The Long, Hot Summer
I love old movies, really I do. And this one is fun, but also horrible. Sexist, racist, pretty much the worst characteristics of our society displayed by old Hollywood. But when it is delivered by Orson Welles? It doesn't seem to matter. I was enchanted by the characters, even if I found them reprehensible. And like any old Hollywood classic, they find redemption in the end. Unlike
other movies I have seen populated with awful people, they learn something from their mistakes instead of mearly wasting 2 hours of my life. In my opinion, the power of film is to show the audience something new about the human experience--to make us think about behavior, actions, reactions, emotions, thoughts, desires, etc., in new ways. Characters who don't learn anything don't show us anything new. During the course of
The Long, Hot Summer hate, love, power, and death all get put on the boiler and the characters end up revealing some personal growth.
I feel like a Puritan with this idea that art must be instructive. I'm not saying that movies should teach us lessons about how to be good Christians (à la 7th Heaven or some such nonesense), I'm not expecting (nor do I want) a morality play. But I do want to come out of the theater with new ideas, to have witnessed a glimpse into another way of being, of thinking, of living.
