respond to the thoughts in the instructions

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Chris Rhodes Who let the Nazi have a Giant Bell?! Collapse In comparison to CITIZEN KANE and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, THE STRANGER is just a delight to watch. It feels as if Welles is finally coming into his own, so to speak. Perhaps AMBERSONS was to be good, but studio politics got in the way. In any case, I was thoroughly involved. There were several scenes which reminded me Hitchcock, in the way that Welles utilized lighting. In particular, I recall a scene in that the actors moved from the light into the shadows, but it was so dark that their faces became the shadows themselves. Hence, it was like watching, somehow, a 3D black and white world go into a 2D film, and then come out of it just as fast – simply amazing. Another scene that caught my eye for use of camera and lighting was when Mary Longstreet was being told about her new husband’s deeds by her father, Judge Longstreet, and my the investigator, Mr. Wilson. The two gentlemen were in the shadows while Mary is in the light, almost like she was trying to run away from the hidden truth on purpose, which was in fact the case.The ironies were wonderful and on more than one occasion did I let out a noise of shock or of laughter. The latter, for instance, when Rankin/Kindler is impaled by the good angel chasing the demon, while on the clock that he made to work. He was his very own instrument of death.                 I found myself also comparing the idea of a small town in the 1940’s to a small town today. Could you imagine only 6 people visiting your ‘town’ in a 12 month period? The closeness is remarkable, and so I think that was to epitomize the fact that Kindler had invaded at the deepest possible level, and no one was the wiser. This was all part of his plan, as he suggests near the beginning of the film. Something else I found odd, concerning contemporary towns versus Harper, Connecticut, was that they allowed this man to build fix the bell and clock, which he promptly allows to go off at night henceforth. I’d be very upset, and it was at least addressed by someone in one of the scenes. Most, if not all, my thoughts and concerns were addressed in a minor or major way, and this made me incredibly happy. When we need a little more understanding of the psyche, we have Mr. Wilson, whom obviously must have read Freud, monologuing to Judge Longstreet in order to inform, us, the audience.                 Furthermore, it just seems that the average audience member had to be more cultured than today’s audience. There were so very many subtle references that were not explained and that one should just know as common knowledge. One being Carthage – they were utterly destroyed by Rome as they were deemed too much of a threat/nuisance. This is also were we get the term to ‘salt the Earth’ or to destroy everything so nothing can grow, which is exactly what Rome did. This is what Kindler suggested as a clever ruse, that Americans should do to the Germans, “…down to the last babe”. The other reference that I appreciated was the reference to Nietzsche a German philosopher. One of his known books is called, “A Will to Power” – which actually sits beside my own bed. The reference made, by Mr. Wilson, was to Germans in general a will to truth. This may be a coincidence, but I would think not for Mr. Welles.                 We can definitely see and feel more of Welles’ political opinions, as whole, in this film. He raises the issue of clandestine and planted sleeper cells that are just biding their time. One such scene, after we realize that Mary is actually married to Kindler, we see the shadow of Kindler entering the bedroom toward Mary – very Hitchockian. It is here, too, that we see how his personality is starting to come through as he is being caught off guard, by locking up the dog in the cellar. To this, Mary replies that she would never imagine a dog – implying much less than a human – to be locked up in such a manner. But, Kindler replies, the dog needs to be taught obedience. A huge negative is that this, in retrospect, starts to get into the idea of McCarthy era wherein one cannot trust a neighbor as they might be a Communist. Mary tried her best to trust her husband, in fact, did more for him than I would have in her position. She is, however, also the first to fire a gun and the one to wound him enough to start the chain of events that leads to his death. Mary is undoubtedly destroyed and betrayed. I wonder if she will marry again, or forever have flashbacks and trust issues. I see Mary almost becoming like Fanny Amberson.