The Day of the Locust

                                              The riot scene from The Day of the Locust

These past two classes covered various interesting topics and stories such as Nathanael West's tragic depiction of Hollywood in The Day of the Locust and we backtracked a bit with Jack Thorne's Hanover, or the Persecution of the Lowly , a story about the 1898 race riot in Wilmington NC. I was planning on discussing a little bit more on the racial violence until we were shown the final scene from the 1975 film adaptation of The Day of the Locust. I felt that I actually experienced a big difference in what it is to watch a violent scene that is adapted from text. This part is about ten minutes long and the emotional build up is quite erratic. The scene starts off quite loud and chaotic since we see the streets filled with hundreds of excited people gathering for the big movie premiere. It gives off a claustrophobic feeling to the viewer right from the start even when the crowd isn’t yet a violent angry mob. You already sense the uneasiness from the start especially when you see Homer Simpson approaching the scene in a zombie like trance ready to “spread” the anger and violence he has within like an infectious disease. After being taunted and hit with a coin purse by a little boy (or girl? a bit androgynous but true to the time period) he then takes to chasing the child and stomping him to death. This scene is quite graphic since the viewer usually isn’t used to seeing such violence toward children in movies. This is arguably the catalyst for the riot which carries out quite rapidly after the crowd witnesses Homer's actions. A man (reminiscent of Hitler) who is in charge of hosting the premiere is unaware of the violence and amps up the crowd as if nothing criminal is taking place. The scene gets more and more intense and you notice it through Tod who is injured and unable to move or escape. This causes him to realize that his project The Burning of L.A is coming to life through the form of this angry mob. This is probably one of the movies that does a good job of recreating a scene that is meant to cause the reader/viewer discomfort. It was as emotional and tragic as West had wrote it out to be.