Ironweed (1987)

To all the bums of the world,this is your film. The ones who cannot be bothered to play all the games and have accepted that the race is unequal. This film is about your mates in the prohibition era.I liked the film's structure - the daily life of a bum and his fellow bums and his recollections about the people he murdered by accident. It is scary how a man could end up as a bum. And while the film does not lay out all the reasons why the protagonist (Nicholson) ended up the way he did, it gives us glimpses of his past which might offer some clues.The film does not glorify the bum life in anyway. Though as a square, their antics which include hard drinking seemed quite charming to me. I mean, it must be terrible if you are a bum and you fall sick on the road. But somehow I do feel like it is better than the relentless boredom of the ordinary life.Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep's performances were more than adequate. Someone like John Cassavetes or Elaine May would have been able to do full justice to this film. Not that there is anything wrong with it. I guess it is sort of a lost classic when you consider the star cast. I would love to watch this film on Blu Ray.Best Regards, Pimpin.(8/10)

Given the weak print and media reviews, I was shocked at how moving and poetic this portrait of street bums in the 30s was. Streep and Nicholson are both magnificent, but the whole supporting cast is very good. It has flaws – it's a little overlong, there the occasional heavy handed moment. But it's also a deeply moving portrait of lost souls trying to find meaning in a very cold world. My one big frustration is the US DVD - for some reason it was released full screen (4:3) and not in the original 1:85. That might have been forgivable if the DVD had been released years ago, when that was a more common practice, but 'Ironweed' - a visually stunning film - was released in 2009! So there is no excuse for this inaccurate presentation.Update: There is now - finally - a perfectly decent blu-ray available from Olive. Correct aspect ratio, and a nice, if not amazing transfer.

I remember so clearly the night I first experienced "Ironweed". I'd spent a long, tired winter day working in the remote coastal community of Victoria Harbour, Nova Scotia. The wind was blowing hard all morning and into the afternoon, leaving snowdrifts strewn across the ever-narrowing roads. Down these quiet country byways, I was mesmerized by the old buildings and abandoned shacks. As I made my way down to the water, I came out at an oceanside clearing beneath menacing cliffs. It was with this frozen world in mind and at the end of a long journey home that I sat down with my dinner to watch "Ironweed".Although I'd just returned home from an early March day, this film takes place more around late November. The cold is palpable. You can see the actors' breath in many of the scenes, feel the ice in their veins. Hector Babenco holds back anything that might get in the way, and directs sparsely and quietly. You're certain to be familiar with the lead actors, but don't let that throw you. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep have never been as pure before or since. It's as if they are these people. Francis and Helen are living, breathing humans, as real as characters as the very people who play them. Tom Waits, who is one of my favorite singer-songwriters, appears sporadically as Francis' drinking buddy. It's a great performance.Being homeless in 1938 was no small challenge I'm sure, and "Ironweed" captures every inch of pain, struggle, heart and humanity of its characters. The darkness is so all-encompassing that every hint of hope seems all the clearer. You feel encouraged to find whatever hints of light that you can. Which is why, in that final scene, as light streaks across the room while a woman's voice describes what you see, a future of hope seems all the more possible. The grey and brown tones of a seemingly endless series of cloudy days brings you down to those times when you start feeling that the sun will never shine again. "Ironweed" offers the most subtle, painful, beautiful reminder that it always will.

Does anyone else find odd the idea of a multi-million dollar, star-driven melodrama pretending to recreate the lives of penniless, alcoholic vagrants in the Great Depression? Judging from its subject matter (not to mention the punishing length and leisurely pace) this is clearly a film aspiring toward loftier goals than mere box office commerce. William Kennedy's screenplay, adapted from his own Pulitzer Prize winning novel, is perhaps too faithful to its source (the entire book could probably be read in less time than it takes to watch the film), and the dramatic impact of his story is handicapped by celebrity casting. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep both give (typically) vital performances, but our awareness of them as movie stars keeps the joyless reality of the scenario at arms length, where it's easy to admire their skill as actors without having to get involved in the plight of their characters. Some rich period detail, a lot of verbal exposition, and an atmosphere of despair so vivid you could slice it with a knife add up to a film with no shortage of prestige, but not much in the way of entertainment.