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Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
A Dark Gnostic Vision
With A Fabulous Cast, May 21, 2011
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER was one of those 60's films that
seemed to represent the era. 3 A List actors, a great director and a script
based on the Tennessee Williams' play. Other reviewers have basically given the
entire plot away, so I want to focus a little on the dark vision Williams's was
depicting in his play.
It could be something right out of a modern Gnostic gospel. Creation is
carnivorous, one species preying on another, it's all eat or be eaten. Devour
life before it devours you. A frightening canopy where even the act of birth is
seen as something hideous & cruel. Was this how William's really felt? Was
he a closet Gnostic? We may never fully know, but this movie does convey an
inescapable suggestion: Perhaps it would have been better had there been no
Creation at all.
But then we wouldn't have the movie
Review:
Jeff Farrow
Updated
11/11