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By
NICK ZEGARAC
I am at a loss to explain as
to why, with all of the illustrious examples of
film musical entertainment in their canon -- that
have yet to be released on DVD -- the good people
at Warner Brothers would pick "Finian's Rainbow"
(1968) for a premiere issue. Apart from the fact
that the film features an over the hill Fred
Astaire in one of his least memorable and least
illustrious dance performances, this Irish ditty
about the mysterious Irishman Finian and his
coquettish daughter Sharon (Petula Clark) lacks
the production values needed to carry off just
such a tale. The plot is threadbare at best.
Finian and Sharon arrive in a town populated by
sharecroppers; one is a dreamer who believes that
a new mentholated tobacco will put the town on the
map. Like the wily leprechaun that he's stolen a
crock of gold from, Finian is determined to plant
his fortunes in the ground and watch them grow.
Og, the leprechaun (Tommy Steele), has other
ideas.
In retrospect, what is particularly disappointing
about the film is its lack of cohesive narrative
to set the record straight. There's Sharon's
declaration of poverty that inadvertently triggers
a minor apocalypse in the town. But this subplot
goes nowhere fast. There's also the question of
young romance and paternal love and the ultimate
sacrifice that Finian has to make to ensure his
own daughter's happiness. But again, these seem
more like independent vignettes than one
comprehensive bit of storytelling. The story and
songs by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy were barely
sustainable on stage. On film they emerge as
effervescent snippets and bytes of sound that
pretty much vanish from one's consciousness the
moment the film is over. Francis Ford Coppola --
who clearly lacks in understanding the
construction of fantasy -- does his best to saddle
bag the production with heavy-handed long takes
and jump cuts that make no cinematic sense and
only served to slow down the pace of an already
dragging experience.
Warner's DVD is rather admirable. Shot in
Panavision and in California, there's no way that
anyone who has seen Ireland could mistake these
locations for the real thing. Still, the quality
of this transfer is over all smooth and
satisfying. Colors are rich and often vibrant.
There's a bit more film grain present than one
would like to see. Blacks are deep. Whites are
sometimes clean. The audio has been remixed to 5.1
but exhibits a strident characteristic that isn't
present in films from the 50s, let alone the 60s.
There's a new intro and commentary track from
Coppola and a featurette on the film's world
premiere to get through. |
