A noble attempt to bring the Herman Hesse novel to the screen, enlivened by a complex and poignant performance by Max Von Sydow as the Steppenwolf, Harry Haller. His efforts are considerably aided by gloomy lighting and long meditative takes which convey the burden of the Steppenwolf's world view as a self proclaimed "outsider". Closely following the book, however, the film too, falls apart in its second half. It validates the asocial Steppenwolf, a misguided hero/martyr wanting to transcend personal inadequacy rooted in the disorder of the everyday world: his redemption comes through a woman who leads him into an enchanted magical world. Experience, with art often the privileged vehicle, might be better understood as redemptive if read in interpretive rather than metaphysical terms- i.e. it is a product of engagement with and not transcendence of or withdrawal from the social. Harry Haller reminds one of the "steppenwolf" in Apted's documentary "7 Up", Neil. Numerous visions of this transcendence, which can foster megalomania, are also evident in e.g.'s such as George Lucas's Jedi philosophy (Luke SKYWALKER), and Kubrick's Starchild in "2001". 2 documentaries on film making, "Hearts of Darkness" and "Burden of Dreams", show the difficulties faced by "control freak" directors in realising the theme of redemptive transcendence on the screen, given the teamwork of the production process etc. The Romantic poet in Cocteau's "Orphee" is similarly frustrated upon discovering the "afterlife" is routinised/bureaucratised. "Sphere" and "Solaris" also make critical overtures in this direction by questioning the desirability and possibility of experience bearing no disjuncture between thought and expression. But for a critique of "Steppenwolf" philosophy, it is hard to better the film adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground".
Review of Steppenwolf
