THE SANDPIPER
US, 1965, 115 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Charles Bronson, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Webber, Torin Thatcher, Tom Drake.
Directed by Vincente Minnelli.
The Sandpiper was a very popular film of the mid-1960s. It echoes the behaviour of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in real life on the set of Cleopatra. After that they made quite a number of films together, this being one of their first. Richard Burton again plays an Episcopalian priest – as he had done the year before in the film version of The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams.
Elizabeth Taylor portrays a bohemian-style artist living on the Pacific coast. Her young son kills a deer and is sent to a boarding school. The headmaster is played by Richard Burton. His wife is played by Eva Marie Saint. Charles Bronson portrays another beatnik artist in the colony on the coast – perhaps an unlikely role for him.
The film is romantic, probes the issues of unmarried mothers, seduction, illicit affairs, fidelity and infidelity. The sandpiper is a bird who is rescued by Elizabeth Taylor. She cures his broken wing but he is unable to leave the house. Is this symbolic of the character of Richard Burton?
The film won an Oscar for its popular song, ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’. (The next year Taylor and Burton were much more aggressive towards each other in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Taming of the Shrew.)
1. How enjoyable was this film? Its impact,and appeal? For what audience was it intended? For popular response?
2. The title and its significance? The focus on the bird as symbol of a free soul? Laura as a sandpiper? The overtones of art and life? Nature and artificiality?
3. The contribution of the colour, Big Sur locations, the sea, beaches, the Panavision? The atmosphere of art? The music and the use of the song ‘The shadow of your smile’?
4. The quality of the film as a love story? Its tone and treatment? How serious? Popular women's fiction? The development of characters? The seriousness of the issues? The use of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in such a film?
5. The success of the film’s focus on Laura? What kind of woman was she in herself? As a woman, as a mother? Her philosophy of freedom? Her beliefs as an artist, work aad skill as an artist, her friends and her relationships with them? Cos? The freedom of her moral stances? The clash with Mr Hewitt? Her determination to seduce him? The effect of their relationship, change in her? The discovery of her capacity to hurt and be hurt? The realism of her final decisions? how well do explored was her character?
6. The character of the Reverend Hewitt? Richard Burton's style in portraying a clergyman? What kind of man was he? How religious? His beliefs and his job? His love for his wife? His belief in education? His fascination with Laura and succumbing to her? The symbolism of his collar? His friends and his relationship with Laura’s friends? The beach party and its impact? The nature of him dilemma and its visual portrayal? What hold did Laura have on him? His decision to tell the truth? His sermon? hurting other's and his final decisions? Was he right to go off? What future would he have?
7. The contrast of Clare with Laura? A loving wife, involved in the schooling, focus on fundraising? her interest in education and in Danny? Her inability to see the truth? The hurt when she discovered the truth? The violence emotionally at the discovery of the truth? Her future with Hewitt?
8. The film’s comment and portrayal of Californian society? the school, the artists, the school board, Ward Hendrix and his moral horizons?
9. The discussions, the film of theories of family, children, education (for example the views of Judge Thompson)? How interesting and relevant to the love story?
10. The insight into the nature of marriage and love? The formalities of love and marriage?
11.The theme of judgment and casting stones? The religious background of the film?
12. Many critics said the film was phoney at thetime? how does the film stand up decades later?
