Hal Ashby (famous for the likes of "Harold and Maude", "The Last Detail", "Shampoo", "Bound for Glory", "Coming Home" and "Being There") made his directorial debut with the offbeat Beau Bridges vehicle "The Landlord". Bridges plays Elgar Enders, the son of a wealthy - but pretty despondent - landlady (Lee Grant). Grouchy and pretty bigoted, this woman cares only about her African-American tenants paying their rent. So when Elgar takes over the apartment building, he not only decides to change things for the better, but he also begins to develop a relationship with one of the women in the building.
Like many movies that came out around 1970, this one features numerous jump cuts between totally different scenes. I don't know the specific purpose of this, but I get the feeling that they may have done it to create a sense of the confusion pervading the world due to the unprecedented changes occurring around that time. But I will say that it helps to stress Elgar's disgust with his family's ignorance and scorn of the world outside theirs. You really have to root for what he does as landlord of this building, just as a complete rejection of everything that he's been raised to believe and do.
All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie. Maybe it goes a little overboard in practically beatifying Elgar, but he really deserves it. Lee Grant's character will probably make your skin crawl. Louis Gossett Jr. - whom I previously only thought of as Fiddler on "Roots" - plays one nasty dude (though we understand why he's like he is). Ditto Prof. Dubois (Melvin Stewart).
So see it. You'll probably like it. Also starring Robert Klein and Hector Elizondo in early roles.
Like many movies that came out around 1970, this one features numerous jump cuts between totally different scenes. I don't know the specific purpose of this, but I get the feeling that they may have done it to create a sense of the confusion pervading the world due to the unprecedented changes occurring around that time. But I will say that it helps to stress Elgar's disgust with his family's ignorance and scorn of the world outside theirs. You really have to root for what he does as landlord of this building, just as a complete rejection of everything that he's been raised to believe and do.
All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie. Maybe it goes a little overboard in practically beatifying Elgar, but he really deserves it. Lee Grant's character will probably make your skin crawl. Louis Gossett Jr. - whom I previously only thought of as Fiddler on "Roots" - plays one nasty dude (though we understand why he's like he is). Ditto Prof. Dubois (Melvin Stewart).
So see it. You'll probably like it. Also starring Robert Klein and Hector Elizondo in early roles.