what a jerk abusing his admirers and prioritizing his own ego over his responsibility as a father and a husband. also cast a big sarcasm on the heartless and blind mass; a bunch of hypocrites taking the fools and the poor's advantages when they can. gross. this is a very difficult film to watch, to say the least. an impressive line from the reporter: "I've got the story in my aching heart. I got it by crawling through dirt and filth and muck and smut! By finding truth and beauty where you'd never expect to find it."

As an audience, I'm really tired of hearing Mr. Shuman's big dream and can't come near to appreciate his passion and his willingness to accept death as his fate. Maybe that says something about 21st century. My education in behavior/ brain science won't let me believe in 'the calling'. He chooses to be an unearthly man and it's not a decision easily understood by others. a dangerous threat to daily routines and social norms.

The hook really lies in the roughness and imperfection in every character, the kind of subtlety rarely seen in Hollywood. however, the ending is narcissistic. sick of listing to pedantic talk on 'follow your dreams.' what a waste of time. feel sad for Jiggs and the boss.

Title: The Tarnished Angels

Year: 1957

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama

Director: Douglas Sirk

Screenwriter: George Zuckerman

based on the novel “Pylon” by William Faulkner

Music: Frank Skinner

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Editing: Russell F. Schoengarth

Cast:

Rock Hudson

Dorothy Malone

Robert Stack

Jack Carson

Robert Middleton

Christopher Olsen

Troy Donahue

Alan Reed

William Schallert

Rating: 6.8/10

THE TARNISHED ANGELS, Douglas Sirk’s cinematic adaptation of Faulkner’s Depression-era novel PYLON, repeats the winning formula of WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956), with Hudson. Malone and Stack, all returning to the fold. Yet, for those who are ensorcelled by Sirk’s variegated palette, the big comedown is that it is a black-and-white fare.

Hudson plays Burke Devlin, a journeyman-cum-lush, gets interested in the barnstorming airshow, and meets Roger Shumann (Stack), a daredevil WWI ace and his wife LaVerne (Malone), a parachute stuntwoman, and their 9-year-old son Jack (Olsen), plus Jiggs (Carson), the grease monkey. Will he get a substantial story out of his involvement? The denouement is more than what he bargains for.

LaVerne is the neglected wife, sadly even her marriage is the outcome of a dice game, yet, between the good ol’ Jiggs and a stony-faced Roger, a woman is destined to pick the high-flying, handsome hero who is ill-equipped for love and family. Burke’s advent gives her an opportunity to make a clean breast of it, he is a charming, tender receptacle of her pent-up discontent, they might have a passionate affair, but that doesn’t change the status quo. Burke is far too righteous a man to interfere a holy union, and LaVerne can never get over her stolid Prince Charming, is indiscriminately at his beck and call, even for an immoral proposition, she will hardly demur. That is the draw of a man like Roger, his hard-nosed, hellbent masculine toxin that gins up eligible girls’ romanticized fancy of “a man worth marrying”, LaVerne would be far more happier with Jiggs, but both in Faulkner’s head space and in Hollywood’s propaganda mill, a soft touch like him has no chance of winning the girl, even second-handedly.

The love triangle is namby-pamby, Roger’s promised fresh start is tinged with a blasé fatality that even a toddler can outguess what is in the horizon, the emotional tangle in THE TARNISHED ANGELS is a few notches below the torrid quotient in Sirk’s other films, notably the three also starring Hudson. Even so, a Sirk’s picture is never unprepossessing, the striking chiaroscuro overshadows the dark corners of one’s unsaid vice, and the aerobatics are brilliantly maneuvered (LaVerne’s base jump is deceptively astounding) save for the final crash, obviously there is a shallow, artificial pond right in front of our eyes, how can they not find the body?

Acting wise, Stack is too self-serious and uptight to hint Roger’s inability of adjusting a fly boy’s life in peace time; Carson is a remarkable sidekick as Jiggs, who unfairly takes the short end of the stick when all is said and done (why no one wants to recruit such a proficient mechanic?), you feels sorry for him, but in the same breath thinks he deserves the misery because of his weakness; Malone asserts herself glamorously under the monochromatic allure, she could be a tamed man-eater, or a saintly mother, but never asks for our compassion; finally, Hudson appears as a solid lead, and delivers perchance his most eloquent monologue in the aftermath of the tragedy, a conventional Hollywood leading man in a full-bore mold, all square and virtuous, not unlike its soft-pedaled ending, extricating a woman from her seedy acquiescence and humorously setting up a future reunion, oh, what a dreamboat!

referential entries: Sirk’s LURED (1947, 6.5/10); WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956, 8.0/10).

第14屆#法羅島電影節(jié)#無人知曉單元第6個放映日為大家?guī)怼侗毯Ｇ嗵煲挂剐摹?，下面為大家?guī)砬熬€彷徨眾人們自我麻痹的評價了！

節(jié)南山：

文藝青年的憂傷愛情故事，但總顯得略有些刻意。

我們敏熙：

又見錯位愛情，在大部分時候洛克·哈德森的角色都處于旁觀的狀態(tài)，直到最后角色情緒才噴涌而出。影片情感的縱深度令人咋舌。

Msanctuary：

攝影技術飛行畫面極佳，空中的表演很大膽。影片最后確實有點亂，情感的動搖，人物的對話，每個人的標簽都帶著些許的黑暗：絕望，孤獨或是憤怒。

拉拉那個啦啦：

是糾葛的感情困擾彼此的一生，還是因為一生都在尋找這樣的真實與復雜性所以變得曲折不堪？黑白片的魅力之一，是它的時代久遠性，這會讓人更理解人物內心。角色人物塑造得還是挺好的，有被打動。

非無想非有想：

沒看懂，糾纏于兩個男人間的女人，苦苦追尋飛行員老公的愛，最后終于確定了愛著彼此，老公卻死了。又出來第三個男人——記者最后鼓勵了她。第二個男人也就半路失蹤了。我真的不知道想表達啥，云里霧里。

布谷卟咕：

故事發(fā)生在一個尋求刺激娛樂的沙灘周圍，主線在我看來講述了一個表演性飛行員被對天空的渴望不斷吞噬，麻木他對生活不可控的恐懼感?？酥频那楦?，強橫的人物形象，對社會現象深入的刻畫，都讓這個故事顯得辛辣有觀點。

Pincent：

飛行比賽與空中雜技表演本身就有種自毀的氣質，飛行是終極的逃離與自由，同時人又可能被其吞噬。視覺相對出彩，黑白對比強烈。當飛機劃過天空，?？思{充滿酒精與嘉年華的故事開始了，各有其過往的角色們在此微妙地相交，在殘酷的生活之下，人物沒有正邪沒有好壞，只有理解與誤解、問題與掙扎，不忽略三人中任何一人的視角，也不會落入俗套，最后他們仿佛都只能躺下來，將自己埋葬。

子夜無人：

來不及寫完他的故事，先一步愛上他的妻子；藍天白云的夢想只剩自我麻痹的酒精，唯有機毀人亡才是成全了你也圓滿了我自己。多羅茜·馬龍光芒四射，哪怕在一部雙男主戲里、同時面對積憂成疾的羅伯特·斯塔克和深情款款的洛克·哈德森也傲人鎮(zhèn)場。就如同這場情感的困局，只有她真正清醒，她留守的是一個男人的過去，而另一個男人愛上的只是她的幻影。愛情最多的時間就是被過去和幻影占據，因為現實是不敢觸碰的真實，本體是一碰就碎的假體。

#FIFF14#DAY6的無人知曉場刊評分將在稍后為大家釋出，請大家拭目以待了。