HOLLYWOODLAND

1 Star - Demeaning

            It is difficult to watch a film defaming one of my childhood heroes.  Living in the fantasyland of childhood, I would rush in after school to watch Superman on my black and white TV.  Though I realized it was “”make believe”, as a child, I did not give much thought to what I was really watching: an actor, George Reeves (Ben Affleck), who was not “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…” nor was he fighting a “never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.” I certainly did not know that he was an ambitious and immoral person who was living an opposite life from my “super-man”.

            However, that this film is rated “demeaning” is not because it tells the truth about the actor who played my childhood hero.  The film is demeaning because it shows only the worst of humanity.  From the people who made the films, to the police who investigated the murders, to the women who lived in Hollywood, to the detectives who worked for them, virtually no one in this film is admirable, moral or faithful, leaving truth and justice far behind.

            Perhaps that is the message:  Hollywood was and perhaps still is a land of distorted and damaged humans whose ambitions and desires destroy them and others.  But if that is the message, it is unfair and monochromatic, like the gray and black suit Reeves wore on the original series, it does not represent the complexity and depth of our cinematic artists.

            The two main characters of the film are Reeves, a young actor who had been cast in such films as “Gone with the Wind” and is ambitious in advancing his career, and Toni Mannix (Diane Lane) the wife of MGM mogul Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins).  Toni and Reeves meet serendipitously at a restaurant where Reeves is trying to get noticed.  Unaware until the next morning that she is the wife of the MGM manager, Reeves stumbles into both her patronage and her lair. 

            Her patronage involves gifts including a home given to him.  Her lair involves a belittling relationship expressed by Toni at a low point in his career, when she says, “I always take care of my boy.”  This dysfunctional affair is representative of Reeves’ dysfunctional life.   As a serious actor, he hesitates to become a childhood superhero.  However, encouraged by Toni and his manager to take the role, he finds that he is typecast and unable to work in any serious film.  It is this discovery which brings his downward spiral into an alcoholic bottom.

            A second life which is chronicled by the film is private investigator Louis Simo (Adrian Brody).  Living the same immoral life as Reeve’s that has destroyed his marriage and his relationship with his son, Simo is hired by Reeve’s mother to uncover the cause of her son’s death.  This takes Simo down paths that reveal to him the despair of both Reeves’ and his own mutually destructive paths.

            “Hollywoodland” is an example of well acted and written cinema with no morality and empty spirituality.  The film communicates clearly a despairing and demeaning message.  Had it presented Reeves’ world with the nuances and depth of color found in real life, it could have communicated so much more.

             

Discussion:                                   

1.       What do you think happened to George Reeves?  Why?

 

2.       The film suggests that his ambition to become a movie star and his sexual promiscuity cost Reeves his life.  Do you think this film gives a full picture of his life?  What do you think is missing?

 

3.       The attempt by Reeves to move on from Toni to a relationship with a woman his own age causes her tremendous pain.  Do you believe that pain is inevitable in an affair?  Do you believe the woman Reeves was going to marry was a good choice?  Why or why not?

 

4.       The tormented life of the private investigator Louis Simo looked like it may have made a turn at the end of the film.  Do you believe it did or did not?  Why?

 

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary.  Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. For more reviews: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.