1962: Sweet Bird of Youth

Sweet Bird of Youth (Richard Brooks, 1962) 6/10

"Provocative Adult Entertainment." In 1962, Richard Brooks' second cinematic Tennessee Williams adaptation Sweet Bird of Youth truly embodied the three words emblazoned in the middle of its orange hued poster. Today, the topics discussed in Sweet Bird of Youth would appear tame to a modern audience, despite their immoral nature.

Yet in 1962, Williams' play was so risqué that when Brooks transferred Sweet Bird of Youth onto celluloid, he was unable to incorporate several topics found in Williams' play such as venereal disease and castration into the shooting script. The removal of these aspects may have changed the overall effect of the film in its conclusion; yet even without their inclusion into the film's final cut, Brooks' film still featured several taboo elements: some so controversial their existence was merely hinted at indirectly during the film.

Reprising his role on Broadway, the film stars Paul Newman as Chance Wayne: a young Floridian man desperate for success, but undeniably naive in his actions. Madly in love with Heavenly (Shirley Knight), the daughter of tyrannical Southern politician. Boss Finley (Ed Begley), Chance is informed by her father that he must acquire riches and fame in order to secure her hand in marriage. Leaving his job as a busboy at a Gulf Coast country club, Chance heads for the bright lights of New York and Hollywood to find his fortune in order to retrieve Heavenly from her father's potent grip.

Unbeknownst to Chance, his glorious vision is a fatefully flawed apparition. After years struggling to break into Hollywood as an actor, Chance has achieved little in the way of wealth or fame. The only notoriety he has accrued is through being an objectified instrument of pleasure for the wives of millionaires, the debutantes of "the horsey set" and lonely eccentrics. One such eccentric is fallen star Alexandra del Lago (Geraldine Page). Once one of Hollywood's greatest names, del Lago's latest notable escapades have less to do with her on-screen performances, but through her off-screen exodus from the preview of her latest film. Copiously addicted to drugs, alcohol and sex, Alexandra has become an agoraphobic wastrel desperate to nullify her public rejection, yet still living up to her reputation as a diva.

Believing he has found the key to his future success, Chance takes the emotionally unstable Alexandra with him to St. Cloud during a sunny Easter weekend. The religious nature of the weekend should offer all its participants a chance from redemption, cleanliness and resurrection. Nevertheless, the presence of sin and evil is well-noted. Despite confessing a sensitivity to Alexandra's plight, Chance desires to use her to fulfill his self-inflated ambitions whether it be through tender words or blackmail. Blinded by his need to impress Heavenly's father, Chance has failed to recognize the nature of his surroundings, whilst chasing his "phony dream." Nevertheless, reality and his past actions soon return to haunt him, as the follies of his ambitions and his failures become achingly clear.

At its core Sweet Bird of Youth is a film about failed dreams. Several of the film's principal characters engage in the creation of overly ambitious dreams, whose success is struck a fatal blow due to the constraints of reality. Whilst, initially inspired by Heavenly's plight, Chance's dreams morph into inflated, self-centered projects that have little chance to succeed. Lacking any genuine acting talent, Chance's only skills and attributes are purely corporeal and sexual. His in-roads into Hollywood have been through the exploitation of his youth not to sell films, but for jaded aging women to purchase youth through relationships with him. Yet, youth is a fleeting commodity and Chance in his imaginative gullibility notably fails to realize its true nature. His plans are bold and engaging, but are reliant on unlikely breaks that divert him from the original purpose of his project.

Youth is also a commodity traded by Boss Finley. Utilizing his hot-headed son (Rip Torn), Finley has amassed a small army of neo-fascistic thugs to terrorize his enemies. Despite, his Christian populist rhetoric, Finley has also used Heavenly's sexuality to secure powerful contracts, only to- as with Chance- exile these men from his state once they no longer have any socio-political value to him. In Sweet Bird of Youth Boss Finley's aggressive machismo and misogyny contrasts neatly with Chance's flaccid approach to Heavenly, whom he promises to abscond, but repeatedly fails to confront.

The theme of failure also abounds in Sweet Bird of Youth. Like the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in Williams' The Night of the Iguana, Chance struggles to understand his errors and seek an alternative path: instead he recreantly looks to exploit weaknesses in others (i.e. Alexandra del Lago) to writhe out of a problematic situation of his own doing. The downfall of her career has also left Alexandra del Lago in a situation, were unwilling to commit to rebuilding her reputation, the actresses sinks into a world of debauchery and sin. Yet, rather than attempting to amend these flaws directly, several characters in Sweet Bird of Youth use duplicitous means to either forget via sex and drugs or correct through violence, blackmail and fear-mongering.

Released by MGM in 1962, Sweet Bird of Youthwas a popular and critical success, which aided in cementing Paul Newman as a genuine Hollywood star. In the forty-six years since its initial release, Sweet Bird of Youth has dated in parts of its overcooked southern melodrama. Brooks' method of cutting to flashbacks is particularly poor: appearing more at home in a 1940's comedy with its swirling dissolves and similar devices. Slowly paced in parts Sweet Bird of Youth is slightly too baggy, often engaging in sub-plots that divert from the true essence of the film. Additionally, the removal of certain plot elements involving Chance and Heavenly's relationship from the play due to censorship, leaves the film's finale in a discomforting position that fails to recognize the emotional complexity of their past.

Nevertheless, Sweet Bird of Youth does feature some excellent performances in this morally acidic film. Newman is commendable as aspiring actor-cum-gigolo Chance Wayne. Geraldine Page's swings back and forth on a tumultuous emotionally pendulum as Alexandra del Lago and produces one of the film's highlights. Ed Begley's work as the nefarious Boss Finley won him an Academy Award, whilst Madeline Sherwood offers an electric performance as Finley's favourite prostitute, who becomes victim of an act of misogynistic violence that rivals Lee Marvin's coffee pot in The Big Heat and James Cagney's grapefruit in The Public Enemy

Controversial and corrosive, Sweet Bird of Youth is an enjoyable, but often turgid entry in the cycle of Tennessee Williams films Hollywood produced during the Fifties and Sixties. Despite a strong cast and edgy subject matter, Sweet Bird of Youth probably failed to fulfill its full potential on film. Certainly censorship was a critical factor, but also Brooks' direction, whilst at times laudable lacked the ability to translate Williams' intense emotionalism into the type of fruitful vehicle of pity, depravity and quasi-religious redemption Sweet Bird of Youth could and should have been.

* Sweet Bird of Youth is released on DVD by Warner Home Video and is available in their excellent Tennessee Williams Film Collection box set

Other Richard Brooks films reviewed:
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) 7/10

Copyright 2008 8½ Cinematheque