One of the great things about DVD is that you can discover forgotten movies. And this weekend I discovered a great one. It's called "Prime Cut" starring Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman and Sissy Spacek. It's one of those movies that could only have been made in 1972. It's a gangster movie set in America's Heartland. And it's central message is expressed in an exchange between Marvin and Hackman " Humans, cattle...what's the difference?" "There is a difference.".
This is a terrific movie full of every un-PC thing you can imagine. The movie begins with titles imposed over scenes showing you how cattle are killed and turned into ground beef. It has violence, nudity and a total sense of nihilism that is hard to match. And the idea of setting the movie in Missouri showed the dark side of small towns way before David Lynch made "Blue Velvet".
Lee Marvin is amazing as a paid Mafia man (the good guy here!), Gene Hackman is great as the mand running a cattle operation and a prostitution ring and Spacek (in her film debut) is touching as an innocent Midwestern girl forced into becoming a prostitute.
I loved this movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment