Odd Man Out
Directed by Carol Reed
At Film Forum Sept. 4-17
Runtime: 115 min.%u2028

Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles

The Tiger’s Tail (Sony DVD)
Directed by John Boorman

ODD MAN OUT’S re-issue this week at Film Forum coincides with the new DVD release of John Boorman’s latest The Tiger’s Tail and the recent, brief run of Melvin Van Peebles’ Confessions of an Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha. All three are Old Masters’ movies—the 1947 Odd Man Out representing classical period director Carol Reed, Boorman sustaining British modernism and Van Peebles, still the avantgarde bard of African-American bawdiness.

Together, these movies help remind our artistically deprived Che, Benjamin Button and There Will Be Blood generation of filmgoers exactly what hugely ambitious filmmaking can be.These films are not of epic length or budget, but they’re enormously inventive and expressive: Each offering is more than mere plot synopsis can suggest.

Odd Man Out’s chase plot is based on a manhunt for an Irish Republican Army radical, John McQueen (James Mason) who is wounded when his gang raids a Belfast mill’s treasury.This is not director Carol Reed’s best film (ranking behind The Third Man,The Stars Look Down, Outcast of the Islands, Night Train to Munich), but it impressively displays Reed’s command of image and atmosphere. The simple search for John McQueen becomes an elaborate, poetic vision of the Irish troubles, surveying social divisions that obsess McQueen, then visualizing his physical and spiritual agony while stumbling toward redemption or escape.

Reed’s creative arsenal (deep-focus photography, sharp edits and echoing sound) exaggerates the story’s significance yet is never false to its essence—which is where Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and P.T. Anderson all go wrong, showing off trendy technique rather than confirming the emotional and historical details of their stories. Reed’s flamboyance matched his intellectual range. McQueen’s conflict with his feckless crew parallels the fear and resentment of a society under siege by both government and underground. His flight attracts the devotion of a young girl (Kathleen Ryan), re-inspires a priest (W.G. Fay) and connects with the disaffections of a street bum (F.J. McCormick) and an eccentric painter (Robert Newton). Exploring this chase plot for its political, romantic and religious significance confirms Reed’s interest in addressing the audience’s common interests and uniting it aesthetically.

Old Master filmmaking respects that quintessentially Pop tradition. Even a small film could be large in scope when it speaks to our culture’s verities.That’s where Odd Man Out anticipates the influence of Reed’s later Graham Greene collaborations and makes Odd Man Out compelling.The art and religious references have a point beyond showing off.The tension behind McQueen’s escape purposely recalls the existential landmarks Le Jour se leve and M, while the aesthetics of his bewilderment recall Ford’s The Informer.

Even 60 years later, a viewer can feel the justification of Reed’s poetic montages depicting squalid social conditions and moral confusion.The girl/priest/bum discussion that turns McQueen into a metaphorical bird remains rather precious, yet Reed uses it to elevate the story toward the ecclesiastic. In mastering the most modern 20th-century art, Reed’s eventually—fittingly—evokes Raoul Walsh’s memorable gangster/saint climax in The Roaring Twenties.

Reed’s modernism enlivened 1940s British cinema the way Boorman’s would during the latter half of the century. A greater aesthete/technician than Soderbergh, Fincher and Anderson combined, Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance,The Heretic) also has the Old Masters’ advantage of a common cultural mythology. His awareness of capitalism, communism and Jungian symbolism vivifies The Tiger’s Tail. It’s a rueful consideration of a middle-aged man’s social unease: Contractor Liam O’Leary (Brendon Gleeson) feels haunted by his conscience—a psychological doppleganger. Grasping his Celtic heritage by its tail, Liam destabilizes his family life and future.This combo horror-film/psychological farce revisits Boorman’s favorite themes (home, heritage, hermeneutics). It’s his most visually captivating filmmaking since Where the Heart Is and Excalibur. It’s also the best new English-language film I’ve seen all year.

Liam’s personal retrospective parallels Van Peebles’ film; a true indie, made outside the system that finances Boorman’s extravagant means, it is equally deep. Confessions is a comic autobiography of Van Peebles’ maverick career, but it has blues depth and authority unmatched by his misguided Blaxploitation devotees from the Hughes Brothers to Tarantino. Gleeson’s Brando-rich performance is certainly remarkable, but seeing Van Peebles play himself as a young man making lifelong regrets is the most astonishing self-revelation since Cocteau’s Testament of Orpheus.Yes, Boorman and Cocteau are Van Peebles’ peers. If you don’t know that, you better ask somebody.The fact that movies this notable go straight to DVD—or oblivion—damages cinema’s Old Masters legacy.