tick…tick…tick…

US, 1970, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Fredric March, Lynn Carlin, Don Stroud, Clifton James, Bernie Casey, Dub Taylor.
Directed by Ralph Nelson.

Tick Tick Tick is a timely film of 1970 about race relationships. It was made only seven years after the march on Washington and comes from the immediate aftermath of the dramatised civil rights movement. It is interesting to note that director Ralph Nelson made Lilies of the field in 1963 and Sidney Poitier won the best actor award that year.

The film was written by James Lee Barrett, writer of a number of westerns in the 1960s and 1970s. He shows a small southern town, the election of a black sheriff by the black population, the intolerance of the white population of the county. This reaches a head when he has to arrest the son of a wealthy property owner in another county. Tensions, violence – hence the title of the ticking of the racial time bomb.

Jim Brown, former footballer, had emerged as a strong screen presence at this time in such films as The Dirty Dozen. He also had his series of films as the detective, Slaughter. George Kennedy had won an Oscar for Cool Hand Luke at this period. Fredric March was at the end of his long career. He had won two Oscars, one for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and the other for The Best Years of Our Lives. He was soon to be diagnosed with cancer but his final performance was very strong in the version of Eugene O’Neill’s? The Iceman Cometh.

It is hard to realise, in many ways, how topical this film was for 1970. It is a reminder of the United States’ racist past, of tensions and intolerance in the south as well as the violence. In this case it serves not only as a film critical of racism but as a piece of cinema history of the period.

1. How good a film was this on its theme? How well did it retain audience interest and involvement?

2. Was it a just and fair portrayal of America in the sixties? How much propaganda for race tolerance? The picture of the deep south in the late sixties? A fashionable theme for films at that time? Its impact for American audiences, non-American audiences?

3. The overtones of the title and the bomb? Explosive situations? Did the film justify this title? The themes implicit in the title?

4. The film's use of colour, widescreen, deep south locations, the atmosphere of the town, of racial tension? The emphasis on the people and the places? The way of life, the place of justice in the counties? The contribution of the songs and their appropriateness at various times?

5. How interesting was the plot? The focus on the two men and their contrasting, black and white? The characterisation of the Mayor and his role in the town? The deputies and their hostility? The paralleling of the wives? The sheriff's work? The nature of the arrests? The crises facing both men? The mutual support of black and white? The example of this spreading to the whole town?

6. How did the film evoke a sympathy for Price? As a man, as an effective sheriff, the sequences of his home life and of relationship with wife and children, relationships with his deputies, the pressures by the mayor, his arresting people who needed arresting, the stands that he took, his strengths and his weaknesses? The democratic way of life in the south which elected this man as a sheriff? The role of prejudice?

7. The contrast with John Uttle? His strengths as a man, his disappointment in not being re-elected, his sense of values? His home life compared with that of Price? His relationship with his wife, her support of him? His need of help Price? his decisions to do so? The nature of his support? How good and strong a man was he? An image of a white tolerant American?

8. The contrast with the deputies? Benjy and his irrational violence, his playing cool, his attacking Price? The contrast with the other deputy who enjoyed playing with cars on the road?

9. The portrayal of the mayor, his role in the town, his crusty personality, his political opportunism?

10. The portrayal of the people of the town, their support of Price, those against him, the people at the pool room, their sense of justice, their apathy? Racial intolerance breeding in this kind of situation?

11. The arrest of the black man and the black feeling? The contrast with the Braddock incident? The portrayal of the accident, the aftermath, the importance of Price's chasing the young Braddock, his arrogance in the prison, the expected appeal of his father and the putting on of the pressure?

12. Was Price right in taking a stand against Braddock? The support of Little? The appeal for support of the people? The initial apathy? What changed their mind? How convincing?

13. The dramatic importance of the stance of the people at the bridge? Something for racial tolerance? For justice? The effect on the town?

14. How optimistic about race relationships was the film? Was it convincing in its optimism? The importance of such a film for the popular audience and their changing attitudes?