Salinger

Interesting, eye-opening, documentary on the great novelist JD Salinger. Well-researched, it includes details of his life that weren't widely known.

Has the usual documentary stuff: a linear blow-by-blow account of his life, including some the more pivotal events and how they later affected him. Quite fascinating how his character is shaped, and how he then puts some aspects of his own character, and experiences, into his writing.

However, it's not all wine and roses and only positivity. All aspects of Salinger's life are revealed, and some will surprise you. Perfect he was not.

On the down side, I felt that most of the interviews with stars were unnecessary. They really didn't have much to add and were just there as a cheerleader squad.

Very interesting and well worth watching.

Salinger (2013)

*** (out of 4)

When you check out some of the "Worst of 2013" lists, I'm sure you'll run across this documentary on many of them. I'm not going to lie as there are some major flaws with this picture and I really wouldn't argue with anyone who spits on the film but at the same time, even through the flaws, I found myself caught up in what I was watching. Some of the flaws include the incredibly bad music score, which is constantly playing at the wrong times. In other words, if someone is saying something dramatic we get this overbearing score, which seems to fit a trashy soap opera more than a movie about a genius. There are countless times where you wish you could mute the score and just listen to what the people are saying. Another problem is a moral one and it seems there are moments where the line is crossed and the documentary is just spying on someone who wants to be left alone. I guess we could argue, as does the film, whether or not a public figure deserves to be alone but there's an interview here with a few people who met Salinger and it's quite obvious he wouldn't want them talking. It's also quite obvious that a few people were pretty much stalking him to get a photo, talk to him or just ask him a question. With all of that said, I must admit that the film really keep me glued to it as I wanted to know some more about the man, his reasoning for writing and of course everything behind his legendary book. The film asks many questions and we really don't get too many answers but it's interesting hearing from the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Martin Sheen and countless book experts about the importance of this story and the man himself. I won't spoil the big revelation that comes at the end but that overbearing music score is on display. SALINGER is a very flawed movie and there's no question about that but I think there's still enough good spots scattered around to make it worth watching.

My Friday Video recommendation: Saw this recently and I was impressed. I'm not sure if it was the film or if it was the story of his life (which I did not know). I suppose, for either reason, my liking it was a nod to the filmmaker. What is most impressive about this film is its breadth. It takes you from his youth, through his service in WW II and after and it weaves his life and the writing together, all in the context of the history of the 20th century. It does a really good job of putting you into the mood of the moment as it moves you along, letting your thoughts and feelings evolve as you discover more and more as it happened. It also seemed to take you on a mental journey similar to what people must have thought of him over the years; from when he was fresh and just published--what a sensation--and how that must have changed over the years as we learn more about the man and who & what he is inside. The filmmakers talked with hundreds of people--people of stature and those from his personal life--and shot hours and hours of interviews and conversations to put it together. The film does not adore him and it does not vilify him; or perhaps it does both. I could have lived without some of the "dramatic reenactments," but I suppose they filled the visual scene while the narrative unspooled. If you have read "the book" and ever wanted to learn more, or if you have an interest in Salinger, I do recommend this.

A recurring complaint I've read about this movie (I'm more of a movie girl than a film girl, which made it even stranger I'd enjoy a documentary so much) is that it doesn't spend near enough time of Salinger's work itself. Yet that would defeat a lot of the film's unwavering purpose.

A veritable sea of interpretations and impressions of Salinger's published works exist, it is the enigma of the man that is the question, and some of his writing has taken on such an epic and larger-than-the-author stature that even delving in a little would give this film a much different feel, and not in a good way.

I wonder if even a portion of the reasons that Salinger kept so much so to himself and guarded his privacy so very jealousy had to do with that larger-than-the-author reaction, where so much of one's self could be open to misinterpretation based on your art, just as we see in tabloid press about very famous actors, musicians, aristocrats, the extremely wealthy, and whose persona rather than personalities are what are worshipped or disdained.

Salinger is one of those exceedingly rare artists (Kubrick and Bardot are the only ones that come to mind) that basically said, nah, I'm not playing the game. You get some of my art, the rest is for myself or my descendents to choose what to do with, but you don't get me.

8/10

JD Salinger's work had a big impact on me for years after I read it at 17. I then read all of the short stories and I marveled at their craft but never quite in the rapture that Catcher In the Rye had. "Catcher..." was completely original and it was critical of modern society in a way that made most main stream adults uncomfortable. Having a hate-hate relationship with my parents at the time made "Catcher" a tremendous source of comfort but one does grow up so I haven't thought of the young Holden Caulfield, self-centered prep-school wash-out, for more decades than I care to admit.

But the thought of peering onto the private doings of J.D. Salinger and all of his various trysts is creepy like Norman Bates in Psycho obsessed with his mother and unable to move on psychologically. But I'm grateful to J.D. Salinger for showing me what good writing was but the documentary may have to wait for the published work to bleed out and hold him accountable for that. Whether he was a lousy father or spouse is for the gossip mags to hash out.