Written On The Wind
THE glossy, garish melodramas of Douglas Sirk were among the movies I studied while stumbling through my Media degree at university back in the 1980s. Yes, I know I was frittering away my life watching films all day and night even then, but at least I can say it finally came in useful for this column, right?
The thing is, I didn't really like Sirk's movies back then – and I still don't like them now. I can admire them for what they are – brash and boldy drawn portraits of human greed and capitalist excess that lure you in with their shiny surfaces but leave you empty once you realise that's all they really are – but I'd never revisit one without good reason.
That the Criterion Collection have released a slickly packaged Blu-ray edition of Written On The Wind, perhaps Sirk's finest and fluffiest concoction from 1956, seems a good enough reason to dive into his sickly take on the American Dream one more time.
Though I first properly looked at the film in the 1980s, I'd probably seen it before that on TV, as Saturday afternoon schedules were awash with 50s Hollywood melodramas when I was growing up. That's significant, because re-watching it today I'm immediately put in mind of the starry soap operas like Dynasty and Dallas from the decade decency forgot.
Untold wealth and the impact it has on human relationships is the core of those aspirational 80s soaps and Sirk has it seeping out of every pore in Written On The Wind. Sirk may have had deeper and more socially aware motivations than the makers of Dynasty and the like, but the line is clear for all to see.
Two slimy heirs to an oil empire (played by Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone) are joined by the handsome Rock Hudson (as Stack's best friend) and Lauren Bacall as the woman who causes them to fight.
Malone won an Oscar for her sassy turn here, but mostly the performances are nothing to write home about. The characters are slimly drawn at best and the acting showy and one-dimensional, but the simplicity on show is deliberate and there's much camp fun to had with the setting and collapsing family storyline all the same.
There's a warm, trashy allure to Sirk's well-appointed world and Written On The Wind is positively awash with it. This Criterion re-issue ups that gaudy delight with a fancy 2K restoration that ramps up those Technicolor surroundings to almost fever dream levels, and they've added enough archive interviews and background material to lure in fans and those curious about Sirk's world in equal measure.
If slick, thinly painted portraits of the greedy heart of American capitalism are what you're after, then head straight on in. As a satire on the impact of obscene wealth, it remains sadly relevant today. As a purely filmic experience, it's well worth a repeat visit.
I enjoyed my brief return to that ultimately empty but oddly enticing world, but much like revisiting my student days in the 1980s, I really wouldn't want to stay there too long.
