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November 09, 2004
What's It All About?
Okay, I'm really, really tired all the time, but I'm going to try to do a bit o'blogging today, mostly as a means of getting the writing side of my brain fired up. See if I can finish most of this book I gotta do before the baby comes. If the baby can now wait until the midwife returns from her conference in (ahem) St. Thomas.
"I'll drink a banana daquiri in your honor," she said. Gee, thanks.
First, the new film version of Alfie. I never saw the original, but James Bowman, in his review of the remake, gives us insight into the crucial scene of the Caine version:
The one thing everyone remembers about the original Alfie (1966) — and, I think, one of the great moments in cinematic history — is the scene in which Michael Caine breaks down on seeing the dead fetus an abortionist (Denholm Elliott) has left in his kitchen. Lewis Gilbert’s film version of Bill Naughton’s play allowed us to watch as this jaunty Lothario who’s got it all figured out suddenly and unexpectedly acquired a conscience. Afterwards, Caine’s Alfie treats his emotional lapse as a curiosity. "I don’t know what I was expecting to see," he says to the camera; "certainly not this perfectly formed being." He "expected it to cry out. It didn’t of course; it couldn’t have done. Still, it must have had some life." And then there comes, like "praying or something," his moment of insight when an "it" becomes a "him": "‘You know what you done?’ I says to myself. ‘You murdered him.’"
Of course, this would be an impossible line in Charles Shyer’s new remake of the picture...
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Comments
The decision to remove the "comprehending the full moral and factual dimensions of what an abortion really means" scene is revealing. Equally revealing is what the film chooses to substitute for it: betraying a friend by having intercourse with his "girl". (Have not seen the film but can read between the lines)
Bowman makes the point that we are meant to see this an immoral thing to do because it is the betrayal of a friend (which it is) but we are not invited to think about it in the broader context of Alfie's life. Presumably all of the other infidelities/adulteries in which he engages are also betrayals and cause tremendous pain - just not for HIS friends. So, it is all right then.
Isn't it ture that the only moral absolute in our culture is that you shouldn't hurt a friend's feelings? That you are supposed to stand by and "support" them in their decisions no matter what? This is not always a bad thing. But if it not OK to do something to a friend, why is it ok to do it to a stranger?
Posted by: Annie at Nov 9, 2004 11:43:37 AM
Wow. Every so often I find out about some cultural event like this 1966 film which occurred during my lifetime, but yet I knew absolutely nothing about. I was a child at the time, but still I find it shocking that in 1966 one could even find a reference to abortion in a mainstream film. Call me "sheltered", I guess.
Too bad my own children will never be as shocked.
Posted by: FBC at Nov 9, 2004 11:47:41 AM
Too bad Caine himself learned nothing from it. (He made The Cider House Rules.)
Posted by: Hunk Hondo at Nov 9, 2004 12:06:02 PM
Hunk: trust the work of art, not the artist.
The "Alfie" of 1966 was not the only mainstream picture in that decade to deal with abortion. "Love With the Proper Stranger," discussed on this blog some weeks ago, features Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen, who can't go through with the abortion.
Youngsters, believe it or not, many movies in the '60s and 1970s actually treated paying customers like adults and dealt with serious themes. Seems like there's fewer pictures of that caliber these days.
Posted by: Whitcomb at Nov 9, 2004 1:19:34 PM
There was also DARLING, of the same vintage as ALFIE, with an abortion plot point. But there's no catharsis for the heroine's many sins, only the suggestion that she was a mental case from childhood.
Why it was necessary to remake ALFIE, a superb film, is only a question Hollywood geniuses can answer. Another interesting difference is that Alfie's victims aren't beauties in the original. They are in the remake which is sinking like a stone.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Nov 9, 2004 1:58:22 PM
I'll never forget the abortion scene in Michael Caine's "Alfie." It's a sad commentary on our society that the remake will try to neutralize the horror of abortion.
Posted by: Lynn at Nov 9, 2004 2:24:37 PM
Alfie 1966: the kind of man who brought about the sexual revolution.
Alfie 2004: the kind of man who resulted from it.
Posted by: John Heavrin at Nov 9, 2004 2:46:54 PM
I second the "Love with a Proper Stranger" film about really growing up and experiencing adult, responsible love. Made me cry - it was so beautiful and so different from the please-yourself stuff we have today.
There was another one called "Blue Denim" or something like that with Carol Lynley when I was in high school. I can't remember what exactly happened in that one but it also involved an abortion and teen-agers. Natalie Wood & Steve McQueen seemed to be in their mid 20s.
There was also
Posted by: Julia at Nov 9, 2004 5:40:59 PM
As a seventeen year old, I took a very nice young lady to see Alfie in downtown Boston. We couldn't get into Dr. Zhivago, so we just went to the next movie house down Tremont St. I had forgotten the abortion scene. We were so naive then, it probably went over our heads. I was all excited at the prospect of seeing my friend at my 35th high school reunion a few years ago when I learned that she had passed away some five years earlier. Anyway, that is my Alfie story -- well, I'll have to watch it again.
Posted by: Fank Gibbons at Nov 9, 2004 6:29:00 PM
Not to sentimentalize the '60s, but....the music was better too.
Could you imagine a pop lyric like this cracking the Top 40 today:
What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about
when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give,
or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie,
then I guess it is wise to be cruel.
But if life belongs
only to the strong, Alfie,
what will you lend on an old golden rule?
Posted by: Whitcomb at Nov 9, 2004 9:59:20 PM
Whitcomb,
No, I can't.
Posted by: Mike Petrik at Nov 10, 2004 2:06:36 PM
Sex has consequences! Naturally the Alfie remake, unlike the original, would not dwell on this inconvenient truth. Too many people are heavily invested in the free sex myth, often the same people who will condemn Christians for attempting to live in a fantasy world. Nothing is less realistic than the belief that sex can ever truly be casual.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Nov 10, 2004 8:13:53 PM
