Wednesday, April 27, 2011

1963 - AMERICA AMERICA, extremely personal film from Elia Kazan.


Elia Kazan's epic film about his family and specifically his Uncle,  is a long, interesting film with large scale scenes and at times some very over the top performances from his big cast.


America America is a very personal project for Kazan, he is the narrator of the film and literally  recites the production credits at the end of the film.  In interviews, Kazan made it clear  that in spite of the many problems in the United States, he was not about to make a film about bashing America.  Kazan sees the immigrant experience as extremely positive regardless of how they got here and he considers the United States the land of opportunity.  This film is almost patriotism with taste.


The protagonist of the film Kazan's Uncle Stavros Topouzoglou,  is not your typical immigrant hero,  At times his behavior and actions are less than idealistic.  However Kazan recognizes that this is the man who on his own initiative and over many years, brought his entire family over to this country.  A pretty remarkable accomplishment.

Elia Kazan directs.

Elia Kazan is a complicated figure in the film world, but he usually brought an intelligent outlook to almost every project he ever worked on.

America America is a long film but very worthwhile.

174 minutes.

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