MovieChat Forums > Liliom (1930) Discussion > Misguided political correctness

Misguided political correctness

posted 15 years ago by critic-2
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I realize that everybody is entitled to their opinion, but one of the more recent user comments really got my goat with its "political corectness". I will go so far as to agree with them on the acting. I have seen the final scene on YouTube, and yes, the film is horribly acted by all, even the great H.B. Warner, who clearly had not yet adjusted to the film medium.

However, I must take issue with all who believe that the film endorses wife-slapping or beating. Neither the film nor the play nor the musical based on the play do so. Julie forgives Billy for his behavior because she understood that his actual motivation was his frustration at not being able to provide for her without either (1) agreeing to Mrs Muskat's request that he abandon her or (2) committing a robbery. She did NOT forgive him because she got off on being beaten or because she thought it wasn't so bad. And the heaven sequence (both in "Liliom" and "Carousel") takes pains to point out that Liliom's abusive behavior is wrong.

[–] schappe1 15 years ago

They assume that if there is any anger or violence in a relationship that the relaitonship is valueless and that a story about it "Sends the wrong emssage". the fact is that a relationship involves the full range of human emotions and the degree of love can determine the degree of the other emotions. Some women prefer an emotional man to a quiet, reserved one who would never do anything to hurt them but is inadequate in other ways. Imperfect relationships have more capacity for drama and tragedy than perfect ones. The idea here is that Liliom/Billy is, despite his many faults, redeemed by his capacity for love.

I've just watched the 1934 Liliom and the problem with it is that it doesn't do enough to express the love. There's no "If I loved You". I do agree that the line about the painless slap, which wasn't created by Rogers and Hammerstein, sounds rather awkward today. They could have done without it. The documentary on the 50th anniversay of Carousel has Hammerstein saying that Molnar saw their verison of the play and preferred their ending.