MovieChat Forums > Written on the Wind (1956) Discussion > Could an outsider truly appreciate a fil...

Could an outsider truly appreciate a film such as 'Written on the Wind'?

posted 13 years ago by bobbobato
8 replies | jump to latest

I've been quickly skimming the critical consensus on "WotW," and I'm finding a running theme. Apparently this film is extremely ironic, because the mis-en-scene and acting is so over-the-top and shamelessly cinematic, and the plot, in the 1950s, would have been treated much soberly. Sirk is mocking both the society that calls for this film and the devices which formed it. Naturally, only the most sophisticated and astute viewers could truly appreciate this quality to the film.
Now, the problem with this view is that this attitude towards thee film is really only accessible to people who are intimately familiar with the period, because, you know, only they can recognize that the film is 'over the top'. To somebody born in say, 1991 (my birthdate, obviously), 1950s films are always "over the top". The sets are always lush and artificial and the script is always a little implausible. Even if somebody of my cohort were to watch a great deal of films from the period and were to learn a great deal about its society, it would still be very difficult to fairly analyze a film such as this, because the little cultural nuances simply cannot be picked up.
So, with all this in mind, is the audience member who really, sincerely, "gets" this film sophisticated, or simply of the right generation?

[–] deliaw1946 13 years ago

bobbobato; maybe a little of both - sophisticated and of that generation. I don't consider myself sophisticated, though. Sirk's films were like that. If you go back further to the, say 30's and 40's, look how kids acted. For instance, the brother Danny in "Leave Her to Heaven" and Tina in "Now, Voyager." Ugh! By the 50's, that was gone. Films and acting styles evolve. What we see now might be gone by 2015.

[–] jar1642 12 years ago

Interesting topic. Here is a review of "Written on the Wind" that I wrote after seeing the movie on 24 February 1957. I was 22 years old and a senior in college. I'm setting it down, unaltered, as an artifact of the '50s that some might find interesting. (Or at least a curiosity.)

"Supposedly about an oil-rich Texas family & people who become involved with'em, thru marriage & friendship; actually unreal situations, mediocre acting, poor write & direct; a lousy picture made apparently to cash in on Giant's fame."

I graded it a D.

The irony, if there is any, escaped me. After additional viewings, it still does.

[–] alserrano 12 years ago

Maybe because it is not that unreal actually. Written on the wind satirizes the materialistic view of the family in the 50's, or the obsession with power and money, which it only does not mean happiness, but, in this case, it means sexual insatisfaction too. There are also other messages there like the sexual ambiguity of some characters or the arguable aesthetic taste of the higher classes, but it mostly talks about those four things: money, power, sex, happiness.

[–] Errington_92 12 years ago

Apparently this film is extremely ironic, because the mise-en-scene and acting is so over-the-top and shamelessly cinematic, and the plot, in the 1950s, would have been treated much soberly. Sirk is mocking both the society that calls for this film and the devices which formed it.

I saw the opening scene as ironic if you judge the scene with the theme of shallowness and glamour within the rich lifestyle. Written on the Wind is a critique of this shallowness and glamour yet the scene is set with such stylisation to gain the audience's attention that it creates a contradiction.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

[–] Tashtago 11 years ago

I'm not sure if a lot of this so-called irony was not imbued on the movie by fans and critics who see Sirk as a great artist. I say never mind the irony and enjoy the movie at face value for its great color , overwrought plot, campiness, and....irony?

[–] Riding46 8 years ago

Agreed, but the cultists who love this film will surely admire if for more than that, they will see what the mainstream audience miss. I have the DVD and love the film but not sure if I am part of the cult as I was not born in that era. I get that they are mocking this lifestyle and poking fun as those that need to see this glamour on the big screen but it also is a damn fine movie.

[–] EliotTempleton 8 years ago

Huh?

[–] Irishmonk 7 years ago

WotW is the Funny Games of the 50s.