DVD Review: SHADOWS

★★★★★

“Shadows” is one of those films I should have seen by now. I grew up with watching American independent films and “Shadows” is often considered the birth of it. I had seen one previous John Cassavetes’ film “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” which is a very fine piece of neo-noir. “Shadows” is about a group of young beatniks living in New York City in the late 50s and some of them are black or mixed race. It deals with Hugh a black jazz musician who has to deal with racial prejudice of the times. It has a very affective scene when he is doing a gig in a club, which he previously didn’t want to do, but does it for the money and when he starts singin’, the club owner decides to send on some dancers to askew his performance because of his race. The main story in the film is about his younger sister Lelia who enters into a relationship with an Italian man who runs away when he realizes she is mixed race. It also deals with her younger brother Benny and his beatnik buddies’ escapades. It’s also told in a very free jazzy improved way and most of the dialogue was improved. Cassavetes just lets the story tell itself without any statement on their lifestyle; he just chooses to show it how it is.

The film is really the only proper “Beat film” made actually around the time. There has been plenty of “Beat” films over the years but mostly are biopics of the famous characters of that time, “Beat”, “Howl” or “Heart Beat”. None since “Shadows” have just been about all the kids who were into the free jazz of the time and the literature but never really became writers themselves which make it just a fascinating document of that time.

It’s almost shot like a fly on the wall Cinéma vérité style film. It was shot on location in NYC. The performances are extremely naturalistic and extremely affective. It’s also no coincidence that “The 400 Blows” came out around the same time. It’s almost a French New Wave film but was actually shot before “The 400 Blows” but it has a feel of the French New Wave and like that wave, it was the birth of a new kind of film language. It’s got a very brisk running time of 82 minutes and it’s certainly worth your time.

Ian Schultz

Director: John Cassavetes
Cast: Hugh Hird, Ben Carruthers & Lelia Goldoni
DVD/BR Release: April 23rd 2012
Original Release: November 11th 1959
Buy Shadows (The John Cassavetes Collection) (DVD & Blu-ray) [1959]