The film “Rebel in the Rye” attempts to understand a man who didn’t want to be understood, made by someone who is clearly a fan.
This can have its drawbacks — it’s hard to attain some level of objectivity when you are an advocate.
But it also means we have the warmest possible portrait of a chilly personality, author J.D. Salinger, an uncompromising writer who became burdened by his 1951 debut novel, “Catcher in the Rye,” now a classic.
But it also means we have the warmest possible portrait of a chilly personality, author J.D. Salinger, an uncompromising writer who became burdened by his 1951 debut novel, “Catcher in the Rye,” now a classic.
Writer-director Danny Strong focuses on a roughly 15-year period in Salinger’s life, from the late 1930s New York, where he is raised by a father (Victor Garber) who has no confidence that "Jerry" (as he is called) will make it as a writer, and a mother (Hope Davis) who very much does (Salinger dedicated “Catcher in the Rye” to his mother), to the beginnings of a decades-long isolation in rural New Hampshire.
Jerry is a precocious brat who woos Eugene O’Neill’s daughter Oona — later the wife of Sir Charles Chaplin — and is taken down a peg or two by his writing mentor at Columbia, the brilliant editor of Story magazine, Whit Burnett.
Whit is unrelentingly tough on Salinger, and Strong suggests that without his guidance, Salinger might never have written his masterpiece.
It is Whit who urges Salinger to expand Holden Caulfield’s character, first appearing in an unpublished short story, into a novel.
It is Whit who urges Salinger to expand Holden Caulfield’s character, first appearing in an unpublished short story, into a novel.
To this point, “Rebel in the Rye” is just skimming the surface.
Strong’s script doesn’t quite give us an understanding of Salinger’s character.
But the film deepens after Salinger’s service in World War II.
Strong’s script doesn’t quite give us an understanding of Salinger’s character.
But the film deepens after Salinger’s service in World War II.
Salinger was a soldier who was part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
His unit just misses the point where the heaviest fighting was — though he does see heavy action as his unit battles its way across France, retaking the country from the Nazis, and is later present at the liberation of the concentration camps — so he has a sort of survivor’s guilt that haunts him for much of the rest of his life.
His unit just misses the point where the heaviest fighting was — though he does see heavy action as his unit battles its way across France, retaking the country from the Nazis, and is later present at the liberation of the concentration camps — so he has a sort of survivor’s guilt that haunts him for much of the rest of his life.
While apparent budget limitations hinder the film during the war scenes, it’s what happens when Salinger returns home after the war that the movie hits a higher gear.
More determined than ever to get “Catcher in the Rye” published, Jerry has a falling-out with Whit.
His only friends seem to be his pragmatic but relentlessly understanding agent, who understands the idiosyncrasies of the creative mind; and Swami Nikhilananda, his teacher when he turns to Zen Buddhism.
More determined than ever to get “Catcher in the Rye” published, Jerry has a falling-out with Whit.
His only friends seem to be his pragmatic but relentlessly understanding agent, who understands the idiosyncrasies of the creative mind; and Swami Nikhilananda, his teacher when he turns to Zen Buddhism.
What drove Salinger to retreat after the success of “Catcher in the Rye”?
Was it the pressure to follow up a book that unexpectedly made him an instant celebrity?
Was it the pressure to follow up a book that unexpectedly made him an instant celebrity?
In “Rebel in the Rye,” Salinger is repeatedly stalked by fanboys wearing Holden Caulfield’s signature red hunting cap, and the suggestion is he fled to the woods as much for his own safety as his sanity.
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