I’m not gonna lie when I set out to start this series and
took a look at most of my favourite films (Excluding the top 20) the majority
of them were from the 90s to 2010s because I was born in the 90s and raised in
the new millennium, meaning of course I would be shown films from that time
period and shaped me as a person as well as my personal views on cinema,
meaning I naturally have a preference for more modern films made with styles
that I easily identify with rather than black & white films made by what
were revolutionary filmmakers but don’t necessarily seem it by today’s
standards. Which isn’t to say I didn’t watch any classic films as a kid and don’t
love them, it’s just that they’re the exception rather than the rule. So in the
future expect a lot of films to be featured from that time period because that’s
just how it is, I can’t go back in time and change what films I was raised on
and let’s be honest with each passing year it becomes less and less likely a
film would be identified as one of your favourites seeing as what qualifies as
a “new experience” is rarer to come by. With that being said let’s talk about a
classic that I saw only a year or two ago and fell in love with. Harvey
starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Henry Koster follows the story of Elwood
P Dowd, a seemingly nice & harmless grown man who gets by thanks to a large
inheritance and spends his time trying to make other people have a nice day, oh
he also happens to have an invisible talking rabbit friend called Harvey who follows
him around everywhere that only Elwood can see and speak to and everyone thinks
he’s crazy.
Like Ed Wood the main reason why I love this movie is the
protagonist, the big difference here is I’ve already talked about Elwood in a
prior blog post so I’m probably going to be repeating myself quite a lot here.
But to try and bring a fresh take to discussing this and assuming you didn’t
read that post, let’s get into it, why do I love Elwood P Dowd? He’s nice. That’s
it. He’s nice. Look I’m sick of audiences and storytellers thinking the only
way to have an interesting character is to have someone who is constantly
miserable and hates their own lives, don’t get me wrong that works in
moderation but what really salts my apples in this regard is that people think
if that’s the only way to make a character interesting and complex then ergo
the opposite of a character being pleasant and happy in life instantly means
they must be boring. My argument against this: Elwood. The man really doesn’t
experience any kind of conflict or stressful situation in the film but instead
spends all of his time making life better than everyone else, which is another
type of character I love, the ones that don’t let the world change them, but
they change the world. Throughout the entire film Elwood is doing a whole bunch
of small deeds to help everyone else out, buying them drinks at the bar, paying
someone a compliment, basically anything that’ll make their day just a little
bit brighter. "every day is a beautiful day" "you make my flower
look beautiful" "you can never have too many friends" these are
all actual lines of dialogue said by this man and goddamn if he isn’t
absolutely charming because of it. And somehow they do all of this while also
keeping him very humble, never thinking he’s better than anyone, showing
everyone that will accept it the time of day and just being an all round
pleasant guy.
It's made even more impressive considering how privileged a
life he leads. A rich white man with no responsibilities and all the free time
in the world? I think if reality has shown us anything it’s that these people
tend not to live their lives with much concern for others and often don’t
actually use their resources for the betterment of mankind. Granted Elwood isn’t
changing the world but he’s still helping. And how did he come to live this lifestyle
without any external help (Harvey not counted) from one simple piece of advice
his mother gave him and is one of my favourite lines in a movie. "My
mother used to say to me "In this
world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for
years I was smart. I recommend pleasant." That’s a goddamn mic drop right
there. One might say the man is bafflingly optimistic, at one point in the
movie when he finds out his sister has spent the day trying to get him committed
meaning she’s had meetings with doctors, lawyers and been trying to chase him
down, he’s just impressed with how much she got done in one day.
Of course there are few actors who could pull off such an obliviously
loveable and charming character and one of them is the late & great Jimmy
Stewart. This man is one of the greatest actors of all time and frankly I still
hold that he is the greatest actor from
this generation. Where a lot of A-List male actors of the time can usually be
put under the same fold of forming an identity of being suave, confident, uber
masculine-in control of their emotions, dominating everyone else on screen and
acting like they’re the coolest guys in the world-type of men. Stewart really
wasn’t like that, especially early on in his rise to stardom he played a wide
range of emotional, joyful characters who weren’t always the most dominant of
characters but certainly had a good heart. Because of this I feel he stands out
more than most actors of the time who honestly kind of blend together with them
all having the same identity. Half of Humphrey Bogart’s roles could have easily
been played by Cary Grant and vice-versa. True Stewart would eventually move on
to do more dramatic and even aggressive roles, mostly with his work with
Hitchcock but even then there was always a weakness to them to make them
identifiable for the audience. Vertigo he was paranoid, obsessed and…had
vertigo. Rear Window he was physically crippled while the woman in his life was
the more adventurous, physical and brave one. The man was truly a legend and
Elwood is one of his more underrated performances in my opinion.
Harvey himself is kind of difficult to talk about, the film
sort of leaves it up to your interpretation on whether or not he’s real, with a
lean towards the idea that he was real but you could also read it as he’s a
walking metaphor for everyone else’s emotional dilemmas and need help, so in
that case he’s basically a walking stress ball. In that sense he’s more of a
plot device for other character’s development than anything else acting a
personification of whatever people need him to be in order to help them with
their problems in which case a lot of the good things that happen in Elwood’s
life aren’t really because of any external force, rather just a bunch of
coincidences. I’m not saying it’s a popular theory or even accurate, but at
least it’s there. Even all the other characters, you might think are unlikeable
in comparison to Elwood considering really anyone in comparison to him would
seem pessimistic and bitter but they’re really not. Like I said early about
Elwood’s sister, she’s not trying to get him committed and take the inheritance
out of greed or any other negative thought, she’s doing it because she worried
for her brother’s mental health and feel the money can go to better uses than
just buying strangers drinks at the bar. And really that is another merit to
the film, one difficult to pull off, having one of the nicest characters in all
of cinema, have supporting characters who are very cynical in comparison and not have them be disliked.
That’s really it. There isn’t much else to discuss. Yes
there are many other elements of the film that work, in particular the music by
Frank Skinner but those aren’t elements that make me love this film. What makes
me love this film are the characters, the actors behind them and the message
the film gives out. It’s truly a splendid film with brilliant dialogue and one
of the best Jimmy Stewart performances and while it may be hard for me to
appreciate classic films, this is one I have no problem appreciating.
-Danny
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