One of the bleakest and most unromantic looks at the Golden Age of Hollywood, a period that was as decadent behind the scenes as it was glamourous in front of them, The Day Of The Locust was a huge bomb back in its day, possibly because people weren't yet ready to acknowledge the flaws of that time. Interestingly enough, Babylon from earlier this year, which was also set in early 20th century Hollywood, was a financial failure too, but that was more due to poor marketing. Locust is structured in such a strange way, where it feels more like a string of vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative, a choice which feels deliberate. To live back then, with all the film shoots and the parties and the booze, would have been intoxicating to the point of delirium, and that's reflected in both the structure and the cinematography, which is slightly hazy and unclear, like you're watching the story through a cloudy champagne bottle. It's a condemnation of the hedonism and carefree attitude which would lead to the Goden Age collapsing in on itself. I like how it weaved in real pieces of contemporary trivia, such as Peg Entwistle tragic suicide, and the fact that the Hollywood sign originally had nothing to do with films or entertainment. It's no coincidence that the only decent human being ends up suffering a horrible fate in a world where kindness is a worthless commodity. It could have done with a few less scenes of our leads romantic banter and a few more of the film industry and its dubious operations to help push the point a bit more. Not a movie you'd revisit in a hurry, but one that, if you have an interest in cinema or the time period, you really need to watch.

Overall, I found this film to be quite interesting. It's a dramatic film set in Hollywood with two men who are attempting to win the heart of an actress, resulting in a dangerous love triangle.  Performances are genuinely pleasing, especially from Karen Black, whose character I truly disliked- a real credit to her talent. Donald Sutherland is also great.  Still, viewers are required to be patient and wait for the actor to appear on-screen. The film's ending is shocking and unexpected to the point that I am still processing it, even days after watching it.

A film in the line of movies about movie making which began with Sunset Boulevard. Visually stunning, super bright and glittering, it exposes the greed, artificiality and hollowness of 1930's Tinsel Town. All the characters struggling in their own mean selfish ways to succeed in this false glamorous world. Karen Black, as the unashamedly sexy, resolutely virginal, blonde bombshell is perfect, unrepentant to the end. Yet marvelously Black is able to imbue her character with an unexpected child-like innocence. An equally fine performance from Donald Sutherland as...Homer Simpson !! (is that where the Simpsons got the name I wonder?), so different from his usual screen personality, as the nervous, neurotic, down-trodden accountant. Nice to see Burgess Meredith too, warm and likeable as ever as Black's ailing, drunken, con-man/showman father. Meredith an old friend I'm always glad to see. And that Shirley Temple-like pesky kid. She's the one who lights the fuse that brings the whole house down. She's only a kid. It WAS her fault but the fuse was already there in this timber-house and it was ready to be lit and would have been - if not by her, by someone or something else. The ending is bloodily realistic, awful and genuinely frightening. Beware mobs! They have a life of their own, so different from the way individuals behave. Also at times the sets had a falsity about them but this works and agrees with this view of the trashy falsity of movieland. A long film which doesn't seem long.

It was really hard to care about anyone involved.

Brilliant and savage attack on the Hollywood system of the 30s

Bloody boring. Poorly acted and filmed

what a great and unique film

As filthy, dirty and depressing as its source material. Easily one of finest book to silver screen adaptations ever made. Screw its critics

http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-day-of-locust.html

brilliant behind the scenes look at studio system Hollywood gr8 third act performance from burgess meredith

I'd like to tell you what the Day of the Locust is about, but that would take quite awhile since it doesn't follow a traditional narrative structure. Instead the film appears to be a series of scenes mashed together in order to give the viewer a look at the seedy underbelly of 1930s Hollywood. The film mostly centers around a woman who is one of the most annoying and obnoxious characters ever captured on celluloid. Somehow, despite being mentally unhinged and ridiculously manipulative, most of the males in the film are drooling all over her. The males include an art director who tries to rape her, a sexually-repressed accountant who is almost as charming as a block of wood, and a pair of guys who run cock fights and seem to bicker over who gets to sleep with her first. I realize, based on the focus of the film, they don't feel the need to include any characters that are likable. However, I think just one character who I didn't utterly despise would be helpful in keeping me from the boredom this film inevitably brings. I suppose if the aim was to make me hate the world of Hollywood in the 30s then this was moderately successful, because I wanted to just shut this movie off and stop watching. But, luckily, I did hang on and watch as the film literally goes down in flames. In the final 20 minutes the movie strays even further from a traditional narrative and just becomes a series of off-the-wall images that could haunt the viewers' nightmares. I loathed The Day of the Locust, it was easily my least favorite movie I have seen this year, and may be in competition for the most unbearable movie I've seen this decade.

What a climax... 4-7-2014.

Transformative performances by Karen Black and Donald Sutherland, both of whom keep the film centered on its theme of morality skewed between self-righteousness and wantonness. Conrad Hall's photography is beautiful as ever; the lighter colors glisten in gold hues which ornament the Hollywood dreamscape, but the more earthly colors follow through in the uglier scenes. The ending was the only bit I had a huge problem with. Schlesinger would have done better to follow the book in that regard. Otherwise, a brilliant made film with what seems to be a genuine appreciation and respect for West's novel.

(***): [img]http://images.chrc4work.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Interesting and well-acted.

Hollywood as Dante's Inferno. A perfect double bill with "They Shoot Horse, Don't They?"...if you are feeling truly suicidal.

Laughable to see all these bad reviews of this brilliant film. I get the feeling that the people saying the film 'misses the point of the book' have never actually read it. A lost classic that deserves rediscovery. And don't be a twat about the cockfighting scenes; the film is almost 40 years old and the director is long dead. This film is larger than our PC squeamishness.

Good acting and good cinematography. A bit too disturbing for my taste, though. The ending is one of the traumatizing, terrifying things I have ever witnessed.

Schlesinger's film is a portrayal of a 1930's Hollywood that circles around the uncomfortable love affair between a struggling actress married to a simple minded rich man and a production designer for a film studio. His work carefully balances poetic madness and morbid glamour, tinted with the reputation and mystery of the scandals of the time and place it is set in. As well as that, anyone that has seen this film will count its ending among the most memorable and shocking ever experienced.

great movie with an awesome ending!

A truly haunting look at Hollywood--A Film for Film Lovers!!