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Keyser Corleone's Martin Scorsese Week, Review 3
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - Directed by Martin Scorsese
"Just sit back there and relax and enjoy life, huh?"
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore isn't the most well-received movie in Martin Scorsese's early bunch, but there are a lot of things to love about it. Not as much plot-driven as it is story-driven, this movie provides a very insightful look on the once modern American woman, and can help us all learn a thing or two about sitting back and enjoying life.
The movie before the long-running TV show Alice shows our heroine Alice Hyatt living with her bratty son and her abusive husband who's quick to blame others for his own mistakes. When he's killed in a car crash, however, Alice sets out toward Monterey, California to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a singer. But a road trip is never an easy task when you need a place to live. The job at the bar didn't help when she realized her new boyfriend was just as abusive as her late husband, and the new job at Mel's Diner is giving her a wild time unlike anything she's ever been through, especially when her past experiences have lead her to be wary of the people around her, even her NEW boyfriend.
The first thing I loved about the characters was the cast. Not only were they able to get into character so well, but they all felt real enough to the point where it was all too easy to feel love, hate or sympathy for the characters. Alice's journey from New Mexico to Arizona is a wild and eventful one which kept me wondering where and how things are going to turn out (and how it's going to end where the TV show began), and there was always something to love or hate about the situation at hand. You can't help but dedicate your heart to a suffering single woman who's got the whole world on her shoulders when her biggest obligation is her irresponsible son.
The movie isn't rendered incredible by skillful direction and fancy cinematography. The movie's all about being human. How are we treating other people in this world? How are we being treated? Situations in this movie have a tendency to raise very important questions, which are much more important than the art of cinema. This movie's not about the art of cinema: it's about Alice, and it's about us. We are the cast of the movie.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore rides on emotion and humanity, making it stand out from most of Scorsese's catalogue. I didn't expect to love the movie the way I do, but I'm glad I finally got to watch it. It's probably one of my favorite movies now, and I'd put this on the same level I would put Raging Bull.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) - Directed by Martin Scorsese
"Just sit back there and relax and enjoy life, huh?"
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore isn't the most well-received movie in Martin Scorsese's early bunch, but there are a lot of things to love about it. Not as much plot-driven as it is story-driven, this movie provides a very insightful look on the once modern American woman, and can help us all learn a thing or two about sitting back and enjoying life.
The movie before the long-running TV show Alice shows our heroine Alice Hyatt living with her bratty son and her abusive husband who's quick to blame others for his own mistakes. When he's killed in a car crash, however, Alice sets out toward Monterey, California to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a singer. But a road trip is never an easy task when you need a place to live. The job at the bar didn't help when she realized her new boyfriend was just as abusive as her late husband, and the new job at Mel's Diner is giving her a wild time unlike anything she's ever been through, especially when her past experiences have lead her to be wary of the people around her, even her NEW boyfriend.
The first thing I loved about the characters was the cast. Not only were they able to get into character so well, but they all felt real enough to the point where it was all too easy to feel love, hate or sympathy for the characters. Alice's journey from New Mexico to Arizona is a wild and eventful one which kept me wondering where and how things are going to turn out (and how it's going to end where the TV show began), and there was always something to love or hate about the situation at hand. You can't help but dedicate your heart to a suffering single woman who's got the whole world on her shoulders when her biggest obligation is her irresponsible son.
The movie isn't rendered incredible by skillful direction and fancy cinematography. The movie's all about being human. How are we treating other people in this world? How are we being treated? Situations in this movie have a tendency to raise very important questions, which are much more important than the art of cinema. This movie's not about the art of cinema: it's about Alice, and it's about us. We are the cast of the movie.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore rides on emotion and humanity, making it stand out from most of Scorsese's catalogue. I didn't expect to love the movie the way I do, but I'm glad I finally got to watch it. It's probably one of my favorite movies now, and I'd put this on the same level I would put Raging Bull.