Big Picture Big Sound

Back From Exile

In the early sixties, many young directors were fascinated by adding a realistic flavor to their works of fiction. John Cassavetes was the most well known of these practitioners but there were lots of men and women striking out in this new direction. By availing themselves of the new, more compact technologies that spawned lightweight cameras, zoom lenses and portable sound equipment, just to name a few, they were able to stake out new territories.

Kent Mackenzie was a student at USC in the fifties and it was there that he first started experimenting with this budding genre and in 1956 he shot his short student film, "Bunker Hill". Mackenzie was fascinated by portraying reality on the screen and it was this that drove him to spend time with young American Indians living in Los Angeles. He chose Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, and Tommy Reynolds to be his main characters. The final product was "The Exiles" a slightly fictionalized account that plays awfully close to a documentary.

What first struck me was the quality of both the production and the print. The latter is due to a great job of restoration for its re-release. The other thing that impacted me was just how much things have changed since 1961, something that I suppose shouldn't have surprised me. I felt like I was watching archival footage from another civilization. Then the reality hit me that that it is indeed what I was watching.

The movie opens with a young woman shopping in a large outdoor market. We hear her thoughts as she walks from vendor to vendor. This technique is repeated throughout the film. We spend as much time listening to their thoughts as we do listening to their words. The effect is one of peering into the personal lives of ordinary people, no doubt the goal of Mackenzie.

Their lives are haphazard. The goal of most everyone is to have fun. Fun equals drinking to excess, chasing members of the opposite sex (in one case, the same sex), gambling, fighting and dancing. Mackenzie does a great job of being the invisible playmate to the festivities. Because of the way it is shot, the feeling is that he is right there every step of the way. The result is one of a reality show, but far better for what passes for reality on today's television screens.

My only complaint is that it is all merely a series of still photos strung together. The photos are all outstandingly composed and lit so the moodiness of the entire production is definitely a work of art. Yet somehow, I wanted to know more. Perhaps if he could, Mr. Mackenzie would smile knowingly at my reaction because he would know that he has accomplished what he set out to do even if I didn't fully appreciate it. He has certainly made me think a great deal about "The Exiles". That is far more than I can say about most things I see.