Luca Marinelli
“MARTIN EDEN” My rating: B-
129 minutes | No MPAA rating
Most of us know Jack London for his perennially popular adventure yarns The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
But London scholars — and the author himself — have always gravitated to the 1909 novel Martin Eden as the ultimate Jack London statement.
In this semi-autobiographical story an impoverished young man educates himself, emerges as a writer of note, and ultimately kills himself when he finds hollow the success he has always sought. (The novel has been viewed by some as a prediction of London’s mysterious death in 1916).
The book was set in turn-of-the-last-century Oakland. Director Pietro Marcello and co-writer Maurizio Braucci have transplanted the yarn to Naples. The change isn’t just geographical…this “Martin Eden” unfolds in two phases, the first a non-specific early 20th century milieu, the second an apparently modern one.
The resulting film is gripping in its first hour, thanks largely to star Luca Marinelli, who oozes early Sam Shepard machismo/sensitivity. The second half, though, bogs down in political navel gazing.
We encounter Martin first as a sailor working on a freighter. He’s a charming fellow, popular with the ladies, and exhibits a good heart, as when he rescues a young man from a brutal dockside security guard.
That act of kindness leads to his introduction to the wealthy Orsini family and their beautiful daughter, Elena (Jessica Cressy). Even Elena’s bourgeoise parents are charmed by this hunky proletarian — especially when he reveals behind his workingman exterior a probing mind, eager for education.
Bent on self-improvement, Martin takes on Elena as his tutor. Romantic attraction follows — though the movie is coy about whether the relationship is overtly sexual.
All this takes place in a setting that could be anywhere from the 1920s to the early ’50s…the costumers and production designers are intriguingly nonspecific.
Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy
The film’s first act, with Martin’s intellect growing by leaps and bounds as he pushes relentlessly toward his goal of becoming an influential writer, is in some ways a classic poor-kid-makes-good yarn.
Act II, on the other hand, gets irritatingly polemical.
London was famously socialist, but in Martin he gave readers a young man whose attitudes were more Ayn Rand asshollism than Marxist benevolence.
Martin finds a mentor in Russ Brissenden (Carlo Cecchi), an idealistic who tries to set a humane example for his young friend.
But the suddenly successful writer isn’t having any of that leftist stuff. He’s a self-made man, and with that transformation of his character the film shifts into a whole new ethos. Now Martin has shaggy blondish hair and struts around in beige Tom Wolfe suits, giving lectures and touting the supremacy of the individual. The time might be the late ’60s…it’s hard to tell.
“Martin Eden” is a glass-half-full enterprise. The young Martin is a compelling figure; by film’s end he’s an off-putting heap of hubris and arrogance. Whatever message Marcello is sending gets muddled.
Still, the film looks great. Hard to believe it was shot on 16mm film.
| Robert W.Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
Dear Mr. Butler – I was just about to send this when I saw that it will be considered a comment and posted publicly. I wrote it as a private email, even though there’s nothing scandalous in it.
So if you scan through these messages before you post them, please keep that in mind. I’d like to edit it before it’s posted if you do decide you want to make it public.
My original starting point:
I have to say that I like your coinage “Ayn Rand asshollism,” and even though you’re no longer working for the Star, at least you get to innovate with the language in ways that your old features editor couldn’t have let you get away with!
I’m the former Kansas Citian who now lives in Chugiak, Alaska, and whose late father was one of your most ardent fans. Dad was truly bereft once your movie reviews stopped running in the Star. He had to rely entirely on me and on Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal to guide him in his movie choices.
Holy shit! I just googled Mr. Morgenstern and he’s 88 years old!
Getting back to Dad, in his youth he worked as a copy boy at the Star, and a lot of the older guys in the newsroom then knew Ernest Hemingway from his brief stint at the paper. To a man they all despised him – Hemingway didn’t leave any fans behind at the paper.
If you’re interested I’ll tell you about the time my grandfather Dr. Wade Hampton Miller punched Hemingway in the jaw and knocked him to the ground during that same period when Hemingway was a cub reporter – it’s actually a pretty cool story. Genuine Kansas City lore, including a fire at the Kersey Coates Hotel and recently demobilized WWI vets.
More about the Star – do you remember Bill Vaughan? We used to love his column, and we sent him picture postcards of spotted fauns wherever we traveled.
Anyway, once again I thank you for the work you do. It’s nice getting your perspective on these films, because you’re usually quite measured but seem to be unerringly correct with your observations and insights.
Sincerely,
Wade Hampton Miller
Do I remember Bill Vaughan? Sort of. He was my father in law.
Thanks for the comments. No shortage of great old-times Star stories out there.