I was really looking forward to viewing this pic, but could barely make it through due to the script, which tried to accomplish WAY too much...ending up as a very episodic and un-focused two-plus-hour behemoth.
Too bad, because Frederic March's performance is monumental, and the Warner Brothers production is lavish and awe-inspiring in its scope. An incredible number of scenes and settings (including some clever matte-painting and artificial crowd effects during Twain's stop in India during his big world-wide speaking tour) practically overwhelm the viewer, and produce an unwieldy, structurally flawed film.
And the grand world tour is only one of MANY events crammed into the film's running time, in an attempt to create a compelling narrative of Twain's ENTIRE career----which is even more challenging when so much Hollywood make-believe has been added on.
Take another Warner Bros biopic, the great 1937 "Life of Emile Zola", and you'll see the difference a sensible script makes. "Zola" also gives us something of a Reader's-Digest version of the author's life UP TO THE POINT of the famous Dreyfus affair. The film then settles into one of the most beautifully controlled, intense and thrilling dramas ever captured on film, highlighted, of course, by the classic courtroom/trial scenes with Paul Muni delivering the performance of a lifetime, and Donald Crisp, Henry O'Neill, Louis Calhern etc at the top of their game.
AND THUS-- the historic trial becomes the focus, the dramatic nucleus of the entire film (as well as the majority of its running time) and doesn't attempt to STRING TOGETHER every possible aspect of the subject's life, as "Twain" does.
And as "Twain" careens rather haphazardly (but predictably) towards its end, we know it's only a matter of time--within the final 15 minutes--- that Mrs. Twain will die, Twain himself will be honored for his life's work (boy, that big white wig of his never lost ANY of its full-bodied shape as he aged), and then will die (or should I say "Croak", like those big old rubber frogs?).
I didn't expect the lovely effect at the very end----with the magical change of scenery from earth to heaven but, after so much tedium caused by the sensory overload of the rest of the film, it seemed manipulative and a bit sappy.
Could have been a great film. LR
Too bad, because Frederic March's performance is monumental, and the Warner Brothers production is lavish and awe-inspiring in its scope. An incredible number of scenes and settings (including some clever matte-painting and artificial crowd effects during Twain's stop in India during his big world-wide speaking tour) practically overwhelm the viewer, and produce an unwieldy, structurally flawed film.
And the grand world tour is only one of MANY events crammed into the film's running time, in an attempt to create a compelling narrative of Twain's ENTIRE career----which is even more challenging when so much Hollywood make-believe has been added on.
Take another Warner Bros biopic, the great 1937 "Life of Emile Zola", and you'll see the difference a sensible script makes. "Zola" also gives us something of a Reader's-Digest version of the author's life UP TO THE POINT of the famous Dreyfus affair. The film then settles into one of the most beautifully controlled, intense and thrilling dramas ever captured on film, highlighted, of course, by the classic courtroom/trial scenes with Paul Muni delivering the performance of a lifetime, and Donald Crisp, Henry O'Neill, Louis Calhern etc at the top of their game.
AND THUS-- the historic trial becomes the focus, the dramatic nucleus of the entire film (as well as the majority of its running time) and doesn't attempt to STRING TOGETHER every possible aspect of the subject's life, as "Twain" does.
And as "Twain" careens rather haphazardly (but predictably) towards its end, we know it's only a matter of time--within the final 15 minutes--- that Mrs. Twain will die, Twain himself will be honored for his life's work (boy, that big white wig of his never lost ANY of its full-bodied shape as he aged), and then will die (or should I say "Croak", like those big old rubber frogs?).
I didn't expect the lovely effect at the very end----with the magical change of scenery from earth to heaven but, after so much tedium caused by the sensory overload of the rest of the film, it seemed manipulative and a bit sappy.
Could have been a great film. LR