#1039: PENNEBAKER, D.A. and HEGEDUS, Chris: Town Bloody Hall (1979)
PENNEBAKER, D.A. and HEGEDUS, Chris (United States)
Town Bloody Hall [1979]
Spine #1039
Blu-ray
Extras Rating (0-40):
Town Bloody Hall [1979]
Spine #1039
Blu-ray
On April 30, 1971, a standing-room-only crowd of New York's intellectual elite packed the city's Town Hall theater to see Norman Mailer — fresh from the controversy over his essay "The Prisoner of Sex" and the backlash it received from leaders of the women's movement — tangle with a panel of four prominent female thinkers and activists: Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, and Diana Trilling. Part intellectual death match, part three-ring circus, the proceedings were captured with crackling, fly-on-the-wall immediacy by the documentary great D. A. Pennebaker and a small crew, with Chris Hegedus later condensing the three-and-a-half-hour affair into this briskly entertaining snapshot of a singular cultural moment. Heady, heated, and hilarious, Town Bloody Hall is a dazzling display of feminist firepower courtesy of some of the most influential figures of the era, with Mailer plainly relishing his role as the pugnacious rabble-rouser and literary lion at the center of it all.
85 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2020
Directors
D.A. Pennebaker was 54 and Chris Hegedus was 27 when they directed Town Bloody Hall.
Other films by Pennebaker and Hegedus in the Collection:
#169: Jimi Plays Monterey And Shake! Otis At Monterey (1986)
Other films by Pennebaker and Hegedus in the Collection:
#169: Jimi Plays Monterey And Shake! Otis At Monterey (1986)
The Film
There are four important dates here:
- 1971, the year this event took place;
- 1979, the year Pennebaker and Hegedus released the film. Unless you lived in New York City and saw it on PBS, you probably didn’t see it at that time;
- 2020, the year Criterion released this; and
- Whatever date you — dear reader — happen upon this bizarre, yet wonderful, documentary.
On Friday, April 30, 1971 — as a fundraiser for Shirley Broughton’s Theatre for Ideas — Norman Mailer and four feminists all possessing greatly varying degrees of radicalism (Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston and Diana Trilling) gathered in Town Hall on 43rd Street to debate the broad subject of the feminist movement.
Mailer apparently appointed himself Master of Ceremonies and gave each woman a ten-minute time limit on their speeches.
Ceballos — then the president of the New York chapter of NOW — cited the party line, which seems rather quaint at this time; women should be allowed to have a credit card in their name, etc.
Greer (promoting her newest book at the time, the famous The Female Eunuch [1970]) was by far the most articulate of the group.
Johnston apparently only wanted to shock:
“All women are lesbians except those who don’t know it naturally. They are but don’t know it yet. I am a woman and therefore a lesbian. I am a woman who is a lesbian because I am a woman ...”
“Some women want to have their cock and eat it too ...”
“Until all woman are lesbians, there will be no true political revolution.”
She then rolled around the stage, dry-humping her girlfriends, and then promptly departed the scene for the remainder of the evening!
Trilling argued with Greer about Freud.
The title comes from an exchange between Mailer and Greer regarding the accuracy of some frenzied moment in their seesawing diatribes:
MAILER
“It’s obviously a cheap shot ...”
GREER
“Because I think it’s too serious to do it just so I can defend myself against hecklers in the Town Bloody Hall.”
Now, a reading list. This entire affair was apparently provoked by Mailer’s The Prisoner of Sex (1971), his attempt at rebutting Kate Millett’s criticism.
Greer was a natural choice for the panel because of her recent book.
The footage sometimes looks like it was shot by someone in the midst of a terrifying LSD trip (the filmmakers never actually got permission from the Town Hall authorities, and spent most of the night trying to avoid the security guards!).
Nevertheless, after sitting on Pennebaker’s shelf for eight years, Hegedus — fascinated with the material — took it upon herself to edit the 3-1/2 hour event down to its present length.
It is a seminal event in cultural time travel.
Film rating (0-60):
51
The Extras
The Booklet
Eight-page foldout featuring an essay by film critic Melissa Anderson, who lovingly expands on most of the evening’s more bizarre moments.
Commentary
From 2004 featuring Hegedus and Greer.
Hegedus at 52; Greer at 65. Their rear-view mirror perspectives are both instructive and hilarious.
Video interview
With Hegedus, who explains how she took over the raw footage and edited it — and her obvious respect for most of the players, with the possible exception of Trilling and Mailer.
Footage
From a 2004 celebration of the film, which brought together participants Greer, Ceballos, Johnston, and directors Hegedus and Pennebaker.
The Dick Cavett Show
From 1971 with Mailer promoting his book The Prisoner of Sex.
Cavett’s other guests were Gore Vidal and Janet Flanner. By the end of show it was a heavyweight fight, with Cavett, Vidal and Flanner on one side, and Mailer on the other. Quite entertaining.
Archival interviews
with Greer and Mailer.
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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