Magnificent Obsession (1954)

 Douglas Sirk's "Magnificent Obsession"

While I completely understand some of the thematic ideas in Douglas Sirk's 1954 film "Magnificent Obsession," I still found myself lacking in interest with the film's execution of these themes. Starting with this film and continuing on with a string of technicolor melodramas that would follow, Douglas Sirk became synonymous with the style and aesthetics of the 1950s. His films almost seem like representations of the decade themselves. However, this particular entry left me a little hollow.

The film centers on a spoiled playboy named Bob Merrick, who decides to change his life after a reckless incident causes the death of a respectable local doctor. After another incident he partially causes, the doctor's wife, Helen, is left without sight. Bob then spends his time attempting to reconciling for his mistakes. 

The themes of the film are relatively tied with the film's visual format. The colors and technicolor palette are lush. They evoke a sense of style and sleekness. One of the main conceits of the film is that the external lavishness of life is hallow. The true spirituality of life is found internally. 

The central character, Bob, through his realization of his spoiled ways, comes to term with the notion that he is living purely for the sake of pleasure. His attention is only drawn to the sensational. Through his good deeds, he begins to see these external concerns as trivial. 

These themes echo the sentiment of a 1950s America, concerned with the external. The nation was entering into a decade full of wealth, decadence, and sensationalism. However, these notions are only hollow, as the heart of the nation began to corrupt from within. Sirk's film becomes emblematic of these 1950s values and the obsession with the external. The story structure, plot point, characters, and melodrama of the film all resemble soapy TV dramas that were emerging at the time. 

However, despite understanding full well these thematic points, I don't feel as though the story really exercises these notions in any meaningful way. To me, the film blends in with the externality it's attempting to comment on. It seems more prone to appease its melodramatic story beats, rather than comment on them.

That being said, Sirk was not the scriptwriter of this story. So, the blame for this can't be laid solely on his feet. The direction, however, is quite impressive. The lushness of the colors and style of the film's visuals really pop. They're are gorgeous, picturesque images that really play in to its melodramatic themes.