Blu-Ray Review – Paper Moon (1973)
Peter Bogdanovich was one of the leading lights on New Hollywood when he directed Paper Moon and hasn’t been able to make a film as satisfying since despite coming close a couple of times. Paper Moon was a smash hit at the time and have become a classic over the years and became a highly influential film for Wes Anderson who just produced Bogdanovich’s latest film She’s Funny That Way. It makes its Blu-Ray debut in the UK fitting in Eurkea’s Masters of Cinema range.
Ryan O’Neill stars as the con man Moses Pray who may or not be the father of the new orphaned Addie; played by Ryan’s real daughter Tatum. Moses is supposed to deliver Addie to her aunt’s but soon realises that together they may be able to con their way through the Midwest selling bibles to widows. It’s all set behind a backdrop of small town America during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The film’s style comes out of the Screwball comedies of the ’30s and ’40s, a genre Bogdanovich comes back again and again, his latest he calls “a screwball comedy”. It’s not the zany films of Howard Hawks he is looking at but more the comedies of Preston Sturges who dealt with the depression in a film like Sullivan’s Travels. It also takes some cues from Bogdanovich’s friend Orson Welles’ films who actually was a consultant on the cinematography who suggested to shoot black and white through a red lens. Bogdanovich also used Welles’ trademark of deep focus photography throughout the film.
The chemistry between Ryan and Tatum has went into Hollywood lore at this point. Tatum would be both the youngest winner of best supporting actress of all-time (she was 10) and also the actress with most screen-time for best supporting actress, it’s really a co-lead after all. Ryan O’Neill who was never an actor known for his range but he shows real comic timing with Paper Moon and only later performances such as Barry Lyndon and The Driver would show he had some chops after-all. Of course the personal problems of both Tatum and Ryan would tarnish the work they did in Paper Moon but it the two performers who are in such harmony, it’s a wonder to watch.
One of the go to cinematographers of New Hollywood László Kovács is responsible for the cinematography which invokes so much of the Depression era locale. If you didn’t know it was made in the ’70s you wouldn’t be surprised if it came directly out of the ’30s. Kovács would even later shoot Ghostbusters but he sadly passed away 2007. The script by Alvin Sargent is as witty as anything The Coens Brothers have written and he would later write one of most richly written but little seen films of the ’70s Straight Time and more recently wrote 3 of the Spider-Man films.
Paper Moon remains a testament to the auteur lead films of the ’70s, which are told in recently in vivid detail in Peter Bisknd’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Bogdanovich however comes off horribly as a megalomaniac and if you watch an interview with him he names drops constantly. Despite some character flaws Bogdanovich’s films Targets, The Last Picture Show and the later They All Laughed show a masterful director but Paper Moon may be his crowning achievement in his extraordinary career which has had lot of bumps including directing the film A Saintly Switch for The Disney Channel in the ’90s.
The disc includes all the bonus features on the previous Region 1 DVD but this is it’s Home Video debut in the UK. I can’t find a record of even a VHS being released in the UK. The features are a commentary with Bogdanovich and three featurettes which focus on pre-production, production and finally the post-production and reception. It also includes a booklet with an essay by Mike Sutton which the norm when it comes to Masters of Cinema.
[rating=5]
Ian Schultz
Genre: Drama, Crime | Distributor: Eureka! Entertainment | Release Date: 25th May 2015 (UK) | Rating:PG | Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, Madeline Kahn | Buy: Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD)
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