L'Aube écarlate

I teach Sociology and would like my present students and future students, to have the chance to view and appreciate the value of this movie in all its lessons. Our young people today could learn things that would benefit them in so many ways. Things from the past and how they relate to us now. They need to see that things have not changed thru the years when it comes to dealing with our two cultures, in our schools and in our communities of the southwest. So if any one can help me, I would appreciate it very much.

I viewed this film for the first time in a motel room at White Sands, New Mexico in 1997. I was completely bowled over. This was a stunning piece of photography (yes, filmography) and truly touching in its use of apace, fauna, and New Mexico geography. Richard Thomas and Desi Arnez,jr were wonderful. This is a real "coming of age" film. I wish to high heaven it were on video. I was, obviously, quite moved.

The idea of placing characters from the WWII era in a desert,detached setting seemed uninteresting and silly to me, at first. As the film progressed, however, one realizes that World War is always somewhere in the background, a father who could hold it all together gone. What a trial for the young people of this film and we come to understand them and their anxieties.

It was 1971 when I first saw this movie at the Picfair theatre on Fairfax near Pico in Los Angeles. We each coughed up 49 cents to get in and few things in my life have given me more for the money. I think it was the magnificent New Mexico scenery that made the movie extraordinary in my mind - sort of like how a fresh, windswept day after a rain (a rare thing in Southern California) can make even the dreariest of neighborhoods look alive and interesting. This, combined with the moving score, has kept this movie alive for me after all these years. With all the horrid things that appear on video, it truly bugs me that no one had the class to commit this one to tape!

When you're in your 70s and can remember details about a movie that you saw 50 years ago, it does say something about the quality of the film. I don't think I'd care to watch it again--I'd probably be disappointed--but I'll never forget the look on Richard Thomas's face after he trips and falls into . . . No, I won't do a spoiler. Thomas has always been a fine actor even though his post-Waltons' career has been spotty. Desi Arnaz, Jr., is very fine, and it's a shame that his personal problems ran his career off the rails. And Catherine Burns? Two classic film roles and she was pretty much done with her film career, though she did continue as a writer. This odd little movie deserves a better reception and wider audience than it got. I can't verify its availability on dvd, but I suspect it would still hold up well with younger audiences. Back in the day, you'd had a lot of trouble finding a movie that took teenagers seriously. The enveloping action of World War II is both distant and present. A good comparison with an older movie might mention The Human Comedy, with Mickey Rooney doing a serious role while still being thought of as a "chikd star."

Not to put too fine a point on it. I saw this movie and was completely struck by the lushness of everything. Plot, plot twists, music, humor, suspense, coming of age, bittersweet; the whole works.

Saw it about five times, dragging all the people I cared about, because even then, as a self-absorbed know it all twenty year old, I realized you don't really "see" this movie...

you experience it.

Not one false move in the entire movie.

Fast forward 1996, I met a guy on-line and we got to talking about this movie. I'd even gone so far as researching it to pay for a copy, since it wasn't made into a video and the TV edited version was horrible.

The problem is, no one is sure. Pity. It bombed here, but Europeans considered it an American Classic.

Anyway, my friends said, "Yeah, the movie was great, but the book was better." I said

"Book?"

Hot-footing it to the library I got a copy.

Hey! I heard that. Did too give it back.

Guessing the author still lived in New Mexico, I called him, 26 years later to thank him and followed up with a letter.

He wrote back and mentioned the publishing industry is no longer populated by gentlemen, and the best thing about making the movie was he got to meet Claire Bloom.

I asked him to write again, because he intrigued me with his modesty. But I guess he figured me for a stalker and didn't. and that's how much I liked that movie.

Roger Ebert....where are you?

Bonnie