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Queimada (1969)
The Dark Side of Colonialism
In 1844, Marlon Brando is commissioned to report to Quiemada, a Portuguese island colony (after Spain, with more movie theatres, objected to it being a Spanish colony) in order to provoke a slave uprising for the benefit of the Antilles Royal Sugar Company. As he explains it to the local growers, a slave, being owned, is more burden than asset if illness, injury, or old age renders the slave unproductive. A "wage-slave," as Marx called them, are better than actual slaves, since they can be dismissed. Brando trains Evaristo Marquez (an amateur actor chosen by director Pontecorvo instead of the recommendation of Sidney Poitier) to lead the revolt, but must return a decade later when matters have gotten out of hand. Brando considered this his best work as an actor. The title sequence is inventive. Ennio Morricone's score is excellent. The horrors of slavery are vividly portrayed.
Reagan (2024)
History Through Rose-Tinted Glasses
This 141 minute infomercial is mainly for Reagan fans. It traces his life story from his early radio career to his Hollywood McCarthyite attacks, to his first failed marriage, to battling the unions, campaigning for "Bang-Bang" Barry Goldwater, sneering at the anti-Vietnam War student protesters as California Governor, to trying to unseat Gerald Ford, and to bamboozling Gorbachev into thinking the Cold War could end. Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller are convincing as the POTUS and FLOTUS, but, weirdly, the story is told by ex-KGB agent Jon Voight to a younger man, who exhibits no interest in the subject except to listen politely, presumably the audience's role as well. Apparently, the KGB knew early on that Reagan would be the St. George destined to slay the Communist dragon, a laughable contention. Omitted entirely is the "amiable dolt" as Clark Clifford knew him and the VP, ex-CIA Director GHW Bush. A narrower focus, say 1980-1988, might have been wiser.
The Best Man (1964)
Masterpiece
As the scion of a political family, Gore Vidal had an early insider's view of the people who make up the government. After rising to prominence as a novelist and screenplay doctor, he was well positioned to write this script, using a brokered national convention as a metaphor for the nature of American elective government. Suspenseful, involving and meticulously structured, it's a riveting 102 minutes to a shock ending. His archetypes make for clear conflict: idealistic, well-educated intellectual Secretary of State Henry Fonda (Adlai Stevenson?) and young, ruthlessly ambitious Cliff Robertson (JF and/or RF Kennedy?) vie for the favor of lame duck POTUS Lee Tracy (Truman? Eisenhower?). Director Franklin Schaffner and DP Haskell Wexler do an exemplary job of staging intimate dramatic scenes, while depicting the convention itself through a documentary lens. (One delicious tidbit has Fonda practicing his smiles in front of a mirror, which also sets up the ending.) The supporting cast is superb and the ending seems truthful, despite the absence of a VP in the story. This is the best film about American politics that I've seen, a view inside the sausage factory for Americans and the billions abroad who must live with the consequences of Washington DC's decisions.
Vindicating Trump (2024)
The Great TDS Pandemic
After casting Vladimir Putin in the role of the Asian villain, Dr. Fu Manchu, the Deep State turned its gaze to Donald Trump, for whom war is the last option, and decided that he was a suitable Emanuel Goldstein, Orwell's enemy of kindly Big Brother. "When you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you. So I think he (Trump) was really foolish to do this," confided Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) to MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow. But one man's foolishness is another man's valor and Dinesh D'Souza does a fine job of cataloguing most of the "ways," from violating the 14th Amendment which guarantees "equal protection of the laws," to violating the 8th Amendment with malicious prosecutions including a $500,000,000 fine, to violating the 6th Amendment by prosecuting Trump's lawyers as co-conspirators, and violating the 4th Amendment with a showboating raid on Mar-a-Lago. If that's not enough, there have been--so far--two (2) narrowly averted assassination attempts due to amateurish, cut-rate Secret Service protection. One of the highlights is D'Souza's detailed demonstration of how Trump and the electorate was cheated in the 2020 vote tabulation. In the meantime, Trump soldiers on, a committed patriot, playing with his grandchildren, indifferent to his personal fate.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Brilliant
In the depths of the Great Depression, this drama told the story of a good man turned into a skulking, furtive animal by being valued only for his labor. "Working all the live long day," sing the slaves as they wield their pickaxes in unison. After being decorated in WW I for his bravery in combat, Paul Muni, in a magnificent performance, returns home to his mother and minister brother. The suffrage of women short circuited the socialist movement of Eugene Debs and, with support from the church, encouraged men to be grateful for the jobs they were offered. But Muni represents a proletarian upheaval. He wants more; he wants better. He wants to realize his potential as a human being. Does he want too much? Or will the system prevail?
City Hall (1996)
Sentimentality For Sentimentality's Sake
It took four screenwriters to baste this turkey, but the guests fled to McDonald's for hamburgers. It's no accident that one of the main characters sings duets with his favorite waiter when served in his favorite restaurant. What's more artificial than a musical? Perhaps Mike Todd is to be blamed for this: cast enough name actors and you have a show. But usually, the simplest conflicts are the most involving. This movie is about fake feelings and false reactions. This is what happens in Hollywood when a bunch of people try to figure out how to conjure up a million dollars. There's money to burn, but thanks to moviegoers, there'll be no sequel.
Lee (2023)
Brooding About the Past
All writing is autobiographical. What drives Lee Miller (Kate Winslet), a WW II writer/photographer? Is the horror within or without? She rages, she weeps, she types, she smokes, she drinks, she curses, she bares her breasts. When she interrupts an American soldier's rape of a young woman, she menaces him with a knife, then hands it to the woman: "Next time, cut it off!" Her photographs of a liberated concentration camp will haunt her--and us. But, ultimately, the script is as undramatic as a photograph, despite a brief conflict with her publisher. Writers do this: they cull their past experience with devotion, then report to their readers. The largely monochromatic color photography is as somber as a cemetery. But drama requires action more than spectacle.
The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Brilliant
By 1951, John Huston had become adept at bringing novels to the screen, but this film presented an extraordinary challenge. How could the transformation of a coward into a hero be explained as well as depicted? Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in WW II, was the ironic choice to flee battle before he leads. His psychology was demystified, in part, with the assistance of a Narrator (James Whitmore). The tragedy of the Civil War is depicted vividly: the image of the bearer of the stars and stripes overtaking the bearer of the stars and bars is an image that describes the history of our united nation. Sadly, too many have forgotten the words of Pres. Lincoln, "With malice toward none; with charity toward all..." This movie is a strong corrective.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Masterpiece
The contest between greed and community, the major theme of the 1930s, was always brilliantly conveyed by John Huston, who articulated it in his first masterpiece, "The Maltese Falcon" (1941). He resumed this preoccupation once WW II was out of the way. After adapting perfectly Dashiell Hammett's great novel, B. Traven's great novel was next. Huston excelled at depicting the inevitable sadness of life with humor and wit. He was proud of directing his father , Walter Huston, to his first Oscar for acting after three fruitless nominations. And he continued his splendid collaboration with Humphrey Bogart, who was to Huston what John Wayne was to John Ford. The casting and performances are superb, with music and photography to match. Other themes involve respect for native Americans, the natural world, and the elderly before these concerns were fashionable. The plot is riveting and meticulously structured.
The Brave One (1956)
Ole!
The King Brothers commissioned this screenplay from blacklisted Dalton Trumbo and, in 1957, it earned an Oscar for Best Story. A claim that the story, "Emilio and Bull" by Paul Rader, submitted to the Kings in 1951, was the basis for the script was settled out of court. Perhaps, inspiration was provided by Albert Lamorisse's magnificent French short "White Mane" (1953), another story of a small boy, who develops a rapport with a big animal, that adults also claim for commercial purposes. But this Technicolor, Cinemascope feature film, set in Mexico, with a score by Victor Young, received much more attention and praise. It is a pleasure to visit Mexico City in 1956, to see the handsome old cars and enter the ring with the bullfighters. Director Irving Rapper gets good performances from all, including the bull and Trumbo handles the rising suspense masterfully.
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
Masterpiece
"We had faces," says Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). No better example of what she meant by demeaning the writer's dialogue compared to the actor's performance exists than this classic, much of it in extreme close-up. Falconetti's performance is unexcelled in film history, and the support, even in the smallest roles, is worthy of her. Carl Th. Dreyer's staging for the camera expanded the language of cinema. This film, along with George Bernard Shaw's play, "Saint Joan," is a uniquely vivid account of the contest between the desire for life versus the necessity of virtue.
Kiss Her Goodbye (1959)
Unique
The late 1950s appear to be the age of the child-woman, from "La Strada" (1954) and "Baby Doll" (1956) to "Lolita" (1962) and "Term of Trial" (1962). Smack in the middle, we find this adaptation of a pulp novel by Wade Miller, introducing Sharon Farrell to a long career in TV and movies. Her brother, Steven Hill explains that she has the mind of a six-year old. All the characters are very unusual, but the skillful cast brings them to life in a slow developing but intriguing plot. Oddly, it was director Albert Lipton's only effort. The talented musician, Johnny Richards, also had a brief career. Farrell, who was married several times, worked with her first husband here, Andrew Prine. Did life follow art? This was 94 well spent, but somewhat mystifying, minutes. What exactly was wrong with her?
Dark Victory (1939)
Alas, Woe Is Me!
During the Great Depression, not even the supremely wealthy were safe! Bette Davis, following Tallulah Bankhead's Broadway performance in the role, is an energetic 23 year old heiress, enjoying the high life, when she is diagnosed with brain cancer. She falls hopelessly in love with the handsome brain surgeon (George Brent), who saves her for awhile. Her best friend (Geraldine Fitzgerald) serves as the Greek chorus for this ersatz tragedy. Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan appear in support. Oscar nominations followed for Davis, Musician Max Steiner and for Best Picture. Those impoverished in the 1930s could rest assured that they were not alone in their misfortune. For me, the most moving films are not so relentless in hammering away at that purpose.
Split Second (1953)
How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Bomb
This is one of the earliest atom bomb stories following Arch Obler's "Five" (1950). Unlike "On the Beach" (1960), a good movie that strives to move the audience emotionally, "Split Second" offers major characters, who are often not likeable, such as the lead Stephen McNally, a criminal holding hostages in a Nevada ghost town scheduled for destruction in a nuclear bomb test. In his second picture as director Dick Powell got excellent performances and eventual best-selling novelist Irving Wallace shared story and screenplay credits. Three years later, Powell shot "The Conqueror" also in the Nevada desert, which, behind the scenes, was a true atom bomb story, with dolorous results for many involved.
Time Bomb (1953)
Freddie Francis Shoots Black & White Too!
Before winning three Academy Awards for color cinematography while working for David Lean, Francis did a fine job here, featuring some excellent exterior night scenes. The suspense is built around the defusing of a Saboteur's bomb (Victor Maddern) and whether the bomb defusing expert (Glenn Ford) will save his marriage to his French wife (Anne Vernon), who has been complaining about being bored. We're more interested in the Saboteur: lone maniac or IRA soldier? This is never explained, a weakness in view of the time spent out of the 72 minutes, focusing on the comings and goings of the hot tempered wife. A feeble-minded senescent attempts comic relief by repeatedly saying, "I like trains." John Addison provides a busy score.
Bend of the River (1952)
Popped Corn With Rancid Butter Scented Oil
Following his success with "Winchester 73" (1950), Producer Aaron Rosenberg assembled the same group, Director Anthony Mann, Screenwriter Borden Chase, and Star James Stewart for another go-round, this time with less artistic, but more box office success. It's cliche-riddled claptrap, brimming with more character types than a silent comedy: Jay C. Flippen is the earnest farmer, seeking to "settle" the Oregon wilderness with two lovely, nubile daughters, highly skilled in cooking and laundry (Julia Adams and Lori Nelson) and a meaty older woman who keeps the girls in line (Frances Bavier), a hard-bitten, trail boss (James Stewart), who's a notorious Missourian and his cheeky side-kick (Arthur Kennedy), who's an equally notorious Kansan, some wild "injuns," who get themselves killed because they're much slower, fatter and dumber than the slim, clever white men they attacked, a "dude," dressed to the nines, always immaculate, who makes his living with a deck of cards (Rock Hudson)--all three men are natural buddies due to their skills with a six-gun--a large, loud, bossy black woman, "Aunt Tildy" (Lillian Randolph), who keeps a not very bright, slender, meek, black man (Stepin Fetchit) under control, and some, hard-drinking, lazy, scheming proles (Harry Morgan, Jack Lambert, Royal Dano) who respond only to stern authority (this five years after the Taft-Hartley Act). This was the second and least of the five impressive Mann/Stewart westerns made in the early 1950s. A paddlewheel steamer and the snows of Mount Hood are the unique features. And it's in color. A better title might be, "Mr. Rosenberg Lays An Egg."
Winchester '73 (1950)
Bye, Bye Hopalong....
This was the first of five westerns directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, made in the early 1950s. Like the films of Budd Boetticher, starring Randolph Scott, and John Ford, starring John Wayne, they elevated the genre to the point where it received international legitimacy and sparked similar films in nations defeated primarily by the USA in WW II: Italy and Japan. The story involves a rare rifle, 1 of a 1000, won in a contest by Stewart, then stolen. The portrait of the west in this well-structured, brickly paced adventure seems plausible and informative. The casting and performances are superb. The lightly comic Stewart is replaced by one with a temper.
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Brilliant
This biopic was the first picture to get 10 Oscar nominations, including one for Assistant Director Russ Saunders, who had been a football teammate of John Wayne at USC. It begins with Zola (Paul Muni) struggling in a drafty garret with Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff), both maintaining their integrity as artists, despite a vision that contrasts with governmental and academic preferences. Poverty is the early consequence. When Zola meets "Nana," a girl of the streets, his somewhat salacious account is an overnight bestseller and all subsequent books find an audience. Condemned by Cezanne for his self-satisfied prosperity, he encounters Anatole France (Morris Carnovsky), who draws his attention to the plight of Capt. Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), a Jew unjustly convicted of treason. Begged by Mrs. Dreyfus (Gale Sondergaard) to intervene, Zola puts his career, fortune and even his life at risk. Would someone, so well positioned, risk everything for a similarly righteous cause today? A movie that argues so plainly and forcefully for virtues, such as honesty, responsibility and intellectual courage will probably not be made again, at least not in Hollywood.
Bigger Than Life (1956)
Brilliant
One of the most fortunate developments of Hollywood in the 1950s, arguably its Golden Age, was the rise of great actors to become great producers. To the list of Kirk Douglas, But Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, we can add James Mason for, sadly, this unprofitable picture. After his presentation of the limitations of middle class life, in "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955), Director Nicholas Ray was ideally chosen for this related project. "A man's home is his castle" was a saying heard in the 1950s, as people fled their apartment buildings for a palace of their own in more natural settings. Wives and children were verifications of their prowess. In this screenplay, to which Clifford Odets made an uncredited contribution, James Mason is stricken with a rare illness for which an experimental drug is prescribed. His psychological changes lead to a megalomaniacal line, spoken with great certainty, one of the best in film history, "God was wrong!" The smugness of the bourgeois is deftly mocked. Barbara Rush returned as the unhappy housewife in another excellent suburban story, "Strangers When We Meet" (1960) with Walter Matthau again the helpful neighbor. During Mason's living room breakdown, on the TV is a whirling amusement park ride. Did it inspire Vincente Minelli's magnificent climax to "Some Came Running" (1958)? There's good reason why Jean-Luc Godard considered this one of the ten greatest American sound movies, which is higher praise than I can give it.
A Woman's Face (1941)
More Than Meets the Eye
"Men fall in love with their eyes, women with their ears," wrote Oscar Wilde. Women are often evaluated by their appearance and when Anna Holm (Joan Crawford) excites the interest of Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt), she is swept away. Self-conscious and socially stigmatized by a severe burn endured in early childhood, she has grown used to averting her face from others to spare them the sight of her disfigurement, an ugliness that has permeated her soul, as she pursues a life of crime by heading a blackmail ring. Torsten eggs on her career, which occasions a meeting with a great plastic surgeon (Melvyn Douglas). Can he save her face and the character it conceals? This is one of the greatest triumphs in the careers of Joan Crawford, Director George Cukor, DP Robert Planck, and Editor Frank Sullivan. This intense focus on the conflict between appearance and reality, face and heart, makes this an especially strong "women's picture."
Brute Force (1947)
"Nobody ever really escapes."
The overall somber tone of this prison escape picture enhances its claim to realism, which is belied by the parade of Hollywood character actors in Mark Hellinger's cast and the strong Miklos Rozsa score leading up to "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), a much better escape story. Along with "The Killers" (1946) and "Desert Fury" (1947), both also scored by Rozsa, this movie made Burt Lancaster a major star, instantly. A leader of doomed men, fighting sadistic Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn), he's a paradigm of the All-American tough guy, who, teeth clenched, took lead but kept dishing it out from 1941 to 1945. Its suspense is interrupted by flashbacks to "the girls they left behind," a weakness in its overwrought plotting.
All the King's Men (1949)
Nervous About Populism
In the post-mortem following World War II, the possibility of fascist totalitarianism was concerning. How had it happened? The jitters about the vox populi are due to concerns about the gullibility of the mob, but overlooked is the fact that neither Hitler nor Mussolini were popularly elected. They were appointed to high office by, respectively, President Paul von Hindenburg and King Victor Emmanuel III, with the acquiescence of an arista. Sinclair Lewis sounded the alarm with his 1935 novel, "It Can't Happen Here," followed by a stage version in 1936. MGM bought the rights to the novel, adapted by Sidney Howard, but the project was scuttled, following objections from the German and Italian markets, conveyed to Louis B. Mayer by Will Hays and Joseph Breen. After the war, the alarm could be safely raised in Robert Penn Warren's 1946 novel, adapted by writer-director Robert Rossen, soon to be called on the carpet by HUAC in 1951. It's an involving film, modeled on the career of the late Huey Long, with perfect casting and performances. The original four hour movie was cut finally by Robert Parrish, but the football subplot still seems unnecessary. However, the alarm has been sounded loudly about the "great unwashed," referred to here as "hicks."
Dust Be My Destiny (1939)
"You get old pretty fast when you're on the lam."
This Great Depression/Dust Bowl era story of young people, scraping along, looking for their own "place in the sun," enduring peccadilloes and scrapes with John Law with pluck and determination starred John Garfield and his New York accent. Sent to a work farm, he meets bubbly, charming Priscilla Lane, stepdaughter of alcoholic oppressor Stanley Ridges. The screenplay veers deftly from genre to genre, from film noir to romantic comedy to Frank Capra style plea for the little Nobody and American democracy, like a drunk fording a stream by hopping from stone to stone. But the performances of the principals and strong support from kindly Charley Grapewin, Henry Armetta, Alan Hale and Ferike Boros holds our interest and sympathy for the entire 88 minutes. Will love conquer all? Please, Hollywood!
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Marie Antoinette, Bobby-Soxer
Although the nominal star is Kirsten Dunst, the real stars of this 40 million dollar exercise are the Art Directors Anne Seibel and Pierre du Boisberranger, Set Decorator Veronique Melery and Costume Designer Milena Canonero. Everything else is subordinated to their craftsmanship. But two hours of opulence is small potatoes to bring us to the capital moment, the conclusion to a rather common life, as perhaps longed for by contemporary audiences as by French ones in 1792. We may consult Isabel Jewell in "A Tale of Two Cities" (1935) if drama is what we're seeking. Writer-director Sofia Coppola has added contemporary music to the period picture, like a bored, somewhat sleepy, assembly line factory worker, whose boom box blares Martha and the Vandellas, in the hope to remain alert to what's happening.
Dog Years (2017)
End of the Road
Perhaps because of its title, this movie may be misappraised as a film about movie stardom and the idolatry of fans. Reflective of the humor and pathos of old age, as Samuel Beckett has done so well, it relates the irritability of an elderly man (Burt Reynolds), living in solitude with his dog, who is encouraged by an old friend (Chevy Chase) to accept a Life Achievement Award at an obscure Film Festival, near his hometown in Tennessee. Although not as poignant as "Umberto D" (1955), it relates well the guilt and shame some feel, when revisiting old mistakes, such as Kathleen Nolan, in her last role.