Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Walter Sloane
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Martin Bradley
Critically much maligned but really rather an outstanding screen adaptation of Nathanael West's 'difficult' novel about Hollywood in the 1930's and based on West's own experiences there as a 'hack' writer. The British director John Schlesinger helmed the picture, bringing much the same jaundiced eye to bear on proceedings as he did in "Midnight Cowboy". Waldo Salt wrote the excellent script and the outstanding cast included Karen Black as the wannabe actress trying to make it big in the movies, Burgess Meredith as her drunken father, William Atherton as the young art director in love with her and Donald Sutherland as the sad and lonely Homer Simpson that Black all but destroys and whose presence instigates the films tragic ending. The great Conrad Hall photographed the picture and the monstrous child is Jackie Earle Haley.
jessegehrig
This movie, its like: You come home from work, right, come home and there are your kids, only it appears that they've performed some sort of autopsy/voodoo ritual on a llama and now the reanimated mutilated corpse of the beast lumbers about through your trashed living room, at your children huddled together for safety in the corner you yell, " What did you DO!? ". So to this movie do I yell, " The f*ck did you do!? " I mean there's a scene where a cock-fight is depicted as erotic, who would DO that ? How is that erotic ? Sh*tty people who force animals to mutilate one another to death and bet on the outcome, that sound sexy to you ? Awesome bro good for you. No, for real this movie is nuts, if you've never seen this movie I dare you-I DARE YOU- to watch this movie
nihao
Every now and then a true gem pops out of the past... that is, if you are a keen cinema-goer (or movie-viewer...as, nowadays, only kids go to the movies). The day of The Locust is what John Schlesinger had up his sleeve after the huge success of 'Midnight Cowboy'. It was his 'pot shot' at Hollywood. It was his Guy Fawkes beneath Parliament. It was his warning that the Twin Towers story COULD just be a sordid masquerade...although, of course, he didn't know it yet. They say that Hawthorne's book is far more engrossing. Sure... books take up ten times more time to unravel. His characters are mean-spirited, calculating, 'cold fish'...and what they get is what they deserve. But I feel Schlesinger and his script-writers made a worthwhile effort to imbue even these squirming serpents and cold-blooded insects with a breath of pathos, and humanity. And rightly so... the story GAINS points. 'Locust' sometimes feels more like Bergman, Fassbinder or (even) Fellini than like an American film. It reminds us of Grosz. Of German decadence between world wars. We are, often sub-consciously, led down grim corridors of analogy.... Nazi hysteria... Hollywood Boulevard madness. We are voyeurs... we watch a giant Dream Machine which spawns future mutants... frustrated maniacs. And literally DEVOURS its pathetic 'extras' and hopefuls. That is why the overtones of the film seem ,somehow, biblical. David Lynch's source-material is suddenly openly revealed. THIS MOVIE! We have Twin Peaks themes and characters... Mulholand Drive, even more so... Blue Velvet...and so on... But hey! Let's be fair.... anyone who has ever REALLY known Hollywood can only nod and say..."Yes...It's all true.... And if I'm still here, in the industry,.... I'm either a hypocrite, a victim, or a pervert of sorts." ALL the characters are crazed atoms of the American Dream Factory. And Schlesinger opts for a finale worthy of another British, but surprisingly hot-bloodedly so, director... Ken Russell. Madness on the rampage. But is he only a fine line away from exaggeration? Is he not symbolically 'spot on'? That's for you to decide. Meanwhile, the film has done the job it came to do. Maybe even better than 'Chinatown'. And, believe me, the HEY DAY of Hollywood may seem far away and long ago... but the manic drive and sexual black-mail we observe in this reptilian display is all too contemporary to our time. Bon Apetit! (If your digestive system is up to it).
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
I haven't read the novel that this is based upon, but I would like to. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be trapped in front of a car crash just about to happen, with no means of preventing it? That's what this is. You see the people, the situations, and you want to crawl through the screen and stop them. This movie hurts. At no point did this make me smile, or inspire any hope. I see another reviewer has called it nihilistic, and I agree. Is this a failure on the film's part? I don't think so. It's what it set out to be. On principle and as a personal test of strength, I try to never look away from what I'm watching, unless it's visually disgusting(not the case here). Yet this often had me avert my eyes. Not in response to the presentation, which is excellent, but the content. It is rather unpleasant. Set during the Great Depression, this shows us several youths in California, with dreams of making it big. What happens is that Hollywood chews them up and spits them out, and proceeds to walk out the door like it was nothing. This could also be argued to be somewhat about materialism. While I realize that this is not the only famous picture about this, it is the only I have seen, as far as I can remember. We see intolerable, superficial celebrities(not to mention wanna-be's) and those that suck up to them. The climax is extremely visceral, and I'm not sure when I was last that gripped and affected by, well, anything. Atherton is Tod, who wants to make it in the art department. Sutherland is Homer Simpson(no relation), an incredibly pitiful, lonely middle-aged man. And Black is miscast as Faye, the object of the males' desire. She nails the obnoxious, unrealistic and spoiled aspects, and I can't complain about her empty, glassy-eyed stare. Where she comes up short is that she isn't sensual or sexy. Yes, she is meant to have been mangled by the city as well; however, we don't find her attractive or alluring, and it harms the overall result. The acting is great. These characters are not likable; they are interesting enough, and I wasn't bored following them. I've heard others describe this as excessively long... I suppose cutting it down could help it. The dialog is well-written. This is sardonic and darkly comical in tone. There is a lot of disturbing content, some brutal violence and blood, and a little sexuality in this. The DVD comes with no extras. I recommend this to those that this sounds appealing to. 7/10
