09/10/09 - Sunset Blvd.

Sunset Blvd. (1950, 110 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043014/

After how much I loved L.A. Confidential I decided to give one of the biggest names in film noir a shot: Sunset Blvd. I had high expectations for this movie as it's almost always ranked high up there in "Best Movie" lists.

Sunset Blvd. follows the story of Joseph C. Gillis (William Holden), a writer in Hollywood. Down on his luck and desperate for money, he per chance stumbles upon the mansion of huge silent movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Silent movies have gone by the wayside, though, so Desmond lives a pretty lonely and forgotten life with just her butler Max Von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim). Desmond and Gillis's relationship deepens but so does the relationship that Gillis takes on with his good friend's fiancée and fellow Hollywood writer Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson). As these friendships grow, jealousy rages until we get a fiery conclusion.

The acting here is without question top-notch. Holden gives an amazing performance as a down-on-his-luck writer with no one to turn to. He's very convincing in his role. However, the real star here is Swanson who gives, in my opinion, one of the best on screen performances I've ever seen. I consider Al Pacino's showing in Dog Day Afternoon as probably the best performance I've seen and this is way up there with that. I'll never forget how amazing Swanson was in this movie. She perfectly plays the forgotten actress obsessing over the past. Add in Holden's great performance and the good job done by the rest of the cast and we get simply an astounding acting job done all around.

The hard thing for me to grade, however, is exactly how it feels to watch Sunset Blvd. This movie was made in 1950 so it's drastically different from today's stuff. We have limited action and strange and somewhat slow pacing. Most of the time it's fine but it's still dated, but it's essentially impossible to knock down the film because of this - it's just how films were back then. However, I can say that some of the scenes provided insane amounts of tension. The ending, though frequently shown for its memorable quotation, was still chilling. When we also have scenes such as the shooting of Gillis (though we even know it's going to happen) and the attempted suicide, Sunset Blvd. manages to create a thick layer of tension to go along with the great acting.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. It's really really good and immensely enjoyable. Sometime I did feel bored watching it but at only 110 minutes, it's really quite short. Some parts I didn't feel were adequately expanded upon (such as Desmond's car being inquired about by the studio and not her own self or the odd relationship between Gillis and Schaefer). I feel that with more viewings of movies from this period I would see why this film has stood the test of time. Until then, I'll just have to relish it as simply an amazing lesson in what classic film noir is.

[Note: Due to a voting update, I have changed the rating of Sunset Blvd. to a 9/10.]