SCARECROW (1973)

In the fussiest acting of their careers, Gene Hackman and Al Pacino over-commit to meager playwright Garry Michael White (10 credits in five decades) as he short-circuits MIDNIGHT COWBOY/’68 to OF MICE AND MEN/’39; ‘92 in this soggy, bromantic Road Movie.  Unlikely traveling tramps bumming West-to-East across America, Hackman the hotheaded jailbird, Pacino the errant husband/father, the boys lean toward MICE & MEN as model; then, unable to choose the better part, each of them decide to tackle George and Lennie.  The ever present goal no longer a farm, but a partnership in Hackman’s vision of a Car Wash in Pittsburgh.  Director Jerry Schatzberg lets you know what you’re in for right from the start, when a beautiful prairie landscape turns stormy on the hitchhikers and tumbleweeds blow in the wind.  Colorful characters pop up along the way: gals to burn dinner; a roll in the hay (not sex, an actual roll in the hay); okay, sex, too; diners with a jukebox that plays ‘The Stripper’ so Hackman can take off the eight shirts he always wears one on top of the other; a donnybrook that sends them to the clinker so Pacino can fight off a rapist; a ‘dead’ son in for MICE & MEN’s famous dead rabbit; etc.  Regrettably, people take this stuff seriously; even the Cannes Film Festival where it shared the Palme d’Or with Alan Bridges’ equally undeserving THE HIRELING/’73, a class conscious non-starter with ‘Lady’ Sarah Miles leaving the backseat for a tumble with Robert Shaw’s chauffeur.  Meanwhile the likes of Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS and Truffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT played out-of-competition.  Sheesh.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Fresh from being introduced to movie audiences thru Michael Corleone’s striking stillness in THE GODFATHER/’72, Pacino’s noisy, attention-grabbing was surprising, to say the least.  We’re now used to his extravagant nature (the good, the bad, the ugly), but watching him pull focus with odd moves, bits of dancing, goofy faces & voices, still something of a shock.  No wonder Hackman goes uncharacteristically OTT just to keep up.