A Passage to India
(E. M. Forster) (1924) (Dir. David Lean) (1984) “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat” Thus Kipling’s famous ballad, which Forster, with a surgical pen, turns into a captivating novel that somehow fails to entirely succeed in nailing perfidious Albion, and which David Lean, with cameras, cement mixer and trowel, utterly fails to achieve much of anything.
Continue Reading →I’m a Friend of a Friend of the People
Image from "Cool Hand Luke" (1967)
(for Joyce Carol Oates, with thanks for Where are you going, Where have you been?) You down there! On the shining path; Hustling that toaster Into your bath, Making plans! Writing letters, Fervidly seeking to Loosen fetters That stay you to the rock! That holds you from the path, Ending all the narrative Within a hollow laugh; Useless as the weather! Swirling in the brain, The keenest void of sound That equivocates the pain Of a clammy, sticky mouth And a tongue that has no end, Giving you a taste The nip before you comprehend. Flooding all your senses So you…
Continue Reading →Giant
(by Edna Ferber) I’m going to the ACCC. I bought this novel expecting an “epic inter-generational family saga, sweeping across the vast Texan plains” as advertised. Instead I got a primer on the great state of Texas. The reader, personified by our delicate naïve Eastern bride Leslie asks the questions and her big bold Texian husband Bick, lord of the immense Reata ranch acreage answers: “‘Oh Jordan, I wish we could live up here in the mountains. I wish we could stay up here and Uncle Bawley could run Reata. Couldn’t he? Couldn’t he?’ ‘Get this, If you can understand anything that isn’t Virginia…
Continue Reading →Of Human Bondage
(By W. Somerset Maugham) (Dir. John Cromwell) (1934) Philip is a club-footed dill and Mildred is a troll. This book is a remarkably honest confession by Maugham (although he steadfastly denied it was autobiography). The teaming of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis in the film is apt but Bette’s role is overripe and unfortunately it shows. Then again, maybe that’s why WSM started batting for the other team.
Continue Reading →Hud
'Let's dip our bread in that gravy while it's still warm."
(Dir. Martin Ritt) (1963) Larry (Lonesome Dove) McMurtry’s novel Horseman, Pass By becomes Paul Newman’s best role, as cattleman Hud Bannon, all ‘barbed-wire soul’ who just can’t feel or do good, lusting after housekeeper Alma, rejecting noble father Homer and corrupting nephew Lonnie. A relentless tale of the harshness of life on the land, with a bitter foot-and-mouth twist, Ritt’s brilliant and stark production makes his version of Spy Who Came in from the Cold look like The Sound of Music. Great work by all, especially Newman, Patricia Neal incomparable as Alma, and Melvyn Douglas monolithic as the old man. “You’re an…
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