Bobby Deerfield

When Bobby Deerfield was marketed in the USA it was sold to the public as a racing picture like Grand Prix or Le Mans. I well remember the advertisements for it. The European racing scene however is only a background for an Erich Maria Remarque novel on which the film is based. It is a very typical Remarque story about doomed people.

Remarque was one of the most pessimistic of 20th century writers. His best known work however usually has a war background. He spent his entire life trying to out do his first great success All Quiet On The Western Front. Such other work as Three Comrades and Arch of Triumph which were also filmed had a war background or post or pre-war if you will.

The novel Bobby Deerfield is based on Heaven Has No Favorites and came out in 1961 and its protagonist was not an American. My guess is that in order to film it and insure box office the protagonist was changed to an American and a rising American star was cast. Al Pacino plays the title role, an American driver on the European circuit who is self involved in his career. In fact he goes visiting another injured driver, not out of any tremendous concern for him, but to find out information about the crash because he's driving the exact same type of car.

While at the hospital he meets Marthe Keller who leaves the hospital with him. She's a terminal tuberculosis patient and she wants to experience a little of life before it's too late. His kind of risk taking profession appeals to her. It takes a while, but the two develop a relationship.

Which was paralleled in real life between Al Pacino and Marthe Keller and that certainly helped the film a lot. Keller joins Ingrid Bergman from Arch of Triumph and Margaret Sullavan in Three Comrades as yet another of Remarque's doomed heroines. And like in war Pacino's in a job where his number can come up any time.

The film was shot on location in France. Sydney Pollack showed some of the style he did while making that other Oscar winning romantic film Out of Africa. The French countryside is captured beautifully.

Still I think it was bad for American audiences to expect another Grand Prix in Bobby Deerfield. There was enough racing scenes in the film to satisfy racing fans, maybe. But make no mistake, this is a tender romantic story and a good one.

I'm surprised to see it's actually not a racing movie but a love story, and a rather good one and among the few that did Pacino. Sure, for the asphalt lover, you will have a excellent introspective of a pilot(the danger, the uselessness of making circles) and a good retrospective of what was F1 in the late 70s. But, it's above all a dramatic romance that happens in Europa (Paris and Firenze essentially).

As it's an early Pacino, he's the nervous, a bit cold and not smiling easily actor of that period. What's interesting is that her girlfriend will change him as a more cool, compassionate that's actually the old Pacino. The good thing also is that the girlfriend is very funny, free, careless and it's a big change from the usual romance, even as if Al says, she's a bit difficult to follow. In addition, Marthe Keller is a fine woman and it's also the proof that charm doesn't mean sex appeal. Another thing that catches my eyes is the carefree way of life of those times(drinking, smoking) and the flashy fashion. In a way, it's like the rebellious generation of the sixties has reaches adulthood without losing their conviction. So, explain why now, in the 10s, everything is forbidden and it's the time of the dark suits!

The film at the beginning shows a man who is basically incapable of letting go of the control of his destiny, of all circumstances, radically removing himself from his true self, his soul, his freedom, his soul was dead, then he goes through a little transformation throughout the film, and what died in the man at the end was his false self, his self constructed personality and image, so that his real self could come to life. Now he was facing the way out of his tunnel, to be open to and not resist all possibilites. The film's slow pace and meandering style showing all kinds of things that may not seem important to anything in the film beautifully reflects in a poetic way the openness to all possibilities the viewer himself is meant to face as well, just like Bobby at the end of the film, when he's coming out of the tunnel of his own self imprisonment.

Come out of that tunnel and you'll feel this film speaking messages in hidden or subtle ways. That's what life is about. To be open to all possibilities means no expectations and control of all things to come. The trust in the universe comes with the death of our manufactured self, the woman dying in the film was like a message to Bobby Deerfield, like a mirror of his own death he had to face to become born again. Life and death is part of the whole, to fear death is to fear life.

Some could take this film as a message to motor racing these days as well, or any sport or part of life, how too much protection can take away from life, it kills the human spirit. People seek danger so they could feel at that orgasmic crossing point between life and death so they could feel alive.

This film was reflective of my own healing, I was going through disabilities and challenges of my own physical body. Years passed and one day at that time I decided to stop feeling sick, to get myself out of the prison of my mind, and miraculously what happened is that my body started getting back in shape, and at the end I was becoming more connected, more open, exuberant. I stopped seeking explanations, or the truth, I was open to mystery that is life.

I am open to my crazy self now, I let it all come as it may, I live like never before. That is what I took from the experience this film was for me at one time. I can't say this film did it for me, this film was a sign, a divine reminder, a portrayal of the theme and feeling I adopted in my own transformation.

Al Pacino is BOBBY DEERFIELD in this touching and moving film about a race car driver in a indifferent marriage who falls in love with Lillian (Marthe Keller). Deerfield buries his feelings and forgets his past until a reckless and passionate woman (Keller) who also lives in death's shadow shows him life's possibilities to the fullest. Beautiful scenes shot in France and Italy make this film even more romantic as well. As Pacino said during the filming of Bobby Deerfield, "I might have been closer to that character, what he was going through, than any character I've played". Why this film is not out on dvd is beyond me, it is fantastic. Funny and touchingly romantic. This was during Pacino's best years.

Charming, if slightly patronizing 70's drama. Superb direction. Subtle and understated script. Pacino at his most gorgeous. Howlingly funny, despite it's tragic subject matter. A memorable ending, brilliantly realised. I'd forgotten about the "look, it's Bobby Deerfield" scene as well as all that stuff about salami. Pacino's reactions, especially after first dropping off Marthe Keller at her uncles, are perfectly pitched, dead pan gems. Inexplicably maligned by many, this hidden jewel may be due a timely re-assessment, not least because Keller's performance now seems perfectly in tune with the Ritalin generation.