The Misfits [Blu-ray]

This is one of my favorite movies. The acting is incredible. Who says Marilyn Monroe couldn’t act? I believe that this was the last movie that she and Clark Gable did. He died before it was released. They both play over the hill down and outers. Not their normal parts. Maybe that’s why I like it

I love this movie! But I also admire it - the five principal actors who reveal the truth of their characters (and I feel the joy of acting), John Huston's ever imaginative but always disciplined directing, the cinematographer's mastery of the mood-poetry of black and white, and Arthur Miller's trenchant, consistently character-driven screenplay. The dialogue is so candid, revealing, fascinating, varied and surprising I find repeated viewings have not dulled it. And all five characters live in my imagination as American types. Even the horse in the final devastating and cathartic scene gives a bravura performance. As an exploration of modern love - its promise of fidelity and fulfillment, its accommodations to the exigencies of changing circumstances, its ambiguities and resilience - the movie is one of the richest in my experience. To see Clark Gable in the last act of his career and Montgomery Cliff at the first act of his is a profoundly experience. And Marilyn Monroe, no, this Norma Jean acting with spontaneity, charm and passion, the way her truest fans wanted her career to be, instead of all that destructive Hollywood hype that killed her. This performance is life-affirming, as is the film which still encompasses the whole of life - sorrows, compromises, pledges, hopes, dreams, the whole shebang. I love this movie.

The first half seemed like a bunch of unfocused people trying to make sense out of their lives, which itself could be a good story but in this case was just boring. Then the action, and interpersonal dynamics, gave life to the second half. But even so, there is little that is special here. Supposedly this is Arthur Miller's rendering of Marilyn Monroe as she was slowly descending (or fast descending) into utter dissipation. Mainly it just seemed like a young woman with some vaguely inconsistent values with which she wrestled ... vaguely. It was worth seeing just so I would never again have to wonder what makes it such an important movie. Nor ever have to wonder if maybe it really is important.

A classic movie ! Easy to watch more than once. Ironically and tragically I believe it was the last movie that Monroe and Gable did before their deaths. Thelma Ritter is true to her acting form in this movie also. What great actors!

Clark Gable and Marlyn Monroe's last movie...Set in Nevada with scenes that are still visible today. Montgomery Cliff, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter...wow. Filmed in Dayton Nv, Pyramid Lake and Reno...must have.

One of the most important American movies ever made. Three legends, all dead within a few years. Every performance an absolute sensation. Monroe could have made so many great films and this was just the start. A blistering comment on an America that was rapidly disappearing right before our eyes. I tried to get friends into this when I had it on VHS. They all fell asleep.

John Huston's filming of Arthur Miller's THE MISFITS was dismissed at the time -- even by its doomed stars (well, "doomed" except for Eli Wallach, who is with us still at the grand old age of 137) but this poignant parable, set in the Nevada foothills, has aged as well as almost any film Marilyn ever did. And, in many ways, reflects most vividly what made her so distinct.Younger people sometimes ask about the nature of her appeal, what was so superlative about her?, was she overrated?, was she just another "it girl" for her day?, etc...In addition to being genuinely very pretty (most Hollywood "beauties" really are not) with an absolutely perfect feminine body (despite the occasional weight bump) Marilyn really did perfect the tormented, seemingly helpless blonde sex kitten persona better than anyone else, before or since, blending both the "nice girl" and "bad girl" archetypes of the mid-twentieth century.Also, she's one of the only ones who left behind a filmography of genuinely good pictures.But the era is also key to her appeal; they're inseparable... The idealized, picture perfect self-image America had during the sleepily optimistic new consumerism of the post-war, primary color-saturated 1950's when her career occurred, and the haunted end-of-an-world mood at the peak of the Cold War during the JFK years in the early-'60s when she died, mysteriously, in that cozy little bungalow in Brentwood.You either "get" that gauzy, wistful atmosphere or you don't. But it was immediately apparent even then, and it has everything to do with why Marilyn wasn't just one of the screen's greatest sex symbols (arguably, THE greatest) but an ideal icon and metaphor for an immensely promising yet fascinatingly tragic period of American history that still intrigues and confounds. She just "fits" it perfectly.

The Misfits is now most famous for its troubled production and the fact it is the last completed film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. This poignancy only adds to a film that has a very melancholy tone. It is a mesmerising tale, shot in gritty, documentary-style black and white and culminating in tense action scenes. However, it is not as outstanding as it could have been. The main reason seems to be Arthur Miller's script. He wrote The Misfits for then-wife Monroe. She later argued the character of Rosalyn was his attempt to interpret her. In fact, the whole film centres on the male character's attempts to understand Rosalyn. But no-one succeeds. Not even, it feels, Monroe. She delivers a raw performance, at times it feels like her best, but ultimately she seems as bewildered by Rosalyn as everyone else. Gable has some brilliant moments in the film. He was always great at playing drunk and lending conviction to the corniest of lines. But the romance between him and Monroe lacks the sparkling chemistry he had with so many co-stars. Gable was best when acting with women (and men) who had a toughness and comfort in their own skin. The likes of Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy. Monroe is too vulnerable and sensitive for the usual Gable treatment. He becomes more of a father-figure to her. And perhaps this is what Miller believed Monroe needed, but it seems somehow unsatisfactory.

A real gem of a film, hardly ever seen on tv. Gable & Clift at the end of their careers, Marilyn Monroe, well what can you say, she always seemed so vulnerable but she just oozed sex appeal like no other before or since. Supporting cast of Eli Wallach & Thelma Ritter, these five together made this film work, just like a swiss watch, perfect,

A classic Monroe film, one of my personal favourites and a fine testament to Marilyn's acting skills, which too often got overlooked.

There's something quite magical about this film that goes beyond the beautiful black and white and the story itself. It's impossible to watch this film without thinking about the three stars - Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. All of them at the end of their lives and each of them so very vulnerable in their own individual way. Monroe feels as fragile and innocently sweet as only she could, Gable appears almost a relic of an era long past and Clift seems almost like a walking open wound. It's a story about an era being over, about feeling lost and without direction, and maybe there were no better actors at the time to convey that emotion so clearly. The end result is painfully beautiful and absolutely worth watching many times over.

If I had to pick not my favorite but greatest movie of all time then its this one. Its a very dark honest and realistic movie that is pretty uncomfortable to watch but totally unforgetable