Tuesday 3 November 2009

The Night of the Hunter

This film, i have to say surprised me, i have never heard of it before, but it was really interesting because it was quite different, it was unrated, because it had a bit of everything from suspense to horror and also a bit of fairytale and funny, not only because it had children in it , but because from the scene of the boat everything changed, everything was like a fairytale. what I liked, and echoing tutor Phil was that all this film only had 1 "good" adult in it, all the others disappointed the children, in different ways. Shows how innocent you are when you are a child, and how the world around can influence you.


So, like tutor Phil asked i googled some reviews, and what is interesting is that all of them point the fact that this film was misunderstood by society in that time, so it received a very low rate in aundience, and complete destroyed the career of Charles Laughton as film director.




"The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Roger Ebert / November 24, 1996

Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter'' (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many ``great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career. Many great movies use actors who come draped in respectability and prestige, but Robert Mitchum has always been a raffish outsider. And many great movies are realistic, but ``Night of the Hunter'' is an expressionistic oddity, telling its chilling story through visual fantasy. People don't know how to categorize it, so they leave it off their lists."

Source:http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961124/REVIEWS08/401010344/1023

2 comments:

tutorphil said...

Yes - that review describes the 'problem' with Night Of The Hunter - it feels very European somehow (German expressionism), but it's also a classic example of 'American Gothic'. Personally, it feels as if made from a child's point of view - it has the nightmarish view of a world of useless adults and amazing matriarchs, and the sequence of Shelley Winters drowned in the car is so surreal and unexpected. Tonally, it's totally uneven, veering from broad comedy to real horror - and then to a It's A Wonderful Life-style American dream stuff - I love it! :-) I wonder what you'll make of The Haunting - it's wonderfully atmospheric! See you in Lecture Theatre 2 @ 2 :-)

Ruben Martins said...

i really enjoyed this one.. different ...