Scarecrow

U–jazdowski / Cinema / Repertoire / {OD–JAZD} / Scarecrow

09/05/2022

film screening and discussion

Od–jazd Film Club meeting

Scarecrow
- directed by Jerry Schatzberg, USA 1973, 112'

How did Al Pacino’s genius come to life? In collaboration with the genius of Gene Hackman! They created one of the most tragicomic and touching tandems in the history of road cinema, and perhaps cinema in general.
- Somewhere on the side of an American highway, former criminal Max (Hackman) meets Lion (Pacino), an ex-Marine. Max is on his way to Pittsburgh, planning to open a car wash, while Lion wants to return to his wife, whom he abandoned when she was pregnant. They start traveling together and in the course of their journey – despite their very different characters – a friendship emerges. Achieving their dreams, however, turns out to be more difficult than they could have expected.
Scarecrow, awarded at Cannes with Palme d’Or, is not only a touching deconstruction of the illusory nature of the American Dream, but also an ironic commentary on the great rebellion of the 1960s. Max and Lion, in outstanding performances by Hackman and Pacino, are no longer freedom-seeking rebels, but castaways whose greatest dream is to reach a very ordinary destination and end their wandering. The skilful portrayal of the relationship emerging between the protagonists makes Scarecrow one of the flagship examples of the so-called buddy film subgenre. The confrontation of two philosophies of life: rationalism and madness, after almost 50 years since its premiere still fascinates and encourages new interpretations.
- What distinguishes Scarecrow from the classic road movie?
Is the film a realisation of the ideas of American cinema of contestation, or rather a negation of them?
- What is a buddy film?
We will try to answer these and many other questions together with our club’s expert Dominika Laszczyk-Hołyńska. We invite you to the screening and discussion, during which you will be able to ask questions and share your ideas on how to interpret the film. What do you think Scarecrow is about? We want to hear your opinion!
MA Dominika Laszczyk-Hołyńska
- Film critic, graduate of film and new media studies at the Institute of Audiovisual Arts of the Jagiellonian University and Ciências da Comunicação at the Universidade Autónoma in Lisbon, participant of film festivals (she dreams of hitchhiking to the next Cannes Festival). She has cooperated with the Żeglarz and Kijów cinemas and publishes film reviews and essays on the film association portal Filmeter. Member of the student jury at the Kraków Film Festival and the Critics' Box at the Kamera Akcja Festival. She specialises in Australian cinema. She knows Tom Ford's films by heart and combines her love for the cinema with a passion for travel, constantly returning to the lanes of the film highways of American dissent.