Following along with TCM's excellent survey of Natalie Wood's career I was struck by this go-round by just how absurd a movie her most acclaimed film "Splendor in The Grass" actually is. I mean the people in this movie are all NUTS. Picture is usually lumped with Ms. Wood's other famous crazy mixed up kids epic "Rebel Without A Cause" but movie buff please take note of the difference. Jim Stark, played by James Dean, in "Rebel" is reacting to the madness threatening to engulf him, only looking for a sanctuary of peace and normality so he can build a life for himself - and he discovers it for some brief flickering moments in the nighttime scene near the planetarium with Natalie and Sal Mineo which precedes the picture's tragic climax.Nicholas Ray was a great director of violence and heartbreak because he took them as obscene violations in his characters' quest to find an oasis from the tumult. But Kazan, on the other hand,(and he showed the same proclivity in "East of Eden") pumps hysteria in practically every scene in the attempt to hammer home William Inge's one-note dubious point; namely, that if kids aren't permitted to have sex, madness is bound to occur (it seems to me that the aftermath of the sexual revolution gives the lie to this simplistic proposition). As a result, because this thesis has been imposed on the drama, good actors and (in the case of Ms. Wood) game ones - are made to suffer (and we too watching them struggle) Ironically, one exception to this in the over-the-top department is Kazan's girlfriend at the time Barbara Loden who really does seem to be possessed by personal demons and capture the nymphomaniacal flapper spirit. And of yes, there is one touching moment at the end, when Fred Steward(t?), who plays Deanie's father, breaks ranks and tells her daughter where Bud is staying. Still, this is one well judged moment in a film that is over two hours long.
If anybody reading this wants to see a really great picture on the same subject, I heartily recommend Maurice Pialat's film featuring Sandrine Bonnaire called "A Nos Amours."
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If anybody reading this wants to see a really great picture on the same subject, I heartily recommend Maurice Pialat's film featuring Sandrine Bonnaire called "A Nos Amours."
Was the above review of use to you?