MovieChat Forums > All That Heaven Allows (1955) Discussion > Really disappointed with the comments he...

Really disappointed with the comments here...

posted 17 years ago by JimLoneWolf
24 replies | jump to latest

"Implausible romance", "unintentional comedy", overly melodramatic"...were we watching the same film? I wonder how many of those comments are coming from people who were assigned the film for a class.

Did you happen to miss all the social commentary in the film? This film has some of the most subtle and well-realized symbolism I've seen anywhere, and I've seen a lot. It's also a stunning film to look at, the colors are vivid and the set design is extraordinary.

But I keep coming back to the social commentary, the film's daring questioning of 1950's vales and mores, particularly with regards to class and materialism. Hell, if looked at objectively, even the film's "happy ending" is sort of a crock...the guy was nearly killed and he's basically given up his own rustic passions to turn his cottage into a virtual duplicate of Cary's bourgeoise house! And yet, the film makes it very hard for us to HATE Cary, and therefore forces us to question our own flaws and prejudices.

This is a BALLSY film, and those who can't look past the melodramatic aspects simply need to consider the filmmaking trends of the time. Melodrama was IN, and it still is in a way, at least as far as the enormously acclaimed films of Pedro Almodovar are concerned. Sirk did this stuff RIGHT, he managed to convey these dramatic flourishes with all the operatic excess they deserved.

In contrast, think of the way this kind of "plot" is utilized in something like Autumn in New York...or the countless Lifetime movies that have used this basic blueprint with none of its exotic trappings and deeper thematic resonances. Those movies say nothing, this film was so ahead of its time that it STILL functions as an astute catalog of the petty, superficial albatrosses that continue to festoon the necks of would-be romantics in a nation that continues to place value on the wrong things.

Put simply, this is the film to show "values voters" who believe the "integrity of the family" should supercede everything else...including NATURAL (as opposed to socially constructed) love. Rock Hudson's eventual emergence as a gay man lends the film an extra transgressive kick for modern viewers.

So honestly, don't even watch this film if you aren't willing to give it a fair chance. There is much here that can't be found anywhere else...and if my word isn't good enough, ask another of this film's many fans: David Lynch!

[–] gugrad94 17 years ago

I agree with you for the most part. To be honest, I don't know anything about the director, but I do love how he kicks the 50's value system in the teeth.

I have a friend that says, the 50's were a great time. Well if you were black, poor, thought outside the brainwashing of 50's morality and McCarthyism and the we're so moral and clean and a great nation, they were great for you. Yeah, we were a great nation, but some of the "moral majority" took the constitution and used it as toilette paper. Like you said about Rock Hudson, wasn't it kind of "funny" that McCarthy's henchman Roy Cohn, a Jew (and we know how some people felt about Jews in the 1950's - see Liberty Heights) turned out to be gay and died from AIDS in the 1980's and lied about what he was dying of.

Now where I have another view on why Rock was renovating his home to look like Cary's. The "Guy" loved Cary so much that maybe, just maybe if she made the sacrifces to be with him, he'd try to meet her half way and give her the comfort that she's used to - to make his home feel like her home.

This movie, Sirk focused on class prejudice. Imitation of Life focused on racial prejudice in the 50's. It was heartbreaking to see a mother and daughter torn apart over skin color. The segregation and also classism that blacks and others endured, made people who could "pass" run to it because they could build a better life, get educated, drink out the white fountain.

And we could go on about how women where treated in the 50's.

Yeah, those good old 50's. Glad I wasn't living then.

"GG."

[–] lauraeileen894 17 years ago

"Yeah, those good old 50's. Glad I wasn't living then. "

I'm with you there, gugrad94. Plenty of good things came from the 50s (Hitchcock made his greatest films during that decade), but you couldn't pay me to live in that era. The ignorance, hypocrisy, fear, and prejudice that lurked in that time is too ugly to even think about. Sirk was great to point out the backward values of the 50s, and I loved how Todd Haynes took it a step further in "Far From Heaven" (which has become one of my favorite films from the last 10 years).

"Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself?! It's bad for your complexion!"-"Sixteen Candles"

[–] jdown-1 13 years ago

<<The ignorance, hypocrisy, fear, and prejudice that lurked in that time is too ugly to even think about.>>

Oh yes, thank goodness all that is behind us now. Here in the happy, enlightened, free-of-prejudice 21st century, all is joy!

[–] blanchethedancer-649-680699 12 years ago

As one who grew up in the 50's, I, and many others, can say how it really was. I do not know a single person who grew up in that era say it was awful to be living in the 50's. Sure, things were not perfect. It is not perfect growing up in any decade, but the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages.
The family unit was, for the most part, intact. Most mothers were home when their children came home from school. Children had 3 home-cooked meals a day without all the junk or preservatives. There was no "fast-food." Going out to eat once or twice a month was a treat. Parents could take their kids to see any movie because there were no sex scenes or foul language. Try taking a 9 year old child to a movie today.
Crime in a small town was almost nonexistant. People could keep their doors unlocked and leave their keys in the car without fear of someone breaking into the home or getting their car stolen.
We grew up to be solid responsible citizens with a strong work ethic and respect for authority. Drugs and shootings in the schools were unheard of. Sure, there was poverty and racism, but those issues still exist today, many times in greater quantities. Look at the crime rates that occur in the cities, especially in the welfare states.
There was also a greater respect for women despite what people think. Men did not use foul language in front of women like they do today. There is still not equal pay for equal work, and the women who do work still have all the added duties of child-rearing, cooking and cleaning without any help from their spouses. Women today are still beaten and abused by men, and are often raising their children alone. Many single parents and their children are at poverty level and are receiving no child support.
This is just another viewpoint from someone who has lived in the 50's. I can attest that growing up in this decade is far worse.

[–] Jay_Machado 10 years ago

As one who grew up in the 50's, I, and many others, can say how it really was.

A happy child from a happy stable family will think things are good no matter what year it happens to be.

Emmett Till also grew up in the 50's though. I don't think, if he were alive, he'd have said it was a particularly good time.

[–] amiNotAwake 17 years ago

This movie was extremely dissapointing to me. So many people have cited its social commentary. But there are so many movies out there that I feel did a much better job, with far less melodrama. Don't get me wrong I like melodrama to a certain extent, this was just a little over the top for me. Some of the films I felt did better at addressing 50's moral mentality would be Peyton Place, Giant,(Hudson's best performance) and Splendor In the Grass. I don't think All that Heaven Allows is a bad movie; I really enjoyed the angle of the woman loving not only a man below her "station" but the fact that it was also an older woman with a younger man, perhaps my reaction was from comparing it to movies of a similiar type I felt were far superior.

"You know what's going to happen to you, I'm going to march you over to the zoo and feed you to the yak!"

[–] sonomagirl2120 17 years ago

I loved this movie...the sets, the story, the horrible children, but I never could understand what Ron saw in Cary. He seemed to have such a zest for life with lots of interests, whereas Cary had zero personality and was too easily influenced by her family and friends. I loved the scene at Christmas when her kids get her a TV set and she stares into it seeing her reflection. *It will keep you company on cold winter nights* I'm a big fan of the 50's social commentary/soap opera type sagas!

[–] teaandoranges 17 years ago

When I was young I loved this movie and the way everyone was always so well coifed and dressed and everyoneshouses were beautiful and Rock Hudson was so handsome and Jane Wymanso perfect and beautiful. Her kids were horrible and
so were the petty townspeople (so unhappy with their own lot that they couldnt stand to see other people happy). Then I found these types of movies were by Douglas Sirk and he became one of my favorite directors. But the type of selfish petty are still alive and well in New England town and suburbs of Boston. I think thereis something in the character of this area that makes people look for someone to look down upon.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] cmk-7 16 years ago

loved this movie...the sets, the story, the horrible children, but I never could understand what Ron saw in Cary. He seemed to have such a zest for life with lots of interests, whereas Cary had zero personality and was too easily influenced by her family and friends. I loved the scene at Christmas when her kids get her a TV set and she stares into it seeing her reflection. *It will keep you company on cold winter nights* I'm a big fan of the 50's social commentary/soap opera type sagas!

I also think this movie was done at a time when movie producers were trying to get people to stop watching so much television and go back to the movies. They made it sound like only losers watched television.

FWIW, I disagree that Cary didn't have any interests. She had them, but they were the kind of thing women of her age and status at the time would have had - basically lunches, parties, etc. She had an active life - remember when the idea of getting a television was first brought up, how she recoiled in horror? I think her staring at it and seeing her reflection was kind of her giving up, saying "You're right. I'm just an aging widow whose best years are behind me. How dare I think a handsome young sexy man could find an old bag like me attractive?"

[–] Jay_Machado 10 years ago

They made it sound like only losers watched television.

Actually, that's more true today than it was in the 1950's, brah. Television was still some cool, space-age sh!t, man.

[–] Franz_Walsh 16 years ago

I agree JimLoneWolf. It still irritates me that an artist like Sirk gets overlooked by modern audiences who can't surrender their smug cynicism towards the elements of melodrama, and dismiss his films as camp. All of Sirk's work are peppered with social commentary like his fellow Deutchlander and theater personality Brecht, only the emotional center goes beyond the sterile objectivity (while magically maintaining it also) of the subject and can move anyone with an open mind and heart.

What makes his films thrive and survive is his sly gift for never tying up loose ends. They almost unfold and unravel like beauty ribbons, and it's up to us to create meaning with everything which has come undone. The "fake happy endings" his films end with makes his commentary very political because it requires discussion of the issue and not solutions. His tender humanity matched with his astute inditements of wretched bougeois culture is an absolute miracle that few directors can pull off with such virtuosity. In addition to Almodovar and David Lynch, he is respected among filmmakers including Allison Anders, Jonathan Demme, Lars von Trier, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Bernardo Bertolucci, Wim Wenders, and Todd Haynes.

[–] HarlowMGM 16 years ago

Well, you have to realize we are on IMDb where the boards are often loaded with boorish comments no matter what film is being discussed. I'm sure there are "What a piece of s--t" type threads on the boards for CITIZEN KANE and every other great film masterpiece.

[–] peter-schramm 14 years ago

Thats right - thats what I've discovered. Mind you when you do come across an intelligent thread like this one - it does cheer you up. I really enjoy reading a thread where someone pours out their love for a film and I know that a positive response cheers up the poster too.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] aitchmack 13 years ago

Wolf: you howl! I concur...

[–] Paris55 13 years ago

Wolf, I totally agree with your synopsis of this film. I had always liked it and kept looking for it on DVD. When it finally was released it cost a fortune so finally, I had the chance recently to record it. I find that the film conveyed the message that material things and what people think really matter. Once you hit a certain age, you realize that all the things you owned or thought were important in other people's eyes, do not count after all. Who cares what people think about on another and how old people are if they truly like or love each other. Live simply and honestly is what I took away from the film. This should apply especially now in the year of 2012.

[–] waldenpond88 13 years ago

Not only David Lynch, but also German film maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder who wrote a lengthy review on "All that Heaven allows". It inspired several movie directors.