Larry Schiller, who is credited with directing this movie, comes off in Mailer's book as a no-nonsense, grasping, egomaniacal self promoter -- a Horace Babbitt for our times. So it comes as a big surprise to find that this movie is professionally done and even tasteful. Schiller was one of the first, well, journalists (I guess), on the scene and sewed up a lot of exclusive contracts with informants. He sold the rights to Mailer. As Schiller's character puts it in this movie, "I'm all suited up and ready to play." And even in enterprises subsequent to Gilmore's story, Schiller is generally described as such a crumb that it's surprising to find this movie has no great directorial displays -- no razzle dazzle pyrotechnics, just clean, functional direction and editing.
Of course, Mailer's book was too long to be condensed into even a miniseries in all its complexity, so certain incidents needed to be deleted or compressed. The snitch planted in Gary's cell, for instance. Or the fact that the murders were preceded not by one break up with Nicole Baker but two. Or the fact that there was no one "going away party" for Gary before his execution, but two, the first one having been premature (and anticlimactic).
Mailer's book by the way is probably his last very good work, filled with a casual irony that is sometimes amusing. After the first killing, Gary takes the teen aged April to a motel room where, Mailer observes, a paper ribbon has been placed across the closed and antiseptic toilet to prove that nobody has lifted the toilet seat since the paper was placed there.
There's no humor in the movie. It's a straightforward, plain-vanilla telling of Gilmore's brief period between his release from prison and his death by firing squad. Tommy Lee Jones is very good as Gary Gilmore. His energy is barely contained. He paces back and forth at moments of tension and gestures in unfamiliar, almost bizarre ways as he tries, for instance, to flag down cars on a highway. He twists his lines in equally idiosyncratic ways, the way Lee Marvin often did, so that one never knows exactly what's coming next.
The only other performer of real importance is Rosanne Arquette as Gilmore's girl friend, Nicole. She looks -- ummm -- very nice. Her acting is okay as well, although she doesn't come across nearly as seedy as Jones does. She sounds as if she'd spent time in college, whereas Jones (who was in Harvard) sounds like he's spent half his life in prison. She is, however, so succulent that one hardly notices her performance.
The movie has no superscore. The music is country and western, and unusually apt. It adds to the shabby atmosphere established. Nobody seems to be really having a good time. And I never suspected Salt Lake City had such a debauched underworld -- people guzzling beer as they drive, smoking, shacking up impulsively, strung out on dope and New Age insanity. Yet they are for the most part respectable and law abiding, even the tattooed bikers and other lowlifes that Gary cultivates as friends.
There are only two murders and we don't see the victims' heads explode. In fact there is hardly any blood. (That's what I meant when I said the movie was relatively tasteful.) What motivated Gilmore? I mean, two senseless killings for a few dollars to pay off a pickup truck. Who knows? Not even Gilmore knows. Ditto for Nicole Baker. She and Gary agreed to commit joint suicide while he was in prison. The first attempt failed and they tried a second time. (One of the attempts is again omitted as anticlimactic, which is okay.) She smuggled the depressants into the prison by putting them in a balloon in her vagina. This may or may not sound realistic, but it is. I was surprised to find couples in the visiting room at California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo engaged in almost everything short of what might be a definition of "sexual relations" broader than that of President Clinton. Neat. The inmates were doing a lot better than I had at their age.
This is an above average miniseries, well worth watching. Not full of pungent insights into human nature or anything -- just a gripping story of a doomed and careless man. Get the unrated version.
Of course, Mailer's book was too long to be condensed into even a miniseries in all its complexity, so certain incidents needed to be deleted or compressed. The snitch planted in Gary's cell, for instance. Or the fact that the murders were preceded not by one break up with Nicole Baker but two. Or the fact that there was no one "going away party" for Gary before his execution, but two, the first one having been premature (and anticlimactic).
Mailer's book by the way is probably his last very good work, filled with a casual irony that is sometimes amusing. After the first killing, Gary takes the teen aged April to a motel room where, Mailer observes, a paper ribbon has been placed across the closed and antiseptic toilet to prove that nobody has lifted the toilet seat since the paper was placed there.
There's no humor in the movie. It's a straightforward, plain-vanilla telling of Gilmore's brief period between his release from prison and his death by firing squad. Tommy Lee Jones is very good as Gary Gilmore. His energy is barely contained. He paces back and forth at moments of tension and gestures in unfamiliar, almost bizarre ways as he tries, for instance, to flag down cars on a highway. He twists his lines in equally idiosyncratic ways, the way Lee Marvin often did, so that one never knows exactly what's coming next.
The only other performer of real importance is Rosanne Arquette as Gilmore's girl friend, Nicole. She looks -- ummm -- very nice. Her acting is okay as well, although she doesn't come across nearly as seedy as Jones does. She sounds as if she'd spent time in college, whereas Jones (who was in Harvard) sounds like he's spent half his life in prison. She is, however, so succulent that one hardly notices her performance.
The movie has no superscore. The music is country and western, and unusually apt. It adds to the shabby atmosphere established. Nobody seems to be really having a good time. And I never suspected Salt Lake City had such a debauched underworld -- people guzzling beer as they drive, smoking, shacking up impulsively, strung out on dope and New Age insanity. Yet they are for the most part respectable and law abiding, even the tattooed bikers and other lowlifes that Gary cultivates as friends.
There are only two murders and we don't see the victims' heads explode. In fact there is hardly any blood. (That's what I meant when I said the movie was relatively tasteful.) What motivated Gilmore? I mean, two senseless killings for a few dollars to pay off a pickup truck. Who knows? Not even Gilmore knows. Ditto for Nicole Baker. She and Gary agreed to commit joint suicide while he was in prison. The first attempt failed and they tried a second time. (One of the attempts is again omitted as anticlimactic, which is okay.) She smuggled the depressants into the prison by putting them in a balloon in her vagina. This may or may not sound realistic, but it is. I was surprised to find couples in the visiting room at California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo engaged in almost everything short of what might be a definition of "sexual relations" broader than that of President Clinton. Neat. The inmates were doing a lot better than I had at their age.
This is an above average miniseries, well worth watching. Not full of pungent insights into human nature or anything -- just a gripping story of a doomed and careless man. Get the unrated version.