{"id":106832,"date":"2017-01-18T19:17:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T00:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=106832"},"modified":"2017-01-19T06:48:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T11:48:45","slug":"lets-get-ready-to-crumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/18\/lets-get-ready-to-crumble\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Get Ready to Crumble"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Andy Griffith, looking unhinged and awfully familiar.<\/p><\/div>\n

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That slogan comes from a 2005 commercial for Kraft Crumbles<\/a>, \u201cintense nuggets of real Kraft Cheese\u201d that give your food \u201cthat big cheese taste that blows you away.\u201d (You might remember that these crumbles were \u201ccrumbelievable,\u201d and that America learned about them to the tune of EMF\u2019s 1990 dance-pop classic, \u201cUnbelievable.\u201d) As the inauguration nears, the phrase\u00a0has come to mind almost hourly: let\u2019s get ready to crumble. Let us watch as the Thick\u00a0Man, with his processed-cheese-product glow, assumes the mantle of power and crumbelievable rubble rains down from on high.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t simply wake up all ready to crumble. Crumbling preparedness\u00a0takes time and effort. It begins by going\u00a0to the movies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Anthology Film Archives, a series called \u201cInauguration of the Displeasure Dome<\/a>\u201d begins this weekend, aiming to help moviegoers cope with a Trump presidency with a mix of cautionary tales, dystopian epics, and (of course) depressing documentaries. At the center of it all is Elia Kazan\u2019s A Face in the Crowd<\/em><\/a> (1957), a film so perfectly suited for our moment that a toothless, vacuous remake must surely be on the lips of studio execs as I write this.\u00a0Even the fiery tagline on its poster scans like ad copy for The Apprentice<\/em>: \u201cPower! He loved it! He took it raw in big gulpfuls \u2026 He liked the taste, the way it mixed with the bourbon and the sin in his blood!\u201d\u00a0(In light of last week\u2019s revelations about the president-elect\u2019s alleged sexual predilections, that bit about big gulpfuls is especially apropos.)<\/p>\n

A Face in the Crowd\u00a0<\/em>stars Andy Griffith, playing terrifyingly against type as a drifter who claws his way up through the media ranks to a position of supreme celebrity demagoguery, his status seemingly impossible to diminish\u00a0even as he courts opprobrium at every turn. To see the wholesome Griffith fulminating against the \u201crednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, [and] pea-pickers\u201d comprising his fanbase is to shudder with recognition. In one of the movie\u2019s more famous rants, he brags about the loyalty of his audience\u00a0in words that recall Trump\u2019s line about being able to get away with murder on Fifth Avenue:<\/p>\n

Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. Sure, I got \u2019em like this … You know what the public\u2019s like? A cage of guinea pigs. Good night, you stupid idiots. Good night, you miserable slobs. They\u2019re a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they\u2019ll flap their flippers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And let\u2019s not forget that at one point Griffith actually utters, with Trumpian relish, the words: \u201cYou\u2019re fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budd Schulberg, who adapted\u00a0the screenplay from his short story \u201cYour Arkansas Traveler,\u201d was also dispiritingly on the money when he had his cynical TV staff writer say that the national memory just doesn\u2019t hang on to much, especially where scandal is concerned:<\/p>\n

You’re gonna be back in television. Only it won’t be quite the same as it was before. There\u2019ll be a reasonable cooling-off period and then somebody will say: \u201cWhy don\u2019t we try him again in a inexpensive format. People\u2019s memories aren\u2019t too long.\u201d And you know, in a way, he\u2019ll be right. Some of the people will forget, and some of them won\u2019t. Oh, you\u2019ll have a show. Maybe not the best hour or, you know, top 10. Maybe not even in the top 35. But you\u2019ll have a show. It just won\u2019t be quite the same as it was before. Then a couple of new fellas will come along. And pretty soon, a lot of your fans will be flocking around them. And then one day, somebody\u2019ll ask: \u201cWhatever happened to, a, whatshisname? You know, the one who was so big. The number-one fella a couple of years ago. He was famous. How can we forget a name like that? Oh by the way, have you seen, a, Barry Mills? I think he\u2019s the greatest thing since Will Rogers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I won\u2019t spoil the finer points of the plot. I\u2019ll just urge you to see\u00a0A Face in the Crowd<\/em>, which plays at Anthology on January 20, at 6:30, and on January 22, at 3:15. Bring your favorite Kraft snack. Because here it comes, friends. The Trump presidency, with that big cheese taste that blows you away.<\/p>\n