Home Film & TV Netflix Pick of the Week: ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950)

Netflix Pick of the Week: ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950)

by Stephen Dominguez

We’ve been meaning to add a certified classic movie onto this list again, and this week’s pick is a movie that we feel is not as talked about in modern pop culture as it should. After all, Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, three of which it won, is currently on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 films at number 16, and has not 1, but 2 quotes listed on their list of top movie lines of all time, one of which is highlighted here. Surely, it’s quite deserving of being in not only in our minds but in yours as well.

Advertisement

'Sunset Boulevard' (stylized onscreen as SUNSET BLVD.) is a 1950 American film noir[3] directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett.

‘Sunset Boulevard’ (stylized onscreen as SUNSET BLVD.) is a 1950 American film noir[3] directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett.

In our opinion, Sunset Boulevard is quite the genre bender. It has the cynical voice overs, the moral ambiguity, and even the femme archetypes of a classic noir film, the exceptionally creepy undertone running through it like any good horror movie should have, the great drama about obsolescence of old age and the film industry, all wrapped up in a love letter to the silent film era of Hollywood. If that seems a bit much, don’t worry, the film blends these so effectively well to make the movie n experience unlike any other.

Advertisement

I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.

But the main draw of this movie is the stellar performance of Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, the faded silent film star whom the story revolves around. She is like a character out of a Steven King novel, while also being an object of abject pity. Her presence, or lack thereof, is palpable in nearly every scene of the movie, but perhaps no more so than in the final scene. It’s there, in that last scene, where all of these elements – the Swanson’s performance, the story elements of the mixed genre, and the second iconic quote of the movie – formulate around Norma Desmond for a mesmerizing finish that we can’t help but gush about.

Thanks for reading this article!

If you’d like to share your thoughts in reaction to what you just read, then feel free to leave a comment below or click here to submit your own opinion piece. The Dorkaholics Team is always on the look for new, additional voices to join us, share their own unique perspectives, and contribute to the diverse platform we are building in our corner of the internet and pop culture community.

Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.