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You'd think a movie with a nickname like "Lust in the Dust" would have something going for it, but Duel In The Sun is quite possibly one of the most wretched movies I've ever seen. Just about every character is vile, reprehensible, or just plain wince-inducing. It's like a two and a half-hour pistol-whipping at the groin of taste.
Okay, so it starts off with Pearl Chavez, a Mestiza woman. Her Anglo father catches his Indian wife cheating on him, and shoots them both in front of Pearl. This is notable for the next scene, where daddy confesses to the murder in the douchiest way imaginable.
"I feel no mitigating circumstances, they deserved to die. As I deserve to die. For I long since killed a person much superior to either of them. Myself. I killed that person the day I gave my family's name to the woman who became my wife."
Geez, how could she ever cheat on a sweetheart like that?
Pearl, of course, fawns over him as if he's about to be executed for inventing Care Bears instead of shooting two people in cold blood. So Pearl goes to stay with Daddy Deadliest's old sweetheart and second cousin (They're the same person. Eww!). There, she meets two brothers, fancy-pants Jesse who is supposed to be a nice guy, but comes down with a bad case of the Forties, seeming more self-righteous and condescending than civilized. I'd say he's a "don't you worry your pretty little head about that, little lady" type, but then, he actually says that, so...
But it's his brother, Lewt, who somehow manages to rack up 90% of the movie's reprehensiblility quotient. He introduces himself to Pearl by going into her room at the middle of the night, shoving his tongue down her throat, then when she rebuffs him (i.e. claws and beats at him) he says "Must be the white half of you." Then he starts to get really vile.
Oh, did I mention it's a romance?
So that goes on, with Lewt treating Pearl like shit and her falling in love with him. It's arguable whether this is meant to be some sort of fucked-up romance or a brutal subversion of fucked-up romances... after Lewt and Pearl consummate their relationship, there's a long sequence of Lewt breaking in a wild horse that could only be more subtle if it had "GET IT?" subtitled on the bottom of the screen. Of course, then the finale features them both shooting each other dead and crawling to each other for one final embrace before they expire... by which I mean Lewt sits on his ass yelling as Pearl scrambles over some nasty-looking rocks to get to him. So in the end, I guess the best answer would be "who cares?"
And just to add another layer of creepy wretchedness to the whole thing, the Hayes Code changed the rape scenes (!) to love scenes (!!!), somehow using quantum theory to make the movie more of a creeper. If you thought the scene where Jesse walks in on a post-coital Lewt and (crying) Pearl and then uses a ladder to climb up on his high horse and mansplain his grudge to the poor fallen woman was disturbing before...
But hey, at least there's some comic relief. They even got Walter Huston to play a wacky preacher. What are some of his side-splitting one-liners?
"Pearl, you're curved in the flesh of temptation. Resistance is going to be a darn sight harder for you than females protected by the shape of sows."
Oh good God. But hey, what about the black maid? I'm sure she won't be some kind of cringe-inducing stereotype.
Pearl Chavez: Oh Vashti, why are you so slow?
Vashti: I don't rightly know, Miss Pearl, except I always have so much to remember.
GOOD GOD.
Pretty much every character but Pearl is some form of hateful loser, and even Pearl is such a sadsack wimp that you can't really sympathize with her. Instead of caring who she ends up with, you just want the Doctor to pick her up in his TARDIS and teach her some self-respect. Even being Not!Rose for a season would be better than being stuck in this movie.
I almost wish you guys would watch this, just so you could see what I'm talking about, the way the movie continues to degenerate while still assaulting us with the idea that we're supposed to sympathize with these dopes. But no, no one should have to suffer through Duel In The Sun alone. So let's hope Rifftrax does a take on it. They're professionals, and if Mike and the gang could handle Manos: The Hands of Fate, I'm pretty sure they could deal with this.
Pretty sure.
Okay, so it starts off with Pearl Chavez, a Mestiza woman. Her Anglo father catches his Indian wife cheating on him, and shoots them both in front of Pearl. This is notable for the next scene, where daddy confesses to the murder in the douchiest way imaginable.
"I feel no mitigating circumstances, they deserved to die. As I deserve to die. For I long since killed a person much superior to either of them. Myself. I killed that person the day I gave my family's name to the woman who became my wife."
Geez, how could she ever cheat on a sweetheart like that?
Pearl, of course, fawns over him as if he's about to be executed for inventing Care Bears instead of shooting two people in cold blood. So Pearl goes to stay with Daddy Deadliest's old sweetheart and second cousin (They're the same person. Eww!). There, she meets two brothers, fancy-pants Jesse who is supposed to be a nice guy, but comes down with a bad case of the Forties, seeming more self-righteous and condescending than civilized. I'd say he's a "don't you worry your pretty little head about that, little lady" type, but then, he actually says that, so...
But it's his brother, Lewt, who somehow manages to rack up 90% of the movie's reprehensiblility quotient. He introduces himself to Pearl by going into her room at the middle of the night, shoving his tongue down her throat, then when she rebuffs him (i.e. claws and beats at him) he says "Must be the white half of you." Then he starts to get really vile.
Oh, did I mention it's a romance?
So that goes on, with Lewt treating Pearl like shit and her falling in love with him. It's arguable whether this is meant to be some sort of fucked-up romance or a brutal subversion of fucked-up romances... after Lewt and Pearl consummate their relationship, there's a long sequence of Lewt breaking in a wild horse that could only be more subtle if it had "GET IT?" subtitled on the bottom of the screen. Of course, then the finale features them both shooting each other dead and crawling to each other for one final embrace before they expire... by which I mean Lewt sits on his ass yelling as Pearl scrambles over some nasty-looking rocks to get to him. So in the end, I guess the best answer would be "who cares?"
And just to add another layer of creepy wretchedness to the whole thing, the Hayes Code changed the rape scenes (!) to love scenes (!!!), somehow using quantum theory to make the movie more of a creeper. If you thought the scene where Jesse walks in on a post-coital Lewt and (crying) Pearl and then uses a ladder to climb up on his high horse and mansplain his grudge to the poor fallen woman was disturbing before...
But hey, at least there's some comic relief. They even got Walter Huston to play a wacky preacher. What are some of his side-splitting one-liners?
"Pearl, you're curved in the flesh of temptation. Resistance is going to be a darn sight harder for you than females protected by the shape of sows."
Oh good God. But hey, what about the black maid? I'm sure she won't be some kind of cringe-inducing stereotype.
Pearl Chavez: Oh Vashti, why are you so slow?
Vashti: I don't rightly know, Miss Pearl, except I always have so much to remember.
GOOD GOD.
Pretty much every character but Pearl is some form of hateful loser, and even Pearl is such a sadsack wimp that you can't really sympathize with her. Instead of caring who she ends up with, you just want the Doctor to pick her up in his TARDIS and teach her some self-respect. Even being Not!Rose for a season would be better than being stuck in this movie.
I almost wish you guys would watch this, just so you could see what I'm talking about, the way the movie continues to degenerate while still assaulting us with the idea that we're supposed to sympathize with these dopes. But no, no one should have to suffer through Duel In The Sun alone. So let's hope Rifftrax does a take on it. They're professionals, and if Mike and the gang could handle Manos: The Hands of Fate, I'm pretty sure they could deal with this.
Pretty sure.
