Pssst, want to check out Little Murders in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 1971
- Runtime
- 108 min.
- Director
- Alan Arkin
- Genre
- Comedy
- Rating *
- 7.2
- Votes *
- 1,815
- Checks
- 311
- Favs
- 28
- Dislikes
- 5
- Favs/checks
- 9.0% (1:11)
- Favs/dislikes
- 6:1
Top comments
-
Siskoid
The play premiered in 1967, but the 1971 film version of Little Murders is even more "of its time", made in the shadow of the Kent State shootings, which in the story, becomes a kind of "new normal" in a New York where institutions, infrastructure and morality are disintegrating. Enter a hero for our time (because if the felt like the end of America, what do we make of the 2020s?), Elliott Gould as a photography who has made disassociative apathy his entire character. He doesn't feel it when he gets beat up in the street, and he doesn't feel it when he falls in love. He just goes through the motions, and finds he can't bring people into focus, only objects, and excrement at that. He's like many, insensible to the violence around him, and like some, only seeing what's terrible and not what's good. The film presents three viewpoints and asks to you to choose between them, really: Is it better to ignore the world collapsing around you, allow yourself to see it, or actively participate in it? It sounds heady, and it is in that "70s protest satire" kind of way, but it's also very funny. There are some absolutely GREAT monologues in this thing - including the judge's thoughts on God and Donald Sutherland's a-ceremonial marriage ceremony, to name just a couple. When the murders start happening, things get darker and the chuckles subside, but the wit is still there. Alan Arkin directs (it was almost Goddard, we dodged a bullet, I hate Goddard) and creates a New York City that's truly falling apart, with random power outages, background riots, and a heavy-breathing pervert on every phone line. A wild ride that unfortunately seems even more relevant today than it was then. 2 months ago -
-
