indictment of her memory. But above all else, there is a morbid cloud that seems to darken the tone of the film, and one wonders if Huston was responding to the fragile state of the actors involved.
In what turned out to be her last completed film, Monroe extends on the promise she showed in "Bus Stop" five years earlier. Still stunning with an unbelievable magnetism, she was growing into a highly instinctive actress capable of conveying deeply felt emotions. With the combination of her beauty and vulnerability acting as the elusive flame around which the three men hover, Monroe uses her childlike innocence and unexpected wisdom to make her forlorn divorcee, Rosalyn, a more fully dimensional woman than she probably was on paper. It is one of the very rare occasions when she is the emotional center of the story, and she is particularly effective in reaction shots when she lets her eyes express her emotions for her. Her climactic banshee cry about the cowboys being murderers is a startling moment and a sad glimpse into what a wonderful actress she could have been given the right roles. In his valedictory role as well, Gable still has the old Hollywood star wattage and natural machismo to bring credibility to his aged cowboy, Gay, showing unexpected sensitivity in some difficult scenes. He lets the sadness come through his smiling eyes as he begins to realize his rugged lifestyle is quickly disappearing, the prospect of "wages" growing near and that everything he values is running off with the horses. Perhaps Gable was inspired by his Actors' Studio colleagues to trust his instinct in exposing his vulnerability, but it does backfire badly during his extended drunken scenes where it is discomforting to watch him overact with such broad strokes. It's also painful to see him wrangle the wild mustangs at the end with the knowledge of his looming death, but credit is due him for bringing authenticity to these challenging scenes. Clift, probably as much an acting polar opposite for Gable as he was for John Wayne in "Red River", is quite touching in the smallish role of Perce, the cowboy with the most open-hearted infatuation with Rosalyn. Poor Eli Wallach is saddled with probably the most contrived lines of Miller's script and the least sympathetic character, a mouthy braggart who is the first to meet Rosalyn and then suffers the humiliation of witnessing her growing attraction to Gay. Special mention needs to be given to Russell Metty's stark black-and-white cinematography and the excellent art direction by Stephen Grimes and William Newberry. Yet for all its virtues, this remains a deeply flawed movie and frustrating for anyone who has the right to expect more from this group of amazing artists.
Movie Review: An Interesting Piece
Summary: 3 Stars
I didn't know that this was the last movie for Marilyn and Gable. It was interesting. I'm not a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe's. I think Marilyn was, incidentally, one of the sources of the problems in movies today where there is too much of a prominence placed on symbolism over substance. Having said that, Marilyn did a pretty good job in this movie. I saw more substance in this movie than all the others I've seen combined. The scene in the desert, where she screams at the brutality of the misfits, was top notch. In that scene, and a few others in the movie, she displayed some acting talent that is missing in most of today's top starlets. She evoked a lot of power in some scenes without saying a word. In other scenes, she over acted a little.
Gable played Gable throughout most of the movie, but the scene when he cried out to children was an odd scene for him to take part in. It showed more weakness in the few minutes it occurred than I've seen in most of the few Gable movies I've seen.
Clift was good, but I've seen him better in other movies. He tended to play the same character in many of his movies, and that character was in this movie too. He may have been a good actor, but I never saw too much range from him.
The movie itself was uneven and inconsistent. The lead to the arc was very interesting. I can see why it was considered an off movie for it's era. It kind of lost itself in the arc, however, and I found myself wavering a little in the midst of the overdrawn characterization and setting. There were interesting scenes, and I can see why some of the scenes were important, but they were a little too long. Other scenes seemed irrelevant to me. The close of the movie, from the point where they reach the desert on, was excellent. All of the characters--even the Eli Wallach character--were rounded out here. The close of the movie provided an explanation for why some of the scenes that I considered irrelevant were in fact relevant. Overall, I considered this a really good movie. It had problems sure, but I would definitely recommend it.
Movie Review: Pretentious and corny, but Marilyn is stunning.
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all, I will say I am a big Marilyn fan, and for that reason alone would buy this movie. She is incredibly beautiful in her last complete film, and her acting is wonderful. Her charisma alone gets this poorly written, pretentious movie three stars. I do remember reading a quote from Marilyn, referring to this movie script, in which she said "He could have written me anything, and he comes up with this. If that's what he thinks of me, well, then, I'm not for him and he's not for me." Obviously she did not care for the script too much. It is truly horrible, probably the worst written rubbish ever taken seriously, but only by pseudo-intellectuals who assume anything by Arthur Miller will be up to the standards of "Death of a Salesman". It isn't. It is so pretentious, corny, contrived, and manipulative it never fails to disgust, degrade(you feel stupid even watching something so inane) and offend. Still, Marilyn is magical and she can make any movie watchable. This movie proves it.
I would recommend this only for Marilyn fans, and then without reservation. She is just so beautiful in this movie, and the image of her radiant face lasts longer than the revulsion from the insipid, hackneyed dialogue.