AmateurMovieReviews.com

I have never been much of a fan of classic movies. It's not that I don't understand their value; I'm simply too much a product of the new generation of moviegoers that expects things to happen on the screen. A lot of the movies that carry the "classic" designation are often far too boring for my tastes. For example, I've tried on three different occasions to sit through Citizen Kane, which most film critics list as the best movie of all time. But all three times I failed to make it past 30 minutes before bailing out and switching off my DVD player.

So when I came across the 1950 Billy Wilder classic Sunset Blvd., I didn't expect to like it. My goal was simply to get through the entire movie somehow, even if it took several short viewing sessions of 20 minutes or so to do it. After all, Sunset Blvd. is another film that is discussed relentlessly in movie books and film schools throughout the country, so I thought I should at least give it a try.

With my history of not liking the classics, you can imagine my surprise when I immediately became fully engrossed in Sunset Blvd. from the opening frame to the very last line -- which, incidentally, is one of the most famous in the history of cinema.

The movie begins with a shot of Sunset Blvd., the legendary street that connects Hollywood to the high-class suburbs west of Los Angeles. A voiceover narration tells us that there's been a murder, and the L.A. homicide squad are quickly on the scene. In addition to the police, the gossip rags and news outlets are also scrambling to see what has happened, just so they could sell another copy or draw in another viewer.

Director Billy Wilder doesn't stay with that scene long enough for the viewer to find out who the dead person is or what happened to him. Instead, we flash back to meet one of the main characters of the film, a struggling screenwriter named Joe Gillis (played by William Holden). Gillis is going through a creative dry spell and hasn't sold any scripts in a long time. He's got creditors banging on his apartment door threatening to repossess his car and he's several months behind on his rent. Furthermore, the connections that Gillis has made over the years have pretty much turned their backs on him. He can't even get any work doing script rewrites.

One day, as Joe is driving around looking for a way to get back on his feet, the repo men see him and start to chase him. In order to escape and keep his car, Joe turns into the garage of what appears to be a deserted (or at least very neglected) mansion on Sunset Blvd. He figures that would be as good a place as any to hide his car, so he parks it and gets out. As he does so, a butler (Erich von Stroheim) from the house sees him and beckons him inside. The mistress of the house has been expecting Joe, and he's to go upstairs at once to see her.

Joe realizes at once that this must be a case of mistaken identity, but his attempted explanations are cut short by the butler. Joe decides to just go upstairs and see what all the fuss is about.

That's when he meets Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). In her heyday, Desmond was one of the most beautiful, sought-after actresses in Hollywood. She had tens of thousands of adoring fans and made a million dollars from her pictures (this was back in 1950, remember). However, Hollywood has all but forgotten about Desmond now. You see, she was a star of silent films, but once the "talkies" took over Norma fell out of favor.

Since then, Norma has been living as a recluse. She hardly ever goes out and only occasionally entertains people in her home. She is also living in her own dream world, and in that world, she thinks she still has thousands of fans who are breathlessly awaiting her return to the screen. Towards that end, she has written a long screenplay about Salome with herself in mind as the star. She plans on having the film produced by Paramount (her old studio) and directed by the legendary Cecil B. DeMille, whom she used to work with on silent pictures.

Norma tells all this to Joe after she finds out that he's a writer, and when she hears that he's looking for work, she offers him a job editing her screenplay. She'll pay him $500 a week and he can even stay in the room above the garage. Joe is a bit wary of this idea at first. He needs the money, and didn't want to turn that down, but he didn't expect to have to stay at Norma's house.

As the film progresses, we see that Norma comes to regard Joe as something more than just a hired editor. She buys him expensive clothes and gifts, and clearly thinks that they have a relationship there. Joe knows that Norma expects more out of him than just editing, and he complies because of the lavish lifestyle. But soon Norma gets more and more controlling, and we see how deluded she really is. Joe becomes something of a prisoner, with Norma flying into jealous rages whenever he leaves the house.

The rest of the movie deals with their dwindling relationship and Norma's ever-worsening mental health. By the end of the film, the viewer learns who the dead man in the swimming pool (from the beginning of the movie) is and how he ended up there.

I have to say that Sunset Blvd. is the only classic film to date that I've truly enjoyed from beginning to end. The characters were interesting, the performances were brilliant, and the behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood was fascinating, even half a century later. This movie made headlines when it was released because of the way screenwriters Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D.M. Marshman Jr. mixed fact and fiction in their script (using the real Paramount set, identifying major Hollywood players by name, etc.). Those techniques might be lost on the casual viewer simply because so many other movies have done the same things over the years. But it's important to watch Sunset Blvd. with a bit of knowledge of the rules the movie was breaking.

There's really nothing I can say in praise of Sunset Blvd. that hasn't been said a thousand times before. Even if you're not a big fan of old black and white films, you'll appreciate this one!