Defending the centre

Adam asked for my list, and upon reflection I have to admit that it was remiss of me not to include it in my previous post. Hoping this redresses that omission:

1. Badlands
2. Once Upon a Time in America
3. Rushmore
4. Miller's Crossing
5. The Third Man
6. Downfall
7. Withnail and I
8. The Exorcist
9. Alien
10. Dirty Harry

Except for 1. and 10. the rankings are more or less interchangeable.

I have long thought 'Badlands' (1973) a near perfect film. I fist saw it in about 1989 as a 'late night' movie on one of the commercial channels. Despite the limitations of the small screen and the regular interruptions for ads, I knew then I was watching something special. I have seen it a number of times since and it has lost none of its impact.

Among other pleasures the film contains a wonderfully understated performance from Warren Oates, as Holly's father. He is a widower emotionally removed from his daughter by the absence of his wife who, alive, might have provided a conduit between them. Later, when Holly takes up with Kit, she attempts to create a type of 'domestic' life around him - possibly to make up for what she was never able to achieve with her father.

Kit of course is not interested in ersatz domesticity. As a member of a mid-western underclass he is alienated from such things, seeing himself as an 'outlaw' in the American tradition instead. Like Holly he to fails. It is clear that his only access to American tradition has been Hollywood and its brutal oversimplifications.

In answer to the only criticism of the film that I feel holds any weight - that it is 'pitched' over the heads of the people it is about, I would suggest that the film's concerns are broader than they might first appear.

Just ordering my thoughts about the film for this brief comment makes me want to see it again.

If there is such thing as a 'perfect' film then there might also be a 'perfect' genre film and if so that film would be 'Dirty Harry' (1971). With it Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood and Lalo Shifrin create an 'entertainment' so relentless that the audience is unable to get off the ride until it's over.

The film contains cinema's most intense 'ticking time bomb' scene ever [a similar scenario to the one that has re-emerged, as a red herring, in the recent political debate over torture]. And the audience, like 'Dirty Harry', don't pause to consider the moral or legal implications of what they are doing, instead they stand on the suspect's shattered knee - courtesy of a cunningly deployed point-of-view shot - and enjoy every second of it. I've been told that Pauline Kael, while admiring 'Dirty Harry's technical prowess, called it an evil film (or something along those lines) and if she was referring to the ease with which the film makes some very questionable morality/politics seem okay, then I guess she was right.

To see what I mean, click on the image below:



Unquestionably repugnant, but I defy anyone with an ounce of 'cinema' in them to resist the adrenaline rush of the film.

That's the genius of 'Dirty Harry'.

[NOTE: Because we're talking about 'Dirty Harry' I have to mention the sequels; steer clear of them, not only are they dreadful, they're irrelevant to the original.]