Title: Look Back In Anger
Year: 1959
Country: UK
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Director: Tony Richardson
Screenwriter: Nigel Kneale based on the play of John Osborne
Music: Chris Barber
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Cast:
Richard Burton
Claire Bloom
Mary Ure
Edith Evans
Gary Raymond
Glen Byam Shaw
Donald Pleasence
S.P. Kapoor
Rating: 6.9/10
I have only watched one film of Tony Richardson before, it happens to be his last one BLUE SKY (1994) which won a Best Leading Actress Award in Oscar for Jessica Lange (her second one). And LOOK BACK IN ANGER actually is his debut full-length feature, before that Tony was just a TV director. So it seems that it is a quite nice closure between me and Tony, do I need to watch his most notable work TOM JONES (1963)? The answer is moot.
The film is adapted from a famous play written by John Osborne with the same name. In spite of the fact that I have not become an avid play fan yet (which I sense that I will become eventually and it is just a matter of time), I do love to watch films adapted from plays, as there is a big premise that at least the script itself is excellent, with this solid basis, what worst could it be? (in fact this film was a box office failure at that year notwithstanding in its trailer audiences were repetitively urged and convinced that it was a must-see!)
Generally speaking, I like this film, with the non-stop acerbic remarks, mainly from BURTON’s character JIMMY, it is a great training for my comprehension of English and the British accent as well. The story-line is straightforward, a young man tangling between two different women, but it provokes a deep sympathy towards ourselves as human beings, because we are so vulnerable and helpless, most of the time we don’t know what we want. We argue, we fight, we rebel for nothing, we want to be different but are so afraid of its price, so in the end we question the worth of our existence which unfortunately is as null as nothing.
One can feel the anger diffuses throughout the entire film with its misogynistic undertone, for me which intrigues a whit of antipathy. The performance is sound, even though I consider BURTON was too old for his role, but Claire Bloom and Mary Ure have constructed two distinct female roles within a perfect balance, plus a vivid small role from venerable Edith Evans, I have no complain.
There is one topic recurring inside my mind, how to appreciate a film and a play from the same source. As a different media, there must be some expressible watershed in between, but by far I have no clue at all, which is a perfect excuse for me to engage myself into more films and plays!
Cinema Omnivore 
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