rtanner-6 Reviews

The Big Country (1958)

The best western ever, with one of the most important characters in ANY film.

[10/10 · 25 August 2006]

The best western ever, with one of the most important characters in ANY film. Gregory Peck's McKay was an ideal role model for any boy or youth, showing what it really is to be a man. In our culture so much machismo and swagger have passed for manhood, which they simply aren't. There's more man to McKay than in all the John Wayne films laid end to end.

And that's just one aspect of this great film. Jerome Meross's score SHOULD have won the Academy Award by a huge margin over the actual winner, Dmitri Tiompkin's score for The Old Man and the Sea.

And more: cast, performances, scenery, writing, editing, directing, . . . . . . just everything about this film. Simply wonderful.

I understand that critics regarded the film as rather lightweight. Maybe they just didn't get it. Perhaps that is true even of people associated with the film. I once heard Gregory Peck - my all-time favorite actor - speaking rather dismissively of the film. I was disappointed. But he's still my all-time favorite actor.

Finally, what a delight Alfonso Bedoya was in this, his final film! HIS character "got it," as demonstrated with his assessment of McKay: "He is a very rare man."

The Roots of Heaven (1958)

A superb film based on my all-time favorite novel.

[10/10 · 17 July 2006]

This was an excellent film based on my all-time favorite novel of the same title. Both novel and film were ahead of their time in their concern for the fate of the African elephant specifically and the sustainability of the earth generally. The cast was superb; Trevor Howard and Juliette Greco were perfect. (But then, so was everyone else involved.) An important theme in both novel and film was the tendency for others to analyze Morel's motives through their own eyes. Thus some thought him politically ambitious, some supposed that he detested humankind, and others found other motives. I believe his actual motives were purer, simpler, more altruistic, and altogether as he stated them. I would like to have used this film in my university classes, but like an earlier reviewer I regret that it was not possible to find it. That's a great shame.

Given the apparent unavailability of the film, I highly recommend the book - if you can find a copy! Occasionally I have challenged bright students to tell me why the character Father Tassin is so interested in learning everything he can about Morel. To help them, I have lent them not only the novel but a short book about the real-life "Tassin." One or two succeeded in making the connection and thus understanding the work at its most profound level. And it truly is profound, once you understand that connection.

Incidentally, author (and screenplay writer) Romain Gary lived an adventurous, unique life which made him just about as interesting as Morel. War hero, winner of France's highest military and literary honors, literary prankster, tragic political victim, and much more.