Monday, June 27, 2005

Suddenly, Last Summer

Rachel was watching AMC the other day and caught the last quarter of this Elizabeth Taylor flick called Suddenly, Last Summer (a movie made in the late 50s). She came in at a point where Elizabeth Taylor' character was in a mental institution becuase she had gone nuts from some horrible thing she experienced while vacationing in Spain with her male cousin. Meanwhile, her aunt (Catherine Hepburn) is trying her best to get the psychiatrists to give her neice a labotamy so that her memory will be erased and she cannot give away a big nasty secret. The big, nasty secret happens to be that Catherine Hepburn's son is a homosexual predator who has been using his mother (Hepburn) to lure young, European boys to him during their vacations in the summers. She, however, has become a little too long in the tooth to lure the boys he wants, so he takes his young, attractive cousin (Taylor) instead. She complies and begins to lure in his fresh prey. After a few liasons, it seems that things are going well until one day when they are about town in Spain and a group of the young men and their friends all gang up on him and chase him around making eerie music on tin cans. They chase him toward the sea and corner him at a precipice, then overtake him. Elizabeth Taylor hears him scream and faints out of despair for lack of being able to help him. When she awakens, she sees that he has been torn to pieces by the young victims. I guess the whole point of this is that it is interesting that this subject matter was out in the cinema in the fifties....that blows my mind!

6 comments:

JS said...

geez, that is some subject matter i wouldnt expect a 50s or 60s movie to deal with... pretty creepy...

JS said...

A remake of that film today would have to be rated NC-17... for some reason, movie makers today can't make a film or tell a story without graphic sex, language, and violence... ironically, the highest awarded movies tend to have little or none of these... odd.

Mat Brewster said...

Thanks for all the spoilers, Sipper. Guess I don't need to watch that movie anymore.

You guys need to watch more old movies. They touched on all kind of themes back in the day. They just had to deal with them differently, or less graphically than we do today. Often you really have to pay attention to realize they are dealing with what they are dealing with.

Look at the big sleep. Classic bogart film that dealt with pornography, homosexuality and murder. I have to go to class or I'd list some more flicks that dealt with taboo subjects during the days of the Code.

bigsip said...

I have noticed some pretty racy old movies. I don't watch many much anymore, but I don't many movies period. When I do catch a good one though, it's kind of interesting. Don't be all grumpy about spoilers, Brew. You'll forget all about it in a few months and then you'll see the movie and be surprised and shocked.

Mat Brewster said...

There are really some great old movies out there. Anyone who doesn't watch films before their time is really missing out on some beautiful pieces of cinema.

I know people who won't watch a movie because its black and white, or because its foreign. That's just silly. But I understand how having a child would keep you from watching too many flicks, Sip.

Oh, and I'm adament about no spoilers. Luckily you didn't mention the name of the flick, so I might not realize it is this one if I ever watch it. But I stay away fro preknowledge to a film as much as possible. I don't watch previews, I don't read interviews or reviews. I want to go in fresh.

bigsip said...

Understood, my friend. I am kind of the opposite. I don't really care if some stuff is spoiled. Funny story: Guy here at work is a huge Star Wars fan. When he was a kid, The Empire Strikes Back had just come out and he was going to go see it. He didn't get to watch it right after it came out, but planned to go the following weekend. Right after the opening, he saw a friend. The friend asked, "Have you seen TESB yet?" "No, how was it?" "It was great! Darth Vader is Luke's father!!!" Now that's a spoiler!