Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageWritten on the Wind (1956)
Director: Douglas Sirk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
How many movies evoke the period in which they were made and yet still look both fresh and modern as well? This seems like one of the quintessential films of the '50s: a high-powered Texas oil-family drama, detailing the mis-matches between the spoiled and variously bent children of the family and the relatively 'normal' outsiders. Sirk plays it as a conspicuously fierce critique of a particular sector of American society, the disintegrating middle class, but one in which all the sympathy goes to the 'lost' children rather than to the straights. The acting is dynamite, the melodrama is compulsive, the photography, lighting, and design share a bold disregard for realism. It's not an old movie; it's a film for the future.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Douglas Sirk
Producer: Albert Zugsmith
Cast: Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Rock Hudson, Robert Keith, Grant Williams full cast
Duration: 99 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Bond a day: No.5 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'
Join Time Out as we revisit the 21 official James Bond movies to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
Steve McQueen on 'Hunger'
Dave Calhoun meets artist Steve McQueen’s whose debut feature film, ‘Hunger’, is the story of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands
Producer Stephen Woolley on ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’
Stephen Woolley, recalls the near catastrophes he had to contend with in bringing Toby Young’s memoir to the screen
Paul Newman: 1925 – 2008
Paul Newman died at his Connecticut home this weekend, at the age of 83. We look back at one of the great movie careers of the twentieth century
Richard Attenborough: interview
‘Entirely Up to You, Darling’ is the long-awaited autobiography from Sir Richard Attenborough. David Jenkins meets him in his Richmond home
Hard hacks to follow
To celebrate the release of 'How To Lose Friends and Alienate People', Time Out pick some of the toughest journalistic gigs in cinema
What do you think?
Post your review now