"Something Wild" tells a very simple story. A young woman is raped and her whole world falls to pieces. She is saved from a suicide attempt by a lonely young man who helps her to heal. It's not such an exceptional tale. You could even apply to it that famous line from the TV series "The Naked City": "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." We are witness to some very personal and intimate moments in the lives of two people whose ability to feel has been smothered. The woman has had her whole being violated. The man, craving love, tries to hold onto her. The two actors, Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker, certainly are game, but I was uncomfortable with the second half of the film both times that I watched it. The two lead actors sometimes seem stranded in scenes that are quite stagey, and some lines, especially Meeker's "you're my last chance", land with a resounding clunk. Although the woman might still be suicidal, and would-be suicides can be quite devious, I just didn't buy the hostage situation (or the ending), and it was repugnant to me, anyway. It was, essentially, the old cliché of the controlling man telling the woman: "Do as you're told, because I know what's best for you." For a woman traumatized by rape that can hardly be reassuring.
This film is helped immeasurably by its low budget and on-location shooting in New York City. No amount of studio fakery could duplicate the ethereal majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge or the teeming streets of the tenements, or the interesting clutter of a five-and-dime store. The first half of the film, depicting the rape and the woman's trauma, following it, is gripping and believable, in no small way due to Baker's performance, though the film's view of humanity struck me as rather misanthropic. The work of Saul Bass (titles) and Aaron Copland (music) felt as if it was created for a more hyper urban drama than this intimate piece, but Eugen Schufftan's cinematography was obviously a labour of love.
This film is helped immeasurably by its low budget and on-location shooting in New York City. No amount of studio fakery could duplicate the ethereal majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge or the teeming streets of the tenements, or the interesting clutter of a five-and-dime store. The first half of the film, depicting the rape and the woman's trauma, following it, is gripping and believable, in no small way due to Baker's performance, though the film's view of humanity struck me as rather misanthropic. The work of Saul Bass (titles) and Aaron Copland (music) felt as if it was created for a more hyper urban drama than this intimate piece, but Eugen Schufftan's cinematography was obviously a labour of love.