It’s February once more and time to look at some romantic films. For those that having been keeping up with how I do my look into romance films, typically I pick two to reflect a common theme. Previously I watched tragic romantic films and romance during disaster. This year I’m watching the movies that have the sad sack getting a girl. With this film, it won the coveted Best Picture Award in 1955.
1. Marty
Before I get started, I wanted to point out that this wasn’t the first time I was exposed to actor Ernest Borgnine. It just blew my mind that when I was little watching SpongeBob that in the episodes involving the heroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy that Borgnine voiced Mermaid Man. Little did I know that I would watch this movie and hearing him speak, I could catch the instances of Mermaid Man when he was speaking. Perhaps it was providence that made the whole thing complete.
Anyways, we follow Marty as he works as a meat butcher. It’s established that he feels that he hasn’t accomplished anything despite having a good education. Constantly, he’s been bombarded from customers, friends and even his own mom that he ought to get married. You get to feel for the guy since he’s an upstanding person, but it’s the baggage that he receives from other people and himself that puts him in a corner.
One scene really nailed that, and it’s when Marty calls up a girl that he and his friend met. While we don’t hear what the girl is saying over the phone, just the camera slowly zooms in on Marty to really sell that the conversation isn’t going well. Just the performance of Borgnine sell that as hard as he tries, nothing goes his way when trying to find someone. It's that level of hidden frustration and sadness that makes it work. We want him to feel happy, and most importantly to find someone.
While it’s not all doom and gloom as the first couple of minutes is led to be believed. The remaining minutes we see that Marty finds someone and from there is when we see the sweetest moments. It’s such a refreshing thing where we actually see some positivity with the main character by just expressing himself and having someone to really get him.
That’s where we see Carla near the halfway point in the film. Both her and Marty are the same people where they haven’t had any shot of finding love. As I mentioned before, the scenes involving them are the sweetest aspect since we see just how they haven’t gotten a chance and that they are great for each other. It’s one thing where Carla supports Marty’s endeavors and Marty being reciprocal for her own struggles.
The movie as a whole works when there’s no big-name actor in the film. While yes, everyone here is talented but just having someone who’s naturally beautiful doesn’t exactly work in a movie like this. Marty in context works due to having the guy be a little scrappy that struggles and ultimately comes and fights his insecurities. It’s the believability in the performance that sells the picture.
2. Relationships
If there’s one aspect of the film that I notice is the overall use of relationships. While the film’s main theme is Marty finding someone, everyone around him are either bachelors, widows or married relatives. Like it’s one thing where we see a contrast between Marty finally being a relationship and his own cousin just not handling being in a marriage. The big picture I believe that the movie is going for is finding happiness.
With Marty’s friends in the local bar, they keep hooking up with girls to the point where they’re not looking for anything serious beyond gratification. I find it nuance in a sense where it’s established that Marty isn’t in a good place mentally and just finding someone helps him be at ease with his life. In the context of the story, any sense of happiness is sort of run afoul when his own mom wants him to stop seeing his own lover for fear of being alone by herself. It’s the sort of thing where people in the movie want to be continuously young without being committed to an actual relationship. Which is where they sort of take out on Marty throughout the film.
3. Overall
Marty is a classic romantic film of the 50s. A classic feel good story with a strong underdog element.
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