pct

A near miraculous pairing of two of American cinema's finest actors. Possibly career bests from the both of them. The camera and the story just seem to roll along and scene after scene delight and reward the viewer. In an interview, Hackman has stated that Scarecrow is his favourite piece of work.

This is one of the undoubted classics of 70's American cinema. This is Nickolson at his best, like in The Last Detail, the consummate anti-hero, the film never succumbing to cheap easy glories for its main protagonist. He is the archetypical under-achieving misfit, who may or may not deserve our sympathy. Victim of circumstance or does he bring his own troubles upon himself? No easy answers will be found here. I just regret that Nicholson isn't admired enough for these understated roles, and that Rafelson only came close again in the magnificent King of Marvin Gardens.

This film moves you. In its beauty, in its tragedy. The aesthetics of the novel by Hardy, the Wessex landscapes, the doomed pursuit of love, are there to behold. Whatever artifice the filmmakers had to create in their pursuit of producing a beautiful lasting work of art, was worth it judging by the end product. Their achievement is complete.