A Whiter Shade of Pale

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2004)

Anyone of colour in this movie is relegated to `walk-on, walk-off' or `drop dead and stay that way' roles. Even `Gone With the Wind' managed to convey less on-screen apartheid. This is a movie about white people and white peoples' preoccupations in a war being fought essentially over the rights of black people. So where are they? We understand in a phrase or two that Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) owns slaves; she uses their unseen presence as an excuse to talk with Inman (Jude Law). Then, much later, in a toss-off sentence, we understand that she freed them. How very liberal. In the beginning, all the men are happy that they got their war. But what are they fighting for? Later, Inman walk away from `a cause he no longer believes in', but what was that cause? I believe that the purpose of this vagueness is to keep audience sympathy with the main characters who are fighting this war to preserve states rights and to OWN SLAVES. A braver film maker would have conveyed these paradoxes, not been afraid of them.
The life of non-slave owning rural whites (and let us remember that they were the majority of the Southern population) is portrayed realistically as one of semi-literacy and hard-labour, punctuated by fervent and musical religious expression. The scenery is beautiful, Nicole is beautiful, Jude is beautiful (even when he's ugly). Their relationship, founded on a few glances and even fewer words, lasts an Odyssey of time and travel. Frankly, I believed it. The privileged upbringing of Ada, alluded to by her dress and deportment and later on by her incompetence at anything practical, would have predisposed her to this very passionate, frustrating attachment. The type of fiction she would have read (we hear her reading `Wuthering Heights' aloud to Ruby Thewes (Renée Zellweger) is all about intense, thwarted passion. But Ms. Kidman is a superstar and has arrived at that place where all I can see is Nicole Kidman and not the character she wishes to portray. Ms.Zellweger finally convinces me that she can act and steals every scene in which she appears. Jude Law is soon to arrive at that superstar category where he can only be `Jude Law', but thank God, he isn't there yet. He's wonderful.
The opening battle sequence is justifiably famous and will be the new benchmark for period war filming.
Let me mention the music in this movie which is a true highlight. Powerful, evocative and, for anyone who isn't familiar with Sacred Harp (Fasola), a revelation.
The book( and I urge everyone to read it) was a wonderful read BUT the movie is not the book. Judge the movie as a separate, independent work. I have no patience with people who cry `But the book was so different'. Of course the book is different; it's a different medium. If anyone is at all interested in the period, I would suggest they read `The Civil War Diaries of Mary Chestnut', a work of non-fiction written by someone who was there and at the very top of the social heap. Her take on the slavery question is very interesting.