SALINGER – The Review

Review by Michael Haffner

There are some who will argue that pulling back the curtain takes away from the mystique that surrounded the author over the years. However, J.D. Salinger is more than just a writer who lets his work do all his speaking. Salinger is a mystery wrapped in an enigma that’s shrouded in secrecy. Nothing proves this fact more than the documentary itself. Composed of a variety of talking heads, academic figures, and some random celebrities – these Hollywood stars are given as much on screen time as shown in the trailer – SALINGER is a documentary that attempts to tap into what made the mysterious writer tick. Director Shane Salerno seems intent on doing this by combing through the few details that are available about Salinger’s personal life. Thankfully there are some colleagues of his that are willing to speak openly about him which grounds the larger idea of Salinger and shows him as just a man struggling to make a name for himself through his writing. Though these details certainly give some insight to the themes and characters explored in FRANNY AND ZOE, NINE STORIES, and THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, outsiders who aren’t familiar with his work will be as lost and misguided as Holden Caulfield.

As a fan of Salinger’s written work, it seems like such an obvious error that there isn’t a single line read, printed, or discussed in the movie from any of his short stories and world famous novel. Regardless if this is a rights issue with the publishing company or not, the simple fact that the work isn’t discussed or analyzed at all is easily my biggest issue with the film. So much of what made Salinger an amazing figure is only going to be found in his articulate prose. Ignoring the work to explore the man behind the words is a perplexing choice on the part of director Shane Salerno, and even more so, it doesn’t serve newcomers to Salinger very well in the least. What we are given instead is such overly drawn out history lessons such as recounting the hardships of D-Day and The Battle of the Bulge that Salinger fought through in his early years; as if we haven’t seen enough of the same stock war footage over the years on the History Channel or in middle school. To make matters worse, the documentation of his war years, which no doubt had a tremendous impact on his mental and physical health, is comprised of just two or three photos of him. Several talking heads speak about the hardships of the war while we gaze over and over … and over again at the same photo of Salinger smoking a cigarette while writing what would become his masterpiece – THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.

Most of the facts discussed in the first half of the film are well regarded among literary fans, but where SALINGER really kicks into high gear is in the last third. A fair amount of time is given to Joyce Maynard and her unusual relationship with the then reclusive writer in the 1970’s. It is through her brave testimonies that we begin to see Salinger’s passion and reverence for the innocence of youth – which is evident in his stories – in quite a darker light. Maynard, who was just 18 at the time, wrote to Salinger as a fan without anticipating that this would lead to a live-in relationship. Her description of dinners out with his older friends reveals that Salinger was fully aware of the indecency of the matter, which resulted in their eventual separation. But that’s not before she found out he was also writing to other young women as well. Information such as this can’t help but affect the way you view the man, but the director and editor here are careful to present this information in a matter of fact way without being too sensational with any salacious details.

Shane Salerno is just coming off of writing duty on Oliver Stone’s SAVAGES. And where that film’s misguided story and over the top narration bring down Stone’s direction, Salerno’s amateur touch is felt all the more in SALINGER through a random timeline given to the writer’s life and a gimmicky faux presentation of an actor pretending to be Salinger. We see a silhouette of the writer throughout the film “hard at work” typing and contemplating his work on a theatrical stage in overwrought fashion. This hackneyed narrative device is so overused that they may have been able to chop off ten minutes or so from the film’s overly long run-time if all these scenes were removed. What might be more maddening though are the random personal stories from journalists and fans sprinkled throughout the film. Some are given so much time that you wonder if an entirely different cut of the film doesn’t also exist comprised of just Salinger obsessed accounts.

What should have been an impassioned documentary about one of the late great writers of our time ends up being a tiresome retread of many previously known facts. Very few new details are revealed and the big reveal at the end discussing soon to be published work makes the overly drawn-out affair feel like a commercial for the 2015 release of new novels. Which, as any true Salinger fan can attest, makes this documentary feel as phony as they come.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

SALINGER opens in St. Louis September 20th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater