THE MISFITS
US, 1961, 124 minutes, Black and white.
Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter, Kevin Mc Carthy.
Directed by John Huston.
Surprisingly on its release, the film was not the box office success that was expected. However, in retrospect it has become something of a contemporary western classic.
The screenplay was written by playwright Arthur Miller (The Crucible, Death of a Salesman) for his former wife, Marilyn Monroe. He wrote about their relationship in his play, After the Fall, which was filmed for television with Christopher Plummer and Faye Dunaway.
The film was directed by John Huston who had been a strong Hollywood writer in the 1930s and made his directing debut in the 1940s with The Maltese Falcon. Over the decades he made many classic films including The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen.
The film was the last for Clark Gable who had been in films for thirty years and had been a popular leading man, winning an Oscar for It Happened One Night as well as starring in Gone With The Wind. After this, Marilyn Monroe shot some scenes for a comedy, Something’s Gotta Give, but this was her last completed film. She had appeared in smaller roles in the late 1940s, Love Happy, The Asphalt Jungle, before making an impact in such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Niagara, How to Marry a Millionaire and continued to dominate films with The Seven Year Itch as well as Some Like It Hot.
The film had a strong supporting cast including Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. Thelma Ritter and Kevin Mc Carthy also have featured roles.
The film focuses on a divorcee falling in love with an ageing cowboy. He and his friends go out to round up the misfit horses who are destined for the factory.
The film, in black and white, creates its own atmosphere, draws on the strength and screen presence of the stars as well as the aftermath of the pioneering frontier life in Nevada.
1. The significance and irony of the title? The jigsaw pieces during the credits? Title and credits indicating themes?
2. The importance of Arthur Miller's contribution to the screenplay? the literary style, stage strength, theatrical atmosphere in interrelationships? His relationship to Marilyn Monroe and his vision of her as an American type?
3. How literary was the film? Critics said too literary. Its use of the western conventions for the plot, its use of the conventions as symbols for the American heritage. How well was this presented and communicated?
4. The symbolism of the American west for America? The modern American west compared with the past? The winning and taming of the west? Modern cowboys as anachronisms etc?
5. The theme of America: the conscience of America, its heritage, problems of relationships and identity, lost Americans?
6. How was Roslyn central to these themes? The performance of Marilyn Monroe and her symbolism? Roslyn as an emotive character, intuitive for example her hugging the trees, wandering the garden, the bar-room game etc (yet Roslyn as a failure in her own life)? Roslyn's naivety, her divorce, her easy vulnerability, the confidante of the men, as able to react to their plights, as offering love, understanding
and sympathy? The mother-daughter relationship with Isabel? How interesting and complex a character is Roslyn?
7. The importance of her reaction to the rodeo and its violence? To Gay's reaction about violence and his off-handedness? Her horror of the violence to the mustangs? The mustangs as misfits like the humans?
8. What was the basic message communicated through her character? The impact of the Marilyn Monroe- Roslyn type?
9. Gay? Clark Cable's performance and personality, as an older, more disillusioned man, a man of values which he now criticized, his relationship to Roslyn? The background of his marriage, his wanting his children? Why did he set up house with Roslyn? His effect on her and vice versa? The importance of the rodeo and his off-hand attitudes? His friendship with Guido? His relationship with Perce? The drunken evening? The reason for going after the mustangs? Out-of-date cowboys? Why did he change in his attitude? The possibility of a future?
10. How did Perce contrast with Gay and Guido? What kind of man was he in himself, as picked up along the road, his skill at the rodeo, his injuries and attitude towards them, the sympathy of Roslyn? The background of his relationship with his mother and his phoning her? What did Roslyn do to him? How did she change him? Why did he take her side in the round-up? A future for him?
11. The contrast with Guido: the initial cheerfulness, his pride in his house, the sad memories about his wife and his telling the story, his reaction to the rodeo, Roslyn's not having so much impact on him, the reason for his going on the roundup, his not changing?
12. The function of Isabel in the film: another woman, older, an older Roslyn? The bitter-sweet attitude she had towards life and people? The capacity for being a confidante of Roslyn? A kind of chorus on the happenings in the film?
13. The round-up of the mustangs: the destiny of the mustangs
contrast with their freedom in the past? The horse misfits like the humans? The visual impact of the mustangs, their being rounded up, the open-air, the camp, the riding, the ropes and the horses being set free, stampeding, dragging people? The physical effect of watching this? The overall significance?
14. The importance of the drinking night and truth being told? What capacity for truth did the characters have?
15. How strongly did the themes come through via dialogue? Personal and neurotic outbursts?
16. How well did the themes come through visual presentation?
17. How were the themes communicated in the feeling and sentiments of the characters and audience sentiment towards them?
18. What value has this film so many years after its being made?
