A Bad Day in Black Rock Review
A Bad Day in Black Rock is a 1955 mystery thriller written by Millard Kaufman/Don McGuire and directed by John Sturges. The film was nominated for three Oscars that year: Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
Story
An army veteran named Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) stops into the very little town of Black Rock for reasons that are not at first made clear. He is treated with suspicion and passive aggressive hostility from the locals, especially when he starts asking the wrong questions.
The film does a good job of keeping you invested in the mystery of both who Macreedy is and why he's here and what the town is so skittish about, especially when we find out that the two parties are connected in some way. I don't want to give much away because being a mystery it really is best experienced going in blind.
The main character is immediately likable and intriguing. He has a quiet politeness to him which is simultaneously pleasant to experience and immediately suspect because you get the feeling that he's hiding something behind his kind exterior. He only gets more complex as the story goes on and becomes more and more interesting. The other characters are interesting too, with their own dynamics and power struggles with each other.
Since this is a detective story made during the 1950s, it would be safe to assume that the film isn't really trying to do anything but entertain you, but that's not really the case here. The film is set just after World War II and this gives the film the opportunity to comment on the poor treatment of Americans of Japanese descent during the war. It also seems to do a bit of deconstruction of the romanticized image of the Old Western small town. Macreedy at one point remarks that he thought the South was known for their hospitality, even though he has been treated with nothing but contempt since he arrived.
Technical
I like how a lot of visual storytelling is done in this film through blocking. For example, it's made very clear that the main villain of the film is in control of the local sheriff. Even though they do this in dialogue anyway, they also choose to show it with the placement and posture of the actors. For example, the sheriff wakes up in one of his cells and the villain is blocking the door, with the sheriff making no attempt to make his way past.
I also appreciate the use of wide and group shots in this film. I get that the reason this was done was because Hollywood was going through this cinema-scope gimmick that made the screens much bigger, but I like how the shots add to the town's feeling of emptiness and isolation.
This being the 50's all of the color in the movie is technicolor, making everything look a little too cheerful for what is supposed to be a dark, intense thriller. I understand that the technology of the time made that expectation kind of impossible, but it's still distracting.
The sets are really well constructed and look convincing, though because of the camera quality it has that problem of looking like a stage set due to the lack of detail the cameras were able to pick up.
Summary: A Bad Day in Black Rock makes for a pretty good day if you decide to watch it. The intrigue is masterful, the characters are all interesting, the mystery is well thought out and it's competently made. It's not going to change your life, but there are worse distractions between cradle and coffin.
Story
An army veteran named Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) stops into the very little town of Black Rock for reasons that are not at first made clear. He is treated with suspicion and passive aggressive hostility from the locals, especially when he starts asking the wrong questions.
The film does a good job of keeping you invested in the mystery of both who Macreedy is and why he's here and what the town is so skittish about, especially when we find out that the two parties are connected in some way. I don't want to give much away because being a mystery it really is best experienced going in blind.
The main character is immediately likable and intriguing. He has a quiet politeness to him which is simultaneously pleasant to experience and immediately suspect because you get the feeling that he's hiding something behind his kind exterior. He only gets more complex as the story goes on and becomes more and more interesting. The other characters are interesting too, with their own dynamics and power struggles with each other.
Since this is a detective story made during the 1950s, it would be safe to assume that the film isn't really trying to do anything but entertain you, but that's not really the case here. The film is set just after World War II and this gives the film the opportunity to comment on the poor treatment of Americans of Japanese descent during the war. It also seems to do a bit of deconstruction of the romanticized image of the Old Western small town. Macreedy at one point remarks that he thought the South was known for their hospitality, even though he has been treated with nothing but contempt since he arrived.
Technical
I like how a lot of visual storytelling is done in this film through blocking. For example, it's made very clear that the main villain of the film is in control of the local sheriff. Even though they do this in dialogue anyway, they also choose to show it with the placement and posture of the actors. For example, the sheriff wakes up in one of his cells and the villain is blocking the door, with the sheriff making no attempt to make his way past.
I also appreciate the use of wide and group shots in this film. I get that the reason this was done was because Hollywood was going through this cinema-scope gimmick that made the screens much bigger, but I like how the shots add to the town's feeling of emptiness and isolation.
This being the 50's all of the color in the movie is technicolor, making everything look a little too cheerful for what is supposed to be a dark, intense thriller. I understand that the technology of the time made that expectation kind of impossible, but it's still distracting.
The sets are really well constructed and look convincing, though because of the camera quality it has that problem of looking like a stage set due to the lack of detail the cameras were able to pick up.
Summary: A Bad Day in Black Rock makes for a pretty good day if you decide to watch it. The intrigue is masterful, the characters are all interesting, the mystery is well thought out and it's competently made. It's not going to change your life, but there are worse distractions between cradle and coffin.
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