3/4/16 Goodfellas, Best Supporting Actor, 1980 #92 AFI, #20 BBC, National Film Registry
If you're a fan of Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorcese,
The Sopranos or
The Godfather, you have probably seen this movie at least once, but I'm guessing four or five times. I have also seen it a few times, but I wanted to watch it once more before reviewing it.
Goodfellas is based on a true story and real life gangsters and is told from the perspective of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), an Irish-Italian associate of the New York mob. Henry starts hanging out with the wise guys as a young kid and is easily drawn into the lifestyle. He gets as close to the inner circle as he could without being a made man. His two closest friends are James "Jimmy the Gent" Conway (Robert DeNiro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci in his Oscar-winning role); they are both hot-headed, but Tommy is even more so, losing it on more than one occasion. Tommy is over-the-top, maybe even psychotic. Against a direct order by Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), Henry gets involved in the drug business, and starts using. He brings his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) into it as well. Things take an inevitable turn for the worst for the Hills and several of their friends. I like the movie, I like the pacing; Scorcese takes us through four decades, from 1955 through the early 1980s, but it doesn't drag on, or at least it didn't feel that way to me. I do think that if you're going to really follow the different, minor characters, it can be challenging. There are a lot of people moving in and out of the scenes, and most of the time it's not that important, but then when they start getting knocked off, it's handy to know who they are or why they are being whacked. An underlying plot (Hill was not directly involved) was the Lufthansa Airlines robbery at LaGuardia Airport in 1978, which is not gone into in detail, but the repercussions ripple throughout the gang. If you do not know about it, it may be confusing. Of course, maybe not, maybe you pay better attention than I do.
3/5/16 A Woman Under the Influence, 1974, #31 BBC, National Film Registry
I think I should have been under the influence while watching this movie. It may have made the yelling and jumpy story more tolerable.
May have, no guarantees.
A Woman Under the Influence has been cited as influential, inspiring, groundbreaking, etc., so I finally watched it. I think this may be one of those instances where at the time it was released, 1974, John Cassavetes' film starring his wife, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, was all of those things. Forty years later, it seemed like a movie of lost opportunities. Gena Rowlands is Mabel Longhetti and Peter Falk is her husband, Nick. Mabel is a housewife and mother of three young children, who seems to be desperately lonely and depressed as she is home alone during the day, while Nick is out with his friends and co-workers during the day, and sometimes during the night when there is an emergency (he is some kind of public works employee). Nick describes Mabel as different, quirky, but he is tolerant and seems to understand her. If the movie was made today, her idiosyncrasies might have been attributed to post-partum depression or another diagnosable mental illness; but Mabel just seems wacky, close to hurting herself or her children, and she is put in a mental hospital. We never see Mabel getting help or treatment, we see Nick playing with the kids (actually getting them drunk on little sips of beer), and then having a party for Mabel's return. There are too many gaps for me, and a lot of shouting and repetition of lines, almost as if they were being improvised. Usually I will check out
Wikipedia, but I didn't want to be swayed, and I still haven't looked. I will say that Rowlands was really good and was nominated for Best Actress, losing out to Ellen Burstyn in
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Peter Falk was in more of the film that Rowlands, and showed a side that was very un-Columbo-like (some of you may not even be familiar with Falk's role as the wrinkled Detective Columbo). For film buffs, you should probably see this, or you have already; but if you're a casual movie fan, looking for a fun Saturday night movie, this is not it. Sorry.
3/6/16 His Girl Friday, 1940, #50 BBC, National Film Registry
Howard Hawks teams up again with Cary Grant for another comedy classic (
Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn), but this time he pairs Grant with Rosalind Russell.
His Girl Friday is set in the world of newspapers, with Grant as Walter Burns, the editor of
The Morning Post and Russell is Hildy Burns, his ex-wife, ace reporter, and the person who knows him better than he knows himself. Hildy has returned to town with her fiance, Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), insurance salesman. Hildy plans to come to town, say her goodbyes, and head off for her life of domestic bliss in Albany, New York. But with the biggest story in the city going on, the impending execution of a white man for killing a colored policeman, and possible riots, Walter wants his best reporter on the case. After a series of comedic turns, Hildy takes the job, only to find Bruce getting into trouble with a little help from Walter. The verbal exchanges between Grant and Russell are blazing fast and witty, similar to Grant's other movie roles. It is fun to watch. This comedic jousting takes place over the very serious business of race riots, hangings and political corruption. Russell as Grant's sparring partner is well up to the task, as well as the other characters, most of whom are other newspaper reporters or politicians. I am going to say I enjoyed the movie, and then appear to back off of that statement. I did enjoy the movie, I have become a huge Cary Grant fan through this project, but some of the language used to describe the African American population (there are no black actors in the film, unless they are in a subservient role, but I don't think they were) is archaic and offensive, and perhaps it wasn't offensive in the 1940s, but I don't think it was necessary to include in the script. Also, looking at the film seventy years later, in our current political climate, we have not come all that far in race relations. That seems to be my observation after I watch a lot of movies, especially lately. So, having enumerated by concerns and objections, I liked seeing a strong female character and Cary Grant seems to shine when he is paired up with a strong foil.
3/6/2016 Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944, #80 BBC, National Film Registry
I find that when I watch most musicals, I'm really not interested in the story, since the stories are generally flimsy and just a framework for the songs, and most of the time, I would rather listen to the songs. That's kind of how I felt watching
Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien and Mary Astor (
The Maltese Falcon). The Smith family lives in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1900s, leading up to the World's Fair in 1904. The Smith family has four daughters (including Garland and O'Brien) and one son and the story mostly revolves around their different romantic lives. The musical is full of songs, my favorite is "The Trolley Song", hands down. The movie was nominated for four Oscars, for Best Song, Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Best Score, but surprising to me, not Best Costume. The costumes were beautiful, and perhaps it was the cinematography that made them stand out so much. Judy Garland holds a special place in my heart going back to my first encounter with
The Wizard of Oz, but my father loved her, and would often play "Judy Garland - Live at Carnegie Hall". She was a special talent. Margaret O'Brien won a special Juvenile Oscar for her work that year, but I found her character of Tootie to be so incredibly annoying, that if she was my sister, I would have pushed her in the river. Oh the drama. I know some people love the big MGM musicals, and if you do, you should watch this. It wasn't my favorite overall, but the music is good.
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| Busch Stadium, St. Louis, with The Arch in the background |
3/9/16 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962, #45 BBC, National Film Registry
The last time John Wayne, John Ford and I spent any time together, I was severely disappointed and confused. I watched
The Searchers and was only too glad when it was over.
But I knew the Duke and I had seen better days, and I really love James Stewart, so I was quite optimistic as I watched
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Stewart as Senator Ransom Stoddard returns to Shinbone (state unknown) for the funeral of an old friend. Stoddard and his wife, Hallie (Vera Miles) come back after years as Governor, Ambassador and US Senator. Stoddard gives an interview to a young reporter and the editor of the local paper, and the movie takes us back in time to a young, idealistic Stoddard, heading westward to begin a law practice. Unfortunately, his stagecoach is held up by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his cronies (Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin as creepy and violent villains). Stoddard is brought into town by Tom Doniphon (Wayne) and left in the care of Hallie and her friends, the Ericsons. As Stoddard heals, he decides to make his home in Shinbone, working for the local paper as well as holding classes for all in town who are interested, and begin his law practice. Valance and his pals often come into town, and nothing good ever happens when they do; Valance hounds Stoddard, trying to provoke a response; he doesn't get one from Stoddard, but Doniphon doesn't back down from Valance. Doniphon tries to convince Stoddard, whom he addresses as "pilgrim", to get a gun and be prepared to use it. Stoddard resists, but eventually realizes he cannot reason with Valance. As this conflict is going on, the territory is applying for statehood, and like many western states, there was intense disagreement on statehood: cattlemen often did not want the rules of statehood (see
Shane) and could be very violent and aggressive against the farmers, or sodbusters, as they called them. That was the case here, with Valance on the side of the cattlemen and Doniphon and Stoddard and the others of Shinbone, for statehood. Things get even worse after Stoddard and Dutton Peabody, the newspaper publisher are elected by the town to be Shinbone's delegates to the convention on statehood. I definitely felt more engaged and interested in
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance than I did with
The Searchers. John Wayne's Doniphon is a bit of a complex character, obviously attracted to Hallie, but for some reason, he moves very slowly when it comes to her, eventually losing her to Stoddard; he's clearly a capable gunman, but bides his time with Valance. I did get a little tired of hearing "pilgrim", it got a bit overused, but that's a small complaint. Doniphon and Stoddard were often on the same side of the argument, but they differed in how to resolve it. The supporting characters like Peabody, the doctor, the sheriff and others, added variety and flavor and humor to the violence of Valance. The movie was filmed in black and white, which worked, even though color was available.
Wikipedia lists contrasting reasons for this: money or Wayne and Stewart were older in real life than their characters and color film would have highlighted that.
