The Misfits tells the story of recently divorced Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe), and the friendship that she develops with car mechanic Guido (Eli Wallach), aging cowboy Gay (Clark Gable) and failing rodeo rider Perce (Montgomery Clift). Centered on how their relationships develop during their time at Guidos house in the Nevada desert and at the Dayton rodeo, these relationships finally become tested when the three men decide to hunt horses to be sold to a dog food manufacturer, much to Roslyns distress.
The Misfits essentially is about the way that people inadvertently treat others badly, culminating in the obvious mistreatment of the mustangs, innocent beings in the proceedings. The irony here is The Misfits script was meant as a gift from Arthur Miller to his wife, Monroe; the role of Roslyn being one that Marilyn could truly act. Yet Miller strangely unfavourably portrays Roslyn from time to time in the film. Occasionally naive, occasionally nothing more than the image of the sex symbol Monroe desperately craved to escape.
Regardless, Marilyn puts in her greatest performance, one which sexy and alluring, but filled with sadness and sensitivity.
All the characters are reaching points in their life where they feel they having nothing left; the washed up cowboy, the failing rodeo rider, the new divorcee and the mechanic looking to quit his job. Meeting each other sees changes in our two protagonists; Roslyn starts to become a poster girl for independence, while drawing out Gays never seen before domestic side. However these changes are minor, meaning the development of the characters and any intended arc they are meant to have to their personas are more like a gentle incline. Gay retains his stubbornness, catching the horse himself at the end just to release it again in an act of defiance, to show he can still make his own decisions. Roslyn's breakdown at the fate at the horses, is sweet, but ultimately shows her as weak. Despite being part of the titular misfits, Perce and Guido are reduced to supporting characters who have no development whatsoever.
The genre of the film is mixed too, with elements of buddy movie, romance, western and probably more, all rolled into one. While genre blending is all fine and good when its done well, here it seems halfhearted on all counts. The western element is perhaps the most dominant, but the whole film isn't stylised enough to be a classic western. There are moments when the narrative also feels like several stories that don't always fit together as they should. Perce, the rodeo cowboy generally feels superfluous to the plot, except when Roslyn hears his life story and expresses sorrow at his past.
Overly long, The Misfits would have benefited from a shortened run time, the catching of the mustangs in the closing act, seems needlessly long. There are moments also, for example, Guido wrangling the horses in the plane for Gay and Perce to capture, when the score is overly dramatic and out of place, building up to an anticlimax of nothing at all. And finally the ending of the film, is strangely abrupt considering the run time, and one can only assume that Gay and Roslyn live happily ever after.
BOTTOM LINE: Marilyns greatest performance in a film where the characters, or lack of, misfits.
The Misfits essentially is about the way that people inadvertently treat others badly, culminating in the obvious mistreatment of the mustangs, innocent beings in the proceedings. The irony here is The Misfits script was meant as a gift from Arthur Miller to his wife, Monroe; the role of Roslyn being one that Marilyn could truly act. Yet Miller strangely unfavourably portrays Roslyn from time to time in the film. Occasionally naive, occasionally nothing more than the image of the sex symbol Monroe desperately craved to escape.
Regardless, Marilyn puts in her greatest performance, one which sexy and alluring, but filled with sadness and sensitivity.
All the characters are reaching points in their life where they feel they having nothing left; the washed up cowboy, the failing rodeo rider, the new divorcee and the mechanic looking to quit his job. Meeting each other sees changes in our two protagonists; Roslyn starts to become a poster girl for independence, while drawing out Gays never seen before domestic side. However these changes are minor, meaning the development of the characters and any intended arc they are meant to have to their personas are more like a gentle incline. Gay retains his stubbornness, catching the horse himself at the end just to release it again in an act of defiance, to show he can still make his own decisions. Roslyn's breakdown at the fate at the horses, is sweet, but ultimately shows her as weak. Despite being part of the titular misfits, Perce and Guido are reduced to supporting characters who have no development whatsoever.
The genre of the film is mixed too, with elements of buddy movie, romance, western and probably more, all rolled into one. While genre blending is all fine and good when its done well, here it seems halfhearted on all counts. The western element is perhaps the most dominant, but the whole film isn't stylised enough to be a classic western. There are moments when the narrative also feels like several stories that don't always fit together as they should. Perce, the rodeo cowboy generally feels superfluous to the plot, except when Roslyn hears his life story and expresses sorrow at his past.
Overly long, The Misfits would have benefited from a shortened run time, the catching of the mustangs in the closing act, seems needlessly long. There are moments also, for example, Guido wrangling the horses in the plane for Gay and Perce to capture, when the score is overly dramatic and out of place, building up to an anticlimax of nothing at all. And finally the ending of the film, is strangely abrupt considering the run time, and one can only assume that Gay and Roslyn live happily ever after.
BOTTOM LINE: Marilyns greatest performance in a film where the characters, or lack of, misfits.