A FACE IN THE CROWD
4:40
Saturday, November 5
(1957, Elia Kazan) Andy Griffith’s guitar-plucking hobo Lonesome Rhodes rockets from an Arkansas jail to TV stardom, thanks to Patricia Neal’s coaching. Biting satire on advertising, the boob tube, and the packaging of politicians, from the On the Waterfront team of Kazan & Budd Schulberg. 35mm. Approx. 126 mins.
Reviews
“Devastating.”
– The New York Times
“HAS NEVER CEASED TO BE RELEVANT. Remains the founding movie of postmodern times. Election years make it only too evident that our popular culture and electoral politics are symbiotic; A Face In The Crowd was the first to dramatize it…The fact is that A Face In The Crowd is not about any one person so much as a particular system that brings everything together—politics, news, and entertainment—in the democracy of the market. The movie is still ‘pretty on target,’ Schulberg says. ‘With the right charisma and the right message, it could still happen here.’ It could and it does.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“Andy Griffith delivers an astonishing, sinister performance…The picture has a sharp, dirty appeal.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader