Simplify Salinger | TV
Last Tuesday, J. D. Salinger, the immortal and sullen author of The guardian among the rye, the genius who decided, at 46, to stop publishing and convert writing into his religion, "something to do for nothing", would have turned 100. And in the absence of the documentary directed by Shane Salerno in 2013, the almost secret Salinger, far from our reach - in the United States, Netflix bought it, in Spain, not-, nothing better than having a look at Rebel among the rye, the biopic with which Danny Strong (Buffy Vampire Slayer) made his debut as a director, available since the end of December at Movistar.
Strong focuses on the period of Salinger's formation as a writer, and outlines it, thickly and without wishing him any harm -obviously, completely, his obsession with young girls, ignoring the relationship he had with the writer Joyce Maynard when she had 18 years and he 53, even if he winks at the end of the footage - as someone to whom the war - Salinger was at the Normandy landings, and miraculously survived - had completely deranged. Charles Chaplin also had something to do with it. He took away, at that time, the only girl who really wanted: Oona O'Neill. The crazy fans of his only novel did the rest.
Although the film could go through a telefilme anyone who failed without remedy, excessive sweetener, to portray the angry writer Zen, the truth is that it works perfectly as a manual of advice for the future writer who still does not know if he is a writer: there is Whit Burnett, the passionate character that sustains the film - played by a magnificent and twilight Kevin Spacey - the guy who discovered John Cheever, William Saroyan and Salinger himself, tracing the map of what it really is to be a writer, the pure logic of trade and punch to the false aspirant. That alone is why it is worth remembering the still mysterious Salinger.
