Seeking independence from his smothering family, rich kid Elgar (Beau Bridges) visits the apartment building he owns to survey the land before he converts into a swank new residence for himself.
After meeting the residents, Elgar discovers a newfound sense of purpose - as a landlord.
As his new reign progresses, and reality begins to close in on this self-styled white saviour, Elgar shows his true colours...
The directorial debut of editor Hal Ashby, The Landlord is an evergreen tale of a rich white man whose dreams of egalitarianism are ultimately laid bare as self-serving.
It is so razor-sharp in its satire, I kept having to check the film’s release date. Released only a few years after the passing of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of the Sixties, The Landlord’s evisceration of liberal hypocrisy. The Elders clan are not the overt bigots of In The Heat of the Night (a film edited by Ashby), but they are more dangerous because they see themselves as more enlightened.
Introduced with a to-camera address attempting to pontificate on life, main character Elgar Enders is the epitome of empty privilege.
His introduction to his new home is not subtle - he accidentally hits the back of a parked car.
The film occasionally undercuts him by intercutting short scenes of Elgar as a child in primary school, but his adult self needs little help: Turned on and flattered by the residents, he abandons his plans in the space of a few minutes.
It is a testament to Beau Bridges that he carries off scenes like this without trying to lean into the joke. He plays Elgar with a sincerity that makes the satire hit even harder.
While his family treat Elgar as a petulant child, he also lives out the characterisation. One can see why Elgar seeks an escape.
His family are ultra-conservative and racist, a stance which Elgar rejects, but this difference is a matter of degree not kind. Ultimately, his own privilege and racism and less externalised.
In one of the major confrontations with his family, Elgar’s response, his idea of rebellion, is to humiliate his black butler. This action is a more extreme example of his whole project, in which he continues to hold power over other people.
Ashby’s editing juxtaposes different temporalities to build its ironies, intercutting characters with their actions to show their contradictions and hypocrisies.
The film is filled with great scenes - Elgar’s mother (Lee Grant) sharing a drunken lunch with apartment resident Marge (Pearl Bailey); Elgar’s standoff with Copee (Louis Gossett Jr.) after he learns the younger man has impregnated his wife, Fanny (Diana Sands); and the moment after everything has derailed - his mother gone, the prospect of fatherhood - when Elgar is shown regressed to a childlike state, giggling in front of the TV.
The finale is a suitably double-edged end to this idiotic odyssey of self-undiscovery, with Elgar’s former girlfriend Lanie (Marki Bey) taking back her boyfriend and the baby he had with another woman.
Did the landlord really learn his lesson?
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