SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH

US, 1962, 120 minutes, Colour.
Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood.
Directed by Richard Brooks.

Sweet Bird of Youth has been adapted for the screen by writer-director Richard Brooks of Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name. Brooks did the same for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1958. Paul Newman was Oscar-nominated for both films. Geraldine Paige was nominated for an Oscar. Ironically it was almost a quarter of a century later that Geraldine Page won an Oscar for The Trip to Bountiful and the next year Paul Newman won for The Colour of Money.

This is very much Tennessee Williams country, down-and-out and cheap characters including a drifter gigolo played by Newman, an alcoholic burnt-out actress played by Geraldine Page. Begley won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role as Boss Finley, the local heavy. Rip Torn appears as his son and Shirley Knight as his daughter.

The film shows the uglier side of life – and is put in the context of small-town hostilities, a man being run out of town, the return and people’s resentment, the opportunity to go to Hollywood to try to make it big.

There was another version of Sweet Bird of Youth in 1989 starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Harmon and Valerie Perrine. It was directed by Nicolas Roeg.

1. What did the title mean? Its irony here? the fading of the past and decadence? As applied to Chance? to Alexandra? applied to human aging?

2. The film was based on a play. How evident was this? the cinematic treatment of the play? Comment on the use of flashbacks. How well did they fit into the movement of the film? its style?

3. How important for the film and its themes were the deep South settings? that this kind of decadence takes place in the South? the isolation of the world of the south. its self-confidence and unreality? The moral atmosphere, the decayed aristocracy atmosphere, the political atmosphere? What impact did this have on the film and its themes?

4. How valuable were the insights into humanity? into victims of circumstances and society? Victims of the south, victims of Hollywood, victims of decadence, victims of law unto oneself? How valuable are human insights within a framework of ugliness? How ugly was this film?

5. How did the film get its focus from Chance Wayne, from Alexandra?

6. What kind of person was Chance in himself? the Paul Newman style? Aging? His memories of his youth and his possibilities, his being kicked out of the town, his relationship with Heavenly and with Boss Finley, his resentment and chips on his shoulder? His defiance of the Finleys and what they stood for, his years in Hollywood and his lack of success? His gigolo experience, his last chance (irony) with Alexandra, his manipulating of her, his desperate naivety (outweighed by Alexandra’s), his desperate bid for Heavenly, his attempts at defying, his suffering and being a victim of the Finleys and their philosophy, his mutilation, his loss>

7. How well was the audience meant to identify with Chance? Was this possible? if it was possible, how did this involve the audience in the film? if it was not possible, how did it distance then from the film? Would the effect be the same? Why?

8. How well portrayed was the personality of Alexandra del Largo? satire and the parody on the Hollywood actress? Her agent? her dependence on Vodka and drugs, on the oxygen mask, on Chance and gigolos like him? Her refusal to understand herself and face herself? the irony of the film premiere and her escaping at the laughing and yet the fact that she had succeeded? Her refusal to help Chance when the chips were down? How repulsive a person? how clever was she? Her utilising of the situations, especially Chance's phone calls to Hollywood? At what stage did she really depend on him? Should he have gone with her? Would there have been a chance for them both? When did she decide to abandon him? What future would she have?

9. What did the film have to say about relationships? Were there any genuine relationships in the film? How did each character use the other? especially Chance and Alexandra? Boss Finley using Chance, his son Tom, Heavenly, and the opportunities for his political ends? His using of Miss Lucy? Value of Aunt Nonnie in the film? How well did Chance relate to Heavenly? Real love? Did they use each other?

10. Coment on the impression of Boss Finley. How well did the Finley story combine with the Chance and Alexandra story? What mood was there around Boss Finley? How do you explain the Boss Finley type? In the south, politics, unscrupulosity, public utterances on morality, private immorality? the importance of the sequences of Boss Finley with Miss Lucy, his brutality to her? His brutality to his family, to his son? How did his son resemble him? the abortion for Heavenly?

11. What was the function of Aunt Nonnie in the film? How genuine was she in her concern for Chance?

12. How did the themes come to a focus in the rally? Boss Finley as central, the rally and the politics of the south, the public utterances on morality and fickleness of the crowd with the scent of immorality? the place of Heavenly and her feelings at the rally? Chance and his response? How corrupt was the whole atmosphere of the rally?


13. The importance of the violence on Chance? The young men and the friends that he had before, r
the ugly vengeance of Tom? the impact of this on Chance? His attempts to take Heavenly away? What future would he and Heavenly have?

14. Critics call Tennessee Williams’ world an exaggerated world. Do you think this is so? Does it matter for drama if the world is exaggerated? Is the world as ugly as this? What insight into the world by ugliness did this film give?