With movies such as Selma now making the Golden Globes & soon also Oscar Sweeps, it's pertinent, I think, to revisit epic - albeit, flawed - films of in-your-face racism & bigotry from over half a century ago, when those themes were still so much more current, therefore, their depiction inevitably more raw & with less tendency to sentimentalise; it's easy to see how much of the material touched too many nerves at the time of release to receive good reviews, and the brutality & general ugliness of so many of the characters portrayed - although portrayed exceptionally well, many by actors now well-known whose careers were still in infancy - IS wearying after a while. However, this is truly one of Brando's best performances - period, and IMO, one of Jane Fonda's best, too; beautiful, sexy, angry, unfaithful (basically, torn between two men, one of whom messed up by bowing to conventional expectations at a key moment in their lives, thereby effectively messing it up for all three of them, romantically & personally) yet in almost odd juxtaposition, faithful when it really counts, I found her far more believable in this than in any of her other almost-always over-acted roles (e.g. the awful, also once again opposite Redford, 'Barefoot in the Park' from the same time-line), and her tragic fate was so well UNDER-played, as she walked away to what we already can predict is likely to be an ignominious & uncertain future after being loved ardently by two men, my heart bled for this unlucky survivor of the 'GoetterDaemmerung' style finale! No tears or lamentations necessary - we 'get' it, already
:( Also interesting was the perhaps slightly over-emphasised saint-like aspect of the unlucky 'Bubba' as played by Redford, not even so much because he's entirely innocent of crimes accused & now ruining his young & virile life, but because he has an unexpectedly grown-up response to the revelation of the affair between his (beloved) wife & old friend, while others around him have hysterics over it; he alone seems to truly understand, love is not necessarily non-inclusive. When he lays out his sadly doomed, desperate plan to them both, it is moving that he remembers to give her a choice - even though she's HIS wife
in a town full of ugly & apparently over-sexed citizens, he seems to understand, she's not his possession, and seems to be the last person inclined to call her a slut, when everyone else is!
Certainly, Brando's IS the stand-out performance, in part because he has the most complex - and believable - character's role; also liked Angie Dickenson's on-point performance, never straying into the melodramatic despite many opportunities, and was engaged by a young Robert Duval's perfect portrayal of a really unattractive man/husband - a precursor to all the complexly tortured personalities he was to play in future etc. In short, this movie is becoming a classic, despite it's bleak portrayal of a nasty, bigoted, largely lawless, racist town in Texas and tendency to 2-dimensional characters, overall; the fact that it has now become a period piece, fascinates for the simple everyday way of life (cars, costumes) of what was still privileged white Middle America enjoying (?!) an excess of wealth & wellbeing, being wasted.
Certainly, Brando's IS the stand-out performance, in part because he has the most complex - and believable - character's role; also liked Angie Dickenson's on-point performance, never straying into the melodramatic despite many opportunities, and was engaged by a young Robert Duval's perfect portrayal of a really unattractive man/husband - a precursor to all the complexly tortured personalities he was to play in future etc. In short, this movie is becoming a classic, despite it's bleak portrayal of a nasty, bigoted, largely lawless, racist town in Texas and tendency to 2-dimensional characters, overall; the fact that it has now become a period piece, fascinates for the simple everyday way of life (cars, costumes) of what was still privileged white Middle America enjoying (?!) an excess of wealth & wellbeing, being wasted.