Wednesday, March 24, 2004

I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse (1973)

Surrealistic social satire/Passion play about a businessman on the lam for murder and an ageless dwarf whom he meets in the desert and takes back to civilization. (This should feel familiar to anyone who's familiar with Alejandro Jodorowsky, and not without reason -- writer/director Fernando Arrabal wrote the play upon which Jodorowsky's debut film Fando and Lis is based.) Arrabal's film is crude and clumsy, with a wearying emphasis on scatology, but also not ineffective and blessed with a welcome sense of humor. Several shock cuts have an earthy, slap-to-the-head quality about them (most memorable is the one involving a man eating a live chick). Filmmaking skill alternates between lyrical and amateurish; with a stronger director at the helm, this really could have been something. I get the feeling from this movie that Arrabal is a second-rate intellect (and an interview on the DVD pretty much confirms that), but that does put him far ahead of four-fifths of Hollywood. I can't really recommend this, but I wouldn't discourage you from checking it out either.

Grade: C+