Word: viewer
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...short on a gay lib statement by letting his movie become self-indulgent. Those endless photo albums, those lengthy shots of everyday existence, like driving in a car or sitting on the porch, those over-used cinemaverite sequences which Joslin admits he hates, are not meaty enough for the viewer, who feels he is being led toward some real expose of how the gay couple in the film really interacts, an expose which he never gets...
...this point, the viewer tolerates a certain modicum of fatuousness. But about half-way through the encounter scenes of the two lovers-to-be, one begins to have serious doubts about the movie. Caroline, the girl Elgin falls in love with, is played by Susan Dey--former member of the Partridge Family--who does a decent job, considering she must portray one of those vague people who consistently has trouble figuring out what it is all about...
Thankfully, the movie improves appreciably from here on in. The relationship passes through its utopian phase, and after discovering some Freudian flaws deep in Caroline's psyche, the cynical viewer gets the sadistic pleasure of watching a helplessly idealistic relationship march inexorably to its demise. At this point, those in the audience who have never been through this painful process will weep, and those who have will smile smugly, nod their heads and derive a pleasant satisfaction from knowing that they were not the only ones...
This graphic display of savagery is one of several similar scenes that have appalled viewers of Equus who prefer the tamer stage version of the work. An equally testing juncture shows a kneeling Strang in his room, a makeshift harness with reins attached to his head, beating his right thigh with a stick that passes for a riding crop, as his appalled father looks on. Ultimately, the treatment of these segments may certainly seem gratuitous, but Lumet did not aim at merely shocking his viewer. Rather, he tries to underscore the intensity of his protagonist's monomania...
...opening scene of Mr. Klein establishes the unforgettable obscenity of this horror. What is incredible is that the remainder of the film, which won prizes in France, sleazily exploits the viewer's dread and revulsion to keep in motion the stage machinery of a claptrap thriller...