Film Review: Alfie (1966)

The social and cultural turmoil of the 1960s allowed the production of films that couldn’t have been made before. But that very historical context also made many of those films, even some important and celebrated ones, look strangely dated today. One such film is Alfie, a 1966 British drama directed by Lewis Gilbert.

The film is based on the eponymous stage play by Bill Naughton, who also wrote the screenplay. The protagonist, played by Michael Caine, is Alfie Elkins, a London chauffeur who uses his job as an opportunity to seduce women. Thanks to his irresistible charm and youthful confidence, Alfie becomes very successful in his romantic life, but the relationships he has lack any commitment and he treats his girlfriends, many of whom are married, with disrespect. This leaves a trail of devastation in his wake, including leaving some of them, like Gilda (played by Julia Foster), pregnant. Alfie’s lifestyle doesn’t change much even after an unnamed health scare forces him to spend some time in a sanatorium, where he seduces nurses and befriends Harry Clamacraft (played by Alfie Bass), a fellow patient whose wife Lily (played by Vivien Merchant) would become his next conquest, with unforeseen and emotionally devastating consequences. Alfie is ultimately given a taste of his own medicine by the rich and promiscuous American tourist Ruby (played by Shelley Winters) and, left alone, wonders “what it’s all about”.

Alfie is best known for two things. The first is “Alfie”, the song composed by the legendary Burt Bacharach and written by Hal David, which has been performed by many prominent artists and became one of the standards of 1960s pop music. The other is the breakout performance of Michael Caine, a British actor who is considered one of the cinema legends of the last half-century. When he made Alfie, Caine was a relatively young actor who had mostly played supporting roles. The role of Alfie Elkins brought him enormous success and his first Oscar nomination, thus guaranteeing the continuation of his career. Caine originally wasn’t the first choice for the role. Terence Stamp, who had played it on stage, wasn’t happy with his performance and instead suggested his good friend Caine, who looked as if he were born to play it. In essence, Caine adds a lot of his own working-class background, together with a Cockney accent, to the role, but he also encapsulates the spirit of Swinging London, the period when young Britons, like their counterparts in other countries, enthusiastically broke with traditional values and embraced new freedoms, especially those associated with the Sexual Revolution. Alfie represents a typical example of the new sexual mores based on hedonism and instant self-gratification at the expense of duty. He enjoys it and is unapologetic about it, despite leaving a trail of destruction among his female partners and making Alfie a nightmare for any feminist. Caine’s talent lies in making such a caddish and potentially repulsive character actually sympathetic.

This is partially achieved through Lewis Gilbert’s good direction and the common device of breaking the fourth wall. In many scenes, Alfie interrupts the plot to address the audience directly and make comments which are often at odds with what is on the screen, often creating a humorous effect that led many to view Alfie as a comedy. But as the film nears its end, the tone becomes increasingly dark, especially in the scenes dealing with abortion, which seem rather unpleasant to today’s audience. That scene, moreover, also makes the film dated. When Alfie was made, abortion was still illegal in the United Kingdom and the audience had to endure a rather boring introduction of the abortionist, played by Denholm Elliott in a manner more suitable to a serious sex education film than to a light comedy about Swinging London. Because of this, Alfie might not resonate with today’s audience as it did in the 1960s. In its time, it had huge box-office success which, due to its relatively low budget, made it extremely profitable for Paramount, a studio that would later engage in “edgy” and risky low-budget projects, many of which would later become classics of New Hollywood. The attempt to revive the magic of the Swinging Sixties in 21st-century Manhattan with the 2004 remake starring Jude Law predictably failed.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

_

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo

InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7

Posted using CineTV