“America, America” (1963)
Elia Kazan’s body of work can be broken up into two periods, those before and after the 1952 HUAC testimony, because everything irrevocably changed after that. While his greatest success, “On The Waterfront” (12 Oscar nominations, 8 wins including Best Picture and Director) came two years afterwards suggesting his career wasn’t hurt by his actions, the testimony in a way would only build in notoriety over the years. While his career wasn’t too affected at first, by the late 1950s and the 1960s Kazan was no longer at his peak where critics, awards and box-office were concerned. The scathing treatise on celebrity and television, “A Face In The Crowd” is one of his most searing pictures, but it was dismissed as too acidic by the culture at the time. And “Wild River,” as you read, was totally overlooked in every way. “Splendor in the Grass” got decent notices, but you could feel a kind of “fuck it” arrive in 1963 when Kazan released his magnum opus, “America, America” — an almost-three-hour film, and his most personal, telling the story of an immigrant’s life as he emigrates to the land of promise and all the excruciating hardships he must endure to get there. Starring all unknowns, shot in beautiful black and white by the great Haskell Wexler (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “Bound For Glory,” “Days of Heaven“) and written, produced and directed by Kazan, “America, America” was, as if it were in any doubt, a massive labor of love. Loosely based on the story of his Greek uncle’s emigration from oppressive Turkey to the United States in the late 1890s, it’s not always successful either. Greek actor Stathis Giallelis, virtually in every frame of the movie, is real, but also awkward. The film is characteristically melodramatic, even sometimes a little overwrought, and its near three-hour running time demonstrates a filmmaker unwilling to make any compromises with his story (we don’t even get close to Stateside until the last fifteen minutes of this overlong film). Originally titled “The Anatolian Smile” — loosely named after the region were Greeks were subjugated by the Turks and often lead an ingratiating life underfoot — Kazan described it as “the smile that covers resentment.” It was something he loathed in his father, and “America, America” certainly covers this complicated ground, using it as a launching pad to explore the ignominy his family had to endure, but also the individual whose rage, dissatisfaction and anger dictated that he could take it all no longer. The film would be Kazan’s last majorly lauded picture awards-wise. It earned four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Director, but would only win for Gene Callahan‘s incredible Art Direction. [B-]
And that’s it for now, but there’s also “Viva Zapata” with Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn, and while it might not even be his 10th best movie, it’s still watchable and compelling. Completists can check out the following: the uneven, testing-of-monogamy picture “The Arrangement,” the socially-charged “Pinky,” “Panic In The Streets” starring the great Richard Widmark, the legal noir “Boomerang,” the iron curtain drama “Man on a Tightrope,” and his final picture “The Last Tycoon” with Robert De Niro, to name most of his movies. Do you have a favorite, or feel like there’s an undersung Kazan gem that needs more love? Sound off in the comments and or just tell us what you think of his oeuvre overall. – Rodrigo Perez and Drew Taylor
