The Arrangement (1969)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Elia Kazan (novel)
Elia Kazan (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The girl knew about the wife. The wife knew about the girl. It was all part of the arrangement.

Plot:

Eddie is a very rich man who has everything he wants; money, family, success. But a car crash is all...

Plot Keywords:

Car Accident | Female Nudity | Advertising | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Eddie Anderson
Faye Dunaway	...	Gwen
Deborah Kerr	...	Florence Anderson
Richard Boone	...	Sam
Hume Cronyn	...	Arthur
Michael Higgins	...	Michael
Carol Eve Rossen	...	Gloria (as Carol Rossen)
William Hansen	...	Dr. Weeks
Harold Gould	...	Dr. Leibman
Michael Murphy	...	Father Draddy
John Randolph Jones	...	Charles
Anne Hegira	...	Thomna
Charles Drake	...	Finnegan
E.J. André	...	Uncle Joe
Philip Bourneuf	...	Judge Morris

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Company:

Athena Productions

Trivia:

Richard Boone, who plays the father of Kirk Douglas' character in the film, was actually six months younger than Douglas in real life.

Quotes:

Gwen: OK, yes, I know, I'm nothing, I never was, but you! You could have been...
Eddie Anderson: What? What?!
Gwen: ...What you could have been. ...What happened to you, Eddie? Must kill you to think what you might have been.

Movie Connections:

Features America, America (1963)

It's about him against himself

When I watched 'the Arrangement' for the first time after it was highly recommended to me by an acquaintance of mine, I told myself: 'Something's definitely wrong either to me or to the rest of the world', cos before, I had never seen the movie, so horribly unappreciated.

'Arrangement' is a saga about a man's struggle against himself, about his division into two personalities, as one revolts against another, rejecting the lifestyle and rules to which he has followed throughout his entire nearly 40 year long life. but after the old lifestyle is turned down, our hero, with his deep astonishment finds out that following the new one is not as easy as he thought, every time he gets close to 'that' pure happiness, the shadow of his past comes out and spoils everything. So, man realizes that it's impossible to delete the past from mind and soul entirely and that he will never be able to get rid of that another, 'old' mr. Anderson. It's impossible for black to turn into white, but still if somehow miraculously it happens, there will always be the tiny black spots covering the white. and there, he begins to somehow find ways to come to an arrangement with himself, an arrangement with dark, horrible past in order to find the light, happy future. And, finally as a result he escapes from himself into himself (?).

But, besides all this, there is something other about 'Arrangement' what makes it great. After all, it's a masterfully made film, stunning both visually and dramatically, the film's characters are so distinctly depicted by Elia Kazan, that they stay in your mind for a very long time. It's a film with traditional cinematic structure shot in an unconventional and unusual, I'd say nearly experimental style and this makes it a truly unique film, it's like a story which is prose and poetry at the same time. But what I mostly like in 'Arrangement' is that it has no symbolism, it's amazingly frank film, perhaps the most frank film ever.

To me, 'Arrangement' is a masterpiece, it's a splendid diamond which was accidentally recognized as an ordinary stone and thrown away. More than that, 'Arrangement' is one of the greatest, most marvelous and most amazing films I have ever seen. I think there are very few films in the Cinema as sad and simultaneously beautiful as 'Arrangement', but still, there are.