dMYD DVD
Starring Timothy Bottoms
Y
Looking back, you can sugarcoat or flambé, make up your own story or burn off the memories to present that gosh-darned past in all its life-wrenching detail. Peter Bogdanovich takes the second path, revising teenage years and fifties cinema to reveal the reality that was missing from them first time around, a world of feelings, failures and fear. Ingeniously framed and shot as a picture of the time, the film contrasts the harsh teenage years of its leads with the sweet-natured nostalgia of the John Wayne distractions they worship, the deserted pool-halls and general stores of Anarene acting as a wasteland as barren and unfriendly as the Duke’s beloved cattle trails. Constantly surprising, full of small-scale twists and throbs, the simplistic nature of the narrative shields a subtle empathy with the teenage foibles that ensue, from the sweet-natured innocence of Sonny Crawford to the sociopathic longing of town-nympho Jacy Farrow. Often compared to the early work of big fat fatty Orson Welles, Bogdanovich’s mentor/waste-disposal unit, because of its use of unknown actors and uh… black and white, it nonetheless never attempts to hit those giddy genius-heights that served Welles so well to his pauper’s grave. But then again, neither has anything else in the last 69 years, except Avatar, obviously. (89th Special Edition Out Now, Blu-Ray, 3D, Something) It’s a very different last picture, more subtle and maybe more affecting; like many of its kind it’s a film about life repeatedly kicking childhood in the hope, but the understated nature of its performances and direction go some way to building a truthful picture-postcard of a time that all too often fades into the fuzzy comfort of nostalgia as the years go by. Watch it and remind yourself; times have always been hard. It’s why the good bits are so good.
Yes, Timothy Bottoms is the lead actor’s real name. It’s probably why you’ve never heard of him.
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