The making of a masterpiece.
“Absence of Malice” and Why Some Movies Are Timeless
When a great satire is made, one that touches on themes that are endemic and universal to the worlds of which they make fun, what happens is that reality keeps coming back around and making those movies relevant all over again. Our tragicomic withdrawal from Afghanistan echoed the futility of the daily lives of the drafted surgeons of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H). Our seemingly aimless and ineffective attempts to counter Putin in the Ukraine can sometimes make us believe that nothing much has changed in the halls of the Pentagon since Buck Turgidson, President Muffley and General Ripper hammed it up in Dr. Strangelove’s “War Room.” And “The Player” and “Network” so perfectly skewer Hollywood and the News Media that all these years later, they remind us that almost nothing about those industries has changed over the ensuing decades.But it’s not only comedies and satires that can achieve this kind of cultural resonance… history rhymes, if it does not repeat, as they say, and so dramatic thrillers like “Serpico”, “All The President’s Men”, “Three Days of the Condor”, “Taxi Driver” and “Death Wish” also seem more relevant than ever, these days.
In the same vein, Sydney Pollack’s 1981 masterpiece “Absence of Malice” is one of those movies that perfectly skewers its subject, an unholy alliance between the press and the very government the press is meant to hold in check. It is so well done, that the drama is timeless. A movie that seems more prescient now, than it did when it was made.
The opening credits of “Malice” show us a full edition of a local Miami newspaper being written, typeset and printed. As the paper evolves into its final form, the headlines tell us that a powerful union boss has been missing for six months and is presumed dead, and that the Justice Department, the Miami PD and the DA are under trememdous pressure to solve the case.
Post credits we meet the Federal Prosecutor in charge of that case, Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban), who has decided that a successful liquor wholesaler named Michael Gallagher, played by Paul Newman who was still one of the best looking men in the world even at age 56, must himself be involved in the disappearance in some way. Rosen doesn’t believe this because of any evidence he’s collected, he has none at all, but because Gallagher’s deceased father was affiliated with the local anti-union mob and so, therefore, his son must also be “connected”… quod erat demonstrandum.
Later, when the Miami Dade DA asks him which crime Gallagher is suspected of committing, Rosen answers “what’s the difference?”
“So you’re squeezing him?” asks the DA.
“You got somebody better?” is Rosen’s chilling response.
Unfortunately for Rosen, the US Consitution exists, and he cannot arrest Gallagher, put him in a deep dark hole, and sweat it out of him. So, he decides to put public pressure on the businessman in hopes he will break. To do this, he targets a young cub reporter named Megan Carter, played by Sally Field, as his weapon of choice. He leaks the existence of his “investigation” to Carter who writes an article that comes up just short of accusing Gallagher of the crime, an inferred accusation which Rosen knows will embarrass the man and destroy both his social standing in Miami as well as his business… eggs, meet omelette.
By now this should all be starting to sound very familiar.
Certainly it should be to attentive CF Lifers, mainly because of this clip featuring the incomparable Wilford Brimley.
I’ve run it here again and again, and watched it even more times, and it ain’t never getting old.
- Entries
That’s just a snip of a full 10-minute scene that should have earned relative newcomer character actor Wilford Brimley an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He steals the movie in that 10 minutes from such cinematic “lightweights” as Paul Newman and Sally Field. By design.
For a crappy grab of most of the full landmark scene:
https://youtu.be/UUu8mY1TBIk
The full scene is a masterclass, in writing, directing, and acting, and is literally the climax of the entire movie.
The next closest is the climax of Three Days Of the Condor, when Max Von Sydow finally meets Redford inside and outside Atwood’s house, kills Atwood, lets Redford go, and explains how things will end for him.
Again, another shoulda-been Best Supporting Actor Award scene, in a movie-stealing moment, which sums up the entire film and answers all the questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voPmfT09jlg
Also directed by Sydney Pollack. This is not coincidence. It’s excellence in action.
One of my all-time favorites, AoM is. I must’ve watched it about a kajillion and a half times by now, and like I said, it just ain’t ever gonna get old. The mark of a genuine cinematic masterpiece, that is.