FOCUS ON CRITICISM

The result is operation update.

RI.2 million later we have a

a Continant, acclaimed worldwide, dram-

Follow That Rainbow: Operation Update
Keyan G Tomaselli
The first South African film, The Kimberley Diamond Robbery was produced in
19~0. In 1916, De Voortrekkers/Winninq
atIcally married a sense of locale and history.
1949 - Jim Comes to Joburq
{African Jim} portrays a powerful rendition of life during the 1940's.
Seven
years later, Jamie Uys' Daar Doer in die Bosveld marked the first pure Afrikaans
film offering.
1974 - Boesman and Lena - a statement on bulldozers, squatters,
demolition and homelessness •.
1979AD. Stage entertainer Loius Burke speaking on his first movie, Follow That
Rainbow:' "I set out to make a big, entertaining musical like the dazzlers of
the 1940's".
mechanical1y engineered "spectacular family Christmas musical", a sugar-coated
'wholesome' entertainment with old fashioned values and tearjerker (as opposed
to snot en trane) sentiment - a Brickhill-Burke follies parade with a bit of
celJuliod thrown in•..
The obsession of some filmmakers to resurrect something called "family enter-
tainment" which is aimed at a mass market has its roots in the Hollywood studio
sy~tem of the 1930's and '40's when production lines were geared to producing
unlform and standardised products.
cultures of taste horrified producers who took umbrage at the suggestion that
their films did not have mass appeal.
Consequently, they made expensive ex-
t~avangazas which, in order for them to make.a profit, had to be aimed at as
wlde an audience as possible.
With the decline of the studio system, however,
this was no longer pOSSible. for audience tastes together with consequent
changes in financing, production methods. and competition from industries
Showed up the built-in obsolescence of the Hollywood production line which re-
stricted progress and experimentation outside established formulas.
The result
was that where previously one large budget movie was made, now three or four
Only one had to be financially successful
could be produced for the same cost.
to recoup a profit on the budget laid out on all four. Thus. Hollywood initially
ensured a high standard for the ~veragehPrOduct that few other national film
igher expectations in their audiences,
industries could emulate.
however, Hollywood forced the world to meet its standards of professional ~om-
Petence if other industries wanted to compete at all.
When several countrles
did, in fact do as, the heyday of Hollywood was over and the studio system dis-
~ntled
in favour of a more flexible, more innovative structure of production.
and hence the quality of film.
On the completion of operation update Burke states that he is "happy with the
resultw•
established during the '3ars-and '40's. Where That's Entertainment extracted
the extravagant and the indulgent, Follow That Rainbow i~ thinner,.mor~ ~tagey
than cinematic
a mixture of a watered down Sound of MUS1C and a Slmpllfled
The viewer is transported into a world of operetta cheer-
fulness and ca en e~ art. a predictable wit will all come right in the end".
In order to fully assess the cinematic value of Follow That Rainbow. it is first

£Q11ow that Rainbow is formulaic, rigidly following the Hollywood genre

The idea of a segmented market or sub-

By in uClng

51

r over Bro~dwa

The

Rainbow, although

Here behaviour is fragmented,

necessary to examine the structure of the typical Hollywood musical.
1930's saw the vintage years of the child performers, Shirley Temple in part-
icular.
Like Follow That Rainbow's Memory Jane, she sang, danced, showed a
rare independence and generally got everybody organised.
Most musicals in-
corporate singing and dancing and often the instrumental performances lack
sufficient visual imagery to justify the interruption of the story.
Often
too, they are without thematic relevance to the action.
Follow That Rainbow
avoids this trap.
Musicals are generally characterized by simple story lines
whiCh lack the complexity found in dramatic films.
The result may be a super-
ficiality of theme, a linear predictability and a dull story.
Offering a fairly complex plot, remains however, entirely predictable even down
to the 'good baddie' and the 'bad baddie', so typical of South African films.
Some situations are oversimplified and lack credibility as exemplified in the
ridiculously amateurish kidnap.payoff.
Obviously, the
Like most musicals Rainbow is primarily realistic in character.
musical numbers are not, but the connecting narrative material remains realistic
in both environment and characterizations.
The continuity of the story depends
on a contemporary and recognizable setting while the musical interludes may in-
dulge in a fantastical discontinuity, as for example, where the orphan girls are
singing and dancing in the orphanage gardens.
characters jump from one place to another, reappear in yet a different location
and generally descend upon the camera in a fragmented way during the same song.
The heroes of musicals often behave in a devious manner. but since the viewer
knows that they are by nature good people, he expects that their better jUdge-
ment will eventually show itself and that their inherent characteristics of
honesty. integrity. compassion and kindness will prevail.
In Follow That Rain-
bow we first see Johnny Madison as an arrogant, unconcerned. selfish playboy
Amongst other things. he ac-
who is irritated and bored with his wife. Carrie.
cuses her of riding his back to success.
Johnny has an eye for the dancing
girls and a quick temper with the stage hands.
Carrie is portrayed as an overly
made-up insipid sort of Mae West, the driving force behind Johnny's career.
Her
unselfish and generous spirit is evident in her efforts to repair a damaged
Carrie also devotes
marriage and guide an ungrateful and ungracious falling star.
some considerable effort to the happiness of the orphan girls and incorporates
When Melody is kidnapped. the
them in Johnny's show, much to their delight.
real character in Johnny emerges and he agrees to pay a ransom for a girl who,
despite what the kidnappers mistakenly think, is not his daughter.
He later
identifies her real father and takes MelOdy to see him in hospital at the risk
of being late for his show in another city. ][~erything comes right in the end
and everybody lives happily thereafter (exce~~elodyls
In Follow That Rainbow, the hero, Johnny Madi~Gn, exhibits musical talents some-
He is an ageing
what out of keeping with the musical environment of the film.
star. a diluted sort of big-bandsman with dancing girls, a style that is out of
place and dated when seen against the upbeat supporting cast.
However, the pre-
monition of a happy ending is entirely predictable.
The child orphan finds a
new set of parents. _ The squabbling couple. Johnny and Carrie make up.
The
theatre audience acknowledges the continued star quality in Carrie despite a
The ~hole p~ot is
IS year retirement, and Johnny is shown to human after all.
neatly tied up on the stage in front of the spectators, and the Clnema vlewers.
It is now necessary to return to the issue of the mass market.
A ~ecad~ ago
film director Jans Rautenbach lamented that the proven formula scrlpt wlll ad-
He went on to state
vertise itself as "Entertainment for the whole family",
is gelled from a little love, a few songs, a couple of jOkes,
that this recipe
a bit of drama, a few mountains and is decorated by an
a little heartbreak
attractive face and'a pretty figure.
Follow That Rainbow has all this - and a

father who dies).

52

No doubt this has something to do with tapping the in-

Follow That Rainbow has
Instead of the Oranensberg, we have the Swiss

He went on to
advertise itself as "Entertainment for the whole family".
state that this recipe is gelled from a little love, a few songs, a couple
of jokes, a little heartbreak, a bit of drama, a few mountains and is
decorated by an attractive face and a pretty figure.
has all this - and a bit more.
Alps, for example.
ternational market place.
By South African standards the budget is astronomical, possibly too high to ma
make a profit in the local market.
Consequently, it must be aimed at the
~idst audience possible to break even with the help of the state subsidy
It is unlikely to appeal to Black audiences, for unlike Jim Comes
system.
to Joburq which revealed the music and life of an era, Follow That Rianbow
is bland, totally bypassing an indigenous musical anbience.
This quality,.
earlier musicals like Kom Sam Vanaand and Song of Ceylon
accomplish more
successfully.
Follow That Rainbow will appeal to people
who think that Third World cine~a
is Bruce lee and who measure a film's worth in terms of formula rather than
innovation, genre rather than deviation and probability rather than information.
Its links with South African society are not as tenuous as might appear at
first glance, for though seemingly sterilized of local influences and occurring
in a cultural vacuum, the film does unconsciously reflect the values of White
English speaking South Africans - its preoccupation with money, prestige and
economic power.
like most South African films made in the English language,
Follow That Rainbow is basically a rootless experience.
anywhere - much as the English speaking population follows the stock exchanges
of the world, the international cash flows and its overseas banking accounts.
This rootless experience, however, is indicative of a deeper structural
the English speaker's lack of identification with the social
relationship:
history of South Africa and his continuing position as an outsider, if not
an uitlander.
The social sterility of South African English culture is a
recurring reflection in local cinema, a perp~tuation of the English colonial
mentality.
Unlike Afrikaans film, naive as it may be, English renditions
generally avoid any kind of reference to the history or diversity of cultures
found in this country.
Instead, the deeper meanings have to be identified,
not through their existence in the text, ~ut through their omission.
More
noticeably so than in Afrikaans film, English language films appear to exist
in a state of cultural limbo and social sterility where anything which connects
it with indigenous culture is ruthlessly excised from the text.
On the rare
occasions that Blacks are seen, for example, their roles are restricted to
stereotyped interpretations (eg. 'witchdoctor'. 'rickshaw boy' etc.), even
~re
Follow That Rainbow is self-contained with-
in the confines of the genre which is slavishly followed to the point of.
This genre, which is totally American in orientation, behaves llke
clich~.
a safety mechanism which filters, controls and ultimately eliminates any
desire or need to consciously examine the social significance or musical
~nvironment of the South Africa the film is apparently set in.
Nevertheless. this film is a lot more sophisticated technically than earlier
~sicals
Apart from some flaws in dubbing and sound
perspective it exhibits a high standard of technical competence.
and dramatically Follow That Rainbow is reminiscent of a 1930's Hollywood.
This is both its strength and its weakness.
inspiration. for slickness, for set design and costume.
The photography is
p'cey and adventurous. although in a sentimental greeting card sort of way.
Rainbow's strength is that it successfully fulfills the rules of the early
~sical
Its weakness is that it lack a sense of
rl.cc and social location because of its over-reliance on Hollywood style
l~gcry,

genre - no more. no less.
techniques, themes and values.

Thematically

It looks to Hollywood for

It could be set

so than in Afrikaans film.

made in South Africa.

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