De Niro and De Palma: The Early Films (2018)

De Niro and De Palma: The Early Films (2018)

Dir. Brian De Palma (obviously).

When I plan to cover a sizable portion of a director's filmography, like I do with Brian De Palma, I prefer to start with the earliest one that I own and move forward chronologically. The pictured box set contains three such works. Each one also stars actor Robert De Niro.

01. Greetings (1968) is a satirical 'comedy' about three men trying to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War and is De Niro's first screen credit on a full-length feature film.

As a fan of the director's more dramatic works, from Sisters (1972) onwards, it was interesting to experience his developing working method and spot references to things that would evolve into career defining traits, but the film itself was a struggle for me to sit through.

It drifts off into various other concerns in the middle section, exploring each of the men's individual passions: one is obsessed with the assassination of JFK; one is using a computer dating service; and the last of the three, Jon Rubin (De Niro), is a peeper who gets his jollies from being secretly voyeuristic. The 'comedy' is derived from those peculiar activities. Of the trio, Bob is definitely the most natural actor.

02. The Wedding Party (1969) is another 'comedy' movie that left me similarly exasperated. After a pretty awful arrival skit it explores a bridegroom's reactions to meeting a large group of his bride's family. The knowledge that he'll soon become a part of that collective causes his conviction to waver. It's a situation not helped by the mixed advice he receives from his two best friends, both of whom are staying at the same family home. The Reverend's award lessons were occasionally amusing, but overall it was as dull as being at an actual wedding would be. Maybe that was the point. I don't know. NOTE: Dirs. Brian De Palma / Wilford Leach / Cynthia Munroe.

03. Hi, Mom! (1970) is a sequel to Greetings. It's a black comedy set in the late 60s, in which De Niro reprises the role of Jon Rubin, now minus his two friends. His voyeuristic tendencies remain, but he has a radically different attitude in other matters, for reasons that are spoilery.

Most of the first half of the movie explores his clandestine efforts to film women undressing or having sex in a neighbouring building, in hopes of selling the footage for cash to a producer of cheapo sleaze; the actual filming being his own personal fetish is an added bonus.

Alongside that, in mostly the second half, is a politically-charged scenario in which a troupe of black actors go to extreme lengths to highlight what it felt like to be black in America at the time. It certainly gets its point across, but the troupe harm their own cause by being complete dicks. Any sympathy it could've generated evaporates as they go on. I'm unsure if that was the point.

The connecting line between the two halves is Rubin himself, or more precisely his radicalised system of beliefs, but a satisfying coalescence between them isn't achieved, and by the time the absurd final act came around I'd fully checked out, just glad to be done with the box set.

It's good that the three movies exist in their current state, because film preservation is important and it enables anyone with an interest to see them as they were intended, but I've no need to see any of them ever again. I sold it and am pleased to be moving on to some better De Palma now.

NOTE II: The picture above was used by Arrow to promote the films. It implies that each one is presented in its own keep case, but that isn't how things are. The hard box (green) houses two individual keep cases. Greetings and The Wedding Party are bundled onto one Blu-ray and you'll have to choose which of the two artworks you want to represent them both. Hi, Mom! gets its own keep case and has alternative art on the reverse side. The image itself is an example of Arrow's deceitful in-house tactics and highlights how little they respect their target audience.