Saw A Face in the Crowd, a film by Elia Kazan, director of such quote-laden 50s-era hyperdrama as On the Waterfront (You don't understand I coulda been a contenda!) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Stelaaaaaa!) This film deals with the ever-green issue of the cynical bilking of the American public. We begin with Marsha, a local radio reporter, interviewing a charismatic if loud-mouthed drifter, probably named Larry but nicknamed Lonesome Rhodes. The public likes him, so he gets a permanent spot on the radio station, singing songs and talking in a folksy way about his (completely fictional) hometown of Riddle Nebraska and talking of the virtues of home, church, and motherhood. He is big-city cynicism coming out of nowhere from the streets of small towns.
There have been many real-world echoes of the fictional Rhodes. Apparently he was based on Lyndon Johnson, but Rhodes has been brought up in relation to Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Trump. Of course the comparisons don't stop there. The film was originally made to skewer the advertising industry of the time, cynically exploiting the public to push mattresses and miracle cures and even literal bums who know how to tell the audience what it wants to hear. This is a frustrating film.
This is a film that wants to make you uncomfortable and, despite its mandatory happy ending, left me feeling rattled and apathetic. It wants you to be more suspicious of the messages we're sent by public persons and institutions, but to do so constantly is exhausting. Better to do as I do and stop your ears and close your eyes and to think about mathematics and movies.
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