{"id":5512,"date":"2012-09-23T21:53:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T01:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5512"},"modified":"2015-04-15T20:20:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T00:20:32","slug":"br-sound-and-the-fury-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5512","title":{"rendered":"BR: Sound and the Fury, The"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Film: Very Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Twilight Time\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: September, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis: \u00a0A young woman is forced to make adult decisions when a relationship with a carny handyman and the arrival of her long-lost mother further destabilizes her life with a domineering uncle.<\/p>\n

Special Features: \u00a0Isolated stereo music track \/ Colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

After the critical & box office success of Tennessee Williams\u2019 A Streetcar Named Desire <\/strong>(1951), Hollywood seemed to realize it was worth gambling on risqu\u00e9 literary properties set in the steamy South, further testing the limits of the Production Code which by 1959 had become antiquated.<\/p>\n

The Sound and the Fury<\/strong> didn\u2019t offer any new challenges for the existing moral police \u2013 Elia Kazan\u2019s film version of Williams\u2019 Baby Doll<\/strong> (1956) already exploited the issues with a young girl\u2019s raw sexual awakening within a an entourage of sleazy older men \u2013 and in fact Hollywood had already made film versions of several Faulkner short stories and novels, including the rape \/ trial drama The Story of Temple Drake<\/strong> (1933), racism & murder in Intruder in the Dust <\/strong>(1949), and the smoldering sexual tension in The Long, \u00a0Hot Summer<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1958).<\/p>\n

Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr.\u2019s Fury <\/strong>screenplay feels like a streamlined adaptation that balances vestiges of Faulkner\u2019s often impenetrable prose with the sweaty atmosphere of the South, and hints of forbidden sexual longings.<\/p>\n

Martin Ritt\u2019s film is ostensibly a compact saga about Quentin Compson (Joanne Woodward), a little hellion determined to drive her \u2018uncle\u2019 Jason Compson (Yul Brynner, with hair!) crazy for obsessively controlling every aspect of her life since her mother Caddy (Margaret Leighton) abandoned her shortly after birth. For all intents and purposes, Mama Caddy is dead, and the Compson family is a near-disaster, yet survives because of Jason\u2019s \u2018furious\u2019 determination to live frugally, and force Quentin \u2013 the family\u2019s only viable heir \u2013 to become a responsible member of society. Her brother Ben (Jack Warden) has remained an intellectually stunted mute, and harbors his own \u2018fury\u2019 towards Quentin because he believes her birth killer their mother.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s world is twisted around when Quentin falls for a carny beefcake (Stuart Whitman) and seems destined to follow her mother\u2019s own career of whoring her wares for excitement instead of family responsibility, but Jason\u2019s interference is emboldened by the sudden return of Caddy, delusional in her determination to raise Quentin right & proper in spite of never being a part of her life.<\/p>\n

Worked into this conflagration is Jason\u2019s position as the adopted son of the Compson patriarch, and the film\u2019s greatest (and unresolved) cheat: a secret passion that resides between Jason and Quentin – the young girl he raised, and apparently shares a small nugget of passion.<\/p>\n

The ambiguity of this faux romance \u2013 blatantly teased in the film\u2019s cheating campaign art of Brynner and Woodward locking lips \u2013 makes their uncle-daughter relationship a little \u2018fuzzy\u2019: at the end of the film we know Jason will continue to strive to improve the family\u2019s social & economic standings while Quentin continues to learn valuable life lessons, but as to any romantic episodes, that\u2019s apparently left to the audience\u2019s (prurient?) imagination.<\/p>\n

Even with the script\u2019s murky elements, Fury<\/strong> maintains a momentum, and it is fascinating to watch the ensemble cast tackle their roles. Leighton is very strong as reckless Caddy, while Woodward makes her shrill character compelling (although neither the performance nor script really define her age as a high school brat or young adult on the cusp of adulthood and womanhood. This might be a deliberate ploy to mask the actress\u2019 real age \u2013 29 \u2013 as well as having played a school teacher <\/em>a year earlier in Long Hot Summer<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Whitman\u2019s physicality and natural acting skills give the straight hunk Charlie Busch a bit more depth and humility, and the actor\u2019s intro scene \u2013 climbing like an acrobat bare-chested to the top of an amusement ride \u2013 is a perfectly choreographed tease for audiences, as well as Quentin, who catches his sweaty brawn from the ground.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s most novel casting choice is Brynner as Jason, a Southerner who apparently has European roots, traceable in his accent and that of his mother (Francoise Rosay). Brynner isn\u2019t ideal for the role – he\u2019s often too stiff, and the script offers his character few moments to reveal his sly sense of humour – but in later scenes with Woodward, Brynner\u2019s version of Jason becomes almost<\/em> two-dimensional.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the film\u2019s strongest element is Alex North\u2019s score, written in a modernist style, yet evoking the characters and the Southern environment without any classic Hollywood scoring clich\u00e9s. Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray includes a stereo score track (with some bookend studio chatter from the recording sessions), and the opening cue is a perfect example of North\u2019s gift for evoking tension, and drawing out the complex relationships of on- and off-screen characters. It\u2019s a long, meaty cue that\u2019s also filled with great kinetic energy in what\u2019s a straightforward montage of a worried servant waking up the household with bad suspicions about a missing Quentin.<\/p>\n

Pity there isn\u2019t a commentary track, as Fury<\/strong> is the second of two Jerry Wald productions that featured the same director, screenwriters, composer, and co-star Woodward. There must be making-of tales between Fury<\/strong> and The Long Hot Summer<\/strong> which would offer a glimpse into Hollywood\u2019s fixation with troubled families in insular towns, be they in the South, or more snotty environs like Peyton Place<\/a><\/strong> (1957), another glossy Fox picture produced by Wald.<\/p>\n

Julie Kirgo\u2019s liner notes provide some background into the film\u2019s production and the savage response by critics who were apparently outraged by the severe distillation of Faulkner\u2019s novel. Charles G. Clarke\u2019s cinematography impeccably crafts the illusion of the South within the confines of the Fox backlot, but fans of the studio\u2019s fifties films will likely notice some familiar sets \u2013 notably the Compson\u2019s general store, which seems to be a pastiche of wooden facades from the fabric shop in Desir\u00e9e<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1954) and the general store in Woman Obsessed<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1959).<\/p>\n

Kirgo also makes a valid point in the need to appreciate Fury<\/strong> for being its own thing: sometimes the key to making a workable film from an impossible literary work is to go radical (meaning: simplify the plot and refocus on a specific set of characters). Fury<\/strong>\u2019s brilliant director, superior writers, strong cast, and composer created a cinematic oddity, but it\u2019s a compelling creature that\u2019s aged rather well.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Very Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good Label: Twilight Time\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: September, 2012 Genre: Drama Synopsis: \u00a0A young woman is forced to make adult decisions when a relationship with a carny handyman and the arrival of her long-lost mother further destabilizes her life with a domineering uncle. Special Features: \u00a0Isolated stereo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[641,1539,1538,1541,1535,1536,1540,1537,1534],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1qU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5512"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11252,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512\/revisions\/11252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}