This film has always struck me as Natalie Wood and Steve
McQueen's best work in movies. Both would go on to successes
and failures, but neither would seem as natural and as unaffected
on screen again.
The story of a good working-class Italian girl in New York who gets
pregnant by a man she hardly knows, is very strong stuff for 1963.
So is their decision to have an abortion. Roe vs. Wade was nearly
a decade in the future. Mulligan shows a very gritty, dirty, New York
which has emerged from the 50s as a crumbling relic of a city,
nowhere as clean and shiny as it is today. McQueen is a callow
young musician, not looking to settle down with anyone, let alone a
single pregnant girl, even if he is at fault.
The trip to a bad neighborhood to get the abortion is chilling, and
Wood's absolute terror is genuine here. McQueen being
reluctantly honorable is very sexy here. The rest of the film with her
facing down her overly protective Neanderthal brothers and getting
her own apartment, follows the young lovers as they try to do the
right thing. Steve's poster--"Better wed than Dead," is a sweet
coda.
I loved this movie. It struck this teenager at the time, as a very
sophisticated film. Natalie Wood is incandescently beautiful in
black and white and still the loner, McQueen's intensity is a bit
more subtle than usual. Good supporting cast. This was an era
where the final black and white movies were being made--TO KILL
A MOCKING BIRD, BIRD MAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, PSYCHO were the last gasp of this
medium.
Long overdue for DVD release.
McQueen's best work in movies. Both would go on to successes
and failures, but neither would seem as natural and as unaffected
on screen again.
The story of a good working-class Italian girl in New York who gets
pregnant by a man she hardly knows, is very strong stuff for 1963.
So is their decision to have an abortion. Roe vs. Wade was nearly
a decade in the future. Mulligan shows a very gritty, dirty, New York
which has emerged from the 50s as a crumbling relic of a city,
nowhere as clean and shiny as it is today. McQueen is a callow
young musician, not looking to settle down with anyone, let alone a
single pregnant girl, even if he is at fault.
The trip to a bad neighborhood to get the abortion is chilling, and
Wood's absolute terror is genuine here. McQueen being
reluctantly honorable is very sexy here. The rest of the film with her
facing down her overly protective Neanderthal brothers and getting
her own apartment, follows the young lovers as they try to do the
right thing. Steve's poster--"Better wed than Dead," is a sweet
coda.
I loved this movie. It struck this teenager at the time, as a very
sophisticated film. Natalie Wood is incandescently beautiful in
black and white and still the loner, McQueen's intensity is a bit
more subtle than usual. Good supporting cast. This was an era
where the final black and white movies were being made--TO KILL
A MOCKING BIRD, BIRD MAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, PSYCHO were the last gasp of this
medium.
Long overdue for DVD release.