#allan king
Warrendale (1967)
Directed by Allan King
Doomsy’s Rating: 69/100
A very difficult film to sit through, as is the case with many of Allan King’s films, but a rewarding experience in the end. Warrendale offers a disturbing and disquieting look at children put through hell and worse in a home for those with behavioral and developmental problems. King deviates from acceptable documentary conventions and instead finds truth in a verite style which makes the experience more cinematic than perhaps this narrative should be. In fact, King’s mere presence so close to the subjects does make me question where his motivations were during the making of this film. If his aim was to bring Warrendale down to its knees, he was in part culpable in the systematic abuse taking place within its walls, for framing the story as less an observational piece and more of a character melodrama. Story aside, King’s formalism here is doubly effective, both in the grotesque closeups of mental anguish and the black and white, scratched-up stock; both add up to an audibly disorienting nightmare that not only hurts to think about, but is still a horrible reality in some parts of the world today.
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