Look Back in Anger
Director: Tony Richardson
Year Released: 1959
Rating: 3.0
Christopher Hitchens referred to the play by John Osborne as "mediocre" and I'm not sure I agree: sure, elements are dated - as the films of today and even tomorrow will be years from now - but there's something so unique in the Angry Young Men of the British Cinema that dismissing them altogether appears a tad hasty (in being 'angry,' and therefore full of bile and streaming hate, they are bound to be incorrect in many of their assessments). Richard Burton - too old to play the role or not (he's supposed to be around 25) - proved time and again he was one of the greatest actors that ever lived, and it is as if he willed the movie to be this good, dominating the people around him by taunting and verbal violence - they can't take their eyes off him, and neither could I. Claire Bloom's character thinks she knows how to handle this disgruntled, muddled man, but in the end not even she can hold on.
