TWO PEOPLE
US, 1973, 100 minutes, Colour.
Peter Fonda, Lindsay Wagner, Estelle Parsons, Frances Sternhagen.
Directed by Robert Wise.
Two People does not figure strongly on the CV of editor-director Robert Wise. Beginning as an editor for Val Lewton in the 1940s and making such films as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Blood on the Moon, he began to acquire a strong reputation with The Set- Up, The Desert Rats and other features of the 1950s. In 1961 he won an Oscar for West Side Story and repeated this in 1965 with The Sound of Music. He directed a number of big-budget films including The Sand Pebbles and Star, the story of Gertrude Lawrence. He made few films during the 1970s but they included The Andromeda Strain, The Hindenburg, Audrey Rose and the first Star Trek film.
Two People was topical in the early 70s. Peter Fonda portrays an American deserter, avoiding the draft in the Vietnam War. He travels to Morocco and finally to Paris. He encounters a fashion journalist, played by Lindsay Wagner, and they fall in love, have to sort out the issues of their lives and make decisions.
The film is of particular interest in retrospect, looking at the atmosphere of American attitudes towards the Vietnam War and its consequences on people like the two protagonists, the two people.
1. The perennial interest and appeal of the love story? The tradition of love story in films, their style? Audience expectations?
2. The general tone of this title, indication of themes? Man and woman, relationships, love and its quality? The general and universal application of the title? Was it verified?
3. The importance of the Marrakesh opening? The setting of the scene, international and general application? The contribution of Marrakesh, Paris, New York? The use of scenery and atmosphere? People in a world landscape?
4. The contribution of the colour, locations, the emotive background of the music? Setting a mood for a response to two people?
5. The initial survey of the atmosphere of Marrakesh? The West and Africa, Americans in Africa, the people, the city, the hotel, the train? First class and second class?
6. The film’s situating of Evan within this atmosphere? The audience being puzzled over his presence there? Evan as a young American type? The man for these Two People? Fitzgerald seeking him out, the explanation of his case, the attitude of the police?
7. How important was his explanation of himself? His home life? His father and his mother, the draft, his involvement in the Vietnam war, the reasons for his deserting, his attitudes towards the war and his involvement, the trip to Moscow and his being entertained there, the un-American nature of this, the move to Sweden and settling there, the support of the Swedish Government, the moving on to Marrakesh, The impact of this continual moving on his life? The fact that he wanted no more running? The reasons for him giving himself up? The consequences that he would expect? How had he matured in his outlook on life?
8. The contrast of Evan with the girl? The whirl of her life, photography and fashion, international jet setting, her boy friend the photographer, her editor friend, whirling in and out of Marrakesh, her fashion style of speaking and behaviour? That she was continually on the run?
9. The importance of her explanation of herself? The woman in the Two People? Her family background, her liaison with her boy friend, her child and her devotion to him, her estimate of herself as a mother, as a career woman? Her easy way of life, mod attitudes, drugs, etc.?
10. The importance of their encounter? The encounter in the restaurant, the train and her intrusion on Evan's tears, her trying to get drugs from the Moroccans? The quality of their talk, the growing encounter, the importance of the train delay and the visit to the market, meeting and understanding each other within the buying and selling of the market, and the friend trailing along? The growing intimacy, their talk on the train, the plane to Paris and Evan's interrogation? The plan for Paris?
11. The film's portrayal of their mutual loneliness in Paris? Evan’s wandering and going to the night club versus the girl’s tiredness, the invitation to the fashionable party, her going to the party with her friend? Their meeting? The impact and significance of this meeting?
12. How had their relationship grown in Paris? From encounter to love, the demands of giving? The sexual culmination? The effect on each of them?
13. How well planned were their consequent decisions? The impact of the flight, arrival in New York? The possibility of Evan's not giving himself up? The encounter with the family, the mother, child? The picturing of Evan at ease in this kind of home life? The farewell in the park with the openness to future possibilities in years to come? The girl's realism in realizing she could not necessarily wait?
14. The contribution of the minor characters, especially the friend and her acid comments on life, on love, relationships, her not prying into her friend's life?
15. The significance of the title and the theme: people of today, the kind of world we live in, the harshness and the joy, the suffering, victims of circumstances, possibilities of love and breaking through masks, support, hope, the testing of reality and unreality? How valuable a film in presenting and exploring these themes?
