Salinger (2013)

This interesting documentary on the fascinating and private writer has a few slow spots but overall Jack and I liked it much more than the majority of critics (who didn't). With a few photos of the camera-shy subject, the movie is filled out with lots of interviews, many who can speak with some authority on the man, footage of the time periods covered, and some over-arching music (lugubrious for sad parts or loud and strident for WWII). A number of famous and not-so-famous actors and writers also weigh in briefly. Director Shane Salerno (co-writer of Savages) made the acclaimed doc Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs (1991) when he was 18, and this is his second, with other writing gigs along the way.

Here's my personal story. In May of 1970, when American colleges went on strike against Nixon's invasion of Cambodia, I jumped at the chance to ditch my campus and traveled up to Dartmouth to stay with my then-boyfriend Lewis. He and his friends were as anti-war as I, and we canvassed in the area around the Connecticut River to convince people that our way of thinking had merit. One nice lady we met near Cornish NH said, "You kids should go see J.D. Salinger. He lives right over there up the hill." So the two of us knocked on his door and he invited us in! To prove the point made by two people in the movie who said Salinger thought every person's story was important, he encouraged Lewis to talk about his own challenge, which was that his father was upset about the strike, and was considering withholding Lewis' college tuition (that ultimately did not come to pass). I don't remember much else--1970 was a LONG time ago--except that when I introduced myself as Babs, which was my nickname at the time, he said, "Oh. Babette," which did blow me away since most folks assumed my name was Barbara. After seeing this movie and seeing the youth of the women to whom Salinger was attracted, I imagine that the reason he didn't flirt with me was probably that he respected Lewis too much to do so, and possibly I was so naive I might have missed the signs if there were any. But I did recognize the outside of that house in Cornish when we watched the movie on Wednesday.

The author Salinger died in 2010 at 91, before Salerno had finished editing the documentary, causing Salerno to return to several interviewees and flesh out their stories and, of course, changing the ending. If you loved any of the great author's work, you should see this.