The Raging Moon (1971)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A different way of telling a story

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I saw this movie on the recommendation of an older friend. They had watched it when it came out way back. I just watched it.I think it is a beautiful love story. A simple kind of love but a real love. Not fraught with obligation or pretense like other relationships of the time. When two souls are drawn to each other undeniably. I think IMDb should consider adjusting their requirement of ten lines. A lot can be said with few words.The beginning was a bit hard to watch but once the two main characters meet up, it was lovely to watch.The main actors both did a good job.I recommend watching this movie. It's unique.

Known as LONG AGO TOMORROW, THE RAGING MOON is possibly the most intriguing movie in the career of young Malcolm MacDowell. It came after his breakthrough film IF, and before the films most people recall he starred in: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and O LUCKY MAN. MacDowell is nowadays established as a well known character actor who specializes in powerful or power-mad villains for the most part. On an episode of LAW AND ORDER a few years back he was a twisted version of Rupert Murdoch. He is frequently rogue CIA agents, or tycoons with secret agendas. And he is wonderful in all these roles. But except for O LUCKY MAN it is hard to find MacDowell playing a sympathetic and simple type. His salesman in O LUCKY MAN is naive and believes what line is ever given to him by his employers. But in THE RAGING MOON he was a strong, athletic young man whose future is wrecked by a physical accident that cripples him. And he has to try to fight his anger at this unfair situation and regain his self respect.McDowell plays Bruce Prichard, a soccer/rugby player who is injured in a game - and left wheelchair bound at the age of 21. Given that sport was the key to his life, the props have been knocked out from underneath him in more than one way. He slowly develops into a determined man who is going to overcome his permanent handicap. What really turns him into a determined type is his meeting with another patient (also similarly crippled) named Jill Matthews (Nanette Newman). The two young people find they are encouraging each other's recovery. And sooner or later they begin falling in love.It is the oddest role in MacDowell's career, and he handles very well. Basically, except for the first ten minutes of the film, he is stuck in bed or in his wheelchair. He is bitter, but fixed on getting on with his new life. Andd finally he is enchanted by his new friend, confidante, and lover Newman. In one of the most touching scenes of the film, the two lovers figure out how to embrace in their wheelchairs by turning them on parallel lines to each other, and lowering the right arms of the wheelchairs so they can surround their arms about each other's waists and chests. The viewer can see the difficulties the young people will face, but they see they will do what they can to overcome their joint disability. So that the audience ends up cheering for them.MacDowell is not usually so sympathetic. His anti-hero in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is tormented by the state in a new process to make him an acceptable (if defenseless) citizen, and then tormented by one of his old victims. But he was a stylish but still vicious punk in most of that film. He may symbolize youthful suspicions against an antiquated establishment in IF, but he is a violent rebel in the end. And due to his crass stupidity in O LUCKY MAN he actually commits fraud. But in THE RAGING MOON he struck a different note - and it was one he rarely hit again in any films or television shows he made. The ultimate fate of his hero and heroine, and the cruelty of the world and nature they face, enhance the film. At the conclusion he is stunned by events. So is his audience. And nobody can explain why what happened had to be final for his dreams.

The key to understand this great movie is the poem by Dylan Thomas: "in my craft or sullen art" "In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart.Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art." Two works of art:the film and the poemtadzio filippini

Ultimately this is just another love story with all the typical plot elements, but the physical disabilities of the protagonists add an interesting twist, and the material is handled well by the cast, the director, and in fact, all concerned. The pacing of the film is deliberately slow, as are some of the pans, which effectively sets up the mood of the film. Blues are used well in the film also, and there is some careful framing to show the characters against different trappings. The music serves to establish the mood as well, and the film is hardly ever maudlin - the sentimental factor is balanced well, except in the final twenty minutes. Lastly, Nannette Newman and Malcolm McDowell both deserve to be praised for their acting here. Each of them has their own share of solid drama to handle, and they both do a good job, but McDowell in particular, who perfectly captures the resentment and depression that his character feels. Overall, it is just another romantic drama, but it is still a film well done.