Am I the only one who thought Orson Wells' performance was unwatchable?
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MADDOXRJM — 19 years ago(May 16, 2006 01:42 PM)
I suspect you are not completely alone with that opinion, but I thought his performance was great, and also found it easy to understand him when he spoke.
Perhaps after living in the south for many years it was easier for me. -
ktbooks2003 — 19 years ago(May 16, 2006 04:28 PM)
I saw this film for the first time this afternoon. I have to agree Welles was pretty hard to take and to understand. Everyone else was pretty good, but the makeup situation with Mr. Welles was so distracting in every scene he was in. The greasy wig was repulsive.I didn't buy the reconciliation with Jody at the end either. Too patseems to me Daddy Varner would be more likely to kill him when he came out of that barn. High melodramavery much like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof!
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rhonda-yates — 19 years ago(July 02, 2006 12:22 PM)
It always seemed like the pace was perfect through the barn burning scene, and then everything was hurried along for the Hollywood ending. Earlier Will had told Alan Stewart to keep quiet about jilting Clara or "I'll tear you apart with my bare hands". What do you think he would do if you locked him in a barn and set it on fire? But they had to get the "Jody" problem out of the way so we could see Ben and Clara finally together at the end. A minor flaw in a great movie!
BigPhil -
vickistg — 19 years ago(October 29, 2006 12:33 PM)
I agree with the part about Jody to an extent. It did seem a little pat, but then I thought about men I've known like that. All they wanted was for their sons to show some backbone. Perhaps Daddy had been needling Jody for years to get him to "man up"! It could have used a little more development,though.
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practicepiano — 19 years ago(November 06, 2006 06:55 AM)
This is one of those movies I've never been able to make myself watch the "hot, sweaty, family power struggle, women in slips and men with various ego problems" films don't always hold me!
I'm watching it now, and I do find the makeup and wig very distracting (having just read that the nose often fell off didn't help).
But I'm finding the most distracting thing about Welles' performance to be his posture and focus looking down, hunched over, rarely making eye contact. Besides being constant enough to be distracting, it also seems out-of-character for the role.
I keep thinking that if I close my eyes and listen, I might like the performance better. -
jasperparker — 18 years ago(July 12, 2007 05:35 AM)
I absolutely love this film. I thought Orson Wells' performance was outstanding. The interplay between Will Varner, Ben Quick and Clara Varner
is what I love most about this film. Oh, and I understood everything that
Will Varner said perfectly. -
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nosnojsirhc — 17 years ago(August 08, 2008 03:12 PM)
if i think of the film as a historical account of southern lives in the first half of the 20th century, i don't like Welles or Franciosa's performances or Woodward's, for that matter. but if i think of the film as a sprawling fun hollywood southern story, it's great fun. i prefer having fun, so i choose the latter.
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WarpedRecord — 16 years ago(April 07, 2009 11:46 AM)
It was certainly the worst performance I've seen from Orson Welles. As with most films in this vein, the whole cast overdoes the Southern accent, but Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are a bit more subtle.
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WyldeGoose — 15 years ago(March 31, 2011 02:38 PM)
Orson Welles' performance was the best of all in this film. He made that film work. He was the sun of which everything revolved around, and he played it perfectly.
You have to understand that Will Varner is a classic redneck who amassed an empire. Ben Quick is the redneck who has yet to. Both are ambitious men, and both are not refined or as cultured as the Stuarts who have been in Mississippi for 200 years. Will Varner is not a cultured, sophisticated man, but he's powerful. Success can do a lot of things to a man, and Orson Welles captured the look of a corpulent drunkard alpha male who usually gets his way with people.
What do you mean by 20 years too young for the part? Are you kidding? Did you watch the film? Varner said he was 61 years old to Millie.
I get the distinct feeling that, at the time you wrote this post, that you have yet to meet a whole lot of people in your life, that you're not quite well-traveled, your feet not quite yet sore from having walked enough in other people's shoes. Because if you had, you'd have ran across men like this.
The role of Will Varner is that of the Anti-Villain; a man who's not good in any serious sense, but his evil is constrained by his own appetites and his desire for a legacy. He likes things under his control the way they are, even if the way they are makes everyone around him despise him, fear him, and loathe him. He's not entirely a control freak, but simply likes things his way.
On top of that, we have to see and believe his impact on the people around him. Clara and Jody suffer because they both are trying to be what he would like them both to be. With Jody, Will pushes him to be everything he is and more, possibly even more ruthless and domineering, but not too domineering that it russles his hair. With Clara, he wants a woman who will fit the mold of the prim, proper chaste until marriage maiden who will one day marry and expand his empire and legacy. He wants a hand in the lives of his children and those around him, even if it makes them unhappy.
They love him, though. Jody loves his father, and tries to please him. That's how he pushes - with their love and admiration for him. Here is a man who worked his way to become who he is, and that is admirable. It's that love, though, that enslaves them to him. It's that slavery that caused Jody to set fire to the barn. He hated the slavery he was put in, that no matter what he could do he couldn't please him. He had to stop trying and be his own man, who's esteem wasn't controlled by his father.