Scarecrow
May 25th 2008 10:27
There are possibly millions of great films which been made since since the birth of cinema. We have lists like the AFI’s top 100 films, Sight and Sound polls, Halliwell’s top 1000 films of all time and in all of them, sadly, there will always be a collection of films, no matter how great, which will never appear on these lists, even in a book like ‘1001 film you must see before you die’, mediocre films lie between the pages where other films, masterpieces like Seconds, Mikey and Nicky, Mother Jugs And Speed, Two Weeks In Another Town, Underworld U.S.A., The Tall T, The Shootist, Overlord, Bad Timing – this list could go on forever if I wanted it to - these films have been sadly forgotten, never to be talked about again. Among these is a film by Jerry Schatzberg called Scarecrow, why it never gets mentioned I’ll never be sure of – a quick look at it’s stats – it stars Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, its shot by the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond and it only won The Palm D’or at The Cannes Film Festival in 1973 – no I can’t figure it out at all
The performances in this film by Hackman and Pacino (who previously worked with Schatzberg in his screen debut in ‘Panic In Needle Park’) are possibly their greatest, at a time in their career when their acting was absolutely pure and blood pumpingly fresh, where they had not yet discovered what cute, crowd pleasing mannerisms to fall back on to easily satisfy audiences. Examples of other performances that are free of any mugging or shtick which comes with the curse of fame for most great actors can be found in performances like Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces and Dustin Hoffman in Lenny.
Scarecrow is the sort of rare film which is so joyous and life affirming you just have to marvel at how Schatzberg handles the material, he injects large ammounts of sentiment that actually allow you to think about and feel the emotions and experiences in an actual way without the sentiment ever actually getting sentimental (if that makes sense). Now for the story – simply put, Scarecrow is a road movie about two lost souls, one returning from jail after 6 years, the other returning from sea after five years, their paths cross as these two oh so different individuals strike up a friendship and dream big dreams of opening a car wash when they get to the other side of the country.
On The Road
Ocassionally the question is brought up why these two don’t open one right where they are instead – and there is a practical answer to that question and also a bigger context to that answer which goes unstated, for if they did, they would have nowhere to drift and their dream would never last as long. The journey getting there, along with its ups and downs is what concerns these men.
Al Pacino plays Francis aka ‘Lion’, a seemingly content class clown who gets his joy and fullfilment from making others laugh. Gene Hackman plays Max, the more dominant of the two friends who speaks with his fists. Witnessing the dynamics between these men is a most joyous experience and paves the way for a lot of fun and at some point when the rug is pulled from underneath them, we see the lack of direction they could possibly have without each other. Scarecrow definitley does not see it self as a comedy, but rather a serious and rich celebration of life and the things that truly do come for free, because as we will experience in this journey there are some very serious life changing obstacles looming just ahead for these men.
The film has it own unique flavour, there’s a very funny moment in the film where Max is flirting with a woman, the flirting becomes sexually charged Hackman lets out a great big burp – instead of the expected reply you would think she might give to that – she instead replies with, “Oh my” and acts as if Max has just performed a manly and sensuous gesture. The film is filled with all sorts of off beat warm moments like this and has a hell of a lot to offer – I cant recommend it more highly!
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Scarecrow is essential viewing for any film lover. Hackman and Pacino are at there absolute best!