Seen: May 27th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 8
I watched The Public Enemy not solong ago and really enjoyed it. I figured that another Cagney film was due, and this is it.
And it delivers.
The Roaring Twenties was Cagney's last gangster film before a ten years hiatus ending with White Heat. He'd grown weary of being type cast into the tough guy role. He'd done it so many times and well, that he just didn't see the point anymore.
But Eddie Bartlett was a character worth playing. Bartlett is different from some of his other characters in that his change over the course of the film is gradual. His transition from good guy to tough guy and eventually back is subtle and a bit insidious. Cagney play it exceptionally well. The range that Cagney shows is great and works at every moment of the film.
What's interesting is that none of the other characters really change during the course of the film. They remain fairly constant. Though their fortunes may change, their fundamental characters don't. George and Jeff are basically the same people at the end of the film as they were when we first met them. The same goes for Danny and Jean. Even Panama hasn't really changed that much.
Eddie's the one who's put through the mill a bit. As the world around him changes, his behavior changes as well to adapt and take advantage of those changes. He acts differently, carries himself differently, think in much larger terms. But we've got to wonder if his nature really varies. Even after the tide has turned, he stays true to his nature and the people he cares about.
The Roaring Twenties is tragic in some ways. It reflects a time that spawned innumerable tragedies, Eddie's is one of perhaps millions. His story is not ultimately one of good or evil, of triumph or tragedy, but one of redemption.
See this one for it's characters and to learn a little about Prohibition and what that meant at a less dramatic scale than you may have seen before. The Untouchables may have distorted our view of how widespread and common this problem was. And how many lives it ultimately touched.
The Good: Being true to your friends
The Bad: Partners without honor
The Ugly: A good man goes bad
No comments:
Post a Comment