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| Making The Misfits | |
| Image // Unrated // $19.99 // November 26, 2002 | |
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| Review by Matt Langdon | posted December 6, 2002 |
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Making the Misfits is an interesting 55 minute examination of the 1961 John Huston film The Misfits. No one would have known it at the time but the film became notable for being Clark Gables last film, Marilyn Monroe's next to last film and one of the last films of Mongomery Clift.
The documentary, put together by Gail Levin, recounts the shoot with scriptwriter/playwright Arthur Miller, Eli Wallach and a few of the remaining crew members who worked on the film in Nevada. Each of them note that the film was trouble from the start but, ironically, due to its subject of alienation and despair it seemed fitting that it was plagued with problems.
The documentary goes into all the themes of the film quit well. And there are a lot of tales about John Houston's directing style (he relied on casting over directing), Gable's acting style (he was confused by the script) and Monroe's abilities (talented but couldn't remember her lines) and the growing spat between Miller and Monroe whose marriage was falling apart during the shoot of the film. There are also a good amount of black & white photos too taken by Magnum Photos – who got exclusive rights to shoot the behind-the-scenes activities.
Audio:
Audio sound good. Most of it consists of talking heads and voice-overs.
Video:
The DVD is presented in widescreen 1.78:1 and since it was made for TV anyway it looks good.
Extras:
No extras.
Overall:
This is a pretty good documentary but since it is less than an hour in length it would be better if it was included as an extra on a DVD of The Misfits rather than by itself. It's worth renting.