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On "Seconds" thought...
Thursday, March 27, 2014
John Frankenheimer's "Seconds" appears to be quite the prescient picture for the mid-1960s, forecasting our youth-obsessed culture, the dangers of corporatization and blind trust in technology. Here's a summary of what was discussed during our group meeting about this movie:
WHAT DID YOU FIND INTERESTING, UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT ABOUT
SECONDS?
·
It’s overwhelmingly dark and pessimistic, even
for the Cold War era, with a conclusion that is especially downbeat. There is
no tacked on happy ending here.
·
The visuals are creative, memorable and
unsettling. particularly the distorted shots achieved by master cinematographer
James Wong Howe, who uses fish eye lenses, distorted and wide angles, giant
close-ups of blank, soulless faces, POV shots, tracking shots following heads
and feet, jump cuts and other techniques to achieve a disturbing visual
tapestry.
·
This is a film that attempts to expose the myths
and lies behind the pursuit of the American dream and the search for physical
perfectionism—at a time when advertising and popular culture emphasized
physical beauty, materialism and sex appeal.
THIS FILM WAS A BOX OFFICE FAILURE IN 1966. WHY DO YOU
BELIEVE AUDIENCES REJECTED IT?
·
It casts Rock Hudson against type—viewers were
used to seeing him in romantic comedies
·
The film mixes several different genres into
one: science fiction, horror, psychological thriller, noir, cautionary tale, and
fantasy. Perhaps this ambitious mixing was ahead of its time and too off-putting
to viewers in the mid-1960s.
·
The distorted, haunting imagery, bleak message
and dark tone may have been too overwhelming and depressing for contemporary
moviegoers.
·
The filmmakers chose to shoot in black and white
vs. color, at a time when black and white was decidedly less popular.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PRIMARY THEMES UNDERSCORED IN “SECONDS”?
·
Distortion—as exemplified through the skewed
visuals and warped shots.
·
Disillusionment—what we think will make us happy
and fulfilled may be a lie. Is true happiness and self-fulfillment possible? Or
do we always crave more?
·
Be careful what you wish for—if you think your
life is bad, it could always be worse.
·
Resurrection and rebirth—ironically, in this
resurrection, the body is perfected but the soul remains dead.
·
Distrust of technology—technology should be in
our control, but this film argues the opposite.
·
The fallacy of the American dream.
·
Frankenheimer had said, in interviews, about
this film: “When we talk about life, my philosophy is that you have to live
your life the way it is. You can change it, but you can’t change who you are or
what you’ve done before. And you have to live with that. I think that point was
very well brought out in Seconds—that’s what the film is all about.”
·
In a Criterion Collection essay, writer David
Sterritt wrote the following: “(Frankenhimer) told an interviewer that he
wanted to adapt David Ely’s eponymous 1963 novel because ‘all of today’s
literature and films about escapism are just rubbish, [since] you cannot and
should not ever try to escape from what you are.’ Seconds was his outcry ‘against
‘the Dream,’ the belief that all you need to do in life is to be financially
successful. He saw the film as ‘a matter-of-fact yet horrifying portrait of big
business that will do anything for anybody, provided you are willing to pay for
it. It expressed his contempt for ‘all this nonsense in society that we must be
forever young, this accent on youth in advertising and thinking.’
OTHER WORKS OF FILM, TV AND LITERATURE THAT REMIND YOU OF
“SECONDS”
·
Frankenstein
·
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
·
Faust
·
The Picture of Dorian Gray
·
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
·
The Twilight Zone
·
Hollow Triumph
·
Eyes Without a Face
·
The Stepford Wives
·
The Face of Another
·
Shock Corridor
·
Carnival of Souls
·
Don’t Look Now
·
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR JOHN FRANKENHEIMER
·
The Birdman of Alcatraz
·
The Manchurian Candidate
·
Seven Days in May
