Focusing on the National Film Registry and the AFI list with Hitchock and 12 Angry Men

7/1/15 12 Angry Men, 1957, AFI #87, National Film Registry

I've mentioned a couple times here that I don't watch too many movies more than once, but I have watched 12 Angry Men several times and I find something to keep my attention each time. 12 Angry Men was directed by Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, Network) and starred several big named actors, or soon to be big name actors including Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden and Jack Klugman. Most of the movie is set in a jury room where the twelve men are deciding the fate of an 18 year old young man; the room is claustrophobic and the heat is overbearing. It seems at first that it's an easy decision - guilty, but juror number 8 (Henry Fonda) wants the men to take more than a cursory glance at the evidence and discuss it before they sentence the defendant to a death sentence. He runs into resistance by the other jurors who want to leave for their evening plans or just get out of the jury room. If you have not seen the movie, I really don't want to give too much away because the way Juror 8 lays out his arguments and just tries to ask probing questions is the best part of the film. Wikipedia refers to it as a film on consensus building, but I also think it's an example of critical thinking, looking beyond the surface of things, challenging the popular opinion. The performances are taut, you really can feel the tension and the heat and smell the cigarette smoke. The men are angry, and it's interesting to hear how fears or prejudices come out. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing of an Adapted Screenplay, but lost to Bridge on the River Kwai (another movie I have watched a few times). 12 Angry Men is currently on the AFI list of the best 100 films as well as being added to the National Film Registry.

7/2/15 Tangled, nominated for Best Song, 2010
7/4/15 The Princess and the Frog, nominated Best Animated Film, Best Original Song, 2008

Tangled is an animated version of the Rapunzel fairy tale; it may be an exact version, I don't know, it's not one of the fairy tales with which I am most familiar, and I wasn't very enthralled. Honestly, I was bored. I feel kind of bad for saying that, as I love to find movies that are great for kids, especially girls. Rapunzel is a strong character, and she eventually becomes independent from her mother (who really isn't her mother), but meh, I would skip it. Unlike The Princess and the Frog which worked on several different levels: the music, by Randy Newman, provides a great taste of the New Orleans sound; the peripheral characters add humor; and a poignant, but not overly sappy storyline. The Princess and the Frog is set in 1920s New Orleans, and Tiana is a young girl who aspires to open the restaurant her father had always wanted. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the money to buy the building, and as Mardi Gras is set to unfold, there's a little voodoo and magic going on, and Tiana is turned into a frog. Prince Naveen, a visiting dignitary also falls under the spell of Dr. Facilier, a witch doctor, and he is turned into a frog as well. Tiana and Prince Naveen set off on their quest to undo the spell, and that's where they meet some great bayou characters, including Louis, an alligator and Ray, a Cajun firefly. If you have to pick, and of course you don't, I would pick The Princess and the Frog because it's a better, more interesting story; a fabulous soundtrack, and I liked Tiana as a role model for girls (willing to work hard to make her dream come true, but also ready to take a risk, like going through the bayou as a frog).


7/3/15 North by Northwest, 1959 #55 AFI, National Film Registry

7/4/15 Rear Window 1954 #42 AFI, National Film Registry

Is it just me or does anyone else wonder why Alfred Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar? Or how only one of his films Rebecca (a favorite book and film) won for Best Picture? I think this is a valid question because when you look at the list of the Best 100 Films by the American Film Institute, there are only four directors on the list with four or more films, and three are deceased: Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, and Hitchcock; Steven Spielberg is the only director with five films on the list. So again, I ask, how is that Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar? Ok, well, it's not going to happen now, but it's something to think about. North by Northwest reminded me a little of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much with James Stewart and Doris Day, with mistaken identity, a dashing leading man and a beautiful leading lady; in North by Northwest that would be Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. In North by Northwest, Cary Grant is mistaken for a spy/man of intrigue and is targeted by James Mason (I can never listen to James Mason without thinking of Eddie Izzard doing James Mason as God). The movie is often identified by the great clip of Grant trying to outrun a very low flying plane. He also climbs Mount Rushmore. I really enjoyed the story and the suspense, and Grant as Roger Thornhill is so very dashing, and you think he is out of his depth, but he manages to hold his own against Mason and Martin Landau. The pacing of the movie and the action kept me interested, and I would watch it again and totally recommend it.

Can you guess what's coming next? Rear Window is another Hitchcock film that is cited as one of the greatest films ever made (obviously, it's #42 on the list), and in comparison to North by Northwest which takes you from New York City, to a sleeper car, to Chicago to South Dakota, you may experience a bit of claustrophobia but then you get to breath the fresh air of the Great Plains, Rear Window made me feel closed in and you only (or primarily) get the perspective of wheelchair-bound L.B. "Jeff" Jeffers (James Stewart). Jeffers is an internationally known photographer who is stuck in his apartment during a New York City heatwave, where he is tended to by his nurse Stella (played by Thelma Ritter) and his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly). Jeffers has very little to do but look out his apartment window and look into the lives of his neighbors; he gives them all names and makes up stories to go with what he sees, until one day, his story-telling takes a turn into reality. I think the technique to limit what the audience sees and hears to what the main character sees and hears is very interesting and a novel idea, but it was also frustrating (and as I write this, I'm thinking, perhaps that was the intention...). I just couldn't get into it, and as for the suspense, I didn't find it as suspenseful as The Man Who Knew Too Much. I have found, and previously commented, that Hitchcock often has strong women characters, but I don't think that Lisa would rate up there in the top five (I love Grace Kelly and she was wonderful when she was paired with Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, but she was wasted here).