# Cradle Will Rock (1999)

### reviewed by
Eugene Novikov

    Cradle Will Rock (1999)
    Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
    http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
    Member: Online Film Critics Society

Starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Bill Murray, Susan Sarandon, Ruben Blades, Philip Baker Hall, Angus MacFayden, John Turturro, Emily Watson. Directed by Tim Robbins. Rated R.

It's difficult to find an angle on the Great Depression if you're looking to make a serious but not a depressing drama. What jumps out at you, understandably, is the poverty and the suffering. The million dollar challenge is to make a movie that shows all of that without focusing on it, without taking the viewer deep into the slums of poverty. Tim Robbins, acclaimed actor and director of Dead Man Walking is up to the challenge. With Cradle Will Rock, Robbins has made a bona fide period piece, a film that, through its plot and setting, conveys a wide range of characteristics of the time and place. Roger Ebert said that one needs a study guide to view Cradle Will Rock; I suggest that it is an immensely entertaining study guide in itself. In the 1930s after the stock market crashed and took the economy with it, part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's comprehensive recovery program known as the New Deal" was providing jobs for the many unemployed citizens. In an effort to open position in as wide a variety of fields as humanly possible, the Federal Theater Program was instituted. Branches of the Federal Theater would put out wide casting calls and put on moderately well-funded productions of plays for the general public. A major part of everything, of course, was the Red Scare, a nationwide Communism phobia and fear of anything deemed remotely un- American.

Enter Mark Blitzstein (Hank Azaria). Poor and suffering from a few mental disorders, Blitzstein wrote "Cradle Will Rock," a stage play that may not have been quite anti-Capitalist, but was certainly anti- Industrialist. It swept members of the working class off their feet but understandably disconcerted the government, already concerned with a possible proletariat rebellion. The Federal Theater decides to produce the play, headed by a young and arrogant Orson Welles (Angus MacFayden), but right before opening night the government decides to shut it down.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated subplot, Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) hires a painter friend of his to paint a mural in the lobby of one of Nelson's establishments. The painter also happens to be a Communist and he incorporates Lenin and other such sensibilities into his creation. Nelson wants very much to accomodate his buddy's whims but is very much worried about how well his mural will be received by the public.

Joan Cusack plays an employee of the Federal Theater seemingly brainwashed by the Red Scare; she goes to a Congressional Committee to complain about traces of Communism in the plays the Theater puts on. She develops a relationship with a sad, eccentric ventriloquist (Bill Murray), who isn't quite sure what he himself thinks.

Like the higher-profile but hardly superior Magnolia, Cradle Will Rock takes a unique approach to storytelling that is becoming increasingly popular: taking a whole set of characters and only tangentially related storylines and weaving them together to paint a complete picture. Since this is in effect a period piece, that method is all the more appropriate, and Robbins pulls it off admirably. I'm probably more familiar with the history of the 1930s than the average person and I was consistently impressed by how well this movie provided an interpertation of the decade in an entertaining and surprising way. It looks at the period from a whole new angle and puts it in a new light; the result is an illuminating experience.

Many have criticized this movie for being overly ambitious; it does, after all, try to tackle the stories of Nelson Rockefeller, William Randolph Hearst, the Red Scare, the Federal Theater and the Great Depression in general in one fell swoop. But I don't think that the movie's purpose is to provide a complete history; rather, it tries to take a snapshot of a time period. Robbins does not provide a lot of background information. He takes us right into his story. What he winds up doing is giving us an idea of what the 30s were like for a lot of people -- but not necessarily how it came to be that way or even why it's that way. He gives us the bare necessities so that we are not thoroughly confused, but that is all. This isn't a textbook translated to celluloid nor does it try to be one.

...and it all works like a gem. This is one of the very best films of the year, a sweeping, enjoyable, thought-provoking epic that respects, educates and entertains the audience all at the same time. Tim Robbins doesn't direct very often -- he prefers to act and is superb at that, too -- but when he does go behind the camera, what comes out is second to none.

    Grade: A

    ©2000 Eugene Novikov

    Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
    Before you buy.

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