SnoopyStyle It's late 30's Hollywood. Hitler may be marching in Europe but it's the desperate insular lives of people trying to make it in Lalaland. Faye Greener (Karen Black) is trying every way to make it as an actress. Her quiet neighbor Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland) is desperately in love with her and she takes advantage. Tod Hackett (William Atherton) is a production designer working on a movie about Waterloo and he's even more desperately in love with Faye. Then her drunken former vaudeville father Harry Greener (Burgess Meredith) arrives.This is an epic of Hollywood excesses and the desperation for fame. It would be more compelling if it could concentrate and pinpoint the story. It becomes too scattered and too meandering. It could have focused in on Faye's journey and stayed with her smaller personal story. The final act goes crazy and I'm not sure if it works. I'm also not sure what the book is like. This has some interesting scenes and interesting aspects. It doesn't all work.

writers_reign I've always relished the irony in the fact that Nathanial 'Pep' West was the brother-in-law of S.J. Perelman in the sense that Sid Perelman was a very successful humorist whilst Pep West was a dramatic writer who couldn't get arrested for the majority of his career and the four novels - A Cool Million, The Dream Life Of Balsno Snell, Miss Lonleyhearts, and The Day Of The Locust sold in the hundreds, if not dozens, rather than the thousands/millions of less gifted novelists. Miss Lonleyhears was arguably the most successful if our yardstick is film adaptations but most admirers will tell you that Locust is the one to beat. Given it's tough to adapt Waldo Salt has made a decent fist of it and Karen Black and Donald Sutherland weighed in with a brace of great performances. Not exactly a date movie but you could do worse than make a date to watch it.

irishm I believe I was introduced to this movie in the worst possible way: when I was young, I turned on the TV a few minutes early because I wanted to watch whatever it was that came on after this did, and I unwittingly tuned in to the last 15 minutes or so of "Day of the Locust"… I think it might have been on HBO. If you think it's disturbing to watch the whole movie, imagine how disturbing it might be to a kid who suddenly sees a bloodthirsty raving mob, Donald Sutherland being torn to pieces, and (far worst of all!) a bunch of jump-cuts to faceless "people", masked and expressionless and not-quite-human, in the midst of it all. Yeesh. I about swore off TV altogether that night. Scared the heck outta me.I finally watched the whole thing last night, out of all these years of curiosity as to how things got to that state in the first place. It's a little above my head, a little "artsy", but it was watchable. The characters are completely unlikable with the exception of Tod, and even he gets on the nerves from time to time.One thing that surprised me from my first unintentional viewing of the finale all those years ago: I totally missed the fact that the riot took place downtown in front of the Chinese Theater; it seemed to me that the setting had been the street in front of the San Bernardino and that everyone who lived there must have just gone inexplicably nuts one night… maybe as a result of some radioactive locusts from outer space or something (because the title made no sense to me). I probably assumed that because after the riot the setting cuts back to the residential area in daylight… only seeing just those few minutes, it looked like a smooth segue into "and here we are the next morning after everyone went home/to the hospital/to jail", which only served to add to the creepiness.It was a hoot seeing Mrs. Howell from "Gilligan's Island" as a madam in a whorehouse. I may have to watch it again; I missed spotting one of my favorite character actresses, Nita Talbot, somewhere in those scenes.

PippinInOz This is a remarkable film for so many reasons.I first discovered this film completely by accident about 16 years ago - there used to be a mid -day movie everyday on a free to air channel. If I was home, would switch on in the fast vanishing hope that one day, just one day, something half decent would be screened. Most of these films were abysmal, so you can imagine my shock when this started. I was glued to the screen. The feelings of shock and horror that 'The Day of the Locust' left me with have never left. So when I saw it was being shown on Foxtel the feeling was one of excitement and fear. Fear that after so long maybe this film was not quite as good as I remembered it being. Fear not! But on the other hand, do fear. This is a classic film.1. In the year 2011, 27 years after it was made, the themes it engages with are never more appropriate. The 1930s world of Celebrity culture in Hollywood and the desperation of the characters we get to meet, hold powerful 'truths' for the Western World of 'now' - you know, the world of everyone wanting FAME FAME FAME FAME FAME - (as David Bowie sang it).2. The acting is superb. Watch out for those moments when the lead characters are trying SO HARD to be jolly and happy, that their forced jollity splits into anger laced with madness. 'Beepers, Peepers......' the stuff that nightmares are made of. 3. The film reveals a world where everything is a simulacra (a perfect copy of an original that never existed - Jean Baudrillard). The sets, the costumes. The young Shirley Temple would be who lives in the apartments is a boy dressed as a girl by a mother desperate for fame. ('Toddlers and Tiaras?') 4. There are subtle reminders throughout the film that Nazi Germany is on the rise. The parallels with the hysteria of the crowds cheering Adolf Hitler, particularly in that final horrifying scene (listen: you can hear the click click click of locusts on a feeding frenzy), where the crowd 'devours' - smashing windows - reminiscent of Kristalnacht, when the equally crazed hysterically 'whipped up' crowd attack Jewish businesses and Jewish people. While the focus is different, the hysteria of the crowds is linked. So too, the hysteria of the crowd at the 'Sister's Religious Revival meeting' (Geraldine Paige playing a character based on the real life Amy Semple). It isn't that there haven't been other films in the past ten to fifteen years that have passed comment on celebrity and Hollywood, but what marks this one out - even after so much time - is the complete refusal to allow you, me - the audience - to stick our tongue in our cheek and nod with post modern knowingness, maybe even have a little laugh. No, this one hits you right between the eyes. Still brilliant. Still terrifying......and for me at least, has some important reminders for all of us living in the Celebrity obsessed Western World. If it has all started to get a bit too much for you and you suspect it is all getting a bit, well, weird, - get this film!If you haven't seen it yet, get ready to have this film indelibly stamped on your mind. Lend it to your mates, because you will want to talk about this one. It is THAT powerful.