A breathlessly cynical and relentlessly bleak movie about how crappy mankind is. Have fun.
But seriously, "Town without Pity" is pretty well made, but I don't know what it has to say exactly. Kirk Douglas is good as a defense attorney whose job it is to acquit four U.S. soldiers accused of raping a German girl, and he's partially successful -- they're not acquitted, but they're not sentenced to death, which is what the prosecution was going for. The movie is about how ugly the justice process is, especially for the wronged; in order to prove they mens' innocence, Douglas is forced to do what he can to undermine the girl's character and brand her a, shall we say, lady of loose morals? Mostly, the movie suffers from being in a bad mood, and it kind of put me in a bad mood watching it.
"Town without Pity" was directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, so maybe it was meant to be a defensive gut punch to America from a Germany still feeling contrite about WWII? Sort of a "ok, so what Germany did was horrible, but see how horrible Americans can be too?" I don't know. All I know is that the movie isn't badly made, but I didn't really enjoy it.
The title song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 1961, and I hope you like it, because it plays nearly non-stop during the entire duration of the movie.
Grade: B+
But seriously, "Town without Pity" is pretty well made, but I don't know what it has to say exactly. Kirk Douglas is good as a defense attorney whose job it is to acquit four U.S. soldiers accused of raping a German girl, and he's partially successful -- they're not acquitted, but they're not sentenced to death, which is what the prosecution was going for. The movie is about how ugly the justice process is, especially for the wronged; in order to prove they mens' innocence, Douglas is forced to do what he can to undermine the girl's character and brand her a, shall we say, lady of loose morals? Mostly, the movie suffers from being in a bad mood, and it kind of put me in a bad mood watching it.
"Town without Pity" was directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, so maybe it was meant to be a defensive gut punch to America from a Germany still feeling contrite about WWII? Sort of a "ok, so what Germany did was horrible, but see how horrible Americans can be too?" I don't know. All I know is that the movie isn't badly made, but I didn't really enjoy it.
The title song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 1961, and I hope you like it, because it plays nearly non-stop during the entire duration of the movie.
Grade: B+