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| Actor Stathis Giallelis reassures his mother before leaving home in Elia Kazan's America America |
I was not among those who watched 45 use the longest war in U.S. history as a wedge to try and prop up his failing presidency - nor did I watch him go off script last night in Phoenix.
With Trump in Arizona to visit a border crossing near Yuma to promote his beloved wall before ratcheting up his divisive rhetoric against immigrants, the New York Times is reporting that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is now openly musing about whether the increasingly politically-isolated Trump can actually get any of his legislative initiatives passed.
In light of 45's recent wacky speculation on Fox News that he might use the rally in Phoenix to issue a presidential pardon to the immigrant-hating recently convicted former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it seemed timely to unplug from the news and watch America, America - director Elia Kazan's 1963 film based on his family's accounts of his uncle's epic struggle to immigrate to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.
From my perspective, this compelling black and white film serves as the perfect contrast to the bombastic, irrational immigrant bashing that all but defined the 2016 Republican presidential race and continues to echo in the halls of the current White House; which has engaged in abhorrent, simplistic, fear-based hysteria regarding those who immigrate to this nation from other countries.
Elia Kazan has long been one of my favorite directors, and I've seen many of the classics he's directed multiple times, because there always seems to be something new to learn from watching his work.
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| Elia Kazan (left) directing Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood in Splendor In the Grass (1961) |
Born in 1909 in what is now Istanbul, Turkey to Greek parents, Kazan was one of the founders of the Actor's Studio and as his impressive film resume demonstrates, he was known for eliciting incredibly deep and realistic performances from actors.
For example, Andy Griffith's work in A Face In the Crowd, in which he plays a sly, charming but volatile country drifter who becomes an influential force in media and politics intoxicated with his own power, is (in my opinion) the finest role of Griffith's career - and it was his first film break.
If you've never seen it rent it when you get the chance, Walter Matthau, Patricia Neal and a young Lee Remick all have excellent supporting roles, and the script by Budd Schulberg is a searing and darkly cynical look at the intersection of the entertainment and media industry and politics.
Schulberg also wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront and wrote the influential 1941 novel 'What Makes Sammy Run?' a piercing character study of a ruthless Hollywood backstabber who claws his way to the top.
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| Gregory Peck (with Celeste Holm) confronts anti-Semitism in Gentlemen's Agreement (1947) |
Kazan did not shy away from taking on a range of highly-controversial topics in his films including anti-Semitism, racism and political corruption, and he also insisted that each of his films in some way relate to his own life experiences.
For example the anti-Semitism he must've faced during his life is clearly reflected in Gentlemen's Agreement starring Gregory Peck.
While I'm not an expert on Kazan by any means, I am pretty familiar with his films, so as a casual observer my sense is that his 1963 film America America stands out as his most personal work.
I watched it on DVD (Netflix) the other day for the first time and came away impressed with the sheer scope of the story - if you get cable it's going to be broadcast on TCM on Thursday September 7th at 12:30pm EST if you want to set your DVR to record it and watch it.
But be prepared, the version I saw was almost three hours long, so it's not a quick watch or anything - it's one of those films you've got to be prepared to sit down and absorb.
In America America Kazan's trademark use of respectful doses of sentimentality are contrasted with some pretty intense helpings of reality so intense that they can be hard to watch at times.
The story, based on Kazan's uncle's experiences, centers on Stavros Topouzoglou (played by unknown actor Stathis Giallelis) the oldest son of a Greek family living in a hard-scrabble village in the mountains of Turkey in 1890.
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| Cinematographer Haskell Wexler shooting on the set of America America |
In fact, when I saw the opening scenes, they reminded me of the brilliant shot in the opening of David Leans' Dr. Zhivago (1965) as the story cuts to the past with a sweeping view of the Russian mountains where the main character was born.
Lean is a master filmmaker, but I wouldn't be surprised if he "borrowed" Haskell Wexler's shot.
In the first act of America America Stavros is exposed to the brutality of life under the Ottoman Turkish empire as Turkish soldiers brutally execute Armenian Christians before beginning to heard them into concentration camps.
The Armenian Genocide remains highly controversial to this day and it's interesting to see how careful Kazan was about discussing it in the film.
Kazan offers some interesting cut-away snippets of Turkish officials in meetings discussing what will become the foundation of the Turkish genocide of Armenian people that eventually took place during WWI between 1915 - 1918 and later between 1920 - 1923.
From the start, young Stavros dreams of going to America, urged on by an older Armenian friend who encourages them to both leave before the latter is killed by the Turks - after that, reaching America becomes an obsession for Stavros that drives the rest of the film.
His family entrusts him with all their valuables to set out across the country to Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) where his father's cousin has a small business.
But along the way Stavros is repeatedly taken advantage of, robbed, beaten and wrongly framed by the law to the point that his obsession to reach America morphs into a ravenous desperate hunger that gnaws at him day and night.
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| Stavros and other immigrants glimpse the coast of the United States for the first time |
Along the way, Kazan uses the scenery, characters and setting to describe the gut-wrenching struggles faced by immigrants trying to reach America at the turn of the century in ways that are far more effective than some kind of speech.
He dives deep into the brutal economic conditions that drove millions to come to the U.S. to search for a better life.
While it's clearly a personal film for Kazan, it's still Hollywood.
So things eventually turn for Stavros, but only after he comes face to face with frustration, desperation and repeated failure, and when he finally does meet some Americans, Kazan reminds us that human nature is human nature - bursting the bubble of the ideal of a land of plenty where the streets are paved with gold.
The America Stavros finds is decidedly un-Hollywood, but it is America.
The film compelled me to look with a new perspective at those scenes of desperate migrants from Africa and the Middle East packed onto boats crossing to Greece or Italy - risking their lives for a chance at a better life for themselves and their families.
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| A naturalization ceremony in Washington D.C |
America America is set at the turn of the century and was released in 1963, but it's remarkably relevant to the crisis of global immigration that many countries are facing today - a crisis fueled by poverty, economic inequality, political oppression and war.
And of course, plain old greed and corruption.
I'm not sure the film answers those questions, but it does shed new light on the issue; and it offers fresh insight into the lives of the people who are so often reduced to degrading stereotypes by the likes of men like Donald Trump and Stephen Miller - both of whom had relatives who immigrated to this country from other lands.
How quickly they forgot - or perhaps, growing up ensconced in the privilege that surrounded both Trump and Miller, they simply never understood.
Elia Kazan's film could offer them both insight, but I'm not sure Trump or Miller care, or even want to learn - because by watching America America, it might just humanize the very people they both make a career out of dehumanizing.
It's unlikely men like that are ready to shed their rigid and divisive ideology in order to examine who they really are and where they come from.
Self examination like that takes courage, the kind Elia Kazan demonstrated in writing, producing and directing a film about the immigrant experience that shaped his own life - and hence the perspective of the audiences and artists alike around the world who've watched his films and been inspired.
1 comment:
Too bad the current administration has no compassion for the immigrants' plight. It's one thing to consider immigration reform and another to dehumanize them. Thanks for this.
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