The Misfits (1961)
Country: US
Technical: bw 124m
Director: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter, Montgomery Clift
Synopsis:
Three Nevada misfits, an ageing cowboy, a widowed pilot and a rodeo rider down on his luck are touched by the grace of a former exotic dancer come to Reno for a divorce.
Review:
Full of unforced symbolism (Nevada as a place of death, the mustangs as avatars of the obsolete cowboy), the film can be seen as key in the sub-genre of Westerns, both modern (The Lusty Men) and traditional (Ride the High Country), that examined the relevance of the cowboy in the modern world. Indeed the mustangs are one of those characteristic Miller devices that bring third act self-knowledge to his characters, sometimes too late, though not here: in rounding up the last wild horses they are effectively writing themselves off. At the same time, it is hard not to see Miller's constantly revised screenplay as a 'divorce present' to Marilyn, whose fragility and special quality of kindness are very much embodied by the character of Roslyn. The shoot was by all accounts a difficult one, and that sense of doom hangs over it like a shroud, despite the optimistic finish. In one scene Marilyn is filmed in inappropriately soft focus after a two-week stay in hospital, and both Gable and Clift look in poor shape, plainly doubled by stunt men in the wrangling sequence. Now, of course, the movie's metacinematic baggage (all three would be dead within five years) is a source of exquisite pain and regret, and only sharpens the message.
Country: US
Technical: bw 124m
Director: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter, Montgomery Clift
Synopsis:
Three Nevada misfits, an ageing cowboy, a widowed pilot and a rodeo rider down on his luck are touched by the grace of a former exotic dancer come to Reno for a divorce.
Review:
Full of unforced symbolism (Nevada as a place of death, the mustangs as avatars of the obsolete cowboy), the film can be seen as key in the sub-genre of Westerns, both modern (The Lusty Men) and traditional (Ride the High Country), that examined the relevance of the cowboy in the modern world. Indeed the mustangs are one of those characteristic Miller devices that bring third act self-knowledge to his characters, sometimes too late, though not here: in rounding up the last wild horses they are effectively writing themselves off. At the same time, it is hard not to see Miller's constantly revised screenplay as a 'divorce present' to Marilyn, whose fragility and special quality of kindness are very much embodied by the character of Roslyn. The shoot was by all accounts a difficult one, and that sense of doom hangs over it like a shroud, despite the optimistic finish. In one scene Marilyn is filmed in inappropriately soft focus after a two-week stay in hospital, and both Gable and Clift look in poor shape, plainly doubled by stunt men in the wrangling sequence. Now, of course, the movie's metacinematic baggage (all three would be dead within five years) is a source of exquisite pain and regret, and only sharpens the message.
Country: US
Technical: bw 124m
Director: John Huston
Cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter, Montgomery Clift
Synopsis:
Three Nevada misfits, an ageing cowboy, a widowed pilot and a rodeo rider down on his luck are touched by the grace of a former exotic dancer come to Reno for a divorce.
Review:
Full of unforced symbolism (Nevada as a place of death, the mustangs as avatars of the obsolete cowboy), the film can be seen as key in the sub-genre of Westerns, both modern (The Lusty Men) and traditional (Ride the High Country), that examined the relevance of the cowboy in the modern world. Indeed the mustangs are one of those characteristic Miller devices that bring third act self-knowledge to his characters, sometimes too late, though not here: in rounding up the last wild horses they are effectively writing themselves off. At the same time, it is hard not to see Miller's constantly revised screenplay as a 'divorce present' to Marilyn, whose fragility and special quality of kindness are very much embodied by the character of Roslyn. The shoot was by all accounts a difficult one, and that sense of doom hangs over it like a shroud, despite the optimistic finish. In one scene Marilyn is filmed in inappropriately soft focus after a two-week stay in hospital, and both Gable and Clift look in poor shape, plainly doubled by stunt men in the wrangling sequence. Now, of course, the movie's metacinematic baggage (all three would be dead within five years) is a source of exquisite pain and regret, and only sharpens the message.