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So, when I got home, yesterday, what did I do to calm myself? I watched "The Prince Of Tides." That's right, girls! And I had not seen it since it first came out.
Let's get the BABS stuff out of the way, first. I can still recall the opening remark of the reviewer of the "Village Voice," who said, at the time, "I'm sorry; but I've got to talk about the fingernails!!!!!!!!" It's true! The fingernails, and the sparkling stockings, are still there, and still hold up. So, too, does the sheer ridiculousness of BABS being a Manhattan psychiatrist. Which is still, and will always be, the problem with this film. Susan Lowenstein, however she is cast, is the least interesting character in the Pat Conroy novel. The dark tale of the Wingo family is its centerpiece, and Lowenstein, at least in the novel, is meant to act as a combination Greek chorus and conduit. Nothing more.
Until BABS cast herself in the role, So that, each time she is on screen, it is all about HER. Which the story isn't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even Nick Nolte, still looking good here, before he started hanging out with Mickey Rourke, or something, and turned into a blond version of Mickey, in the only decent performance of his career, perfectly cast, netting him an Oscar nomination, is undermined by BABS.
It is when BABS stays behind the camera--which she should have the entire time; Debra Winger would have made the perfect Susan Lowenstein!!!!!!!! Come to think of it, so would TOVAH!!!!!!!!!--that the movie demonstrates some magnificent filmmaking.
The opening minutes of the film, those gorgeous shots of the camera, panning over the island, at sunrise, cutting to the children at play, marching about with their mother, Lila, played by Kate Nelligan--oh, my God, I cried real tears! Then, BABS makes her entrance, and we are transported into a different, and less grounded, movie.
Like another film that came out in 1991, "Fried Green Tomatoes," "The Prince Of Tides' " best scenes are those set in the past. I will speak about them later.
One thing I will give BABS credit for is casting. Blythe Danner as Sallie--gorgeous, brilliant, Main Line beautiful, a real actress. I just love her, but, amazingly, it is not she who walks off with the film? You know who does? Kate Nelligan, who plays Mother Lila, and little
Nancy Moore Atchison as the ten-year-old Savannah. If she looks familiar to you, as she did to me, it is because, earlier that year, she played Little Idgie Threadgood in "Fried Green Tomatoes." And
Brad Sullivan as abusive father Henry Wingo. The results gotten from these actors is worthy of William Wyler, or Elia Kazan.
The dark scenes of this movie are as grueling a portrait of American White Trash as you will ever see. I have to read the book, because what I wanted to know was how did Lila, who clearly had poise, social aspirations, and the potential for getting there, even at the cost of her own children, end up marrying a loser, like Henry Wingo? And how did Henry grant her a divorce?
The birthday scene and the dog food scene are classics, brilliantly staged and performed, but aroused my anger. Brad Sullivan, as Henry Wingo, was the embodiment of my White Trash uncle, Bill Liddy, and what he does here is what happened to his children. Of course they are fucked up in other ways besides the Wingos, seeing themselves as better than, when they never were, and being so self-righteous, holier-than-thou, America Is Great dwellers in Trumpland!!!!!! Do you think I want to associate with such dumb trash????????? In the movie, Tom says Savannah fled to New York because it was everything that did not remind her of her childhood. Same with me.
The attack scene is chilling. All of a sudden, "The Prince Of Tides" chillingly morphs into "Cape Fear," or "The Night Of The Hunter," and it is brilliant. As grueling and horrific as the attack is--you want to scream for what these poor unfortunate people are going through--it almost pales beside what Lila makes them do. She cleans the blood stained walls in some kind of trance, threatens to abandon them if they ever talk about this, and then shuts them and herself down. All so she can get in the town's social club, which is called the Colleton League. The scene where she takes Tom to the wealthiest man in town, whose son he got into a fight with, and the father takes him into a room, smacking his face, calling him and his family trash, and threatening that if he says he was hit he will run the family out of town, set my teeth on edge. You can see the anger in the child's face. And you can see how Lila aspires to this kind of life. If I had been Tom, I would have belted the guy in the face; let him try to run them out of town. The most angering thing of all is that this is the man Lila ends up re-marrying, so she advances socially. No wonder she and Tom go at it, early in the movie. I blame these parents for everything. Just like my White Trash uncle, whose abuse of my mother and myself I will never forgive!!!!!!!!!!!
I am forgetting Melinda Dillon, who plays the grown Savannah, a poet. As Tom said, she could keep quiet, but she could not lie, and Savannah finds her way to cope, via writing--same as me, dears!!!!!!!--and an alter ego, and books. Still, she attempts suicide several times. The first was three days after the attack.. Who could blame her? She had no support system!!!!!!!!!! No wonder she fled to New York. Dillon is not on screen enough here; and she never works enough, for the brilliant actress she is. But when she puts her mind to it, and does--pure acting gold!!!!!!!!!!!
Kate Nelligan deserved the Oscar nomination she got. I would have liked more of Lila's back story, and I hope rereading the book gives it. But the biggest flaw of all, interestingly enough, is one also in common with "Fried Green Tomatoes." The film version violates Fannie Flagg's concept of who is really Idgie Threadgood, and it bothers me, to this day. Same with "The Prince Of Tides." The movie, with Melinda Dillon reciting the actual passage, would have one believe that Tom Wingo is whom the title is referring to. The most vivid thing I recall from the book is that it was Luke, whose death is a further bane on the family, and barely gets a mention here. He was the prince of tides. And the same with the tiger. It makes a cameo appearance, but in the book, during the attack, Luke, who has a relationship with the tiger similar to mine with my animal friends, takes the tiger out of his cage, and turns them on the convict/rapists, killing them all. How brilliant this would have been to see on film!
Still, despite its flaws, "The Prince Of Tides" is worth watching for its more emotionally arousing scenes. Maybe it does not deserve incessant viewing, like "Funny Girl," as Linda Richman would have one believe, but if, like me, you have not had a look at it since its initial release, it is worth another look!
Blythe Danner! Kate Nelligan! Nancy Atchison (Moore)! Oh, my God!
During those key scenes, it really IS "like buttuh," darlings, A great, big STICK of "buttuh!!!!!!!!!!!"
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