The Fugitive Kind (1960)
The Fugitive Kind is a movie about a man named Val Xavier also known as “Snakeskin” who is on the run. He wanders into a small Mississippi town hoping to go straight and live a quiet, simple life. He gets a job at a local store owned by a middle aged, miserable woman named Lady Torrence, whose aggressive husband, Jabe, is dying. Val finds himself attracted to Lady and they both have a secret relationship. However, despite all their love for one another, things cannot end well for Val and Lady.
Val’s character is very quiet, and sad in this movie. He has no emotions to show towards anything. He wants to become a better person, and just talks his way through everything. The movie does not show us how he became a fugitive. Some background information was not given in this movie, which made it hard to understand the whole movie. In the first scene of the movie, Val is in front of a judge, trying to convince everyone he will change and be a better person. I feel like through that scene, the shots were only focused on Val and his dialog, and it was taken in a way that the viewer can only see his face and half of his body. It was as if they were not in a real court. We could hear the judge speaking, yet we couldn’t see him. The main focus of that scene was Val. His facial expression and dialog were inconsistent. It was a bit all over the place.
When Val avoids arrest, he first meets Carol Cutrere who is an alcoholic, wild, and is not accepted by the rest of the community. Her behavior, with her running mascara, and how she was dressed clearly showed that she had a bad reputation. The camera really captures her scenes in a dramatic, believable way. She then sets her sight on Val, but he is not interested. Instead he meets Lady Torrence, works for her and ends up being with her.
In this movie, we see the struggling woman who wants to leave her dying husband to be with her lover. Lady’s jealousy and love for Val was obvious on the screen. Her nerves were practically visible in her face in those scenes, but she never manages to be perceived as a romantic person. There was a scene of her and Val kissing but the chemistry was not there between the two of them. Lady’s scenes with Val is mainly about her speaking and yelling at him. I believe she was trying too hard, and that is why it did not look real to me. She did most of the talking, he barely said a few words. According to tcm.com,” Williams’ gift for creating compelling female characters was so strong that as soon as Val met Lady Torrance, the film became about her.” I feel as if Lady’s character showed us more emotions than Val’s. Therefore, the story became mostly about her.
I liked the role of Vee Talbot who is a local woman that helped Val in his journey. Her character seems calm, and kind. The fact that she let Val into her house even though she does not know anything about him is quite unusual. But she did not seem scared, she really nailed that role. It was obvious in that scene that she had good intentions towards Val.Through her dialog and tone, we can see her personality and how kind she is.
In the end, I feel likeThe Fugitive Kind is not just about crime and escaping the past, it is rather about how a small town like Mississippi perceives their people.The locals will forever remember your sins, never forgive, and most importantly punish you for them. An example of that would be Val and Lady’s tragical ending because of their selfish relationship. I liked the ending of the movie because I did not expect Val and Lady to die. I thought that the title of the movie “The Fugitive Kind” is a clue that Val will always be a runner. Unfortunately, he and Lady both died. The ending had that visual energy as it should have been in the first frame. In the last scene, I was convinced that Val and Lady truly loved each other. The camera captures their final moments perfectly. The movie was sad, and the fact that it was in black ad white made it sadder.
References
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1449-the-fugitive-kind-when-sidney-went-to-tennessee
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/202850%7C0/The-Fugitive-Kind.html
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1449-the-fugitive-kind-when-sidney-went-to-tennessee
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/202850%7C0/The-Fugitive-Kind.html