Robert Redford Double Feature

 Don't know how we ended up watching two Robert Redford movies on two consecutive nights, but it happened. I had brought home a DVD library copy of "The Great Gatsby"(1974), screenplay written by Francis Ford Coppola, which I remember when it was released, but at the time had no interest in it. Something brought it to my attention recently, and I decided maybe I should watch it. As it turned out, the whole family sat and watched. I had never read the book, either, but knew the story vaguely. I think everyone else in the family had at least read the book.

The story is narrated by young and somewhat naive Nick Carraway, cousin to the wealthy and married Daisy Buchanan, who resides in the wealthy enclave at East Egg, NY. Nick has recently moved across the bay to West Egg, and lives next door to the somewhat mysterious and self made millionaire Jay Gatsby, who throws huge parties and never attends them. Nick discovers that Jay has a secret: he was previously acquainted with Daisy, and he wants Nick to help him renew that acquaintance. Events take their course, with Daisy and Jay having an affair. Eventually, Daisy's husband the somewhat overbearing Tom (who all the while is having an affair with local woman Myrtle Wilson) discovers their relationship and sets in motion a chain of events that lead to tragedy, with only Nick knowing the truth of what actually happened. I was mostly very impressed with the movie version. It is a beautifully filmed, opulent and richly detailed film, done with great care and direction. The sets, costumes, automobiles, etc. were appropriate and really conveyed a feel for the 1920's during that era of the Jazz Age, with the charleston, bouncy music, and enormous wealth so prominent. The casualness of the wealthy set, the constant houseparties, the luxuriousness of their lifestyle, all came through on film. It was well-cast: Robert Redford as Gatsby is the true golden boy millionaire; Mia Farrow as the social butterfly and clueless Daisy irritated me; Sam Waterston as Nick was an excellent narrator and gave a much needed outsider's viewpoint; the lovely Lois Chiles was chic and classy; and Karen Black as Myrtle had an excellent chance to show some teeth. It was fun to see Kathryn Leigh Scott (of "Dark Shadows" fame) playing Myrtle's sister. Bruce Dern as the antagonistic Tom Buchanan was well cast, he played his character with some passion, his relationship with Myrtle was especially well played. My only criticism is that perhaps the script could have been tightened up just a little, there were times when not much happened on screen and it was a bit slow and just overlong at 144 minutes. But on the whole, a good classic movie. Just an little side note: Dern and Karen Black would later be reunited for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Family Plot", Lois Chiles and Mia Farrow would act again together later in "Death on the Nile", and this was Redford's and Chiles' second movie together, as they had done "The Way We Were" the previous year.

"The Way We Were" (1973) was the second Redford film we viewed over the weekend, by way of TCM. It is a nice romantic film that has actually held up well over time. I remember seeing it many years ago (probably on a college date) and liking it well enough then. Its story is simple really: loud mouthed social activist Katie (Barbra Streisand) meets golden college boy Hubbell (Robert Redford) on a New York campus in the 1930's and they have a brief relationship and then go their separate ways. During wartime, they run into each other again, and fall into a real affair that eventually leads to marriage. Along the way, he becomes a noted author and scriptwriter ending up in Hollywood and she supports him while trying to work for causes she believes in, and their efforts eventually cause too many problems for them to overcome; they split; when they meet up years later in New York in the 60's, it's a very bittersweet reunion.

It's a nicely filmed movie, with great sets and provides a good impression of the times, with World War II and Hollywood and the whole Joe McCarthy Blacklist era, very well done. Streisand and Redford do quite well in their roles, and they have decent support from Bradford Dillman as his best college friend and fellow in the business, Patrick O'Neal as a Hollywood director, and Lois Chiles as Redford's college girlfriend who marries Dillman and later leaves him. A young Susan Blakely appears in this film, and James Woods has a good role as Katie's co-worker on campus causes. An excellent movie to view with your spouse or date, even though the ending is somewhat bittersweet and sad. It's still an enjoyable and well done picture with a pleasant cast and good story.

Both pictures were good breaks during the weekend of March Madness.

DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL by Frances Hill, 2011.
Frances Hill, a noted historian on the Salem witch trials here turns her hand to fiction. Although most people know the basics of the story, Hill gets it started a bit differently, beginning with an Indian attack in the outback of Maine, where the living is a bit more easy, especially as concerns religion, drawing in less hardnosed Puritans, Quakers, and even Baptists. The Harvard-educated Reverend George Burroughs, a former resident of Salem Village and who left it under a cloud, rescues young Mary Cheever during the Indian attack on York, and they are later married and live happily in Wells with Burroughs' houseful of children.

Meanwhile, in Salem Village, young girls playing at fortune telling get into serious trouble and become pawns and actors in a deadly plan by Thomas Putnam, who has many scores to settle. As Hill heats up the narrative and reveals the story in its logical pattern, the community she describes becomes a place of terror. When the group of afflicted girls becomes larger and more people are cried out upon, no one is safe. Even George Burroughs is accused and arrested, and when he is transported from Maine to Salem jail, Mary is determined to find a way to save him. Along with Peter White, an old friend of George's, Mary travels to Salem to plead for her husband's life; they both quickly discover firsthand the horrors that exist in Salem and just how unprepared they are to fight the hysterical forces that threaten to overwhelm them.

Hill, whose nonfiction account (A Delusion of Satan) of this well known chapter in American history is excellently researched and written, does a fine job with providing the period details and necessary background of New England during 1692. I like her taking the stance that Thomas Putnam took control of the situation to promote his own agenda, supplying the girls with the names of those he held grudges against and encouraging them to accuse them. It added dimension to the story and made it more real. Once she keeps the story focussed on the Burroughs, an urgency takes hold that made me keep turning pages even though I knew how things would turn out. Her descriptions of neighbors and friends betraying each other in order to save themselves, of farms and buildings gone untended, of cold and harsh judges, of children left without parents or homes, of awful jail conditions, all ring true and can be favorably compared to what Kathleen Kent depicted in her novel The Heretic's Daughter, as well. Her portraits of George Burroughs, Mary, Peter White, Nathaniel Cary, Margaret Jacobs, and several others are sympathetic and appealing. Mary's whole mission to save her husband is quite heartrending, and I thought Hill was clever in having Mary ask the questions that modern audiences often ask when reading about these cases: How can they believe this? Why is it that the witch didn't have to touch them that time to make them stop when she did before? Can't anyone see that they are play-acting? and suchlike. Her depiction of the judges and especially of their willingness to believe in "spectral evidence" during the trials was downright chilling and made my skin crawl. I wasn't thrilled with several of her pieces of fictional license: for example, her description of Bridget Bishop goes totally against what is known about her; Deliverance, not Lydia, Hobbs was the name of the accused person who implicated Burroughs; Abigail Williams didn't hang herself, she was present throughout the entire period. These changes seem unnecessary or purposeless, and to those very familiar with the story rather jarring. It was a nice touch to include a bibliography, although it seems a little self-serving that four of the nine titles listed were written by the author. But all quibbles aside, on the whole I found this a very readable and engaging novel about this shocking and terrible time in New England's history. It made me want to visit Salem again!

THE WOLVES OF ANDOVER by Kathleen Kent, 2010.
Kent's first book, The Heretic's Daughter, was a much better read for me than this one. Here she relates the backstory of Thomas Carrier (aka Morgan) and Martha Allen, both of whom were major characters in the previous novel. Set during 1673, Thomas is indentured to a farmer cousin of Martha's near Billerica, Massachusetts. Martha meets Thomas and comes to know and love him while she is attending her cousin Patience's difficult pregnancy. Unknown to Martha (and most of the others) for most of the book, is that Thomas is a regicide, that he in fact wielded the axe that decapitated King Charles I in 1649 under Cromwell's orders. Along with other participants in the execution, Thomas escaped to Puritan New England and has been living there under a different name and has been protected from those who seek to avenge the dead king. However, King Charles II, bent on rounding up those who murdered his father, has sent more assassins after the regicides, and once Martha learns Thomas' secret, she realizes that she and all those near Thomas are also in danger. Part mystery, part romance, and part thriller, Kent does an excellent job with historical details, showing the dirt and filth, the political turbulence and violence, everyday customs, hunting, threshing fields, fashions, foods, and hard life during the seventeenth century. As interested as I was to know more about Thomas and Martha and their story, I found this rather tough going--just not as compelling as their lives during the high drama of the Salem witch hysteria. Simply a personal preference, in reading this it felt like something was lacking in this effort. Not a bad read, just not as good as it should have been.