I’ve continued to think about The Darjeeling Limited since reviewing it for the October issue. I’m fascinated by director Wes Anderson’s use of sudden, searching zooms-in on characters’ faces. I know it’s a quote from some movie or movies or style from the 1970s, but I can’t place it (guess I’ll have to wait for the audio commentary track on the disc). Anderson also uses slow motion a lot, another throwback to the ’70s, and nowadays used mostly for commercials and music videos.

There are some known sources for the film, however. Anderson has said in interviews and on panels that Jean Renoir’s The River was a big influence on his film, probably in the pair of deaths that bookend the film’s story. My colleague Kim Morgan has pointed out that ’70s director Hal Ashby is said to be a major inspiration for Anderson, especially Harold and Maude. You can see that influence at the end of Darjeeling, when the mother of the three brothers “frees” them to grow up the way Maude leads the way for Harold.

But I think that there is another key Ashby influence on Darjeeling: The Last Detail. This 1973 tale, from a novel by Darryl Ponicsan, about two sailors escorting another sailor from the naval base to a military prison, is one of the great films from the 1970s. It solidified Jack Nicholson as the key actor of his era. It was deliciously, shockingly, famously foul-mouthed. I think I must have seen it 20 or more times. If you have seen it too, think of the similarities. Both concern a train ride. Both have a trio at the center of the story. Each of the three characters has its analog in Anderson’s film. There are even scenes of spiritual quest (and sexual quest) in both films. But most of all its the tone of rising camaraderie and enlightening adventure. Ashby’s film remains the more “realistic,” but its shadow on Darjeeling is long. On a side note, Ponicsan wrote a sequel to his novel, in which the Randy Quaid character is portrayed in his life after prison. That novel, Last Flag Flying, may end up adapted to the screen by Richard Linklater, another student of ’70s cinema.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Reel Politique - Film columnist DK Holm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.