Watching these old things, the mainstream Hollywood ones, is a visit to a bygone era in several ways.
All sorts of notions would be unacceptable today, but the one that really catches my breath with this one is the motivating force.
Men are good and bad with nowhere in between. Women are weak or strong, also with no middle. The governing grace that moves this world is also the force that separates the two halves. Its all about halves.
At the start, the division is between the rich folk at the top of the hill and the rabble below. Kurosawa started with this notion and made a tremendous film. In our case, though, there is some deeply Christian shuffle and we discover the real division between the good souls and the bad.
The fulcrum of the thing of course is Mary Pickford, a small woman here playing a seventeen year old. Her scenes are almost always her involved in physical fights.
Oh gosh, there's an illegitimate baby, a couple unworthy suitors, lies, promises, unjust justice, two deaths including of an innocent, and a happy ending.
Without your seeing this, it is impossible to describe how heavy this particular brand of moralistic Christianity permeates the thing. I saw it on a double bill with "V for Vendetta," a modern version of a similar story with an equally blunt religion.
This stuff, all of it, deadens the soul and should be tasted only with preparation. If you are sufficiently steeled, there is a quotable scene. He father is in jail, wrongfully accused of a murder. Tess visits on the sly, reaching his window by climbing between two close walls: back on one and feet on the other, inching herself up. around her neck on a string is a Bible purloined from the church because such things should be with the people, you see.
This seemed more physical and impressive in the character than her numerous socks and kicks to the bad guys. In the midst of the visit a jailer walks by inside, so she has to duck down and from the inside we see her rehike herself up. Its amazingly effective seeing her reappear, knowing she has scaled a dozen feet or so.
If jails didn't exist, movies would have created them.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
All sorts of notions would be unacceptable today, but the one that really catches my breath with this one is the motivating force.
Men are good and bad with nowhere in between. Women are weak or strong, also with no middle. The governing grace that moves this world is also the force that separates the two halves. Its all about halves.
At the start, the division is between the rich folk at the top of the hill and the rabble below. Kurosawa started with this notion and made a tremendous film. In our case, though, there is some deeply Christian shuffle and we discover the real division between the good souls and the bad.
The fulcrum of the thing of course is Mary Pickford, a small woman here playing a seventeen year old. Her scenes are almost always her involved in physical fights.
Oh gosh, there's an illegitimate baby, a couple unworthy suitors, lies, promises, unjust justice, two deaths including of an innocent, and a happy ending.
Without your seeing this, it is impossible to describe how heavy this particular brand of moralistic Christianity permeates the thing. I saw it on a double bill with "V for Vendetta," a modern version of a similar story with an equally blunt religion.
This stuff, all of it, deadens the soul and should be tasted only with preparation. If you are sufficiently steeled, there is a quotable scene. He father is in jail, wrongfully accused of a murder. Tess visits on the sly, reaching his window by climbing between two close walls: back on one and feet on the other, inching herself up. around her neck on a string is a Bible purloined from the church because such things should be with the people, you see.
This seemed more physical and impressive in the character than her numerous socks and kicks to the bad guys. In the midst of the visit a jailer walks by inside, so she has to duck down and from the inside we see her rehike herself up. Its amazingly effective seeing her reappear, knowing she has scaled a dozen feet or so.
If jails didn't exist, movies would have created them.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.