Under Milk Wood is a radio drama translated to stage and now screen, starring lovers Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
As I watched this film I began to wonder, what in the fuck am I watching. To say that it is poetic is an understatement, to say it's expressive is minimalism, to say it is clear is an outright lie. This movie is bordering the later self-aware type overly expressive amateur type film that honestly I haven't seen in any era.
In the film, you might be treated to lingering shots of a man staring longingly at somebody or something with a voice-over describing anything from a cooking recipe to his innermost thoughts and dreams. Cut to a goat walking along the path and a woman narrating her lover's stamp collection. This type of inarticulate, unattached, and unconnected series of events is what Under Milk Wood is all about.
Given this, you get what you expect. Parts of it are great, parts of it are tedious and shrug-worthy. There is some deeply intense content, as well as fluff not even worthy of minute consideration. There is a erotiscism and sexuality, next to scenes of soup making and mudpies.
Milk Wood reminds me of Tarkovsky in the ponderous open nature of the film, and in that poetic freedom I really liked its approach. What I got from the film, I really don't know. At least it was short. It did border on annoying at times, but overall I think it's worth seeing. Great early experimentalism at least.
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