A Walk with Love and Death

Walk with Life and Death, A (1969)

** (out of 4)

When people discuss the great or awful films in the career of John Huston, this effort here rarely gets mentioned and that's probably because even the most die-hard Huston fan either hasn't sat through it or simply can't make it through. Apparently Huston selected to do this as something small and personal and one does have to respect him for trying a poetic movie like this but in the end the thing just didn't work for me. A man (Assaf Dayan) "hears" the "calls" of the sea and decides to leave Paris and walk to it. Along the way he encounters various forms of violence and a blooming relationship with a young woman (Anjelica Huston) who soon joins him on his journey. This film wasn't popular when it was first released and it seems very few people have bothered checking it out since then even though we've got a legendary director and his famous daughter in her first role. From the reviews I've read there appear to be a few fans of the film and it's poetic vision but for me the thing was a pretty big misfire. One of the biggest problems is Anjelica who is simply way out of her range in this type of part. This would have been a challenging role for anyone let alone someone making their first acting appearance. At times she seems all over the place while at other times she seems as if she doesn't know where to turn. Dayan doesn't fair much better but at least he seems at ease going through everything on this journey. The film moves at a rather slow pace, which I didn't really mind as Huston was trying to build some atmosphere out of it. The dialogue, cinematography and even the music score are all used to be dream-like but it just never really came together for me. This isn't an awful movie or an embarrassing one but it just felt too empty for me.

The two biggest reasons for seeing 'A Walk with Love and Death' were seeing father and daughter John Huston (as director) and Anjelica (in the lead role and her film debut) collaborating together in the first of three films. The others being the infinitely better 'Prizzi's Honor' (which garnered Anjelica a deserved Oscar win) and 'The Dead' (John's last film). Have loved Anjelica ever since 'Ever After: A Cinderella Story', a film still close to my heart, and John directed a number of classics such as 'The African Queen', 'The Asphalt Jungle' and 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre'.

Neither are at their best here by any stretch. Did like the concept for 'A Walk with Love and Death' and really wanted to like it considering my love for Anjelica and John, but this was one of those difficult to rate and review films. And this reviewer has always had a bit of a nightmare summing up her thoughts on films that left her mixed or/and conflicted into a review, and it is going to be obvious in this review. It is a contender for Anjelica's worst performance and when it comes to John's filmography it is a lesser effort (nowhere near as poor as 'Phobia' though).

'A Walk with Love and Death' does have good things. It is beautifully filmed with sumptuous costuming and settings that are very evocative of the period. Which is given a very intriguing and uncompromisingly unpredictable depiction in how it deals with social disruption. The music score is very haunting and dream-like.

Did think that a good job was done showing how combat and chaos was like at the time and what is shown is very realistic and not for the faint hearted.

Having said all of that, there are a number of strikes against 'A Walk with Love and Death'. Both Hustons are out of their depth, particularly Anjelica whose inexperience in acting and reluctance in doing the film come through loud and clear in a very wooden performance. John's direction is lethargic and lacks cohesion, there was a real sense that he had no idea what to do with the material which he was not at ease at. Assi Dayan does fare a little bit better in the acting stakes, but still is stiff and out of place and he has no chemistry with Anjelica.

Furthermore, 'A Walk with Love and Death' is very sluggishly paced from dragging out a pretty slightly plotted story, managing to make the already overlong length feel longer. Because of the sprawling all over the place structure the film lacks cohesion and at worst is borderline incoherent. The script is pure self-indulgence and over flowery, trying hard to be poetic and thought provoking but sounding like gibberish instead. None of the characters are fleshed out that well.

In conclusion, something of a moderately intriguing failure to be seen as a curio. 5/10.

This film bends over backwards to look like old paintings and tapestries, and succeeds better than some others with ten times the budget.

Dayan is not a strong actor, and baby Angelica is even worse, but the film is worth watching if you're in a poetic frame of mind.

The story wanders and is lumpy in shape, yet I'm glad to have seen this movie and finished it with strong, lingering emotion.

A doodle from a great artist can be more interesting than a strained masterwork from a lesser talent. Worthwhile for those who still have nerve endings.

The movie is a thin, episodic journey through a landscape marked by battles and skirmishes and dangers - it doesn't aim for an epic quality (everything is very sparse) nor to analyze the political or social aspects of the situation (except in a brief appearance by Huston himself as a nobleman who's giving up his rank to join the peasants - he's much more vibrant and interesting than anyone else in the movie): actually it's a bit of a mystery what it DOES aim to do. Judged simply as an evocation of pure time and place, it's a bit too discreet and tidy - hardly the kind of attempt to conjure up messy verisimilitude that failed in "Revolution." Huston is fairly interesting and manages to convey both her noble blood and the idiosyncratic attitude that would have led her on this journey. The film's general discretion works against a compelling depiction of passion, and it ultimately seems to have worked its way merely to a teenage idyll of togetherness, which makes it hard to face up to the imminent tragedy. An odd item in Huston's filmography, sometimes exhibiting the awkwardness of a dubbed Continental item.

Filmmaking legend John Huston's visually sumptuous, rousingly full-blooded, hugely undervalued 'A Walk With Love and Death (1968) is, for me, one of the more unfairly neglected works of 60s agitprop cinema. This rather cruel, emotionally visceral, oppressively dark tale of burgeoning love set against the squalling, brutalist backdrop of 14th century France, with its increasingly malign, irreligious mania and ceaseless warmongering has retained much of its power to draw you into this especially grim and turbulent epoch.

Unlike so many bloodless, pretty-plastic cinema couples I had a great sympathy for the desperate travails of naive, haughty, yet wholly innocent Claudia of St. Jean (Angelica Huston) and her earnest young paramour Heron of Foix (Assi Dayan), and I can readily imagine Terry Gilliam, Michael Winterbottom, Andrea Arnold, and Gaspar Noe might also appreciate Huston's doomily atmospheric, frequently distressing period masterpiece. A bold, triumphant expression of refined cinematic art made ever more divine by maestro Georges Delerue's sublime score! While 'A Walk With Love and Death' is certainly not without its missteps, it is quite obvious that Huston's majestic, witheringly unsentimental film has not only endured, the galvanizing themes of an impoverished, ruthlessly exploited minority angrily rising up against their mercenary oppressors is disturbingly relevant!