A total mixed bag - Patton, Terms of Endearment and a TV series

Sometimes life is filled with tough choices: dinner out or re-heat your leftovers, where your team colors when you're in a different town or blend in, vest or sweater. These are the choices that shape my day. I was not ready for the challenge ahead of me this weekend when I over-scheduled my DVD player, including two movies that were close to 3 hours long (Avatar and Patton), and a television series that could not be renewed from the library. What's a person to do? Cross another movie off my list, or watch 13 hours of Homeland with Claire Danes? Okay, you know, after reading that, I have to admit, it was not a hard decision at all. Twelve episodes of Homeland; Avatar went back to the library unwatched and unloved (of course this meant I could not hate it either) because I already renewed it twice and had to return it or pay a fine. I could afford the dollar or two fine, but it was easier to return it. There's always next time.

10/18/13 Patton - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction 1970

I'm not really sure where to start with Patton, but I'm fairly certain this will not be a military synopsis. To borrow a thought that I saw on Netflix, this movie is not really about the battles Patton fought in or led, but it's more about the man and his HUGE personality and ego. George C. Scott stars as George Patton, a role for which he won the Best Actor award and infamously refused to accept it. Scott played a wide range of roles, from Fagin in a production of Oliver Twist, Rochester in Jane Eyre and so many others. Patton was such a large personality, I can envision the role easily being overacted by another actor, but Scott captures him (or at least makes you believe all of the things that happen). Patton is not a black or white person, there are a lot of shades of gray, a man who swears like there is no tomorrow, but yet seems to have a religiosity that contradicts that. Karl Malden, as Omar Bradley, is the perfect foil to Scott, balanced, even-tempered, politically savvy. Malden may be one of the most under-appreciated actors by movie fans today. He went toe to toe with Marlon Brando (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) George C. Scott (The Hanging Tree, Patton) Burt Lancaster (Birdman of Alcatraz). He did whatever was needed for the script and he does that here. In the first list of AFI's top 100 films, Patton was included, but it did not make the second list. It is an interesting look at one of the greatest soldiers in American military history, a glimpse at the behind the scenes political machinations of the military leaders during the Second World War, and one can imagine similar conversations happening during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the wars in between. I was worried that the 170 minutes would put me under, but the story and the acting put that concern in my rearview mirror pretty quickly.

10/19/13 Terms of Endearment - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay 1983

This is another movie that somehow I have managed not to see for thirty years. I thought the movie was going to go one way, and then it went another way, and I was pleasantly surprised. This is a universal story about mothers and daughters and the complexities within those relationships. Shirley MacLaine is Aurora Greenway, a controlling, fairly self-absorbed mother to Emma played by Debra Winger. Both women were nominated in the Best Actress category, with MacLaine taking home Oscar. The movie follows Aurora and Emma and their lives apart (Emma and her husband, Flap, move to Iowa early on in the movie), and in a seemingly effortless narrative, you watch their relationship evolve, and particularly, you see Aurora grow from this tight, controlled, almost emotionless woman (her grandson calls her Mrs. Greenway) into a woman who laughs, enjoys herself, and fights for her daughter. Garrett Breedlove (that really sounds like a bad porn name) played by Jack Nicholson is largely responsible for the 'new' Aurora. Nicholson also won for Best Supporting Actor in this role. I don't want to spoil the end for you (I had no idea it was coming), but we'll say that  Emma and Flap's marriage hits a rough spot or two, and Emma's character grows and changes as well. Even though the movie was made in 1983 and it covers a twenty year period (beginning in the 1950s), they don't even have mobile phones, it doesn't seem dated, maybe because it does cover thirty years, it doesn't seem timebound. For people only familiar with MacLaine and her role in Downton Abbey, it would be well worth your time to check out Terms of Endearment to get a good taste of MacLaine's timing and wit and the way she delivers a line. As I was watching, I was not aware that MacLaine won for Best Actress, but all I could think about was, she better have won it, because she was great. It was a tough year, going up against her co-star, but also Meryl Streep in Silkwood, Julie Walters in Educating Rita and Jane Alexander in Testament. For earlier MacLaine, check out The Apartment with another favorite of mine, Jack Lemmon.

10/19/13-10/20/13 Homeland Season 1, several Emmys and Golden Globes

It's my blog and I'll review a series if I want. I'm not sure how long the writers can keep up the premise that is the engine of this series, but for now I'm hooked. I indulge in what they call now 'binge watching', watching a whole series or season of a series at one go. I like it, then I don't have to rely on my aging memory for what happened last week, and I don't have to wait for those annoying cliffhangers, I get it all and I get it NOW. Kind of like Veruca from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Claire Danes is Carrie Mathison, a CIA agent with bi-polar disorder, which is sometimes controlled with medication, and sometimes not. Damien Lewis is Nicholas Brody, a US Marine who was held captive for eight years by Al Qaida. The premise revolves around the idea that Brody is not who he says he is, but the writers do a fabulous job of laying all kinds of red herrings. You spend a lot of time getting caught up in that. Carrie senses, intuits and pieces together bits of the puzzle, sometimes she is right on, and sometimes not. Claire Danes inhabits Carrie and all her brilliance, mania, psychoses and neuroses fabulously. She has rightfully won two Primetime Emmy awards for Carrie. I haven't always been on the Claire Danes bandwagon, but after her role as Temple Grandin (2010), I'm happy to be a leader on that bandwagon. Damien Lewis has also won an Emmy for his role as Nicholas Brody. You may remember Lewis from Showtime's Band of Brothers. He's great, although sometimes his speech pattern or impediment or something (he is actually English) is distracting, but I get over that pretty quickly. Oh, and Mandy Patinkin is Yoda-like as Saul Berenson, Carrie's mentor and boss, and I viewed him as the eye of the hurricane, except when he was experiencing his domestic upheaval, but even that passed to the rest of the world with barely a blink. I'm a little late to the Homeland party (story of my life), and if you've haven't started yet, you really should. It is great acting, writing, directing, and editing, because it's all in the editing.