{"id":6023,"date":"2008-11-27T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2021-08-29T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T01:36:11","slug":"dutchman-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6023","title":{"rendered":"Dutchman (1967)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I told you I&#8217;m not an actress. I also told you I lie all the time. Draw your own conclusion!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-63165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster-684x1024.png 684w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster-85x128.png 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster-180x270.png 180w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Dutchman-Poster.png 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA sultry, psychotic white woman (Shirley Knight) seduces a young black man (Al Freeman, Jr.) on a New York subway.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cat-and-Mouse<\/li>\n<li>Femmes Fatales<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptation<\/li>\n<li>Race Relations<\/li>\n<li>Shirley Knight Films<\/li>\n<li>Trains and Subways<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBased on Amiri Baraka&#8217;s incendiary, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dutchman_(play)\">Obie-award-winning 1964 play<\/a>, <em>Dutchman<\/em> qualifies as one of the most unusual &#8212; and certainly one of the shortest non-silent-film &#8212; listings in Peary&#8217;s <em>GFTFF<\/em>. At just 55 minutes, it&#8217;s barely a feature-length film, and seems more like an experimental venture than a fully fledged narrative. Indeed, the film&#8217;s &#8220;simple&#8221; premise &#8212; a white woman seduces, then humiliates, a gullible black man &#8212; is widely regarded as allegorical: Lula (Knight) represents both a seductive Eve (she chomps continuously on apples) and a provocative, wasteful white America (she throws away said unfinished apples with abandon), while Clay (Freeman) embodies an assimilated Black America perpetually taunted by the elusive promise of mainstream acceptance. <\/p>\n<p>Director Anthony Harvey and cinematographer Gerry Turpin do a reasonably impressive job cinematizing what is by its very nature a claustrophobic, geographically-limited playlet, and John Barry&#8217;s pulsating score is appropriately jarring &#8212; but the truth is that <em>Dutchman<\/em> (even at such a short running time) remains a bit of a chore to sit through, due primarily to Knight&#8217;s insufferable central performance. While subtle characterizations are perhaps too much to ask for in such a heavily weighted allegory, Knight&#8217;s performance is (as noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/film.avclub.com\/dutchman-1798195203\">Nathan Rabin&#8217;s DVD review for <em>The Onion<\/em><\/a>) &#8220;embarrassingly theatrical, a tour-de-force of histrionics that only underlines the pretentious, feverishly overwritten nature of Jones&#8217; script.&#8221; Freeman &#8212; infinitely subtle in comparison &#8212; fares somewhat better, but can&#8217;t help being overshadowed by Knight&#8217;s hideous gargoyle of a <em>femme fatale<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Al Freeman, Jr. as Clay<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/dutchman-freeman.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/dutchman-freeman.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6025\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Gerry Turpin&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/dutchman-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/dutchman-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6026\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>John Barry&#8217;s percussive score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one will primarily be of interest to theater buffs rather than film fanatics. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0060358\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1967\/02\/28\/archives\/screen-dutchman-padded-for-filmlittle-carnegie-shows-joness-protest.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/dutchman-1968\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/film.avclub.com\/dutchman-1798195203\">Onion A.V. Club Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/65871\/dutchman.html\">Time Out Capsule Review (spoilers alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I told you I&#8217;m not an actress. I also told you I lie all the time. Draw your own conclusion!&#8221; Synopsis: A sultry, psychotic white woman (Shirley Knight) seduces a young black man (Al Freeman, Jr.) on a New York subway. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Cat-and-Mouse Femmes Fatales Play Adaptation Race Relations Shirley Knight Films Trains and Subways Review: Based on Amiri Baraka&#8217;s incendiary, Obie-award-winning 1964 play, Dutchman qualifies as one of the most unusual &#8212; and certainly one&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6023\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6023"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63164,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6023\/revisions\/63164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}