Hellcome to America
Going into America America, I knew pretty much two things about Elia Kazan: He ratted out his friends to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, and then his 1954 movie On The Waterfront (which I like) was seen as an oblique rationalization of what he did.
Country: United States.
Running time: 174 minutes.
Director: Elia Kazan.
Writer: Elia Kazan.
Based on: the book America, America by Elia Kazan.
Cast includes: Stathis Giallelis.
Links: Wikipedia, IMDB
Keywords: immigrants.
Set in era: past.
Is it well known? less.
Had I seen this before? never before.
(unranked), Cahiers du Cinéma 100 all time
(unranked), NYT top 10 (1963)
Academy Awards:
Original screenplay (nominated)
Best picture (nominated)
Director (nominated)
Golden Globes:
Best drama (nominated)
Actor drama (nominated)
Director (winner)
Supporting actor (nominated)
Supporting actor (nominated)
Supporting actress (nominated)
So, skipping ahead to 1963, what a surprise it was to hear this from the wise old father in this movie:
“From time to time I’ve had to do things that — well, we live by the mercy of the Turk. But, Stavros, I’ve always kept my honor safe inside me. Safe. Inside me. And you see, we’re still living. After a time, you don’t feel the shame.”
Right, of course. From time to time we’ve all had to do things that —
That what? Who cares. No shame! Moving right along . . .
America America is Kazan’s reconstruction of his grandfather’s hardships as an ethnic Greek in Turkey, and his struggles to come to the big city of Constantinople to make some money and bring his family to safety and prosperity. He is cheated, robbed of the small family fortune, beaten, and arrives in the city with nothing. But he soon has a dream. Seeing a rugged blond captain aboard an ocean liner docked at the port, he reflexively shouts, “America! America!”
Shouting “America” at nordic men is, alas, not sufficient to get you passage across the ocean, so our boy Stavros adapts to the ways of robbing and cheating. He embarks on a fake wedding plan with the sweet daughter of a rug merchant just to get the money for his fare. Stavros has learned despicability in his short lifetime, but it’s fine. As his father would say, after a time, you don’t feel the shame.
I could probably do more reading and learn more about what Kazan meant by this movie and how he made it. But, eh. I would just say, I could just feel that this would be a classic “Martin Scorsese essential work of cinema history” type of movie, and apparently I was right. It just has that vibe — Italian neorealist but with Greeks — and, like much in the Scorsese canon, when you think about it for more than a minute, it doesn’t hold up.
Stavros is, I guess, the hero of the story. Kazan’s voiceover at the beginning of the movie tells us how it’s going to end and what to think about how it gets there: “My name is Elia Kazan - a Greek by blood, a Turk by birth, and an American because of a journey my grandfather made.” It ends with the young future patriarch kissing the ground in America, and then getting right to work to heroically save his family.
But he’s more of an antihero. On his journey he learns that it’s a dog-cheat-dog world, and he’ll just have to get better at cheating people. But it all works out in the end. Accused of having no honor, he echoes his father’s words and says, “My honor is safe inside me.” He saves his family, and someday his family makes a movie about him.
It would be interesting to make a movie about finding out that your real-life grandpa is a piece of shit. If Kazan had taken it that direction, that would have been impressive. But that wouldn’t have taught the most important lesson, “Don’t feel the shame.”
Notes
My favorite line in the movie comes as the shipload of immigrants first sees land and a ruckus rises up from the decks.
A wealthy passenger in first class, rudely awakened from his nap, asks, “What’s the disturbance?”
“Long Island,” his attendant answers.
Never change, Long Island.
Country: United States.
Running time: 174 minutes.
Director: Elia Kazan.
Writer: Elia Kazan.
Based on: the book America, America by Elia Kazan.
Cast includes: Stathis Giallelis.
Links: Wikipedia, IMDB
Keywords: immigrants.
Set in era: past.
Is it well known? less.
Had I seen this before? never before.
(unranked), Cahiers du Cinéma 100 all time
(unranked), NYT top 10 (1963)
Academy Awards:
Original screenplay (nominated)
Best picture (nominated)
Director (nominated)
Golden Globes:
Best drama (nominated)
Actor drama (nominated)
Director (winner)
Supporting actor (nominated)
Supporting actor (nominated)
Supporting actress (nominated)