[was missing from reviews] Michael Cimino's epic take on Viet Nam has not aged well. Even when released, his depiction of violent, distasteful Viet Namese evoked the scorn of many critics. That said, the drama is often brilliant, evocative, and compelling-- if you can overlook the stereotyped Viet Namese. Michael, Nick, and Steven work their last day at the steel plant, then head over to Steven's wedding, and a last weekend in the mountains hunting deer. And then they are off to Viet Nam. The first hour of the film is an indulgent but interesting portrait of "deplorables": working class men and their women, enduring hard-drinking, pranks, ridiculing "fags", and hitting women. It's all very homey and reassuring, and flamboyant rejoinder to "Coming Home" (which competed for Best Picture Oscar that year). Michael is hard core, intolerant, and manly; Steven is week. Nick is somewhere in between. Viet Nam destroys Steven and Nick and only the hard-ass Michael survives relatively intact. When Nick disappears-- gone AWOL-- he returns to Viet Nam during the withdrawal to search for him and finds him playing Russian roulette for money (and sending the money home to the girl he impregnated). The concluding scene, of the remaining men and women at a funeral, singing "God Bless America", is so ridiculous I thought, initially, it was intended to parody the values expressed by the characters in the film-- I thought it was ironic. Apparently, it is not. [2546]
Amusing swashbuckler with interesting cameos by noted actors. [601]
Powerful, well made drama about Thomas More's refusal to endorse Henry VIII's divorce. I still find More an unlikeable, pious character, but his integrity and consistency make fascinating watching. [460]
Fairly funny parody of professional hockey, about a team that surges with the addition of three Canadian morons, who brawl their way to the top. [408]
Interesting, soapy melodrama, noteworthy for Wood and Beatty's appearance together. Seen again 2004-12-04. Definitely "melodrama" but considerably better than mere soap opera. Natalie Wood plays Wilma and Warren Beatty plays Bud. They are intensely in love, but Bud's father disapproves of Wilma's social status, and the diversion from Yale for Bud, and Wilma's mother imposes her own fractured sexual inhibitions upon her daughter. A "good" girl doesn't have sexual feelings. So Wilma and Bud are intensely frustrated. Bud agrees to put off marriage until after Yale, and Wilma agrees to date someone else for a while. She has a nervous breakdown, and he crashes out of Yale. Ironically, her parents sell their stock holdings just before the crash, to pay for private institution for Wilma, where she slowly recovers her equilibrium, thanks, as always, to an enlightened psychiatrist. Bud, in the meantime, settles for a more accessible girl. They meet again and the conversation is genuinely wistful. There is a quiet tragedy unfolding in their lives and they seem barely aware of what it is, or how it has happened to them. Or is it more interesting as an artifact of a bygone era, of sexual repression and ignorance? Wilma's mother is defensive about the pyschiatric treatment-- are they teaching you to blame us? Your parents? That's Dobson's gripe about liberals, that they blame the parents instead of rebellious children. Meanwhile, Bud's father advocates the services of a loose woman, for the time-being, for Bud. Intriguing, well-written, and better than I initially rated it (6). [352]
AUDREY CHRISTIE, BARBARA LODEN, ZOHRA LAMPERT
Mildly affecting portrait of disillusionment, rebirth, through work and nature. Very personal film. Not sure, in retrospect, what to make of it. [340]
Gross, violent film about telekinesis. Amy Irving is cute. Otherwise, overly violent. I think I saw this with Sid in Calgary. Vaguely remember. [2019] Better scripted than I gave it credit for, though still gory by any standard. Amy Irving is also quite good as Gillian, but Kirk Douglas is as terrible as ever. Peter, former CIA agent, is searching for his son who has demonstrated some powers of telekinesis. He stumbles upon Gillian in his search: she has the same power, if not more of it. He discovers that his son, Robin, has been held by evil government forces, ably represented by Childress (John Cassavetes-- quite good). They, of course, want the power for the military. Carrie Snodgrass is Hester, a staff member at the "institute" that is the front for the operation, who helps Peter. Generally well-written, if derivative of De Palma's previous success with "Carrie". He cast Douglas because "Carrie" didn't do as well as he expected because it didn't have any "name" actors in it. [337]
I liked the dancing. The rest of the story isn't exactly engrossing, but sustains interest. The music, grudgingly, deserves some credit for pervasive sense of egotism and hedonism of this film. [303]
Saw this with Helen and Jacquie, I believe. Dissatisfying and aimless. Now that you think about it, Stallone in a Jewison film? Useful in a documentary sense for its account of the development of labour relations. [261]
Serious, ambitious drama about a military wife (Fonda) falling in love with parapalegic Jon Voigt, and changing her mind about the war. [185]
Two prankster pull pranks. [183]
Interesting, honest biography of Buddy Holly, with outstanding performance by Busey, who actually sings in the movie. The film worried me though. It suggests that Holly was looking to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett as role models, rather than Howling Wolf and Chuck Berry, at the time of the plane crash. The film would have you believe that this was a sign of a maturing talent, tragically cut short. The tragedy might have been Holly's next album. [148]
Chaplinesque comedy. [138]
Not great, but interesting. I saw with someone at Trinity, but can't remember who or exactly when. Rick Vanderwoude, maybe. [89]
Embarrassingly bad. Word of advice: never show the shark. Especially not jumping out of the water, going to a phone booth and ordering pizza. [79]
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