Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Anderson Tapes: A film to watch about being watched
I know my personal fantasies are different than those of other folk. I have a daydream where I would host a Q and A event with Sidney Lumet and do an on stage interview (ala Elvis Mitchell) immediately following a screening of The Anderson Tapes.
The choice of Lumet as my guest is pretty obvious. I think he is probably the most accomplished filmmaker currently alive. But The Anderson Tapes? I saw it when it came out in 1971 and it was a compelling experience for a 14 year old. Sean Connery was in it, but not as James Bond. Dyan Cannon was a sexy uninhibited hooker sort of straight out of Playboy magazine. It was a pretty fast moving heist movie with lots of adult stuff. But there was also this whole dimension of the film where all of the action was picked up by ubiquitous surveillance cameras and recorders. This surveillance served as kind of character in the film, several years before Coppola's The Conversationrecording all aspects of Connery and his crew as they plan and execute a complete robbery of the Central Park building that Cannon lives in.
I always wanted to see this film again, but never came accross it on revival, television, cable or VHS. So it was exciting to see it was finally released on DVD recently. It holds up pretty well with the exception of a stereotypical performance of Martin Balsam as a gay interior decorator. He doesn't come off as egregious Mickey Rooney playing an Asian in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but it does show Celluloid Closet style how it took Hollywood a while to mature in this area.
Another great surprise in looking back on The Anderson Tapes is the first appearance of Christopher Walken in a feature film. He plays The Kid, sometimes challenging Connery with some of the topical views of the sixties and seventies, but still remaining very much a part of the heist.
The last half hour of the film is the best. Out of the blue, Lumet uses flash forward interviews with the heist victims and intercuts them with the real time action. There is also a kind of shift to a documentary-like feel that we saw in Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico later in the seventies. Garret Morris leads a kind of SWAT team into the building without the Quincy Jones soundtrack music that is so effective in much of the rest of the film.
Its a shame this film has not had the opportunity to grow an audience over the years. It has a pace and energy that is kind of unique and the surveillance component gives it another interesting level as well. I see that there is a remake production due out in 2010. The thought of that makes me shudder slightly.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:59 AM
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