Word: screenplay
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Jack Gelber's screenplay provides a loose framework in which the actors develop their roles. What symbolism he introduces is entirely appropriate. For instance, Cowboy dresses all in white, like an angel, and he brings with him Sister Salvation (Barbara Winchester), a little old lady with whom he has allied himself as protection against the police. While the addicts file in for their fixes, she delivers a little sermon, but the salvation she offers is as insubstantial as Cowboy...
Mavis and Emil (Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman) traipse out to the country retreat of an old pal, a writer, Edward (played by Costigan); they hope to lure him back to Hollywood to dash off a screenplay of Walden. But what they really like about Eddie is that he swings. It seems that Mavis is a nymphomaniac, Emil tres gay, and Edward can play both ways...
...aristocrat is the servant of his passions; the servant is the master of his master. A reversal of roles is certainly central to Harold Pinter's screenplay in The Servant. But Pinter and director Joseph Losey hint at much more--and hint is about all they do--for while milord falls from high estate, diabolical manservant wages war with snooty girlfriend, and the gentleman is more the pawn than the prize. The meaning of the conflict? Well--it's hard...
Elia Kazan put a capsule review of his screenplay in a terse scrap of dialogue. Stavros Topouzoglou, trying to explain his feverish yearning for America, tells his fiancee, "You have to be what I am to understand." To understand the movie intimately you must be Elia Kazan or one of his relatives. America, America is a gigantic home movie, constructed from family stories about migration to the Promised Land. Kazan himself was born in Turkey, and he fervently wants his film to remind us "that we are all immigrants and that we all came here looking for something." The pity...
Kazan's direction helps to compensate for the weakness of his screenplay. Excellent, restrained acting and careful regard for authentic detail give America, America almost documentary qualities. Some of the film's best moments are rather static scenes of village life in Anatolia, the wharfs in Constantinople, and manners in Greek households. There are fine bits of protest, too, like a glimpse of a busy American sea captain nonchalantly ignoring an aged stevedore who has collapsed under his burden. During the voyage, the faces of crew members reveal their contempt for the immigrants. The brunt of the social criticism loses...