Dementia 13 Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert K. Johnson

Critical Essay by Robert K. Johnson

The first of the seven films [Coppola] has directed, Dementia 13, is not a horror-film classic nor an embarrassment. It has some thoroughly effective sequences, and it has some bland or belabored scenes. Basically, the photography is adequate; the acting, pedestrian; and the dialogue, functional. The film is only of any special interest because it is the first full-length film that Coppola directed.

With regard to what have been called his "personal" films, You're A Big Boy Now, The Rain People, and The Conversation, the first is by far the best. The pace of both The Rain People and The Conversation is too slow. The stylistic shuttlings in The Conversation are a mistake. The Rain People is done in only one style, a semidocumentary style (aided by flashbacks), but it does not help the film very much. The plots of both pictures are weak. The main characters in The Rain...
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