This is a film that I am not certain how to address, but feel compelled to do so anyway. In the heat of the moment, that moment being only a few after having completed viewing this astonishing small epic. My head is literally reeling, my stomach is in knots and my chest feels corseted with stress. I've watched a lot of horrific, anxious, violent films, but none compared to the sheer, cumulative visceral force of this film, which builds and builds and builds, ending in a crescendo of such sickening force I can barely articulate it. I thought `Midnight Cowboy' was a potent flick, but Schlesinger really outdid himself with this one. The cast is all uniformly excellent, alternately despicable as well as sympathetic (all have their moments where they vie for who is most abject, revolting, debauched, pitiable), but none are lovable. Waldo Salt's script is first-rate. All in all, excellent, but it will be a long time before I want to sit through it again. Rewarding, but damn hard. The human race really is the most fascinating and repulsive of all.
Review of The Day of the Locust
