Citizenfour, Newman and Redford in a double feature and Jurassic Park

I don't have any real long introduction for this entry; I saw a bunch of movies, some documentaries, some 'classics', a couple of action films. 

9/28/15 Citizenfour, Best Feature Documentary, 2014
10/10/15 The Salt of the Earth, nominated Best Feature Documentary, 2014

I've seen all of the nominated documentaries except Virunga, and I have to say, I would have had a difficult time picking a winner, not necessarily because they were so great (to me, they were very good, but nothing really moved me like other films I have seen), but because they were so different. It's a lot like comparing apples to potatoes to cookies. Citizenfour was the Documentary winner. It introduces us to Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency who cast a huge spotlight on the spying that the NSA was doing on American citizens. The interviews with Snowden were recorded with great secrecy in Hong Kong.Tthe director, Laura Poitras and one of the interviewers, Glenn Greenwald, were under surveillance after Snowden's leaks were released. At times much of Snowden's insights and information seem like something out of a Le Carre novel; at other times, I seriously thought about deleting my entire online presence. A parallel is drawn between Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg (Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers, who was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage and theft of government property), except, as I noted in the blog linked above, Snowden fled the country. After watching the documentary, I kind of don't blame him, but I think he could do more for his cause in a hearing, and I'm guessing the government really doesn't want that. There's a lot that goes on in the documentary and I would watch it again to try and put the pieces together in my mind. I'm wondering if it won in part because it was a victory for free speech (the film's/director's, not necessarily the freedom to disseminate confidential information) and the fear that the Academy members may have of being spied on. I'm not sure if I'm expressing it clearly enough, and for that I apologize. I do think that Snowden was brave, and if he was the only one yelling, he would be written off as a nutjob, but he isn't alone. It's worth watching the movie if only to make yourself aware of all the portals of data collection. Information is power.

The Salt of the Earth could not be more different from Citizenfour; The Salt of the Earth, at first glance, is about Brazilian Sebastiao Salgado, who left a promising career as an economist to become a photographer. Wim Wenders and Salgdao's son, Juliano co-direct the film, looking at how Salgado accidentally became interested in photography after borrowing his wife's camera, and then going off on various photo shoots. One of his first big shoots was going through remote parts of South America, photographing indigenous peoples. He was also in Ethiopia as the famine of the early 1980s was starting to manifest itself and then he was in Rwanda during the massacres between the Hutus and the Tsutsis. After these and other emotional and intense experiences, Salgado needed to pull back from his photography and went back to his family's farm in Brazil with his wife and sons. The family land had been decimated by deforestation and drought over many years and his wife had the idea to reclaim the land and make that the family's project. Over ten years they replanted acres and acres of trees and flora and eventually even the animals have returned to the land and the land is now a national park in Brazil. This rebirth gave Salgado the desire to go back out and photograph and go to remote parts of the world to capture animal. It took me a little while to get into the documentary, I wasn't really sure of the point or what I was going to get out of it. First of all, the photography of Salgado is amazing and some of the photos from Ethiopia and the oil fires in Kuwait and the fighting in Rwanda are heartbreaking, but powerful and beautiful; the cinematography is also wonderful, moving between black and white to color; and thirdly, I was moved by the part of the story that focused on the reforestation of the dried out farm land. It spoke to the ability of man to repair what it has ruined and how it re-energized Salgado to get back to his passion. Perhaps in a different year it might have won the Oscar; perhaps it's not important. I think Salgado would be philosophical about the whole thing. This movie about a photographer and his photography touched me more deeply than Finding Vivian Maier, another movie about a photographer and her photography. It's probably because we get to learn about Salgado and Maier remained a mystery even years after her death. If you are interested in photography and anthropology, you really should see this movie (it's certainly not a requirement).

10/3/15 Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2015

I seem to do this when I have a lot of movies to watch, I get something not on the list, kind of fun and not too intense, and that's what Kingsman: The Secret Service was, a fun twist on James Bond and The Avengers (Mr. Steed and Emma Peel Avengers, not Thor/Captain America Avengers). Colin Firth (not playing a character from Jane Austen) stars as Harry Hart, a veteran agent in the secret service; Mark Strong is Merlin ('Q', if you will) and Taron Egerton as Eggsy is their lead new recruit (among several); Samuel L. Jackson is the quirky, but lethal, Richmond Valentine. In some ways the story line is not terribly original, and even making it with the secret agent aspect wasn't totally new, and yet, it works. Firth and Strong are great as the mentors to the new recruits, a lot of tough love and stiff upper lips. Egerton held his own with them and it's nice to have a younger hero, bringing street smarts to the table. Jackson is terrific in a role diametrically opposite his Nick Fury character. There is action, witty dialog, great gadgets and a couple of twists. It looks like this was technically released in the US in 2015, so it could be eligible for an Oscar (effects?), so who knows. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, great for a Saturday night with pizza with friends (you know who you are).

10/3/15 The Sting, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing - Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costumer Design, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Score 1973, National Film Registry

I'm not sure the bet way to tell you about this movie without giving the best parts away, so excuse the vagueness, it's intentional this time. The Sting may be one of my favorite movies after watching it for the second time recently. Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in their second movie together, both were directed by George Roy Hill and both feature them as 'buddies' (if you will). The second (first chronologically) is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There is so much fun about this movie, from the double-crosses and scams that are pulled (big and small); the costumes by the legendary Edith Head; the Scott Joplin influenced score by Marvin Hamlisch; and a cast that included Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould, Robert Shaw, Ray Walston and Robert Earl Jones (James' father). Redford is Johnny Hooker, a small-time con man, whose partner Luther Coleman (Jones) retires, but is then killed. Hooker wants revenge for his friend's death and teams up with Harry Gondorff (Newman), an expert in the long con. The two men and a cast of dozens try a long con on gangster and meanie, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). A lot of the movie is the set up of the con, setting the trap, and getting all the pieces to work. The more I watch Paul Newman the more I love him, he seems so effortless as Gondorff (not Gandalf, although I think Newman would have been awesome as Gandalf the Gray), a wink and a nod, fast talking Lonnegan, he is the precursor to Hannibal Smith from the A-Team or Nate Ford from "Leverage".  Redford and Newman have great rapport and everything seems very natural, even when you think "this cannot be for real". It doesn't matter. In some ways it's disappointing that they didn't do more films together, but maybe that was their choice, not to beat it to death. Too bad for us. This is another movie for those cold weekends that are coming all too fast. One thing that I want to point out, because I like to fit in a Cleveland reference whenever possible (two if I can, and I can). Paul Newman was from the Cleveland suburb of Cleveland Heights (one) and the screenwriter, David Ward is also from Cleveland and he was the force behind the classic Major League about my beloved baseball team (two).

10/10/15 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Original Screenplay1969 #73 AFI, National Film Registry

Paul Newman is Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford plays Sundance and the movie is directed by George Roy Hill. It follows the infamous pair as they rob some trains and then after it gets a little too dangerous in the U.S., they take off for Bolivia and learn enough Spanish to rob banks. Newman and Redford are fun to watch, but I just didn't enjoy this movie as much as I enjoyed The Sting, I really don't know why. If you haven't seen the movie, but are of a certain age, you may be familiar with the Oscar-winning song sung by BJ Thomas, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head". The song plays while Butch and Etta (Katharine Ross), Sundance's girlfriend, are riding a bicycle. I didn't get it the first time I watched the movie and I didn't get it the second time. There are some scenes that you may have scene in an Oscar montage or two, like when Butch and Sundance are escaping from a group of lawmen and they need to jump into the river from a great height. I'm not saying it's not worth watching, especially to see this pair together, but I'll take The Sting.

10/11/15 Jurassic Park Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects 1993

Apparently I watched Jurassic Park and rated a lowly 2 stars on Netflix. I honestly don't even remember watching it, much less disliking so much. I can believe that I wasn't interested, and perhaps that is what the rating reflected at the time, but in the interest of a fair review, and since Jurassic World has been released in the past year, I thought I'd give it another try. I enjoyed it, it's not my favorite movie ever, but I did like it. If you have been in fossilized amber for the past twenty years and have no idea what these movies are about (even I know the basic premise), Sir Richard Attenborough plays John Hammond a wealthy dilettante with a love of dinosaurs and he brings Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler (Sam Neill and Laura Dern), two experts in things paleo, as well as Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) an expert in chaos theory. Essentially, Hammond has created an island park with genetically engineered dinosaurs and plants from the period. You can imagine that this does not go as planned, otherwise the movie would have been forty-five minutes. The movie has plenty of action, great effects (remember this was 20 years ago, and I think they hold up today) for which it won an Oscar, and some pretty good dialog. It was pretty much an adrenaline rush for about 45-60 minutes - dinosaurs eating people, chasing them, learning how to turn a doorknob. My favorite character was John Hammond; Attenborough may be better known as a director (a small movie called Gandhi, A Chorus Line, Cry Freedom), but he does have extensive acting credits (The Great Escape, Doctor Doolittle, Elizabeth), and he brought a playfulness to a character that could have been really obnoxious, but I found him charming and eccentric. I also liked Jeff Goldblum's character; I have learned to appreciate his dry way of delivering lines. The movie does present an interesting discussion on the topic of genetic manipulation, but don't let that get in the way of the fun. Oh, and by the way, Steven Spielberg directed the movie based on Michael Crichton's book of the same name. I will never read the book, and possibly not watch the other movies (unless prescribed by The List), so I don't know how true the movies are to the written word. Overall I would have to say that all of the fictional movies reviewed here are great Saturday night movies.

Off to San Diego to see the amazing Joan Armatrading and those reviews will be presented next week. Ciao.