Micitype Pretty Good

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

oOoBarracuda I really can't believe it took me until 2016 to see Bad Day at Black Rock. Starring Spencer Tracy and Ernest Borgnine, two favorites, and directed by the notable John Sturges, Bad Day at Black Rock seems like a film that would have been on my cinematic radar much sooner than now. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to have finally seen Bad Day at Black Rock. The 1955 film explores a town that attempts to keep itself closed off from the world hiding a secret, and just the lengths those that live there will go when a stranger comes to town with motives they cannot discern. Themes of secrecy and isolation are heavily considered in a truly powerful way all throughout Bad Day at Black Rock.John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) comes barreling into the town of Black Rock via train and is instantly warned about the tone of the town by the engineer who can't get back on the train out of there fast enough. Black Rock is the kind of town you wouldn't;t know existed unless you were looking for it, leaving the residents left to wonder, why is John Macreedy looking for it. Arriving only with a briefcase in tow, he is initially denied a hotel room, recommendation for a garage, and any pleasantries typically offered to a visitor. He thinks he might have found solace in the local sheriff until Macreedy finds out he is a drunk. At first, Macreedy is tight-lipped about the reason for his arrival, but when he does offer that he is looking for a Japanese-American farmer named Kamoko, the residents are more steadfast than ever to get rid of him. The mystery of who John Macreedy is becomes just as engaging as the mystery the residents of Black Rock are trying to hide.Excuse me while I climb onto my soapbox and sing Spencer Tracy's praises. I was surprised to read several negative audience reviews about Spencer Tracy's portrayal. Many felt as though Tracy was too old for the part, a claim which I find unfounded. People of all ages were fighting in wars in the 1950's, so Tracy's age presents no problem at all. We think of military personnel as younger on the whole, but the military is filled with people of all ages and that was no different 60 years ago. Also, I'm not sure anyone could have portrayed the cool exterior, yet understated certainty that Tracy embodied with ease. Also, kudos to a film released in 1955 for confronting post-war anti-Japanese racism, a brave decision creating a meaningful impact both in the time it was released and today. Bad Day at Black Rock was a perfect thriller keeping one engaged from the first scene to the last, and I'm completely baffled as to why this isn't one of the great most well-known classics.

mgtbltp Film Soleil, those sun baked, filled with light, desert/tropical Noir/Neo Noirs."Change the darkened street to a dry, sun-beaten road. Convert the dark alley to a highway mercilessly cutting through a parched, sagebrush-filled desert. Give the woman cowboy boots and stick her in a speeding car, driven by a deranged man whose own biological drives lead him less often to sex than to fights over money. Institute these changes (to film noir) and you have film soleil." - DK HolmIn the city it's usually what you can't see that can kill you. In the desert everything you see can kill you.Desert, the anti-city. Wide open spaces, exposed, agoraphobia. A stream-liner is snaking. A steel sidewinder.Black Rock. Nowheresville. A Death Valley desert fly speck. Whistle stop. Somewhere on the California/Nevada border. The Southern Pacific RR. A dirt road main street. A baker's dozen collection of dilapidated buildings. The station. The beanery, Sam's Bar & Grill. A General Store abutting a barber shop. A two story hotel. A sawbones/morticians, a gas station, two residences and a rinky-dink hoosegow.It must be Saturday. Hicksville. Everybody's in town. Cowboy porch lizards. Relaxin'. Shootin' the breeze. Waiting' for the Streamliner to blow through. She's Greased lightning. Like clockwork. The day's big excitement. A faint rumble. The train's a coming'. You can hear the drone of the F7's down the valley. The pitch changes. The horn blares. Station agent excited. She's stopping. A train hasn't stopped here in four years. What's up. Lizards all rubbernecking.A man gets off. Looks like a city slicker. Suit, tie, fedora, suitcase. A Stranger. Ex career vet. A one hand man, Macreedy (Tracy).Adobe Flat! The name raises bristles. He's looking' fer Komoko. It stirs the hornet's nest. The lizards get standoff-ish. Hostile. Downright cantankerous. The crap hits the fan. Oh Komoko he left town they tell him, sent to an internment camp.They telephone the biggest toad in their pond Reno Smith (Ryan). But the cat's already out of the bag. Something is wrong, slantindicular, cattywampus. Macreedy knows they're lying. But he doesn't know why.Cowboy Coley (Borgnine) is glassing Macreedy from a boulder patch. He ambushes him on the way back to town. Tries to run him off the road. Back in town Coley is still trying to provoke, trying to raise sand. Spencer Tracy goes from stoically laconic to determinedly obsessed as the odds and the towns alienation build against him. Robert Ryan's unfriendly persuasion streaks more vicious as the truth is slowly exposed. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are the two town bullies both are a few cards short of a full deck. Dean Jagger the town lawman and Walter Brennan a sawbones/mortician are the town drunks. John Ericson is a fidgety hotel keeper and Anne Francis servers as the film's nominal femme fatale.The film juxtaposes the high desert grit of a weathered bleached bones town against a backdrop of astonishing but desolate beauty. The film has a fascinating Edward Hopperesque realism look to it. This was MGM's first release in Cinemascope. 10/10

Claudio Carvalho When the streamliner stops at Black Rock for the first time in four years, the mysterious one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) disembarks and asks how to reach Adobe Flat to meet the Japanese- American farmer Kamoko. He is not allowed to check-in the hotel and he is not able to rent a car. Soon he notes that the sheriff is a drunkard and the resident Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) rules the place with his henchmen Hector David (Lee Marvin) and Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine). Further he feels that the inhabitants are hiding something. When he finally succeeds to rent a jeep from Liz Wirth (Anne Francis), he drives to Adobe Flat and finds the farmhouse burned to the ground. He immediately concludes what might have happened to Kamoko and tries to communicate with the state police, but he discovers that communication is controlled by Smith. Further, the veterinarian Doc Velie (Walter Brennan) tells that his life is in danger and unsuccessfully tries to help him to escape. Who is John J. Macreedy and what will happen to him?"Bad Day at Black Rock" is a tense thriller with great screenplay, direction and performances. The secrets about the behavior of the inhabitants and who Macreedy is holds the attention and makes also the viewer nervous. The trio of villains is perfect with Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Conspiração do Silêncio" ("Conspiracy of the Silence")

FilmCriticLalitRao American film 'Bad Day at Black Rock' begins with an express train running through Mojave desert in California.It makes an unscheduled stop at a small town which has not seen any train stop there for the last four years.This brief yet interesting description is enough to guarantee ample thrills to viewers.However,director John Sturges and his leading man Spencer Tracy contribute a lot to ensure that their film also discusses some issues of supreme importance especially the hypocrisy of small town people who would do anything to let some secrets remain buried in the ground.This is plenty of action in the film with imaginative use of hands and mouths.Apart from some good performances by Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, it is actor Spencer Tracy who completely dominates the film.It is said that a leading man doesn't lose cool easily.However, no hero would keep quiet when unjustly provoked.It is precisely for this reason that he emerges as a true hero despite having a severe physical handicap.