Last night's movie doesn't quite reach the Fifty Year Gap, but the shabularity of forty three isn't excessive, I don't think, and at the very least warrants a mention. I'm referring to "The Shout"(1978), which my friends and I saw at the theater during it's initial art house run. Back in those days, the use of Aboriginal themes was popular for a while. We'd recently gotten into Art Films with Peter Weir's "The Last Wave, which had a supernatural plot based on the Australian Aborigines' concept of a dream world. There had also been been "Walkabout" several years earlier. I don't think we went to see "The Shout" because of it's aboriginal theme, more likely because it was the hip art house show of the week, but it did turn out to have that particular ingredient, and like "Last Wave", it was spooky as all get-out.
The movie opens at a cricket match, played on the grounds of a psychiatric institute in the English countryside. Tim Curry, in a minor role, plays one of the scorekeepers. He's informed that his partner will be a man named "Charles Crossley" (Alan Bates), whom the head doctor says is "the most intelligent man I've ever met, and extremely well read". We don't know for sure if Crossley is a patient or not, but as the game progresses he starts telling Curry a tale from his past, one so strange that it will cross over into the present time.
John Hurt plays a composer of electronic music who lives with his wife in a small village near the institute. He's also an organist at the local church, and as Crossley tells the story, one Sunday Hurt was playing a service when he (Crossley) wandered in, and waited for him outside when it was over. He said he hadn't eaten for two days, and looked bedraggled, so Hurt invited him home for lunch. He soon wishes he hadn't.
You see, Crossley is a creep of the first order. At the lunch, he's rude, deliberately breaks a wine glass, and explains that he's spent the past 18 years wandering the Australian Outback. Hurt is getting the willies, and jokingly says, "18 years? My goodness, what made you stay so long? Do you have family there or something"? Crossley replies that yes, in fact he does........or did. "I was married to an Aboriginal woman".
John Hurt : "Oh......and did you have children"?
Crossley : "Yes we did.........but I killed them. You see, in Aboriginal society it's legal for a man to kill his children, because he's releasing them into the spirit world".
If Hurt wasn't freaked out enough already, he's now past that point, and is looking for an excuse to end the lunch and get Crossley out of his house. But his wife (Susannah York) is strangely enjoying it. Because of this, he won't be able to get rid of Mr. Crossley at all. Crossley has soon moved in, with the wife's consent, and is slowly taking over John Hurt's life. That Hurt is a wimp and won't stand up to Crossley doesn't help.
One day Crossley tells Hurt : "I've heard your music. It's empty.......it's nothing. You like to record sounds? I can show you a sound that's more powerful than anything you've ever heard".
"Oh really"?, says Hurt. "What is it pray tell"?
"It's a shout", Crossley tells him, "my shout. I learned it in the Outback and spent eighteen years perfecting it. It can kill a man, so if you want to hear it you'd better stuff your ears".
To humor Crossley, Hurt agrees to accompany him out to the dunes on the coastline. When they get there, Crossley again asks if he's wearing earplugs. "You'd better be, because you'll die". Then he rears back, gathers all his breath, and lets go with a hellacious holler, The Shout of the movie's title. Hurt is knocked backward off his feet. Several sheep in the vicinity keel over dead. Crossley wasn't kidding about The Shout. As they head back home, Hurt is now so thoroughly terrified that he starts making plans to get rid of Crossley for good. To do that, however, he's gonna need some information about the workings of aboriginal magic.
In watching this film for the second time, over four decades later, I became aware of two things : 1) The story is fairly thin, except for the basic plot of a man trying to steal another man's wife. And 2) : in the end, it doesn't really matter because the film creates a mood, a feeling of oncoming dread not unlike that in "The Wicker Man", where an outsider becomes caught in a trap beyond his understanding. "The Shout" works better when you don't read too much into it and simply follow it's creepy tone. It's one of those claustrophobic movies where the handful of characters are isolated from "the real world", so the victim must fend for himself against the villain. Also in this case John Hurt's wife is tantalized by Mr. Crossley and falls under his spell. He's taken a personal item (her belt buckle) to use as a voodoo charm. In short, it's not the plot that grabs you, but the telling of the plot, and in that way, the bookending of the cricket match is a good devise. I remarked that Crossley's story, as he relates it to fellow scorekeeper Tim Curry, would spill over into the present time, and indeed it does, because John Hurt is one of the cricketeers.
"The Shout" works big time due to atmosphere, editing and cinematography. And acting : Bates is so off-putting as Crossley that it's one of those performances (like Anthony Hopkins' "Hannibal Lecter") where you wonder if the actor is that way in real life, haha. John Hurt is exceptional as his prey, a weakling who initially won't stand up for himself. The movie also has incidental music composed by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford of Genesis, which helps to influence the suspense. It's a film that gets under your skin and stays there - once you see it, you'll never forget it. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Shout", one of the great Art House classics of the '70s. Highest recommendation. ///////
Now then : You wanna talk Epic? You wanna talk Tremendous? How about "A Man For All Freaking Seasons"(1966), a movie so awesome I had to alter it's title. It's gotta be one of the most famous films in history. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor - a performance by Paul Scofield for the ages. This one falls not into the Fifty Year Gap but into "Pictures I've Never Seen". If I can offer a reason, in this case I think it's because of the title. "A Man For All Seasons" probably sounded to me like a lighthearted Shakespeare comedy, with a lead character like Falstaff or some other hearty Dionysian. Not that that would make it a bad picture, just one that a younger me wouldn't have rushed out to see (nor put in his dvd queue). Until now that is. Because of our Quest for Epic Movies, I knew I had to watch it, I'm very glad I did, and I discovered that - far from being a comedy - it's a deadly serious drama, a religious polemic in the same vein as "Becket", and every bit as great.
'"Seasons" is the story of Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII. We probably ought to summon Rick Wakeman once again, for navigational purposes, but while we're waiting I'll do my best to continue. More, a friend of Henry's, is visited by the King at the start of the movie. Henry wants out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who hasn't delivered him a son. He asks More to give his blessing to a divorce, but More won't do this, telling Henry that divorce is the province of the Pope. "I haven't the authority", he claims. Henry isn't asking for an official decree, just a "nod of the head" from his Chancellor, which in his eyes is as good as the real thing. More won't bend, however. Henry leaves, displeased but accepting his decision as he appreciates More's integrity. However, Henry is no admirer of the Pope and takes the step of naming himself Ruler of the Church of England, in an effort to supplant the Pontiff and render his divorce beyond question. After doing this, he wants all his subordinates, More included, to take an oath, swearing to this edict, that Henry is indeed the Supreme Christian Ruler. Thomas More, a strict Catholic, won't do this either. His high moral stance and allegiance to God prevent him making such a vow. This puts him at odds with King Henry.
But More is also a lawyer. He knows the penalty for denying Henry's wishes, so he makes it a specific legal point not to disavow the oath. He won't utter it, but neither will he speak against it. Instead, he chooses to remain silent on the matter, which he points out to his family will legally spare him from execution.
Thomas Cromwell is a prosecutor in Henry's court who despises Thomas More. On Henry's behalf, he's tried and failed to get More to avow the oath. More's repeated refusals so enrage Cromwell that he's looking for any excuse to lock him away in the Tower of London. When a bribe charge won't stick (as More would never accept a bribe), Cromwell persuades an ambitious young clerk (John Hurt again) to perjure himself, and swear that he heard More denounce the oath, which is entirely untrue. More has remained silent on the matter throughout.
A trial is scheduled. If found guilty, More will be sentenced for High Treason, for which he'll face death. His wife and children beg him to say the oath, even if he doesn't mean it. Even Henry will forgive him if he'll just say the words. "But I could never forgive myself", he answers.
The parallels between More's stance and that of Thomas Becket, who sided with the church against King Henry II, are striking, and indeed one wonders if More was influenced at all by Becket, his predecessor as Chancellor by four and a half centuries.
Becket met his death by murder at the hands of Henry II's loyal barons. Though it's easy to Google, I won't reveal the fate of Thomas More. You'd do well to watch both movies on consecutive nights. I raved about "Becket" and I'm gonna have to double down on "A Man For All Seasons" and again call it one of the greatest films ever made, though it's simpler in execution than the earlier movie, which as we noted was nominated for 12 Oscars itself. Like "Becket", "AMFAS" greatest strength is it's lead performances. Scofield's is the stuff of legend, but there's also the turn of Robert Shaw (pronounced Rrribbert Shwaughh), who portrays Henry as a grandstanding madman. You never know if he's going to toast you or call for your head from one minute to the next. Finally, Orson Wells has a small but memorable role as Cardinal Wolsey, who was Chacellor prior to Thomas More and willing to play Henry's political games.
"A Man For All Seasons" features gorgeous cinematography by Ted Moore and was directed by the great Fred Zinneman, who also made "From Here to Eternity" and "High Noon". If that's not diversity I don't know what is - the mark of an expert Hollywood Craftsman.
Only our highest rating will suffice. Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. A film absolutely not to be missed. /////
That's all for tonight. Have a nice evening, I send you tons of love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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