FILM 12
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THE WRONG MAN - REVIEW 01
Unfortunately the FILM KNIGHTS used the time watching this to hurriedly collate and staple Issue 1 of our zine in time for our launch (details on how to get a copy to follow). As such I have to hold my hands up and confess that I did not give this movie the level of scrutiny I would usually hope to.
Two things I’d like to say though: firstly the anguish, frustration and ultimately suspicion you felt at the predicament of the protagonist could only have been maintained with the knowledge that this was based on real events. If it was made up you would have rejected the whole plot as a half hearted piece of Kafkaesque absurdity. In this sense it reminded me of “The Informant”. Here again, truth was in fact stranger than fiction.
The second point is about some of Hitchcock’s more daring pieces of camera work (I’m thinking specifically of the hand placed on a shoulder in the court room). I think these were attempts to draw the audience into the film. To a film historian, something I certainly am not, I’m sure these are interesting moments of note where the possibilities of film craft are explored. To me however they only served to remind me, rather than make me forget, I was watching a film because of their outlandishness.
My illustration is a piece of found art: an article in a copy of the Evening Standard I picked up on the train home from watching FILM 12.
RATING - ?/5
BEN JENKINS
