THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
US, 1968, 124 minutes, Colour.
Alan Arkin, Sondra Locks, Chuck Mc Cann, Stacey Keach.
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller,
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is based on Carson McCuller's novel and is a moving, human story, beautifully acted. The hero is John Singer, a deaf-mute; the heroine, Mick, a sixteen year old girl; John Singer's disability makes him more sensitive to the plight of others: the lonely M1ck, her parents, a black doctor and his daughter, a vagrant and, especially, his friend Antonopolus, a retarded deaf-mute who has a delightful penchant for cake and sweets.
Mick suffers from the disabilities of her surroundings, especially the family's lack of money and her father's being handicapped and her mother over-worked. She needs to fulfil her musical ambitions and to find appreciation. The film ends sadly, tragically or melodramatically, depending on your point of view.
Both Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke were nominated for Oscars in 1968 but did not receive them. Their performances well deserved the nominations and Alan Arkin's gentle, thoughtful and ultimately sad portrayal of a deaf-mute is one of his best roles (and he is an actor with an extraordinary range). The film entertains so well that its message could not be lost.
1. Some reviewers have called John Singer a 'Christ-figure'. Do you agree that there is any basis for this in the film? Are the reviewers speaking about Singer's life or his death, or both?
2. The film highlights the quality of life by showing us a group of characters deprived of something of the fulness of life. It would be profitable to discuss each character, note what each lacked and compare impressions.
John Singer - deprived of hearing and speech, the pleasure of music and immediate understanding; he is deprived of full human communication;
Mick - deprived of ambition's fulfilment, money, friends, her mother's patient love and understanding; deprived also of innocence;
Mick's father - deprived of limbs and mobility, the capacity to work, earn and provide as a father; deprived of opportunity;
Mick's mother - deprived of time and her capacity for motherly, loving tenderness;
The retarded mute - deprived of hearing speech, intelligence and, in his death, of loving care;
The doctor - deprived of civil rights, friendship, opportunity, acceptance and the love of his daughter; deprived
of peace of mind by prejudice, deprived of life by cancer;
The doctor's daughter - deprived of peace of mind, ambition and fulfilment by her need to rebel, by her being black;
Her husband - deprived of justice in court, of his leg because of punishment;
The vagrant - deprived of stability of character, so prone to drink, violence, vagrancy.
3. What were the things that mads John Singer happy?
4. 'The inability to communicate' is linked with John Singer's death; it is associated with the obscure death of his retarded friend. It is also associated with the impending death of the doctor.
5. 'The inability to communicate' was part of the quality of life and influenced the deaths. Discuss.
6. John Singer's death was too sudden, not expected by the audience and, therefore, melodramatic instead of tragic. Do you agree? Or would you agree that the filmmakers have shocked us by the unexpected death, showing that, although we sympathised with John Singer and thought we understood him, we were cut off from his inner thoughts as well?
