Sunday, March 3, 2013
Virginia City
213. Virginia City (1940) - Union intelligence officer Flynn fights with Randolph Scott and mustached "Mexican" Humphrey Bogart over a shipment of Virginia City Gold. While Bogie's accent ranges from Manhattan to Mexico City and back again - he's actually quite acceptable. The movie is too long, but still good. Rating - ***
Man of the West (1958)
Man of the West (1958) - Mann. Rating **1/2
Stars: Gary Cooper, Julie London and Lee J. Cobb. 100 minutes.
Plot: A reformed outlaw becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.
My 3rd viewing & my opinion is lowered. Good action scenes, Mann was always great at that, but a lot of dislikable, boring characters, not much of a story. No humor and I can't remember one line of dialogue. Lee J. Cobb hams it up and is way too young to be Coopers Uncle (!). Plus, the London strip scene was sleazy and the film lacks the great Western scenery of "The Far Country"and "Bend in the River"
Summary: OK - watchable for the Cooper-Lord Fistfight, the train hold up, and the bank robbery/Town shootout.
Stars: Gary Cooper, Julie London and Lee J. Cobb. 100 minutes.
Plot: A reformed outlaw becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.
My 3rd viewing & my opinion is lowered. Good action scenes, Mann was always great at that, but a lot of dislikable, boring characters, not much of a story. No humor and I can't remember one line of dialogue. Lee J. Cobb hams it up and is way too young to be Coopers Uncle (!). Plus, the London strip scene was sleazy and the film lacks the great Western scenery of "The Far Country"and "Bend in the River"
Summary: OK - watchable for the Cooper-Lord Fistfight, the train hold up, and the bank robbery/Town shootout.
Major Dundee (1965)
Peckinpah Extended version.
Stars/Plot: Heston and Richard Harris. star as a Confederate POW and his Union Jailer chasing the Apache in Mexico.
Background: Heston made the movie to fulfill a contractual obligation and had no creative control over the movie except a veto over the director. With a script only 2/3 finished and with a budget of $3 million, Peckinpah was hired. Production difficulties almost got Peckinpah fired but Heston saved him. Peckinpah would later blame the studio for destroying his "masterpiece," but from reading his biography and Heston’s Diary its obvious the film was doomed from the start. After Dundee, Heston would insist on a completed script BEFORE filming.
Pros - Acting, Direction, First 110 minutes.
Cons – Last one third of the movie. Having set up two great conflicts between the Calvary vs. Apaches and Harris vs. Heston, Peckinpah drops both to concentrate on the tepid Dundee and Sandra Berger romance including a terrible Heston/Berger skinny-dipping scene which ends with Heston's wounding. The movie then becomes even more digressive as it follows Heston into alcoholism and his ultimate recovery and rescue. The film ends with a well-filmed but pointless French vs. Americans battle.
Summary: The first two-thirds is great but the digressive last part makes the film just an above average western. Rating ***
Stars/Plot: Heston and Richard Harris. star as a Confederate POW and his Union Jailer chasing the Apache in Mexico.
Background: Heston made the movie to fulfill a contractual obligation and had no creative control over the movie except a veto over the director. With a script only 2/3 finished and with a budget of $3 million, Peckinpah was hired. Production difficulties almost got Peckinpah fired but Heston saved him. Peckinpah would later blame the studio for destroying his "masterpiece," but from reading his biography and Heston’s Diary its obvious the film was doomed from the start. After Dundee, Heston would insist on a completed script BEFORE filming.
Pros - Acting, Direction, First 110 minutes.
Cons – Last one third of the movie. Having set up two great conflicts between the Calvary vs. Apaches and Harris vs. Heston, Peckinpah drops both to concentrate on the tepid Dundee and Sandra Berger romance including a terrible Heston/Berger skinny-dipping scene which ends with Heston's wounding. The movie then becomes even more digressive as it follows Heston into alcoholism and his ultimate recovery and rescue. The film ends with a well-filmed but pointless French vs. Americans battle.
Summary: The first two-thirds is great but the digressive last part makes the film just an above average western. Rating ***
That Hamilton Women (1941)
4. That Hamilton Woman (1941) - Korda. The story of Lord Nelson (Oliver) and his mistress in Naples Lady Hamilton (Vivien Leigh). Oliver and Leigh have great chemistry together (naturally) in this combination romance, period piece, and British propaganda film. Oliver makes an excellent, believable Nelson and Leigh never looked better or more attractive. A little long at 125 minutes (20 minutes could have cut easily) and the sea battles are obviously models but the star power, acting, production values and the story kept me interested. Rating ***
Diamond Head
Diamond Head (1963) 104 Minutes Stars: Charlton Heston, Frances
Nguyen and Yvette Mimieux. Plot: A Rich Hawaiian Pineapple Planter (Heston) must deal with his
racial prejudice when his sister falls in love with a Native Hawaiian and his
Chinese mistress bears his son.
An amazingly bad
Pineapple Soap Opera. The actors aren't to blame but the writing and supporting
cast are simply awful. James Darren and George Chakiris are supposed to be Hawaiian. Mimieux and Heston are supposed to be brother and sister. And Heston is
supposed to be head over heels in love with supposedly "Chinese"
France Nguyen. Note: even if
she wasn't "Chinese" I found it hard to believe a Hawaiian
millionaire who looks like Chuck Heston couldn't do better than France Nguyen.
But then maybe Rich millionaire Pineapple growers are easy to please. The
scenery was good to look at, but it couldn't overcome the silly "Not with
my My Sister you don't" racial subplot and the ham-fisted "Wow, white racism sure is bad"
message which the movie constantly pushed.
Summary: Rated only a 5.7 at IMDB - I'd rate the script even lower. And too bad they couldn't have
gotten some real Hawaiian actors to play the roles. Heston doesn't say much
about the movie in his Biography, but I assume he did it for the money, the
Hawaiian shoot, and a chance to make an anti-racist movie. Rating *
Tin Star
Stars: Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins.
Plot: A Bounty hunter (Fonda) helps a Small Town Sheriff (Perkins) and a
Lonely Widow
Pros: An
excellent Liberal "Town Western". Well acted and cast, especially by
John McIntyre as the
Wise Ol' Doc
and Brand/Van Cleef as Villains. All these old pros do a very good job with some
familiar material. Mann's greatness at action scenes still amazes me.
Cons: (1) I don't like "Town Westerns" in general (2) the movie was very low budget (3) the story was VERY familiar and cobbled together from other Westerns. We get all the familiar scenes: the sheriff facing down a lynch mob, the old hand teaching the young guy how to be sheriff, the girlfriend not wanting to be a widow, the little sermons on racial tolerance and respect for the law, the lonely widow meets wandering hero and wants him to settle down, etc.
And of course, since this is a 50s Western, the town-people (except for our heroes) have to be shown as rather unlikable. Obsessed with money, cowardly, alternately hot-headed or cruelly indifferent, tolerant of bigotry, suspicious and rude toward outsiders, and generally incapable of anything positive without some strong sheriff, mayor, or hero type protecting them and guiding them. However, Tin Star's treatment of the townspeople is fairly subtle compared to some other 50s movies most of which follow the "High Noon" template.
Summary: An excellent telling of a familiar story.Rating **1/2
Cons: (1) I don't like "Town Westerns" in general (2) the movie was very low budget (3) the story was VERY familiar and cobbled together from other Westerns. We get all the familiar scenes: the sheriff facing down a lynch mob, the old hand teaching the young guy how to be sheriff, the girlfriend not wanting to be a widow, the little sermons on racial tolerance and respect for the law, the lonely widow meets wandering hero and wants him to settle down, etc.
And of course, since this is a 50s Western, the town-people (except for our heroes) have to be shown as rather unlikable. Obsessed with money, cowardly, alternately hot-headed or cruelly indifferent, tolerant of bigotry, suspicious and rude toward outsiders, and generally incapable of anything positive without some strong sheriff, mayor, or hero type protecting them and guiding them. However, Tin Star's treatment of the townspeople is fairly subtle compared to some other 50s movies most of which follow the "High Noon" template.
Summary: An excellent telling of a familiar story.Rating **1/2
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Gone with Wind is NOT racist - for the millionth time
So shut already. It now seems impossible to discuss Gone With the Wind (GWTW) anymore without some ignorant, 21st century SWPL knucklehead trying to drag "racism" into the discussion. But let’s take their dull, left-wing talking points one by one:
1) GWTW shows slaves as happy and contented. - Actually it doesn't. When Scarlett returns from Atlanta, she's told all the slaves have run away except for a few old house servants. And Prissy doesn't seem too happy or concerned with helping the white folks either. Later, when Ashley complains about white convicts being mistreated at the Sawmill; Scarlett responds “Well, what about the Slaves?” and then looks skeptical as Ashley states that “at least we didn't beat and starve them”.
2) GWTW shows reconstruction as a bad thing - Not really. It doesn't really address reconstruction. It shows the 'scalawags' trying to get Tara for back taxes (true enough), but that's about it. The whole attack on Scarlett and the "cleaning out" of the criminal’s camp by Frank, Rhett, and Ashley is shown as a "law and order" issue. – having nothing to do with postwar Black-White relations And when Scarlett is attacked, its by a white criminal with "Big Sam" saving her. Mammy stays on as a domestic servant, but then why wouldn't she?
None of the other Slaves return to Tara.
3) GWTW reinforces the Racist Confederate view of the Civil war. - Not really. GWTW, at bottom, isn't a history lesson or even a movie ABOUT the Civil War or Reconstruction. Those things are just in the background. We see everything through Scarlett’s eyes and GWTW is about her struggles, triumphs, and heartbreaks and feelings toward Rhett Butler, Ashley and Melanie.
4) GWTW shows the Yankees in a bad light - This is actually correct. Sherman is wrongly blamed for burning Atlanta during its capture (the fire in the movie was actually set off by the Confederate Army blowing up ammunition trains), Union troops vandalize Tara, a Union bummer shows up to rob Scarlett and we’re supposed to cheer when he’s killed, and Union officer (Ward Bond) tries to arrest Rhett and Ashley for "taking the law into their own hands". There’s not one good Union soldier in the whole movie.
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