Classic Rock Documentaries!

Classic Rock Documentaries!

By Kristin Battestella

Are you displeased with modern tunes? Then let's relive the sounds of decades yore with these classic groups and music heavyweights! 
 

Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours – This 1997 hour from the Eagle Rock and VH1 series focuses on the behind the scenes turmoil, relationships, and technicalities invigorating Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and John and Christine McVie in making the famed 1977 Rumours album – the second from the group’s revitalized incarnation. The genesis and creation of hits such as “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Don’t Stop,” and more are dissected from the initial writing to changes in the recording sessions and album finalization. While the before and after samplings of the tunes and the conversations on the ups and downs are interesting, the tone sometimes wavers between being overly tender or laid on heavy in some spots. Perhaps the band members aren’t exactly orators in discussing their musical thought processes either, and their accents may confuse some viewers, too. However, classic rock fans will enjoy the nostalgic behind the scenes, and music students interested in the mechanical aspects or songwriters relating to the emotional translations involved can definitely learn plenty here. This is a fun, informative, introduction to the saga that is Fleetwood Mac, and perhaps most importantly, it gives you an itch for a complete Rumours listen.

Fleetwood Mac: The Dance – After a hiatus, Christine McVie returned to the lineup for this 1997 concert video chock full with “The Chain,” “Dreams,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon,” “Don’t Stop,” “Go Your Own Way,” and many more. It’s nice to hear lesser-performed compositions – those that depend on McVie’s appearance such as “Everywhere,” “You Make Lovin’ Fun,” and “Over My Head” as well as then-newer tunes like “Temporary One” and “Bleed to Love Her.” Stevie Nicks sounds slightly different of course, but McVie sounds the same, everyone looks good, and its great to hear the entire incarnation together with a fun moment for John McVie on “Say You Love Me.” The subtitles are also helpful with the sometimes cryptic, poet lyrics, and Nicks, McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham give some information on several songs. Though well edited, entertaining, and swiftly filmed, this concert isn’t a big spectacle production like more recent shows. Technical music audiences may even find this under produced despite the subdued nineties norm and intimate, small session feeling – which is as it should be with essentials like “Landslide” and the intense “Silver Springs.” However, Buckingham provides the rock outs and guitar genius with “I’m So Afraid,” “Big Love,” “Go Insane,” and “My Little Demon,” and Mick Fleetwood makes his usual crazy extreme drumming faces, too. Granted, this 90-minute performance has some confused vision – is this a comeback tour of past hits or a new release of special material with some classics for good measure? The companion CD has a different track listing and I could do without the USC Marching Band finale, but “Songbird” is a lovely coda for the piece. Fans of the band can certainly delight, and younger audiences newly discovering Fleetwood Mac can take the next step with this complete lineup and unique performance.

Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender – This full-length 2012 retrospective focuses on the lead singer of Queen and his more unusual successes, missteps, and solo projects apart from rock groupdom including early ballet concerts, musical performances, and operatic tours in his final years. From the decadence of the seventies club scene, career heights, and questionable associates to frank discussion on criticism of Mercury, his generally closeted media approach, and reaction to his untimely AIDS related death; new interviews from friends, fellow musicians, and industry alums help paint an intriguing picture. Rare archive footage, music videos, and interview segments both shed light on Mercury’s shyness regarding his private life and contribute to the alluring dichotomy of his flamboyant stage persona. It’s interesting to hear his own thoughts on living it up in comparison to his admitted difficulty in trusting people or talking with others, “The more I open up, the more I get hurt.” How could Freddie Mercury think he was boring and be terrified of being alone? The accents may be tough to understand for some, but live renditions of songs such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Somebody to Love,” and “Barcelona” are simply delightful along with unreleased demos; home recordings; samples featuring Michael Jackson, Luciano Pavarotti, and Montserrat Caballe; and more lesser seen or heard solo compositions from Mercury’s Mr. Bad Guy album. Longtime rock fans or budding Queen enthusiasts seeking an astute peek at Mercury’s musical legacy will love this.

In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story – Take a lesson 21^st century whippersnappers! I’ve finally been able to see this complete hour and a half 1999 special focusing on the man to whom even The Bee Gees, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen bow. It’s simply glorious to see vintage footage and interviews and hear the late too soon Orbison speak of early Sun Records anecdotes, his childhood musical inspirations, devastating family tragedies, and his final resurgent success. And let’s not forget all those awesome, quintessential tunes such as “Pretty Woman,” “Only the Lonely”, “Running Scared,” my favorite “Crying,” and more concert scenery amid conversations with contemporaries like Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Chet Atkins, Tom Petty, and next generation stars like Elvis Costello and Chris Isaak. If one wants to learn how music should sound, one must digest as much Orbison as possible. It’s that simple, and this set is a great place to begin. I could go on and on and on – some of the first CDs I ever had were Orbison albums – but I’ll stop now. I mean, Barry Gibb calls Orbison “The Voice of God.” Yeah, that about says it.

Mid-Century SF Adventures!

Mid-Century Science Fiction Adventures!

By Kristin Battestella

The budding sciences of the sixties and beyond may seem bemusingly simple to us in the seemingly so sophisticated twenty-first century. However, these mid-century science fiction delights remain classic adventures of space, science, and technology for the whole family.

Fantastic Voyage – Stephen Boyd (Ben-Hur), Raquel Welsh (One Million B.C.), and Donald Pleasence (Halloween) take this 1966 microscopic, heart-stopping adventure full of wondrous snap, crackle, pop mid-century science – what could possibly go wrong? The technical talk, quick debriefing, dated military missions, political intrigue, and seemingly aimless golf cart tours through the clean, blue and white streamlined designs are perhaps slow to get going today. Some waxing philosophical or poetic soul and creator versus science talk amid the medical jargon feels like old hat exposition, too. The procedural scenes also seem more like an awe-inspiring museum demonstration, and a crowded inside and too many anonymous, unnecessary people outside at control creates confusion. Fortunately, all this build up smartly puts an unbelievable situation in the realm of the then possible. Although the whole mission seems totally impractical and perhaps causes more damage than the operation at hand, the wild journey along the way forgives the rushed ending or any plausibility issues. The models, miniatures, and visual effects look dandy and remain decidedly charming, and nostalgic body system graphics, paper overlays, and Morse Code add simplicity to the high tech while a real time ticking clock ups the claustrophobic tensions and medical perils. Colorful plasma, bubbles, tubes,and pink pustules bring the titular spectacles to life along with a variety of sounds, laser lights, attacking antibodies, psychedelic mosses and even gross scales. It's an interesting mix of submarine, under the sea currents and exiting outside the airlock space. So what if it's all totally unrealistic – the young at heart and science minded kids can still enjoy the wonderment here.

Marooned – Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird), David Janssen (The Fugitive), James Franciscus (Beneath The Planet of the Apes), Gene Hackman (The French Connection), Richard Crenna (The Real McCoys), and more stars anchor this 1969 NASA nail biter. Real footage from the Apollo heights and of the time mission control look great without the need for abundant CGI and special effects as we know them today. There aren't that many sets either, allowing for tense action at home and claustrophobic capsule hysteria as one thing after another spells disaster – retro rockets malfunctioning, low fuel in orbit, hurricanes over the Cape, daring rescues in experimental craft, and precious, precious oxygen running out. Though slow to start and at times tedious with minuscule, technical details and procedures; a desperate ticking clock, presidential pressure, wives on the ground, and Russian friends or foes add to the peril. Yes, there is an American mid-century gung ho, yet it's somewhat surprising that such a heavy, all things go wrong picture would be made amid all our spaceflight glory. It's also interesting to see how this film has become both inaccurate and prophetic. They were unprepared for this calamity and thought such accidents would doom the space program, but we haven't progressed much further in the decades since – let alone gotten to Mars, which they talk of as an imminent event. Though the finale feels rushed compared to the slow, by the book, space happenings shown along the way, all the intensity of a modern disaster flick is here along with a then impressive realism. No camera tricks, edgy film making, or punched up orchestration is needed to tell the viewer how desperate the situation is, and with these good looks, classy cast, and yell at the TV entertainment, this one shouldn't be as seemingly obscure as it is.

Westworld – Androids run amok in this 1973 sci-fi western written and directed by Michael Jurassic Park Crichton. Granted, the slow explorations of then-futuristic empty white sets and technobabble gibberish feel like filler; once cool computer monitors and pixelated robot viewpoints need updating. The debut direction is also somewhat simplistic, with of the time slow motion violence and aimless running to and fro amid the shootouts, feasting, brothels, and bar fights. Modern viewers will expect a catastrophic resort meltdown to be, you know, catastrophic instead of a straightforward, one on one tame, and despite a great premise, it's tough to overlook the safety ignorance, preposterous logistics, and an abrupt finale. Guns, swords, mechanical malfunctions – the sex robot models are supposed to be totally detailed yet nobody can perfect the android hands? Fortunately, while there's little character development, we know enough to like cool best friend James Brolin (Hotel), fear the gloriously unyielding Terminator before Terminator was Terminator Yul Brynner (The King and I), and feel for divorced if insipid lawyer in need of a vacation Richard Benjamin (Catch-22). The social possibilities are here, too, from an ultimate vacation where man can have his decadent and violent desires to seemingly in control behind the scenes technicians who eat while they watch the depravity unfold. Suspicious nighttime activity resets the excess while guests sleep unaware, but man made machines or machines making androids in the mirror of men will surely misbehave. Sentience among the robots is also suggested – are they fed up with human seductions and taking matters into their own hands for one destructive hurrah before their batteries fail? Medieval games and Roman hedonism aren't fully shown, but for a $1 million odd budget, the colorful designs aren't bad. The Old West facades provide nostalgia to match the amusing saloon times, creating humor and comfort with over the top tropes. Although the theme is under cooked, this still fairly unique genre twister was ahead of its time and remains delightful for young and old seeking western lite or SF perils.

Recent Horror Pros and Cons

Recent Horror Pros and Cons

by Kristin Battestella

Sometimes new and unique independent horror rises up and surprises you with its impressiveness, and other times the scary intrigue leaves you wondering what could have been. Here's a recent horror quartet with some varying degrees of success – from thought provoking interest and clichés made fine to rehashing redundancy and mishmashed missed opportunity. 

 

The Babadook – Up close screams, distorted past accidents, bad dreams, and checking under the bed make sleep uneasy for mother and child in this 2014 Australian thinking person's horror. Kid gadgets, magic tricks, a locked basement filled with memento mori, and the wonderfully freaky eponymous but anonymous book have us believing in gruesome children's stories once again as the pop up contents become a bit too interactive. Forget school and social pressure, a boy has to defend himself and his mom against those monsters! The youthful fears, wise for his age, and natural innocence are immediately endearing, as is the much lauded Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) as our kind, relatable, working widow. Her life has been difficult, lonely, and getting worse– a scared kid climbing into bed all the time ruins the 'me' time, doesn't it? Paging Doctor Freud! Close cut, intimate editing builds suspense, keeping the pent up, internal focus as the child's play turns dangerous. Instead of desensitizing thrills, we feel the real life fears as the seemingly supernatural blends with seven years of escalating grief. Family abnormalities, paranormal possibilities that psychiatry can't handle, monsters that manifest on such daily traumas – is our pair too attached to each other in this battle or fighting alone? Where is the line between evil possessions and their own warped reality? Dark corners and a depressing, monochromatic home allow for unseen horrors to brew and fester over the 94 minutes alongside a progressively unkempt style, insomnia haze, here or not there bugs, overnight gaps in time, and floating under the covers apparitions. A lack of sisterly help, snickering police, and truant officers accent the late night television parallels, further blurring the lines between monsters and actuality. In the absence of empty shock moments, immediate adrenaline, and jump scare spectacles, the scary sounds and shadows simmer. Some viewers may predict the dog worries and a bit of the tables turning, but the intense times and maternal power use horror to say what can't be said and create discussion as good scares should. Female-centric horror not done for the titillation, who knew?

Would You Rather – When Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) says he can make your sick brother better if you win a dinner party game, run people, run! The intercut interview slash opening credits of this 2012 dare-fest inexplicably lengthen exposition that was cleverly shortened, making for a redundant, overly ominous start – we know they are in a horror movie more scary than Clue even if they don't. Unnecessary flashback snips and more jarring editing stilts a first half hour that keeps explaining the game before finally providing some electrocutions, gunplay, whips, and ice picks. Forcing a vegetarian to eat meats or a recovered alcoholic to drink scotch is only the beginning of the discomforting desperation and morals versus money at stake, and Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect) is believably mature as a twenty something fallen onto tough family times. John Heard (Home Alone) and June Squibb (Nebraska) add fine elder pleas, and unlike other recent torture porn trends, upscale interiors and sophisticated dread accent the titular question. This isn't dumbed down to a teen party boobs and gore fest, yet cliché character expositions linger alongside some stupid actions, a few loose ends, and one trite prick. Our game players must ally and do no harm or comply and compete. None apologize for playing, however, and that depravity hampers some of the entertainment value. After all, people really get off on this kind of pain – look at that dumb and dangerous Kylie Jenner lips dare – and longtime horror viewers will find the unexplained, gruesome generosity predictable. Thankfully, the built in ticking clock and process of elimination keep the smartly congested parlor panache moving, and the crafty cynicism carries through to the end.

Polite Split Decisions

As Above So Below – The disorienting, chaotic start to this 2014 found footage tale compromises the danger of all its tunnels, statues, catacombs, and artifacts because we can't see much less appreciate them thanks to the sideways camera or off and on flashlights. Young and reckless Perdita Weeks (Lost in Austen) rattles off her credentials and always assures the documentary is paramount while risking harm to others. She heeds no warnings, argues with the more experienced, and audaciously accuses others while she destroys priceless discoveries for her own transformative gain. Instead of Dante food for thought, the wrongfully determined, spelunking hipster plot comes off ala National Treasure – complete with a first clue action start, a break in to inspect the back of a marker, begrudging allies who only want gold, going underground via a tomb, and following historical riddles through one hidden chamber after another. Our cameraman is also a wise cracking, injury prone, token black guy whom we hardly see. His future bodes so well! And hey, there's no cell phone service underground, obviously. Parisians inexplicably speaking English instead French, obligatory claustrophobia, Indiana Jones rats and knights, and random cult worshipers add to the borrowed contrivances, and it's tough to make the cliches and busy footage both work due to the increasing demands on our suspension of disbelief. The finest parts here are when the camera remains still with one person in panic. Creepy old phones and broken pianos below add to the dread and maze like inability to escape, creating enough forlorn without the gimmicks. Real cave interiors add to the Egyptian booby traps, however the jump scares, supernatural hell horrors, and a much too much rushed finale abandon the established rules. Was all the metaphysical worth it? Are we supposed to be glad that one got the rectification she desired at the expense of others? This is entertaining for viewers who fall for the frights in the Halloween fun house, but despite attempts at literary and historical allusions, longtime horror audiences and wise cinema fans will see everything coming.

Deliver Us from Evil – Hectic explosions, desert warfare, and soldiers discovering an ancient tomb get this 2014 supernatural thriller off to a rocky start before more random restarts further delay the actual horror. Important snippets given early are better reiterated later, making this opening a redundant fifteen minutes that could have been cut. A creepy nighttime power outage at the zoo and a spooky house where candles won't burn reset the chilling mood, but ridiculously weapon happy, trumped up macho, backwards hat wearing cops who look more like ball players chomping on chewing tobacco make us feel like we're in the wrong movie again. The cinematic realism is also styled like a cop show, which would be fine except the nighttime seedy and flashlight lighting is too damn dark to see anything. An annoying score also ruins the viewer immersion, as does convenient, all seeing HD surveillance footage and easy smartphone cameras with on hand evidence – not to mention there is never any back up or proper police procedure. Though not miscast per se, what kind of Australian doing Bronx Italian accent is Erica Bana (Troy) trying? Please don't. And Joel McHale? Of The Soup? As a bad ass cop in a horror movie?! Fortunately, The Doors' music signifying gateways to hell is much more fun, and Sean Harris (The Borgias) is always a delightfully gruesome creeper. Too many genres are combined and condensed here, making the balance and pacing uneven, and the potential for digging deeper motivation in the intriguing one on one dialogue and good versus evil debate remains superficial as a result. Tighter editing would have stopped the meandering, but this might have been better as a longer serial where time could be taken for the Iraq fallout, our guilt ridden ex-faithful cop with terrorized family tropes, and the buddy sergeant meets noble padre religious investigations. Is this all just too many clichés tossed at the screen? There's a great exorcism before a somewhat limp finale, but cops and a priest battling possessed veterans with devilish clues from Jim Morrison? If you don't expect much from the mixed vision, this may actually be crazy enough to see through to the end. 

 

The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

The Deep Blue Sea is a Fragmented but Fitting Drama

by Kristin Battestella

Fractured people are trying to fix themselves and more in this 2011 British adaptation of the 1952 post-war play by Terrence Rattigan. While some of the symbolic, broken framework and mid century pace will deter viewers, the intersecting character studies here provide plenty of modern intrigue and social examinations to discuss.

Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) has left her older husband Sir William (Simon Russell Beale) and has been living with former Royal Air Force pilot Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston). The aristocratic Hester, however, has found living with the devil may care Freddie is not as she expected. While her husband vows there will be no divorce and wants to keep this scandal quiet, Hester contemplates suicide thanks to her emotional upheaval and the turbulent consequences of the post-war times...

This is London, 1950, and director Terence Davies (The House of Mirth) opens the 98 minute melodrama with a bleak suicidal monologue. The old fashioned dialogue will be difficult for some, and silent establishing montages with snippets of sunny memories or outdoor happiness may be confusing as well. The first half hour does eventually catch up in real time before more redundant stalling recaps what we already saw, and the entire drive by start seems unnecessary, a dry delay in the telling of the tale on top of stuffiness and suicide as a crime that today's audiences will already find tough and unfamiliar. The whirlwind recollections highlight the blissful, but they are intercut with a slow, lingering, dreary reality, and the result is uneven rather than a balanced pre-war etiquette versus breaking free conflict. I understand the intentionally broken narrative structure symbolizing the fractured minds and hearts of its players, but for modern speedy viewers, The Deep Blue Sea will be a little too arty in the summary of its affair. Ironically, The Deep Blue Sea is rushed in its disjointed timeline, too – this liaison has been happening for months yet the skipping around viewpoint creates willy nilly emotions. It's tough to appreciate the anger and regret from moment to moment, and we might have understood the passion and pain more had we seen the bad marriage, felt the swept up romance, and then saw the cracks of the arrangement in linear fashion. Fortunately, once you get through the fifties styled constructs, the script is delightful. Actual, uninterrupted conversations blossom into character development, and hearing the players express themselves truly tells the audience what a tumultuous time this has been. The Deep Blue Sea is a day in the life of an affair, but getting to know the characters replaces the fallout because we can't see the behind closed doors action. Affairs, alcohol, clinging to the old aristocracy – how does one rebuild themselves and a nation when talking about shell shock and sex is stiff upper lip taboo? The rigid, unyielding pre-war society that sustained these people during The Blitz is now festering an inability to cope with the war's unknown aftermath. 

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) beautifully captures this post-war era and looks the classic and reserved part needed for The Deep Blue Sea. Women weren't supposed to be so shocking back then – though we know they totally were – and Weisz delivers sophistication alongside being scandalous and seemingly carefree in a slip or robe. We may not see much saucy beyond lightweight lingerie and sideview nudity, but Hester is enticed by Freddie's reckless abandon and clings to him, desperate to consume him and get her kit off. When her minister father tells her to go back to her husband, it isn't what Hester wants to hear – she is done with dull safety and intends to speak her mind. No, she shouldn't be angry or ashamed for having gotten what she wanted – a man to make her feel better – but she can't have it both ways and therein lies the titular dilemma. Hester is too accustomed to aristocratic style, and this dalliance can't be sustained once physical or emotional needs turn the passionate into an arrangement that is just as stuffy, non-talkative, stilted, and awkward as her marriage was. Looking through our modern lense, this back and forth, uneven behavior can make Hester seem bitchy and high horse. It's tough see what either man likes about her when she is too busy blaming Freddie for her problems. Does she love him or just need him to love her? There is a difference, and Hester is too confused within herself to accept Freddie for who he is.

She expects him to remain simple and fill her needs, be a big man and fix her mess, or conveniently come up to her high society perfection. Hester never considers that these things won't happen, much less the notion of giving a little his way. Her extraneous pressure makes their good loving damn depressing. Did she think this relationship would be no less turbulent when turbulence and passion go hand in hand? By comparison, was her marriage really so bad then without such love and lust expectations from Sir William? Hester is put to the test as an honor and hold, sickness and in health missus, but she only compliments Freddie, asks if he wants breakfast, and shines his shoes when their torrid is at its end. She has the conversation about where they aren't going when it is too late – just like her husband did with her. Hester is both strong and progressive in a time when women weren't supposed to be so gung ho, yet she never learned how to be herself and thought another man would make it better. Can she make it on her own? This is a superb performance from Weisz, and it's wonderful to see an unhappy woman's perspective and mid life awakening – reflections so often dismissed in favor of some blossoming young love phooey. As I asked after seeing Weisz in Agora, why aren't there more roles like this? Where are the movies that make room for female performance and character movement rather than superficial babe spectacles?

Hello. Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers, Crimson Peak) has the first line in The Deep Blue Sea, and it is a keeper! He looks great in a period suit with a fedora and slick fifties short hair, too, when most of today's actors simply can't carry off this past debonair much less relate the mix of excitement over war glory and its lingering pain. Freddie hides his shell shock with drinking and a lot of fun – mocking the toughness, joking with sound effects, and telling tall tales with jolly good chap RP punctuations. We understand why Hester would be swept up in this adventure and take such a wonderful risk, but what are Freddie's needs in this relationship? He goes golfing and expects their playing house to go smoothly – forgetting that running away with a married woman won't be so dandy. Freddie needs Hester to take care of him – he notices when she doesn't look at him when he enters the room but seems oblivious to how upset she is and wonders what he's done wrong. Freddie ignores her request not to read her suicide letter to him, for it is addressed to him and therefore his to do with as he pleases. He wears his emotions on his sleeve but that doesn't disguise the fact that he is also stilted within himself and childlike stunted by the war more than he cares to admit. He's no doubt passionate, but Hester expects him to shut off his pain. She wants him to man up, drink, and not reveal the barbarism of war, but Freddie is correct when he says he is not a villain for wanting to express himself in more than just the accepted alcoholism of the time or when it is convenient for her.

While the audience probably expects weighted roles from Weisz and Beale, Hiddleston more than holds his own with the elder dramatists thanks to an honest and tearful but no less simmering and manly performance. With less screen time and little room to maneuver in the period constructs, his kettle about to boil over character adds a much needed counter point zing to The Deep Blue Sea. Freddie is just as damaged – and perhaps more traumatized – than Hester is yet he makes no demands on her when she berates, bullies, and calls him childish. It isn't okay for her to insult him as uncultured and groan when she doesn't want to hear about his bravery. He's right in calling her extreme for contemplating suicide over his forgetting her birthday. After Freddie has already seen a war far worse, he is still trying to live it up and smile scars and all. Why can't he share that turmoil with her? Hester wants to get her O on all well and good, but remember, men of this time weren't supposed to talk about shell shock or share their fears and war trauma just as women weren't supposed to be so sexually taboo. Freddie is capable of the softness she wants, but he needs her nurture in return. Whether he's uncouth or not shouldn't matter if you love him, but Hester ignores his tender need to sing, dance, and ground himself with their romance. She needs one fix, he needs another, and neither knows how to give an inch to the other. This affair could save Freddie, but whether he is drunk and still a good pilot or not, he returns to daredevil flying because he realizes their lust may be just as destructive. It pains them both, but he loves Hester enough to let her go into an unknown but better fate than their would be lethal passion.

Well, it's twin beds for Hester and Simon Russell Beale (Falstaff to Hiddleston's Hal in The Hollow Crown) as her older, mummy's boy husband Sir William. Immediately the audience wonders why they are even married, but this stuffy, tea time, and tennis watching very British and totally mid century way was the utmost of society before the war. William wants everything to go back to the way it was, where topics of conversation never go beyond the lovely garden or milk in first – everything remains sanctimonious and insufferable, so naturally, no one really says much of anything. Had he noticed her juicy phone calls and unhappiness sooner and loosened up some, maybe this saucy might not have happened. We don't spend enough time in the bad marriage to see how things turned ill, but we can't accept his stagnant views any more than William could reconsider his rigidness. No divorce, no admittance to scandal, just the expected, stalwart notion that this carefree will pass. The disjointed timeline hampers Beale's characterization somewhat – ten minutes after he vows no divorce, ten months have passed and he's mellowed considerably. However, while William knows this type of fling can't last, he too is going about keeping his wife the wrong way, the only way he knows how. We can't expect him to change overnight even if he himself knows there must be a new path. William also isn't the villain by any means, but his very station makes him unable to simply talk to Hester and admit there is a wrong much less resolve it. This is a lovely, classy, reserved performance from Beale in what is not an easy role to play. Likewise, landlady Ann Mitchell (EastEnders) neither condones nor condemns Hester and Freddie's supposed living in sin, balancing a brief but fine line in looking the other way and letting what's private be private. As part of an elderly couple that has grown strong and overcome ills with dignity, she understands how past pain and loss will make each person love more, not less. That is a true match, not passion that fills the vacuum created by war's chaos. Through its small ensemble, The Deep Blue Sea parallels how society was before the war, dares to accept things are different, and asks, 'Now what?'

Fittingly, the palette for The Deep Blue See is subdued and dark. Though not colorless thanks to traditionally scandalous red lips and nails or patterns of the period, there is a post-war sense of dreary, an ongoing recovery from a time when flamboyance and excess were rare and rationed. Clutter, books, pearls, and nostalgic styles, however, create warmth and patina along with old lamps, sunlight, and fireplaces. Smoking mannerisms, hazy air, long drags, and deep exhales also indicate fractured nerves while looking out windows and filming through glass makes for a trapped perspective. The weeping violin score matches the melancholy, but the music disappears or reappears in old fashioned, intrusive swelling like a tragic opera over what cannot be said. The group pub singing of some great classic tunes has much more impact – remember, there were few records to go around and they had to sing what they wanted to hear. Walking to the phone booth to make a call, needing the exact change, and more such sentimental flavor, however, feels hampered by budget restrictions or the original play foundations. Thankfully, The Blitz sequence is perfection, a parallel that does everything it has to do using very little, and these minimal sets and locations do keep The Deep Blue Sea intimate, even quaint. Maybe the torrid doesn't go far enough for today's audience considering the sexual impetus of the tale, but there is something to be said for this fifties styled chaste compared to the new millennium tawdry. The blu-ray edition's commentary, cast interviews, and director master class shed more light on the history for this melodrama– as do the subtitles for anyone who may not fully understand the colloquialisms of the era.

Yes, The Deep Blue Sea would have had a larger audience had its structure not paralleled the constraints of the time and simply told its naughty straight in real time with no back and forth disruptions. The deliberately compromising design will be too arty and overly noticeable for some, stifling spoon fed viewers out of the fine performances with this uneasy narrative on top of at times unlikable character behaviors. Despite condensing its heavy into a short time, this is uncomfortable to watch and not for casual viewing indulgences – mislabeling The Deep Blue Sea as a romance probably hurt viewer expectations as well. The reflection of the era and its mirrored upheavals, however, make The Deep Blue Sea an interesting starting point for viewers not in the post-war know. Classic film audiences will not be bothered by the mid century framing design and subdued tone of The Deep Blue Sea while upper education sociology and psychological classrooms can discuss the lingering historical effects anew. Were the post-war passions and turbulent realizations worth the pain and love lost? Just because the subject matter is strained by design doesn't make the dilemma any less difficult or uninteresting. Thinking film lovers, fans of the cast, and those interested in complex character studies should give The Deep Blue Sea a thorough examination.