He sometimes stays up all night trying to figure things out. Nothing ever works.
While All Night Long has met with near-universal praise for its musical score featuring some of the best-known Jazz artists of the day, the critical response to other aspects of the production can only be described as less than unanimous. Amid general complaints about the "unbelievable" plot, the "overplaying" of certain parts, and the under-use of available talent, the film’s creative team have been accused of “signposting” their borrowings from Shakespeare, and criticized for not following the “original” closely enough: after the daring depiction of “intermingling” between white and "coloured" characters, the film then withholds the expected interracial “lover’s kiss” and, worst of all, the familiar ending to the familiar story, which is the capital punishment of the lovers for their respective transgressions.
The perception persists to this day, of All Night Long as an ambitious experiment that fails to fulfil its potential - a potential moreover fraught with historical significance had the film been able - or indeed inclined - to present an updated adaptation of Othello, an authentic portrayal of the contemporary Jazz scene, or a comment on race relations in post-war Britain. Each scenario being a monumental task in its own right, any combination would have been well-nigh impossible to tackle. Criticism was concerned with opportunities wasted and expectations frustrated – precisely when it is the protagonist’s fate to remain forever stunted in his growth as a person and a human being, and who is instead condemned to suffer, in perpetuity, the consequences of his own catastrophic failings.
If one character can be said to represent the ultimate waste - of a human life - it is not Rex. It is not Othello. The tragedy unfolding in the course of the night is not the wanton destruction of innocent lives [though the attempt is certainly made], nor will the guilty party receive what would be considered his "just" punishment [though the concept of poetic justice is certainly debatable]. In the absence of a [superficially] satisfying conclusion, the temptation to find fault with the film itself has been irresistible but perhaps the very image of the film’s characters as “puppets whose strings are not jerked by any logical sequence of events” points to a possible flaw in the reviewer's own logic. By assuming that a) the film intends to mimic Shakespeare and b) it does so badly, he is a) demanding that the characters behave more like their Shakespearian ancestors while b) simultaneously complaining that they have no self-awareness.
This basic assumption also has a self-limiting effect as it excludes the possibility of other intentions. What if Othello/Rex was never envisioned as the central character? What if his reunion with Desdemona/Delia was not an outrageous debasement of the Shakespearian tragedy? What if Johnny Cousin actually did behave like Iago in refusing to explain himself, or the film of the dramatic scenario he has scripted, orchestrated, and directed. Indeed, what if the other characters act like puppets because they are remote-controlled, not by Shakespeare but by their modern master of ceremonies, that enigmatic virtuoso, the egregious, the extraordinary Mr Johnny Cousin himself? What if Johnny had decided it was his time to be the “big man,” and to wrestle the script book from his handlers? What if Johnny Cousin had created his own perfect little universe and put himself in charge only to find that his artificial fantasy is as fragile – and as ephemeral - as the chemical high from his last fix. When the music stops and the euphoria has worn off, the flesh-and-blood people, puppets no more, are free to leave the stage. For Johnny, the nightmare never ends.
It is intriguing to imagine Johnny Cousin taking "control" of the film's themes, characters, and spaces, regardless of what the creators' original intentions may have been. Having staged the event to advance his own career, ironically, Johnny finds that the space he has chosen is a closed set, with physical boundaries that reinforce rather than relieve the restlessness, and the futility, of his efforts. A single frame of Johnny captured in a desperate lunge for freedom epitomizes, perhaps like no other, the static nature of his situation, seconds before his impossible dreams are quashed against the solid wooden boards of a massive padlocked door.
