Putney Swope.

Review #1793: Putney Swope.

Cast: 

Arnold Johnson (Putney Swope; dubbed by Robert Downey Sr), Stan Gottlieb (Nathan), Allen Garfield (Elias, Jr), Archie Russell (Joker), Ramon Gordon (Bissinger), Bert Lawrence (Hawker), Joe Madden (Mr. Syllables), David Kirk (Elias, Sr), Don George (Mr. Cards), Buddy Butler (Putney's Bodyguard), Vincent Hamill (Man in White Suit), Tom Odachi (Wing Soney), Ching Yeh (Wing Soney, Jr.), Joe Fields (Pittburgh Willie), Norman Schreiber (Messenger), Robert Staats (Mr. War Toys), Alan Abel (Mr. Lucky) Directed by Robert Downey Sr.

Review: 

"To see how people forty years later...I think the film doesn't hold up, you know, to me, it's like, okay. But I'm pleased that people, especially young people tell me their parents made them watch it as little kids...It's the only film of mine that ever really got distribution."

You have to understand that some movies don't just pop into popularity without warning. Sometimes they just happen to hit the sweet-spot of its culture and time, regardless if they were made in the underground or in the "mainstream". It should only figure that the year that brought shocking films like The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider would bring forth a scattershot look upon the advertising industry with eyes that perhaps strike relevancy fifty years since its release. While it is the most well-known feature directed by Robert Downey Sr, he managed to cultivate a fascinating career of filmmaking that persevered far more than just being a one-hit wonder. The New York City native served in the United States Army, serving most of his time in the stockade. It was during this time where he was inspired to take up writing (as suggested by his boss in order to pass the time). He also spent time in dabbling in boxing and playwrighting. In the 1960s, he started making independent films that aligned with the Absurdist movement (of course, this was the time when the counterculture of anti-establishment was bearing fruit), which he described as having fun more than a regular job. From 1961 to 2005, he directed (and sometimes wrote) a selection of features and documentaries that had various perspectives without as much distribution as this film. Pound (1970), for example, deals with animals waiting to be euthanized...played by human actors (it also featured Downey's five-year old son Robert Jr in his first role, and he would appear in a handful of Downey Sr's features); Downey Sr would prove an influence to directors such as Jim Jarmusch and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Before he made this film, he had been hired to do commercials (experimental commercials that would try to provoke ad agencies to do stuff like that, which he did for a year), and it was a moment where he asked his boss why he was being paid more than a black colleague for the same work that inspired the film (this is present in the film, of course). The thing about the movie is this: it received attention because it caught the eye of a theater chain owner & distributor (Don Rugoff) that liked it enough to help get it seen in theaters despite the fact he didn't understand it; a notable promotional campaign (complete with a poster giving the finger) also helped; the film was made for $250,000, complete with an assortment of actors recruited from magazines. Johnson apparently could not remember his lines, so Downey Sr did the dubbing for his character, which certainly brings a curious perspective when it comes to the fact that the character of Swope is both the most interesting person in the film despite the fact that it is basically played by two people. The other castmates (for which there is plenty of to show) are decent, in the sense that one is watching an offshoot movie that could either be for a sketch troupe or an arthouse imitator. The movie has a scattershot sense of pace, moving through its 84 minute run-time with episodic pace (such as pointed commercials shot in color) that goes through a satire of the corporate structure alongside racial politics. As a whole, it mostly works as an amusing feature, particularly with its opening sequence involving a board room with (mostly white) corporate sleazeballs; if one wanted to see folks at their most craven, one could just slip into a marketing discussion, I bet. Of course, most of the commercials featured are pretty amusing, such as one involving a serenade with poetic raunchy words. The movie basically points the finger of biting amusement at everyone, where the chance to gain power and fiddle with the status quo results in something familiar. As a whole, the movie is fairly effective in biting satire in the counterculture with its collection of misfit actors and an engaging director in Downey Sr that managed to become an offbeat winner for what it did in its time that still connects now.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: El Topo.