"The Petrified Forest"- Classic Film Review

 This is a 1936 noir and crime thriller starring the great Humphrey Bogart in his first major role that introduced him to audiences. It's based on a stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, and features the classic actors Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. The story was compact, fluid and tight, and there was never a moment of plot that wasn't saturated with some kind of dramatic tension that effortlessly handles you through the story. All of the things that we love about classic cinema that are lacking from today's popular culture content.

    The story is about a series of strangers that get thrown together in a rural, secluded diner in the desert of Arizona. They are stranded there being held hostage by a notorious gangster by the name of Duke Mantee, (played to perfection by Humphrey Bogart. His edgy, gritty, "frustrated outlaw just on the verge of exploding" demeanor translated crystal clear on screen). Leslie Howard plays a wandering
intellectual, with no more purpose in life, and charms the young lady who works as a waitress at the restaurant, played by Bette Davis. The young lady is a dreamy eyed romantic with hopes of traveling to Paris and being a great artist. The criminal holding them hostage has also kidnapped an old wealthy couple in a disgruntled marriage that appears to be on the rocks. The dialogue is superb, the tension is great, and it definitely re-asserts a certain kind of charm the world had back in that day that even myself as a millennial generation person am nostalgic for, even though I wasn't there. 

   It's nice to know that there was a time when not everything had to be so slick and sexy looking. Hollywood today just gets more superficial and more flashy with no real artistry. There is a real world charisma, confidence, charm and personality that is more appealing than the modern day technique of telling a story on screen by desperately begging me to notice how sexy you are. They want to tickle you with their immediate sexiness, instead of extending a friendly handshake and cordially inviting you into the narrative with no pressure on you. 

   The dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who actually reads books, like that's how they decided to become a writer, by reading lots of books, not just watching too much television and cruising social media. Dialogue in movies today sounds like a stack of comments on a YouTube video. The characters go back and forth with bite size, clipped ideas that are barked to the audience like comic speech balloons. What the hell happened? 

     It seems though, that the chief problem is that the target age demographic for most Hollywood content nowadays has been lowered to teenagers. At that point in your life, you have no experience in the real world, and just a naive, child's notion of things, so you can't handle any concepts or themes that are too mature, or know how to appreciate something with some real world charm and mystery. You haven't met enough people yet to appreciate someone with a special voice, a special charm and method for communicating information, and introduce sophisticated concepts about the world and adult life as a storyteller. 

 
   Most of us, particularly over the age of 30, look at modern day Hollywood studios and say: "Okay, but what about the rest of us? I mean, not everybody is seventeen years old. I'm ready for more. I've been some places and seen some things, had some dramatic life experiences and have a sharper sense of how big the world is. I'm ready for a more nuanced discussion, poetically speaking." 

    But for now, I guess they just have to go with where the money is. Everybody's kids and grand kids. But they won't be teenagers forever. When they come of age, these classics will be waiting for them.