...I say, if you have read the book, this movie is a stinker of massive proportions; few great novels have ever been so horribly mangled by clueless Hollywood hacks.
And make no mistake, Ross Lockridge Jr.'s RAINTREE COUNTY is one of the greatest novels you never heard of. Over 1,000 pages long, it takes place on a single day, July 4, 1892, in the life of John Wickliff Shawnessy, age 53, a small-town Indiana schoolteacher haunted by memories of two courtships and marriages, family secrets, lost love, and traumatic service in the Civil War. In the course of the holiday, these memories bubble up randomly from Mr. Shawnessy's subconscious, a series of aching, bittersweet and tragic reminders of what was - and what might have been. The effect is of a jumbled, time-hopping mosaic of the life of a decent, ordinary boy and man buffeted by decades of events great and small.
This sprawling, complex novel would have tested, and might well have defeated, the greatest filmmakers who ever lived. It didn't stand a chance with director Edward Dmytryk and writer/producer Millard. Kaufman, two fifth-rate talents with not a great movie between them, and the smattering of decent movies on their resumes (MURDER MY SWEET, CROSSFIRE, THE CAINE MUTINY, BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) were that good in spite of them. Writer Kaufman took one look at Lockridge's novel, threw up his hands, and just decided to make something up - and what he came up with was junk. Director Dmytryk actually boasted - boasted! - that he didn't even try to read the book.
Montgomery Clift's horrific, near-fatal auto accident midway through filming, tragic as it was, is beside the point; he was miscast from the get-go. The part called for a Henry Fonda circa 1935; by 1957, who knows? Maybe Earl Holliman or (in a pinch) Dennis Hopper. Elizabeth Taylor, Oscar nomination notwithstanding, is just auditioning for Scarlett in a road-company GONE WITH THE WIND. Only Eva Marie Saint as Nell Gaither really matches the novel - but Kaufman so wrecks Nell's tragic character arc that it doesn't matter.
Read the book instead. It'll blow you away. Then, if you must, watch the movie for a sample of what gives Hollywood a bad name.
And make no mistake, Ross Lockridge Jr.'s RAINTREE COUNTY is one of the greatest novels you never heard of. Over 1,000 pages long, it takes place on a single day, July 4, 1892, in the life of John Wickliff Shawnessy, age 53, a small-town Indiana schoolteacher haunted by memories of two courtships and marriages, family secrets, lost love, and traumatic service in the Civil War. In the course of the holiday, these memories bubble up randomly from Mr. Shawnessy's subconscious, a series of aching, bittersweet and tragic reminders of what was - and what might have been. The effect is of a jumbled, time-hopping mosaic of the life of a decent, ordinary boy and man buffeted by decades of events great and small.
This sprawling, complex novel would have tested, and might well have defeated, the greatest filmmakers who ever lived. It didn't stand a chance with director Edward Dmytryk and writer/producer Millard. Kaufman, two fifth-rate talents with not a great movie between them, and the smattering of decent movies on their resumes (MURDER MY SWEET, CROSSFIRE, THE CAINE MUTINY, BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) were that good in spite of them. Writer Kaufman took one look at Lockridge's novel, threw up his hands, and just decided to make something up - and what he came up with was junk. Director Dmytryk actually boasted - boasted! - that he didn't even try to read the book.
Montgomery Clift's horrific, near-fatal auto accident midway through filming, tragic as it was, is beside the point; he was miscast from the get-go. The part called for a Henry Fonda circa 1935; by 1957, who knows? Maybe Earl Holliman or (in a pinch) Dennis Hopper. Elizabeth Taylor, Oscar nomination notwithstanding, is just auditioning for Scarlett in a road-company GONE WITH THE WIND. Only Eva Marie Saint as Nell Gaither really matches the novel - but Kaufman so wrecks Nell's tragic character arc that it doesn't matter.
Read the book instead. It'll blow you away. Then, if you must, watch the movie for a sample of what gives Hollywood a bad name.