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“Holden Caulfield Was Here” By M.G. Wood The Books It’s been 56 years since J.D. Salinger published his classic novel THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, instantly becoming one of the very few works of fiction that represents a rite of passage for every intellectually curious teenager from all economic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The novel is the most banned book in American history, thereby insuring it’s endurance as a must read for any young person with even a hint of rebellion in their souls. After publication it didn’t take long for Hollywood to come calling on Mr. Salinger to sell the rights to his book. And being the stubborn genius he is, Salinger said no. J.D. Salinger has continued to say no for over 50 years, and now at the age of 88, one wonders who will be left with the daunting task of overseeing his work after he is gone, and will there ever be a CATCHER IN THE RYE movie. Some filmmakers have said to have been so inspired by Salinger’s work, that it infuses everything they produce. Consider Wes Anderson and Whit Stillman, Anderson and Stillman’s films are not exclusively the product of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, but carry the fingerprints of all of Salinger’s eccentric, creative, intellectual characters: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948), "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" (1948), "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (1948), "The Laughing Man" (1949), "Down at the Dinghy" (1949), "For Esmé with Love and Squalor" (1950), "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" (1951), "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" (1952), "Teddy" (1953) "Franny" (1955), "Zooey" (1957)Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963) "Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters" (1955), "Seymour: An Introduction" (1959) ____________________________
____________________________ The Films Every actor from Brando to DiCaprio has voiced their desire to play Holden Caulfield, and the producers who have wanted to make the movie range from the sublime (Spielberg, Elia Kazan) to the absurd (Jerry Lewis, Harvey Weinstein). But, alas we passionate lovers of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE must be satisfied with the films inspired by the great novel. ___ Written and Directed by Burr Steers
Kieran Culkin plays Jason 'Igby' Slocumb, Jr., a 17 year old who escapes prep school and attempts to lose himself in the exotic world of artists, druggies, and promiscuous older women that lie within the shadows of Manhattan. Only problem is, the search is on to find the fugitive Igby, and the charge is led by his demented Uncle played brilliantly by Jeff Goldblum. Culkin is excellent portraying Igby as Holden; looking the part of a befuddled yet determined young man, at the same time expressing all the nuanced, confused intellectual rage that simmers within. While the look and timbre of the film may not be purely Salingeresque, the film’s mixture of comic folly and dramatic twists definitely strike all the right notes. ____________________________ Written and Directed by Noah Baumbach
Produced by Wes Anderson, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE could easily be mistaken for a film Wes Anderson would write and direct himself; particularly the way in which the actual writer/director Noah Baumbach uses music and stilted dialogue to express the emotional detachment of his characters. In actuality Baumbach’s characters come across a bit more human than do Anderson’s, instilling a sentimental strain to the film that’s lacking in the average Wes Anderson film. THE SQUID AND THE WHALE centers on two brothers played by Owen Kline and Jesse Eisenberg, the brothers have just been informed by their intellectually disingenuous father (Jeff Daniels) that there will be a family meeting after school, “What’s a family meeting?” says the youngest (Kline). In the meeting the brothers are informed that their parents are separating. The reaction of the two brothers to this news and the father’s retort is one of the most authentic and funny scenes of family discord you may ever see on film. Of the two brothers, the youngest is the most Holdenesque, a very bright and emotionally raw kid on the prowl for something, anything to rebel against. As opposed to the older brother, who is content to rely on his father for guidance, a father that proclaims, “A Tale of Two Cities is minor Dickens”. ____________________________ Written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson Directed by Wes Anderson
Jason Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, the anti-Holden Caulfield. Max wants desperately to attend the prestigious prep school Rushmore. Max fancies himself a bit of a renaissance man, writing and directing his own plays, often based on classic films. Max may not be rebelling against the elitists in the Ivy, but Max Fischer harbors as much neurotic angst about the world in which he lives as Holden ever did. RUSHMORE is the first and best display of Wes Anderson’s unique talent for combining eccentric characters and off-beat music, and staging them within his camera frame, a camera frame surely designed by Woody Allen. There is something clearly unsentimental about all of Wes Anderson’s films, thus Anderson’s heavy reliance upon music. By the same token, sentimentality is most often the death of true art, and a trademark of J.D. Salinger’s stories, so while critics scold Anderson for his lack of emotional impact, Salinger would stand up and applaud, and then disappear again. ____________________________ Written and Directed by Whit Stillman
Holden Caulfield loved to angrily rail against the “phonies” of the upper middle class bourgeois and their hypocrisy and petty greed. Well, writer/director Whit Stillman goes into the belly of the beast to live among the tuxedo-clad natives, and to shine a light on the rituals, desires and customs of this little understood tribe. And what he finds by way of Tom Townsend (Edward Clements) is that Holden was right. Tom Townsend infiltrates a tight nit group of preppy partyers one night and is soon taken in as a full-fledged member. Tom is from a different class, but due to his ragged charm and well-timed lies, Tom is accepted whole-heartedly. Tom is Holden by way of the cross-town bus, and while at first Tom floats above the fray and views the events with a cynical eye, he soon comes to enjoy the life. Tom as Holden as us, come to gradually see subtle shades of humanity in these spoiled little rich kids, discovering there are many Holden Caulfields wrestling with their souls right within the heart of darkness. ____________________________ HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) Written by Colin Higgins Directed by Hal Ashby
Picture Holden Caulfield as a modern day Goth, dressed in black, obsessed with death, suffering in mortal despair at being a party to the rich upper class excess, of which he was born into. Harold likes to stage and perform elaborate fake suicide attempts in the hopes that it will shock his stuffy mother into authenticity. HAROLD AND MAUDE may not be the most obvious choice as a film influenced by J.D. Salinger, but readers of Salinger’s other works outside of CATCHER will recognize the same dark humor in Hal Ashby’s personal masterpiece. Bud Cort’s Harold displays the same anti-authoritarian anger that seethes within Holden Caulfield, only within HAROLD AND MAUDE there lies a love story. 20 year old Harold falls in love with a 79 year old Maude. It is almost impossible to write about HAROLD AND MAUDE in any context without digressing into a discussion of the great, brilliant, beautiful performance by Ruth Gordon. It could be argued that Wes Anderson was influenced more by HAROLD AND MAUDE, than by Salinger. The unsentimental, lyrical tone of Ashby’s film, said to be semi-autobiographical, in an alternate universe could have been written by J.D. Salinger and directed by Wes Anderson.
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