As I wrote up Gone with the Wind last week, it occurred to me, though I didn’t want to say it in the piece, that I only like half of the movie. The piece emphasized what a great “making of” story Gone with the Wind is so there was no room for me to casually say it but I really only like the first half. That’s not to say the second half isn’t good, only that I prefer the first half. In fact, there are plenty of movies that have distinctive first and second halves. Most movies have a flow to them where the story progresses gradually and seamlessly from beginning to end but for those movies that feel like two parts of a whole stuck together, I often like one part substantially more than the other. I should make clear, very clear, since I will be discussing highly regarded classics, that this does not mean I do not think the movie is good, rather, there’s a distinct preference for one half, even if I like the other half and the movie as a whole.
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As for Gone with the Wind, I’ll just say quickly, since it’s been discussed so much already this week, that the first half, leading up to the end of the Civil War, holds my interest and entertains the hell out of me. The second half, as Scarlett and Rhett marry, have a daughter, lose the daughter, and stop giving a damn, leaves me cold. Actually, it outright bores me. I’m not a big fan of that second half. Other movies are different. I like one half more, almost exclusively the first half, but still enjoy the whole movie. For instance…
The Graduate, released in 1967 and making a star of Dustin Hoffman, has a first half I still fight funny, edgy, and rapidly paced. The second half I like well enough but as soon as the relationship between Ben and Mrs. Robinson ends, my interest ends with it. I make it through the rest of the movie but as Ben pursues Elaine at college, the movie slows to a crawl. It’s not until the climax, as Ben races to stop the wedding, that the movie finally, in its closing moments, rejoins the first half of the movie for wit and pace. I’ll watch the whole thing but, honestly, if I could only ever see the first half again, I’d be okay with that, too.
Next up is a movie widely considered one of the greatest epics ever made and I happen to agree. Despite my agreement that it is a masterfully done film from start to finish, I still prefer the first half by a mile. The movie is Lawrence of Arabia, and make no mistake, I love it. But the real appeal to me is the first half, as Lawrence discovers his calling, leading up to the greatest part of the film for me, the long, slow journey across the Nefud Desert in an attempt to attack Aqaba from the rear. During this section, Lawrence goes back to save a man who fell off his camel in the night and brings him back. The entire first section, from the first moments in the desert to the shot of the welded in place cannons in Aqaba, feels like a dream to me. The second half changes tone as Lawrence leads attacks against the Turks and firmly establishes his place in history. It’s great but the first half wins me over every time. The second half plays well for me but the first half is all I really need.
For the next entry I will simply pick one of many because it’s not this one particular movie so much as a genre. I’ll choose the 1978 version of Superman but, really, it applies to all superhero movies. Here’s what I like the most about superhero movies, from Superman to Batman Begins to Iron Man to X-Men: First Class – I like the origin story so, in other words, the first half. My interest in any given comic book adaptation always starts to wane once they are established and fighting whoever the lead villain happens to be. It also means I am less interested in sequels and more in the first movie, with the exception of X-Men: First Class because there’s so much origin story built into the plot. In the 1978 Superman, I love the entire first half, from the trial on Krypton to the all the scenes in Smallville to the creation of the Fortress of Solitude. The second half, which I also like but not love, mainly for the wonderful Gene Hackman, takes on a tone of winking comedy, contrasting sharply to the serious tone of the first half. And that’s how most of them work. First half is where all the characterization happens, the second half is all the action fun. I like the action fun but I like the origin story more.
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Another genre that follows the same lines is the monster movie, for me exemplified by King Kong. I love the mystery at the beginning as the expedition makes its way to an island on a secret map, shrouded in mist and home to a people keeping a giant gorilla on the other side of a giant wall as best they can. From the ship’s expedition to the final pursuit of Kong through the jungle and his eventual capture, it’s a first half I love more than any other. I love the second half more than most others, too (I’ve stated here before it’s one of my all-time favorite movies), so this is a case of degrees in which the degrees separating my love for the first half over the second half are minimal indeed but, still, the first half wins out. Same for Jurassic Park, another prehistoric monsters on an island movie, in which the lead up that culminates in the amazing T-rex attack on the trucks sequence is pretty much the movie for me. I’ll watch the whole thing but after the T-rex scene, I don’t really care to. I think one of the only monster movies (I’m using the genre definition here loosely) where I like the second half more is Jaws but for the same reasons I like the first half of so many others: It’s in the second half of Jaws that all the good character exposition actually occurs, not in the first half. The “monster goes on rampage” that finishes monster movies is the actual first half of Jaws and the “slow build up as we get to know the characters” is the actual second half. So, yes, in the case of Jaws I like the second half better but only because the movie flip-flopped them.
There are plenty of others but, once again, I’m out of room and I’m sure I can mention more in the comments. More often than not, it’s the first half that wins me over (except for Jaws, of course). Whether it’s the dreamlike state of the first half of Vertigo, where Scottie follows Madeleine, or the slow build to mutiny in the first half of Mutiny on the Bounty, there’s something appealing in the way a two-part movie sets up its story that almost renders the second part unnecessary. Of course, then you get only half the story but sometimes, for me, that’s enough. By half.