I saw Bus Stop last night. It was kind of an impulse borrow at the library.
It's based on a play by William Inge, who also wrote Picnic. It doesn't really look like it was adapted from the stage. Like with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf you can tell, because they barely leave those handful of rooms in George and Martha's house. Bus Stop, by contrast, is a widescreen technicolor flick with cows, a bus hurtling down the highway, a float parade...AND MORE! So it's been opened up.
I kind of wonder what the effects of adaptation on the script were. In the movie a cowboy who's barely left the ranch falls in love with a saloon entertainer, but his ideas of love are...Well, it's stated that he's hardly met any women before, and sometimes he doesn't seem like he's encountered civilization either. So he basically stalks and kidnaps her, and she resists until late in the film she doesn't. It's definitely entertaining, but don't look for anyone to make a sweet romantic comedy out of this plot today.
The girl, Cheri, is played by Marilyn Monroe. She's an absolute charmer, and really nails the broad Southern accent. Another standout performer is Arthur O'Connell, whom I'm not terribly familiar with. He's Beau's uncle, or something like that, a kindly older figure who tries to keep him out of trouble. You can feel the effort that must take.
It's based on a play by William Inge, who also wrote Picnic. It doesn't really look like it was adapted from the stage. Like with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf you can tell, because they barely leave those handful of rooms in George and Martha's house. Bus Stop, by contrast, is a widescreen technicolor flick with cows, a bus hurtling down the highway, a float parade...AND MORE! So it's been opened up.
I kind of wonder what the effects of adaptation on the script were. In the movie a cowboy who's barely left the ranch falls in love with a saloon entertainer, but his ideas of love are...Well, it's stated that he's hardly met any women before, and sometimes he doesn't seem like he's encountered civilization either. So he basically stalks and kidnaps her, and she resists until late in the film she doesn't. It's definitely entertaining, but don't look for anyone to make a sweet romantic comedy out of this plot today.
The girl, Cheri, is played by Marilyn Monroe. She's an absolute charmer, and really nails the broad Southern accent. Another standout performer is Arthur O'Connell, whom I'm not terribly familiar with. He's Beau's uncle, or something like that, a kindly older figure who tries to keep him out of trouble. You can feel the effort that must take.
2 comments:
A few days ago when I said I hadn't seen Panic in the Year Zero since watching it on late night long ago Jer said we'd actually seen it in the past five years. Ah well, we've watched so many movies I find I only recall the ones that made a very strong impression.. and some of those I forget too. Bus Stop, however, I feel fairly safe in saying I've never seen at all. When I checked out some of the imdb reviews I found that your take on the film is pretty much of a piece with the consensus - with the proviso that yours is far more concise and amusing. I like the bit about Beau not having encountered civilization previously either.
Marilyn was always a treat to see. My favorite film of hers was Some Like it Hot - likely the big hit of her all too short career. What's weird nowadays is that although she died in 1962 she's credited in dozens of movies right through 2017. I noticed the same thing last night when I looked up David Carradine who died in 2009 and appears to still be making movies. I hope the filmmakers are just giving credit for old footage rather than making 'deep fake' performances. Some things are just a bit too creepy for my taste.
The movie seems to be a pretty big deal. Partly because it's considered a pivotal performance by Monroe and partly because of its theatrical roots. What I've read is that it was changed a lot in adaptation to the screen. I'd guess that the original play had a different tone, maybe wasn't so openly romanticized.
She is always a delight to see. Of course "Marilyn Monroe" was as much a fiction as any character she played. That's maybe standard, though. I've heard that when John Wayne played rough cowboys John Ford and other directors had to remind him to say "ain't" instead of "isn't."
The idea of deepfakes is pretty creepy. It was nice enough that producers could finish The Crow and give a stuntman Brandon Lee's face, but having realistic depictions of people doing and saying things they never actually did is ripe for abuse. I hope the human eye develops ways of seeing through it, which has at least happened with a lot of CGI. I also hope it doesn't become a way of not paying people.
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