Jean-Luc Godard directed this brightly colored, pop-art homage to American crime cinema, which somehow finds room for extended commentary on leftist politics and the corrupt nature of advertising. Paula Nelson (Anna Karina) is a mystery woman (Is she a reporter? Perhaps a spy?) who used to be involved with Richard, a man who is now an outspoken Communist and has been linked to the murder of a foreign agent. Paula wants to silence Richard before he starts making trouble for her, but she can't
find much hard evidence that's he's still alive outside of a recently discovered tape recorder that plays his recorded rants on current political issues. While speaking with Typhus (Ernest Menzer), a small time hood who knows about Paula's relationship with Richard, shots ring out and suddenly Typhus is dead. As Paula tries to find a way to get rid of the body, she tries to discover who killed him and why, as a pair of lackadaisical hoods (Laszlo Szabo and Jean-Pierre Leaud) follow her around Paris. Filled with references to American genre cinema and dedicated to Samuel Fuller and Nicholas Ray, Made In U.S.A. was the last film Godard would make with his one-time wife and frequent collaborator Anna Karina, and it was filmed simultaneously with another feature Godard released in 1966, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her. The admittedly flimsy plot was loosely adapted from the novel The Jugger by Donald E. Westlake (published under the pseudonym Richard Stark); Westlake wasn't paid for the rights, and he prevented the film from being released in the United States until after his death in 2008. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
If Made in U.S.A doesn't merit a place, with Weekend and Band of Outsiders, on the Godard's Greatest Hits compilation, it is still a great lost B side.
The film takes the premise for an interesting 15 minute short, and tries to turn it into a 90 minute feature, and stretch marks are evident in almost every scene
The fresh bombast of U.S.A.'s abnormal groove may not measure up to the other elaborate, beautiful contraptions that were made in Godard's peak years, but it makes many current films look stagnant, if not outright dated.
Godard fires dozens of ideas at the audience, and switches weapons in mid-stream, but if you only pick up a few ideas along the way, then Made in U.S.A. has succeeded.
In a time of severe economic uncertainty, it's questionable whether even the most esoteric of New Wave adherents will want to wallow in this kind of Godardian excess -- though it's also quite possible that the film has never been more timely.
Toward the beginning of this film, I thought, "Wow: Godard hasn't completely eschewed the idea of using a plot to reveal characters through action and make their decisions reflect whatever political/philosophical point he wants to share." Then, that fucking radio voice spouting socialist propaganda appeared again, and
I almost hurled my remote control through the television. But I didn't, dear friends. No, my television remains unfettered by a remote control sticking through its screen. What did I really do when Godard reverted to using his radio voice? I slumped in my chair. I played Blackjack on my iPhone. I waited for it all to be over - like a root canal or a conversation with my grandmother.On a gem-within-a-pile-of-shit/looking-on-the-bright-side note, I liked the subtle post-structuralism here: the characters frequently refer to the fact that they're in a film, and some of the landmarks are named after famous film directors. This is how I think post-structuralism is effective.The mystery plot, which I suspected might dominate the film's action, is almost unintelligible. I normally try to guess the culprit, but even at the end I didn't know who did it. The main problem with the film is that by that point I didn't care. I'm just happy I got blackjack.
March 15, 2011
Jim Hunter
Super Reviewer
godards noir-comedy is solid but not without its problems. the film lacks the engaging dialogue that i expect from a godard film, and despite its short running time the film wastes a lot of time on silliness that makes for barely enough time to develop the mystery, which was underdeveloped severely. the characters
were interesting enough and the quirkiness of the film kept me drawn in, but the film is only slightly above average and fairly forgettable.
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