Donald Sutherland,
Karen Black,
Burgess Meredith,
William Atherton,
Geraldine Page
... see more 
The Day of the Locust is anything but a cheerful, light look at Hollywood in the '30s. It recreates both the town as well as the filmmaking world around which much of the town revolved with devastatin... read more
DVD Release Date: June 8, 2004
Stats: 134 reviews
Profoundly sad view of the lower rungs of Hollywood life in the 30's. Disturbing and unsettling. The climatic sequence is both horrifying and mesmerizing.
An often surreal but always intriguing morality tale. This film has it's sights set mostly on "Hollywood", with a few "pop shots" at organized religion (which if you think about it is not so different from Hollywood).
Sure the characters are "over the top" and "steretypical",... read more
Wow, what an ugly film. Presumably, this cynical tale of Hollywood wannabes was green-lit following the success of "Chinatown." Not one likable character in the cast -- even the lead Tod (William Atherton), with his shallow love for Faye (Karen Black), is hard to embrace. Donald ... read more
Allegorical film that depicts the moral decay of 1930's Hollywood. Donald Sutherland gave an unusual performance as Homer Simpson. The epic, horrifying climax is the true highlight of the picture, one of the best sequences of cinema ever filmed. Masterpiece.
This is a movie that builds slowly but surely, the intensity hidden below the surface finally erupting in a climax that has to rank as one of the most horrifying sequences in film history. Unpleasant, difficult, scathing, and ultimately shattering. On a side note, I heard René Cl... read more
I loved this flick as a kid. All I remember is Karen Black's pathetic character & the California heat. So good.
Schlesinger has conceived his film as an epic, which was a daring thing to do with such slender material. Full Review
A painfully misconceived reduction and simplification. Full Review
Accurately captures the intent of West's dark masterpiece. Full Review
John (Midnight Cowboy) Schlesinger's version of Nathanael Hawthorne's powerful novel about Hollywood and its dreamers and losers in the 1930s is not always effective, but it's ambitious, daring, and v... Full Review
The casting choices are brilliant but the production is let down by a haphazard screenplay that misses the novel's point, and weak direction. Full Review
Much has been made of the climactic riot scene, which may have seemed novel when Nathanael West first wrote it back in the '30s, but it's just plain goofy when viewed today
Blistering film version of the novel. One of Schlesinger's best works.
A fascinating, if flawed, example of the film industry turning the lights on itself and finding nothing there but darkness. Full Review
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