Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
To be honest, I was hoping for something slightly snappier. I'd heard that Sturges was a wonderful writer of dialogue and hoped that even where I wasn't enjoying the story, that the dialogue would carry me along. This was the case much less often than I was hoping for. Still, it's an interesting movie, and quite entertaining for watching one time through. There are too many moments where the momentum sort of stops for me to have really loved it, though. It liked to swing from zany comedy to fairly dull drama. Meh. 3 stars.
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I don't dispute your characterization of its execution, but I will say that its thesis is one of the most important things I've ever encountered in film. In fact, I was hospitalized in October 2011 for severe depression. As I worked through that, I came to a point where I realized I was very much having my own Sullivan epiphany. There I was, surrounded by other suicide attempters, self-harmers and substance abusers, discovering the power of connecting with one another in our darkest hours...and laughing.
In fact, at one point I even chimed in during a group session and gave a very brief overview of the film and how I had just then made the connection to it in my mind with where I was. A couple others had seen it and as soon as I mentioned it, I saw their knowing nods.
Objectively speaking, then, I concur with you: It could have benefited from a little more polish and it does kind of drag some before making some glaring jumps in the final act. I didn't notice any conspicuously bad dialog, but I also never really heard any true gems, either. None of that matters, though, because this one holds such a specific place for me.
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