Scarecrow
Jerry Schatzberg / US, 1973 / 112 min.
An underappreciated early New Hollywood masterpiece featuring the recently deceased Gene Hackman in one of his favourite roles. Scarecrow won the 1973 Grand Jury Prize in Cannes, but would only later find favour among the general public.
Gene Hackman and Al Pacino at their very best as two hitchhiking drifters who spontaneously decide to start a carwash. An improbable friendship develops during their meandering, tragi-comic road trip. Filmmaker and photographer Jerry Schatzberg gave the charismatic actors carte blanche to improvise and experiment. This freewheeling, raw film develops into a drama about shattered illusions and the failure of the American dream, yet again underlining how much courage and ambition American cinema had in the 1970s.
Perhaps the road movie was the genre that characterised the 1970s with Scarecrow as one of the best examples. After winning the Grand Jury Prize (ex aequo) in Cannes, the film was long underrated, yet is now viewed as a masterpiece of New Hollywood cinema.
In wonderfully wide CinemaScope with camerawork by the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond.
Gene Hackman on Scarecrow: “This is the only film I ever made in absolute continuity... this helped me take all sorts of risks and truly assemble my character”.
In memory of the iconic actor Gene Hackman who died in February.
Screening of the digital restoration
This is part of
Details
Director
Jerry Schatzberg
Production year
1973
Country
US
Original title
Scarecrow
Length
112 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
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