Jaws

Fifty years ago, Jaws made a huge splash in the cinematic landscape and its ripple effects are still felt to this day. Shortly after its original release in 1975, it thrashed box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of the original Star Wars just two years later and even surfaced to a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Such a feat put Steven Spielberg, who had based the film off of the bestselling Peter Benchley novel of the same name, on the map and led to a lucrative career that made him a household name. Even now, Jaws is often regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, as well as perhaps the only good Shark movie ever made. It also can’t be understated how much of an impact it had on Hollywood filmmaking and society at large, for better or worse.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of such a monumental film, we did our due diligence and gave Jaws another watch (with a twenty-five-year-old DVD to boot). After all, films this old may not have held up as well as its reputation would suggest. However, not only has Jaws held up surprisingly well after a few decades, its reputation feels more than earned and it’s easy to see how it still serves as a continuous source of inspiration.

Stubs - Monty Python and The Holy Grail

Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975) Starring: John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. Screenplay by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. Directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. Produced by Mark Forstater and Michael White. Run Time: 87 minutes. Color. U.K. Comedy

One of the most intelligent, outrageous and funny television shows to ever come along was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which debuted on the BBC in 1969 and ran until 1974. Even though John Cleese had left the show in its final season, he was back in the fold when the group made their first post-series movie, Monty Python and The Holy Grail. While there had already been a Monty Python movie, And Now For Something Completely Different (1971), it was basically a very low budget rehash of sketches from the comedy troupe’s first two seasons (called series in Britain) made for an unsuspecting and unnoticing, judging by box office, U.S. audience.

For this film, the troupe wrote an entirely new story, loosely based on the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table legend. And while nothing in the series would have prepared viewers for this film, it still retains the same sense of humor the troupe showed on TV, starting with the use of the noise of cocoanut shells clacking together instead of real horses.

In typical Python fashion, the film starts out as another film entirely, the very real black and white British comedy Dentist on the Job (1961) before, presumably, the projectionist realizes his mistake. Next,the credits carry Swedish subtitles, which are really adverts for Swedish tourism. After the subtitlers are sacked and those that were supposed to sack them sacked, etc., the real film finally gets underway.

Yes, it is a real movie.

King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his squire, Patsy (Terry Gilliam), go around the countryside looking for suitable knights to join Arthur at Camelot.  At the first castle, Arthur is questioned by a soldier (Michael Palin) about how they got the cocoanuts, a tropical fruit, in a temperate climate like Britain and how many migrating Swallows and of what type it would take to carry one.

Boring of the encounter Arthur moves on, only to get into a socio-political discussion with a peasant (Palin) when he asks about the resident of the nearby castle. When Arthur tries to lord over the peasants about being the King of the Britons, they not only don’t know they’re Britons, but they bristle at being his subjects.

"Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

Arthur moves on and encounters the Black Knight (John Cleese) who not only refuses to join with Arthur but also to let him pass. In one of the funnier and bloodier sword fights in movie history, Arthur takes down the knight, one limb at a time. This very funny, very over the top approach will become a hallmark of future Monty Python films.

King Arthur battles the Black Knight. It's only a flesh wound.

Following his literal dismantling of the Black Knight, Arthur enters a village, where a woman (Connie Booth) is accused of being a witch. The villagers take her to Sir Bedevere (Terry Gilliam) to pass final judgment. His scientifically flawed logic leads that if the woman weighs the same as a duck, then she must be a witch and faulty scales leads to her doom. But Arthur is impressed and invites Bedevere to join his quest.

Villagers ponder what else floats besides wood.

We’re not shown how Arthur assembles the rest of his knights, but we learn that brave Sir Launcelot, and yes that’s how it is spelled in the script, (John Cleese), pure Sir Galahad (Michael Palin) and the not-so-pure or so-brave Sir Robin (Eric Idle) have joined his ranks. Together they head to Camelot. But while they’re looking at the model, we’re treated to a song and dance about Camelot (perhaps a precursor to Idle’s Spamalot musical), which leads Arthur to decide to skip Camelot altogether. And once they do, God (voiced by Graham Chapman) appears and gives Arthur the quest of finding the Holy Grail as his purpose.

The audience with God.

But the quest gets off to a rocky start when at the first castle they come to, they are accosted by a French man (Cleese) who insults the knights and rains farm animals down upon them when Arthur attempts to storm the castle. Bedevere comes up with the idea of a Trojan rabbit but fails to think through that knights have to be inside it when the French take it into their castle. The rabbit is then catapulted down on the knights.

Just then, a modern-day historian appears and speaks to the camera about the Arthurian legend as if for a TV documentary. But then a knight, Launcelot (Cleese), rides through the scene and slays him. This murder sets off a police investigation.

Arthur decides to break up the knights and spread them out on the search for the Grail. The first knight we follow is Sir Robin, who rides with his musicians singing a song about how overly brave he is. The song includes references to body parts and torture until Robin gets squeamish and asks them to stop. In the woods, they encounter a three-headed knight (Chapman, Jones, and Palin) who wants to kill Robin, but who bicker so much between themselves that Robin is able to escape, which becomes fodder for more song.

The dreaded three-headed knight.

Next, we follow Sir Galahad who finds a castle with a Grail-shaped beacon. Thinking he has found the object of his quest, Galahad enters. Inside he encounters Zoot (Carol Cleveland), the mistress of Castle Anthrax, and later her identical twin sister Dingo (Cleveland), who oversees a castle of women. The Grail sign had been left on by accident and as penance, Galahad is told he’ll have to spank Dingo. The other girls chime up that they’ll have to be spanked too, and then Dingo says will follow the oral sex. Galahad is saved from this fate when Launcelot bursts in and “rescues” him.

Castle Anthrax's unfortunately Grail-shaped beacon.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Bedevere encounter the feared Knights who say Ni, led by a tall knight (Palin). Hearing the knights’ words cause Arthur to fear for his life. The Knights Who Say Ni demand a sacrifice: a shrubbery or else Arthur will not be allowed to pass alive through their forest.

"We are the Knights Who Say Ni."

Launcelot gets involved with saving what he thinks is a damsel in distress, but is really a sickly Prince (Terry Gilliam) whose father (Michael Palin) is marrying him off to a girl whose father owns large parcels of land. During the rescue, Launcelot kills many of the wedding guests, including the bride of the father. The Prince tries to escape down a rope made of bed sheets, only to have his father cut him loose and let him fall when he decides Launcelot might make an able substitute.

Arthur and Bedevere end up in a village where they come across Roger the Shrubber who provides them the shrubbery they need for the Knights Who Say Ni. Arthur and Bedevere are joined by Robin and they escape from the Knights Who Say Ni.

The Knights venture on to Tim the Enchanter (John Cleese), who points them to the Cave of Caerbannog, where the location of the Grail is written on the wall. At the cave, they face the killer rabbit that lives within. After losing Sir Bors (Terry Gilliam) to the rabbit, they employ the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch to defeat it. Upon entering the cave, they are attacked by The Legendary (and animated) Black Beast of Arrrghhh who devours Brother Maynard (Eric Idle), but the rest are saved when the animator (Terry Gilliam) dies from a heart attack.

The Killer Rabbit in Action.

Next, they venture to the Bridge of Death which spans the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Each Knight is forced to answer three questions by the bridge-keeper (Michael Palin) to pass over the bridge or if they fail, thrown into the gorge. After Launcelot passes easily, Galahad and Robin are not so lucky. When its Arthur’s turn, he accidentally tricks the bridge-keeper with a question about swallows into throwing himself into the gorge.

Launcelot, however, gets separated from Arthur and Bedevere and is shown being arrested for the murder of the historian. Meanwhile, Arthur and Bedevere see the castle of their quest and magically a boat arrives to take them over to it. But the French are already there and once again a Frog soldier (John Cleese) berates them. Arthur and Bedevere retreat back across the water and immediately call together their soldiers to attack the castle. But on their approach, the cops stop them and arrest Arthur and Bedevere for their part in the historian’s murder. The film ends when one of the policemen at the end knocks the camera down.

The film's Cop Out ending.

While the group would go on to make three more after this one: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979); Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982) and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983), none would be better. This is their best combination of story-telling and humor. Life of Brian would offend many by its thinly veiled Christ bio; Live at the Hollywood Bowl was a greatest hits live performance with some new sketches and The Meaning of Life was more gross than funny.

Cinematic Python has very little to do with TV Series Python. While the two share a similar sense of humor and sometimes very witty dialogue, TV Python is much more about then-modern England and its foibles; though it did venture into period settings, it didn’t dwell on them. Cinematic Python, on the other hand, handles weightier subjects, like the quest for the Holy Grail with grittier depiction. We literally see peasants living in utter squalor while the King “rides” around in pristine white. As one villager remarks, he must be king since he’s the only one without shit on him. There are very few comedies that have scenes about the black death or show a man being cut apart limb by limb, but Jones and Gilliam manage as directors to navigate the precipice of being too over the top and still maintain the funny. Terry Gilliam would go on to a very uneven career as a film director, some would say never finding balance in very much.

I’m not going to attempt to delve into deeper meanings that may or may not be in Holy Grail, such as the separation of classes that existed in Medieval England and some might say still exists today, as the rich get richer, etc. That may very well be there, but I’m not sure if Python was trying to comment on it or not. I’ll leave it for others to do the socio-economic implications.

To date myself, I went to the first screening of Holy Grail in Dallas, Texas. While Dallas at the time might have been considered conservative and bible-thumping, the first television station to show Monty Python was KERA, the local public broadcasting affiliate. My friends at the time were all into watching the show, which had a new show on Sundays and was repeated the following Saturday. By then I’m pretty sure it had ended its run in England. This was, dare I say, before videotape, so we would make audio recordings of the show and play them back. And we were in line to receive our free uncut cocoanut, which at the time I don’t think we knew what significance it had until the movie started.

There are definitely things about this movie that never grow old, such as the substituting cocoanuts for horses and hooves. Overall, there is a timeless quality to the story and the story-telling. Unlike many films, which are obviously modern retellings, where actors are not in proper attire or there are current references in dialogue, Holy Grail seems to have tried to keep the emphasis on telling a comedy set in a particular period. Oh, the humor is more risqué than in King Arthur’s time and I doubt the Roundtable would have featured singing and dancing, but those are Python’s touches and they don’t seem to get dated, even watching this film 38 years later.

As much as I love this film, it is not for everyone. Small children should not be exposed to it without parental guidance. And there is a certain sophistication that the film assumes of its audience. But it is really far from being highbrow. If you have never seen Monty Python at all, I wouldn’t recommend starting with the movies. The TV series is your primer. But if you’ve seen that, but never one of the movies then this would be a great one to start with. Frankly, they are all downhill from here.

Stubs - 3 Days of the Condor

3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max Von Sydow. Directed by Sydney Pollack. Screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel. Based on the book Six Days of the Condor by James Grady. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Run Time: 118. Color. U.S. Action, Adventure, Espionage, Suspense.

I will admit right off the top that I have not read James Grady’s Six Days of the Condor so any review about the movie will be solely based on my viewing experience, rather than any comparison between literary work and the motion picture. In my opinion, books and movies share the ability to tell a story, but they have to go about it in very different means. What may work well on the page may not translate to the big screen. A movie must stand on its own and tell a compelling story no matter what the source material.

Set at Christmastime, though not what many would consider a Christmas movie, 3 Days of the Condor tells the story of Joseph Turner aka The Condor (Robert Redford), a CIA operative who works for a cover organization, The American Literary Historical Society, that reads everything published to look for connections to existing operations. We watch as the office starts its day; workers arrive, coffee is made, conversations are had, etc., etc. Everyone is there with the exception of two people, Turner and another operative named Heidegger (Lee Steale). We know this because a mysterious man is staking the office out and ticking off employee names as they arrive.

Turner is late, which seems to be a natural course for him. Once he arrives he is informed that headquarters has dismissed his report about a thriller novel that has been translated into various odd languages, like Arabic and Dutch. Turner is sent on an errand to get the office lunch order and is around the corner at the deli, when three men, led by G. Joubert (Max Von Sydow), enter the office and kill everyone they find, including Janice Chon (Tina Chen), the co-worker Turner appears to have something going on with. Fearing for his life, Turner grabs the gun the receptionist had in her desk and flees.

He goes to a nearby phone and calls the CIA in Langley. Originally scolded for not following protocol, Condor is told not to go home, to call back in two hours and to walk away from the phone. So naturally, Turner heads back to his apartment. There his landlady (Carol Gustafson) tells him that two men are waiting for him in his apartment. Wisely, Turner leaves and heads over to Heidegger’s place, only to find he’s been killed while still in bed. Turner manages to get out of the apartment just ahead of two shadowy men who show up and go inside.

Turner calls the New York CIA headquarters and talks with J. Higgins (Cliff Robertson), the deputy director of the New York division, and is given instructions to come in. The rendezvous is an alleyway next to the Ansonia hotel. In addition to his section chief S.W. Wicks (Michael Kane), who has flown up from D.C., there will also be a friendly face, Sam Barber (Walter McGinn), waiting for him. But as soon as Turner arrives and Barber acknowledges him, Wicks, who has never met Turner, opens fire on him. Turner shoots back, wounding Wicks. Barber, who is obviously confused, is shot and killed by Wicks. Turner, though, manages to escape.

Needing a place to hide, Turner takes refuge in a ski shop and then targets one of the shoppers, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway) as she is leaving the store. At gunpoint, he forces her to drive them to her apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Needing some rest, Turner forces Kathy to lie on the bed with him before the news. When the shooting next to the Hotel is mentioned, the victims are not identified. Turner decides to visit Barber’s wife, Mae (Carlin Glynn). She is preparing dinner for Turner, Janice and her husband and wonders why Janie and Sam are both working late. The phone rings, as Mae says it had several times, but there is no one there. Sensing bad things, Turner makes Mae leave and go wait with some upstairs neighbors.

As he is hustling her into the elevator, he becomes aware that Joubert is also waiting for the elevator. Turner takes the elevator down and Joubert gets on with him. Joubert is ominous looking, but is polite and conversational towards Turner. However, Turner, who reads a lot, figures out that Joubert might be lying in wait for him outside the building. Promising money if some young people in the lobby will try to help him unlock his car, Turner surrounds himself with unwilling human shields. Joubert, who is waiting for him, can’t get a clean shot, so Turner manages to get away. However, Joubert does get a look at the license plate on Kathy’s car.

That night, Kathy, who has been tied up in the bathroom with a gag in her mouth, succumbs to Turner’s charms and the two have sex. Even though there is no nudity and the sex is shown above the waist, it still seems gratuitous. As if you couldn’t have two attractive leads and not have them get into bed together. By this time, Turner has told Kathy his story and she seems to believe him, but he’s not one hundred percent sure he can trust her.

The next morning, while Kathy is in the shower, a postman arrives needing a signature for a package. As the audience, we recognize him as one of the assassins from the previous day. Even though Turner doesn’t know he was one of the killers, he suspects that the man is not a postman and manages to overpower and kill him. Turner goes through the postman’s pockets and finds a key for room 819 and a slip of paper with a phone number on it. He calls the number with a Washington DC area code and is connected to the CIA. When he asks for Wicks, he is told he is out of the office.

Knowing he can’t trust anyone at the CIA, Turner gets Kathy to help him. First, she goes to the CIA office to apply for a position. Once on the floor, she goes to Higgins’ office so she can see what he looks like, Next, when Higgins goes to lunch, Turner and Kathy follow him to a restaurant, where Kathy manages to lure him outside. Turner and Kathy kidnap Higgins and take him someplace where they can talk without being overheard or tracked. After being questioned, Higgins reveals that the assassin is Joubert, a former CIA agent, now a freelance killer. It is also at the meeting that Turner learns that Wicks died.

After stealing a briefcase from a telephone van, Turner takes the postman’s key to a locksmith. Turner knows that the codes on the key mean something and bribes the locksmith to help him. The key belongs to a Holiday Inn and using tools in the briefcase, Turner manages to tap into Joubert’s phone. After making a cryptic call to the room, Turner records the number Joubert dials next. Using connections he still has at the CIA, Turner plays the recording into a computer which deciphers the tones and tells him the number. Then calling the phone company Turner finds that the number belongs to Leonard Atwood (Addison Powell), a CIA director who outranks Higgins and Wicks.

Freeing Kathy to return to her life, which includes a ski trip she’s supposed to be on with her boyfriend, Turner takes the train down to Washington DC and gets into Atwood’s house. There he learns that his report had uncovered a secret CIA plot to invade the Middle East oilfields, thus setting into motion the killing of his entire office to cover it up. But his confrontation with Atwood is cut short when Joubert arrives on the scene.

Expecting to be killed, Turner puts down his gun and steps away from Atwood. However, Joubert is there to kill Atwood. He tells Turner that he has been hired by the CIA to kill Atwood. Since his contract to kill Turner had been with Atwood, he lets Turner walk. Joubert advises Turner to leave the country and become an assassin. But Turner refuses. Joubert then tells Turner that if he does go back one day someone he knows and trusts will betray him. He offers Turner back the gun he had, for that day, he says. Finally, Joubert asks if he can give Turner a ride anywhere.

Back in New York, Turner once again confronts Higgins, who appears to be willing to bring him in at last. However, Turner refuses. When asked if there are plans to invade the Middle East, Higgins will only admit to war games, played on a what if basis. But Higgins defends the plans, telling Turner that if the oil gets shut off, the American people will only want the government to get it for them, they won’t ask how they do it. Turner tells Higgins that he has told his story to the New York Times, as a way of protecting himself. But Higgins asks him how he knows the Times will print his story. Even though Turner is confident they’ll print it, in the final freeze frame, we see Turner looking back at Higgins. We are left to wonder if he will indeed be safe or if Joubert’s prediction will one day come true.

Overall, 3 Days of the Condor is a pretty good, though not great, espionage film. Coming post-Watergate, at a time when public opinion didn’t trust the federal government, it was easy to believe that there might indeed be a CIA inside the CIA, as Turner supposes. There are enough twists and turns to keep the story interesting, but not too many as to keep the plot from being followed. This is a movie that you need to pay attention to while watching, but if you do, you will not be disappointed. Sydney Pollack should be congratulated for that, which, in inferior hands, might easily be a confusing mess.

The acting is also, for the most part, good as well. Cliff Robertson is his usual good as Higgins. Max Von Sydow, best known for his eleven films with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is a very ominous and complex Joubert. I’d also like to mention John Houseman, who plays Wabash. There are several scenes showing how the CIA is reacting to and trying to kill Condor and Wabash is one of the most menacing, by playing the part understated. Houseman, whose own film career dates back to Citizen Kane (1941), would continue to act through the 1980’s.

3 Days of the Condor is a Redford vehicle. In the mid-70’s when this film was made, Redford was at the height of his popularity, having starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1967), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973) and the Great Gatsby (1974). The film, like most of Redford’s films at this time, was well received and did decent box office. Redford would continue to act: The Electric Horseman (1979), The Natural (1984), Sneakers (1992) to name a few.

But from this point on, Redford would get into controlling his career, buying the movie rights to Woodward and Bernstein’s All The President’s Men, which he would help make into a movie and co-star in the year after this film. He would eventually get into directing, winning an Academy Award for his first film Ordinary People (1980); producing with The Horse Whisperer (1998), which he also directed; found the Sundance Film Festival (1978), Sundance Institute (1981), Sundance Channel (1996) and Sundance Cinemas (2007), all dedicated to showcasing independent films, documentaries and foreign-language films.

There are some flaws, as far as I see it, but most of them revolve around the character of Kathy. She is an odd duck, to say the least. She never screams or really fights back when Turner takes her hostage. She is obviously scared but ultimately trusts Turner, even going so far as to sleep with him, as discussed above. We are told that even though she is in a relationship, she is lonely like Turner is and that’s supposed to be enough for her to let her guard down and have sex with him and then help him in the very dangerous game of cat and mouse Turner is playing with the CIA. Hers seems to be a necessary character, though I’m not sure I really believe her.

Watching 3 Days of The Condor, you will be surprised at how outdated the technology is in the film; how big and archaic the computers are and how no one has a cell phone. But while the technology may be outdated, the story is not. Distrust of the government is as old as the movie. We have never fully recovered from the Watergate break-in and cover-up. No one blindly trusts that the government will do the right thing at the right time; see Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It is easy to believe that the CIA has secret plans they want to keep secret, an idea other movies, like the above-mentioned Sneakers and the Bruce Willis starrer Red (2010), have also exploited.

But the reason to watch 3 Days is to see Robert Redford. Not only is he good-looking he is a very good actor and makes almost any movie he’s in worth watching. This is a good movie and a fun one to watch.

To read reviews of other Christmas films, please see our Christmas Review Hub.

Stubs - The Day of the Locust

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1975) Starring: Donald Sutherland, Karen Black, Burgess Meredith, William Atherton. Directed by John Schlesinger. Produced by Jerome Hellman. Written by Waldo Salt. Based on a novel by Nathaniel West. Music by John Barry. Run Time: 144 minutes. Color. US. Drama.

The best way to describe the film is that it’s like taking Nathaniel West’s novel, dropping it into a blender, adding scenes and filming the results. While the film shares the same characters and interactions of the novel, many of the events in the novel do not happen in the same sequence. The resultant movie seems to be more of a series of vaguely related vignettes about people on the fringes of Hollywood that don’t add up to a congealed whole.

William Atherton, perhaps better known as the asshole news reporter in the first two Die Hard films, plays Tod Hackett, a painter who works in Hollywood doing production designs. Living in the apartment across the way is Faye Greener (Karen Black), an aspiring starlet who mostly does extra work, and her father Harry Greener (Burgess Meredith), a one-time performer reduced to selling miracle solvents door-to-door.

Faye is blonde and beautiful and Tod easily falls in love with her. But getting involved with Faye is a little like falling down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. Through her Tod is introduced to Earle Shoop (Bo Hopkins) an urban cowboy before there was that phrase who, like Faye, is an extra. Earle lives in the hills with Miguel (Pepe Serna) a Mexican who raises roosters for cock fighting. Donald Sutherland, who gets top-billing, is Homer Simpson, a hapless businessman who falls in love with, but never can seem to seal the deal with, Faye. Faye is the stereotypical crazy girl, who even her father refers to a c-teaser. Tod, like Earle and Homer, is infatuated with her, but never can bed her and never do figure her out.

Also living in the complex is Adore Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) an annoying kid actor whose mother is always taking him to auditions. Abe Kisch (Billy Barty) is a midget, naturally, who has trouble with women.

One day, Harry has an attack while selling his solvent to Homer and Faye comes by looking for him. Homer is immediately smitten. Harry rallies, but it is short-lived. Faye and Homer at one point take Harry to a Big Sister (Geraldine Page) revival, but that doesn’t seem to help. When Harry does eventually die, Faye and Homer develop a business-deal and she moves in with him, though they never share a bed.

Tod, meanwhile, gets his break in Hollywood when he gets the attention of his boss’s boss Claude Estee (Richard A. Dysart) and is assigned to do production drawings for a film about the battle of Waterloo. Estee invites Tod out for an evening of dinner and stag films. Tod will later return the favor by inviting Claude to cock fights in Homer Simpson’s garage. The party that follows deteriorates into a drunken brawl when Faye is found in bed with Miguel, first by Homer who impudently does nothing, and then by Earle, who starts to beat up on 

Miguel and breaks furniture and windows in the process.

The film is quite disjointed and one scene rarely sets up the next one or the one after that. The film does end in a similar way to the book with a riot at the premiere of a Cecil B. DeMille film at the Grauman Chinese Theater. Homer, for some reason, is walking around carrying suitcases, though it doesn’t appear he is going any place in particular. Tod, who is caught up in a traffic jam caused by the premiere, sees Homer and tries to talk to him. But Homer is in a catatonic state and is unresponsive.

While sitting on a bus bench not too far away from the premiere, Homer is accosted by Adore, who berates Homer and even strikes him with a rock in the forehead. This sets Homer off. He chases down and eventually stomps the life out of Adore. When the crowd hears the boys screams, they come running and in mob-rule mentality literally starts to pull Homer apart. Hearing the commotion, the police, who are at the premiere, try to break up the scuffle, which in turn sets off a riot, with looting, cars being over turned and fires. Tod who has been trying to find Homer gets caught up in the riot and gets wounded.

Overall I found the film to be a little confusing, very depressing and too long. This is definitely a case where you cannot watch the movie instead of reading the book, because the book and film, while telling the same basic story, do so in very different ways. While the original novel is considered to be a classic, the film is perhaps best forgotten unless you’re doing a survey of failed adaptations.