The Naked and the Dead

Aldo Ray
Raoul Walsh's The Naked and the Dead is a heavily compromised version of Norman Mailer's novel that, nonetheless, is effective entertainment. The clash of Walsh's adventurism with Mailer's anti-authoritarianism makes this a fugless kluge that is neither fish nor fowl. However, Walsh's pictorial gifts fill the widescreen with colorful and abstract energy. He never winks at the audience by treating the action campily and the film's flashback sequences are as stylistically audacious as Tashlin and Ray's work from that same period. Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, and Raymond Massey are a solid march up the chain of command. It is also fun to see Richard Jaeckel and L. Q. Jones in their youth. 
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  • Warm Water Under A Red Bridge
    Misa Shimizu and Kōji Yakusho Shohei Imamura's Warm Water Under A Red Bridge , his final feature film from  2001,  is an odd and affecti...
  • Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
    Tye Sheridan Christopher Landon's Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse  sank without a trace commercially and was generally reviled cri...
  • B'twixt Now and Sunrise
    Elle Fanning Francis Ford Coppola's B'twixt Now and Sunrise  is an unsuccessful horror film which Coppola has been tinkering with fo...
  • Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
    Ilinca Manolache Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World  is another impressive feature from the Romanian director....
  • H. M. Pulham, Esq.
    Robert Young and Hedy Lamarr King Vidor's H. M. Pulham Esq. , from  1941,  is a good, if not especially memorable condensation of John P...