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Amazon.com: Movies like The Landlord just don't get made anymore. Nowadays, the plot--an idle, wealthy young man (Beau Bridges) buys a tenement house in a poor black neighborhood and finds himself confronted and changed by the radically different lives his tenants lead--would be the basis for a broad comedy or a ponderous, self-important statement picture in which the hero comes to a profound understanding of something bland and inoffensive. But in the 1970s, a movie could be something too slippery to categorize. The Landlord is part social satire, part character study, part serious examination of race and class--and it delves into these things without having any answers or even strong advice, just a sense of the reality it depicts. Bridges, with his baby-faced innocence, is excellent, as are Lee Grant as his capricious mother and Pearl Bailey and Lou Gossett as some of his tenants; the rest of the cast is less recognizable but just as good. The movie uses abrupt editing to juxtapose the past and present or upper- and lower-class environments; the production and costume design use black and white to subtly comment on our responses to color in the world. The accumulation of all this lacks the focus that might make The Landlord a great movie, but it is a provocative, unpredictable, and engaging one, and well worth watching. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - God I Miss Hal Ashby
Although this is Ashby's first directorial effort, you can already see many of the themes and recurrent fascinations of the man in this early work. The spare framing, the comfortableness with silences that would later emerge so brilliantly and patiently in Being There, and of course the offbeat and quirky performances, bringing to life characters that are wholly formed yet wildly funny and almost never otherwise shown on screen.
I also found the "European" edits (i.e., abrupt and sometimes surreal) to be creative, and of course the performances by many great character actors were superb. In particular Lee Grant stands out, who was nominated for an Oscar for this performance. Her drunk scene at the tenement is a hoot. Also look for a very young, very clueless Robert Klein.
This one is a treasure, a slightly skewed and definitely overlooked classic and in my view an estimable addition to the Ashby catalogue. Watch this one with the original Out-of-Towners and you will have a pretty nice two-fer. a slice of New York that is long gone.
Rating: - A great oldie.
I searched for years after seeing this movie when it was first released, but it didn't seem to be available on VHS. I was very pleased to find a copy - in great condition. Beau Bridges and Pearl Bailey are terrific in this tale of a rich white boy's foray into the black culture of the late 60's/early 70's - the impact of the tenants in the building he buys in a black neighborhood (just beginning to be gentrified) and his on their lives (his involvement with a female tenant who's husband is in jail). But I think the best part of the movie may be Lee Grant's performance as his mother. Underrated as an actress who I believe was mainly known on tv, she hits a perfect note as a spoiled white woman who can't quite remember which of her many beaus she actually married (after a night of drinking with Pearl Bailey). Some hard truths about the gap - culturally and economically - between black and white are played out very well here and the love story is quite touching. Terrific movie that has aged well.
Rating: - I hope more people stumble upon this gem! to say the least...
...Profound. Nothing short of an algorithm of life's past, present, and future ignorance and faux pas. It has a wide eyed view on what is real, and depicts life in all it's glory and gloom.
Each role will tell you somethings we all should know, but were never, and will never be taught.
A rare retrospect of wisdom captured in film.
A strong allusion of humor and melancholy.
Rating: - BOLD, ORIGINAL, POWERFUL
I discovered this film by accident while reading a black cinema history book by Donald Bogle. I was fascinated by the movie once I saw it. It's become one of my favorites. This is an art house film about a wealthy white man who becomes a landlord of a Brooklyn tenament and makes connections with two very different black women. I love the boldness and complexity of the film and the directing was dreamy and odd--making it a surreal visual experience. I was captivated, as usual, by the spectacular performance of the late, great superior Diana Sands, who died too soon: I think she would have been one of Hollywood's biggest black actresses had she lived. She is mesmerizing in this film. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone interested in movies that explore race relations and the complexities of human relationships.
Rating: - Black and White in color
A rich, sharply observed social satire that proceeds from farce to tragedy with logic and integrity. What a pleasure.
Although Hal Ashby, first-time director, and Gordon Willis, almost as new to feature cinematography, deserve the highest praise for their contributions, I split the lion's share of credit for the film's success between Bill Gunn's biting, hilarious script and the perfectly cast ensemble:
Beau Bridges is deceptively nuanced in a deceptively tough role: Elgar Enders, an unmarked, unformed trust-funder whose scheme of renovating a tenement house into a groovy bachelor pad is his trial by fire waiting to happen. His relentless lessons in humility would be exhausting if they weren't leavened with (dark) humor. Had Bridges chewed some scenery, he might have garnered an Oscar. As it is, he opts for a bewildered spontaneity that sure looks like great acting to me.
Elgar's mother Joyce (Lee Grant) and Marge (Pearl Bailey), a tenant in Elgar's building, have a lengthy, hilarious scene over bottle after bottle of fortified wine that would be a comic touchstone if only more people knew about the movie. Observes Marge: "You can get at those hamhocks a little better if you take those gloves off, honey."
Diana Sands as Fanny Copee is flat out hilarious when the script calls for it (Broadly pouting, having sussed what a light touch Elgar is: "Complaints? Well let's see... The roof leaks, the oven door's broke, the toilet runs all day, and you're awful cute to be a landlord..."), equally wrenching when the script calls for that. Marki Bey offers a lived-in performance as Lanie, another of Elgar's romantic intrigues: Lanie is sad, serious, but not despairing. Watch the "Spinal Meningitis Festival Ball" scene closely- she's given almost no dialogue, but her reactions supply all the eloquence required: joy, apprehension, tenderness.
Lou Gossett is first seen embodying The White Man's nightmare version of The Urban Black Male, but it's a put-on. Still, the film plumbs the pain behind the role-playing, and finally it's clear that the pain is bottomless: ("D-don't let them transplant my heart til I'm dead," he pleads, his mind finally snapped). Mel Stewart is the droll, menacing Prof. Dubois, another of Elgar's tenants, who would despise Elgar if such a feeling weren't beneath him. Stingingly aloof as he is, the professor delivers the jab to Elgar's conscience that helps end the film on a hopeful note.
"The Landlord" impresses first with its wit, then with the seriousness ... Read More
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