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Assignment 5: Too Much of Not Enough

Posted by Austin Cinephile

Every week, we will be posting a prompt related to cinephilia, and some of our founding members will contribute a short response. Hopefully you, our dear readers, will feel compelled to respond in our comment section as well. This week’s prompt was:

What is the most overrated film?

Stephen: THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO – Woody Allen

Rather than bully a director or a film that is frequently called out as being overrated, I thought I would pick on someone my own size: Woody Allen. Like any fan of Allen’s films, I have only positive feelings about all of them but don’t necessarily agree with the consensus opinion about which ones are best. When The Purple Rose of Cairo hit theatres in 1985, critics immediately began declaring it one of Allen’s great masterpieces, and since then the film has been included on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list and Time Magazine’s Top 100 Films of All Time list. It’s a decent film, alright, but I’m not seeing a masterpiece here.

The lead performance by Mia Farrow reflects those aspects of her acting that I least appreciate, a kind of timid, mousy quality that is lurking underneath a great many of her roles. Her character, Cecilia, is being mistreated at home and at work by her husband and her boss, and she seems unable or unwilling to take action to stop it. Perhaps because Farrow was so notoriously mistreated by men in her own life, including Allen himself, I have a hard time watching her play a character going through similar problems (it was easier in Rosemary’s Baby; I mean, we all get a little mistreated by Satanic witch covens from time to time).

So, rather than tell off her A-1 A-hole husband, Cecilia escapes into the nearby movie theater. I’m normally all for cinematic paeans to moviegoing, but in this case, the moviegoer is portrayed as someone who is immature and ill-equipped to handle her life’s problems. I admit that I consider moviegoing to be an escape, the cinema being a place where I can think about something other than my problems for a while. But, when Cecilia goes to the movies, she experiences them with a certain wide-eyed naivete, staring up at the images on the screen hoping desperately that the movie might come to life and whisk her away into its fantasy environs.

Sure enough, the adventure hero Cecilia has come to adore emerges from the screen and begins to woo her in her own world. This desire to escape not into the cinema but into the movie itself seems to me very childlike behavior, reflecting fanciful notions that are normally replaced with appreciations for storytelling and film craft as the film lover matures into adulthood. As a child, I watched Star Wars and imagined jumping into the Millennium Falcon and joining the Rebel Alliance; now, I watch in awe of the narrative and character development. I’ve grown up. Allen has spent his entire career making movies for adults starring adults; might I suggest that this film presented a unique opportunity for him to feature a child protagonist? It probably wouldn’t have worked, but to me, it’s what this film’s tone calls for.

I certainly wouldn’t place Purple Rose anywhere near the top of Allen’s best films list. Farrow has been much better in other Allen films, notably Zelig, Radio Days, and even Broadway Danny Rose, another of his films I can’t get very excited about. Indeed, Radio Days seems the most apt comparison. Allen has made clear in many interviews that both the radio and the cinema were heavily formative elements of his adolescence. Radio Days and Purple Rose are his tributes to bygone eras of radio listening and movie watching, and I think Radio Days, with its graceful notes of nostalgia and its vibrant characters, is definitely the more successful one.

Michael: CRASH – Paul Haggis

I can’t say what THE most overrated movie is, but I can say this: the 2006 Academy Award “Best Picture” winner Crash (2005) is an abysmal film. How it ever got nominated for an award let alone won three bald-headed statuettes is beyond me. And for “Best Picture” and, possibly even worse, for “Original Screenplay,” holy jeez. I remember watching the ceremony and being dumbfounded when they announced the winner of the big prize. Racism in LA. Wow, what a theme for a film. It’s so fresh and lively. That Paul Haggis is a genius. And, this is against good fare, people. Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, these were the competition. Are you telling me Crash was a better picture than Munich? I know it’s not Stevie’s best film, but hey it’s better than Haggis’s dreck.

I wish I could say more about this film, but I haven’t bothered to return to it since I saw it six years ago. Since then I’ve been trying my hardest to forget it, so I don’t intend to return to it simply for plumping up this assignment response. It truly is not worth it.

Daniel: NETWORK – Sidney Lumet

Overratedness, or the art of being liked more than one should be. Fight Club? Gone With the Wind? The Shawshank Redemption? These are movies that people like more than they merit. Oh, and everything else directed by David Fincher, too. That guy has no talent.

Anyway, they probably aren’t the most overrated. It’s got to be a film of great historical relevance. It should be an Academy Award winner. Maybe something that people think is socially “important.”

I’m going to have to go with Sidney Lumet’s Network. God, do I hate that drivel, liberal-minded “allegory.” In case you don’t know, the story is about a TV news anchor who is fired after his ratings plummet. With two weeks left on his contract, he starts raving like a lunatic. The execs like his new hot-style, and they exploit his madness for the sensationalism.

The film climaxes with the lead, played by Peter Finch, screaming to the camera, asking his audience to scream out their windows. He suggests that people need to voice their anger, the rising disillusionment with the state of modern society. “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” That’s what he wants them to scream. How foolish! Yeah, right.

This ridiculous, unbelievable plot is dazzled around for over two hours. The worst thing about this movie is that everybody thinks it is so great. It won 4 Oscars. Thankfully it didn’t win Best Picture (not even the Academy is dumb enough to think it is better than Rocky), but it did win best actor, actress, supporting actress, and original screenplay. Think of all the poor schlubs who rented the film just because of the DVD/VHS/Laserdisc box that read “Winner of 4 Academy Awards.” What a horror they were in for.

Nah, I’m just kidding. That movie is awesome.