From Zapruder to 'WUSA'
Let's revisit the New Orleans set and shot political thriller.
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Dear Moviegoers,
I don’t remember who listed the Zapruder footage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination as one of the most important films of all time, but that factoid has stayed with me for quite a while. Does it count as a documentary? As found footage? Newsreel? Genre probably doesn’t matter in this case, or in any case actually, but some classification would fill a void of sorts.
As a mere document, an accidental witness to tragedy and mystery, the footage refuses to fade from memory or give in to misinterpretation (if we ignore those who believe that the driver of the motorcade did it). It lives as both a record of history and as a spark for imagination and discovery. After all, not everything or everyone important to what happened was captured within the frames.
In 1970, the Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward movie WUSA was released to limited impact, and would eventually fall into obscurity (though it hasn’t disappeared entirely). A Southern potboiler set in the humidity of a racially divided and tense New Orleans, WUSA was, at one point, considered by Paul Newman as “the most significant film I’ve ever made and the best.” That statement may have been some marketing voodoo and general boasting from the star of the film, but it does hold critical merit in hindsight. I personally feel that WUSA is one of the better New Orleans set and shot films, pre and/or present-Hollywood South era of regional filmmaking.
Why?
The timing of its production and the heartbreaking if tepid connection with the Zapruder footage.
Paul Newman plays a nihilistic wanderer of the American landscape, who has now chosen New Orleans as his latest joint to settle down and set up shop. The first person he reaches out to is an old conman acquaintance, who has taken up preaching in a rundown church as his current grift. Sweating profusely and trying to make a buck in the most despicable of ways, the characters of WUSA’s New Orleans are beyond hope mostly, living because they have some remaining life to waste. For Newman’s laid-back and carefree leading man Reinhardt, why not waste away, get paid, and gain some notoriety in the process?
It’s amazing just how perfect the film’s setting of a Big Easy that’s long gone now was used to effectively host the powder keg that was and still is American political discourse and the false promise of change. When Newman’s Reinhardt takes a gig for the right-wing radio station WUSA as a conservative pundit and charismatic voice for the voiceless, he sets into motion a chain of events that leads to a big rally, where the keg inevitably blows up in his and everyone’s faces. However, in a city so “deep”ly rooted in white influence and corruption, a city of such displayed decadence, would anyone be surprised or even moved to action?
In Lee Daniels’ The Butler, the son of the titular White House butler goes from being a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. to joining the Black Panthers and becoming a bit more militant than before. With so many high-profile murders of progressive leaders behind him, of course he would become more aggressive towards the American establishment. Who would blame him, really? In WUSA, Anthony Perkins plays a social worker and photographer who unravels a local right-wing conspiracy to disenfranchise black residents, and it all leads to the news station’s agenda of hate-fueled talk radio and demagoguery. Perkins, who I think of as having performed soft-natured if intense characters throughout his career, gives life to a man who has seen enough, and who finds hope with a gun in the palm of his hand. For The Butler’s son, a young black man, a gun would be an excuse for police to throw him away. For WUSA’s Perkins, a middle-aged white man, a gun is a topic of discussion at dinner - or on the radio - and only matters depending on who he’s pointing the gun at.
Perkins could be a hero or a villain depending on his target. For WUSA, it’s the radio station manager played by Pat Hingle, the man behind this neo-white power party. This, of course, would paint Perkins as a violent monster. A dangerous “libtard” killer, likely made insane because of left politics and ideas. He can’t just be a desperate man pushed to violence by the circumstances of his city and of his time - that might cause some pause for thought. The film comes to a head at this rally, sponsored by WUSA, with Newman’s Reinhardt as a guest speaker. Perkins fires shots from the catwalk and is ultimately beaten to death by rally attendees, while Reinhardt gives a fake valiant speech to keep the crowd fired up…if they’re listening at all. Make America Great Again is what comes to mind, only Paul Newman is a better speaker than The Donald.
So why bring up the Zapruder footage amid a walk down WUSA way? And why during Thanksgiving? Well, it was the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination on the 22nd of November, so that’s fresh on everyone’s minds. A Blu-Ray of WUSA sits by my TV set too. When thought about together, I have only Zapruder to jump to next, and what he captured. And everything that happened after. Everything that continues to happen. America hasn’t shaken off the shock of that moment, and likely never will. As a testament to the times it was recorded and was eventually made available, the footage is one of the more important films ever, the intention of the filmmaker being irrelevant. And while Zapruder’s home movie has become ingrained in America’s collective memory, WUSA has faded naturally, if unfortunately. There sure was a plethora of similar movies to come out in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and even ‘80s, but I consider WUSA to be among the best produced and most powerful.
New Orleans has only continued to decay since the movie came out, both in infrastructure and progress. Hope is still marketed when people promote the resilience of the residents, but it’s mostly lip service. Expanding on that, if New Orleans represents the country, and the city itself has been decomposing in the decades since JFK was killed, what of America today? Return to Zapruder’s footage, and you might find more than expected and more than desired.
WUSA ends with the following exchange, between a neighbor and Reinhardt, who is moving on to another city:
“Don’t worry, Reinhardt. Everything’s dying.”
“Not me. I’m a survivor. Ain’t that great?”
I’m sure Reinhardt believes that, and I sure want to as well.
Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,
⚜️🍿
…and have a great Turkey Day!
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