great movie in search of a great director
Oscar and Lucinda is a superb story, filled with pathos and a real sense of tragedy in an almost shakespearian, greek style (the protagonists start out carrying the seeds of their own fate), its beautifully writen but.. and its a big but.. I personally found the direction to be very flat and somewhat nusympathetic to the tale being told. This story really needed a someone like joh huston in his prime or even Werner Hertzog to bring across its more extreme aspects. in the face of these pathos filled and just plain odd events the direction is far, far too "polite" in a Merchant ivory sort of way. The whole thing hinted at the demented obsessiveness of such movies as Fitzcarraldo but really should have had the courage of its own convictions and gone for a much more intense approach. Good, but a bit of a missed opportunity.
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