Boom!

This is a film about the super-idle superrich and the people who participate in their deathwatch. The film is minimalist in nature having only a cast and a set that supports the deathwatch theme. It is probably a difficult movie to watch because it has absolutely nothing to say about life and living. William's script creates a Dante-ish abstraction of a death journey with incredibly tight and sharp dialogue that is matched by the director's use of space and time. The only problem I have with the production is the totally inept lighting direction. Here we have a Mediterranean sunwashed villa as the set of the final human drama with very little sense of light and heat.

The whole cast, what there is of it, are essentially giving solo performances. Even when they are in each other's arms they seem to be issuing soliloquies. This produces a very interesting effect of "who's on first". Everyone has such a good part with such good lines its hard to tell who to focus on. The real treat was the Taylor-Coward jousting at the dinner table. I've never seen Noel Coward before and this part seemed to be written for him. Taylor hated her part in this film but it appeared the director was allowing the cast to develop their parts themselves judging from the reading flubs that were left in the final cut.

I'm not going to say anything about the story. It should be seen by those who are looking for a Tennessee Williams interpretation of death at the top. Suffice it to say, in response to the waves crashing on the rocks below: "boom...the shock of each moment of still being alive".

I rate this a 5 out of 5. I would have rated it a 4 out of 5 if there was no close-up of Taylor's eyes.

As a 24-year-old back in '68, I thought Liz and Dick were gauche, but time has mellowed my judgments (particularly after seeing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe" for a 2nd time and really appreciating it this time around.) So, given the chance to see "Boom" for the 1st time, I said "Sure!" Well, Boom got ole Granny all shook up! I LOVED it! If someone disparagingly says "Camp!" to describe this movie, it isn't me. I watched the movie with complete seriousness, took the story and characters literally, and came away from the experience very moved! Liz Taylor is at her luminous, beautiful best. So she's a little chunky. I was mesmerized by her famous deep purple eyes and thick black eyelashes. But it was her acting in this film that really knocked me out. Yes, her accents vary - but that is Liz being true to the character. Sissy Goforth is a grand lady now, but her lapses into vulgarity suggest humbler beginnings.

I think Liz' acting is superb throughout. After all, this character IS over-the-top. Liz goes from grandiose viciousness to moving pathos and I found her believable at all times.

As for Burton, that sexy devil/angel - who cares if he was a little old for the part. To this 62-year-old, he looked delicious, and that mellifluous voice really m-o-v-e-d me.

The spectacularly beautiful scenery of Sardinia and the magnificent mansion provided an awesome setting - and Liz' costumes and jewelry were to drool over.

What a treat to see Noel Coward. Who cares if this movie was beneath him. He looked like he was having fun! Of course there's a "message" to the movie, but to me it was secondary to all the glorious glamour and glitz (Oh. Did I just describe "camp?")

Boom (1968)

* (out of 4)

Tennessee Williams wrote the screenplay for this incredibly embarrassing disaster about a dying rich woman (Elizabeth Taylor) who has everything except a man and the man (Richard Burton) who has nothing except the ability to entertain women. This film has a notorious reputation but I was shocked at how bad it really was. The only good thing is the camp factor that comes from all the badness and stink that surrounds the film. I've never seen Taylor give a worse performance but she's certainly very bad here. The horrible screenplay doesn't give her too much to do except scream at people and say goddamn countless times but Taylor doesn't do anything but overact. Her constant screaming is worse that fingernails across an old chalk board. I'm not sure what drinks Burton had before filming but his performance comes across as him doing a bad version of Shakespeare. The supporting cast isn't any better but the major blame has to go to Williams and his incredibly bad screenplay. Some of the dialogue in this film gets major laughs, although that certainly wasn't the intent. I'd even say that some of the dialogue appears to have been written by Ed Wood because it tries so damn hard to be serious or touching but come off incredibly dumb. Even with all the badness there is one good moment and that's when Taylor, peaking out at Burton, decides she needs a lover and gives a little talk about it. This scene closes with a zoom up to Taylor's eyes.

"Boom!" is a film that requires a lot of patience, and if you wait it out and can accept the meandering direction, it will give you an idea of where Tennesee Williams head was at during this time! Williams was quoted to have been pleased with this adaptation of his "The Milkman Doesn't Stop here Anymore" play. Does this film work?...Well yes and no! Meandering direction tries your patience but you do get a glimpse into the mind of a self-obsessed woman by Ms. Taylor who's seen it all and done it all and isn't used to hearing the word "NO". A tighter script would of helped. It's KINDA campy but I tend to think the term "Camp" is overused a lot by too many people. I think John Waters described this film best by declaring it "failed art". I feel the acting is ok by the actors involved. You have to pump up the volume in a film like this to draw you in! Remember Ms Taylor's character is supposed to be essentially unlikeable and shrill and there is no such thing as a happy ending in such a picture. A odd and strangely compelling film if you have the patience!

How can a film be a 10 and a 1 at the same time? As serious art, Boom is a bomb. Yet, as a testimony, a very camp testimony, to the lives of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noel Coward, and Tennessee Williams, it is literally hysterical. As the Age of Aquarius was dawning on America, what were these pioneers of love, lust, decadence, and existential meaning to do? What is there to say, to do, to perform, two years after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1968. the play Hair is delighting Broadway. The hippies have overtaken the Beats. Where can the stars go? To the Old World, Europe, Italy, Capris... The movie reveals their state of mind: preoccupation with death, the emptiness of wealth, sex, and luxury. As we watch this undeniably amusing costume melodrama, we can't help wondering just what Taylor and Burton's "real" life there in Sardinia must have been like. Did they throw tantrums when their whims went unsatisfied, or was it the opposite? I'll have to leave the answer to the biographers. But this film makes it impossible not to imagine them all there in Italy, trying with desperation NOT to be what they were portraying. That is what makes the film intriguing.