IRONWEED
A film review by Mike Trout
Copyright 1988 Mike Trout
Well, it's here. I finally saw IRONWEED last night, in a sneak preview in Albany for cast and extras. It opens nationwide today (12 February).
First, a warning. Film reviews are subjective by definition. This one will be worse than usual, as I have a personal interest in the film. It's the biggest thing to happen to Albany in years. However, I will do my best to be as objective as possible. I saw the film with three other people, two of whom were in the movie just as I was, and I tried to listen carefully to their comments and integrate them with my thoughts.
IRONWEED is a good film. It's not great, but I think it's better than the general reviews indicate. I found it to be well-written, brilliantly acted, and powerfully moving. The general story flow was surprisingly smooth.
The biggest problem is with editing. The movie is too long--2 hours 16 minutes--and there are obvious segments that should have been deleted. However, other scenes show signs of excess editing, causing some confusion in the story line and many dangling subplots. We finished filming in early summer and the film was released in mid-December. To me, that seemed like not enough time to do a careful editing job. Perhaps it was rushed to completion in time to be eligible for the 1987 Academy Awards.
IRONWEED is the story of Francis Phelan's return to Albany, New York. In 1901, Phelan was a trolley car worker for the Albany Traction Company. During a strike, Phelan throws a rock and kills a scab conductor. To escape prosecution, he leaves Albany for a year. After he returns, he attempts to build a life with his wife and children. But he drops his 13-day-old son Gerald on the floor, killing him. Phelan splits for good. For the next several years, Phelan wanders all over the US and Canada, playing minor league baseball--his rock-throwing at the trolley strike was a preview of his throwing skills. But the Great Depression hits and Phelan becomes just another of the millions of hungry, boozing bums. During these dreary years he takes up with Helen Archer, a sickly but lovable homeless woman with a musical background. Finally, in 1938, Phelan returns to Albany to confront his past, his family, and the ghosts that populate his memories.
I think IRONWEED the movie is considerably superior to IRONWEED the book. Although I'm a big fan of William Kennedy's books, I was quite disappointed with IRONWEED as a novel. To me, it was self-indulgent, overly experimental, and difficult to wade through. Most Albany readers seemed to enjoy it (probably due to all the local references), but a lot of non-Albanians I've talk to hate it. I even know two people who took it back to bookstores and demanded their money back.
But Kennedy has done an excellent job with the screenplay. The movie doesn't deserve the nickname "Ironweird" like the novel does. Excising all the bizarreness of the novel, Kennedy has managed to concentrate focus upon the main character Francis Phelan. Despite numerous flashbacks, Francis' story flows from scene to scene with sparkling logic. His character is strong and understandable. Jack Nicholson's superb acting lifts Francis into a memorable film character.
Kennedy's handling of the "ghosts from the past" subplot is extremely clear in the film, unlike Kennedy's rhetoric in his novel. Hector Babenco's direction shows considerable understanding of this subject as well, as it is not difficult to share the feelings of this powerful theme. I originally felt that this subject should probably be dropped from the film, but Kennedy showed how it can be done with clarity and conciseness. Too bad he didn't take the same approach with his novel.
The best part of the novel was Phelan's confrontation with his family, and the same can be said for the film. In the novel's emotional climax, Phelan accepts his wife's offer to move back home. This is not as clearly or powerfully handled in the film, but it is replaced with a scene of equal intensity. Phelan reads a letter he received many years ago from his loving nine-year-old daughter, who is now a grown woman filled with bitterness at Phelan's desertion of his family. Phelan has kept the letter all these years, and the quiet strength in Nicholson's voice as he reads the letter is an awesome performance that brought up the tears for me.
Kennedy has also lifted Helen Archer, Francis' girlfriend, into a major character role. I was concerned about this, as Archer plays only a minor role in the novel. But again, Kennedy has changed the novel into the screenplay with amazing skill and taste. And Meryl Streep, as Archer, shows the stuff that pros are made of. You won't forget her performance for a long time. When she belts out a tune in "The Gilded Cage" nightclub, the audience on the screen and in the theater are both moved.
A couple of other outstanding performances were displayed by Tom Waits, as Phelan's friend Rudy the Kraut, and Carol Baker, as Phelan's wife. Both showed unusual skills in wide-ranging roles, and after the film I heard some comments that they'd stolen the show. A galaxy of other minor but colorful characters keeps flowing through IRONWEED, making it a "fun" movie as well as a skillful look at life. I think this is what makes the movie flow well despite its length. IRONWEED doesn't seem long and doesn't really drag.
Still, several subplots should have been removed. Others needed to be expanded or better explained. Parts of the story seem to have been nearly removed anyway and are left dangling--such as the near-seduction of Phelan as a teenager. Throughout IRONWEED, we see three ghosts, but only two of them are ever explained. I had no trouble following the story, but I suspect that people unfamiliar with the novel might have difficulty, due to the sometimes choppy editing. Some audience members expressed confusion with several scenes and subplots.
Another subplot that begged for expansion was the one I was in. Seriously. Local residents and American Legion members, the "Raiders," attack and burn down the shantytown where Phelan and Rudy are visiting friends. In the six nights I worked on the film, we produced an enormous number of spectacular and fascinating scenes. Unfortunately, they all seem to have been left on the cutting room floor. As portrayed in the film, the attack is confusing. While working on the movie, I watched a powerful Nicholson performance of Phelan's loyalty to his fellow bum Rudy. That does not appear in the IRONWEED final product. On screen the whole thing lasts about 60 seconds and is over before you can figure out what it is. Some audience members asked me afterward what the heck was going on there. The motivation for the Raiders' attack simply was not there. Incidentally, I think I saw myself in one or two quick shots, but I couldn't be sure since it went by so fast. I'll have to watch it again a few more times and study it frame-by-frame when it comes out on video.
I can certainly see how movies go way over budget. Babenco spent tremendous amounts of money on scenes that were barely used or cut out entirely. A dead steam locomotive was shipped up from Mexico and altered at great expense, yet appears only in a couple of non-vital quick shots. And of course, I personally made several hundred dollars working on this movie, yet my efforts ended up in the waste can along with that of hundreds of other Albany residents.
This film does an exceptional job with set decoration. Albany area folks will have lots of fun spotting area localities, as well as many Albany "inside jokes" in props, signs, and such. It can get a little confusing for us at times, though. In one scene Phelan and Archer are examining a friend's body in Albany's South End. They take a few steps and are suddenly in Troy, about five miles away and across the Hudson River. Phelan points back to Albany and mutters something about the body "over there," as if it's still a few steps away. Troy, Hudson, and other local cities served as substitutions for various Albany neighborhoods in IRONWEED.
For now, I'll give IRONWEED three stars. I must admit that while watching the movie, I spent too much energy trying to spot myself, my friends, and Albany landmarks. After I see the film a few more times, I may change my opinion--but I suspect I may like IRONWEED even more.
Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1) =-=-=-=-=-=-= UUCP:brspyr1!miket BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews