Клансман: Оңтүстік трагедиясы

1974 film by Terence Young

The Klansman (also known as Burning Cross) is a 1974 American drama film based on the 1967 book of the same name by William Bradford Huie. It was directed by Terence Young and starred Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, Cameron Mitchell, Lola Falana, Luciana Paluzzi, David Huddleston, Linda Evans and O. J. Simpson in his film debut.

In a small town in the South, Sheriff Track Bascomb breaks up a crowd of hillbilly White men molesting a Black woman. Owing his election to the racist power structure that runs the community, Bascomb arrests no one. His decision is also based on the fact that he loves the town he grew up in and wants to keep the peace. In addition, his best friend since school days is Breck Stencill: a rich landowner who sympathizes with the Civil Rights movement. Despite their political differences, however, the bond shared by Bascomb and Stencill remains strong. Later, the town's relative tranquility is threatened when a young White woman, Nancy Poteet, is sexually assaulted and beaten by a Black man. Sheriff Bascomb tries to find the guilty party while Ku Klux Klan members – including Bascomb's deputy, Butt Cutt Cates – take matters into their own hands. They board a truck and drive to a rural bar frequented by Black people. They chase after two men outside, one of whom is Garth. Garth escapes but his companion is captured, castrated, and shot gunned by the Klan. Witnessing his friend's torture and death, Garth swears vengeance and embarks on a one man terror campaign against the Klan and their supporters. Loretta Sykes, a Black woman who grew up in the town, returns home. She is approached by members of the Civil Rights movement. Together, they try to get Breck Stancill involved. One evening, Loretta is abducted by Deputy Cates and his Klan allies. In response to the assault on Nancy Poteet, it is decided that one of them should rape Loretta. So violent is the act that she almost bleeds to death. As a result, what Sheriff Bascomb tried to prevent from the very beginning now boils to the surface, and an all out race war threatens to rip his town apart.

The novel was published in 1967. Film rights were purchased by the Robert Leder Company for $100,000. Originally TV director Don Stewart was meant to direct and Chuck Connors was going to star as the sheriff. Film rights were bought by a black film producer, William D. Alexander, who formed a company, The Movie People, to make the film said he put the film together. The first draft of the script was done by Sam Fuller. It was rewritten by Millard Kaufman. Schiffrin says Kaufman "distorted" much of what Fuller wrote. "I wanted Fuller", he said. Alexander obtained a $1 million guarantee from Paramount. The rest was raised from various banks and tax shelters in the US and Europe. Filming took place in Oroville, California, just outside Sacramento. Burton and wife Elizabeth Taylor stayed in a rented house in town. "It's enchanting here", Burton told the press during filming. "It reminds me of my old valley in Wales." Burton later said that he could not remember making the film. Simpson said "There would be times when he couldn’t move." Marvin was also a heavy drinker at this time, to the point where Burton claimed in a 1977 interview that when the two men ran into each other at a party years later neither could remember working together. At the time of the film, Burton was suffering from depression and sciatica, both debilitating conditions. His use of alcohol during the film was to kill the pain from those conditions. Later, Burton credited Marvin with saving his life. "I wouldn't have survived without Marvin," he told the actor and writer Michael Munn. Lee Marvin saw that Burton "was drinking not for pleasure of it but because he had a great need, and I doubt he knew what that was himself. Maybe it was for Elizabeth. But whatever it was, he was in pain, and he drank to kill that pain. I used to do it too." Burton gave a young girl in town, Kim Dinucci, a $450 diamond ring and arranged for her to get a small walk on part in the film as Lee Marvin's daughter. This made national news. During Burton's death scene, he was lying on the set when the director said that the make up artist had prepared him well for the scene, only for the artist to remark that he had not done anything. Terence Young brought a doctor in to examine him when it was determined that he was dying. He was rushed to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica with a temperature of 104 degrees and both kidneys on the point of collapse. He was suffering from influenza and tracheo bronchitis. He would remain in the hospital for six weeks. Burton went to the hospital after filming and was treated for bronchitis. While he was staying there it was announced Burton and Taylor would be getting divorced. Walter Schiffrin later said Burton should not have been paid "at all considering the performance he gave. He was drinking three quarts a day. He didn't know what town he was in let alone what film". Schiffrin says that, in contrast, Lee Marvin "was highly helpful throughout the shooting". While the film was being edited at Sam Goldwyn Studios, the studios caught fire. At the last minute, one of the investors failed to come up with the money so Marvin and Burton were not paid their full salary and Paramount put a lien on the film. Arthur D. Murphy of Variety declared it "a perfect example of screen trash that almost invites derision There's not a shred of quality, dignity, relevance or impact in this yahoo oriented bunk". Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called it "a tawdry rip off of a half dozen films: In the Heat of the Night, The Liberation of L. B. Jones, tick tick tick what's amazing about this drivel is that Lee Marvin and Richard Burton lent their talents to it. They must have been offered a very sweet deal, because The Klansman is pure ". Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times slammed the film as "one of those sleazy, exploitative, incompetent pieces of motion picture waste which makes you suddenly unsure that film reviewing is a fit occupation for a grown man If any frame of the film carried a convincing sense of the real tensions, fears, hatreds and tempers of the rural American South you might be able to forgive some of the rest. But the acting is so amateurish in the lesser roles as to be comical and the dialogue in the major roles is unplayable." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "the sort of film that raises only academic questions. Could the original source, a novel by William Bradford Huie, have been as terrible as the movie? Probably not, but it must have given the screenwriters, Millard Kaufman and Sam Fuller, a few ugly situations to kick around, like a castration and a pair of interracial rapes and a shootout with the Ku Klux Klan, and they've proceeded to kick them around like champion Hollywood hacks, leaning hard on the exploitation elements and reducing characterization and social analysis, if there were any, to a bare minimum". Alexander, Young and Burton were meant to make a film with Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling called Jackpot but it was never made.