| Issue #49, March 16, 2007 |
The Picture Show at Bay Street with Alec Baldwin
by Sabrina C. Mashburn
The Picture Show at Bay Street has planned a special treat for their Saturday, March 31 showing of The Big Country. Before the showing of the film, Alec Baldwin and Jeffrey Lyons will discuss the similarities and differences between Hollywood movies made in the big Hollywood studios of the 1950s and those made today. As most movie buffs know, the big Hollywood studios of that era, dubbed the “Golden Age of Hollywood,” were not simply business conglomerates that funded the pictures. These were movie-star factories that turned girls next door into princesses, teaching them how to walk, talk, eat and get in and out of cars like stars. Their images were created and they were placed in films that complemented their level of celebrity and training. Scripts were churned out by the scriptwriting department, and although a few radical ideas made it past studio executives, most films were designed to be benign star-making family films, not groundbreaking brain teasers.
Every once in a while, scriptwriters were so clever and cloaked their more radical subplots with such dexterity that provocative social commentary made it from the page to the big screen without being edited out by the censors. The Big Country is one of those radical films. Disguised as a Western romance and spangled with superstars, it successfully brought the struggles of the Cold War to the big screen in a palatable format. Although the critics of that time refused to admit its greatness, audiences from 1958 until today, believe The Big Country to be one of the big Hollywood studio system’s greatest masterpieces. One actor in the film, Burl Ives, was singled out in 1959 and awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his part in The Big Country.
The new Hollywood system seems to mirror the old system, only in respect to the fact that big earnings and box office success is the main factor in the production of each film. However, with box office success sometimes dependant upon how avant-garde a film can be without ruffling too many feathers, the films that win critical acclaim these days are quite different than the heaving-bosomed, flowing-gown-clad masterpieces produced by the big studio systems of the past. In order to compare and contrast the two, a critic needs to be educated in respect to both versions of Hollywood, as well as the social and political climates that surrounded them. With such modern masterpieces as The Good Shepherd, Academy Award-winning Best Picture, The Departed, The Aviator and The Hunt for Red October under his belt, Alec Baldwin knows a thing or two about what makes a modern Hollywood movie successful with both critics and audiences. And as an actor whose looks, acting style and script choices have often been compared to the great stars of the past, Alec Baldwin seems to have a grasp on just what made movies of the old studio system work so well, and how to harness that and infuse his own work with a similar quality. Aside from being a Bay Street Theatre favorite, Baldwin’s experiences as a writer, producer and director also contribute to his vast knowledge of every facet of the film industry, making him overly qualified to explain the ins and outs of the modern and classic film industries.
Jeffrey Lyons, another frequent guest of the Bay Street Theatre, is also no stranger to the film and entertainment industries. As a film critic for NBC, he has made a career out of analyzing what makes a movie work and what characteristics make them so successful. He has written and starred in numerous critical television shows and stage presentations, among them include well known documentary program “Reel Talk,” as well as fictional programs “Arli$$” and “Sports on the Silver Screen.” In the Hamptons, Jeffrey Lyons is perhaps best known as a fixture of the Hamptons International Film Festival and an eloquent, provocative interviewer and mediator during most every conversation with film stars, directors and producers on the stage of the Bay Street Theatre and other venues during the Festival.
The conversation between these two knowlegable, entertaining film industry professionals will serve to complement The Big Country perfectly. A Western film that, according to its star, Gregory Peck, was intended to be a left-wing allegory for the Cold War, The Big Country is a shining example of how a handful of films produced by the old Hollywood studio system could not only delight audiences with duels and beautiful stars, but could also sneak in some social commentary about pertinent issues of the time. The Big Country’s cast list reads like a “who’s who” of Hollywood in the 1950s. Gregory Peck stars as James McKay, opposite Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives and Charles Bickford. Coupled with the discussion of Hollywood Then and Now with Alec Baldwin and Jeffrey Lyons, The Picture Show at Bay Street’s screening of The Big Country is not to be missed.
The screening of The Big Country and conversation with Alec Baldwin and Jeffrey Lyons will take place at the Bay Street Theatre on Saturday, March 31 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 and are available through the Bay Street Theatre box office online at www.baystreet.org, via phone at 631-725-9500, or fax, at 631-725-0906.
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