Boom!

Liz Taylor plays a consumptive wanna-be duchess in this mess from the 1960's. Its based on a play by Tennessee Williams called "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" which starred Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter on Broadway. I can't imagine it either, but somehow Taylor and Richard Burton were cast in their roles. Maybe because everything was offered to them in the event that they'd take it; I wonder if they turned down 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' but then no one would believe they'd have had a daughter old enough to marry Sidney Poitier, or 'Planet of the Apes', or 'Rosemary's Baby' but then no would would believe Liz is still fertile. She could've done the Ruth Gordon part..maybe..but that was supporting.. Anywho, the movie is a little hard to watch if you're not drunk. Liz wears some lethal headwear; I wonder if everyone's insurance covered accidental death. She barks her lines, her accent varies and its all better unsaid. When she and Noel Coward started BARKING and speaking in BABY TALK, either I lost my mind or Williams did. Liz lives in a place any Batman villian would envy. Her wardrobe is all in white. There is a close-up of her gorgeous eyes - this was the best thing I got from the movie, the validation that her eyes really are like no one else's. So is the movie..the man that made the classic "The Boy With Green Hair" is responsible for this too? He also worked with Liz again in "Secret Ceremony" where she is surrounded by co-stars Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum in another confusing picture. Gotta make sure I miss that one. PS. The Broadway version supplied another bon mot from the Bankhead camp - when someone asked her if Tab Hunter was gay, she said "I don't know, he never s---ed my ----!" God, I would have loved to be a fly on that wall, that day.

Whatever rating I give BOOM is only because of the superb location photography of Sardinia and Rome. Otherwise, this is only for hardcore addicts of ELIZABETH TAYLOR (her downward phase), and RICHARD BURTON (his miscasting phase). Tennessee Williams wrote "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" and is supposed to be very fond of this adaptation of his play--but apparently, he was the only one. Taylor reportedly hated it and Burton needed the money. Whatever, it amounts to a hill of beans with Taylor posturing and fuming in her shrill manner, exploding at the servants and exchanging bad baby-talk with no less than NOEL COWARD who seems to be a visitor from another film when he finally appears. It's so campy that among Taylor fans it's probably considered a "must see" kind of thing. But if you can sit through this one without a drink in your hand, you're way ahead of me. Sadly, this is the film that signified the end of Taylor being taken seriously as a film actress, even after winning two Oscars. For Burton, it was equally disastrous and the critics called it a BOMB. Judge for yourself if you dare.

This is a film about the super-idle superrich and the people who participate in their deathwatch. The film is minimalist in nature having only a cast and a set that supports the deathwatch theme. It is probably a difficult movie to watch because it has absolutely nothing to say about life and living. William's script creates a Dante-ish abstraction of a death journey with incredibly tight and sharp dialogue that is matched by the director's use of space and time. The only problem I have with the production is the totally inept lighting direction. Here we have a Mediterranean sunwashed villa as the set of the final human drama with very little sense of light and heat. The whole cast, what there is of it, are essentially giving solo performances. Even when they are in each other's arms they seem to be issuing soliloquies. This produces a very interesting effect of "who's on first". Everyone has such a good part with such good lines its hard to tell who to focus on. The real treat was the Taylor-Coward jousting at the dinner table. I've never seen Noel Coward before and this part seemed to be written for him. Taylor hated her part in this film but it appeared the director was allowing the cast to develop their parts themselves judging from the reading flubs that were left in the final cut. I'm not going to say anything about the story. It should be seen by those who are looking for a Tennessee Williams interpretation of death at the top. Suffice it to say, in response to the waves crashing on the rocks below: "boom...the shock of each moment of still being alive". I rate this a 5 out of 5. I would have rated it a 4 out of 5 if there was no close-up of Taylor's eyes.

"Boom!" is a film that requires a lot of patience, and if you wait it out and can accept the meandering direction, it will give you an idea of where Tennesee Williams head was at during this time! Williams was quoted to have been pleased with this adaptation of his "The Milkman Doesn't Stop here Anymore" play. Does this film work?...Well yes and no! Meandering direction tries your patience but you do get a glimpse into the mind of a self-obsessed woman by Ms. Taylor who's seen it all and done it all and isn't used to hearing the word "NO". A tighter script would of helped. It's KINDA campy but I tend to think the term "Camp" is overused a lot by too many people. I think John Waters described this film best by declaring it "failed art". I feel the acting is ok by the actors involved. You have to pump up the volume in a film like this to draw you in! Remember Ms Taylor's character is supposed to be essentially unlikeable and shrill and there is no such thing as a happy ending in such a picture. A odd and strangely compelling film if you have the patience!

I have an awful pan-and-scan videotape of "Boom!", and I want to see it in all its widescreen glory. So I voted "1" and hope you will too. Together, we can pull this movie down into the pits of cinematic dross, and hope that someone will see an opportunity for BIG MONEY in releasing "Boom!" in its Director's Cut Extended Version. The movie is one of my howling favorites…you just look at the people involved, the director, the actors, the cameraman, and you say to yourself, "Yep, I guess you can fool some of the people for a lot of time." Producers considering the DVD release of "Boom!" should note that, everywhere it's been shown, there have been sellout crowds in the theaters. But it hasn't been up to Frostbite Falls yet.

When this film opened in 1968, most patrons at the cinema either walked out or stayed and scratched their heads. I came back to see it several times. Everything about it is delightfully overdone. Elizabeth Taylor, while too shrill, is wonderful to watch. I am not sure she understood the role she was playing, but she attacked the film with a lot of gusto. This signalled the end of the big Taylor-Burton films of the 1960s, and would be the death knell of Elizabeth Taylor as number one at the Box Office. In the 1970s, I managed to see this film several times on television, and I remember finding additional delights on re-viewing. I recommed this to all Elizabeth Taylor fans.

This astonishing waste of production money is filmic proof that the rich and famous can be just as stupid and wasteful as politicians. From a (silly) play by Tennessee Williams and directed (with a dead hand) by Joseph Losey and starring Taylor and Burton and Noel Coward - this project filmed in a spectacular cliff-top mountain island mansion in the Mediterranean must have seemed a sure fire winner when presented to Universal in 1967. The result is so absurd and tedious that it almost defies belief. Visually the film is spectacular but that is the force of nature that has allowed the setting and the fact that a real home is used instead of a set. The shrill antics of a screeching Taylor, Burton's half asleep wanderings, the loony dialog, Noel Coward laughing at himself, the ridiculous story and plot devices and the absurd costuming simply irritate the viewer. BOOM is a disgrace, a waste of money and talent and clear proof that lauded famous people can be idiots just like the rest of the planet's plebs. Not even fun. Just terrible and mad shocking waste.

This lively, bellowing camp-drama from screenwriter Tennessee Williams (via his unsuccessful play "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore") makes for a frequently funny--and just as frequently odd--showpiece for its stars, Elizabeth Taylor (although too young for her role) and Richard Burton (too old for his). Is the rich, much-married--and now currently ailing--"Sissy" Goforth about to go forth into the night--and what of the uninvited stranger who has climbed the mountain of her island fortress in the Mediterranean...could he be the Angel of Death? (He has a knack for calling on sick ladies just before they expire). The high-powered headliners don't get to chew up all the scenery; there are smaller-sized tours-de-force for both Noël Coward and Joanna Shimkus in supporting roles. Director Joseph Losey freely allows his picture to go over the top, aided and abetted by Taylor's bitchy lashing out, but he brings in the dark clouds for a somber closer--a finale that takes some adjusting to (which may be why admirers of the film return multiple times). Williams was reportedly fond of the picture, and cult director John Waters has said "Boom" is his favorite movie. It certainly looks good in widescreen as photographed by Douglas Slocombe (credited as the "lighting cameraman"), while composer John Barry contributes an unusual percussive score. Personal taste will have to determine if this battle-of-wills between the dying woman in white and the enigmatic man dressed in a samurai's robe is worth all the trouble; however, for better or worse, "Boom" is never less than entertaining. **1/2 from ****

I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Boom"!It is so over the top that every time I see it I literally howl with amazement. Elizabeth Taylor's costumes are eye-popping. Granted, Burton is too old to really be taken seriously, but then the whole film is such a whoop! that you can't take it seriously anyway. I would highly suggest seeing this film if you are a lover of overdone melodrama and just plain ridiculous fun. BOOM! The whole scene where Taylor serves a hideous fish to Noel Coward is incredible. I also thought that the set was incredible to look at. It's stark yet lavish at the same time. Why don't I know anyone like these characters? BOOM!I say.

source: Boom!