Sunset Boulevard is one of those movies that, when you watch it, you realize that THIS is what movie making should be. It is also one of those movies that Hollywood hates: a movie that dispels myths about the glory of tinsel town.
The movie tells the story, from the perspective of a corpse, of a young man, a screenwriter, by the name of Joe Gillis. He has been discarded by Hollywood. He is broke and hungry, and that hunger is written all over his haggard, yet beautiful, face and accented by his worn out clothes. He is in a jam. He can’t pay his rent, and is about to lose his car. He finds his way into a household that not even he, as an author of fantastic scenarios, could have dreamt up.
Norma Desmond has also been discarded by Hollywood. At 50, she is a faded and obsessive shadow of what she had once been, the Queen of the Silent Pictures. Erroneously, she blames the talkies for her down fall. Really, she should blame the youth-loving colony and her own growing insanity.
Still, she worships youth, and, in a scandalous move for the era, she takes in the poor and beautiful Joe Gillis, turning him into her pet, and, as he gets used to luxury and security, he whores himself more and more. Finally, he gives in and they become lovers. For the price of some cufflinks and regular meals, Joe sinks deeper and deeper into self-loathing. Yet, what else can he do – leave, and he goes back to a seedy apartment where he can’t afford to live, or, worse, he returns as a failure to Ohio only to be scorned by people who want to see him fail.
He is trapped in his golden cage, which he cannot escape even when real and clean love is offered to him.
This picture is about used people, and the fine line between adoration and hatred. And the grey zone between kindness and usury. It is also all things all at once. At times, it is a horror picture, a comedy, a satire, a drama, and, yes, even a romance. Above all, it is a masterful example of Wilder’s special brand of noir Americana. It is a picture I could watch a million times and still want more. It is an education all in itself, and no one can claim true film literacy until they have seen it, and then seen it again.
Further, it is a highly enjoyable and addictive film, one that has something for everyone, especially those of us who have wanted and failed, and had and lost. And, making it fairly unique amongst recognized artistic achievements, it is also a damned good night at the movies.
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