Thursday, 24 January 2013

Strangers on a Train
(1951)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD



Despite an enticing-yet-ridiculous-premise, this movie is compelling only because of the high quality performances - especially Robert WALKER as the psychotic murderer.

As usual with Patricia Highsmith, she gets the homosexual undercurrent to the most intense male relationships and makes this the stuff of heady fiction. However, this movie strains the limits of emotional credibility and leaves us with a fun entertainment, but one lacking much insight into psychosis.

(The longer United Kingdom version is an improvement on the so-called classic Hollywood one. It fleshes-out WALKER’s character much more - but the silly ending is still hard to swallow because the suspense is merely contrived rather than sophisticated.)


Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 12:12
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)