Simply A Masterpiece

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

first time i saw it, it was so unusual that it stayed with me for days. it was a bit creepy that "the girl" pictured herself hanging (same outfit). the football enthusiast killing his transistor was comical! the posh dork was weird; the girl said, "i'll write" to him, although she didn't know him. it seemed she was supposed to be going home, but ended up on a bus full of Manchester United fans. loved the song, "the pig". the fans were fun; a young guy kissed an older, balding guy on the top of his head for giving him some booze. it was also cute that the older dude gave the girl a snort, too. strange how, upon leaving that bus, she went outside, saw the tour bus, & flagged it down (the first thing i do after work is change clothes, then eat dinner). goofy mayor was walking a few inches from the tour guide, but listened to her talking through the walkie-talkie, as a child might do. i loved the light-hearted music playing through most of the movie; it kept it from being depressing or boring. also loved that hub of tall, raised apartment buildings! how amazing they looked @ the intersection. kind of wanted to give that museum "elevator operator" a bit of a boot in the pants. after the depressing war scenes, the little town was very nice. the girl walked along those identically-shaped, cozy brick buildings. then she passed a long row of gorgeous bay windows that were so inviting i wanted to live there! so romantic. the woman in the chip shop sounded a little like "ivy" from the Cafe (on "last of the summer wine"). just thought i'd share why this funky movie was so entertaining to me, & might be to you, as well:D

This review is for Red, White and Zero. It's possible to reconstruct the facts around this film, but the IMDb listing is confusing. Lindsay Anderson's The White Bus was briefly and unsuccessfully released with two other shorts: a very short film by Peter Brook featuring Zero Mostel in a hurry (The Ride of the Valkyries - lots of frantic mugging), and Red and Blue by Tony Richardson. Only Lindsay Anderson's film seems to be readily available. (The others would make good Criterion extras.)I saw Red, White and Zero on late night Australian television in 1984. The White Bus wasn't seen to best effect on the small screen - rather self-consciously poetic, but as an Anderson film it will obviously bear reseeing. Red and Blue was fascinating and not very good. Tony Richardson was in love with the Nouvelle Vague, and raided its box of tricks and its composers (Bassiak from Jules and Jim; Duhamel from Godard's Pierrot le Fou) in an imitation Demy/Moreau vehicle for Vanessa Redgrave! She fluted a song in English, and Kevin Brownlow provided the jumpcuts. (You can hear her singing Bassiak's Bonjour Papa on YouTube).Most weirdly, the sex interests for the romantically-besieged Vanessa were provided by Douglas Fairbanks Jr, William Sylvester (the scientist from Kubrick's 2001), and Michael York. The sparks didn't exactly fly. Anyway, after 30 years, it's time to make this available again.

I saw this film for the first time about a week ago. Honestly, I didn't understand most of it. If given the chance to watch it again, I would, mostly to try to figure it out. It gave my husband the creeps.The film is done with high quality and is masterful in setting moods. It runs like a nightmare, though. Situations in it are surreal, otherworldly, loud and then suddenly quiet. It seems to me that "The White Bus" is contrasting male and female roles in the workplace and why should it be wrong for women to take on some of the jobs that men are performing. When the Girl first joins the eerie tour, she sits on the bottom of the bus but soon after moves to the top of it, perhaps as an allegory for rising up in the world, freeing herself from the restraints of roles that placed squarely on each gender. At one point, when the Lord Mayor places his hand on the Girl's knee, it is a sexist gesture and the Girl frees herself by demanding that he remove his hand and then moving to the front of the bus.I give it five out of ten, simply because I don't understand it, although the filming of it was high quality work. If put into the context of all three of the films for which it was intended to be seen, then perhaps I would understand it better.

Interesting 47 minute short from a Shelagh Delaney short story. A girl quits her dull job, and goes on a surrealistic bus tour of a dilapidated Manchester. Along for the ride are a strange mix, including a lascivious vicar, lord mayor (Arthur Lowe, always great), etc. Many of the techniques that became part of 'If' and 'O Lucky Man' first show up here.(e.g. mixing color and B+W). It also follows 'O Lucky Man' in being a surreal journey of a somewhat passive, young lead character traveling through a world where they have little power. Enigmatic, sure, but it's interesting and entertaining in a Brechtian/Anderson sort of dark humored politically satirical way. Cleary it's making fun of the pathetic nature of modern society and our desperate need to justify all the glories of 'progress that really sap our humanity. Some terrific and haunting images. Anthony Hopkins appears very briefly singing in German (?!?).