“Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight, that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best.” - Bill Russell
Since last week's tradition that is Thanksgiving, I can't get an obscure 1973 t.v. movie out of my head. Anyone else old enough to remember the dark & deeply disturbing made-for-tv adaptation of David Rabe's play 'Sticks & Bones'? It's about a blind (but one who sees that “It’s only fraud that keeps us sane.”) and bitter Vietnam Vet returning home to his family, their responses to him and the subsequent unraveling of their fragile family veneer. The production was very unusual & provocative television fare for the time. Satirizing sitcom 'Ozzie & Harriet', it's a searing commentary on the Vietnam War and t.v. propaganda, on war in general, buried racism, and American 'family values'. And the ending, jfc, no wonder nobody wanted to sponsor it; I regretted watching it (and haven't thought of it in years). But given the current political climate, on-going wars, racism, and specifically, the plight of today's veterans, 'Sticks & Bones' remains a very relevant narrative imo. (Interesting film trivia--it was directed by Robert Downey, Sr.) "This surrealist homecoming for a blinded Vietnam veteran is an extremely rare film. The original film only aired once in August of 1973 and was never seen from again ... until December of 2012 when [REDACTED] in [REDACTED] held a special members only screening featuring director Robert Downey Sr. Supposedly the film was swiped from the CBS vaults, still including the original reel time codes. If you were lucky enough to catch it in 1973 or were at the 2012 screening you saw a bizarre, unsettling, and largely interesting adaptation of David Rabe's Tony-award winning play. The controversy from the first (and only public) airing sprung up due to the harsh and cynical nature of the play's parody of American home life toward the end of the the Vietnam War. Think Ozzie and Harriet meet Kafka. CBS ran the show without commercials and a large number of its affiliates refused to carry it. For anyone seriously interested in Vietnam America and with the time, energy, and resources to track it down it is worth the effort, if only to see something truly avant-garde coming from mainstream TV land."https://letterboxd.com/film/sticks-and-bones/
Trailer for the 2014 Off-Broadway revival of Rabe's play, starring Holly Hunter & Bill Pullman as the parents:
by FourthBase » Thu Oct 09, 2008 2:54 pm 
