FX's "FEUD: Bette and Joan" starring JESSICA LANGE and SUSAN SARANDON (March 5th @ 10PM)- Page 8

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 4:38pm

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I still had mixed feelings.  The "Feud" idea was an interesting angle, though I agree with carnzee that the series was so wildly unbalanced, focusing mostly on Crawford, that it was hardly a "feud".  As much as I can't stand Sarandon as a person, it's nearly impossible to deny her talent.  Personally, I just can't get on board with being a Crawford sympathizer which made the final episode eye-rollingly schmaltzy for me, piling on heaps of theoretical sentimentality that not only didn't seem to ring true, but by that point, I frankly didn't care.  All that manufactured pity almost entirely undercut the rest of the series.  Lange acted as hard as she could, but was she more believable as Crawford than Sarandon as Davis?  I didn't think so.  She just happened to be given the pivotal role.  The could have just called it All About Joan.  Hoffman was okay, but I wouldn't call it a "subtle" performance.  It was just intentionally wooden.  She had to sport one expression and deliver every line as straight deadpan.  And she did exactly that.  I don't think there was anything revelatory or even very interesting happening there.  Judy Davis, on the other hand, was perfection and I even thought Catherine Zeta Jones really captured the essence of de Havilland.  But I was a bit confused by the inclusion of Joan Blondell.  She was the only one I don't recall having any interaction with Joan, so her interviews didn't provide much of a reference point other than being "one of the girls" so to speak.  She was hired to star in Strait-Jacket and then turned it down, but I don't remember if that was even mention in the series.  I kept waiting for her relevance to the plot of the series, but it never arrived that I can recall.

[carnzee]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 5:20pm

I think the first five episodes were balanced, but the final three became, to borrow a phrase by Charles Busch, The Joan Crawford Reclamation Project. I don't really have a problem with this, because I wanted a better film/series about Crawford than the woefully misguided Mommie Dearest. I think Feud and Lange did her justice, a deeply flawed human and not some monster. I  didn't think the "pity" was manufactured, the last scenes were basically true things I had read about her, and I see Joan as a genuinely tragic figure. 

I'm pretty sure Joan Blondell was there just to give Kathy Bates a part and she was a hoot. 

I disagree with you Matt about Hoffman. I don't think it's easy to play a deadpan character, and Jackie did a lot with subtle gradations in her voice and facial expressions. 

I suspect the emphasis was shifted to Crawford because Ryan Murphy has a soft spot for underdogs, and Joan had become a punchline after Mommie Dearest, while Bette Davis was held in higher regard since her death. In other words, there wasn't anything to avenge or reevaluate  about Bette like there was for Joan. 

I think Bette, with all her cray, still wasn't as cray as Joan, which made her a less interesting subject. Sarandon conveyed Bette's frustration and work ethic , but failed to convey Bette's bitchy charm, that quality that made her a gay icon. I'm sure that's a tall order, but drag performer Charles Pierce did it. 

Updated On: 4/25/17 at 05:20 PM

[carnzee]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 5:22pm

Bump

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 6:33pm

Oh, I felt the pity for Crawford was piled on by the truckload in the final two episodes.  But I'm not as sympathetic and forgiving as many in my demographic for every tragic female figure.  I grew up with a racist, ignorant, homophobic, manipulative sociopath who happened to be my maternal grandmother living in the bedroom next to mine from when I was 5 until I was 18.  My capacity for forgiving manipulative and cruel women is very slight and I will admit my forgiveness and/or pity is difficult to earn.  This series didn't convince me that the sentimentality and respect displayed towards Crawford was truly well-deserved.  Others may disagree and place all the blame on the men of the Hollywood machine (who were even more deplorable than the women), but there are actions and behaviors that have to be owned and acknowledged and I felt the series somewhat attempted to lighten up the end with a more positive emotion.  I just couldn't buy it.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 7:38pm

Between FEUD, HENRIETTA LACKS, and BIG LITTLE LIES, the awards for Best Leading Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie are going to be intense!

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 7:51pm

When I was a child, Bette Davis was one of my favorite actresses. How did she live to 81 smoking cigarettes for years......Susan Sarandon didn't do it for me...

I think Joan Crawford was a fine actress but her drinking kept her from doing better work as she got older.

Miss Jessica Lange can do no wrong.....Her over the top performance was Great

At times I don't know who she was playing....Joan Crawford or Herself, but I enjoyed every minute of it

 

 

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 7:51pm

I only saw the last three episodes and agree with Matt about being too forgiving to Crawford. However, I'm remembering the "Mommie Dearest" story and believing how wicked she was. Did the series address this early on?

[carnzee]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 8:14pm

Jane2 said: "I only saw the last three episodes and agree with Matt about being too forgiving to Crawford. However, I'm remembering the "Mommie Dearest" story and believing how wicked she was. Did the series address this early on?

 

The series focused in her younger children, the twins Cindy and Cathy, who have always maintained that Joan was a wonderful mother and Christina was lying. I think Feud just wanted to avoid most of the Mommie Dearest stuff, as the focus was on Joan's relationship to Bette, not her kids. Feud never claims Christina was lying or anything, it just focussed on Joan's later years, instead of the forties or fifties which Mommie Dearest covered. 

 

[artscallion]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 8:43pm

I'm reading "My Way of Life, Joan Crawford", the book that Feud shows Joan writing in the last episode. It's both bizarre and an insight into Joan's craziness, combined with Hollywood's craziness.

It's sort of an instructional for living right. Though it illustrates a life that could only exist in Joan's fantasies. She talks about how she fills her day and how you should act. It's a strange combination of her own twisted view of how things should be and the image she wanted the world to have of her. Yet that image is so bizarre and impossible that it all draws you in like a train wreck of perfection.

Highly recommended reading if you're interested in more insight into Joan.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 8:45pm

Thanks Carnzee!

[Mark-Alexis]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 12:06am

Lange was otherworldly and will win the Emmy.

I'm also reading Joan's "My Way of Life".  Perfect description!

[Mark-Alexis]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 12:06am

Lange was otherworldly and will win the Emmy.

I'm also reading Joan's "My Way of Life".  Perfect description!

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 9:19pm

I think that with all of the award shows starting with the Emmys,  we will be so happy to hear the words, "FEUD" over and over again.  This show was so much better than I could have ever imagined.  It was wonderful to see all of these amazing actresses and actors performing at the top of their abilities.  This show will also have a lock on the costume, set design, makeup and other categories.  I hope that Jessica Lange makes a lot of room in her house for all of her awards.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 8:07am

 

Jessica Lange should be given a Nobel Prize for her performance, and Kathy Bates and Judy Davis should get showered with awards. 

How could Sarandon flub even the final "Joan Crawford is dead? GOOD!" moment?

It's not that she nobly refused to do a Bette Davis imitation. It's that she failed to capture the inner fire carnzee alluded to. Such a lost opportunity.

 

[MoveOnGypsy]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 9:25am

Wow, I'll have to rewatch that scene. I thought she nailed it. There was hesitation, emotion and wit all shown in a short period of time.I thought she showed incredible depth.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 10:56am

^I agree.  Sarandon miraculously avoided camp in that scene and wisely played it as if fighting Bette's underlying impulse toward sentimentality.   And not without belated regret.  Any other choice would have disastrously further slanted our already majorly skewed sympathies to Crawford.

Updated On: 4/27/17 at 10:56 AM

[Luscious]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 11:56am

Sarandon's performance and her execution and delivery of the phone scene was pitch perfect. That said, the Emmy (and other awards) is Lange's to lose. They worked so brilliantly in harmony together, I wish there was some way they could tie and share the award.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 11:59am

Add me to the voices of praise for Sarandon in that scene. I thought it was a wonderful choice that backed up the themes of the season and what had been built up over the episode (especially the scene in which Davis attempts to call Crawford but can't bring herself to speak)- it seemed like Davis realized far too late that she had no choice but to continue playing this part.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 12:05pm

On a lighter note: someone ranked all of Hedda Hopper's fabulous hats.

Hedda Hopper’s Hats: A ‘Feud’ Appreciation

Updated On: 4/27/17 at 12:05 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 1:11pm

Hedda was decades older than both Bette and Joan, Judy is younger than both Jessica and Susan.  

FEUD deals centrally with the travails of aging for women in Hollywood.  Judy is so great one can overlook the irony,

But there is one.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 4/27/17 at 5:42pm

I'm confused. What did Kathy Bates do that would make her worthy of being showered with awards?

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 12:48am

OMG the dentist scene and the making of the monkey movie were hysterical. I also loved Crawford's hallucination involving the table sequence. Lange was quite good and very empathetic. She is a clear front runner.

[Mark-Alexis]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 5:09am

SmoothLover, is that your bicep? Gorgeous!

 

Lange is winning the Emmy, deservedly so, but Sarandon was equally fantastic.  That reading of the "dead" line was heartbreaking.

 

 

Updated On: 4/28/17 at 05:09 AM

[Steve C.]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 5:12am

Even with the show being over, we are still talking about it. This has been an incredible year for women on stage and on television especially. 

So I join the chorus. Jessica had me in tears in the last episode and will definitely get some well deserved awards this year. Even the subtleties of the script, in her dream...walking into the dining room in bathrobe and long tussled hair, only to appear at the table with Hedda and Jack Warner, in full makeup and hair piled high on her head. That is fine damn writing. 

I have to admit RM pulled off a definite winner; this is on par with The Normal Heart in unusually strong script, acting, design, cast...he can make great effing things when he's serious.

Updated On: 4/28/17 at 05:12 AM

[Mark-Alexis]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 5:28am

Steve C. said: "Even with the show being over, we are still talking about it. This has been an incredible year for women on stage and on television especially. 

So I join the chorus. Jessica had me in tears in the last episode and will definitely get some well deserved awards this year. Even the subtleties of the script, in her dream...walking into the dining room in bathrobe and long tussled hair, only to appear at the table with Hedda and LBM, in full makeup and hair piled high on her head. That is fine damn writing. 

I have to admit RM pulled off a definite winner; this is on par with The Normal Heart in unusually strong script, acting, design, cast...he can make great effing things when he's serious.

 

"

Amen to this.