It's unclear to me, with its TV cast, whether this was a B movie in theaters or a TV movie. It looks for all the world like a '60s TV film, produced by William Conrad, who did occasionally direct second features, notably "Brainstorm" starring Jeffrey Hunter. The timing at 1:45 suggests television. However, I find in Diana Trilling’s assessment of his response something that helps me to define my lingering ambivalence about the social ideas embodied in Mailer’s novel (even if I still rate it as exceptional writing): Macdonald, Dwight (1974). " Armies of the Night, or Bad Man Makes Good". Discriminations: Essays and Afterthoughts. New York: Grossman. pp.210–216. ISBN 9780670274376. OCLC 72900083. Millett criticizes Mailer for being almost wholly unique among prominent authors in championing a character who is a murderer, while allowing the offender to escape any accountability for his crimes: The pulses of sex and avarice pound through this book, constantly challenging our definitions of humanity and morality. Is the image of a 'good' and 'successful' person correct because this is the image put forth by those in charge, the ruling elite, the masters and singers of 'do as we say not as we do'? The book asks this and answers with a resounding no, but offers no consolation, which I think is the perfect and only intellectually truthful way to respond to the question.

Many critics believe that The Executioner’s Song (1979) is Mailer’s best book. Subtitled A True Life Novel, it tells the In Cold Blood–type story of the arrest and execution by firing squad of Gary Gilmore, a psychopathic killer who had spent most of his thirty-odd years in jail. Written in a clipped, unembellished style, the book contains some of Mailer’s most urgent and compelling prose. Considered as a moral document, however, The Executioner’s Song is profoundly repulsive. For Mailer does not simply delve into and display the humanity of the tortured killer he writes about: he in effect offers him up as a kind of hero, a courageous “outsider” who deserves our sympathy as a Victim of Society and our respect as an implacable rebel. I’ve never been a fan of the concept that we have demons anyway. It seems to elevate personal weakness to some supranatural force that we can’t grapple with, manage or control. It seems to suggest that our weakness is caused by something other than what is in us, and therefore to give us an excuse for the failure to confront it. Ultimately, it’s up to all of us to master ourselves and our weaknesses. Receiving praise from Alfred Kazin in The New York Times, Armies of the Night was thought to be an "appropriate and timely contribution" to "the great stage that is American democracy" because it was "so intelligent, mischievous, penetrating and alive". [31] It became the historical piece to reveal America's deepest personal and political concerns at the center of a "developing crisis". [32] Kazin went so far as to declare that the award-winning work cemented Mailer's place as the preeminent American novelist of his generation, representing a watershed achievement not only for Mailer, but also for Jews. [33]I also have a feeling that my reasons for disliking it might pertain almost solely to women and extremely sensitive/feminist men. So maybe don't bother reading this if you're a guy who plain likes graphic sex, violence, wealth, and intrigue; you might think this book is swell. And, let's keep in mind, I'm usually totally enthralled with sexual deviance and graphic sex as literary themes. Shaw, Justin (2014). "Destabilizing Sexistentialism and Hegemonic Masculinity in Norman Mailer's An American Dream". Canadian Review of American Studies. 44 (1): 44–64. doi: 10.3138/cras.2013.030. Taylor, Gordon O. (March 1974). "Of Adams and Aquarius". American Literature. 46 (1): 68–82. doi: 10.2307/2924124. JSTOR 2924124. There is rot in the ostentatious world of the privileged: the moneyed autocrats who jostle for their perceived entitlements. Here, the will is king; outside of morality, of destination, of thought. There is some gloriously described psychopathic sex early on. Here Mailer runs rampant and with much relish decimates the female flesh. Steady on, Norman! Everything of note plotwise happens in a vomiting ejection at the beginning of the novel. This leads to the reader chasing echoes, wandering through aftermath looking for an anchor which Mailer is too spent to set for us.

Written in third person with Norman Mailer as the protagonist, this section is purported to be a first-hand account of Mailer's activities during the March. After opening with an excerpt from Time, the novel begins with Norman Mailer at home answering a call from Mitch Goodman, a friend from college, asking him to join the March on the Pentagon and specifically join a demonstration "at the Department of Justice to honor students who are turning in their draft cards". Convinced, Mailer promises to join him, but "I can't pretend I'm happy about it". [4] In Washington, Mailer begins to meet up with the other literary minds of the movement, including Robert Lowell and Dwight Macdonald, and it is decided that Mailer will be the MC for an event at the Ambassador theater. At this event Mailer drinks too much, embarrasses himself and has Time write that "mumbling and spewing obscenities as he staggered about the stage—which he had commandeered by threatening to beat up the previous M.C. after being late to the start of the ceremony—Mailer described in detail his search for a usable privy on the premises". [5] Mailer alluded to himself as multiple egos such as; The Prince of Bourbon and The Beast and took being M.C as a form of competition with the other speakers. The next day, he watches many speeches at the event where 996 draft cards are handed in. It's not long after until he skirts the protocol of the entire criminal justice system, is free on the streets, and "falls in love" with a lounge singer who he met just moments after staging his wife's death. He becomes obsessed with Cherry, and Cherry, like Ruta, the maid who Stephen nails just after murdering his wife, and Deborah, has a long history of sleeping with dangerous men who think very little of her for the sake of social status. Yet again, it concerns sexuality and the relationship between the sexes. This time it’s located within a violent context. Mailer uses the crime and its aftermath to explore male sexuality and how women fit into it.Twenty five whores in the room next door, twenty five floors and I need more…” Sisters of Mercy – Vision Thing. No study of America’s cultural revolution can omit the case of Norman Mailer: novelist, wife-stabber, political activist, sometime candidate for mayor of New York, and perpetual enfant terrible. Born in Long Branch, New Jersey, in 1923, Mailer was brought up in Brooklyn, “a nice Jewish boy,” as he once put it, from a middle-class family of first-generation immigrants. Mailer matriculated at Harvard in 1939, graduating in 1942. In 1944 he married for the first of (so far) six times. From 1944 to 1946, he served with the U.S. Army in Japan and the Philippines.

Meredith, Robert (Autumn 1971). "The 45-Second Piss: A Left Critique of Norman Mailer and The Armies of the Night". Modern Fiction Studies. 17: 433–438. Why are we in Vietnam" is at the center of Mailer's The Armies of the Night. The chapter, located roughly at the end of the first half of the novel, is a clinical exploration of the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. The format differs from the previous sections the reader has followed the character of Norman Mailer along through preparations for the protest at the Pentagon, the protest itself, and finally Mailer's imprisonment. Following the imprisonment of Mailer, said character goes to sleep and this section occurs. This section, described by some as the author's dream, can be described as an internal monologue regarding the issues surrounding the Vietnam War. It appears strikingly out of touch with the surrounding portions of the novel, and could easily be transplanted into the editorial section of a newspaper. This section bridges the gap between the view of Norman Mailer the character and Norman Mailer, the author and presents his most straight forward discussion of the war in the novel. Middlebrook, Jonathan (Winter 1970). "Can a Middle-aged Man with Four Wives and Six Children Be a Revolutionary?". Journal of Popular Culture. 3: 565–574. Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.” — The New York Times

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I re-read this novel straight after “The Deer Park”, so I could compare two successive Mailer novels, even though ten years separated them.

If it was simply a crime novel, we might be able to tolerate some of the attitudes that are conveyed in the novel. It might be arguable that they are simply those of the perpetrator of the crime and should be understood in that context. Berman, Paul (August 24, 2008). "Mailer's Great American Breakdown". The New York Times. Books . Retrieved 2018-12-07.Gaitskill, Mary (1983). "This Doughty Nose: On Norman Mailer's An American Dream and The Armies of the Night". Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays. New York: Pantheon. pp.120–130. ISBN 9780307378224.