Review of The Cross and the Switchblade (1970) by Elizabeth N — 03 Feb 2010

I give this film three stars mainly because of the story itself which is one of the most amazing I have ever heard. The book left me completely awe inspired, but because the book had such an impact on me the film let me down in a lot of ways.

The acting a lot of the time left la lot to be desired, half the time the tension the film tried to build was laughable - I kept expecting the fight scenes to shift into songs from West Side Story, and the soundtrack a lot of the time was a bit strange to say the least. I did however think the scene with Rosa in the church was done brilliantly - that was the one moment that really stuck out for me. It was both well acted and managed to create at least a little tension.

Although I give it three stars more for the story than anything else, there were things about it that still irked me. I hated the fact they tried to hint at some great romance between Nicky and Rosa at the end, which is certainly not how it played out in reality. Also I thought the film undermined some of the characters and how brave they actually were to either put their lives so much on the line, or make such a radical change as to accept God into a life that had before been filled with hate. I also do not think they portrayed the struggle a lot of the characters had in a way that showed how amazing these people lives had been affected and touched. But I guess that it the problem with trying to adapt a story like this into a film - if it was a fiction story I might have accepted it a bit easier, but the fact that these people are real and actually went through these life changing events made it a bit more of a let down that their story didn't get the best dipiction on the screen as it could have done.