Peter Bogdanovich's Search for Emotional Clarity

PETER BOGDANOVICH: 
SEARCHING FOR EMOTIONAL CLARITY  
By Jerry Saravia

When I think of a world class director like Peter Bogdanovich, usually 1971's "The Last Picture Show" springs immediately to mind. It is quite possibly his most mature, most quintessentially nostalgic film and yet what is best about it is its mature look at nostalgia without being swallowed by it. Set in a western town where relationships are frail and emotions threaten to erupt, it also shows that memories can last but the time and place it happens in may not. When Bogdanovich returned to this world in "Texasville," it felt unnecessary and protracted - that world of the original was gone and everyone had to try to move forward. And yet the film that most resonates with me from Peter Bogdanovich is not "The Last Picture Show" but actually a 1985 sleeper hit called "Mask." It may not be his best film but it is one I have returned to throughout the years since its initial release so, technically, it is my favorite. Not only is it emotionally rich and devastating, it also contains Cher's most superb, most fiery performance and somehow the director managed to coax a richly detailed and humanistic performance out of Eric Stoltz as the intelligent high-schooler with an unfortunate and extremely rare physical condition known as craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, Rocky Dennis.

The film has a sunny, California-centric feel to it, which is at odds with how everyone treats Rocky at first sight. Rocky experiences humanity at its ugliest, unable to get past their own prejudices or initial misgivings at someone's appearance. Whether it is the high school principal, the students or almost anyone else who did not grow up with Rocky, they gawk and they do not comprehend Rocky's disfigured look. Rusty Dennis (Cher), Rocky's biker mother who cannot tolerate these prejudices, is out to protect her son and to nurture him but there is a limit and some of life's hardships are beyond her control (when Rocky is feeling ill, she simply says, "Make yourself well"). Rocky can impress a blind girl who loves horses but he can't get close to those who can see his deformity, unless they work past it (the high school community eventually gets used to Rocky because he has a sense of humor and is intelligent). Rusty, at one point, hires a prostitute for Rocky for one night. She wants him to be happy yet, amazingly, thanks to Cher's nuanced performance as a fiercely honest woman and protective mother, she knows his time will be up soon. 

I don't know if this is Peter Bogdanovich's most personal film but it sure feels like it (he has been quoted that he made the film for his late lover, Dorothy Stratten, who related to the alienation of "The Elephant Man") . Maybe Peter also saw himself as Rocky or as Rusty, the latter as one who did not judge others no matter what they looked like. With all the films Bogdanovich has made (some better than others though we might want to forget his TV movie sequel to "To Sir, With Love" starring the late Sidney Poitier), I always found his best work ("Targets," "The Last Picture Show," "The Cat's Meow," "The Great Buster") always allowed room for nuance, for some form of emotional clarity and degree of sensitivity to his characters, in addition to his documentary subjects such as John Ford and Buster Keaton. (Peter also turned out to be a good actor, especially in the long gestation period for Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind.") But it is finally "Mask" that shows Bogdanovich had a greater sensitivity than we ever imagined as a director - he found his footing in a story everyone could relate to. He had found emotional clarity.