Arctic Shores Contemporary Reviews: Movie Anthologies

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1970 – 1979

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:58:25 GMT

Sometimes referred to as the “cynical 1970s,” it still was probably the best decade ever for movies. I’ve read movie critics referring to The Godfather, The French Connection, and Apocalypse Now as being overrated. If this term is appropriate, I can only wonder how good those movies are that these writers did like.

Residue of the 1960s gave the screenwriters material. And while many Americans were trying to crawl back into their isolation and forget about the decade that just happened, moviemakers were there to remind them that the problems had not just gone away. Viet Nam would still go on until 1975 and political scandal would bring down almost an entire Presidential administration. News of the killing fields (taking place in at least two continents and probably more) was spreading, though most Americans remained oblivious to it. There was also dissent in Hollywood. George C. Scott stayed home to watch his son’s hockey game on television rather than show up to receive the Oscar for Best Actor because he thought the award was meaningless. Marlon Brando, when he received the award two years later, sent an American Indian woman up to pick up the statue as a gesture against the mistreatment of the Native American people. Jane Fonda attacked the Oscar committee in 1978 when The Deer Hunter won the Oscar for Best Picture over Coming Home. Fonda felt that The Deer Hunter sought to absolve America of any wrong doing during the Viet Nam War.

The most important movie of the decade was either The Godfather or Apocalypse Now. One was stylistically made and the other seemed to fall together only out of chaotic circumstances. Both of these very different movies were directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

About any of the movies below could have been my favorite movie of the decade at one time or another. And unfortunately, I will have neglected to mention certain movies in favor of others. Having said that, here in order are my favorite movies of the 1970s*:

(1) Patton (1970): This is the most powerful biography of any character in a movie. George C. Scott proves why he is such a tremendous actor because there is never a moment in this movie that you don’t understand exactly how he feels – whether he’s playing joy, sorrow, anger or disgust. (Unfortunately, most people only remember Scott for this role when he did such a tremendous job in playing so many other characters.) When watching this movie, one gets a good idea about the connection between greatness and fanaticism interposed in one single person.

(2) The Man Who Would Be King (1975): John Huston’s intuitive understanding of the Kipling story made this one of the most impressive adventure movies ever shown. Michael Caine and Sean Connery are perfectly cast as the two scoundrels who also happened to be two largely courageous men. Two English wanderers in an unexplored and mountainous land where superstition abound only add to the mystery and magic.

But the casting of the natives of Kafiristan (the land adjoining Afghanistan that the two leads hoped to topple) was even better. The character of the High Priest was in real life a one hundred year old shepherd, and the bewitching Roxanne was Michael Caine’s actual wife.

(3) The Last Detail (1973): The initiation into manhood of a young enlisted man by two veteran naval noncoms is poignant because the youth in question is about to spend eight years in the stockade for steeling forty dollars from a charity. The dialogue between the three starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid (as the soon to be prisoner) is funny and profane. The two older men’s attempt at decency is not appreciated by the marine officer to whom they deliver the prisoner. All the comedy makes the movie that much sadder when we see the young man delivered into his cell. This movie has been undeservedly forgotten, which is surprising since it both stars Nicholson and Quaid in their early roles.

(4) The Great White Hope (1970): This is a thinly disguised biography of Heavyweight Champion, Jack Johnson. Anyone who knows the story of Johnson also knows that he was probably the most controversial boxer to ever put on the gloves. This movie does not give the subject matter kid treatment. The film neither romanticizes nor downplays the qualities that made Johnson such a compelling fighter. What white society attempts and sometimes successfully accomplishes to do to denigrate the great champion make the viewer angry. What the champion sometimes does to himself can be even worse. The boxing scenes in this movie are for once (and maybe the only time in any movie) realistic, and James Earl Jones does an adept job of playing the fighter. Though racism is the theme, this movie is also about an unbroken spirit that nevertheless is wounded and in turn wounds everyone around him.

(5) Apocalypse Now (1979): The murkiest war movie ever made, this film tries to leave nothing unsaid about America’s involvement in Viet Nam. More nightmare than cinematography, the strange assembly of characters on one screen would almost have been too much for any director to manage. Coppola’s insane efforts make it possible.

(6) The Godfather (1972): One of the most famous epics ever filmed of a family held together by a twisted sense of honor as exemplified by Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and that eventually transforms and poisons its most decent member, Michael (Al Pacino). The memorable characters and in particular the memorable faces of the Italian Mafioso alone make this probably the best-crafted movie ever.

(7) Mr. Majestyk (1974): Never highly acclaimed, this movie based on an Elmore Leonard novel is one of the most undervalued movies filmed. Charles Bronson as Majestyk is an ex-con turned melon farmer who offends a mafia hit man (whom the melon farmer despises) played by Al Lettieri - putting Majestyk’s life in danger. Fortunately, life circumstances have made the amiable laborer and entrepreneur tough and able to outlast his extremely heartless adversary. Majestyk’s understanding of the surrounding country and the qualities that make a worthwhile person aid him in this endeavor. That it is achieved with incredible understatement does not make his victory any less spectacular.

(8) The French Connection (1971): An NYC police detective named Popey Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner (Roy Scheider) who break up a gigantic drug ring is only a small part of this story. This movie presents the degradation and class differences of a great city with more subtlety than can ever be noticed at a casual glance. Doyle’s standing out in the cold and eating a cold piece of pizza while the drug kingpin is inside an expensive restaurant eating lobster and drinking expensive wine is just one example. It’s Doyle’s resentment of what’s going on around him (shown in almost every movement and gesture of Hackman) that drives him on – almost to the point of insanity. Obviously, this movie will always be remembered for the car chase.

(9) Who’ll Stop the Rain? (1978): Graphic story of a Viet Nam vet (Nick Nolte) who gets tangled up in a drug running scheme that ends up involving heroin instead of marijuana due to the stupidity of an acquaintance (Michael Moriarty). Only the discipline of the soldier prevents the acquaintance, the acquaintance’s wife (Tuesday Weld) and their child from being tortured and killed by some very sadistic and corrupt federal agents. Nolte gets killed while saving them, but not without first teaching the couple a real lesson about life and true dignity. Based on Robert Stone’s almost unreadable novel, Dog Soldiers, the movie makes the plot almost understandable because of the superb acting job of Nolte and the rest of the cast.

(10) (Tie) The Driver (1978): Another unappreciated movie. Ryan O’Neal plays the getaway driver who is the very best at what he does, and Bruce Dern plays the cop who is the best at what he does as well. The Driver’s secret to success is to only stay focused on what one actually knows and to thus not be concerned with what anybody else thinks. The same O’Neal who played such a sap in Love Story acts out almost the opposite role here by being tightlipped, elusive and tough. Concise storytelling, crisp dialogue and a small budget prevent this movie from becoming overlong or pretentious.

(10) (Tie) The Deer Hunter (1978): Michael Cimino’s stark war movie produced howls of protest from the left for its depiction of the Viet Cong. The method in which the American soldiers are tortured is certainly unique among movie archives. However, the director was not guilty of jingoism. The three young steel workers from Pennsylvania, happy in their own drunken escapades, were betrayed by the nation in the entire handling of the slaughter. Robert De Niro is the least interesting of the three friends as John Savage and especially Christopher Walken suffer in their own form of hell.

The honorable mentions include Chinatown, North Dallas Forty, Slap Shot, Breaker Morant, Deliverance, Dog Day Afternoon, Little Big Man, and The Godfather, Part II. I’m undecided about A Clockwork Orange. The movie has more energy than about any other movie I’ve ever seen, but I’ve only been able to watch the whole movie straight through once. It’s important to note that most of these honorable mentions, regardless of how high or low the budget may have been, did actually have some success at the box office. I’m not usually a sucker for praising only what sells. Probably why I include most of them as honorable mentions instead of in my top ten listing is because I was too familiar with the storyline for each movie before I actually watched it.

As usual, my significant omissions include movies that won the Oscar for Best Picture. However, there are not as many of this type as usual. Outside of The Sting and Kramer vs. Kramer, the winners of the award at least held my interest. Rocky was obviously a piece of crowd-pleasing commercialism, but at least Stallone is straight up about creating a popular hero.

The various political sagas that popped up in this decade (especially those starring Robert Redford) didn’t do much for me. The problem with this kind of movie is that hindsight usually proves that the director or screenwriter did not have much vision or feel for how large or small his story happened to be.

I used to like Carnal Knowledge, but it didn’t come across to me as good on a second viewing. Without the character played by Ann Margret, there’s not a lot to care about. Outside of Jaws and, perhaps, The Poseidon Adventure, there was a complete overkill in the making of long and boring disaster movies. The same is true of many of the space exploration movies. Close Encounters of the Third Kind seems to have impressed a number of people when watching it on the big screen, but I remember it mostly for how slowly it moved. And the success of Star Wars had a disastrous effect in bringing about many terrible imitations.

I’ve never seen Coming Home and I’m guessing that I would like the movie because of the role played by Jon Voight. I’d also like to see The French Connection, Part II, which I’m told was more intense than the original movie. But the movie I probably most would like to see is Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

* I have eleven movies listed because there was a tie for 10^th place among my favorites. I point this out in case the reader happens to feel that I can’t count. The Driver or The Deer Hunter would probably have made my top five for about any other decade so I couldn’t leave them as mere honorable mentions.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1960 – 1969

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:55:52 GMT

Almost everything the public thought was of any consequence during the 1960s was put onto film. This included the Kennedy/Nixon debates, the civil rights marches in the south and in Washington, D.C., the assassinations of the Kennedy’ brothers (and the shooting of Oswald), scenes from Viet Nam shown nightly on the news, rioting and protest, the moon landing and Woodstock. Unfortunately, we didn’t always learn the right lesson or the lessons learned were somewhat muddled. From the debates we learned that we never wanted to elect a President who was not clean-shaven. The Zapruder film left some people thinking that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and others thinking that JFK was killed by approximately three thousand bullets. Films of war carnage and the burning of draft cards resulted in distrust between the older and younger generations. Rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago helped convince much of Middle America that Nixon needed to be in the White House. From the moon landing arose speculation that space travel was a hoax; it also brought about a renewed interest in UFOs. And not many years after Woodstock came the onslaught of Disco.

On the other hand, the confused climate made interest in some excellent movies possible. While we had some fluff with movies like My Fair Lady and Oliver, we had some truly disturbing films like Elmer Gantry or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Instead of Ozzie and Harriet for family drama, we had Long Day’s Journey into Night. Probably the most important movie of the decade was Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This black comedy, with Peter Sellers playing three different parts, reflected the inability of leadership to deal with the kind of insanity produced by two opposing superpowers that had the technology to obliterate each other and the rest of the world. The otherwise funny lines uttered by the characters came too close to reflecting how many people actually felt.

There doesn’t seem much need to talk in detail about the 1960s since much of its history is so well known. However, some of the movies during this decade are so good that I’m going to dwell on them more than usual (too bad for the reader). So here, in order, are my favorite movies of that decade:

(1) Cool Hand Luke (1967): After cutting the heads off of parking meters in a fit of drunkenness and getting himself sent to a chain gang, Paul Newman as Luke turns around and plays the most unusual sort of Christ like figure in any movie. An irreverent, uneducated and smart talking southerner who professes to believe in no God, Luke’s inability to follow the rules of the establishment makes him a “natural born world-shaker” to the rest of the prisoners and ends up getting him killed. Despite all of the tragedy, the dialogue of the cast (especially during the egg eating scene) is both hilarious and extremely quotable. George Kennedy is unforgettable in playing off his character against Newman’s. This is my favorite movie of all time.

(2) Elmer Gantry (1960): Very loosely based upon the Sinclair Lewis novel, Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) actually ends up being the sanest character in the whole movie. Jean Simmons is his demented Evangelical partner who literally goes down in apocalyptic flames towards the end of the movie. Rather than a condemnation of the hucksters within the profession (like the novel), this gives a frightening glimpse into the minds of the followers. The movie is an actual improvement upon the book.

(3) Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Peter O’Toole plays one of the most eccentric and complicated characters ever filmed in this biography. It would be an understatement from viewing this movie to say that Lawrence did not exhibit both great and pathological qualities. Even people who know the story about Lawrence would be intrigued by all of the surprises that occur in this movie. At the time this movie was shown, this was only the fourth or fifth movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture that actually deserved the award.

(4) Hud (1963): Even George C. Scott, never impressed with the acting of Paul Newman (nor the acting of anybody else), thought that Newman was brilliant in the character of Hud. Add Patricia Neal as the maid and Melvyn Douglas as the father of Hud, and you have a remarkable tale of decency and debauchery. Using Foot and Mouth disease as the subject for a dramatic plotline makes for a unique storyline. The cattle dying in a pit is merely a sign of the times.

(5) The Hustler (1961): Paul Newman plays the small time pool hustler with world championship talent. Only after the person he cares for the most commits suicide does he develop the sufficient character to shoot his finest game. Piper Laurie plays his alcoholic girlfriend, George C. Scott plays the villainous and corrupt manager, and Jackie Gleason plays the pool sharp, Minnesota Fats – and all play their roles well.

(6) The Wild Bunch (1969): Sam Peckinpah almost brought the genre of westerns to an end by upping the carnage in this strange and ultra violent movie. The obliteration of the women’s temperance movement by gunfire towards the beginning of the movie is only outdone by the killing of the majority of the cast towards the end of the movie. Yet only Peckinpah could turn this into a morality tale about the need for honor and loyalty among gatherings of men.

(7) Bullitt (1968): Steve McQueen as Bullitt was never better than as the tough and incorruptible cop trying to investigate a murder. With a United States Senator trying to meddle with the doings of the investigation and other of San Francisco policemen trying to kiss up to this politician, Bullitt appears to be the only one interested in the truth. The movie contains one of the few car chases worth watching because it actually tells us something about Bullitt and because it shows off almost every attraction in the San Francisco area.

(8) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): I mentioned this movie above. I’d only add that the reasons given in the storyline for beginning the bombing of Russia (a.k.a., a General discovers that he is impotent) make about as much sense as the justifications for major conflict throughout the world over the last two hundred years.

(9) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968): In many ways, this is a typical Sergio Leone spaghetti western (though all of his westerns are worth watching). It’s Henry Fonda and his cold and lifeless blue eyes (Fonda does not hesitate to blow away a small child who has learned his identity) that make this movie one of the best. Charles Bronson plays the tough hombre who gets his revenge in the end (and the reasons why he wants his revenge become very understandable).

(10) The Dirty Dozen (1967): My only hesitation in including this movie is that it’s been watched too much (I remember first seeing it on television when I was in sixth grade). The incredible ruggedness of Lee Marvin and the rest of the cast make this movie pleasing to watch because the viewer does not have to worry about swallowing any syrupy dialogue. Still, we come to actually care about some of the characters and are sad to see so many of them get killed (especially Jim Brown, who is shot while making his dash across the compound). We also see another side of the worst kind of convicts who will do anything to get out of their cage.

Honorable mentions include Hell is for Heroes (somewhat gritty war movie that at times lags), Midnight Cowboy (our first X-rated Oscar winner that today would be rated PG-13), Cape Fear (Robert Mitchum is perfectly cast as the murderous Max Cady, but the supporting cast is dull), Judgment at Nuremberg (which is just too long), Zorba the Greek (only for the acting of Anthony Quinn) and Days of Wine and Roses (well acted depiction of alcoholism that, however, sometimes feels too tame). For entertainment watch The Great Escape (which sticks very closely to the actual account of this escape – outside of Steve McQueen riding on his motorcycle, which was too good to leave out), The Cincinnati Kid (good role for Edward G. Robinson as the aging card player), and Planet of the Apes (fun for watching Charleston Heston become indignant over his treatment as a human being).

Significant omissions include The Sound of Music (you know going in whether you’re going to like or dislike this movie) and Bonnie and Clyde (sometimes I like the movie, but at other times I’m annoyed that the characters - played by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty - could act so stupidly and still be successful at robbing banks). And as much as I like Dustin Hoffman, I’m probably one of the few people who think that The Graduate is not the significant statement of discontent and nonconformity that it’s made out to be. In fact, sometimes the movie seems “quaint,” and I don’t mean that as a compliment.

Movies I would still like to take a look at include the Beatles’ movies, which I’ve never seen in their entirety. I’d also like to see Tom Jones and Alice’s Restaurant.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1950 – 1959

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:05:25 GMT

For a decade noted mostly in the American History books for economic good times and paranoia, there actually was much more to talk about. The end of the Korean War, McCarthyism, the Cold War, the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, the invention of the Hydrogen Bomb, the Beat Movement, the introduction of Rock & Roll, Sputnik, the Baby Boom, Khrushchev’s denouncement of Stalin, the rise of Castro, the execution of the Rosenbergs, Brown v. Board of Education and integration, and the usual problems in the Mid-East took place in the 1950s and were reflected in the kind of movies that we watched.

Whether the most important movie of the decade was Streetcar Named Desire or On the Waterfront, it was a movie directed by Elia Kazan. Kazan, by the way, testified on behalf of the UnAmerican Activities Commission and pointed the finger at many fellow individuals in the movie industry. That justification of this act became the impetus for On the Waterfront, a movie that otherwise seemed well made, adds only to the strangeness of the political climate in which these movies were created.

The 1950s was actually a great decade for movie experimentation. The Sci-Fi thrillers like The Incredible Shrinking Man or the Godzilla movies brought over from Japan, movies aimed squarely at the problems of teens like The Wild One, The Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without a Cause, and hard-hitting murder mysteries with political overtones like Compulsion, Night of the Hunter and Kiss Me Deadly were all excellent movies that introduced new genres and created a series of extremely bad imitations.

Here, in order, are my favorite movies of that decade:

(1) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): Everything comes together to make this one of the greatest movies of all time. There’s great acting (Marlon Brando in his first starring role and Vivien Leigh in her last great performance), a tremendous story (based on the play by Tennessee Williams), and outstanding direction (Elia Kazan before he sold out). Brando as the savage Stanley Kowalski and Leigh as the fragile Blanche DuBois share a tenement together when they shouldn’t even remain together in Louisiana. Don’t watch this if you’re looking for some light entertainment.

(2) Rebel Without a Cause (1955): Though I’ve seen this movie several times, I’m always struck by how bizarre it is. We see James Dean as a drunken teenager smiling at a flower; a high school class on a field trip watches a simulation of the universe exploding; we have a knife fight outside of a planetarium; a chicken run takes place high up in the Hollywood hills; there’s a shootout in a Beverly Hills mansion; and we have Jim Backus wearing a kitchen apron to symbolize how he’s been neutered. James Dean completely overacts in this one, but the movie works.

(3) Night of the Hunter (1955): Robert Mitchum as a deranged religious fanatic can never be outdone for creepiness. (However, Mitchum almost equals this performance a few years later as the ex-con in the original Cape Fear.) To show how far he can go, Mitchum goes after some orphans for money allegedly stolen by their father – all in the name of God.

(4) East of Eden (1955): While others in the movie industry were out of work, Elia Kazan directed his third great movie of the decade. It’s extremely ironic that the greatest depiction in movie history of a novel by John Steinbeck (a writer long renowned for his leftist leanings) should be credited to a star witness of Joseph McCarthy. James Dean plays his greatest role.

(5) Seven Samurai (1954): Probably the most famous movie ever made that required subtitles. This Japanese movie directed by Kurosawa is like a great western – only the warriors fight with Samurai swords and are more than one-dimensional characters.

(6) Paths of Glory (1957): Stanley Kubrick’s first great film, it’s about three French soldiers tried and executed for refusing to fight for a commander who fired on them to make them advance during World War I. Kirk Douglas does a marginal job of acting while playing the lawyer who defends the men, but the story is so powerful that it really doesn’t matter.

(7) Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956): This Rod Serling production was made for television and filmed live in studio on what must have been an extremely small budget. Starring Jack Palance, it is far superior to that of the Hollywood version later released starring Anthony Quinn. Palance plays a tough boxer who is now a “has been” and who is no longer welcome to fight in the ring. His trainer played by Ed Wynn (the man who used to appear in the Cracker Jack commercials - and whose acting in this movie is extraordinary) is one of the few people who can see the self-worth hidden behind all of the scars of the ex-boxer.

(8) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): “Lies and mendacity!” Burl Ives line in this movie loudly projects what the Tennessee Williams play was all about. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor are the pretty couple that spend most of the movie yelling at each other, and they do a good enough job in support to allow Ives to take over the entire show.

(9) The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957): This is one of the most remarkably strange science fiction movies ever made, and it’s all about a man who finds himself estranged from the rest of the universe as he shrinks to the size of the atoms around him. The victim, being of a philosophical bent and strong believer in existentialism, achieves a sense of freedom in the end as he has a whole new universe to explore.

(10) Ben Hur (1959): At times, this movie is grubbily sentimental. Fortunately, Charleston Heston as Ben Hur, who is often so bellicose in other movies, tones down his desire to overact. The battle at sea and the chariot race are, of course, probably the best action sequences in any movie ever made. But the death scene of Stephen Boyd as Messala (in agony, he still receives cruel joy by telling Ben Hur that his sister and mother are alive in a leper colony) is what turned this movie for me from a biblical epic to a great movie.

There are too many honorable mentions to describe in detail. The Bridge on the River Kwai is worth watching because of the acting of Alec Guiness as the British Colonel gone mad; Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train presents Robert Walker as the most memorable stalker in movie history; Thunder Road is a low budget movie with Robert Mitchum as the small time bootlegger who attempts to defy the mob and the feds; and The Seventh Seal is Ingmar Bergman’s weird apocalyptic drama about the Black Plague during the middle ages, the second coming of Christ, and a knight’s chess game with death. All About Eve, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Sam Fuller’s Fixed Bayonets are definitely worth watching for very different reasons.

Significant omissions include From Here to Eternity, Sunset Blvd and Twelve Angry Men. Perhaps because these movies were so talked up and I knew so much before seeing them, I couldn’t really enjoy them as much as I hoped. I’ve never thought of Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity) as a great actor; William Holden (Sunset Blvd) I’ve enjoyed in some movies and not in others; and Henry Fonda (Twelve Angry Men) is a much better actor when he’s not so preachy.

Of movies I’ve never seen, I would like to see The Big Heat and The Steel Helmet – just to name a couple.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1980 to 1989

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:02:06 GMT

According to a book I read a number of years ago, the popular movies of the 1980s (or the Reagan Era) were formulaic, conformist, and emphasized enhanced screen shots and special effects over storytelling. Two movies the writer did enjoy from the decade were Personal Best and The Fabulous Baker Boys. The author was mistaken, however, in believing these two movies were any less formulaic. The movies did attract smaller audiences and contained above average characterizations, but both of these movies also were extremely introspective studies of unusual relationships that appeal to moviegoers who think they are smarter than the rest of us. These two movies were not bad, but neither movie can be watched more than a couple of times while still retaining any kind of fascination for the viewer. What is interesting is the implication of the author that the political mood of the country was responsible for the alleged poor quality of movies throughout the decade – thus throwing Ronald Reagan’s name into the title of the book. Personally, I think that 1990 to 1999 was the worst decade for movies, but it would be foolish to blame President Clinton for that. The willingness to blame our political culture for everything in any case is as naïve as suggesting that politics never plays a role in anything. Short of being jailed or executed for taking a stand, politics should never prevent a moviemaker from saying what he wants.

Most critics usually say that Raging Bull was the most important movie of the decade. Released just as the decade was beginning to open, it contains that same kind of introspection as Personal Best or The Fabulous Baker Boys. With the possible exception of The Elephant Man (released the same year) I believe Raging Bull was the first black and white blockbuster released in almost two decades (I’m willing to be corrected on this) and this gives it the feel of watching championship fights during the forties and fifties. Stylistically speaking (if we forget that the fight scenes are no more believable than those shown in any of the Rocky movies), it is one of the best movies ever at setting a mood. And Robert DeNiro, Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci give their best performances. I just can’t get over the fact that a talented director like Scorsese would create a movie about a world champion without saying one redeemable thing about the man. There is no development of the lead character as we never get a chance to see him grow-up or regress (it would be impossible for him to get much worse) during the entire movie.

There of course were movies made during the 1980s that did not follow a formula. I believe that the movies listed below are about as diverse as those for any decade since movies have been made. So here, in order, are what my favorite movies from the 1980s were:

(1) The Elephant Man (1980): Sentimental and disturbing, this movie shows us the worst of about everyone (including the enlightened and educated). The story takes place in Victorian England, but it could just as well have taken place in any country during any era. The tormented and deformed creature at the center of this story was more human than any other character in the film.

(2) Roger & Me (1989): Michael Moore’s straightforward documentary about autoworkers who were laid-off at the General Motors plant in Flint. What Moore makes clear is that neither politicians, celebrities, businessmen nor social gadflies could care less about the workers.

(3) The Big Red One (1980): Sam Fuller’s World War II flick about an infantry squad led by an officer played by Lee Marvin is one of the best war movies ever made. The squad members are both believable as kids barely out of high school and as trained killers. Stephen Spielberg later borrowed (if not stole) the manner in which the fighting at D-Day is depicted.

(4) Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987): The protagonist played by Ryan O’Neill, after binging on some sort of drug concoction, wakes up from his stupor only to find his girlfriend’s head setting next to him in the front seat of his car.* He then spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out if he’s the one responsible for this. Norman Mailer wrote the novel and directed this movie that, if anything, is wilder and stranger than Pulp Fiction. Lawrence Tierney gives an incredible performance as the father, afflicted with cancer, who will not allow his son to become a failure as a man. He and the son “deep six” in the ocean the decapitated heads of several victims - for which the son could be implicated on murder, and for which the son discovers he was not guilty.

(5) Year of the Dragon (1985): A sort of sequel to The Deer Hunter, Mickey Rourke plays the police detective who is still fighting the Viet Nam war against the Chinese Mafia in New York City. This movie was at first dismissed by critics for the intensity of its violence, but it’s this very intensity that allows us to uncomfortably get to know a deeply conflicted character that was formerly an American soldier in Southeast Asia.

(6) Mona Lisa (1986): Bob Hoskins plays a tough ex-con who attempts to redeem himself so that he can once again be a father to his young daughter. He does this by not allowing himself to be drawn back into the seediness and sickness (vividly depicted) of the London underworld. You can tell it was filmed in England by the thick accents.

(7) The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) (1981): The phenomenal futuristic movie about what’s left of the world after the Nuclear Holocaust. Some characters survive by being scavengers, and others survive by remembering their humanity.

(8) Runaway Train (1985): Great prison break movie with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts playing the inmates who strive for something better. Voight’s philosophical musings in the vernacular of a felon give the viewer much to think about.

(9) Wall Street (1987): Oliver Stone’s best movie. It’s all about people who make money off of other people’s money and never add one thing positive to anybody’s life.

(10) The Mission (1986): Two Jesuit Priests in Brazil attempt to find their own version of religious redemption among the native people. The aristocrats among the jungle people are, of course, superior to the aristocrats from Europe who had come there to destroy them.

Some honorable mentions include the overly long crime story Once Upon a Time in America. Amazingly, the actors who played the characters as children are better than the actors who played the characters as adults (which included Robert DeNiro and James Wood). Diner and Tin Men are a couple of excellent and often sad comedies. A Christmas Story is one of the best of all sentimental Christmas stories. Sid and Nancy is also good, but it hardly qualifies as a sentimental Christmas story. And 48 Hours is a great story about two police partners, Nick Nolte (who always does a good job of acting) and Eddie Murphy (who for once does a good job of acting). There are many other movies that would take too long to mention.

There are a few notable movies I’ve left out. Platoon was a decent attempt at a war movie, but its seems so much like an imitation of Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter that I can’t call it anything special. And every other movie that won an Oscar for Best Picture during this decade (beginning with Ordinary People in 1980 and ending with Driving Miss Daisy in 1989) happens to be extremely average at best. (The formula for winning the Oscar for this decade seemed to be as follows: “Let’s impress the viewer with the sheer length of the melodrama – remembering that only melodramas win best picture awards, maybe throw in a few exotic locations, and hope that they will forget how boring the movie really is.”) Other movies like Blue Velvet and Brazil were imaginative movies that I can only enjoy if I’m in a very strange mood. And the director of The Big Chill seemed more concerned with basing a movie upon a good sound track than creating a sound track that would fit into a good movie.

Movies I would still like to see during the 1980s include Blade Runner, which for some reason I have never seen, Casualties of War and War of the Roses. I’m sure there are many others I’d enjoy that I’ve never thought of watching.

* Correction: O'Neal actually finds the head in his stash of marijuana that was located close to where his car was parked. I'm getting the book and the movie confused with each other. However, the front seat of his car was covered with blood making it somewhat obvious that there may be a problem.

MOVIES IN 2006: Year End Review

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:25:46 GMT

It wasn’t the worst year for movies. The fact that foreign and independent movies are becoming more popular gives me hope. And though it’s taken long enough, moviemakers are starting to address what happened in 2001. United 93 and World Trade Center were incomplete movies, but at least someone had the guts to make a film about 9/11. There were some funny movies that indicate filmmakers are trying to take themselves less seriously. Slither was obviously meant to be over the top, and Borat poked fun at things we should be poking fun at. James Bond had a makeover in Casino Royale, and for once the famed detective appeals to more than just gadget freaks. And dislike him all you want, Mel Gibson’s sudden new urge to make epics will forever change how movies are made. Moviemakers are suddenly putting millions of dollars of their own money into their movies, so maybe they will actually care about what kind of movies that they are putting out. I am so optimistic that I can even find tolerable the never ending series of sequels being made (though Basic Instinct 2 might be pushing it). I can also understand why Sylvester Stallone wanted to redeem himself with Rocky Balboa. Why not? Rocky IV and Rocky V were horrible.

Charitable feeling does have its limits, however. I’m still discouraged about the critical reception of movies. The Oscar Awards for 2005 were pretty much as I expected. Crash was rewarded because it makes viewers feel good with the pretext of delivering a challenging message. Reviewers are so saturated with watching bad movies that they’re no longer turned off by formula plots or stale thinking. Watching a thousand or so movies released in a year while sitting in a dark room and eating buttered popcorn will damage judgment. The problem is only compounded when critics are paid cash to say good things about a film.

My website is now a little more than five months old, and I’ve put about forty-five thousand words into it. I’ve tried to be truthful and not so reckless that I would change much of what I’ve said. Sometimes I’ve been guilty about being too harsh, but I think I’ve only done this with directors or producers that have played it safe. The response I’ve received has not always been predictable. One week, I took shots at It Happened One Night, Citizen Kane, and Casablanca without so much as hearing a peep from anyone. The next week I was taken to task for criticizing a below average movie like Dead Poets Society, a movie that even Roger Ebert referred to as “a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand.”

All of the reviews I’ve enjoyed writing, but a few stand out. My reviews of Roger & Me and No Direction Home probably are my favorites because for each of these I had a chance to throw in a large number of real life observation along with my critiques. I enjoyed writing about The Last Detail because I feel it has undeservedly been forgotten. And I’m proud of my critiques of The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypse Now because these movies were too sensational to be easily diagrammed. I obviously enjoyed putting together my favorite movies of each decade (a project I hope to complete by the beginning of next year) because it gave me a chance to talk about all sorts of things unrelated to movies. It also gave me a chance to speak about a number of movies that other critics have ignored.

I recently wrote to a movie review editor (I think truthfully) that I only try to speak about films in personal terms and reserve my praise for those movies that speak personally to me. I want the reader to think about how the movie has affected them rather than to convince them it is good or bad. I don’t think I have been guilty of taking certain movies too seriously. Rather, I have been guilty of being disappointed because I have not been able to take a movie seriously at all. I can take a movie seriously if it makes me laugh or brings out some other kind of emotion. I can’t take it seriously if I’m going to have to keep wondering when the movie is ever going to be over.

I’ve had a lot of great friends who have supported me in this craziness. Many of those same friends have been my hardest critics when they disagreed with me. They have been important to me in either case. Most of them would be embarrassed by this sentiment so I won’t mention them by name (at least for the time being). But I do wish to express my gratitude.

And speaking of sentimentality, it is Christmas time and I wish all of you a Happy Holiday season. Don’t blow it by spending several hours watching movies that reach no one and are mediocre at best. A friend of mine who thinks I am too critical thought I’d be the type of person who would pan It’s a Wonderful Life - so I’d like to make a few favorable comments about the movie just to prove him wrong. It’s a Wonderful Life is Frank Capra’s sappy and preachy holiday film that gave Jimmy Stewart the opportunity to overact at every juncture. Yet it’s a movie that made a difference for the strangest assortment of people over many decades. Therefore, it’s one movie that’s worth watching again.

Merry Christmas.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1940 – 1949

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:28:11 GMT

During the 1940s, powerful movies were finally being consistently released. Perhaps with the lingering depression, the Second World War and the beginnings of the Cold War, moviegoers were asking questions and expecting more from moviemakers. And some producers and directors actually came up with some original answers.

Here, in order, are my favorite movies of that decade:

(1) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946): Based on the popular James Cain novel, the movie is much better than the book. The forgotten John Garfield and unforgettable Lana Turner playing disturbed individuals give powerful and steamy performances. The boredom and seediness of unhappy working class individuals (a role in which Turner surprisingly fits into) is magnificently portrayed.

(2) All the King’s Men (1949): Broderick Crawford is the best at playing the hard hearted villain. This fictionalized portrait of Huey Long is not meant for admirers of the great populist, but it does show both the good and the bad of the Louisiana governor. I’ve never cared for the ending in either the book or the movie, however; the moviemakers seem to have only mild regret for an assassination of an elected official.

(3) Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948): Based on a novel written by the anarchist, B. Traven, and directed by the great John Huston, this movie shows Bogart going from a tough working man stiff to a paranoid and pathetic loser who has been driven mad by his greed for gold. The famous line before Bogart is about to meet his end (“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!") has been repeated ad nauseam by people trying to showoff their knowledge of movies.

(4) Lifeboat (1944): My favorite Hitchcock movie, it all takes place with a bunch of shipwrecked survivors in a rowboat. One of the survivors happens to be a Nazi, but we only find out about that later. It’s based on a Steinbeck story showing his typical emphasis (and perhaps overstatement) on the lousy treatment dished out to the lower classes. Somehow Tallulah Bankhead never runs out of makeup and keeps looking good, despite the many days of exposure to the elements.

(5) Body and Soul: As in most boxing movies, the fight scenes are not convincing. However, Garfield is believable on the outside of the ring as a gritty fighter who will do what’s needed to become champion (including cheat). His newly found integrity at the end of the movie also proves to be his undoing.

(6) Blood on the Moon: One of my favorite westerns of all time and starring one of my favorite actors, Robert Mitchum. Mitchum is great as the good guy with integrity who is tough enough to take on all villains. I’m not much impressed with most fight scenes that take place in the saloons, but the one in this movie is worth watching.

(7) The Big Sleep (1946): Again, this is a great movie based on an inferior book. This first movie matching up Bogart and Bacall is probably their best. Bogart as the Private Investigator Marlow drives everyone crazy with his insistence on finding out the truth. The way he disposes of the villain in the end is telling because it sends a clear message that you don’t mess with this man.

(8) The Grapes of Wrath (1940): It’s understandable why some people think this movie (and the novel) is overrated because it gets to be pretty damn preachy. John Ford’s ability to make the dust bowl era seem real and Henry Fonda’s projection of a likeable ex-con make all the difference.

(9) The Sea Wolf (1941): Adventure movie of the sea based on the Jack London novel, the strange casting of Edward G. Robinson as Wolf Larsen almost doesn’t work. Robinson is not believable as someone who is supposed to be so physically strong, but he projects the philosophical musings and the sadistic impulses of the sailor down perfectly. John Garfield, as the character duped to serve on board with Robinson, is superior to the character in the book because Garfield is believably tough.

(10) Out of the Past (1947): A typical 1940s film noir (love, murder, mystery and betrayal) that is only made better because Robert Mitchum plays the lead.

There are many honorable mentions. The Lost Weekend (1945), a Billy Wilder' movie about alcoholism, if somewhat out of date is at least intelligently made. Sergeant York (1941), if not particularly well acted by Gary Cooper, at least presents an interesting story of a pacifist turned war hero. Key Largo (1948) is another great teaming of Bogart and Bacall, and contains a memorable scene when Edward G. Robinson slaps Bogart several times across the face. Twelve O’Clock High (1949) is probably my favorite war movie to come out of the era, and for once I even like the acting of Gregory Peck. The Wolf Man (1941) is one of my favorite horror movies because I remember it so vividly from when I saw it as a child. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) does an excellent job of filming the Hemingway novel (not nearly as good of a novel as The Sun Also Rises or Farewell to Arms, but still worth reading), but Ingrid Bergman as a peasant girl living with a bunch of rebels in a cave that are engaged in gorilla warfare is a bit of a stretch. Gaslight (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), and The Razor’s Edge (1946) are all worth watching if you are in the mood for a soap opera.

An obvious significant omission is Citizen Kane (1941). The film technique and use of black and white photography, the point of view of the story telling and the symbolism (Rosebud!) are about all you ever hear when reviewers speak of this movie. The movie reminds me of All the King’s Men except All the King’s Men seems much less self-conscious. There is a good powerful story being presented, but it is paced so slowly that the viewer thinks of the movie as being much longer than two hours. Casablanca (1942) is another omission of note. Bogart plays a decent role as Rick in this movie, but I just don’t believe in Ingrid Bergman as his love interest. She seems much too brittle and flighty to capture Rick’s imagination. Nor do I believe in Paul Henried as the great underground leader. He seems fairly bland. I do like the role played by Claude Rains as Louie, however.

I still would like to see the war movie directed by John Ford, They Were Expendable (1945); Intruder in the Dust (1949), based on the great William Faulkner novel; and try to make my way through the Laurence Olivier Shakespearian roles and see if these movies lived up to all of the hype.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1990 to 1999

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:23:06 GMT

A number of unfortunate movie fads that had been around for fifteen or twenty years became commonplace by 1990. Sequels like Rocky V, films modeled on television series like The Beverly Hillbillies, and remakes of classic movies like Psycho indicated that, besides poor judgment, what was wrong in the movie industry was a lack of originality. Even the best of movies during the 1990s did not seem so remarkable. Probably the most important movie of the decade was something I would almost rather have missed; Titanic was a long movie dealing with a sinking boat, a dopey romance, and class warfare that was simple mindedly portrayed. Many other expensively made movies were also released, but the emotions elicited were cheap. Storytelling played such a small part for each picture that one almost could become interested in the Oscar winners for cinematography, soundtracks and wardrobe.

Some oddities were released, however, that held my interest. Most of these movies were stark and understated - much like the better movies of the 1930s and ‘40’s. Except for Schindler’s List, none of the best movies could be considered epics. The best movies of the 1990s relied on a small number of characters that had gone through personal and extreme struggles. Most of the movies ended sadly, and few were gigantic in scope. So here, in order, are what my favorite movies from the 1990s are:

(1) The Apostle (1997): This exceptional movie that’s directed, produced and starred in by Robert Duvall goes deep inside of the unsavory world of Evangelism. Except this time the world of Evangelism is not painted as uncontrovertibly evil. The character Duvall plays commits manslaughter that causes him to go into hiding. This individual then returns to his roots in the Deep South, baptizes himself as an adult in a river, and takes on a job as a preacher in a small church that for years had been left abandoned. The change that comes over himself and everyone around him is startling. When the law finally catches up with him, he continues his preaching while working on a chain gang.

(2) Starship Troopers: Possibly my favorite science fiction movie of all time. This movie goes so far as to even spoof the book on which it was based. The deadpan characterization and dialogue is hilarious, and the athleticism and athletic appearance of all the characters is striking.

(3) Leaving Las Vegas (1995): One of the strangest love stories ever filmed. Nicholas Cage plays an alcoholic on route to drinking himself to death, and Elisabeth Shue plays the prostitute who can’t look away as Cage, the man she loves, becomes a walking train wreck. What usually is passed-off as Hollywood realism is generally a producer’s addled fantasy. That’s not the case here. This is too believable to be taken lightly.

(4) A Bronx Tale (1993): Robert De Niro directs and stars in this film about a boy’s torn allegiance between his upright and very tough father and his neighbor who also happens to be a mobster. The boy eventually learns something from the both of them. The sets look like what I’ve always imagined the Bronx to appear like in the early 1960s.

(5) Fight Club (1999): Probably the most unusual of "coming of age" movie for males since Deliverance. With Edward Norton as a male ashamed of his own lack of masculinity and his alter ego (literally) played by Brad Pitt, this movie holds so many surprises that the viewer is not sure what’s up - until the whole New York financial district comes tumbling down (probably would be a little bit harder to get this script by the studios with the current state of the world). At times the picture verges on being senseless, but the prospect of many men forced by finances and circumstances to live in frustration is equally senseless - and this frustration is colorfully brought out here.

(6) Dolores Claiborne (1995): The acting of Kathy Bates as an abused wife (Dolores) and David Strathairn as her drunken husband for once make a movie based on a Stephen King novel worth watching. Incredibly sad, yet there is a sort of victory in Dolores being able to work things out despite all obstacles.

(7) Hoffa (1992): So many people went gaga over A Few Good Men (ignoring the fact that Tom Cruise plays the lead) that Jack Nicholson’s best role in the 1990s was almost ignored. Nicholson comes across as just tough enough and shabby enough to make this story not seem so over the top. This shows the good and the bad of the famed teamster who suddenly just disappeared. (Despite rumors of being cut up and being fed to alligators or currently being buried in Giant Stadium in New York, don’t take it seriously when the movie pretends to know what happened to Hoffa in the end.)

(8) Fargo (1996): Sometimes funny and often unsatisfying black comedy. The movie is saved by the acting of Frances McDormand and William H. Macy, and by the completely singular script.

(9) Schindler’s List (1993): Oscar Schindler was a rich playboy with close ties to the Nazi elite, and he was also a saint. It’s difficult not to be moved by his story to save 1,200 Jews, but it was the role played by Ralph Fiennes as a sadistic Nazi Commandant that prevented this movie from becoming another dull epic movie like Gandhi.

(10) Carlito’s Way (1993): Al Pacino, as a Cuban gangster who lives by a strict code of his own, and Sean Penn as his lawyer who turns bad, make this one gritty movie. But even Carlito’s code can’t save him in the end from a violent death - because of the actions of other smalltime hoods and his lawyer that fail to share his sense of honor.

There are a number of honorable mentions – or in any case movies not much worse than some of the movies listed above - so I probably should give them lip service. Pulp Fiction (1994), though much talked about is barely better than the low budget Reservoir Dogs (1992) (both movies directed by Quentin Tarantino). Tarantino sometimes seems more intent on being cynical than good. I’d almost rather as much see Babe (1995) or Forrest Gump (1994), with all the sentimentality, because these movies are not all about showing off their cleverness. Pulp Fiction is able to upright itself by leaving room for redemption the character played by Bruce Willis. Unforgiven (1992) comes close to being just another dull western*, but Eastwood aged into his role effectively and the characters of Gene Hackman and Richard Harris are unforgettable as miscreants. And Robert Benigni’s Life is Beautiful can be forgiven for all of the sentiment because the story brought out how much a supposed buffoon had to lose while inside a Nazi concentration camp.

There are a few notable movies I’ve left out. There are some extremely violent films including GoodFellas (1990), True Romance (1993) and The Bad Lieutenant (1992) starring Harvey Keitel that are intriguing, but are greatly swallowed up by their own excesses. And with Titanic (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and American Beauty (1999) winning Oscars for best picture towards the end of the decade, I’d have to conclude that this was the worst decade for movies ever. Fortunately, some powerful foreign and independent films arrived in the 21^st Century and have brought the movie industry back to where movies are once again watchable.

Movies I would still like to see during the 1990s include Blood and Wine (1997) starring Michael Caine and Casino (1995), though I could well be disappointed with the both of them. I’m also hoping that there are some movies out there that I’ve never seen that could at least change my mind about the overall quality of movies from the 1990s.

* A reader expressed concern that I was implying by this statement that westerns are normally dull. I did not intend to say that. However, I may have implied that the people who spend their times watching westerns are dull. There's a subtle distinction.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 2000 to Present

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:42:48 GMT

Nostalgia is a disease found among those who insist on boring everyone else. It’s common to car lovers who never learned to use a manual transmission but always wanted to own a 1955 Thunderbird, among baseball fans who disparage modern players yet never themselves could throw a ball from third to first, and among movie goers who can’t distinguish between period pieces and real history. Most movies that we are seeing today are little better and certainly not worse than movies that have been shown in any other era. What certainly sticks out about today’s movies are an increasingly number of popular films that were made outside of Hollywood. The most important movie made during this decade was an independent film that depicts the crucifixion of Christ and was shunned by every Hollywood studio. Also, a number of foreign films are finally being seen in large number of theatres instead of just the avant-garde movie houses that usually only last a few years before being run out of business. Here, in order, are a list of my ten favorites and some honorable mentions:

(1) The Passion of the Christ: A movie that comes close to being upended by its violence and the demented fanaticism and monomania of its Producer and Director, Mel Gibson. Even so, it’s beautifully filmed and contains amazing characterizations of Pontius Pilate and his wife. It was too much religion for Hollywood to stomach. Almost by accident, it made Gibson and the independent studio that produced it millions. Sadly, it’s a movie that’s been used by religious nut cases for their own political purposes and criticized by people on the other side who have never seen it. Its real appeal is for those who struggle and will continue struggling with belief rather than for those who unquestioningly accept or reject any religious teaching.

(2) About Schmidt: This one portrays a legitimately unhappy person. It does so by using an almost forgotten technique called honest storytelling.

(3) Downfall: This German movie was criticized for making Hitler seem all too human. It does show his human side, but it does not fail to portray him as a monster.

(4) Constant Gardener: This is a deeply flawed soap opera, but it is rescued in the end both by its indictment of the drug companies exploitation of African nations and by showing the amazing beauty of the African people. It’s too bad that the heroes in these kinds of movies (including this one) are generally white Anglo-Saxons.

(5) Children of Heaven: This Iranian movie contains a more sympathetic look at poverty and what defines success than any recent movie made in America. It does it without cynicism and without talking down to its audience.

(6) March of the Penguins: Almost too cute to be effective. It’s still a goofy bird movie that shows the magnificence of nature and Antarctica.

(7) Enemy at the Gate: This movie showing the Battle of Stalingrad makes one understand why the Russians and Germans so hated each other. The cat and mouse game played out by Jude Law and Ed Harris is the backdrop of much chaos and passion.

(8) King of Masks: A recent Chinese movie that would be great for children if it didn’t also include themes of cross-dressing, child slavery and the oppression of women. It does have a happy ending.

(9) Munich: For once, Steven Spielberg actually goes out on a limb and makes a controversial stand. Unfortunately, this movie almost bleeds to death in its own self-righteousness. Coming close to being the rewriting of history, it nevertheless manages to remain one of the most thought provoking of all recent movies.

(10) Wallace & Grommit: Attack of the Were-Rabbit: A totally original type of movie using Claymation and containing the kind of sentimentality that ruins almost all other family movies. At least here the sentimentality is straightforward and the humor is actually funny.

Some honorable mentions include the quirky Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl starring Johnny Depp; the New Zealand film, Whale Rider, that contains tremendous acting by the native people; and the sad and, unfortunately, not altogether incisive, Hotel Rwanda. Team America, which I believe was made by the creators of South Park, has some humorous moments (including a great sequence about Kim Jong Il), but it’s extremely inconsistent. The Incredibles is more consistent and less biting. I’m undecided concerning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It may be a brilliant piece of filmmaking with great action and special effects, but it’s at times pretentious.

Significant omissions from this list include every movie that won an Oscar for Best Picture since 2000. I’ve never seen A Beautiful Mind, but all of the other Oscar winners were too pompous or lame to be included on any favorite movie list. Again, movies are not in a state of decline, but winning an Oscar (especially since about 1990) is no endorsement. What about other omitted movies? Almost Famous is a feel good movie for rock star groupies showing the naïveté of a character played by Kate Hudson and little else. And Mystic River has a farcical ending that destroys any sympathy that I have for the character played by Sean Penn (though the acting by Tim Robbins and Sean Penn is fantastic).

I’d still like to see A Beautiful Mind and hold out hope that it’s better than other recent Oscar winners. There are also a number of foreign films I’d still like to see that do not get play here in the U.S. I might see Super Size Me at some point, but I say that with some reservation. The movie sounded like an interesting experiment, but the premise that a diet of fast food only is bad for you is not going to throw me into a state of panic.* And there are probably some quality American movies I have not seen out of fear of wasting my money.

* Editorial Comment - I’m curious as to what industry has produced more revenue: the fast food distributors, or those companies that pander to America’s obsession with obesity by pushing diet pills, supplements, narcotics, support groups and counseling (not to mention psychiatric care for anorexia and bulimia), advice books endorsed by celebrities, plastic surgery, liposuction, stomach stapling, diet fads, exercise videos and exercise equipment specifically aimed at reducing the size of the buttocks and thighs. Since more than half of the world is fortunate enough to be underfed and malnourished, it’s makes sense as to why Americans feel sorry for themselves for eating too much. Thank God the media is there to deal with our confusion! During a recent expose concerning obesity shown by either NBC or ABC television, the blame for the obesity epidemic was put squarely on the shoulders of the American Farmer. This was a startling revelation to me since most of the farmers I know are up to their necks in hock. It just goes to show that those dastardly farmers would even prefer going belly-up to helping our youth shed a few extra pounds. RSM

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: 1930 - 1939

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:39:39 GMT

Probably much could be said of the fact that talking movies first became popular with the American masses during the Great Depression. But though it was a time when some of the greatest of American writers were having their say in literature, very few movies were recorded during the decade that contained any substantial message. The talking movie was early in its infancy and most of the movies from the era were designed as escapism. The Marx Brothers came into their own, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr. appeared in a number of horror flicks, and the gangster was for the first time romanticized. Maybe that’s what the nation needed at the time - but I doubt it.

Still, probably the most important movie that was ever made appeared in 1939. Written by a writer named Margaret Mitchell who seemed to feel that the freeing of the slaves was a tragic event, the book Gone With the Wind was a thousand page mess that has forever distorted the perception of the Old South. Fortunately, the making of the movie fell into the hands of an insane producer named David O. Selznick and equally daffy director named Victor Fleming. They hacked off much (though certainly not all) of the unpalatable material contained in the novel, filmed the movie in Technicolor by painting each negative of this long movie separately, and built a set design as large as a city with the sole intention of burning it to the ground. Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara amounted to perhaps the two most memorable characters ever cast. The movie has been badly imitated in many so-called epics since that time and has forever damned the male viewer to escorting his dates to the large number of Hollywood romance movies that followed. Yet there is no question that the acting and the memorable and even realistic war scenes showing the aftermath of the destruction of the south make the filming of this movie a positive experience. Though not my favorite movie, there probably are no other movies from the decade that have made as great of an impression on me.

Here, in order, are a list of my ten favorites and some honorable mentions:

(1) Scarface (1932): One of only a handful of movies from this decade still shown that is neither quaint nor outdated. This fictionalized portrait of Al Capone (made while Capone was still alive) starring Paul Muni and directed by Howard Hawks is stark and frightening. I think of it as one of the five greatest movies ever made.

(2) Public Enemy (1931): This, and not Yankee Doodle Dandy, is the one that James Cagney should be remembered for. More dated than Scarface, it still is one of the few gangster movies from this era that does not glamorize the villain. Cagney smashing the grapefruit into the face of his mistress clears up any misconceptions a viewer may have concerning the gangster’s character.

(3) Of Mice and Men (1939): Lon Chaney, Jr. and Burgess Meredith (respectively as Lenny and George) give us the best rendition of any Steinbeck novel (even better than The Grapes of Wrath) until East of Eden came along two decades later. Any overacting in the movie (which does occur) was performed by others than the two main leads. The movie remains watchable, but probably won’t appeal to those turned off by black and white film (meaning viewers that should go back to watching their television sets).

(4) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935): Clark Gable is great, but Charles Laughton is the real star as the highly disciplined and tyrannical Captain Bligh. It probably deserved the award for Best Picture.

(5) Gone With the Wind (1939): A movie so broad that it tries to address everything, this is the model for every epic movie since that time. And Vivian Leigh shows why she should be considered one of the greatest actresses of all time. Its glamorization of the south prior to the civil war is of course ridiculous.

(6) King Kong (1933): The beast removed from its tropical island comes to New York and carries his girl (Fay Wray) with him to the top of the Empire State Building. I suppose the gorilla could symbolize the plight of the workingman during the Depression when he falls to his death after being shot down by the establishment. Who knows? I think it was meant in good fun. The special effects are great to watch and obviously don’t compare to the ones made today – for anyone who thinks special effects are what make the movie.

(7) Angels With Dirty Faces (1938): James Cagney and Pat O’Brien are two old friends whose lives go in different directions. Cagney becomes a gangster and O’Brien becomes a Priest. In that day and age it was not hard to distinguish between the two in a movie (and maybe even in real life). The youth idolize Cagney, even when he’s on death row, and O’Brien wants this admiration to stop. O’Brien asks Cagney to breakdown at the time of his execution and humiliate himself. This, of course, is a very low thing for O’Brien to ask, but Cagney purposely obliges – showing that Cagney actually did have more nobility than the Priest. This movie would be worth very little if not for Cagney’s performance.

(8) Stagecoach (1939): Certainly not the best western ever filmed, but the first one of any quality. It was John Wayne’s first major role and one of the few where he showed any real acting talent. The movie directed by John Ford contains a stagecoach, a strange assortment of stagecoach passengers, Indian attacks and various shootouts – in short, one of the most imitated movies of all time.

(9) Little Caesar (1930): The first major movie to romanticize the gangster starring Edward G. Robinson. At first a small time crook, he later becomes one of the biggest underworld mobsters. Extremely dated, but it gives a viewer an idea where the stereotypical mobster came from.

(10) Treasure Island (1934): Starring Wallace Berry as Long John Silver and Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins, its one of the few movies for children that still holds up from that era. Adults may want to view it once every ten years or so to escape the fact that they are now working in an office cube.

Some honorable mentions include Sons of the Desert (1933), probably the best of the Laurel and Hardy series; All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), which contains a powerful ending (though not even close to as powerful as the novel); and I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), the first famous prison flick (though it pales in comparison to those to come).

Significant omissions from this list include It Happened One Night (1934), which, though I’m a great admirer of the actor, shows Gable pretty much playing a parody of himself. That Leonard Maltin calls it enchanting (a really wretched adjective) may be one of the reasons that I shun it. Other movies like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Gunga Din (1939) don’t age well because Errol Flynn and Cary Grant are more caricature than real in their roles.

I’d still like to see The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) starring Charles Laughton and the various movies in The Thin Man series. I’d also like to see the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, a movie I have only seen in parts.

As an aside, Hollywood was mostly clearing its throat during the 1930s with the exception of a few movies mentioned above (and possibly some movies that I have never seen). I mention this in the event that the reader does not feel I sufficiently appreciate these older films. Outside of Scarface and Public Enemy, the more penetrating and greater movies were to come in the following decade.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: Introduction

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:08:18 GMT

In the next few weeks I plan on publishing lists of my favorite movies for each decade. Some of the movies I’ll mention will have been commercial successes and some will be unknown. It’s impossible not to be occasionally swayed by popular sentiment. I do not claim that these movies I list will be the best that have ever been made. With more than 20,000 movies released in America alone since Birth of a Nation was released in 1915 (a personal favorite of Woodrow Wilson), I’m unable to cast judgment on all of those films. A few reviewers have tried. Maybe I’d try too if I made their six figure income to do so. But even then with a large amount of time at my disposal I wouldn’t be able to remember (nor would I want to) all of the movies that are available.

With all of the varied critiques, the awards and reports of box office receipts, it is difficult to not be influenced by outside opinion concerning what is good and what is bad. It’s far too easy to pass off someone else’s judgment as one’s own. Whether it’s intentional or not, I often hear the same words and phrases used to praise or criticize a particular movie. On the other hand, it’s incredibly easy to become snobbish about what one is reviewing and forget that every movie at least has potential. Just because a movie is made in Hollywood, just because it’s lowbrow or appeals to the masses does not mean it lacks merit. Pauline Kael used to criticize many movies that did not fit her New Yorker readership. This was the same Pauline Kael so out of touch with the American mainstream that she woke up shocked one morning in November of 1972 to find out that Nixon had defeated McGovern in the Presidential election. An intelligent observer would have seen that coming.

I’d like your comments. If you would like to know more about any movie that I mention, I will review or at least summarize what I think about it. I’m also open to recommendations. As I mentioned, there are still a number of quality movies I haven’t seen.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES: The Silent Era

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:05:48 GMT

I wish I had a better feel for silent films. I haven’t been exposed to enough silent movies and the fault is my own. I’ve been complacent as a viewer in a medium where I can still hear human voices, and I’ve wasted many hours trying to convince myself that the dialogue I was hearing in a movie was authentic. Probably I have not seen the greatest silent films that have been made. I’ve watched many of the highly recommended silent movies and occasionally have been impressed. I can’t say I’ve been overwhelmed. I feel it is in the silent era of film more than any other era in movie history that the critics have misled us the most. Most of them cannot separate the historical significance of a movie from its emotional punch.

There are significant differences between a silent film and one where we hear the character’s voices. These are two completely different modes of expression. We can follow along with a movie where we can hear the voices in the same way we follow a novel or short story. Watching a silent movie is like watching an opera. More of the drama is left up to the imagination. I’ve known a few lovers of silent pictures that feel too much talk has destroyed any significance a movie may have had. This point is valid. We usually can talk ourselves right out of anything genuine. A silent picture makes the viewer work to puncture the mystique of what is happening on the screen. The silent movies I remember most were the horror movies I’d see late at night or on a Saturday afternoon as a child. Some of these pictures would have been ruined by speech. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) with John Barrymore, The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) both starring Lon Chaney, Sr., and a few other silent horror films with the memorable monsters were superior to the remakes. On the other hand, movies like Ben Hur (1926) - though less than two and a half hours seems to drag, The Ten Commandments (1924) - which brings us Moses and then jumps to two modern day brothers (one destined for heaven and the other for hell), and The Wizard of Oz (1926) are not nearly as memorable as the talky remakes that were made much later.

Many reviewers excuse the weaknesses of silent films because they focus on the timeframes in which the movies were made, but a poor movie should not be forgiven because it was made without modern film techniques. Capable moviemakers have always taken what they have been given. There never has been a golden age of movie or movie craftsmanship. That’s romanticizing of the past. A genuine movie is good whenever it was made. (And we forget that some moviemakers have learned from our past mistakes.) Critics usually throw kudos to any movie made by Chaplin or Buster Keaton, and these two individuals did make some of the best silent pictures I have ever seen. Chaplin and Keaton were tremendously talented individuals, but movies like The Gold Rush (1925), Modern Times (1936), The General (1927), or Our Hospitality (1923) can never quite live up to all of the praise. These movies are charming and filled with comical and farcical shots that are followed by gentle admonitions to the audience. These movies are more than lighthearted entertainment, but I’d rather see movies like Scarface starring Paul Muni or Public Enemy made in the early 1930s.

I have also seen Birth of a Nation (1915), which has many times been listed as the greatest silent film ever made. It certainly is one of the most important movies ever made. The story is incredible (meaning completely over the top), and many directors have imitated its film technique and use of plot line. Unfortunately, it’s a piece of racist propaganda. What else can one say? When the Klan saves the day in the end we are reminded of so many later westerns where the cavalry came to the rescue. Except that this is the Klan and it came to stifle the rebellion of former slaves. Birth of the Nation’s greatest significance lies in its rewriting of history and its complete acceptance by the moviemaking establishment of its unsavory storyline. We’ve never forgiven Leni Riefenstahl’s filming of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, so why do we forgive D.W. Griffith?

I’m usually quite good at ranking in order the movies that I like best, but I can’t do it in the case of these silent films. I have to rely too much on other critics concerning my knowledge of these movies and feel my independence of judgment would be lacking. I’ll name just a few other movies that I did enjoy. I remember liking The Battleship Potemkin (1925), though it’s been many years since I’ve seen it. Greed (1924) and Beau Gest (1926) I also remember liking. I’d like to see Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), two German films that have been highly recommended by friends that know good movies. As I mentioned before, I’m sure there are dozens of great silent movies that I’m still unaware of having ever existed. Maybe I’ll live long enough to see a few of them.