FIVE BRANDED WOMEN

Italy/US, 1960, 100 Minutes, Black and White.
Silvana Mangano, Van Heflin, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, Carla Gravina, Richard Basehart, Harry Guardino, Steve Forrest, Pietro Germi.
Directed by Martin Ritt.

Five Branded Women is an unusual film under the direction of Martin Ritt. Ritt was a singularly successful director in the late 50s and during the 60s. He began his successful film career with A Man is Ten Foot Tall and went on to make such films as The Long Hot Summer and The Sound and the Fury. During the 60s he had such notable success as Hud, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Hombre, and Molly Maguire's. In the 70s he made such diverse films as Sounder, Pete and Tillie and The Front (which was partly biographical in treating of the blacklisting of directors and actors in the 50s.) This is an Italian- American co-production with quite an international cast for presenting partisans and the Resistance in Yugoslavia during the war. It is interesting for the casting and the dramatics. Whether it gels successfully is an open question. However, it is a serious treatment of war problems.

1. What was the overall dramatic impact of this film? Why? Was it a likeable film? Was it too grim?

2. Why was the film made? Especially around 1959? Is it still relevant today even though it is of World War II? Why?

3. What comment did the film have about war and suffering? About love and hatred?

4. Did the opening of the film give enough explanation about the women to make the film engaging? why?

5. What were your impressions of Keller? Did you have any sympathy for him? What values did he represent? The Nazi and enemy values? His initial encounters with each of the women? His boasting his exploits to his friends? Did this get audience antipathy towards him? How?

6. How ordinary were the women in the village? What were your first impressions of them? Can you understand why they succumbed to Keller? What were they after?

7. How important were the Resistance in this film? How did the Germans react to them? Were the Germans in fear of the Resistance? Did the Resistance have any right to shave the heads of the women? To humiliate them? why did they do this? Did they have any right to mutilate Keller? Why was this done?

8. What was the German reaction to the shaving of the women and the mutilation of Keller? Was their dilemma clear? Did they have any alternative but to turn the women out of the town? Why?

9. Was the collaboration of the women made clear? Their humiliation in the village? Their being turned out to fend for themselves? Their desperate attempts to get food and drink?

10. What bonds did the women find amongst themselves? As they shared their stories? Their varying attitudes towards Keller and their fate? The importance of Danitsa trying to slash her wrists? Their reaction to this?

11. Their being besieged by the Germans and their shooting them? What made them then become a Resistance group on their own? Was this plausible? Was this the only way to survive? Their role in the ambush of the Germans and the collaboration of the Resistance? Did they have any alternative but to join the Resistance? And to abide by its rules? Did this have the satisfaction that they were forgiven by the Resistance? How would this transform their lives?

12. How central was the character of Jovanka? Why had she gone with Keller? Her explanation to her mother and her need for fun? Her aloofness in her humiliation? The fact that she was a leader? Her encounter with Brunko by the river? Her sense of character confronting him and Volko? Her role in the Resistance? How did she change during this period? Did she mature into a more sympathetic person? Her part in the Resistance in the village? Her decision to remain to die? Did she love Volko in the end? why?

13. Ljuba: why had she gone with Keller? Was protecting her brother enough? How proud a person was she? Her looking after Captain Weinhart? How did this change her? Did she love Weinhart? The importance of the sequence where she talked with him? Her helping with the birth of the baby? How emotionally affecting was the scene where she had to shoot Weinhart?

14. Danitsa: the fact that she was innocent of the original charges? The effect of this on her, and her slashing her wrists? Her getting used to being with the others? Her finding a place in the Resistance? Her first flowering of love with Brunko? Why did she ignore the rules? Did she deserve to die? The manner in which she faced death?

15. Marja: a widow, the fact that she wanted a child, her willingly going with Keller, her support of the others? How sympathetic and strong a character was she?

16. Mira: the fact that she was so young, her pregnancy? How self-centred and selfish a girl was she? How did the birth of the baby transform her?

17. Was Volko an interesting character? His vindictiveness at the beginning when he shave Jovanka? His stern rules for the Resistance? Was such control necessary? was this borne out by Brunko and Danitsa's disobedience? His wisdom leading the raid in the town? His being changed by Jovanka? His final decision to stay and die? Was his character well developed in the film? Was he a hero?

18. Brunko: his dramatic effect in the film? His showing off and flirting? His disobedience? Was this credible? The impact of the trial? Did he deserve to die?

19. The trial and the shooting sequence? What would you have done in such situations? The forcing of Jovanka and Ljuba to do the shooting? The fact that they didn't shoot? What moral choice did they have to make? Did they make the right choice?

20. How successfully filmed was the final Resistance siege in the town? How well was it prepared? The use of the anniversary situation and the showing of the films? How horrible was the warfare shown? The deaths and the destruction? The fact that the Resistance was routed? What did this add to the film and its theme of war?

21. The dramatic impact of the pursuit and the final sacrifice of Jovanka and Volko? How pessimistic an ending was this to the film?

22. What values did the film tend to explore? How were these presented dramatically in the five women and their plight? The technical addition of the black and white photography and the music? was this a successful film or merely an interesting one?