Product: Ash Wednesday [VHS] (1973)
Rating: 3.0
Liz's Exquisite Magnum Opus
While this film may not rival any of Elizabeth Taylor's classic films from the 1950s or '60s, it never tried to be anything other than a showcase for her magnificent beauty, which ironically is the film's main fault. My only complaint with this film is that it is responsible for my life-long infatuation with Elizabeth Taylor. I unequivocally fell in love with La Divinity Liz at a tender age, seeing her not in National Velvet or A Place in the Sun, Cleopatra or even Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Lord help the boy who falls in love with Martha--I pity poor George), but in Ash Wednesday, a film whose title should perhaps be Smashed Wednesday, judging from the film's producer Dominick Dunne's own admission of the drug and alcohol consumption of the film's participants.While the film was not a "megahit" at the box office and was not well-regarded critically (it also earned little praise from feminists), Ash Wednesday is a stunning showcase for Elizabeth Taylor's exquisite, almost surreal beauty. I saw this film for the first time on television in the 70s, several years after its theatrical release, and fell instantly in love with this beautifully wicked screen goddess, ET. Essentially, this film is a a very strong testament to Elizabeth Taylor's enduring beauty, well preserved and documented in this magnum opus pop culture commentary on plastic surgery.