American Masters: "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams" (PBS)

Film Reviews | Regular Feature ing a Time magazine article about veterans returning home from World War II. The success of The Best Years of Our Lives marks the climax of the American Masters program, which is not surprising given that it brought Goldwyn a highly coveted Academy Award after six nominations. The program's segment on that film is particularly resonant given the recent death of the disabled vet, Harold Russell, who played the character who had lost his hands in the war and went on to become the first person in history to win two Oscars for the same role (one Honorary award and one for Best Supporting Actor). After two-and-a-half decades in the industry, Goldwyn had finally earned the recognition for which he had longed but he would call these awards a curse when he suffered repeated failures for years to come. while "Sam Goldwyn" incorporates scores of interviews with directors, screenwriters, and actors, its most hard-hitting material comes from the producer's two children: Ruth Capps, who candidly voices her feelings of resentment at being abandoned by her father afterhis divorce from first wife Bessie Lasky, and Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. who clearly lends his heartfelt support to Berg's biography and this documentary. This program succeeds in articulating its subject's greatest weaknesses and his most indomitable strengths, and it finds them in the same place. By evoking a tone that is at once entertaining and deeply reflexive, "Sam Goldwyn" draws out the producer's charm and tenacity, while skillfully allowing for his foibles and faults. Christina Lane University of Miami American Masters: "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams" (PBS) American Masters' "F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams" covers the rise and fall of a conflicted writer. From an early age, Fitzgerald (1896-1940) desired economic comfort and dreamed of a bourgeois lifestyle. Despite achieving this status through his skills as a writer, Fitzgerald remained just on the edge of enjoying his success. As the documentary stresses, his literary needs kept him an outsider looking in, a role he paradoxically claimed to covet. During the film's first half I was fascinated by his wish to be in one world while remaining in another. I was impressed by the way Fitzgerald's writing grew out this self-imposed role. However, once Fitzgerald's life began to fall apart, around the publication of Tender Is the Night (1934), the documentary also began to fall apart. "Winter Dreams" starts with a passage from one of Fitzgerald's letters, and right away we learn about his goals for economic success, his quest for the American Dream. The film quickly takes us through his Princeton years and subsequent departure, his military career, and finally slows down once he meets his future wife, Zelda Sayre. From here we get more details regarding Fitzgerald's literary efforts, resulting in the publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), and his early popularity as the voice of "the Jazz Age." The documentary then concentrates on the next fifteen years of Fitzgerald's literary life, losing focus around the time of Zelda's hospitalization and his own mental struggles as the pressure of success, alcohol abuse, and his need for perfection as a writer wear away at the author. The film drags during most of the final twenty minutes, dwelling too long on the memories of former neighbors , though it does regain some momentum as it turns to Fitzgerald's Hollywood tenure. Much of the biographical information on Fitzgerald is culled from the author's own fiction and autobiographical work. The narration succeeds through the deep, clear voice ofCampbell Scott, who reads from Fitzgerald's essays and letters. In a surprising variation, Amy Irving reads from the novels, enhancing Fitzgerald's prose and complementing Scott's voice-over. Other voices include Laura Linney as Zelda andWilliam Sadler as Ernest Hemingway. The remaining information and observations on Fitzgerald are provided by interviews with friends, acquaintances , writers (including E. L. Doctorow), and literary scholars. Still photographs and clips from film versions of some of the novels round out the presentation. Perhaps the most effective cinematic technique, next to the narration, is the recurring...