SMILE
US, 1974, 113 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, Michael Kidd. Geoffrey Lewis, Nicholas Pryor.
Directed by Michael Ritchle.
Smile's title is heavily ironic. The film is the U.S. in a strongly self-critical vein - and what better than high school seniors competing in the artificial ballyhoo ('keep smiling') of a Miss Young America quest in Southern California? These people, the customs and the patriotic glibness have to be seen to be believed. The comment is hilariously sardonic and probably quite cruel, especially in the detail and the collection of vacuous remarks. Barbara Feldon as the smiling organiser (whose marriage is no laughing matter) and Bruce Dern as the smooth-talking car salesman who really believes his pitch, are excellent amongst a gallery of images of flag-waving Americans.
1. How enjoyable was this film? Interest in things American? Was it too American for Australian tastes or did it have something to say universally? Its impact on American audiences?
2. The irony of the title, the initial song, the repetition of the advice to smile, the way each of the characters smiled? The basic artificiality indicated?
3. Why was a quest for 'Miss Young America' in Southern California a good symbol of American ballyhoo, patriotic acknowledgement of the American way of life? Comment on the detail of the film showing the quest, people's homes, the variety of characters. Comment on the dialogue and the bland statements of belief, the cliches about life? Was the film too bitter?
4. Audience interest in the girls, their backgrounds, their ambitions and hopes, their participation in the quest? How were the girls being exploited? The attitude of the Matron of Honour and the contrast with her own life?
5. How well did the audience enter the film via the girls arriving? The girls as individuals, the girls as a group, their naivety and hopes, the explanations of their ambitions, their chatter and the interaction, the values that they stood for? The sequences where they were presented, rehearsals, the dormitory etc.?
6. The film's focussing on Robin and Doria? The two girls and their characters in themselves, interaction, their hopes and ambitions, insight into the girls via these two, their experiences and the ending?
7. The ballyhoo and glamour of the rehearsals, the artificiality, the acts that they performed, the choreography? The fact that everyone could be so easily caught up in the whole atmosphere?
8. Big Bob as the representative of the adult generation? The values he stood for, the sayings he mouthed, his sales pitch, his comforting of Andy, his participation in the Lodge meeting? How was he being satirized, fairly? His wDrk as a judge? The accusation that his values were those of 'Miss Young America"? Seeing him at work, his relationship with his son, the satire in the visit to the psychologist and the comment on Big Bob's behaviour? His friendship with Andy? His relationship with the panel? His mouthing his statements and his convictions? The satire in the 'Exhausted Rooster' meeting? What was he left with at the end of the film? Had he changed at all?
9. Little Bob as the image of his father? His enterprise in getting the photos? The police, the psychologist? The future of America?
10. Was Brenda an attractive character? Her past success, her smartness, her smiles? Her work with the girls? What she mouthed contrasting with her life? Her home, her frigidity with her husband? What was she a symbol of? The clash with her husband, his shooting her?
11. How serious a character was Andy? His fitting in with the people in the town? The contrast? A serious comment and dissent from the American values?
12. The visualizing of the 'Exhausted Rooster' night? The look of the Ku Klux Klan, the Americanism? Men acting as boys? The comparison with the 'Miss America Quest'? The fatuous nature of the goings-on and the men's belief in them?
13. How credible a character was French? The choreographer type, ageing, pulled in for the job? His treatment of the girls, the dance routines? His anger? The question of the ramp and his paying for it? How did he emerge at the end?
14. Comment on the film's detail of the small town way of life?
15. The theme of patriotism and the film's attacking of it? The details of the American way of life and its artificiality? The final shot of the photograph in the police car? (TV dinners, mechanical birds etc., art shows and music?)
16. How bitter was the overall tone of the film? Did it touch on sentimentality at the ending?
17. American films are able to indulge in self-criticism like this. Is this a good thing for morale, for self-insight?