INDIGNATION
US, 2016, 110 minutes, Colour.
Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein.
Directed by James Schamus.
Indignation is based on the novel by Philip Roth, best known for such novels and film versions of Portnoy’s Complaint, Goodbye Columbus and The Human Stain. Indignation is a lesser known novel – which would gain in readership because of this film version.
The film opens with an old people’s home and an elderly lady – with a revelation about who she is at the end of the film. There is a then a shift to career, the Korean War, soldiers in the basement, Americans and Koreans and the death of a soldier. Then there is a move to New York City, a Jewish funeral, grieving parents, and the introduction of the central character, Marcus, a fine performance from Logan Lerman.
As Marcus and his friends talk about the draft, it emerges that Marcus has a scholarship to a Christian University in Ohio, meanwhile working in his father’s kosher butcher shop, with some strong scenes indicating Marcus and his work, his father concerned about him, even wary about being his led astray – but Marcus has a strong relationship with his mother and also with his father, despite his tensions.
At college, Marcus shares a room with two young men, Jewish (part of a Jewish minority at the college where Marcus is canvassed by the fraternity leader to join the Jewish group but he refuses) with whom he eventually clashes and moves rooms. Marcus has a strong background as a student, debater, free thinker.
This comes to the fore when he is challenged by the Dean of the College about his behaviour and beliefs, his not coping with others by moving rooms, his objections against going to Christian Chapel which is obligatory, his ideas, with Marcus having mounting resentment against the interrogation, using debating styles, articulate and strong, praising Bertrand Russell whom the Dean condemns personally and morally. The intelligent dialogue and the two performances make this an outstanding intelligent sequence.
Marcus, who has very limited encounters with girls, is attracted by the blonde Olivia (Sarah Gadon) and goes on a date with her when she surprisingly initiates sexual activity which he finds very difficult to deal with, avoiding her, but her pursuing him, especially when he is hospitalised with appendicitis. Again, she makes sexual advances which are seen by the nurse.
There is another highly intelligent discussion sequence when Marcus’s mother visits him in hospital, sees Olivia’s scars from an attempted suicide, warns her son against her – and they make an agreement that he will as long as his mother does not divorce his father who is showing strong signs of mental disturbance.
The issue of Chapel becomes a major problem for Marcus which leads to his presence in Korea and a reinterpretation of the initial sequence of the war, with his reflections about life, choices, moments of death, and a very sobering ending.
This is a fine, strong, intelligent portrait of a young man, a piece of Americana of 1951, well written and directed by James Schamus, who has been a producer and writer for some time, and this is first film as director.
1. The title, the tone, expectations?
2. The writings of Philip Roth? Americana, the 1950s, young men and women, education, the Korean War, politics, family, friends, relationships? College, love, sex, death?
3. The New York settings, the street, the butcher shop, home? Ohio, campus, the rooms, the Dean’s office, Chapel, hospital? The Korean War sequences, the tunnel, the soldiers, the attack? The musical score?
4. The opening, the old people’s home, the staff at work, the room, the woman – perhaps Marcus’s mother? Korea, the war and the soldiers, the dark, the pursuit, the shooting – and not seeing the full scene until the end? The end, Marcus, present as a soldier, conflict, the Koreans, his memories, reflections about death, death as a particular moment, the choices leading to it, seeing the bayonet, his death? The sobering ending?
5. The transition to the funeral, the background of the Korean War, American involvement, after World War II? 1951? The draft? The dead boy’s parents, their remembering, the Jewish background? Marcus, talking, his going to college? His father and his strong influence? Outside, smoking, with his friends, talking about the draft, sex and the dead boy?
6. The butcher shop, Marcus cutting the meat, his father’s work, and smoking? The customers, the woman buying the chickens, Marcus wrapping them, cleaning up? The meal at home, his father, concern? The discussion about stealing cars, the father’s wariness? Marcus going out, returning at night, his mother waiting for him, his father out searching for him? Marcus’s intense reaction? Going to his room, the bonding with his father?
7. Marcus as a character, his age, the only child, parents and work, at school, straight A’s, the debating team, baseball, good boy? Jewish, visiting the synagogue? The shop, Hebrew signs, kosher? Marcus and sexuality and his being a virgin?
8. Going to Ohio, the scholarship, his arrival, the room, the two students in it, the different reactions? The Jewish minority at a Christian college? The Jewish fraternity, the visit, trying to recruit Marcus, his not wanting to join? The two characters in the room, the actor and his performance, the studious man? Talking, clashing, Marcus deciding to move rooms?
9. Classes, Marcus and his questions, serious, tense, planning to study law?
10. Olivia, in the class, blonde and attractive, outsider? Marcus borrowing the car for the date? The French restaurant and the snails, his trying one? Driving to the cemetery, Olivia and her sexual approach, the effect on Marcus, puzzling about it, thinking that this was because Olivia’s parents were divorced? His not responding to her, her approach, thinking that he would think she was a slut?
11. The chapel visits, the speeches, the prayers, the hymns? Marcus and his reaction against it?
12. The Dean, the summons, the powerful sequence, intelligent dialogue? The Dean as a character, authority, in 1951, his concern, questions, the issue of Marcus moving rooms, unable to be with people, isolated? The questions about the date? About basketball? About his beliefs? Marcus and his skill in debate, articulate, his rights, not going to Chapel, his atheism, dealing with people, his right to be free, quoting Bertrand Russell, the Nobel Prize? The Dean’s condemnation of Russell as a person, morality? The ad hominem argument? Marcus resenting the interview, the interrogation? The Dean’s motivation? Marcus being sick?
13. At the hospital, waking, having his appendix out, the significance of his dreams, the presence of Olivia? Olivia’s visit, the roses, the sexual advance, being seen by the nurse and her reporting it? The talk, Olivia’s history, Marcus’s history? Her father, the doctor, the divorce and its effect? A breakdown, slitting her wrists, going to the institution, coming to college?
14. Sonny, his visit to the hospital, talking, Marcus and the chapel issue, the scam to pay for someone else, the substitute – people handing in envelopes, the substitute being caught?
15. A visit from his mother, the issue of divorce, her meeting Olivia, seen the scars, Olivia and leaving, the mother’s influence?
16. The significance of the talk with his mother, intelligent discussion, the themes, her husband and his seeming madness, her bargain, that Marcus would not see Olivia, that she would not divorce, take care of her husband?
17. Marcus and his concern about Olivia, her disappearing, the phone calls, trying to find her?
18. The Dean, the issue of Olivia, her breakdown, the explanation? The Dean blaming Marcus? The issue of pregnancy – and Marcus’s irony about the impossibility of his impregnating anyone?
19. Gone, in Korea, the scene in the basement, the Korean soldiers, the pursuit, the shooting, Marcus being bayoneted? His rumination about death and the right time?
20. The revelation that the old woman was the old Olivia – and her memories?
21. The cumulative effect of this character portrait, period, themes, intelligent dialogue?
