Film Review: Paper Moon (1973)
In early 1970s, time when the post-WW2 prosperity in many countries began to crumble, film makers became interested in 1930s, the last era with economic woes of similar magnitude. Some sought disturbing parallels with their own time, while some approached those times with unhidden nostalgia. One of such films was Paper Moon, 1973 comedy directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
The plot, based on the novel Addie Pray by Joe David, begins in 1936 Kansas, place which is still ravaged by the effects Great Depression. Nine-year old Addie Loggins (played by Tatum O’Neal) is faring even worse than most impoverished Americans, because she has recently lost her mother. Moses Pray (played by Ryan O’Neal), wandering man rumoured to be her father, agrees to escort her to her relatives in Missouri. Along the way Addie discovers that Moses earns his living as a confidence man and also discovers that she shares his talent for various confidence tricks. She pretends to be his daughter and two of them make formidable team financing their journey. Before two of them reach their destination, their partnership gets endangered after Moses meets exotic dancer Trixie Delight (played by Madeline Kahn) and becomes enchanted with her, spending large amount of pair’s money.
Peter Bogdanovich, one of the most iconic New Hollywood authors, approached Paper Moon with the combination of the new style characteristic for his generation and his deep knowledge and admiration for Classic Hollywood. The film takes uses at the time very fashionable format of a road movie, with relatively weak plot serving as frame for the series of vignettes. Some of those work and some look too “clever” for such simple story, like the characters of twins being on the opposite side of the law and being played by great character actor John Hillerman. Paper Moon is also notable as one of Hollywood’s last major film production to be made in black-in-white, motivated less by Bogdanovich’s desire to give film “artsy” credential and more with the idea to bring the audience back to 1930s by making Paper Moon look like Hollywood films of the period. Use of 1930s pop music standards instead of conventional soundtrack also represents good compromise between the new and the old.
Paper Moon isn’t particularly deep or important film, but its depiction of Great Depression as times that were challenging, but simpler, kinder and gentler at the same time worked very well for the audience, seeking some sort of escape from early 1970s troubles. This isn’t very deep film, but it provided solid entertainment and it could provide solid entertainment now. This is mostly due to the very good cast. Ryan O’Neal and his daughter Tatum in her screen debut provide very effective team, and the latter was recognised for her talent and effort by becoming the youngest nominee in the history of Academy Awards. Madeline Kahn, one of greatest screen comediennes of its time, also provides a memorable performance in potentially thankless role. The most significant aspect of Paper Moon, however, is that it provided effective template for many latter “Oscar”-grabbing films through combination of adorable child, roguish protagonist and road movie format.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11293-paper-moon
Critic: AA