The Teahouse Of The August Moon

Teahouse

The Teahouse Of The August Moon (DVD) Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford
The funny clash between okinawan and american cultures during the recovery of Okinawa after WWII. My favorite Brando role. October 2, 2008

Teahouse of the August Moon

Cute humor but a little slow paced for me. Glenn Ford did a good job. Brando's character was somewhat annoying. Maybe that was their intention. Eddie Albert did a fine job. September 29, 2008

A fun movie

The Teahouse Of The August Moon (DVD) Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford Glenn Ford and Marlon Brando at their best, in a fun movie with an underlining of early, post war prejudise against the Japanese. The picture quality is great with very good original sound. The only negative comment I have is, this release is in Letter Box format. Even with my Wide Screen TV there is a lot of top and bottom black, unused space. August 22, 2008

Embarrassing in so many ways

If you can laugh at Marlon Brando playing a kind of Japanese Uncle Tom, wearing a silly grin and speaking in broken English as he ingratiates himself to his American military masters, this movie is for you. Personally I found it alternatingly absurd, offensive, and soporific.

Supposedly much of it was filmed in Japan, yet many scenes look like a cheap sound stage. The script, written by a gay playwright, struggles to figure out how to develop and resolve an unconsummated love affair between a soldier and a geisha, and ultimately abandons this problem fecklessly as if it was never worth serious consideration in the first place. The two young male leads, on the other hand, go through such a bonding ritual, you almost expect them to start kissing (an impression heightened by one of them wearing a bath robe throughout much of the picture).

No doubt this movie, and the Pulitzer-winning play that it was based on, were well intentioned as a parable against American oppression of primitive cultures, yet the script is incessantly condescending to the "simple folk" of Okinawa and is ultimately as simple-minded as the military machine that it mocks.

The dramatic structure is virtually nonexistent. Even a low-grade TV sitcom would make better sense. It is utterly episodic, with characters who change arbitrarily to satisfy the predetermined outcome of the plot.

Direction is heavy-handed, with much mugging and pausing for laughs. The extreme wide-screen format is totally unsuited to the action. The only high point for me was an unbroken sequence showing a formal geisha dance with fidelity and respect for the cultural source.

Broadway has a long history of taking "controversial" themes and trivializing them in a comedic format which defuses the subject matter and enables audiences to go home feeling good about themselves and the world. And Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s had a long history of picking up such vapid nonsense and trivializing it further for the presumably dumber audiences beyond the theater-going public of New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. Happily this particular form of exploitation barely exists anymore, and Teahouse of the August Moon is now merely an embarrassing relic.

Two stars, rather than one, because of the dance sequence, which is worth viewing. August 19, 2008

Teahouse of the Auguest Moon

I took my mother & sister to see this movie back when it first came out in the late 50's....seeing it again brought back some good memories since mom passed away in 2000, and my sister passed away 2 yrs ago, these memories were most welcome.Thank you. July 9, 2008

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