Overrated and overhyped

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Beautiful, moving film.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Somewhere I read that all Bunuel's films, from Un Chien Andalou in 1930, were surrealistic. I couldn't directly find anything surreal in this one, however. In fact, it seemed to me highly realistic, but at the same time strangely unnatural. Perhaps it was hyperrealistic, in which case, since it was made in 1960, it would be at least 5 decades ahead of its time.It is very well-acted by all the players, perhaps especially the young girl, Key Meersman, and Bernie Hamilton, the innocent man on the run; and also remarkably well-directed. I would say it was directed with confidence, and a supremely sure hand. Somehow it makes you conscious of its direction. You can sense the director's hand throughout. On second thoughts, perhaps you shouldn't be able to do that.It is a film difficult to get to grips with, to get a grasp of. What is it about ? Racism ? The exploitation of innocence ? Religion ? The narrative seems to have been stretched. There is a lot of movement: people move through the scenes a great deal; boats arrive and depart. The characters are careless with loaded shotguns, even though they don't hit each other. What is the time period depicted ? The 1930s ? It might as well be, but one reviewer has suggested it belongs in the television age.Bunuel was interested in insects, and therefore he has the young girl stamp on a spider. This may reflect what has been called the dispassionate nature of Bunuel's treatment of his characters. Although Bunuel said that he made this film with love, he also said a Harlem newspaper wrote he should be hung upside down from a lamppost for having made it.It's disturbing and unnerving. It stimulates thought. I was going to give it 8 stars, but now I think I'll give it nine. It may be surreal, after all. Miller's character oddly improves in the course of the film, after his interaction with the girl and the fugitive.

On the surface a simple little tale involving a middle aged white man, a young girl whose grandfather has just died and a black fugitive, later to be joined by a gung-ho racist and a priest. But simple, this is not. Beautifully photographed and leisurely told this is a tale of man's inhumanity to man, the corruption of innocence and the very nature of man. The young girl is central to the film and she gives a fantastic performance as she catches the eyes of all the men, yet retains her dignity throughout. It is not really true to consider her totally innocent from the start for she happily takes money for the 'stolen' items and intends to keep the cash for herself. What is more we assume she intends to buy dresses and make-up to make herself more beautiful. Tough though it may seem for her to become aware of such matters so young, we just have to accept it. She is reluctant for her relationship with Miller to become sexual, but not as unhappy as the priest and she has been promised more dresses and significantly a silver pistol, as she gleefully informs him after she survives his baptism. The racial affairs are extremely well portrayed, especially considering this is only 1960. The black character is a completely believable one and likable and seen to be liked by the young girl and eventually even by Miller. The priest (Is this the most sympathetic portrayal of a priest in a Bunuel film?) even offers to stand as witness at any trial. There will be no trial, the fugitive points out to him, showing he has just a little more grasp upon reality. One of the very many highlights in this, for me, was the young girl skipping happily towards the boat with the priest. She is wearing the high heels Miller has given her but she trips gayly along as if playing hopscotch and still, 'just a child'.

This film is available for sale on Half.com "A black New Orleans jazz musician flees to a remote coastal island in order to escape the wrath of a lynch mob. While hiding out on the island, he befriends a young white girl, much to the distrust of the island's sheriff, who is secretly involved with the girl. Once a search party from the mainland arrives to escort the musician back, the delicate veneer of trust which existed between the musician and the sheriff is shattered, and the sheriff must confront the truths about his crime, and more importantly, his own depraved nature." (from the posting of half.com) This film is in black and white.

Some of the above comments have mentioned pedophilia in connection with this film. An important distinction has to be made here to prevent corruption of language. What the Miller character (Zachary Scott) does is 'take advantage of an innocent' from his position of strength as an older man, but that is not the same thing as pedophilia at all. The girl in question is 13 years old and sexually mature (an age at which it was FULLY LEGAL to get married in some southern states, Jerry Lee Lewis anyone?). This would make sexual relations between her and a younger man closer to her age fully legal and between her and the older man STATUTORY RAPE only if the laws in that state said so. It is WRONG, in the sense that the girl is in a weak position and gets taken advantage of. But that could happen at any age and age interval per se can never be the only measure of who took advantage of who (look at all the women married to men 20 to 30 years their senior), although it is a pretty safe bet. In fact towards the end of the movie, one of the likely resolutions suggested by Miller to the priest as a way to redeem himself is "what would happen if I married her?" And when Miller lets Bernie Hamilton leave the island he is doing this to redeem himself in his own eyes and possibly marry the 13 year old girl later!That said, the main character is not the black fugitive (Bernie Hamilton) but the young girl (Kay Meersman, a Liv Tyler lookalike in an amazing performance). She has lived on a remote island for most of her life and knows very little about the racist realities of the American South (or anything else.) She is confronted with it head on, when a black clarinet-player fugitive named Travers, unjustly accused of raping a white woman escapes to her island to hide from a lynch mob. She becomes friendly with him and likes him as a person and can't understand the irrational animosity Miller (her temporary 'protector' whom she hates and who sleeps with her against her will)has for this man.All this creates a whole bunch of complex tensions that Bunuel deals with in the most masterful way possible. You really believe in all these characters, they are multi-dimensional and historically and psychologically valid. Bunuel has been called cynical and cruel. That may be true but nevertheless quite a few of his films remain consummate works of art because they live up to Pascal's idea of showing man's 'greatness within wretchedness.' This is one of them. 'The Young One' is a MUST SEE film, if there ever was one. It makes all other films about racism and the corruption of innocence look like amateur hour.