Remaking James Jones' "From Here to Eternity" had to be a big risk back in 1979. The seaside kiss between Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster alone is part of movie history and the film is widely regarded as a classic. But, since the great American Miniseries thrives on war, especially World War II, here is a readily-accessible property that was bound to spark interest.
In fact, this version is much closer to Jones' novel than the movie, which had to tame things down for 1950s audiences. Donna Reed's prostitute is certainly not as obvious as Kim Basinger's.
Steve Railsback is Prewitt, who wants to be part of the force amassing in Hawaii in the run-up to World War II (you know, that top-secret run-up that no one was supposed to know about, the one that lasted from 1939 until 1941 when it could finally be made official). He's a great bugler, but he's an even better fighter, and that's what his superiors want of him. They want to win the intra-military bouts, but Prewitt has turned his back on fighting. You can take the performance of Steve two ways: incredibly lazy, or inspiringly lazy. Though he's the lead character, he surrounded by some wild over actors. That's not necessarily a bad thing in this context, which is essentially a war-time potboiler and hardly the great piece of literature some have made it out to be.
Va-va-va-voom Natalie Wood, in one of her spiciest roles, is Karen Holmes, the neglected wife of Roy Thinnes, a big cheese at the naval base. Her very entrance into the movie is racier than the entire 1950s (the decade not the movie). Karen shows up in a barely-there shirt that has William Devane and everyone else slobbering. Everyone except Roy, that is. William follows his Superior's moves carefully (especially when he's off boozing it up with Andy Griffith and a couple of Hawaiian hookers, which is downright strange) so he knows just when to launch his own secret attack on Natalie. Fortunately for him, Natalie succumbs without a second thought. Hell if she's going to be a nun during a war that has nothing to do with her! She nags at Roy an awful lot, but she's trapped in Hawaii with lecherous soldiers and a wardrobe that runs the gamut between slips and slips-off.
The main plot comes down to whether Prewitt will fight or not. He's hazed mercilessly and still refuses. In fact, the only friend he makes is Maggio, played by Joe Pantoliano (and, with Frank Sinatra safely dead, I can openly avow that Joey Pants is far better than Frank in one of Oscar's most questionable wins). Maggio gets Prewitt drunk and takes him to Madame Salome Jens' abode where he meets Kim Basinger, fresh off the boat from the mainland to actually be a hooker. Good for her, she has career goals. Salome runs a classy joint for the sailors, not tolerating drunks very well. Prewitt is a sweet drunk, but completely smitten when he meets Kim's Lorene. But, she's a businesswoman, and she knows paying clients are better than the nice guys.
Meanwhile, William Devane and Natalie Wood's affair goes from passionate to torrid to volcanic. Every time he goes to leave the room, Nat goes into a wailing fit, but at least she does it wearing not much more than a towel. Three years from her untimely death, she is still one of Hollywood's greatest lookers ever and her fiendish performance is fitting. "From Here to Eternity" seems to have a budget only for beloved Natalie. She and William Devane are forced to meet outside in the night, and the outfits, make-up and lighting lavished on Natalie make for a ravishing sight. And considering the only other dames in the movie are sloppy Kim Basinger, Salome Jens and a bunch of un-named Hawaiians (of course they are, this is Hollywood in 1979, if they were named, they would have names like Clip Clop or Ho Chi Sin), why shouldn't Natalie get the star treatment?
Clueless Roy Thinnes is too preoccupied with getting Steve Railsback to fight for his unit to notice what's going on, especially since William Devane, as his second-in-command, make sure Roy is always in the wrong place at the right time for his affair with Mrs. Roy Thinnes. For nearly an hour, not much happens other than Steve being put through arduous paces by Roy and his goons, hoping to break him. He has to bike up every mountain on the island (multiple times) and still he doesn't crack. If you are getting the idea that he's going to make a "damn fine soldier" because his will is so iron-clad, you know your movie cliches!
As much as I prefer this version of "From Here to Eternity" over the snoozy original, it must be said that the middle few hours are awfully repetitive. Natalie and Billy Devane run from tree to tree and bed to bed making love and then throwing all but the coconuts at each other (they can't throw the sheets, because Natalie is usually wearing them). Maggio gets the stuffing beaten out of him (and eventually dies) as Steve continues to get hazed while falling in love with Kim. Oh, we know Kim is in love with him too, because she does her hair if he's around. Even if they are just in bed. When she's in hooker mode, it always hangs down seductively.
Natalie and William go off for a mini vacation together, where William gets on stage and dances a hula with the locals, leading to a gigantic argument between the two. Natalie is just hating on him because she's fallen passionately in love with him and he hasn't asked her to marry him. She is married already and William has made no secret of the fact that he just wanted a casual, if passionate, fling with the local hottie. But, of course he loves her too.
Around the four hour mark, after Natalie and William have argued and made love in 60 different positions, all without anyone remembering she has a young son, and after Steve has defied every attempt at breaking his spirt, IT happens. Yes, IT. Did you think this would be done without the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor? Actually, this movie handles it very well. Rather than having everyone turn into John Wayne suddenly, we see mass confusion and a lot of quick death. William Devane, who has basically been running the outfit because Roy Thinnes is too much of a dunce, is quick to take charge and damn good at it. Steve, has missed it, caged up with Kim, but he feels terrible about it.
Our leads all survive the attack, but not for long. The twists of the plot eventually find poor Steve killed by his own men, but bravely and with a lovely death speech by William Devane. Now that the US is in the war, the wives and hookers are packed off to the mainland (all but Sharon Stone...oh, wait, that's Pearl Harbor in "War and Remembrance," sorry), meaning, natch, that Natalie and Kim happen to sit next to each other on the boat. Kim is dressed in her finery, so Natalie has no idea what she really is, and just as the movie ends, we wonder if perhaps this friendship might not just be the equivalent of the male bonding going on in the war.
The four hours and change of "From Here to Eternity" are infinitely preferrable to just the hour or so it takes in "The Winds of War" to achieve the same goal. This movie can be repetitive and overacted at times, but in context, none of that really seems to be objectionable. It may be the best performance William Devane ever gave, but then again, his career is filled with "I'm just here for the paycheck" acting, so maybe we just caught him early enough in his game.
The main point of contention and argument has to be Steve Railsback. And it's a debate I encourage. At times I find his performance vapid to the point of fading out, but at other times, I think he's mining some sort of genius, the only person in the whole of Pearl Harbor who has conditioned himself not to feel any emotion so that when war comes, he's numb enough to fight it without any internal clouds. Of course, since he gets shot before having a chance to fight, perhaps that interpretation is a bit overzealous, but I'm sticking to it.
Oh, and how do Bill and Nat do with the famous beach kiss? It's hard to tell because it happens at night and it's dark. They are actually in the water and not on the sand, so the striking visual of the water sweeping past their bodies is left out, wisely. That belongs to Deborah and Burt. The love affair in this version is not at all pretty, just lusty and needy, so a picturesque romp would be inappropriate.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (1995)
Those who open the American Miniseries time machine way in the future will see a lot of our great heroes. George Washington, the entire Adams clan, certain Abraham Lincoln over and over and, of course, The Kennedys. The Kennedys require a totally separate time machine. There are other expected denizens: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Thomas Jefferson.
But, the one in there who doesn't quite deserve her place is Mia Farrow. Yet that did not stop anyone from wasting time on her. Actually, "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" is not really her life story, just the story of her scandalous break-up from Woody Allen when he dumped her for her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. It's not exactly the stuff of legend.
If the idea for this miniseries (or approximately three-hour movie) is trite, the casting of Patsy Kensit damns it to unwatchable oblivion. No real attempt is made to look gorgeous Ms. Kensit look like (come on, let's be truthful) not gorgeous Miss Farrow, other than the curly mane she sported during the Woody years. Kensit goes no deeper than the portrayals of various loopy characters Mia played in Woody's movies. There is very little sense of what Mia might really have been like during this ordeal, other than an understandably shrieking harpy.
Mia and Woody (played by Dennis Boutsikaris in a very unflattering portrait of Woody, but then again, this isn't his story) meet at a party by accident, though Mia does not seem to know any of the other Hollywood regulars in the room. Woody quickly gets rid of her, because a gaggle of younger starlets are beckoning. However, he eventually goes on a date with Mia and they are so enchanted by each other, they stay so long the waiters set up for the next day and keep giving them snooty looks.
In no time, Woody and Mia are a couple, but Woody has his reservations because of Mia's brood of children. To be honest, one can understand, as Mia is a well-known collector of orphans and special needs children. Woody, portrayed here as not only exceedingly selfish, but also completely helpless, is not father material. But, for some reason, he agrees to be a part of it all (or a part of some of it as the movie lops off a few of Mia's children to make it more manageable to remember their names).
Lurking in the shadows is Soon-Yi, played by Grace Una, though not very well. Her Soon-Yi is initially spoiled and indulged, though shy and afraid due to her violent and scary upbringing.
Oh, before we go on with the future, let's visit the past. Spliced into the action are scenes from Mia's past (including the short hairdo and Sinatra's famous line about it). These serve to, supposedly, give us some insight into how Mia became Mia, but since Mia in this movie is barely a character, they simply serve to take up time. Richard Muenz is Frank Sinatra and Robert LuPone is Andre Previn, though it's Christine Andreas in a two-second role as Ava Gardner who steals the whole movie.
Woody and Soon-Yi start their affair innocently enough, if you look at it from Soon-Yi's point of view, though Woody sure as hell seems like a dirty old man even taking a Polaroid. It becomes sexual and Soon-Yi blossoms into not only a major slut, but also an insatiable one. We will never know if that is the truth (how does anyone go that gaga over Woody Allen?), but since this is Mia's story, it serves to further martyr the mother. Mia discovers naked pictures and then everyone goes a-sluggin' it out in court when further accusations arise that Woody was perhaps inappropriate with his own child by Mia.
The facts of the case are a matter of public record. Mia won in court, but disappeared from the public eye for a while, returning in a series of movie roles even more lunatic than those before this episode (let's not forget her as Jackie in "Death on the Nile," spewing poetry sitting on a pyramid just to piss off her former lover, though that role might serve as a good indication of what the real Mia may have been like). Woody continued to make a movie every year, replacing Mia in the planned "Manhattan Murder Mystery" with his old flame Diane Keaton. Woody and Soon-Yi, as of 2011, are still together.
What never needed to be a matter of public record is "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" because not only is it just plain bad, but it's an awfully thin story. It does have hints of Greek tragedy, but Soon-Yi was not Woody's actual daughter, and no matter how creepy their love affair was/is/will be, he's no Oedipus and she's not his mother. And though Patsy Kensit may flail around at times (saving the worst outbursts for mom Maureen O'Sullivan, never seen without a drink in hand here), Mia is no Medea. She is just Mia Farrow, mildly talented actress who happened to land herself a few damn good roles.
Truly, the only reason I bothered to sit through this movie was to give myself some sort of baseline at the bottom. It's not cheesy like "Lace" or "Master of the Game" and it's certainly not epic, but merely something aired. By 1995, the genre had long gone into decline and this was an attempt to revive it, I suppose, but a cheap one. Cheap and tawdry might have been fun, but cheap and boring serves no purpose.
But, the one in there who doesn't quite deserve her place is Mia Farrow. Yet that did not stop anyone from wasting time on her. Actually, "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" is not really her life story, just the story of her scandalous break-up from Woody Allen when he dumped her for her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. It's not exactly the stuff of legend.
If the idea for this miniseries (or approximately three-hour movie) is trite, the casting of Patsy Kensit damns it to unwatchable oblivion. No real attempt is made to look gorgeous Ms. Kensit look like (come on, let's be truthful) not gorgeous Miss Farrow, other than the curly mane she sported during the Woody years. Kensit goes no deeper than the portrayals of various loopy characters Mia played in Woody's movies. There is very little sense of what Mia might really have been like during this ordeal, other than an understandably shrieking harpy.
Mia and Woody (played by Dennis Boutsikaris in a very unflattering portrait of Woody, but then again, this isn't his story) meet at a party by accident, though Mia does not seem to know any of the other Hollywood regulars in the room. Woody quickly gets rid of her, because a gaggle of younger starlets are beckoning. However, he eventually goes on a date with Mia and they are so enchanted by each other, they stay so long the waiters set up for the next day and keep giving them snooty looks.
In no time, Woody and Mia are a couple, but Woody has his reservations because of Mia's brood of children. To be honest, one can understand, as Mia is a well-known collector of orphans and special needs children. Woody, portrayed here as not only exceedingly selfish, but also completely helpless, is not father material. But, for some reason, he agrees to be a part of it all (or a part of some of it as the movie lops off a few of Mia's children to make it more manageable to remember their names).
Lurking in the shadows is Soon-Yi, played by Grace Una, though not very well. Her Soon-Yi is initially spoiled and indulged, though shy and afraid due to her violent and scary upbringing.
Oh, before we go on with the future, let's visit the past. Spliced into the action are scenes from Mia's past (including the short hairdo and Sinatra's famous line about it). These serve to, supposedly, give us some insight into how Mia became Mia, but since Mia in this movie is barely a character, they simply serve to take up time. Richard Muenz is Frank Sinatra and Robert LuPone is Andre Previn, though it's Christine Andreas in a two-second role as Ava Gardner who steals the whole movie.
Woody and Soon-Yi start their affair innocently enough, if you look at it from Soon-Yi's point of view, though Woody sure as hell seems like a dirty old man even taking a Polaroid. It becomes sexual and Soon-Yi blossoms into not only a major slut, but also an insatiable one. We will never know if that is the truth (how does anyone go that gaga over Woody Allen?), but since this is Mia's story, it serves to further martyr the mother. Mia discovers naked pictures and then everyone goes a-sluggin' it out in court when further accusations arise that Woody was perhaps inappropriate with his own child by Mia.
The facts of the case are a matter of public record. Mia won in court, but disappeared from the public eye for a while, returning in a series of movie roles even more lunatic than those before this episode (let's not forget her as Jackie in "Death on the Nile," spewing poetry sitting on a pyramid just to piss off her former lover, though that role might serve as a good indication of what the real Mia may have been like). Woody continued to make a movie every year, replacing Mia in the planned "Manhattan Murder Mystery" with his old flame Diane Keaton. Woody and Soon-Yi, as of 2011, are still together.
What never needed to be a matter of public record is "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" because not only is it just plain bad, but it's an awfully thin story. It does have hints of Greek tragedy, but Soon-Yi was not Woody's actual daughter, and no matter how creepy their love affair was/is/will be, he's no Oedipus and she's not his mother. And though Patsy Kensit may flail around at times (saving the worst outbursts for mom Maureen O'Sullivan, never seen without a drink in hand here), Mia is no Medea. She is just Mia Farrow, mildly talented actress who happened to land herself a few damn good roles.
Truly, the only reason I bothered to sit through this movie was to give myself some sort of baseline at the bottom. It's not cheesy like "Lace" or "Master of the Game" and it's certainly not epic, but merely something aired. By 1995, the genre had long gone into decline and this was an attempt to revive it, I suppose, but a cheap one. Cheap and tawdry might have been fun, but cheap and boring serves no purpose.
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