Dead, The (DVD)

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Before watching the John Huston´s "The Dead" (1987), the same day I watched a Bollywood movie, Ashwin Kumar´s "Road to Ladakh." After watching "The Dead," I realized both movies had striking similarities. First, both movies have short run times, "The Dead" running about sixty-five minutes (excluding the credits) and "Road to Ladakh" running about forty-five minutes. Second, the only thing you remember about these movies is their ending. Of course, that does not say much about either of the movies.

"The Dead" was John Huston´s last directorial effort, and the studio released it posthumously. Huston created a ton of classics in his first decade of directing with "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1946), and "The African Queen" (1951) that have managed to rank high in the list of critics around the world. Although he continued to make good films, his later filmmaking efforts did not match the earlier efforts in his first fifteen years as a director and writer. His daughter, Anglica Huston, stars in "The Dead," a movie that arrived after the critical success of "Prizzi´s Honor" (1985), in which she had won an Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress.

Based on the short story by Huston´s favorite writer, James Joyce, "The Dead" is set in a Dublin home in 1906 during a holiday feast hosted by two spinster sisters. Among the other invited guests are the sisters´ nephew, Gabriel (Donal McCann), and his wife, Gretta (Angelica Huston). The first two-thirds of the movie take place at a dinner table where characters engage in small talk that seemingly has little bearing on the overall story arc.

The genre of films showing dinner etiquette and polite conversation is something that Luis Bunuel masterfully tackled in "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) and "An Exterminating Angel" (1962). In both movies, guests find themselves unable to leave after the dinner. However, both of those movies were successful in the art-house circuit primarily because of their social commentary on various facets of human nature and society. "The Dead," however, meanders along with little direction. Although it does touch upon a couple of things, nothing much adds up. I don´t know if John Huston was trying to convey something through the dinner table conversation or trying to stay true to Joyce´s short story.

In general, the dinner table characters talk about society, patriotism, and inconsequential personal chitchat. Gabriel´s allegiance to his nation is questioned by one of the guests. It seems at that point as though the movie might be taking a political turn. However, their conversation does not connect with the final climax that is shared by Gretta and Gabriel. Indeed, the only thing tying the middle act to the final act is an old song sung by one of the invitees.