Over the weekend I had the chance to watch a classic baseball movie, "The Natural." This Robert Redford classic is known as being one of the best baseball movies ever and is full of more classic moments than I can count.
The biggest part of the movie that stands out is the acting. Robert Redford plays a timeless character in Roy Hobbs. He really captures the characters love of the game and his regret in how he has spent his life. Kim Basinger as Memo Paris creates what may be the most complicated character in the movie as the girl that brings bad luck. By the end of the movie I felt as if she was a tragic character, but the movie does not really effectively capture this. Wilford Brimley as Pop was just another classic portrayal by this character actor. The rest of this cast rounds out the movie nicely with solid performances by everyone.
Direction wise the film does little wrong. Their are so many classic moments it is hard to pick out just one to highlight. But it is not these moments that bring this movie to life, but the smaller moments, that tied this movie together. Though I would be remiss if I didn't mention the final at bat with the stadium lights exploding. That scene was beautiful and there is a reason that it is constantly referenced in cinema.
What doesn't hold up well today is the plot. The movie really focuses on one ball player, while most baseball movies today focus on several players. This focus on a single player took away from the importance of the team doing well and made me only care about Roy doing well. Second the movie is told without a real narrative voice. It is up to the audience to figure things out for themselves, however there is a little to much room for interpretation for a movie like this.
So overall, great acting, great directing and an okay plot. It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Oscar Project Interlude - You Don't Know Jack
As I continue working my way through the Oscar movies, I of course will have the opportunity to watch many other non-winning Oscar Films and new films as they come out. This past Thursday I had the opportunity to go to the Detroit premiere of "You Don't Know Jack," the new biopic about Jack Kevorkian. I was a teenager when the doctor was in full operation so my memory of how everything occurred is not great, but it is something that I do remember. I will say that sitting in a theatre with Dr. Kevorkian, Jeffery Fieger and several other players in the story while we all watched it play out on screen was an interesting way to watch the movie.
The most memorable part of this movie was the performance made by Al Pacino. In most movies Pacino is playing Pacino. While that still gives him great range as an actor, it is something he will always be saddled with. Not a bad thing but it makes it difficult to accept him playing someone that is real. In this portrayal however he is completely immersed in the role. The accent, the look, the mannerisms, all of it fits perfectly into the character of Jack Kevorkian. The rest of the cast performs incredibly well, but it is Pacino that owns this movie and no one rises above him.
The story is told very well and remains compelling even though I knew how it ends. The movie is about Kevorkian and sticks to his side of the Assisted Suicide issue. It does treat the anti-assisted suicide party as enemies, but since it is about Kevorkian it doesn't matter. The movie mixes in actual footage from reporting, trials and announcements seamlessly into the plot and handles all of the patients of Kevorkian very well. In between the drama the movie is kept light and funny. Kevorkian becomes a very sympathetic and likable character.
The movie premiers tonight on HBO, but could have performed very well on the big screen. If you get the chance to see it do so. It gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.
The most memorable part of this movie was the performance made by Al Pacino. In most movies Pacino is playing Pacino. While that still gives him great range as an actor, it is something he will always be saddled with. Not a bad thing but it makes it difficult to accept him playing someone that is real. In this portrayal however he is completely immersed in the role. The accent, the look, the mannerisms, all of it fits perfectly into the character of Jack Kevorkian. The rest of the cast performs incredibly well, but it is Pacino that owns this movie and no one rises above him.
The story is told very well and remains compelling even though I knew how it ends. The movie is about Kevorkian and sticks to his side of the Assisted Suicide issue. It does treat the anti-assisted suicide party as enemies, but since it is about Kevorkian it doesn't matter. The movie mixes in actual footage from reporting, trials and announcements seamlessly into the plot and handles all of the patients of Kevorkian very well. In between the drama the movie is kept light and funny. Kevorkian becomes a very sympathetic and likable character.
The movie premiers tonight on HBO, but could have performed very well on the big screen. If you get the chance to see it do so. It gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.
The Oscar Project Part IV - Cimarron
Released in 1931, "Cimarron" won the fourth best picture Oscar. Being produced and released in the middle of the great depression, I expected to see a small scale movie that relied more on character than anything else. I was wrong. "Cimarron" turned out to be a large scale blockbuster of a movie. It featured gun fights, politics and even courtroom drama.
The movie tells the tale of the settlement of Oklahoma after the release of the land by the government. It centers around a man named Yancy Cravat, who starts a newspaper, runs a church, fights in the Spanish-American War and runs for Governor. At first it felt like a western retelling of "Citizen Kane", another RKO production. However, it had a lot of messages that I would not expect from a movie from this time period.
The movie itself shows the downside to the exploration that men would do during this time period. Men would leave their family behind to go exploring and search for that new opportunity. In the movie we see two different women affected by men leaving them. One of them is not able to follow any options and is forced to become a whore. The other is eventually elected to congress. This message of women empowerment was surprising and was not something I was expecting from a movie labeled as a western.
The movie doesn't just stop with empowering women. It also made statements about the treatment of Native Americans. Besides being a second message that this movie was trying to make, it came as a surprise since the movie starts with many racial slurs against Native Americans that wouldn't be acceptable by today's standards.
However the movie makes a smart move by centering the movie around Yancy Cravat, who comes across as one of the action heroes of today that everyone would love. He did the right thing and was a real man's man. By having this be the center of the movie they could make the statements they wanted to make and still have a movie that would be accepted by the audience.
Overall the movie was a pleasant surprise and I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Next on the list, "Grand Hotel."
The movie tells the tale of the settlement of Oklahoma after the release of the land by the government. It centers around a man named Yancy Cravat, who starts a newspaper, runs a church, fights in the Spanish-American War and runs for Governor. At first it felt like a western retelling of "Citizen Kane", another RKO production. However, it had a lot of messages that I would not expect from a movie from this time period.
The movie itself shows the downside to the exploration that men would do during this time period. Men would leave their family behind to go exploring and search for that new opportunity. In the movie we see two different women affected by men leaving them. One of them is not able to follow any options and is forced to become a whore. The other is eventually elected to congress. This message of women empowerment was surprising and was not something I was expecting from a movie labeled as a western.
The movie doesn't just stop with empowering women. It also made statements about the treatment of Native Americans. Besides being a second message that this movie was trying to make, it came as a surprise since the movie starts with many racial slurs against Native Americans that wouldn't be acceptable by today's standards.
However the movie makes a smart move by centering the movie around Yancy Cravat, who comes across as one of the action heroes of today that everyone would love. He did the right thing and was a real man's man. By having this be the center of the movie they could make the statements they wanted to make and still have a movie that would be accepted by the audience.
Overall the movie was a pleasant surprise and I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Next on the list, "Grand Hotel."
The Oscar Project Part III - All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front was released in 1930 and was the third film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The film focuses on a group of Germans fighting during the first World War. The story begins with a group of young men being convinced by their teacher while in school to enlist for the army. I felt that this scene really helped capture the nationalism that was one of the predominant causes of the Great War. The movie leads into boot camp, where the boys quickly learn that their ideas of the military are wrong and that their previous relationships that they had with people they knew outside the military have changed.
The story continues with the group joining the war and fighting. Through the movie the characters face many of the ugly parts of war. Friends die suddenly, they must fight for food, and they must deal with their friends being taken to the infirmary only to have them die. Eventually the main character of the film, Paul, must take care of the enemy before himself having to go into the hospital. Afterwards, Paul returns home, on leave, where he discovers that he has changed and is no longer the same person. He expresses this in a great scene where the teacher that convinced him to join the military is attempting to convince more young men to join. The film ends with two more lessons for Paul, the loss of the man that taught him to deal with the war and then his own death, which shows that war never stops.
The movie is most known for being a movie that truly shows the atrocities of war. And it is a well deserved reputation. To this day I have not seen a movie that has better depicted how awful war can be. The only issue that I had with this movie is with the depictions of the characters. The film is told from the perspective of the German army, however all of the characters feel American, they have American accents and resemble American caricatures. This is most likely an issue due to the still relatively new technology of sound. Or it may be that I have built up a prejudice to how characters must be portrayed. However, after just a few minutes into the movie it is no longer an issue, I was just drawn into the movie.
This movie is considered one of the best war epics of all time and it still stands up today. The movie gets 4 out of 5 stars.
The film focuses on a group of Germans fighting during the first World War. The story begins with a group of young men being convinced by their teacher while in school to enlist for the army. I felt that this scene really helped capture the nationalism that was one of the predominant causes of the Great War. The movie leads into boot camp, where the boys quickly learn that their ideas of the military are wrong and that their previous relationships that they had with people they knew outside the military have changed.
The story continues with the group joining the war and fighting. Through the movie the characters face many of the ugly parts of war. Friends die suddenly, they must fight for food, and they must deal with their friends being taken to the infirmary only to have them die. Eventually the main character of the film, Paul, must take care of the enemy before himself having to go into the hospital. Afterwards, Paul returns home, on leave, where he discovers that he has changed and is no longer the same person. He expresses this in a great scene where the teacher that convinced him to join the military is attempting to convince more young men to join. The film ends with two more lessons for Paul, the loss of the man that taught him to deal with the war and then his own death, which shows that war never stops.
The movie is most known for being a movie that truly shows the atrocities of war. And it is a well deserved reputation. To this day I have not seen a movie that has better depicted how awful war can be. The only issue that I had with this movie is with the depictions of the characters. The film is told from the perspective of the German army, however all of the characters feel American, they have American accents and resemble American caricatures. This is most likely an issue due to the still relatively new technology of sound. Or it may be that I have built up a prejudice to how characters must be portrayed. However, after just a few minutes into the movie it is no longer an issue, I was just drawn into the movie.
This movie is considered one of the best war epics of all time and it still stands up today. The movie gets 4 out of 5 stars.
The Oscar Project Part II - The Broadway Melody
In 1930 the winner for Best Production at the Academy Awards was "The Broadway Melody." It was the first musical and the first "talkie" to win the award. The movie is about a love triangle between two sisters trying to make it on Broadway and a Broadway singer. It all takes place during the production of a Broadway review to accommodate the many songs and dance numbers that take place throughout the film. The original movie featured a technicolor sequence that has since been lost, the remaining version of the film is all black and white. In fact it appears that the film the DVD was created off of was not in the best condition. It felt like I was watching an old movie on a reel to reel projector, instead of on my flat screen TV.
The film itself is full of enough melodrama to choke a donkey. The movie is considered one of the weakest winners in the history of the awards. However, the time period it was awarded in is also considered the weakest in American cinema up until that point due to the change from silent movies to movies with sound. Still, just because the movie has sound does not mean that everyone has to act so dramatically. The plot is weak and the acting matches is.
I happen to love Broadway and the theatre so I do know a little about Broadway productions and singing. The singing was weak and the larger productions weren't solid enough to be shown on the big screen and I doubt would have cut it on Broadway. The songs featured in the movie do not hold up. Most of them have been forgotten and would not be recognized by anyone under the age of 50.
The film taught me a valuable lesson, that not all of the Oscar winners will be fun to watch. This film gets 1.5 out of 5 stars. The project is still on, up next is "All Quiet on the Western Front."
The film itself is full of enough melodrama to choke a donkey. The movie is considered one of the weakest winners in the history of the awards. However, the time period it was awarded in is also considered the weakest in American cinema up until that point due to the change from silent movies to movies with sound. Still, just because the movie has sound does not mean that everyone has to act so dramatically. The plot is weak and the acting matches is.
I happen to love Broadway and the theatre so I do know a little about Broadway productions and singing. The singing was weak and the larger productions weren't solid enough to be shown on the big screen and I doubt would have cut it on Broadway. The songs featured in the movie do not hold up. Most of them have been forgotten and would not be recognized by anyone under the age of 50.
The film taught me a valuable lesson, that not all of the Oscar winners will be fun to watch. This film gets 1.5 out of 5 stars. The project is still on, up next is "All Quiet on the Western Front."
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Oscar Project Part I - Wings
I love movies. They entertain, inform, make you think and bring about a great time. Movies have been around for a century now and there are thousands of movies available that most of us will never see. For movies there is one benchmark that was set in May of 1929. The Academy Awards. One reward in particular is given to the best picture of the previous year. This is the movie that the people that make movies say is their best work. My goal is to watch all 82 of these movies in the order that they were released. After each one I plan to write my thoughts on the movie, thinking about how it stands up today and how it compared to the previous winners.
In May of 1929 the award for Most Outstanding Production was given to the 1927 movie “Wings.” The first Academy Awards honored movies from both 1927 and 1928. A second award was given out titled Most Artistic Quality of Production that went to a movie called “Sunrise.” The academy however refers to “Wings” as the winner of the equivalent award to Best Picture.
Watching “Wings” was a bit of a challenge. First, it is not available on DVD in the United States. Fortunately, someone has posted it on YouTube. I wouldn’t normally recommend watching any movie this way, but if you want to watch “Wings” this is one of the only ways to watch it. If you really want to watch a DVD, the only current release was a Korean release but it does have an English translation. Second, it is a silent movie, a 141 minute silent movie. I’ve never watched a full length silent movie before and I’ve never watched one that wasn’t a comedy. It was difficult to watch but I was glad that I did.
“Wings” is about two men from the same small town that become pilots during World War I. The movie features a growing friendship that involves mistaken love and tragedy. One of the most amazing parts of the movie was the aerial battles. To put on these aerial battles in 1927 just baffles my mind. Going into the movie I expected something light, with a happy ending for everyone. I was wrong. The movie is filled with death and really demonstrates some of the ferocious fighting that was part of World War I. It’s interesting to think of how often World War I is ignored in media today, mostly due to how much easier it is to label enemies in World War II.
The movie was good for it’s time. However, due to the fact it is a silent movie, it loses a lot of impact that it could have if it was not one. With few laughs in the movie and having to read lips more often then I thought would be necessary, it was difficult to watch the entire movie. Only those that really want to watch it should attempt it. An interesting note is that this was one of the first movies to feature a male on male kiss and the first widely distributed movie to feature female nudity, which lasts approximately a tenth of a second. I didn’t think that I would see anything like that during these early movies and it has made me rethink what the film industry was like in the early days of the Academy Awards.
Overall, I think the movie is well directed with terrific cinematography, a well developed plot and great acting. In total it gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. The next movie on the list is “The Broadway Melody.”
In May of 1929 the award for Most Outstanding Production was given to the 1927 movie “Wings.” The first Academy Awards honored movies from both 1927 and 1928. A second award was given out titled Most Artistic Quality of Production that went to a movie called “Sunrise.” The academy however refers to “Wings” as the winner of the equivalent award to Best Picture.
Watching “Wings” was a bit of a challenge. First, it is not available on DVD in the United States. Fortunately, someone has posted it on YouTube. I wouldn’t normally recommend watching any movie this way, but if you want to watch “Wings” this is one of the only ways to watch it. If you really want to watch a DVD, the only current release was a Korean release but it does have an English translation. Second, it is a silent movie, a 141 minute silent movie. I’ve never watched a full length silent movie before and I’ve never watched one that wasn’t a comedy. It was difficult to watch but I was glad that I did.
“Wings” is about two men from the same small town that become pilots during World War I. The movie features a growing friendship that involves mistaken love and tragedy. One of the most amazing parts of the movie was the aerial battles. To put on these aerial battles in 1927 just baffles my mind. Going into the movie I expected something light, with a happy ending for everyone. I was wrong. The movie is filled with death and really demonstrates some of the ferocious fighting that was part of World War I. It’s interesting to think of how often World War I is ignored in media today, mostly due to how much easier it is to label enemies in World War II.
The movie was good for it’s time. However, due to the fact it is a silent movie, it loses a lot of impact that it could have if it was not one. With few laughs in the movie and having to read lips more often then I thought would be necessary, it was difficult to watch the entire movie. Only those that really want to watch it should attempt it. An interesting note is that this was one of the first movies to feature a male on male kiss and the first widely distributed movie to feature female nudity, which lasts approximately a tenth of a second. I didn’t think that I would see anything like that during these early movies and it has made me rethink what the film industry was like in the early days of the Academy Awards.
Overall, I think the movie is well directed with terrific cinematography, a well developed plot and great acting. In total it gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. The next movie on the list is “The Broadway Melody.”
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