small town interlude

set in a small town in kansas during the late 1920’s, splendor in the grass is a stirring tale of sexual repression, economic instability, moribund values and young love. directed by elia kazan and starring two of the most gorgeous people in hollywood history, natalie wood and warren beatty, this is a stunning piece of great cinema. the title is from a william wordsworth’s poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.”

deannie loomis (wood) and bud stamper (beatty) were high school sweethearts. the scion of the richest family in town, high school quarterback bud was in-love with deannie, the only child of a middle class family. inveigled by his raging teenage hormones, bud was frustrated that deannie is resisting his sexual desires, for as deannie’s mom stressed in one of their random mother-daughter conversations, "boys don't respect a girl they can go all the way with; a boy wants a nice girl for a wife". surmising that he’d had to marry deannie in order to get her into bed, his father, who wanted bud to go to yale, suggested that he find another girl to satisfy his cravings. bud shagged the first girl available and fragile deannie suffered an emotional setback so severe she had to be admitted to the insane asylum.

when i first read the synopsis my first reaction was, are you kidding me? who would go mad just because they’ve been dumped? then i saw the movie and marvelled at warren beatty’s chiselled features and muttered to myself, bud was so handsome, of course deannie would become insane with the thought of losing him. although bud as a character was deeply lost and confounded, deannie evolved into the more balanced protagonist. elia kazan painted the canvas splendidly, every scene so bruising and illuminating, every template magical. there was poetry in the platitudes and the pathos are easily discerned. a throwback from the resplendent era of silver screen incantations, this film is truly a timeless classic for future generations.