We excitedly countdown to the 72nd Festival de Cannes with a different prize winning film each day.
Bad Day at Black Rock, 1955
Prix d’interprétation masculine – Spencer Tracy
Bad Day at Black Rock is a film that strikes right at the heart of its issue with a clear, focused intention, that never turns away for a moment. It’s a gripping, suspenseful, compact story, headed by an iconic cast of golden age actors who push the film to top notch entertainment.
However, despite its age, there isn’t a film that could be more timely for today’s political climate in how it grapples with feelings of racism, and bigotry that is clouded behind false patriotism. It’s a film about a broken America, one that is complacent, closed-minded and how dangerous that can be.
The film is set in 1945, soon after the war has ended. We are introduced to the small, isolated hamlet known as Black Rock. The type of area where it looks like nothing much goes on, and a place that time forgot. All that is about to change when a train rolls into town, the first time that has happened in four years we are told, and out walks a mysterious stranger named John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy).
Right away he seems to be treated with suspicion and outright hostility among the townsfolk, who only seem to be interested as to how long he’ll be staying, and how fast he’ll be leaving. But Macreedy is only in the town for one purpose, to find a local Japanese man by the name of Komoko. This sets off more alarm around the town, and we get the sense that there is more to this place than meets the eye.
Macreedy himself notices the unprovoked antagonism as he inquires about a hotel suite, but the manager Pete (John Ericson) doesn’t lend him a room. And a couple of other tough guys played by Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine seem to threaten him outright. Macreedy decides to go to the local sheriff (Dean Jagger), but sees that he’s a cowardly alcoholic sleeping in his own cell.
However, he soon meets the real leader of the town Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), a man who has everyone in line as to what they’re supposed to do and say, as if they have all conspired on a secret that they’re afraid might get out. Whatever the secret is, it seems to stem from Komoko, who Smith says has left town Macreedy doesn’t quite believe that and intends to get the bottom of it, but that’s just what everyone doesn’t want him to do and they try to make sure he doesn’t uncover the truth no matter what.
It becomes very clear that underneath this film’s anger and hostility towards Tracy’s character is an underlying mountain of racism which is bubbling under the surface. It’s no coincidence Komoko happens to be Japanese, just as it’s no coincidence that this film is set right after the second world war. We sense we know what has happened to Komoko which doesn’t need to be spelled out for us, and the real anger being displayed here is how something like this could happen.
Bad Day at Black Rock is a film about opening up old wounds, wounds that you might not want to face especially when it represents an entire country. There is a growing resentment among the townsfolk, which you can particularly see in Smith, who considers himself a true patriot and who prided himself as someone who enlisted in the army right after Pearl Harbour.
Smith is the type who only sees men like him as true Americans, while people like Komoko were the enemy. Smith is the kind of elitist, entitled white man who you might see on the local news wearing a Make America Great Again hat today. It’s depressing to see that even though this film was made in 1955, people like him seem to have grown stronger in our society and scarily even more normalized.
Except, the film doesn’t just look at the racists as the only people to blame, but also the ones who stood by and let this behaviour happen. We see them as genuinely good, but conflicted people littered with guilt such as the sheriff, the hotel manager, and Doc (Walter Brennan), who is the only man who doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice and tries to help Macreedy leave town.
But the film makes the point that running away from problems such as these is not the solution, but is in fact part of the problem. This is a film about making a stance, and standing up against the bigots, letting your voices be heard, and how the scariest thing for a racist is hearing the truth.
Our true conduit for this film is Tracy, who was one of the great leading men of his day. Tracy is the type of actor who doesn’t have to do or say much to get his point across. As Macreedy, we see him change from a relatively passive man, to someone who can’t take it anymore and fights back, not just for his own survival but because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a marvelous performance of understatement and naturalism that actors in Tracy’s generation did so effortlessly, and very few did it quite as well as he did.
As Smith, Robert Ryan brings his own smarmy sense of villainy to the proceedings, as you really believe him to be the hateful bigot he portrays. Ryan has always been an underrated actor who mostly got the part of the bad guy, but he’s able to bring subtlety and substance to the role which makes you believe a man with such hatred could and does exist.
Meanwhile, as the main heavies, Marvin and Borgnine, who would go on to be legendary tough guys in their own right make for a very menacing presence, in fact two of the film’s most crowd pleasing moments come when they get their comeuppance.
However the real star of the film might go towards the solid script by Don Mcguire and Millard Kaufman and the tight direction by John Sturges. The ideas in the script, and Sturges’ framing of long shots in enclosed environments add to the tenseness, as if a fuse is about to go off but you just don’t know where or when. The suspense is about the situations, and the relationships, and the filmmakers make it as tight as piano string, gently plucking at it to provoke the audience more and more.
I often read of people who don’t seem to be interested in classic movies as they consider them dull, boring and not very relevant to today. I find that a little sad, though I think it’s fine if you’re not into classic films yourself. My problem comes from the criticism that they aren’t any good and not worth the time to dissect. I find anyone who does believe that doesn’t know much about film making to begin with.
It’s not the idea of being a purest, but rather it stems from a certain ignorance that anything old doesn’t matter. If anything Bad Day at Black Rock is as relevant today as if it were released yesterday. In fact if it were released yesterday, I would guarantee there would be so many write ups and think pieces about it and how it might relate to everything from Trump’s America to BREXIT. Right now I can’t think of many modern films that have done it as openly and honestly as this film has done.
Bad Day at Black Rock is the type of film I would urge anyone to go see as an example of how things haven’t really changed both in film making and in the world at large. It’s the same challenge we are fighting every day, and it’s an example of politics being subverted into an entertaining suspense film that leaves you moved at the end no matter what era it may come from.
