Disc Reviews

Violent Saturday Review

• 30th Apr 2014

Eureka! have released Violent Saturday as their latest release. Directed by Richard Fleischer, he is not normally a name that comes to mind as a master filmmaker. He has been seen as a jobbing director who made lots of different kinds of pictures such as nourish thrillers for RKO at the beginning of his career through to historical films (The Vikings, 1958), Disney films and cult sci-fi classics (Soylent Green, 1973). The problems with eclectic director’s like this is that it is hard to categorize them which causes all sorts of problems for auterists. Don Siegel is another director who comes to mind who distinctly did not like this form of categorization. The Violent Saturday package of extras and the usual fantastic and comprehensive booklet does not try to re-evaluate the film but instead the director. The DVD/Blu-ray released could have easily been Soylent Green or The Boston Strangler (1968).

Violent Saturday is an interesting choice and is most certainly a film worthy of re-looking at instead of side-lining as a typical genre thriller – it is much more than that. While it might not be The Big Heat (1953), it has some interesting characteristics; the commentary compared it to the violence of a Sam Fuller film invading into a Vincente Minnelli film (he of many small town American melodramas). In that sense it’s a mix of melodrama with a nourish crime movie. The story revolves around the small Californian mining town of Bradenville with the interconnected lives of the inhabitants, focussing primarily on those who will become tied up with the later bank robbery that takes place. The arrival of three strangers arriving who try to blend in with the locale but spend their time casing the town bank and its employees will bring bloodshed and violence to the town sending will eventually put perspective on all their petty problems. The characters the film focus on include the alcoholic owner of the local mill and his wife who is having an affair with a man from the golf club, a meek Peeping Tom bank clerk, a librarian who has herself turned to dishonesty to solve her debt problems, as well as Victor Mature as a war veteran who had a desk job much to the disappointment of his stepson who’s biological father was killed Iwo Jima. Will the robbery itself be a chance for the stepfather to redeem himself in his son’s eyes? The three strangers who come into town are also marginally more complex than normal: the rather sleazy gang leader, a mild mannered but cold hearted older man and the usual heavy in Lee Marvin who clearly is a recovering drug addict with his constant fiddling of a nasal spray; the criminals also share more day to day dialogue than is usual for this kind of film. Add an Amish family held up by the gang into the mix and here you have an interesting set of characters.

As the title implies this is a more violent than usually expected film, highlighted more so by its melodrama back story. The actual robbery itself doesn’t happen until 2/3 of the way into the film when the film totally shifts gear, making this explosion of violence all the more disturbing to the rhythm of the film. The Blu-ray edition brings out all those wonderful Technicolor hues in grand Cinemascope making Lee Marvin look all the more menacing. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, it is the focus on Fleischer that is highlighted by Eureka! with the essay in the accompanying booklet along with press screenshots and posters and the two main extras, William Friedkin talking about his impressions and passion about the film as well as a great documentary narrated by French intellectual and film historian, Nicolas Saada. Well worth a re-visit and a first time for many others.

Chris Hick

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Chris Hick