Ben-Hur, Groundhog Day and An Inconvenient Truth - movies for every occasion

7/3/16 Ben-Hur, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction - Color, Best Cinematography - Color, Best Costume Design - Color, Best Special Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Drama or Comedy, Best Sound Recording, 1959, #100 AFI, National Film Registry

A remake of Ben-Hur is coming out soon. I don't know why, I would imagine the comparisons to the 1959 Oscar-winning movie (11 wins), and Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur are going to be inevitable. It's possible that the only knowledge that young movie goers have of Ben-Hur is from the famous chariot racing scene which always seems to be included in any montage tribute to classic films. I have classified Ben-Hur as a 'religious' film in my tags, but it's not as religious (to me) as The Greatest Story Ever Told or  Jesus of Nazareth, in fact the religious awakening/awareness don't come until the last 20-30 minutes of the film. Charlton Heston had himself one helluva a career in just two movies with The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur (I mean, he did more than that, obviously, but if he only made two, I would have picked these two). Heston plays Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jewish merchant in Judea. Judah's childhood friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd), a Roman, returns to Judea as a tribune. Messala wants to use his friendship with Judah, and Judah's influence, to calm the Jews and get them to tow the line. Judah cannot bring himself to do this, and through a series of events, Judah is sent as a slave on a galley ship. Roman Consul Quintus Arrias (English actor Jack Hawkins) takes an interest in this slave who seems determined and focused and unbent by the extreme physical exertion of rowing. Arrias eventually adopts Ben-Hur (this was actually not uncommon in Roman culture) and trains him as a charioteer. The opportunity arises for Ben-Hur to race against Messala, who has since imprisoned Ben-Hur's mother and sister, and is his mortal enemy. This is the scene I referenced above, and I'm not sure how to describe it, or if I even could in a way that would do it justice. After the race, Judah discovers that his mother and sister are no longer imprisoned, but in a leper colony. Around this same time, Jesus is traveling and preaching through Jerusalem, ultimately being put on trial by Pontius Pilate. The scene of Jesus walking through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the crucifix does not focus on Jesus, but on Judah watching Jesus, even trying to give him a drink of water. Judah's family experiences a miracle after the Crucifixion, and the anger and hate that Judah had been feeling dissipate. As you faithful readers know, I generally dislike long movies on principle, and while I think this movie could have been a little shorter, I didn't mind because it was so well-done. William Wyler directed (Roman Holiday, The Best Years of Our Lives,  Mrs. Miniver, Wuthering Heights to name a few) and he did a spectacular job, combining the action of battle scenes and chariot races with gorgeous sets and magnificent cinematography, plus getting wonderful performances from the actors. The movie won Best Picture and Wyler won Best Director. Heston won Best Actor. It also won several other Oscars and is #100 on the AFI list and on the national film registry. There is an earlier, silent version of Ben-Hur which is also on the national film registry, and that disk was included in the set from the library, but I ran out of time and had to return it. Also, my brother was coming for a visit and love is not making your 22 year old brother watch a two hour silent movie. I don't know if I will see the new version coming out, perhaps if it's nominated.


7/23/16 An Inconvenient Truth, Best Documentary, Best Original Song, 2006

After all these years, I do not understand how anyone with a critical thinking brain cell can deny climate change and the impact that humans have on this planet. After watching An Inconvenient Truth, I feel even more strongly about that. This is really Al Gore's movie, he presents to audiences around the world on global warming, using powerful graphics, his Southern accent and facts that seem to have been burned into his brain. He is as comfortable talking and explaining the science behind global warming as if he was chatting to friends around a picnic table. Around the scenes of his actual presentation, former Vice President Gore talks about certain events in his life that have had a long lasting impact on his life: his sister's death from cancer brought on by a lifetime of smoking, his son's accident that helped him refocus his priorities, and teachers who influenced him. Gore is not a recent convert to environmental issues, he has been an advocate since he was a congressman from Tennessee in the late 1970s. The movie is ten years old, which is hard to believe, but it's probably more relevant and important today than even when it was released. Gore isn't all doom and gloom, he points out that if we all make incremental changes, the affect can still be felt. It's not too late, but we have to act now. The movie was written by Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim (He Named Her Malala); it also won the Oscar for Best Original Song, "I Need to Wake Up" by Melissa Etheridge. I encourage you to watch this movie as well as a few others about our planet: Racing Extinction, Merchants of Doubt, which requires you to wear your critical thinking cap, and Chasing Ice. These are just a few, but they are powerful in the how they portray what is happening to this planet. For crying out loud, if we can bring Earth to the very brink of destruction in less than 200 years, what hope do we have on some future home, whether it's Mars or some undiscovered sphere?

7/30/16 Boy & the World, nominated Best Animated Feature, 2015 

Watching Boy & the World turned into a 'list exercise' meaning I finished watching it because it was on the list of nominated films for 2015 and, in fact, was the last film on the list. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Inside Out was the winner. I'm not going to lie, the movie did not hold my interest at all, I can't even give you a synopsis, except to say that it would have made a good short film, but 90 minutes was too long for me. There was virtually no dialogue, and perhaps that added to its appeal, I don't know. I didn't hate it, I just didn't care. Sorry.

7/30/16 Groundhog Day, 1993, National Film Registry, #71 BBC

Since watching the Ghostbusters remake last week, I  have yet to watch the original, but in an effort to make up for that, I did watch Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and directed by Harold Ramis. That kind of counts for something, doesn't it? Groundhog Day did not win any Oscars, but it did land a place on the National Film Registry as well as on the BBC's list of the top 100 American films. It has also landed a place in our lexicon when people find themselves doing the same thing over and over (or it feels like it), they say something like, "It's like Groundhog Day." I know I have. Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an snide, arrogant weatherman in Pittsburgh, who goes to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to wait for the groundhog to come up and see his shadow. Along for the fun are his producer Rite (Andie McDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott). After watching the groundhog come out and see his shadow, the crew try to head back to Pittsburgh, but are deterred by a snowstorm that Phil failed to predict. They head back to town where Phil finds himself in a time loop, and in a twist worthy of a Greek tragedy, Phil has to relive Groundhog Day over and over and over. He goes through a period of despair and tries to kill himself; normally I would not use 'suicide' and 'funny' in the same review, but his attempts and the results, are pretty funny. Eventually he learns to use it to his advantage since he knows exactly what's going to happen next, like answering Jeopardy questions before Alex Trebek can answer them. There's no question that this is Bill Murray's movie, but he does have a good partner in McDowell, who does the only thing you can do and that's play it straight. I don't think we know how or what created this time loop, but I think that's totally okay and is really irrelevant. I enjoyed the humor and the way the story did progress, so even though it was the same day, we see different aspects of that day. I didn't laugh out loud, but I did like it quite a bit and was laughing on the inside.