Boom!

Joseph Losey would have turned 100 on 14 January 2009 had he lived and it seems appropriate that I should commemorate that anniversary a day late and with this very film because: a) it deals with a much-married dying woman looking back on her life and b) it misses the mark of being a good movie. Actually, for most people, it does much more than the latter and is an unmitigated disaster, a serious blot on the careers of a handful of talented people: director Losey, playwright-screenwriter Tennessee Williams (who boldly claimed this was the best film ever to be made out of his own plays!) and lead actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. On the other hand, the ones who generally escaped the critical trashing with their dignity intact were cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (shooting in the lovely Mediterranean island of Sardinia), composer John Barry (who provides a terrific and playfully eclectic score) and supporting players Noel Coward (making a droll appearance as the Witch of Capri) and Joanna Shimkus (as Taylor's long-suffering secretary). For one thing, the Burtons were both miscast, with her being far too young – she was just 36 at the time – and him too old for their roles (Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter, respectively, had originally played those parts in the equally catastrophic stage version)! The fact that BOOM is one of eccentric film-maker John Waters' all-time favorites is a clear sign that the movie's reputation (bad or cult, depending which side of the fence one happens to be on) rests squarely on its high camp quotient: Taylor's constantly shrill, foul-mouthed delivery (including the occasional line in massacred Italian) – which, again, can be downright annoying or mildly amusing – and her parading in an incredible Kabuki costume to the strains of live sitars; "Angel of Death" Burton's walking around (hair blowing in the wind) in a samurai warrior's attire and brandishing the proverbial sword on the ledge of Taylor's clifftop villa; diminutive bodyguard Michael Dunn unleashing his pack of wild dogs on intruder Burton, etc. In the long run, however, what really saves the film for me – apart from those assets already mentioned at the top – is Losey's mise-en-scene which, from the very first shot to the last, is remarkably cinematic and inventive – in spite of his allegedly hitting the bottle quite hard during production (which did not prevent either of the Burtons from working for him once more, albeit separately)!

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?")

Cyberspace abounds in commentary about the awfulness of this film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" and wise observers from John Waters to Tony Richardson to John Lahr and beyond have provided varied insights into its why and wherefore. It's a muddle, for sure, written and rewritten by Williams over the space of a decade as his creative abilities declined. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Noel Coward are all miscast. Taylor, at the height of her voluptuous early-middle-age is not remotely convincing as a dying old hag; Burton, in early stages of his personal dissipation, fails to project the sexual allure the dialogue implies and Coward is decidedly un-witchy as the Witch of Capri. Oddly, Taylor delivers her lines in Cowardesque style in her extended dinner scene with him. She has one very good scene in which her character has a long coughing fit; perhaps Taylor drew on her own personal near-death experience with pneumonia several years earlier.

One could imagine a more effective result if the project had gone in front of the cameras immediately after it flopped on Broadway in early 1964. Tallulah Bankhead, the lead player in the failed stage version, could have pulled it off (her performance in the movie "Die! Die! My Darling" later that year proved she could hold her own on film, though her cigarette-damaged lungs could not make it through monologues in a live setting). Terence Stamp would have been the perfect Angel of Death and Bankhead's own real-life chum Estelle Winwood would have been a very good choice as the Witch of Capri, and any number of younger actresses of the era could have played the secretary.

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.