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Based on the novel by Eric Maira Remarque (ALL QUIET
ON THE WESTERN FRONT), Sidney Pollack’s film “Bobby Deerfield”
stars Al Pacino as the title character an emotionally reserved
Formula One race car driver who lives in the moment at once
a part of the world and removed from it. His world is turned
upside down when he meets a dying young woman (the late
Martha Keller) and despite his attempts to keep all of his
relationships superficial begins to fall in love with her.
It’s ironic that Deerfield can only open up to someone that
he can’t spent his life with and that he begins to do so
experiencing love for the first time with a woman who is
soon going to be inaccessible. ***
Pacino gives a fine, nuanced and subdued performance
in a film that was critically lambasted for its mixture
of a mainstream Hollywood racing film and elements of art
house cinema. Pollack does a good job working with the actors
and the beautiful scenery of Paris is nicely captured in
the film. If the drama feels forced because of the ambitions
of Pollack, Pacino and screenwriter Alvin Sergant ], at
least the film has ambition to tell a more emotionally complex
drama than you would expect from Hollywood (particularly
in 1979). I never saw “Bobby Deerfield” when it originally
played in theaters taking the critical lambasting as gospel
when I should have gone to see it and decided for myself.
It’s an entertaining, interesting if languidly paced film
that fans of Pacino will appreciate for his performance.
Keller is also quite good and if the film occasionally lapses
into some maudlin moments, it can be forgiven. The staging
of Deerfield’s first meeting with Lillian in the restaurant
at a resort where a friend is recovering with both having
a conversation at different tables and her back to him is
cleverly staged. It captures the emotional distance that
he keeps those he is involved with at. ---
Image & Sound:
“Bobby Deerfield” receives a beautiful transfer. Skin
tones are perfect. The film is presented free of analog
and digital defects. ***
Audio sounds fine with a nice presentation in 5.1 ---
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