Karel Reisz's 1966 film about a young man broken down by the new consumer culture is a bizarre, brilliant portrait of changing times. Jon Savage explains its influence
Morgan Delt is in court. In the preceding hour or so of screen time, he has ignored an injunction preventing him from contacting his ex-wife Leonie, broken into their once shared house, run a sequence of extremely loud animal noises to disturb Leonie and her new partner Charles Napier, exploded a thunderflash under his mother-in-law, and finally, kidnapped Leonie in an abortive attempt to live in the wilderness of deep Wales.
This rapidly escalating sequence of harassment has been undercut by Morgan's ineptitude, but there's no doubt he's in big trouble. So what does he do? He daydreams. A giraffe is being lassoed by a group of horsemen: then we see a number of these wild animals run free through the veldt.
Morgan Delt is in court. In the preceding hour or so of screen time, he has ignored an injunction preventing him from contacting his ex-wife Leonie, broken into their once shared house, run a sequence of extremely loud animal noises to disturb Leonie and her new partner Charles Napier, exploded a thunderflash under his mother-in-law, and finally, kidnapped Leonie in an abortive attempt to live in the wilderness of deep Wales.
This rapidly escalating sequence of harassment has been undercut by Morgan's ineptitude, but there's no doubt he's in big trouble. So what does he do? He daydreams. A giraffe is being lassoed by a group of horsemen: then we see a number of these wild animals run free through the veldt.
- 2/11/2011
- by Jon Savage
- The Guardian - Film News
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