Sweet Bird of Youth dvd movie.|
Sweet Bird of Youth buy bestselling dvd movies, videos find reviews, ratings, prices |
 |
Features • NTSC In Theaters : 21 March, 1962 |
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] | DVD : This item is currently not available. |
|
Sweet Bird of Youth description Sweet Bird of Youth has the Tennessee Williams penchant for provocation and Southern depravity--although at this point, the bloom is somewhat off the hothouse flower. Paul Newman is a cad who dreams of glory; he's returned to his hometown towing a dissolute, over-the-hill Hollywood star (Geraldine Page re-creates her Broadway role), certain she'll be his meal ticket. He's ruined the only girl he really loved (day-dreamy Shirley Knight), who just happens to be the daughter of the town's boss (Ed Begley, in an Oscar®-winning role). The play's more shocking elements have been euphemized, in the custom of the era's Williams movie adaptations. Director Richard Brooks handles it with intensity, and Rip Torn (who was married to Page) has some wicked moments, but the movie is bound to its theatrical roots and its inability to mention racism, syphilis, or castration. And that's Tennessee Williams without the hot sauce. --Robert Horton |
|
|
| ♥♥♥♥♥ | "This is America. Today you're nobody, tomorrow you're somebody." |
| Sweet Bird of Youth is initially a hard movie to get into, the first ten minutes are talky and oblique and it's sort of hard to figure out what the movie is going to be about. But once Geraldine Page's boozy, bitter, has-been movie star Alexandra Del Lago comes onto the screen and clashes with Paul Newman's naively ambitious gigolo Chance Wayne, viewers know they're in for a real treat.
Controversial for it's time, Sweet Bird of Youth is all about the price one pays for fame and beauty, cleverly exposing the greed and hypocrisy of Hollywood and the South. The action centers on the small squalid Florida town of St. Cloud, currently mired in corruption and sleaze. Years ago the nasty misogynist Boss Finley - who runs the town with a fierce demagoguery - ran Chance out of town with a one-way ticket and the temptations of the American Dream. In fact, Chance - with his startling good looks - hoped to score it big in Hollywood as a matinee idol. When Finely finds out that Chance has returned accompanied by a whorey, drunken Hollywood actress, he's not happy at all. Chance was having an affair with Finley's beautiful daughter Heavenly (Shirley Knight) much to the chagrin of Finely and her evil brother Thomas (Rip Torn). Finley's spinsterish sister, aunt Nonnie (Mildred Dunnock), a victimized, frightened browbeaten woman, is the only person who still likes Chance, cherishing his love to Heavenly. Chance desperately wants to reconnect with Heavenly, but her father constantly surrounds her with the law and won't let her out of his sight. Chance is also unaware of the terrible secret - an illegal abortion - that shamed the family and almost bought the dynasty down. Flashbacks to their "sweet bird" time reveal that Chance once had the potential for a real relationship and a life better than a two-bit hustler. Now he spends much of his time with Alexandra, negotiating sex with her and desperately trying to get her to sign a contract and promote him Hollywood. He pops Benzedrine while she sinks back bottles of vodka, getting rolling drunk, and they think nothing of smoking pot when the mood takes them. There's a quiet anxiety to them both - she sees it as a relationship of convenience and he sees her as his one chance to make it big. The scenes between Chance and Alexandra are indeed the best parts of the movie, as a formidably beautiful bared-chested Newman struts around the hotel room, waxing lyrical to Alexandra how great he is, whilst she is so shattered at what she thinks is the bad reception of her latest film. After all, she's an aging starlet who has banked much of her career on her looks and she comes apart when she can't face those close-ups anymore. Transferring Tennessee Williams' material from the stage to the screen is always a risky endeavor. Sweet Bird of Youth incorporates a lot of flashbacks to keep the plot moving and to explain the various characters' pasts. But oftentimes the narrative comes across as clunky and awkward, the text is mannered and stagy and sometimes I wonder whether director Richard Brooks could have streamlined it a bit better from the stage to the screen. Still, the acting is mostly spectacular from the leads down to the supporting - you just never see performances like this on screen today. With Newman, Page and Begley getting the lions share of the hysterical scenes. Page is an absolute standout as Alexandra the aging, fading movie star; and Paul Newman is of course totally sexy as Chance, the selfish, self-involved stud. Mike Leonard May 06. |
|
|