The Day of the Locust

Every now and then a true gem pops out of the past... that is, if you are a keen cinema-goer (or movie-viewer...as, nowadays, only kids go to the movies). The day of The Locust is what John Schlesinger had up his sleeve after the huge success of 'Midnight Cowboy'. It was his 'pot shot' at Hollywood. It was his Guy Fawkes beneath Parliament. It was his warning that the Twin Towers story COULD just be a sordid masquerade...although, of course, he didn't know it yet. They say that Hawthorne's book is far more engrossing. Sure... books take up ten times more time to unravel. His characters are mean-spirited, calculating, 'cold fish'...and what they get is what they deserve. But I feel Schlesinger and his script-writers made a worthwhile effort to imbue even these squirming serpents and cold-blooded insects with a breath of pathos, and humanity. And rightly so... the story GAINS points. 'Locust' sometimes feels more like Bergman, Fassbinder or (even) Fellini than like an American film. It reminds us of Grosz. Of German decadence between world wars. We are, often sub-consciously, led down grim corridors of analogy.... Nazi hysteria... Hollywood Boulevard madness. We are voyeurs... we watch a giant Dream Machine which spawns future mutants... frustrated maniacs. And literally DEVOURS its pathetic 'extras' and hopefuls. That is why the overtones of the film seem ,somehow, biblical. David Lynch's source-material is suddenly openly revealed. THIS MOVIE! We have Twin Peaks themes and characters... Mulholand Drive, even more so... Blue Velvet...and so on... But hey! Let's be fair.... anyone who has ever REALLY known Hollywood can only nod and say..."Yes...It's all true.... And if I'm still here, in the industry,.... I'm either a hypocrite, a victim, or a pervert of sorts." ALL the characters are crazed atoms of the American Dream Factory. And Schlesinger opts for a finale worthy of another British, but surprisingly hot-bloodedly so, director... Ken Russell. Madness on the rampage. But is he only a fine line away from exaggeration? Is he not symbolically 'spot on'? That's for you to decide. Meanwhile, the film has done the job it came to do. Maybe even better than 'Chinatown'. And, believe me, the HEY DAY of Hollywood may seem far away and long ago... but the manic drive and sexual black-mail we observe in this reptilian display is all too contemporary to our time. Bon Apetit! (If your digestive system is up to it).

Based on Nathanael West's equally Hollywood-Gothic novel, "The Day of the Locust" revolves around the lives of several Los Angelenos: Tod, a Yale art graduate working on a painting; Faye, an aspiring and out-of-touch actress, and her ostentatious father; and Homer, a sexually-repressed outcast. The film charts each of the characters' aspirations that come crashing into one of the most apocalyptic and ghastly endings in film history. I had read West's novel years ago before finally seeing this film, and it's evident that director John Schlesinger took heavy cues from the source material. This adaptation stays true to the novel, only making minor alterations where it has to cut its losses. It's dark, wacky, grotesque, and at times flat-out disturbing, and there is a strange dreaminess to the film that recalls the novel's borderline-absurdist approach to the material. There is a phenomenal attention to detail here and sophisticated cinematography, capturing the hazy underworld of Hollywood that houses its rejects and wannabes. The film's greatest asset is, inarguably, its stellar cast. William Atherton plays the leery painter with conviction, while Donald Sutherland captures the eccentricity and quirks of Homer. In the novel, West draws all the characters to the tipping point of caricatures, and Karen Black perhaps best embodies this as Faye, the starry-eyed and artless aspiring actress- Black evokes the childlike sensibility of the character with a purposeful sexuality that is what makes her character in particular so disturbed. Burgess Meredith (also Black's co-star in "Burnt Offerings") is appropriately hammy as her gimmicky showman of a father. Geraldine Page makes a brief but grandiose appearance. The oft-discussed ending is worthy of the talk it is the subject of; it is one of the most well-shot and harrowing conclusions in film history, edging on the apocalyptic and the orgiastic, much like the source material. While typically discussed as a drama, I consider "The Day of the Locust" to be a horror film just as I consider the novel to be a horror novel- unconventional, albeit, but the film captures something wildly grotesque that challenges its audience, and some may find it a work difficult to locate merit in. There is a terrifying nucleus to this story that trumps its less-horrific finishings. All in all, "The Day of the Locust" is a classic and important film; like its source novel, it serves us with a grim portrait of society that is not exclusive to Hollywood, but is perhaps best exemplified in the city of stolen water and stolen dreams. Barring "Mulholland Drive," which came over two decades later (and was undoubtedly influenced by Schlesinger's film), "The Day of the Locust" remains the greatest fictional representation of Hollywood ever, and perhaps the most horrifying film to lay claim to Los Angeles. 10/10.

This extremely boring, rambling film is ultimately pointless. I did not need to sit through 144 minutes of souless character studies in order to learn that Hollywood has a dark soul destroying edge to it. For the first 2 hours, I was just left wondering where the film was going. All I got to see were a bunch of loosely connected storylines involving characters I couldn't find myself getting interested in. Then all of a sudden the film becomes a giant disaster film full of bizarre surrealistic energy. None of it added up to anything very compelling. There were a few moments where you could tell that the filmmaker was earnestly trying to develop some metaphor and symbollism through the visual 'magic' of cinema, but these attempts were so obvious that it mostly just made it look like the guy was trying too hard. I think that in the spirit of the adventurous world of 70's cinema this film must have seemed very daring and compelling, but today, the film is just dull.

This was the dullest experience in my entire life. The actors do a good job with their characterizations but I couldn't summon the effort to actually care about any of them and the story moves so slowly it is hard to even stay awake by the climax it is too much to late. Even if you love these actors go see one of their better films one that couples action, humor, dialogue, or at least great visuals with decent acting.

John Schlesinger's film of Nathanael West's probably-unfilmmable book about early Hollywood has some amazing set-pieces, but as a whole it doesn't quite work. The depiction of day-to-day life in 1930s Los Angeles, the collapse of a movie-set during filming, and any scene involving desperate, pathetic ex-vaudevillian Burgess Meredith are vibrant, scary and real. However, the frenzied climax (done up as a surreal nightmare) is pretentious, and Karen Black struggles with her role as a Hollywood hopeful. William Atherton as a burgeoning art director and Donald Sutherland as a shy milquetoast are not able to contribute much, and the pacing is so slow it's difficult to stay involved with what's happening. At first I thought the picture looked exactly right, but as the movie wore on, I began to get impatient with the too-careful design of the thing (and Conrad Hall's washed-out cinematography seems glassy, though the esteemed Hall did receive an Oscar nomination for his work). Many good moments in search of a masterpiece, but "The Day of the Locust" is ultimately a misfire. **1/2 from ****

You know, you here awful things about some movies like 'Heavens Gate', and then you see it yourself and see that, yeah, maybe it went off the rails, but there's is something here. There is nothing redeemable about this movie save the first twenty minutes that give you the impression that it might turn into something. Interesting shots of sprinklers in LA is the best you get. I love quirky old cinema like Faster Pussy Cat Kill Kill, Inglorious Bastards, Swithcblade Sisters. I love quirky Hollywood like Night of the Hunter, Faces, The Moderns. This film is a pile of... A waist of time... insulting to your intelligence... Offensively contrived and boring to your sense of outrage... Wait a second... This rant might make it attractive... This film was made on tooooooo much cocaine. And not in the funny let's laugh at it way... IF you must indulge... Rent on Netflicks, watch the sprinklers... skip chapters to the end... and let your imagination fill in the rest because if you watch it yourself, you will regret the time lost on your death bed.

Superb adaptation of the Nathanael West novel, gets better with every viewing. Terrific cast and director (John Schlesinger) capture the look and feel of 30s Hollywood. Karen Black, Donald Sutherland, William Atherton, Burgess Meredith, Geraldine Page, and Billy Barty are all perfect in their roles, and all were deserving of recognition. Atherton is the new boy in Hollywood; Black is an extra with big dreams; Sutherland is the dope trying to escape his life; Meredith is a washed-up vaudevillian; Page is a miracle worker; Barty may be the smartest man in Hollywood. Great period detail in cars, clothes, and the feel of southern California. Terrific backstage look at a studio and the politics therein. The Day of the Locust ranks as one of the best films about Hollywood in its cynical looks at glamour, fame, ambition, and movie making. Terrific supporting cast includes good work from Richard A. Dysart, Pepe Serna, John Hillerman, Natalie Schafer, Gloria LeRoy, Jackie Haley (as the odious child actor), Bo Hopkins, Jane Hoffman, Lelia Goldoni, and Paul Jabara. There are also nice bits by old-timers like Florence Lake, Queenie Smith, Madge Kennedy, Alvin Childress, Nita Talbot, Gloria Stroock, and Ina Gould. Among the many memorable scenes, the final sequence of the Hollywood premiere (with Dick Powell, Jr. playing his father) is just superb. Playing the excitement of the screaming crowds against the sad events across the street is just brilliant, especially when the radio announcer uses the violent noise and commotion to hawk premiere movie. Irony,sadness, futility, and lies plague all the main characters in this great story. The mob scene is the best I've ever seen. Totally unforgettable. Karen Black and Donald Sutherland turn in great performances.

I saw this film in 1986 and I was very thrilled. But it had even more impact on me when I came to L.A. for the first time two years later. It seemed as if the movie had exposed parts of the soul of this strange city to me. Many people I met there - some of them became friends - seemed to share features of the characters in "The Day of the Locust", maybe it had something to do with their unfulfilled dreams and their lack of success. One seems to understand who Hollywood an the movie industry became the way they are now. Another aspect of the picture is the incomparable feeling of horror it lays on you - even though the sun is shining most of the time and you have no idea what will actually happen in the end. I would love to see this film again ever since, but it's so hard to find. Only a single one of my friends has even heard of it. In my view one of Schlesingers masterpieces, strangely underrated and almost forgotten.

I have waited almost 30 years to see this film. For one reason or another, the stars were never properly aligned to allow me to see it prior to seeing it for the first time this evening. I had heard and read about how shocking and powerful it was. How the performances were likely some of the best during the seventies, and on and on. So today, I went out, bought the DVD (disappointed to find no additional extras on the DVD), and watched it tonight. I was expecting an exciting, gripping movie that would make me feel it was worth the wait. It wasn't. To say I was disappointed is putting it mildly. I'm still trying to rehash and pour over all of what was bad about this film. It's not a good expose on the ugly side of Hollywood. "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Bad and the Beautiful" do a much better job of that. Performances from Burgess Meridith, William Atherton, and Billy Barty are very good. Donald Sutherland is a little too freakish, and Karen Black is plainly miscast. I find nothing beautiful, sensual or sexual about her. I even found myself fast forwarding through some of her scenes. I just couldn't believe her. I believe John Schlesinger should have edited this movie down some. By the end, I was so bored and couldn't wait for the movie to end, that I didn't care about the ending. In the end, "The Day of the Locust" turns out to be an overblown, overlong, boring disappointment. 5 out of 10

The Day of The Locust is an adaptation of the highly powerful novel from Nathanael West, it focuses on the seamy underbelly of Hollywood in the 1930s. Pot boiling with pacey precision, director John Schlesinger crafts what is still to this day one of the hidden pieces of art from the 1970s. We are witness to an assortment of odd characters on the outskirts Hollywood and it's big shiny star, fringe characters driven on by less than stellar ideals. The centre of it all is Karen Black's sexy but untalented actress, Faye, she lives with her father, Harry {a fabulous Burgess Meredith}, who was once a fine stage performer but now is old and dying and forced to peddle potions on door steps. Faye realises that her limitations are getting in the way of her starry ambitions, so thus she becomes the assembly line hump on the casting couch, she believes it's a small price to pay for the price of fame. Caught up in Faye's maelstrom of shallow conniving worthlessness is William Atherton's art director, Tod, and Donald Sutherland's sympathetic dolt, Homer Simpson {Sutherland stunning and Atherton a career best}. All three of them will come crashing together as the story reaches it's cynical and terrifying conclusion. The Day Of The Locust failed at the box office, mid seventies audiences were clearly not ready for this unsavoury and stark look at the flip side of the industry we all follow with relish. Many of the characters featured in the piece are believed to be based on real life Hollywood figures, now here in this modern age the public embrace such titillation with glee, back then they clearly wasn't ready for it. Conrad Hall's cinematography was rightly nominated for an Academy Award, as was Burgess Meredith in the Best Supporting Actor category, but Sutherland, John Lloyd {Art} and Ann Roth {Costumes} were criminally ignored, but it matters not for now this film can be viewed by a wider more open thinking audience, and hopefully as the finale grips you round the throat {and it should do}, you will be forced to think about it for some time after. 9/10