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Bad Day at Black Rock 1954
The title may suggest a banal Western, but this was the first film to bring up the wartime outrages against Japanese-Americans (treated also in 1960 in Phil Karlson's Hell to Eternity). The story is set in the mythical Southwestern town of Black Rock where the inhabitants are bound together by the guilty secret of their mistreatment of a Japanese farmer; on this bad day a one-armed stranger (Spencer Tracy) arrives and begins to ask questions. Though Bad Day at Black Rock is crudely melodramatic, it is a very superior example of motion p[icture craftsmanship. The director, John Sturges, is at his best -- each movement and line is exact and economical, the cinematographer, William C. Mellor, uses CinemaScope and color with intelligent care -- the compositions seem realistic, yet they have a stylized simplicity. In part because of this, when the violence erupts, it's truly shocking.Posted by sheila
No banal Western despite the title, indeed.. A very good, very crisp movie.
And a top cast.. as well as Spencer Tracy.. Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine [to name just two others] are in there too.
Posted by: peteb at May 8, 2005 3:57 PMAnother awesome movie!!!! Coming out shortly on DVD. A must see for every movie buff out there.
Posted by: don at May 9, 2005 1:17 AM