La terra si tinse di rosso

I too saw Lolly Madonna XXX very late one night 20 years ago. I am now 41 years old and still haunted by this film. When I saw this movie at 21 years of age, I was very disturbed by it - the way these families lived, the misunderstanding and violence between the families, the misunderstanding and violence within each family itself -it was overwhelming. However, to this day, I consider this to be the best film I have ever seen. I judge a movie based on the ability it has to make me really FEEL - and Lolly Madonna did that for me like no other film ever has!! This film forces you to become attached to each and every character. And then when things start to go very, very, wrong.............well, I can't say anymore. Suffice it to say that this film will seriously affect anyone thinking person who sees it. There is also a very sad but very beautiful about the music. When I saw it the first time I couldn't stop thinking about for two days! I was fortunate enough to have caught this a second time about 15 years ago on the late, late movie (from the beginning) and was able to video tape it. Unfortunately, the tape was misplaced in my move to NYC. I would pay good, good money to own this movie!! That is, if I could find it!!

This one starts out like the distant inbred cousin of Deliverance from West Virginia come out on the porch to play the banjo. A menacing beat-up flatbet truck runs circles around a girl killing time in a remote bus stop on her way to Nashville. There's promise of backwoods squalor and meanness and the delivery of it, not exploitation graphic and gratuitous but it's there, the passerby girl is snatched, another girl is raped, a moonshine still is busted, and a backwoods yokel with painted eyes and a bra makes a scene. At that point the Feathers family appears to be only a few generations of inbreeding away from moving down to Texas to make lampshades out of human skin and chase Marilyn Burns with a buzzing chainsaw.

Then, as the two feuding families headed by patriarchs Rod Steiger and Robert Ryan begin to spar about stolen hogs and a postcard written to one Lolly-Madonna and a grassy meadow that at one time belonged to one or the other family, something begins to change like a dark cloud passes over the movie. It's not about the futile anguish and madness of vendetta, although it seems so at first. And it's not about hogs or the grassy meadow or even land as a basic abstraction and what it's come to signify for people who had nothing to call their own for generations but land. It's about the creeping realization of a broken life muttering to itself late at night on a rocking chair by the window that "it's too late", that it's too late not for killing and dying but for even words.

It's about something that happened long ago which can't be made right again, and it has something to do with a son who never came back from the war, about brothers who can never measure up to that son who never came back from the war because they stayed behind, about a dead wife who was more important to the father-in-law than the son who lost her, that much more important that the father-in-law had to sacrifice that which was the most important thing in the life of the other son (the one who never amounted much for anything) to repudiate the killing. And about horses. It's about bitter regret pain and anguish gnawing at the insides and then the grassy meadow is set on fire and the two families meet for a standoff outside the old rundown Feathers home, once probably elegant with wealth happiness and good fortune.

In the end, the look on Rod Steiger's eyes turns from anger and sadness to complete madness and Sarafian gives us freeze frames of the main characters that look like portraits of despair, the colors are drained out and the movie turns sepia yellowish as if in memory of something lost, of that small insubstantial detail that involved horses and the dead wife that was the result not of practical design or coincidence but of the pure blind chance of the cointoss that forever changed the lives of two families. Immense sadness. Or like William Faulkner would say, between grief and nothing, Lolly-Madonna XXX will choose grief.

This is a movie I, like many others, caught on late night TV. Being a long-time Jeff Bridges fan, I thought I would give this a whirl when it showed up on TBS back in the 80's. I was immediately transfixed by the atmosphere, the haunting music and most of all the casting. All of the characters were on target and I can't recall a movie with more "character" actors than this one. Scott Wilson, Randy Quaid, Ed Lauter, Keil Martin and 70's staple Paul Koslo all add to the richness of this flick. There were no real bad guys in my mind. Even Rod Steiger's psychotic yet tortured portrayal evoked sympathy. I was able to tape a showing about 15 years ago and still have the VHS. I am half afraid to watch it because if anything happened to it it's practically irreplaceable. With all the garbage being released on DVD these days I would love to see more quality pictures such as this being released.

Two rustic families, headed by patriarchs Laban Feather (Rod Steiger)and Pap Gutshall (Robert Ryan), begin a feud. At first, it is comical, with the sons of the two families playing tricks on each other. One such trick gives the Feather boys the idea to kidnap a girl, who turns out to be innocent bystander Roonie, not the made-up girlfriend named Lolly Madonna. As events escalate, Jeff Bridges' character, Zack Feather, and Roonie fall in love and try to bring the others to their senses. What Roonie doesn't know is that Zack has a dark secret, which will explain why there is much real pain between the two families that once were close friends.

The plot really pushes forward in this movie, which I believe is in part an allegory for the mindlessness of war in general, and for Vietnam in particular (the Paris Peace Talks were about to start when the movie was released). The touching performances make you feel for and care about every character, from wannabe "Elvis" Hawk Feather (Ed Lauter) and his sensitive brother, Thrush Feather (Scott Wilson), both patriarchs, each with a different cross to bear, to the patient, wise, quietly suffering matriarchs (Tresa Hughes and Katherine Squire). Relative newcomers Jeff Bridges, Gary Busey and Season Hubley bring focus and hope to the film. Even the simple melodic score is perfect, coming forward at just the right time.

"Lolly-Madonna XXX" brings tears to my eyes every time I see it... and I'm no wimp!

This is not a great film, by any means, but they make an honest effort to build up the ridiculous notion of territorial ownership of people, fences, and honor. Robert Ryan (wonderful actor since the 40's) and Rod Steiger (more restrained than usual) are the patriarchs of two rural hillbilly families with an innocent girl standing between them.

Jeff Bridges, Scott Wilson, Gary Busey, and Randy Quaid are some of their brood that puts this slightly above the usual drive-in fare. Kiel Martin is very good. Nice cinematography and none of the cast is coasting, it just never really catches fire. Worth a watch, though. Best performance = Scott Wilson. A 6 out of 10.