Carrie (1976)

A telekinetic girl is abused by her colleagues and by her fanatic mother. A colleague arranges for her to have a prom date, but a plan is underway to undermine Carrie's moment of happiness.

A strong film, which warrants some textual analysis (formal analyses exist, and excellent ones, so I will just abstain from going in that direction). I will attempt a very brief sketch of some analytical points. Irony is present in at least two central plot points. Irony: Carrie's mother is mad, but her predictions are confirmed, in a way which is a little more than simple self-fulfilling prophecy. Irony: the attempt to help Carrie ends up by causing her death as well as many others. The film is generally thought of as being cruel, but that is perhaps an undecidable claim. It is not certain that the film responds in a complete way to the social phenomenon of high school as it exists in the U.S. As most Hollywood, it covers the scope of drama at an individual level. The construal of the final tragedy as an indictment of American society is not easily arguable. There is a vague hint of a critique of the ideology that conditions Carrie's shift from obscurantist isolation to conformist integration; perhaps her tragedy is that she was never given a third choice. A second layer of drama concerns the character of Sue; there is a very able play with spectator's reaction by keeping her inner motivations ambiguous until very late in the movie. The pathos inherent in her situation derives from the ultimate insufficiency of "love thy neighbor" as a motto; Christianism in its primitive form is critiqued for its want of a broader knowledge of the complexities of the world.

Rating: 74 (second viewing; former rating was 66)