Taking place primarily at the end of World War I, Frank Borzage's Lucky Star is a wartime romance, telling the story of Mary, a poor farm girl, who falls in love with Tim, a recently returning soldier who was wounded during the war and lost the ability to use his legs. Pressed by her mother to marry another returning solider, Wren, Mary finds that she cannot help but still care for Tim, regardless of his physical ailments. Frank Borzage's Lucky Star is a simple, yet effective romance that's surprisingly nuanced for the time period. Firmly believing in the adage 'Love Conquers All', Lucky Star tells a tender love story which captures the selflessness of love, showing how two characters enable one and other to grow and become better human beings. Given the time period, Mary's character is noticeably younger than her two suitors, Tim & Wren, which leads to Tim routinely educating Mary on what it means to be an adult and the importance of respecting her mother, something that is quite noble considering the mother's disdain towards the idea of Mary marrying Tim. While much of the film finds Mary as somewhat as a passive presence among the two suitors in her inability to make her own decision, it's the finale where Mary's love for Tim leads to their salvation, as she gives Tim the strength and perseverance to fight through his shortcomings and fight for the woman he loves. Technically speaking the film is stylistically modest, though Borzage use of framing and lighting, while subdued, evokes the emotions of his characters. One of Tim and Mary's first encounters after the war is a great example of this, where on Mary's exit from Tim's house Borzage uses the window frame to symmetrically position both these characters at the center, jumping back-and-forth between both characters respective points-of-view in a way that visually expresses their strong connection and importance to one and other. Another great sequence is when Tim tries to use his crutches to stand for the first time. Struggling and ultimately falling to the ground, Borzage lights the scene in a way that finds Tim fall directly into the darkness of the foreground of the frame, another small but powerful visual way of expressing emotion, capturing Tim's struggle through the use of darkness and light. I also liked the clever metaphor centered around Tim's demeanor, a man who is portrayed as having a handyman mentality, the idea of making something out of close to nothing- a clever metaphor for Tim's personal journey which finds him overcoming his disability. Another interesting anecdote of Lucky Star is simply how startling it's in showing showing the harsh perceptions of the crippled at the time, showing how many individuals throughout the story, whether it be Mary's mother or Wren, viewed a crippled individual as a lost cause. Very much supporting the notion that love conquers all, Frank Borzage's Lucky Star is a incomplex yet powerful love story.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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