Gregory Suarez (gregorysuarez)

Fuckin exhausting, but in a good way that's when you know a film's had an effect I guess. Needs a re-watch, no doubt but even after one viewing it casts a spell on you. If someone asked me to recommend a film where it looks like the set designer lost his mind...well this is it.

The prisoner of Shark island is the story of Dr.Mudd; he was arrested of unknowingly assisting John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln's death, by bandaging his leg. After his arrest he is sentence to the Infamous Shark Island, which as you may have guessed is an island surrounded by Shark infested waters.

The story is probably not completely historically accurate. It's still not clear if Mudd was part of the assassination conspiracy and it has been confirmed he did probably met Booth on a previous occasion. But to an extent this doesn't matter Ford frequently pointed out that he does not make documentaries and in fact thought they were boring. Ford having surveyed almost all of American history up until the time of his death approached it not unlike G.B. Shaw while not striving for prefect accuracy but giving us an understanding of people of that time and the context they existed in.

Prisoner of Shark Island is perhaps one of Ford's best pictures although it's relatively unknown to a modern audience, this is odd because the film feels more relevant now than ever.The film deals with demonization of alleged criminals based entirely of circumstantial evidence and calling it patriotism and pointing out how legal courts should be 'The voice of the people'. The mentality Ford depicts in the early court scenes(where the defendants are brought in with sacks on their heads) show how political uncertainty can give rise to paranoia and persecution. The scenes on the island are among some of the best in Ford's career and being Catholic may be his best mediation on the nature of suffering , the paraphrased quote from 'Inferno' (abandon hope those who enter here) above the prison cells is a stroke of brilliance.

Ford's films are hard for young people to appreciate as many of them contain folksy elements(which you'll see in some of the earlier scenes) but with repeated viewings it's easy to see how his insight transcends things like that. As Francois Tiffuat(who originally wasn't a fan of Ford's material) said "He Achieved absolute uniformity on technical expertise'. Before wrapping this up the issue of race should still be discussed. Again many of the African Americans in the film have roles that are somewhat stereotyped as a product of the time. Ford however still treats them with a great deal of respect and Dr.Mudd's only real companion in the film is his black friend Buck(who is essentially his counterpart). The most interesting aspect is once on island all the guards are black and essentially in control of their white in a brilliant reversal of fortune, it was an aspect Daryl Zannuck loved about the film.

It would be easy for me to comprise this review just consiting of quotes from Scorsese on his deep admiration for this film (naming it as one of his five favorites of all time) or quotes form the dozens of filmmakers it's influenced but if there is one the thing Powell/Pressbruger's film makes me understand it's relationship of the individual and art; so I can't really do that. The story on its surface seems relatively straightforward, with a ballerina torn between her personal life and her love of the stage. However it goes even further even reminding us of Aristotle's ideas about art as a catharsis("why do you want to dance", "why do you want to live") and hardly stops there, it might be the most all encompassing film about people's relationship with it and almost impossible to say too much about it. It reveals the seductive aspect of it and the sacrifices and often painful compromises one must make. The film is unlike almost any musical made until that point the film gives way to much darker elements, and more than anything deals with how the illusion of and passion of art seeps into life. The brilliant thing about 'The Red Shoes' is not merely the subject matter but how Powell and Pressburger express it. For being one of the most extravagant films ever made it never feels over the top, but something almost like an alternate reality comprised of all the those elements many of which are found in the original fairy-tale which Pressburger adapted into the script( the film might be a fine example of what G.B. Shaw called 'creative evolution). The film's scope is so sprawling its less like something you watch and more like something you're immersed in and 'The Archers (the name or P&P's company) do this by utilizing just about every cinematic possibility from the flawless use of three strip technicolor,to Moria's p.o.v shots while she twirls during her rehearsals (which Scorsese would use in Raging Bull), The whip pans that reveal the companies next location on the tour....I could go on but the beauty of these techniques is not the techniques themselves but the context they are presented in it never appears as something by film student sitting there with a book of techniques in front of him, these ideas after viewing them feel as if they cannot be expressed any other as they are staples of its reality that cannot be removed (it might be an odd double feature but this and F for Fake I believe would go hand in hand because the reality 'The Red Shoes' creates, is a prime example of why Cinema is the greatest form of forgery) Alfred Hitchcock(and admirer of the Archers) when asked by peter Bogdanovich defined 'pure cinema'(the rumor was Hitchcock said something along the lines that sounds was a mistake; that wasn't true he had merely inferred that films were gradually becoming less cinematic) his definition was one describing first 1. Montage consisting of two types usage to invoke ideas or violence and involve the audience whether it be several shots comprised as a complete montage or at a distance in complete action. Th 2nd part involves Juxtaposition of imagery to relate to the mind of the character. Hitch would then point out that these pieces of film should fit together like music notes and create a melody. The only reason I even bring this up is to help emphasize the importance of the famous ballet sequence, which is a contestant for the greatest sequenced in the entire medium . The sequence invokes what I think is the ideal definition of Hitchcock's 'pure cinema' not because it is like watching the history of cinema unfold as nearly every technique is at work but because the images we see do not embody a stage production but a dreamscape in the mind of the characters surveying both her life's fears and desires; this approach would change the entire approach to musicals. No film before the Red Shoes had quite that vision where the numbers became a sort of alternate reality for the characters and in my opinion has yet to be topped, Vincente Minnelli was the first to pay tribute with 'An american in Paris' (where the final number is just an attempt to top Powell's film). There will probably never be enough you could say 'The Red Shoes' but maybe that's because its one that could never truly be summed up in anyway that is not visual, and well that is why it's pure cinema, but we can try and will continue to as time goes on and cinema progresses and the greatest films endure which 'The Red Shoes' surely will.