I like movies like The King's Speech because they focus on one aspect in history, in this case, the Duke of York's, later King George VI, stuttering problem. You might think, can you really make a movie about a stuttering problem? Yes, you can. Prince Albert, the Duke of York, was never supposed to be king, but when his brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 to be with Wallis Simpson, the crown was pretty much thrust upon him. King George was expected to speak to the people via radio or live engagements, and a king with a stammer was not going to be very inspirational. King George (Colin Firth) tries all different types of cures, none that work, until his wife, Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), more familiar to us as the late Queen Mother, meets with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) a speech therapist to set up an appointment with her husband. The relationship is a rough one because Logue insists on treating the King as an equal, using first names, and using very unconventional methods. Despite the rocky start, the King and Logue make progress in overcoming the King's stammer, and when the King is preparing for the coronation, he wants Logue to be there. Unfortunately, people who didn't approve of Logue did some checking into his background and informed the King that he had no medical background (but Logue never claimed he did) and no real training. Eventually they reconcile, and go on to have a long relationship. I really did like The King's Speech, I liked the story, I'm very interested in British history, the actors were terrific, in fact, all three were nominated for an Oscar, with only Firth winning for Best Actor. However, my mother had a very different reaction to the movie, and somehow it came up in conversation and she just said, "It was boring." So, there you go.
6/16/18 The Fighter, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, 2010
The Fighter is another bio-pic, this time about boxer Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his half-brother and boxer, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Dicky was a promising fighter at one time, but started using drugs and when the movie starts he is pretty deep into his addiction. Despite this, Mickey still wants Dicky around as one of his trainers. The Ward-Eklund clan is very close, too close if you ask me, I'd be too claustrophobic, but anyway, they are very close and run/managed/controlled by their mother, Alice (Melissa Leo in an Oscar winning role). The movie follows Mickey as he tries to move up in the boxing world to better fights and better paydays, but he has to make a choice between Dicky and his family or a new manager and an independent thinking girlfriend, Charlene (Amy Adams). Bales seems to become Dicky (there is a brief clip at the end of the movie with both brothers, and you can see how close Bales is to being Dicky). I liked the movie, although I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites or that I would need to see it again (this is the second time). It's interesting that I watched The King's Speech and The Fighter so close, and that they both had nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and the performances of Bonham Carter, Leo and Adams are so different, Leo and Adams are loud and assertive, you could say aggressive, as their characters, and Bonham Carter is restrained, regal and assertive in her own way as a monarch's wife; and Bales is wired, hyped up, effusive and Rush is calm but engaging. And they were all playing real people, which I would think has its own set of pros and cons when acting and when voting.
6/17/18 Bullitt, Best Film Editing, National Film Registry, 1968
Steve McQueen is Frank Bullitt, a respected detective in the San Francisco police department. We know this because Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) asks for Bullitt to guard a key witness against The Organization. The witness is murdered despite the police protection, and now Bullitt has a murder to solve. Bullitt is the strong, silent type, focused on the job, occasionally focusing on his girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), but not enough. Some movies don't hold up over time, they seem dated and the acting doesn't quite work after forty or fifty years, but Bullitt is still a taut, tense detective story, with a few twists, a suspenseful soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin, and with one of the best car chase scenes in film history. San Francisco provides a great setting, the hills, the bay, the winding streets. Bullitt is a movie I would watch again, and I don't think my mom would say it was boring. I haven't seen all of McQueen's movies, but the ones I have seen, I have enjoyed, whether he is playing a gunslinger, a thief, a P.O.W. or a race car driver, he is memorable: The Magnificent Seven (also with Robert Vaughn), The Great Escape, The Towering Inferno or The Thomas Crown Affair.
