June 18, 2008

Taking Off.

Taking Off "Bearing evidence of an outsider's inquisitive eyes, Czech director Milos Forman's first American feature took an even-handed, humorous look at the parents of the Me Generation," writes Benjamin H Sutton in the L Magazine. "Addressing issues for youth and parents of the time, Taking Off is inseparable from its historical context, an eloquent time capsule for the movies and larger cultural trends on the threshold between the 60s and 70s."

"Even taking into account the ambitious biographical sweep of later projects like The People vs Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon, it remains his best film in and about America," writes Vadim Rizov in the Voice. "Whether Taking Off is caricature or dead-on is, presumably, all a matter of perspective and distance, and I can't resolve it - I wasn't even embryonic at the time. But it's definitely hilarious."

Updated through 6/20.

At MoMA, tonight through Monday.

Update, 6/20: Taking Off is "a satire about the generation gap (cowritten by playwright John Guare and Buñuel's scenarist, Jean-Claude Carrière) that put the squares and the groovies in the crosshairs," writes David Fear in Time Out New York. "It's no wonder that Taking Off tanked; rake both sides of the cultural divide over the coals and you're left with no audience whatsoever. Seen today, however, Forman's career pivot point between Prague's film-school halls and the Oscars podium is still a prime example of the way a foreign director can apply an outsider's perspective to something like Nixon's Amerikkka and draw blood.



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Posted by dwhudson at June 18, 2008 12:33 PM

Comments

"Whether Taking Off is caricature or dead-on is, presumably, all a matter of perspective and distance, and I can't resolve it - I wasn't even embryonic at the time. But it's definitely hilarious."

What I think you mean is that the film might best resonate with the viewers of its time. But it sounds like you're saying you can't judge the efficacy of its portrait at all because it happened before your time. That's a crippling limitation for a critic to accept.

Posted by: roger at June 18, 2008 1:43 PM

Well, I'd rather put my limitations out there than pretend to pass judgment. While I was doing my homework, I found a lot of contemporary point/counterpoint editorials - some from people who felt it was completely unbelievable, some who found it right on - that suggested no one would commit to a judgment in 1971. Lynn Carlin went on a talk show and said she thought it was a tragedy; Forman, of course, thought it was a comedy. So who knows. I can judge how effective I think it is as a comedy (answer: awesome), but not how "accurate" it is.

Posted by: vadim at June 18, 2008 2:01 PM