The characters and plot I cared for not at all. The overall tone mixes depression with desperation.įor me this is an easy film to judge. And, as in other Altman films, then-current politics dance around the edges of the seedy story. The script's dialogue is mostly subtext, with message directed less at other characters than at viewers. Seldom Seen (based on a real-life person and played by Harry Belafonte) is the cigar smoking godfather who rules the dark, smoky Hey Hey Club with an iron fist and who likes to stand around giving lectures to people. Stilton (Miranda Richardson) is a wealthy, spaced-out politician's wife. A gun-wielding gangster's girl named Blondie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) wants to be like Jean Harlow. They're archetypes, models of desperate people in desperate times. But I don't think they're supposed to be. And the plot alternates with dark interior scenes at the Hey Hey Club, a risqué, all-Black speakeasy where an all-Black band jives free-form jazz, and where illegal gambling fills the back rooms. The thin plot takes place largely at night. And though the film is in color, tints are muted, which conveys a nostalgic, sentimental mood. It's 1934, when gangsters and jazz ruled and Blacks and Whites went their separate ways. "Kansas City" is mostly a cinematic expression of place and time. Reviewed by Lechuguilla 6 / 10 Rich Textured VisualsĪ kidnapping and a robbery move the plot forward in a film that's less about plot than about cultural ambiance. Stilton, meanwhile, has befriended Blondie and is impressed by her love and devotion to Johnny, especially in contrast to her own loveless marriage. Despite this being election time, he risks exposure by putting the political machine into action to free Johnny and thereby save his wife. She kidnaps the wife of a powerful local politician in an attempt to blackmail him into using his connections to free Johnny. When Blondie O'Hara's husband, a petty thief, is captured by Seldom Seen and held at the Hey Hey Club, she launches a desperate plan to release him. Robert Altman's jazz-scored film explores themes of love, crime, race, and politics in 1930s Kansas City.
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