BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

Bad day at Black Rock

A film classic remembered

I first saw the film `Bad Day at Black Rock' in 1957. Since then I have seen it innumerable times. It never palls on one.

No trains usually stop at Black Rock, a sleepy and isolated hamlet. But one day a train stops, and a one-armed war veteran gets off it to everyone's surprise. He is greeted with hostility by the townsfolk. Obviously there is some skeleton in their cupboard, and so outsiders are not welcome.

The lonely stranger

Macready (Spencer Tracy) whose empty left sleeve is tucked into the coat pocket, walks to the only hotel in town. The clerk says there is no room. But Macready pulls the register closer and finds that all the rooms are vacant. He writes his name in the register, and goes up to his room.

Later he enquires about a Japanese-American man he has come to see. Everyone freezes, and no response is forthcoming. From then on a group of thugs try to scare him off the town. He doesn't react to their taunts and provocations, but quietly goes about the business of finding that Japanese. All efforts of the tough guys to drive him off are in vain.

No one dares to help him. The sheriff is a frightened man who closes his eyes to all that goes on and drowns his sorrows in drink. When Macready tries to send a telegram to the police the telegraph clerk hands over the message to the boss of the tough gang. When he tries to hire a car, the car engine is damaged by one of the gang (Lee Marvin). Finally he manages to hire a jeep from a garage further off , and goes looking for the Japanese who owned a farm in the outskirts of the town.

The farm is deserted. The buildings have been demolished. Then Macready spots a kind of grass that grows on graves only. So he guesses that the Japanese has been killed. While returning to town one of the thugs in a car drives him off the road into a ditch. But Macready manages to reach the town, and when he tells them what he has found, the hostility increases.

The boss (Robert Ryan) tells his henchmen that the one-armed veteran should not go back alive. Fortunately for Macready one man in the town (Walter Brennan) becomes friendly and tries to help him. And Macready tells him why he came to see the Japanese. The Japanese man's son was a soldier in Macready's unit, and he had saved Macready's life, and died in the process. Macready had lost his arm in the same incident. Later he had been given a medal for bravery. And he had wanted to present the medal to the father of the boy. When this is known in the town there is a change of heart in one man who tells Macready how the gang had gone to attack the Japanese. They had set fire to his house, and when he came out the boss of the gang had shot him dead. This was just to appropriate the farm, but the reason they give is a patriotic desire to eliminate the enemy.

Brilliant technique

Macready now intent on leaving town gets a jeep and goes off. But the gang leader is waiting for him on a hillock, and starts firing at the car. Then Macready uses an ingenious ruse. He gets some petrol from the car in a bottle, tears his tie and puts it in the bottle, lights it and throws the bottle at the villain. The bottle hits a rock and explodes setting the villain ablaze.

When the film was first released, it was hailed as "a superior example of motion picture craftsmanship". The film was noted for dramatic unity, and an economy of word and action.

The whole story takes place in twenty four hours.

The director, John Sturges, was an expert in composing the shots. He used the technique of some Renaissance painters, forming triangles in the composition which made the scene dramatic. He maintained a crisp pace with never a dull moment.

The fight between Macready and a tough guy (Ernest Borgnine) is thrilling beyond words. The one-armed old man gets the better of the thug, using the tactics he had learnt in hand to hand combat. This is one of the electrifying scenes in the film. Borgnine is very good as the plug-ugly.

Spencer Tracy is one of the greatest actors ever. He was a natural actor who underplayed his roles to telling effect. Many actors used to go to him for advice about acting. Tracy would say, "Just know the lines and don't bump into the furniture".

The film takes you on a great and exciting ride - without any bumps.

J.VASANTHAN

(e-mail: jvasanthan@sancharnet.in)

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