Big Bad Love
Encyclopedia
Big Bad Love is a 2001 film directed by Arliss Howard
, who co-wrote the script with his brother, James Howard
, based on a collection of short stories of the same name by Larry Brown
. The story recounts an episode in the life of an alcoholic Vietnam veteran and struggling writer named Leon Barlow, who is played by Arliss Howard
, and his wife, played by Howard's wife Debra Winger
. The soundtrack includes music by Tom Verlaine
, the Kronos Quartet
, and R. L. Burnside
.
's short story
collection, particularly those in the book's final story, "92 Days".
The main character is an unsuccessful alcoholic writer, motivated by desire for his estranged wife (played by Debra Winger
) and the urging of his Vietnam War buddy Monroe (played by Paul Le Mat
) to continue to write. He is angry, yet hopeful that he will sell a story. When tragedy strikes a close friend and his daughter, Leon is forced to rethink his way of life.
strewn with manuscript pages -- there is an overly stylized scene in which literary self-consciousness suffocates lived reality", "(the film) is a self-indulgent celebration of self-indulgence". Lisa Schwarzbaum
of Entertainment Weekly
wrote, "Howard's Big Bad Love bewilders -- a whole lot of opulent Southern atmosphere about some stunted, opaque characters". Ken Fox of TV Guide
writes "The film's few saving graces include Dickinson's sardonic southern belle; Winger's welcome return to the screen after a five-year absence; and Howard's voice-over readings of Brown's powerful prose, which ultimately saves the film from itself.", while Rachel Gordon of Filmcritic wrote, "For his feature debut as director, Howard impressively mixes fantasy sequences with the depressing reality of pushing creativity as hard as you can against a tide of guilt", and Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times
wrote, "Big Bad Love is brave and admirable for the trust that it puts in a viewer's intuition and willingness in going along with it right through to its rewarding finish."
s before and after its 2002 theatrical release, including the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
, the 2001 Toronto Film Festival, the 2001 Austin Film Festival
, and the 2002 Wisconsin Film Festival
.
Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
, who co-wrote the script with his brother, James Howard
James Howard (writer)
James Howard is a screenwriter, poet, computer game creator, and author.- Biography :...
, based on a collection of short stories of the same name by Larry Brown
Larry Brown (author)
Larry Brown was an American novelist, non-fiction and short story writer. He was a winner of numerous awards including the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, and Mississippi's Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts...
. The story recounts an episode in the life of an alcoholic Vietnam veteran and struggling writer named Leon Barlow, who is played by Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
, and his wife, played by Howard's wife Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
. The soundtrack includes music by Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontman for the New York rock band Television.-Biography:...
, the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, and R. L. Burnside
R. L. Burnside
Not to be confused with R. H. Burnside, stage director.R. L. Burnside , born Robert Lee Burnside, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi. He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention...
.
Plot
Big Bad Love shares its title and characters with those in Mississippi writer Larry BrownLarry Brown (author)
Larry Brown was an American novelist, non-fiction and short story writer. He was a winner of numerous awards including the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, and Mississippi's Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts...
's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
collection, particularly those in the book's final story, "92 Days".
The main character is an unsuccessful alcoholic writer, motivated by desire for his estranged wife (played by Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
) and the urging of his Vietnam War buddy Monroe (played by Paul Le Mat
Paul Le Mat
Paul Le Mat is an American actor who first came to prominence in the 1973 film American Graffiti, which won him the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor.-Life:...
) to continue to write. He is angry, yet hopeful that he will sell a story. When tragedy strikes a close friend and his daughter, Leon is forced to rethink his way of life.
Reception
New York Times reviewer By A. O. Scott wrote, "For every moment of breathtaking strangeness -- as when Leon, after a road accident, awakens in a field of kudzuKudzu
Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so...
strewn with manuscript pages -- there is an overly stylized scene in which literary self-consciousness suffocates lived reality", "(the film) is a self-indulgent celebration of self-indulgence". Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is an American film critic. She joined Entertainment Weekly as film critic in the 1990s. She has been featured on CNN, co-host on Siskel & Ebert At the Movies as well as a cultural, theater and television reviewer....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
wrote, "Howard's Big Bad Love bewilders -- a whole lot of opulent Southern atmosphere about some stunted, opaque characters". Ken Fox of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
writes "The film's few saving graces include Dickinson's sardonic southern belle; Winger's welcome return to the screen after a five-year absence; and Howard's voice-over readings of Brown's powerful prose, which ultimately saves the film from itself.", while Rachel Gordon of Filmcritic wrote, "For his feature debut as director, Howard impressively mixes fantasy sequences with the depressing reality of pushing creativity as hard as you can against a tide of guilt", and Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote, "Big Bad Love is brave and admirable for the trust that it puts in a viewer's intuition and willingness in going along with it right through to its rewarding finish."
Partial cast
- Arliss HowardArliss HowardArliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
as Barlow - Debra WingerDebra WingerMary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
as Marilyn - Paul Le MatPaul Le MatPaul Le Mat is an American actor who first came to prominence in the 1973 film American Graffiti, which won him the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor.-Life:...
as Monroe - Rosanna ArquetteRosanna ArquetteRosanna Lauren Arquette is an American actress, film director, and producer.-Early life:Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi" , an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Her paternal...
as Velma - Angie DickinsonAngie DickinsonAngie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
as Mrs. Barlow - Michael ParksMichael ParksMichael Parks is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came...
as Mr. Aaron - Michael Owens as EMT
- Christopher Webster as The Smoking Clown
Release
Big Bad Love had international release at film festivalFilm festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s before and after its 2002 theatrical release, including the 2001 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, the 2001 Toronto Film Festival, the 2001 Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries"...
, and the 2002 Wisconsin Film Festival
Wisconsin Film Festival
The Wisconsin Film Festival is an annual film festival, founded in 1999. The five-day long festival is held every April in Madison, Wisconsin.The Festival presents a broad range of independent American and world cinema , restorations and revivals, and locally made pictures from Wisconsin filmmakers...
.
External links
- Big Bad Love at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Big Bad Love at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...