Boom!

Ms Sissy Gosforth is a nasty drug addicted middle-aged terminally ill alcoholic who lives on a secluded private Mediterranean island. She spends the summer of her dying days dictating her memoirs. She verbally attacks her servants with random acts of diva-like rage, fuelled by inappropriate insults. Her reclusive misanthropic existence ends when a handsome poet named Chris Flanders arrives on her island. Get ready for BOOOOOOOOM!


Joseph Losey directed Boom! in 1968. Tennessee Williams wrote the script (based on his own play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore). John Barry conducted the music. It stars Elizabeth Taylor (Sissy Gosforth), Richard Burton (Chris Flanders) and Noel Coward (The Witch of Capri). It's one of those unusual and extravagant films entrenched with pretentious, pointless and over-the-top performances (of the 'it's so bad its good variety'). It's filled with sequence upon sequence of inane brilliance. Taylor, Burton and Coward who have to deal with an assortment of stale and frivolous dialogue are sooooo over-the-top and self-conscious it becomes a glorious experience to see them parading around the screen. Burton has a commanding god-like voice, which oozes with charismatic sophistication. Coward's performance is just strange. It's hard not to fall in love with Taylor as she utters her narcissistic dialogue with such malevolent and snake-like conviction. The best line of dialogue comes when Taylor and Burton are arguing; she offers these sweet yet fatalistic words, 'What's human or in-human is not for human decision.' It's the context of the quote that brings out the BadTaste™ vibe.


It's hard not to laugh at the pomposity of it all.  The second example of larger-than-life dialogue comes when Noel Coward is about to leave the island, he makes a snide remark about Burton's Japanese outfit and his fashion accessory: a Samurai sword. Taylor looks at him with scornful eyes and declares, 'The chopping of a head is a sure cure for a tongue that's too big for a mouth'. It's pure pitiable purple prose at its most perfect. Nevertheless, whatever the critics said about Burton and Taylor's delivery of this dialogue, they have sufficient screen chemistry to keep the film ticking over. One cannot help but feel that Tennessee Williams is a talent best suited to the world of theatre and not filmmaking. The director, Joseph Losey brings something special to the look of the film; you have to see it to believe it, no matter how hard you try, words cannot describe the look of this film. There is a camp yet sublime pretentious beauty to the cinematography.


The most amazing thing about the film by far is the music by John Barry. He is the composer who has garnered success throughout his career, working on eleven James Bond films that span over 25-years, from Dr. No in 1962 to The Living Daylights in 1987. However, this does not reflect his vocation in all its glory. It would be hard to forget his unusual work on such classics as Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Black Hole (1979) and who could forget the delightful job he did on Howard the Duck (1986). His score for Boom! has to be one of the strangest, abstract and fantastical in the history of cinema. The opening theme, as Burton arrives on Taylor's island, is indicative of a circus. As gunfire roars, dogs bark and Burton crawls out of the sea like a monster, the melody hits our senses like a great wave. You expect to hear this sort of music while shuffling around a Salvador Dali or René Magritte exhibition.


The final word has to go to John Waters who wrote an interesting article on Boom! in his book, Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters:-

 'Boom!  is beyond bad, the other side of camp - a film so genuinely beautiful and awful that there is only one word to describe it : perfect'.


Special Features: The only special feature you need for this release by Second Sight is the film itself. Fans of trashy cinema have been waiting eons for the DVD release of Boom!. Saying this, it would have been nice if there were a commentary track by John Waters. With it being one of his favourite films, you expect he could say a lot about the unintentional trash aesthetic of the film. A bow of respect needs to go out to Second Sight for releasing this tour de force of BadTaste™.


Verdict: After watching Boom! for the first time it's easy to understand why it has developed a cult following since its release in the late 60s. It has to be one of the strangest cinematic delights in the history of cinema. When ripped of all its multi-coloured pretentious art-house garments, Boom! is a confused and somewhat naive mainstream drama. It falls into the glorified, 'it's so bad its good' category of BadTaste™ cinema. Boom! is a classic hotchpotch of misplaced art and trashy brilliance.