Essential urban ethnography from writer/director Kent Mackenzie goes inside a closed world of directionless Native Americans who’ve left old ways and lands behind to settle in scruffy L.A. nabs with little but temp jobs, tomorrow’s elusive promise, tonight’s bar crawl and overnight ceremonial gatherings to rehash old customs under an alcoholic buzz. A pair of thirty-something men get special attention over one very long night, driving around a noirish cityscape as they search for comradery, booze and likely dating prospects. The women far more integrated into the commercial world, but given few options in this dating scene. Their reluctant choices only getting worse as the evening and the alcohol level wear on. Shot in the manner of a documentary, this ‘planned’ naturalism goes back to documentary pioneer Robert J. Flaherty’s NANOOK OF THE NORTH/’22. And this film might be too depressing to watch if the presentation didn’t come with such compositional artistry, capturing in crepuscular tones lost manners and dingy neighborhoods where Mackenzie so brilliantly shot & edited with Robert Kaufman in some of the same out of the way L.A. areas where they started with their award-winning student film BUNKER HILL 1956. Check out the almost surreal funicular used in both films and previously seen in Anthony Mann’s THE GLENN MILLER STORY/’54 and James Whale’s fascinating Pre-Code IMPATIENT MAIDEN/’32. That last a real find . . . if you can find it!
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For an East Coast view of another ‘under-belly’ society, ON THE BOWERY/’56 is a more traditional documentary that holds to non-scripted storytelling. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/01/on-bowery-1956.html ALSO: Mackenzie’s student film BUNKER HILL/’56 mentioned above is included in the fine Milestone DVD restored edition of EXILES.
1 comment:
The story is a little meandering and the film slightly hampered by its almost entirely ‘looped’ dialogue, but as noted the cinematography and use of real locations make this a must-see. A breathtaking glimpse into a lost night world of neon, dingy bars, uniformed gas station attendants, etc. Barely-released in its day, the film by all rights should only exist in blurry dubs, but was rescued for posterity when the original 35mm negative was located and restored.
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