[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]
Connection to Edge of Doom: Both directed by Mark Robson
Premise: A man washes up on a remote, strictly religious Pacific Island and helps them break away from those ways.
This is a weird movie. It's not all that good, but I have an unexpected number of things to talk about from it. I suppose I'll start with the "Century in a Month" of it. I didn't expect to find much of a connection between this and Edge of Doom. I look at Mark Robson as a successful but ultimately journeyman director. So I was surprised to see the religious angle pop up in both movies. Edge of Doom is about a man who struggles with his faith and the church, going so far as to kill a priest before ultimately seeking absolution. Return to Paradise starts off with a puritanical society that the people rebel against. I wonder if that's a coincidence or if Robson really had some struggles with his faith. It's certainly a connection I never would've noticed without doing this project, so that's pretty cool.
I don't know what to do with the discussion of race with this movie. It's not doing anything that other movies in 1953 weren’t doing, but it's still a little uncomfortable from a modern context. I mean, this island is under the puritanical rule of the one white guy who's on the island, then the second white guy who shows up is the one who overthrows the first guy and becomes a folk hero for it. And when the puritans are deposed, it’s the preacher's enforcers who are banished from the island, not the preacher himself, who gets to continue to live a happy life there. Again, this is very typical of the time in film, but it's nice to point out as a reminder that that doesn't mean it was a good thing.
I love the production design and location of this movie. These small and/or remote island nations are so intriguing. They have the trappings of modern society but haven't or can't embrace all parts of it. Even watching this movie, I can't figure out if filming this was amazing or awful. I mean, it's a beautiful island, but also, what was the plumbing or electricity situation there?
I'm sorry to harp on this again, especially again with Gary Cooper, but how old did Gary Cooper look to people in 1953? I know movie stars from an older generation all look older to modern eyes. Gary Cooper is in his 50s in this and at best he can pass for mid-40s. Yet, for the first hour of this, he shows up like he’s a young drifter. If you just describe his character to me, I'll image someone early 30s. So, here's this old man who starts a revolt then has a kid with a woman over 20 years his junior. In the film's defense, there's a time jump later where Cooper seems about the right age. That's less than half the movie though. So, was this something where, to 1953 audiences, Cooper in the early scenes passed for much younger, or is it like Robert Redford in The Natural where audiences collectively agreed to just ignore it?
In the end though, as I've already said, this isn't a very good movie. I would've rather just watched 90 minutes of people hanging out on this beautiful island. The plot is scattered. I don't think the movie realizes how much Cooper's character sucks in it. Like, I think the calculus was that people love Gary Cooper, so they could get away with a lot with him. But, for an audience (me) that doesn't care that much about Cooper, he's just a jerk. Mixing WWII and a time jump in is a nice touch but not enough to make it time well spent.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment