The Young One

THE YOUNG ONE may not be one of Luis Buñuel's finest films, but it is certainly one of his most disturbing and provocative. This picture distinguishes itself from typical "race problem" movies in that Travers is not the familiar "ebony saint" character popularized by the likes of Sidney Poitier. Here Travers (played with intensity by Bernie Hamilton) does not take any mess from the racist Miller -- and lives to tell about it. Miller on the other hand is one of the most vile and despicable characters ever to grace the silver screen. Not only is Miller a bigot, but a pedophile too. When Miller is not spewing racial slurs at Traver, he's trying to bed Evalyn, the recently orphaned girl next door. Daring for the time, THE YOUNG ONE will provide Buñuel aficionados and those interested in the portrayal of African American men in the early 1960's with much fuel for discussion long after the films has been shown.

To viewers in 1960 this mostly seemed a rather turgid and unappealing tale of a bigot's reform, compromised by its trashy atmosphere. The key to the film, I believe, is Bunuel's admiration for the writing of the Marquis de Sade. The Zachary Scott character has a whole host of unexamined prejudices, not merely a racial one-- and when that one tumbles, his mind is liberated in all directions. The fact that this includes being "freed" from conventional sexual morality is the Sadean aspect of it-- as in A Clockwork Orange (but no other film that I can think of besides these two), true freedom is by no means an entirely positive or benevolent thing.

Some of the above comments have mentioned pedophilia in connection with this film. An important distinction has to be made here to prevent corruption of language. What the Miller character (Zachary Scott) does is 'take advantage of an innocent' from his position of strength as an older man, but that is not the same thing as pedophilia at all. The girl in question is 13 years old and sexually mature (an age at which it was FULLY LEGAL to get married in some southern states, Jerry Lee Lewis anyone?). This would make sexual relations between her and a younger man closer to her age fully legal and between her and the older man STATUTORY RAPE only if the laws in that state said so. It is WRONG, in the sense that the girl is in a weak position and gets taken advantage of. But that could happen at any age and age interval per se can never be the only measure of who took advantage of who (look at all the women married to men 20 to 30 years their senior), although it is a pretty safe bet. In fact towards the end of the movie, one of the likely resolutions suggested by Miller to the priest as a way to redeem himself is "what would happen if I married her?" And when Miller lets Bernie Hamilton leave the island he is doing this to redeem himself in his own eyes and possibly marry the 13 year old girl later!

That said, the main character is not the black fugitive (Bernie Hamilton) but the young girl (Kay Meersman, a Liv Tyler lookalike in an amazing performance). She has lived on a remote island for most of her life and knows very little about the racist realities of the American South (or anything else.) She is confronted with it head on, when a black clarinet-player fugitive named Travers, unjustly accused of raping a white woman escapes to her island to hide from a lynch mob. She becomes friendly with him and likes him as a person and can't understand the irrational animosity Miller (her temporary 'protector' whom she hates and who sleeps with her against her will)has for this man.

All this creates a whole bunch of complex tensions that Bunuel deals with in the most masterful way possible. You really believe in all these characters, they are multi-dimensional and historically and psychologically valid. Bunuel has been called cynical and cruel. That may be true but nevertheless quite a few of his films remain consummate works of art because they live up to Pascal's idea of showing man's 'greatness within wretchedness.' This is one of them. 'The Young One' is a MUST SEE film, if there ever was one. It makes all other films about racism and the corruption of innocence look like amateur hour.

Young One, The (1960)

**** (out of 4)

An innocent black man (Bernie Hamilton) is accused of rape by a white woman so he runs off into the swamps of Louisiana. Once there he meets a young (11-13 year oldish) white girl (Key Meersman) and her racist guardian (Zachary Scott) who is also having sex with her. I've seen quite a few Luis Bunuel films now and earlier I said I wished he would do a normal film and tell a normal story without all the dreams and surreal aspects. Well, this is a film like that and I must say it's subject matter is still quite graphic and hard to watch even forty-six years after being released. I have a hard time imagining this thing got released in America due to its sexual and racist nature but apparently it did as the IMDb lists an American title for the film. It's also worth noting that this pre-dates To Kill a Mockingbird but this film here goes a lot further than that film even dreamed. The "N" word is constantly thrown around and unlike the blaxploitation films that would follow a decade later or the earlier Sidney Poitier films, that word has never had a more damaging saying than what's on display here. I'm not exactly sure what the director felt about race but every time that word is said it's used in such a graphic and evil way that you can't help but want to wash your ears out. Race is an issue throughout the film but thankfully Bunuel never lets his message get preachy. He lets the viewer see the hypocrisy and that's enough. The sexual aspect is also quite shocking since there are a couple love scenes between the older guardian and the younger girl. Bunuel also doesn't shy away from showing the girl taking a shower, showing shots of her legs and even a shot of her breasts. No nudity is used and in some ways this makes it seem all the more dirty because of the innocence lost. The performances are all remarkable and even in their most evil ways, the actors make you care for them. Scott steals the film as the racist redneck who's also having sex with the young girl. Just watch the actors eyes and you'll see him thinking, which is something a lot of actors don't do. The thinking of whether or not he should kill the black man and if it's right for him to be sleeping with this girl. The three actors are always looking at one another and you can see that they are thinking about their actions and what could follow. I was rather shocked to see this film get a * 1/2 in Leonard Maltin's movie guide but I guess this film would be rather hard to watch for most people. It doesn't shy away from its subject matter and Bunuel hits the viewer with punches from all sides. The film shows evil and bad people but he also shows the good in such people so it's rather refreshing to see a film that deals with race and isn't one sided towards any point of view.

"Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore" (1955) :the priest ,in the luxury of the bourgeois house ,can do nothing for the poor proletarian who has lost house ,wife and job......

"La Mort En Ce Jardin"(1956) :in the first part,the priests sing "Alleluia" in their churches when the dictatorship kills outside.....Later the heroes lost in the jungle will light a fire ,with the pages of the Bible!

But It was "Nazarin"(1958) which must be considered Bunuel 's greatest achievement as far as this subject is concerned.The whole movie deals with the life and times of a priest ,at odds with his hierarchy ,who tries to live like a saint and who will only get a pineapple (sexual symbol) at the end of his pitiful adventure.

"The Young One" continued in that vein.Although the priest is absent in the first hour,it's him who finally invents right and wrong as a doctrinaire religion imposes them on (more or less) innocent characters. The scene when the girl wants to bury grandpa with a bottle whiskey has something of all the old ancient pagan religions.Isn't it better than a cross?

My favorite scene remains that of the baptism,the girl's so-called golden key.It's almost a comical scene as the priest washes the body in the water and takes away the young one's sin.

It' a golden key to a rotten world:the black man understood that a long time ago ,he does not expect anything anymore from the white justice: this is not the part of a black man you could see in Hollywoodian flicks in 1960,no Uncle Tom and no Sidney Poitier style either..

"The young one' is a good movie,but I would not rate it as high as "Viridiana" or "Nazarin" the two greatest Bunuel achievements of the 1955-1965 era.