Totally an all-time fave of mine, and a great movie I think everyone on the planet should see. Not many movies make me lose my breath these days, particularly on repeat viewings, but this one does it every time, on the admittedly slightly obvious moment where The Man (Alan Bates) is frisked in the crucifixion position at the end. Hayley Mills is wonderful, I love the way she’s always licking her lips lol; and the other kids are all fantastically cast, even the minor “Disciples”. And again I want to mention the music – it’s at least 50% of the brilliance of the movie to me.

I think I said pretty much everything else before. Everyone should see this movie, I can’t believe it’s not available on DVD in the U.S. I’d love to see someone remake this movie too, it’s still relevant as anything and as the book, movie, and musical have all shown, it can be told many different ways and still pack the same emotional punch.

20th May 2004 (dang, is it that long since I last watched it???):

To take a lyric from the Lloyd Webber musical: “It just doesn’t get any better than this.” And regarding the musical, I’ve got to say, on this the umpteenth viewing of the movie, I still can’t decide if I like the music in the movie more than in the musical, for the music and the use of unoriginal music in the movie is absolutely brilliant.

This is a movie that strays extraordinarily close the the blatant at times: the final image has “The Man”, a fugitive criminal who the children come to believe is Jesus Christ, being searched outside his hiding place, their barn; he is, naturally, arms outstretched, in the crucifixion position; one of the key music themes is “We Three Kings” played over various shots of the three children. But somehow all of it – even the bizarre initial plot point (“Who is it?” “Jesus Christ…”) – absolutely and convincingly – works.

I think it holds the attention because of the often hilarious and sometimes surprising realism of the characters and scenarios. Alan Barnes as the youngest child, “Our Charles,” is probably one of the greatest child performances ever. I remember reading someone comparing the way he taps his boiled egg at breakfast and saying the number of eggs he’s had since last Easter to Albert Finney in the opening scene of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This kid cracks me up in every scene, right till he breaks my heart saying, “It’s not Jesus, it’s just a fella…” When he calls his two sisters “rotten cows,” gets a smack round the head from his aunt, says, “It’s always me…” ... this is just hilariously real and it’s all down to the look on his face.

Alan Bates plays The Man beautifully, holding back every detail possible, sustaining the mystery of the character which is so crucial to the complex messages of the movie. His initial confusion at the behaviour of the children that turns into utter gratitude and understanding by the end is perfectly stated, and no matter how many other movies I see with him in (and I don’t think I’ve seen any so far..), I’m sure this will always be his best performance to me.

It was director Bryan Forbes’ first film. Surely one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time. I can’t say enough how complex this story really is, and Forbes seems to capture everything on film. There is such a feeling of understanding with every character we see.

The DVD – the new release – is a good one. It has the movie in widescreen, the first time I think it’s been released in this format, and it’s a beautifully clean black and white image, a trailer for the movie which is slightly amusing, kind of selling the movie as a thriller, and a commentary featuring a slightly factually challenged “film historian” (he asks Hayley Mills, “You did a voice for ‘The Black Cauldron’ didn’t you, for Disney later on?” to which Hayley Mills bluntly replies, “It was ‘A Troll in Central Park’, among other weirdly stupid errors considering his obviously expansive filmic knowledge) and Hayley Mills herself, who actually still sounds at times like her 15 year old performance in the movie. She has a lot of tales to tell and the interview/commentary spreads beyond the movie to her time at Disney and other movies after Whistle down the Wind. My favourite anecdote concerns Alan Barnes’ (the young boy) first appearance on set – the key players and crew, ie Bryan Forbes, Hayley Mills, Alan Bates etc, had the usual director’s chairs laid out for them with their names on, and on the first day, Alan Barnes walked on the set, walked to Alan Bates’ chair and said, “Ey up, they’ve spelt me name wrong!” This kind of thing is why I love DVD

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2005 at 1:29 am in 5 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.