The Young One

Leonard Maltin's *1/2 review of this bafflingly overlooked Bunuel gem – which, more by accident than design, has become one of my favorite film-maker's most-watched efforts – seems, thankfully, to be a minority opinion nowadays and, in fact, renowned critic Jonathan Rosenbaum (albeit contending elsewhere that this was the Spaniard's biggest critical and commercial disappointment) wrote about it in Steven Jay Schneider's "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"…when Bunuel's much more renowned THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962) is conspicuous by its absence therein! Incidentally, an almost equally obscure fate is shared by the film's immediate predecessor, REPUBLIC OF SIN (1959; which is still pretty hard to come by, though I did catch it once on late-night Italian TV): perhaps, this is because both films were squeezed in between two unexpectedly mature and highly personal works – NAZARIN (1959) and VIRIDIANA (1961)...

Anyway, THE YOUNG ONE is only the director's second English-language film, after ROBINSON CRUSOE (1952), and it also proved to be his last. Plot-wise, it's a hothouse melodrama (which has been considerably altered from the original two-hander short story source) quite typical of his low-budget Mexican output: a bigoted game warden (Zachary Scott) lives on a remote stretch of land – the film was shot in Mexico but the setting is clearly intended to be the American South – with his elderly alcoholic assistant (who has just died when the story opens) and the latter's sensual but naïve teenage grand-daughter (Key Meersman). This situation seems to please Scott, as he suddenly realizes that the girl is no longer a child – but their quiet life is unexpectedly turned upside down with the arrival of a black musician from the mainland (Bernie Hamilton), on the run after an older white woman accused him of rape!

Scott (whose character might very well represent the way his beleaguered but optimistic farmer from Jean Renoir's THE SOUTHERNER [1945] – which, incidentally had been adapted for the screen by the blacklisted co-writer of both ROBINSON CRUSOE and THE YOUNG ONE, Hugo Butler – would turn out under different circumstances!) is absent when Hamilton lands on the island. The latter strikes up a friendship with Meersman, while being embarrassed by her apparent lack of morals (which stacks the sympathy cards in his favor...though, on butting heads with Scott eventually, he loses no opportunity to address him as "white trash")! A battle of wills between the two soon manifests itself: Scott shoots holes in Hamilton's boat and then takes a pot shot at the man himself; the latter turns up enraged at Scott's cabin and manages to disarm him; the warden is thus forced to accept the black man into his house, but still refuses to eat on the same table with him!

Scott, meanwhile, continues to lust after Meersman – and, one night, he forces himself upon her and they sleep together (a potentially controversial sequence that the director handles in an admirably sensitive manner); the very next day, a preacher (Bunuel regular Claudio Brook) from the mainland comes to take the girl away even though Scott had been making such arrangements himself. Meersman is so innocent that she immediately confesses to the priest about her illicit liaison, which obviously shocks him (though, in typical Bunuel fashion, the latter Is himself a hypocrite who casually asks the girl to overturn his mattress because the black man had previously slept on it)! When Brook confronts Scott about the matter, the warden is willing to marry the girl; the priest, however, has in mind another form of compromise – knowing the malicious nature of the woman whom Hamilton is supposed to have assaulted, he believes the musician to be innocent of the crime. So, Brook asks Scott to let the black man go…though they still have to contend with the bigoted boatman (the warden's contact with the mainland) who will not think twice about executing Hamilton on the spot!

The intimate plot and swampy atmosphere are already compelling in themselves – but the whole, then, is elevated by Bunuel's distinctive handling (resulting in any number of irreverent touches along the way, but also a few violent ones, that often have the additional effect of enriching characterization). However, just as integral to the fabric of the film, is the catchy traditional gospel tune "Sinner Man" – even if, typically for Bunuel, it's only heard in the opening and closing moments of the movie; for the record, the charismatic Hamilton also indulges in a couple of jazz solos (to the girl's delight) during his tenure on the island – one of which, however, is (in perhaps the film's comic highlight) abruptly put to a literally explosive end by the jealous Scott! Incidentally, THE YOUNG ONE proved to be the first of just two films to feature the lovely Meersman and while I did get to watch the other one – Damiano Damiani's ARTURO'S ISLAND (1962) – simply because she was in it, the film itself was in no way as rewarding as Bunuel's had been (and continues to be with each successive viewing).

In fact, my previous three viewings of the film came via a slightly fuzzy Italian TV screening in its original English language but embedded with unremovable Italian subtitles. Therefore I'm thoroughly grateful to Lionsgate for releasing THE YOUNG ONE on DVD as part of their modest but very welcome 2-Disc "Luis Bunuel Collection" which also incorporates arguably the director's most inconsequential (if still not unentertaining) film, GRAN CASINO (1947). Incidentally, both titles come accompanied by an Audio Commentary and the one for THE YOUNG ONE is a joint and overly academic effort at analyzing the film's themes and textures. But if this makes for a rather heavy-going listening experience even for an avowed Bunuelian like myself, at least one gets another opportunity to look at celebrated cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa's sublime black-and-white images.

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.

"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.

"The Young One" is a rare English-language enterprise for acclaimed director Luis Bunuel: a thoroughly perverse, unpleasant yet fascinating tale of corruption of innocence and racial prejudice. Bunuel, well-known as a provocateur, makes the black character (Bernie Hamilton, in a charismatic performance) the most positive one, and he takes advantage of Key Meersman's precocious, efortless eroticism (remember, this was made two years before Kubrick's "Lolita"). There is a great shot near the end of her playing hopscotch while wearing high heels which perfectly illustrates her duality - both a child and a woman. Terrific theme song, too. *** out of 4.

I have been looking for this film for some time, and it's everything I've waited for. For 1960, this film has some rather advanced themes. A black jazz musician named Traver winds up on an island used by a hunting resort. He has run away from a town after being accused of rape. The resort is kept by a middle-aged man named Miller and an older man who has just died leaving his granddaughter Evalyn (no older than 14). Traver finds the Miller's shack and takes some items. Miller wants to kill him, we assume for racial reasons. Miller is also in love with Evalyn, now in his care, and wants to make her a woman. This subplot is used through the eyes of two other characters who learn about Miller's relationship with Evalyn. You will notice quickly that one man, Jackson, wants to shoot and kill Traver for what others say he's done, and jokes with Miller about what he knows Miller's done. Statutory Rape is worse than rape, but to these people, black crimes are worse than white ones. Other reviewers seem not to pick up that Miller knows what he has done is wrong. He knows he is a worser man than Traver. After he finds out Traver left money for the stuff he stole, Miller no longer wants to kill him. Miller is not a racist man, any hatred for Traver that Miller has is spawned only from the fact that he's a stranger.

This film is the ultimate drifter film (under Tokyo Drifter)...like a Spaghetti Western or a Samaurai movie, it starts as the man drifts into this new environment and follows him till he leaves this environment. The film is book-ended with a great exterior scene with a compelling song playing about running away. Traver's name is short for Traveling Man, what better for a drifter?

As one of Bunuel's two English films, I wish Anchor Bay would pick this up and put it on DVD, or whoever distributed it if they still exist. Bunuel's attention to detail helps mix in some hidden undertones of prejudices. A clarinet called a 'Licorice Stick'. A priest offered a bed slept in by Traver asks how long Traver slept in it. "Only one night" the girl tells him. "It's okay, I'll just turn the mattress over." I'm frightened to even think what the character would have asked if Traver has stayed a week. Knowing Bunuel, the priest would probably say he'd just sleep on the floor after running to wash his hands.

Bunuel is no stranger to prejudices, see Exterminating Angel. As a window breaks, the host shrugs it off and says "probably a passing Jew". Generally he is so much harder on Catholics than anyone else, yet in this film, the priest is the only character that wasn't flawed. Obviously, I love this film, if you can find it, you must see it. The scenes between Traver and Miller have such style in their words, you'll like them both. Every exchange they have is so smooth, I can't believe that Bunuel didn't make more films in English.

RENT THIS FILM!!!!!!!