meganikalideva

Essentially a western set in a very small desert town in 1945. Spencer Tracy, who is about 25 years older than the part calls for, is a mysterious one-armed man who visits the town on a mission, but the viewer has to wonder, who sent him and why? The people of Black Rock are, to say the least, unwelcoming, and to say the most, downright murderous. Very suspenseful, engaging, and has a satisfying ending. Seven Borgnine and Lee Marvin are great as menacing side characters. Anne Francis seems out of place as the lone, luminously beautiful female in town. The film is about racism and hate, which must have been a brave topic for a 1950s film. It's widescreen and colorful-Cinemascope is always fun, although perhaps it feels wasted here. The musical score is a bit florid for my liking, but never mind. The transfer I saw was good but not great.

The story is a little hard to follow, and honestly a little dry. The characters are not particularly strongly conceived, but this is only five episodes in length. Are the islanders Polynesian? That makes more sense than them being Mayans, as they are called in the show. I don't know.

To me, the most memorable character interactions occur during the dogfights, because, honestly, those visuals carry the show! I'm not a huge fan of the character design here (nothing here is as distinctive or attractive as Do You Remember Love or Macross II), but golly the CGI dogfights are spectacular. There are times when the Valkyrie sequences are astonishing, and the operatic music is beautiful and affecting. The intense last episode really moves at a fast clip; things are finished up but not necessarily tied up story-wise.

Perhaps the color palette is a little too desaturated and perhaps the dialog is a bit over the top, but I thoroughly enjoyed this show. The three female leads are fascinating and beautiful, and the actor playing the main villain does a great job as well. Cara Gee looks inspiring and formidable in that outfit! For sure, this show lacks any varnish and gloss, but that is part of its charm. The whole story takes a lot of unexpected turns. Sometimes it almost felt like no one was keeping track of story threads because characters like Caze and Mrs. Biggs would go from bitter and hateful to sympathetic and helpful depending on the episode. But this ambiguity felt both real and somewhat novel for TV. Mrs. Blithely asks at one point, would all these people be doing these horrible things if not for this place they find themselves in? I also liked it when Mrs. Blithely mused about how she and Mrs. Loving and John Slotter were all cut from the same cloth. They are, all three, scary people in their own ways. (Don't tell Mrs. Blithely that your heart belongs to her, as she will literally keep it in a jar on the shelf.) Really like the title sequence as well.