Review of Bad Day at Black Rock

I had to read the screenplay and watch this film for my screenwriting class. I was not too disappointed. The acting was period and the writing was a little to formal from how language is spoken normally but the action, theme, and plot were very well done.

I had not seen a Spencer Tracy movie before and he was very good. Very reserved, very much on the side of justice.

The film follows the script almost to every word. There were, I thought, a few omissions here and there, but it was almost followed exactly. The plot, the action, all were straight from the script. I hadn't seen this film before. The other films we read and watched I had seen at least once or twice. This was the first one which I didn't already have visuals about the movie. So it was interesting to see what my imagination came up with before I saw it in the film. There were some spots that didn't register with my imagination such as the action scenes. I didn't have any visuals about the action sequences. I imagined a lot of sillouhettes, very dark, some black and white, plains imagery, classical Western images. It was interesting to see it on film. I've never been out West so all the images I have are from movies, TV, photos,the web.

This film was very much a classical-style Hollywood movie. It was totally linear. Totally on film with establishing shots, big shots of the train coming and going, a panorama shot of the town. There weren't any hyper close-ups either and the faces weren't too pretty.

It was gritty and Realist and the story was compelling. I don't know of too many films who address the treatment of Japanese- Americans during WWII. They were treated harshly, sent to internment camps, which forced them to give livilihoods, businesses, homes, etc. The film revolves around solving a missing person case which turns out to be a hate crime. In the end the missing Japanese farmer is found to have been murdered by a town bully and his henchmen.

I thought the script wasn't too predictable. The ending had a big twist. Some of the townspeople finally stand up to the bully. Justice is done. Tracy did his duty and brought some peace to Komako. I haven't see so many films set in the West so this was a new experience for me.