Once upon a time in 1956, Marilyn Monroe and her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, went to England so Monroe could star in Laurence Olivier's new film, a light comedy called "The Sleeping Prince," which would later be released as "The Prince and the Showgirl." The production was difficult, and Monroe had a brief affair with a young assistant on the film, Colin Clark – at least according the diaries he published containing his account of what went on during filming.
Over fifty years later, "The Prince and the Showgirl" is an obscurity, but Monroe, Miller, and Olivier have become legendary figures. Monroe in particular has never lost her mystique. So why shouldn't we have another film about Marilyn Monroe, in all her troubled, fascinating, larger-than-life glory? Why shouldn't we take a look back at that moment in time when arguably the greatest British actor of the last century and a Hollywood icon shared the screen together? Well, after watching the film, I kind of wished I'd sat down with "The Prince and the Showgirl" instead.
The trouble is that "My Week With Marilyn" gets entirely carried away with the notion of Marilyn Monroe as the ultimate movie star. It keeps telling us emphatically over and over again how magnificently charismatic and genuine and sexy she is. At one point, Colin (Eddie Redmayne) proclaims that Olivier is a great actor trying to become a movie star, while Monroe is a movie star trying to become an actress. So much hinges on Michelle Williams' ability to channel Monroe, but she's more like Olivier, and that's the fatal flaw here. Williams is a very, very good actress, one of the best currently working, but she's never been a movie star. She doesn't have that great natural presence that made Marilyn Monroe what she was.
This is not to say that her performance isn't good, because it is. Williams' Monroe is a beautiful wreck, always late to filming, always catastrophically unprepared, fumbling through simple lines and relying heavily on the help of her acting coach Paula Strasberg (Zoë Wanamaker). She's often heavily medicated, and always in the middle of some emotional crisis, to the weary despair of Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), and the endless frustration of Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), who is both directing and co-starring in the picture with her. However, the film argues that Monroe's allure is strong enough to overcome all of this, to the extent that a star-struck young Colin Clark will ignore the affections of pretty young wardrobe assistant Lucy (Emma Watson), in favor of chasing after the impossible Monroe.
Over and over again, the script breaks the cardinal rule – show, don't tell. Williams is good enough an actress that she can summon up a good facsimile of Marilyn Monroe's shine, but not to the degree that the movie demands of her. I have to wonder if Monroe herself could have lived up to the version of Marilyn Monroe the film so desperately wants. Olivier is pretty much ignored by comparison, which allows Branagh to make him into a real human being, thankfully. The same goes for Dougray Scott as Miller, Julia Ormond as Vivian Leigh, and all the other actors playing famous names. Eddie Redmayne holds his own with them very well as Colin Clark, though the character is as trite and unremarkable as they come.
It's disappointing how manufactured "My Week With Marilyn" feels. It has all the earmarks of the worst kind of Oscar bait. You have one great performance, around which a much weaker film has been built. The treatment of the material is entirely too maudlin and sentimental, drawing heavily on nostalgia for a bygone age that most people don't remember anymore. You have small supporting and cameo roles for several well-regarded older actors for no other reason than to have them appear in the picture – in this case Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, and Toby Jones. And finally, something that's become more prevalent in recent years, there's even some star-power for the soundtrack. The moody theme composed by Alexandre Desplat is performed by none other than the popular Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang.
"My Week With Marilyn" tells us nothing new or insightful about Marilyn Monroe, but is content to simply burnish her legendary status. It feels like such a wasted opportunity, considering the caliber of the cast, and especially the performance that Michelle Williams delivers. The film is so limited by its premise, giving us only glimpses of the troubled marriage between Miller and Monroe, and certainly not enough of Olivier. I should also point out that this is the first film for director Simon Curtis, whose work until now has been in television. This feels like a television production at times, very broad and terribly unsubtle.
Frankly, I think Marilyn Monroe deserves better.
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Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
TJE 7/5 – The Major and the Minor (1942)
I so wanted this one to be good. "The Major and the Minor" was one of the few major Billy Wilder films I hadn't seen yet, his debut as a Hollywood director. Wilder also collaborated on the script with his writing partner Charles Brackett. The pair had previously been responsible for the classic romantic comedies "Ninotchka," "Midnight," and "Ball of Fire." Unfortunately, "The Major and the Minor" has one of those stories that just doesn't work after seventy years, because it hinges on believing that thirty-something Ginger Rogers could pass herself off as a twelve year-old girl.
Rogers stars as Susan Applegate, a young woman who has decided to quit the bright lights of New York City to go home to small town Iowa. Unfortunately a rise in train fares means that she only has enough money to buy a half-fare child's ticket. So, with her stockings swapped for ankle socks and her hair in pigtails, she bluffs her way onboard, only to wind up in the company of Major Philip Kirby (Ray Milland), who insists on looking after her. When the train is held up, Susan, calling herself Su-Su, goes along with Major Kirby to the military academy where he is employed. There, Su-Su has to contend with Major Kirby's manipulative fiancée Pamela (Rita Johnson), Pamela's kid sister Lucy (Diana Lynn), a real twelve-year-old girl, and the attentions of every young cadet in the academy.
I know things were different in 1942. Judy Garland got away with playing a little girl named Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" only a few short years earlier. Rogers certainly throws herself into the performance, modulating her voice, playing around with different degrees of baby talk and precociousness to very charming effect. However, the illusion just doesn't hold up after all this time. When Susan is on the train, we understand why the conductors suspect her because the fakery is so obvious. Ginger Rogers was simply not one of those actresses who could pull off looking like a little girl. Major Kirby's confusion can be forgiven because he has a "bum eye," though you have to wonder how that affects his military eligibility. However, once Susan arrives at the military academy, nobody aside from the real twelve-year-old questions Susan's appearance for a moment. It's too much to take.
And then there are the uncomfortable implications of the story if we do buy that Major Kirby really believes that Susan is a twelve-year-old girl. The movie portrays him as a straight-arrow good guy with absolutely nothing illicit on his mind, but he clearly develops romantic feelings for her by the end of the film. It wouldn't have been so bad if little Su-Su was meant to be fifteen or sixteen years old, but twelve is clearly prepubescent and that sets off all the alarm bells. As long as the trickery and misunderstandings were played for laughs, I could give the film the benefit of the doubt, but once Susan becomes a real contender for the Major's affections, that was something else entirely. The script does what it can to counter this, to make the romance between Susan and the Major as innocent as possible, but you simply couldn't get away with it today.
Ginger Rogers' performance is really the only thing in the film worth remembering. Her comedic timing is great, she pulls off a great transformation from pretend schoolgirl into a lovely, mature woman as the script requires, and Wilder and Brackett give her some fun dialogue to play with. I only knew Rogers from her song-and-dance pictures with Fred Astaire, but her performance here makes me want to look up more of her work. Milland and Johnson are a typical screen nice guy and mean girl respectively, not much to talk about. Diana Lynn, playing the science enthusiast little sister, starts out as promisingly abrasive, but she really doesn't get enough to do to leave a real impression. Ditto the various cadets who court Susan and the other minor characters.
As for Billy Wilder's direction, it's completely competent for a light comedy and nothing the least bit special. This was his first major directing job, after all, still two years before "Double Indemnity" and "Lost Weekend," and eight before the career high of "Sunset Boulevard." We can consider this an important stepping stone for him, but it's definitely not one of his better films as either a director or a writer.
However, I will admit that I am a little curious about the 1955 remake of "The Major and the Minor," entitled "You're Never Too Young," where the genders are switched and Jerry Lewis plays a grown man trying to pass himself off as a youngster. Maybe the film would work better with more slapstick and silliness, and less emphasis on the questionable romance.
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Rogers stars as Susan Applegate, a young woman who has decided to quit the bright lights of New York City to go home to small town Iowa. Unfortunately a rise in train fares means that she only has enough money to buy a half-fare child's ticket. So, with her stockings swapped for ankle socks and her hair in pigtails, she bluffs her way onboard, only to wind up in the company of Major Philip Kirby (Ray Milland), who insists on looking after her. When the train is held up, Susan, calling herself Su-Su, goes along with Major Kirby to the military academy where he is employed. There, Su-Su has to contend with Major Kirby's manipulative fiancée Pamela (Rita Johnson), Pamela's kid sister Lucy (Diana Lynn), a real twelve-year-old girl, and the attentions of every young cadet in the academy.
I know things were different in 1942. Judy Garland got away with playing a little girl named Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" only a few short years earlier. Rogers certainly throws herself into the performance, modulating her voice, playing around with different degrees of baby talk and precociousness to very charming effect. However, the illusion just doesn't hold up after all this time. When Susan is on the train, we understand why the conductors suspect her because the fakery is so obvious. Ginger Rogers was simply not one of those actresses who could pull off looking like a little girl. Major Kirby's confusion can be forgiven because he has a "bum eye," though you have to wonder how that affects his military eligibility. However, once Susan arrives at the military academy, nobody aside from the real twelve-year-old questions Susan's appearance for a moment. It's too much to take.
And then there are the uncomfortable implications of the story if we do buy that Major Kirby really believes that Susan is a twelve-year-old girl. The movie portrays him as a straight-arrow good guy with absolutely nothing illicit on his mind, but he clearly develops romantic feelings for her by the end of the film. It wouldn't have been so bad if little Su-Su was meant to be fifteen or sixteen years old, but twelve is clearly prepubescent and that sets off all the alarm bells. As long as the trickery and misunderstandings were played for laughs, I could give the film the benefit of the doubt, but once Susan becomes a real contender for the Major's affections, that was something else entirely. The script does what it can to counter this, to make the romance between Susan and the Major as innocent as possible, but you simply couldn't get away with it today.
Ginger Rogers' performance is really the only thing in the film worth remembering. Her comedic timing is great, she pulls off a great transformation from pretend schoolgirl into a lovely, mature woman as the script requires, and Wilder and Brackett give her some fun dialogue to play with. I only knew Rogers from her song-and-dance pictures with Fred Astaire, but her performance here makes me want to look up more of her work. Milland and Johnson are a typical screen nice guy and mean girl respectively, not much to talk about. Diana Lynn, playing the science enthusiast little sister, starts out as promisingly abrasive, but she really doesn't get enough to do to leave a real impression. Ditto the various cadets who court Susan and the other minor characters.
As for Billy Wilder's direction, it's completely competent for a light comedy and nothing the least bit special. This was his first major directing job, after all, still two years before "Double Indemnity" and "Lost Weekend," and eight before the career high of "Sunset Boulevard." We can consider this an important stepping stone for him, but it's definitely not one of his better films as either a director or a writer.
However, I will admit that I am a little curious about the 1955 remake of "The Major and the Minor," entitled "You're Never Too Young," where the genders are switched and Jerry Lewis plays a grown man trying to pass himself off as a youngster. Maybe the film would work better with more slapstick and silliness, and less emphasis on the questionable romance.
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Wednesday, July 4, 2012
TJE 7/4 - My Favorite David Lean Film
Director David Lean is best known for his epics like "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago," and "The Bridge on the River Kwai." However, he started out in the UK making smaller, more intimate films, like the classic unrequited love story "Brief Encounter," and adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist." It's into the latter category that my favorite David Lean film should be placed: the very small-scale domestic comedy-drama "Hobson's Choice."
My favorite films by a particular director are rarely the best films that they have produced, and that's certainly the case here. Lean hardly gets to show off any of his skills as an epic filmmaker in "Hobson's Choice." All the action takes place in a pair of shoe shops, a local pub, an apartment, someone's basement, and in the adjoining streets. Instead of a cast of hundreds or thousands, we have the family of Henry Hobson (Charles Laughton), who runs a boot store in Salford. Hobson is a widower with three grown daughters, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), Alice (Daphne Anderson), and Vicky (Prunella Scales). One day, fed up with living in a house full of women, he resolves to find husbands for the younger two, though both already have matches in mind, and keep Maggie, the eldest, at home to look after the shop and keep house. She's too old for marriage, he declares. Maggie, however, has her own ideas.
You can probably guess why this film strikes a nerve with me. Charles Laughton is billed as the lead, and he's terrific as the bloviating, frequently tipsy Hobson, who has been master of his own little domain for so long, he has taken it for granted. However, there are two others who should share top billing. First there's Brenda De Banzie as Maggie, who is sharp-minded and iron-willed enough to figure out how to grab the life that she wants from under her father's nose, once she makes up her mind to do it. And then there's John Mills as Will Mossop, the timid bootmaker in Hobson's employ, who Maggie matter-of-factly declares will become her husband and business partner in a new shop. The one-sided courtship of Maggie and Will is one of the most enjoyable I've ever seen, a sort-of reverse "Pygmalion," where it's the woman who educates and elevates the man from a lower station, but in this case she couldn't be more pleased when he surpasses her.
I've never encountered a film heroine quite like Maggie, who is so forceful and direct. She's entirely pragmatic about getting married, requiring not the least bit of romance, but turns out to be quite affectionate in her own severe way. This is a woman who has always been in charge, running a household, managing the store, and looking after everyone else around her. Now she's turning all her underutilized talent and untapped brain power to go after what she wants at last. Her escape from her father hinges strategy and cunning, rather than appeals to sentimentality and emotion, as we usually see in these situations. Thus the film simply would not work without the no-nonsense performance of Brenda De Banzie, who makes Maggie a formidable force to be reckoned with, but still sympathetic as a woman and as the daughter of a most disagreeable father.
And then there's John Mills, a name I knew, but never quite managed to put to face before this. Will Moss spends much of the film in a state of constant astonishment, taken aback at first by Maggie's forwardness, but eventually finding it much easier to go along with what she wants instead of trying to work out some reason to disagree with her. Mills gets a few delightful scenes to himself, to process and react to what is happening. His development from a soft-spoken, unappreciated laborer to a businessman with real ambition and authority is a major highlight of the film.
In comparison to Maggie and Will, I didn't care so much about the troubles of Henry Hobson, even though Charles Laughton cuts such a memorable figure as the lumbering old drunk. He's appropriately pitiful when he hits rock bottom, but never quite as sympathetic as he ought to be. As a blowhard, he can wear out his welcome very quickly. He's great for comedic purposes though. The filmmakers get a lot of mileage out of Hobson's frequent tipsiness, and the few fancy visual tricks that appear in the movie are to help better convey the extent of his inebriation.
So "Hobson's Choice" is no epic, but it's a remarkable of a picture that offers a lot of surprises. The black-and-white visuals are gorgeous, the writing is immaculate, the performances are fantastic, and though the story may be a small one, the drama that it generates is anything but. This is one of David Lean's more obscure films, but it's easily my favorite of them by a wide margin. I like his later, more famous films, but I wouldn't have minded at all if he'd just kept making movies like this one.
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What I've Seen - David Lean
In Which We Serve (1942)
My favorite films by a particular director are rarely the best films that they have produced, and that's certainly the case here. Lean hardly gets to show off any of his skills as an epic filmmaker in "Hobson's Choice." All the action takes place in a pair of shoe shops, a local pub, an apartment, someone's basement, and in the adjoining streets. Instead of a cast of hundreds or thousands, we have the family of Henry Hobson (Charles Laughton), who runs a boot store in Salford. Hobson is a widower with three grown daughters, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), Alice (Daphne Anderson), and Vicky (Prunella Scales). One day, fed up with living in a house full of women, he resolves to find husbands for the younger two, though both already have matches in mind, and keep Maggie, the eldest, at home to look after the shop and keep house. She's too old for marriage, he declares. Maggie, however, has her own ideas.
You can probably guess why this film strikes a nerve with me. Charles Laughton is billed as the lead, and he's terrific as the bloviating, frequently tipsy Hobson, who has been master of his own little domain for so long, he has taken it for granted. However, there are two others who should share top billing. First there's Brenda De Banzie as Maggie, who is sharp-minded and iron-willed enough to figure out how to grab the life that she wants from under her father's nose, once she makes up her mind to do it. And then there's John Mills as Will Mossop, the timid bootmaker in Hobson's employ, who Maggie matter-of-factly declares will become her husband and business partner in a new shop. The one-sided courtship of Maggie and Will is one of the most enjoyable I've ever seen, a sort-of reverse "Pygmalion," where it's the woman who educates and elevates the man from a lower station, but in this case she couldn't be more pleased when he surpasses her.
I've never encountered a film heroine quite like Maggie, who is so forceful and direct. She's entirely pragmatic about getting married, requiring not the least bit of romance, but turns out to be quite affectionate in her own severe way. This is a woman who has always been in charge, running a household, managing the store, and looking after everyone else around her. Now she's turning all her underutilized talent and untapped brain power to go after what she wants at last. Her escape from her father hinges strategy and cunning, rather than appeals to sentimentality and emotion, as we usually see in these situations. Thus the film simply would not work without the no-nonsense performance of Brenda De Banzie, who makes Maggie a formidable force to be reckoned with, but still sympathetic as a woman and as the daughter of a most disagreeable father.
And then there's John Mills, a name I knew, but never quite managed to put to face before this. Will Moss spends much of the film in a state of constant astonishment, taken aback at first by Maggie's forwardness, but eventually finding it much easier to go along with what she wants instead of trying to work out some reason to disagree with her. Mills gets a few delightful scenes to himself, to process and react to what is happening. His development from a soft-spoken, unappreciated laborer to a businessman with real ambition and authority is a major highlight of the film.
In comparison to Maggie and Will, I didn't care so much about the troubles of Henry Hobson, even though Charles Laughton cuts such a memorable figure as the lumbering old drunk. He's appropriately pitiful when he hits rock bottom, but never quite as sympathetic as he ought to be. As a blowhard, he can wear out his welcome very quickly. He's great for comedic purposes though. The filmmakers get a lot of mileage out of Hobson's frequent tipsiness, and the few fancy visual tricks that appear in the movie are to help better convey the extent of his inebriation.
So "Hobson's Choice" is no epic, but it's a remarkable of a picture that offers a lot of surprises. The black-and-white visuals are gorgeous, the writing is immaculate, the performances are fantastic, and though the story may be a small one, the drama that it generates is anything but. This is one of David Lean's more obscure films, but it's easily my favorite of them by a wide margin. I like his later, more famous films, but I wouldn't have minded at all if he'd just kept making movies like this one.
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What I've Seen - David Lean
In Which We Serve (1942)
This Happy Breed (1944)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Blithe Spirit (1945)
Great Expectations (1946)
Oliver Twist (1948)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
Summertime (1955)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
A Passage to India (1984)
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Brief Encounter (1945)
Blithe Spirit (1945)
Great Expectations (1946)
Oliver Twist (1948)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
Summertime (1955)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
A Passage to India (1984)
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012
TJE 7/3 – The Boys From Brazil (1978)
I heard Jon Stewart namecheck this movie a couple of times on "The Daily Show," so out of curiosity I looked it up. It's turned out to be a 70s thriller about Nazi-hunters and medical experiments, starring Lawrence Olivier, Gregory Peck, and James Mason, and sounded right up my alley. I wondered why I hadn't heard of it before. Then I watched the movie.
"The Boys From Brazil" starts out with an intriguing mystery. A young American in Peru, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg), stumbles across a secret meeting of several prominent Nazis who have been living in hiding in South America, including Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) and Eduard Seibert (James Mason). Mengele orders the assassinations of 95 men across the globe over the next two years, all of them seemingly unremarkable and unrelated, except that all are 65 years old. Kohler manages to relay this information to a prominent, elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), before he is killed. So the task falls to Lieberman to uncover and put and end to the nefarious plot.
The particulars of that plot, however, border on the absurd. This is a film that only could have been made in this era, decades before certain scientific advancements, and back when people still worried there might be escaped Nazis living among us in secret. Based on the novel by Ira Levin, who also wrote "The Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's Baby," it plays on fears that largely no longer exist, and thus hasn't aged very well as a serious thriller. If "The Boys From Brazil" were made today, it would probably be done in the style of something like "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," accentuating rather than downplaying all the pulpiness and that certain odd campiness that comes with everything Nazi these days.
It doesn't help that the film is very mediocre. The cast is the film's best asset. It's nice to see Mason and Olivier on the screen in any capacity, and they play the parts assigned to them as well as anyone could have. Olivier in particular disappears into the kindly Lieberman as easily as he became the evil Nazi dentist Szell of "Marathon Man" two years earlier. Gregory Peck makes only a passable Dr. Mengele, and he's much stiffer than he should be. He avoids being camp in any sense, which is probably why he was cast in the first place, but I couldn't help wishing that Peck could have switched roles with either Mason or Olivier for better scenery-chewing potential. I want to point out a very young Steve Guttenberg, oddly resembling a clean-cut Seth Rogen, who acquits himself admirably as the doomed hero of the first act. Other familiar actors like Denholm Elliot, Bruno Ganz, and Uta Hagen pop up in smaller roles.
Until Mengele's plans are revealed, the mystery and suspense elements work very well. Jerry Goldsmith's score lends a lot of atmosphere and tension, in a way that not enough movie scores do anymore. Director Franklin J. Schaffner gets a lot out of his locations, particularly the streets of Peru, Mengele's clinic in the wilderness, and the rural Pennsylvania farmlands where the climax takes place. The action and chase scenes work, and the Nazis are credibly menacing. However, the truth about the conspiracy is pretty easy for a modern viewer to work out once you're past a certain point in the story, but the filmmakers take extra care to make sure that a 1973 audience would be able to comprehend what was then unfamiliar, cutting-edge scientific theory. The explanations can't help but get tedious.
Another problem is Jeremy Black, the young actor who plays a crucial role in the film's third act. His character is supposed to come off as sinister and perhaps otherworldly. Black looks striking enough, but his acting skills leave a lot ot be desired. I felt sorry for the poor kid, thrown into scenes with Peck and Olivier where he doesn't come off well at all. This is really the fault of whoever cast him, and whoever saddled him with some very poor, tin-ear dialogue. Between Black and Peck, the finale turned into a total farce, and Olivier looked like he just wanted to go home.
It feels like "The Boys From Brazil" was meant to follow in the footsteps of "Marathon Man" or "The Odessa File," films that certainly had their genre flourishes, but were completely serious thrillers. With its third act jaunt into science-fiction, "The Boys From Brazil" just isn't the same kind of material, and I think it suffers a bit from being played so straight. I think it would have made for a far more memorable horror film in the right hands. As it is, the movie has its charms, but it's easy to see why it didn't survive the seventies.
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"The Boys From Brazil" starts out with an intriguing mystery. A young American in Peru, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg), stumbles across a secret meeting of several prominent Nazis who have been living in hiding in South America, including Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) and Eduard Seibert (James Mason). Mengele orders the assassinations of 95 men across the globe over the next two years, all of them seemingly unremarkable and unrelated, except that all are 65 years old. Kohler manages to relay this information to a prominent, elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), before he is killed. So the task falls to Lieberman to uncover and put and end to the nefarious plot.
The particulars of that plot, however, border on the absurd. This is a film that only could have been made in this era, decades before certain scientific advancements, and back when people still worried there might be escaped Nazis living among us in secret. Based on the novel by Ira Levin, who also wrote "The Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's Baby," it plays on fears that largely no longer exist, and thus hasn't aged very well as a serious thriller. If "The Boys From Brazil" were made today, it would probably be done in the style of something like "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," accentuating rather than downplaying all the pulpiness and that certain odd campiness that comes with everything Nazi these days.
It doesn't help that the film is very mediocre. The cast is the film's best asset. It's nice to see Mason and Olivier on the screen in any capacity, and they play the parts assigned to them as well as anyone could have. Olivier in particular disappears into the kindly Lieberman as easily as he became the evil Nazi dentist Szell of "Marathon Man" two years earlier. Gregory Peck makes only a passable Dr. Mengele, and he's much stiffer than he should be. He avoids being camp in any sense, which is probably why he was cast in the first place, but I couldn't help wishing that Peck could have switched roles with either Mason or Olivier for better scenery-chewing potential. I want to point out a very young Steve Guttenberg, oddly resembling a clean-cut Seth Rogen, who acquits himself admirably as the doomed hero of the first act. Other familiar actors like Denholm Elliot, Bruno Ganz, and Uta Hagen pop up in smaller roles.
Until Mengele's plans are revealed, the mystery and suspense elements work very well. Jerry Goldsmith's score lends a lot of atmosphere and tension, in a way that not enough movie scores do anymore. Director Franklin J. Schaffner gets a lot out of his locations, particularly the streets of Peru, Mengele's clinic in the wilderness, and the rural Pennsylvania farmlands where the climax takes place. The action and chase scenes work, and the Nazis are credibly menacing. However, the truth about the conspiracy is pretty easy for a modern viewer to work out once you're past a certain point in the story, but the filmmakers take extra care to make sure that a 1973 audience would be able to comprehend what was then unfamiliar, cutting-edge scientific theory. The explanations can't help but get tedious.
Another problem is Jeremy Black, the young actor who plays a crucial role in the film's third act. His character is supposed to come off as sinister and perhaps otherworldly. Black looks striking enough, but his acting skills leave a lot ot be desired. I felt sorry for the poor kid, thrown into scenes with Peck and Olivier where he doesn't come off well at all. This is really the fault of whoever cast him, and whoever saddled him with some very poor, tin-ear dialogue. Between Black and Peck, the finale turned into a total farce, and Olivier looked like he just wanted to go home.
It feels like "The Boys From Brazil" was meant to follow in the footsteps of "Marathon Man" or "The Odessa File," films that certainly had their genre flourishes, but were completely serious thrillers. With its third act jaunt into science-fiction, "The Boys From Brazil" just isn't the same kind of material, and I think it suffers a bit from being played so straight. I think it would have made for a far more memorable horror film in the right hands. As it is, the movie has its charms, but it's easy to see why it didn't survive the seventies.
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Monday, July 2, 2012
TJE 7/2 – Almost Famous (2000)
I resisted "Almost Famous" for a long time. Sure, I knew about its pedigree and all the bona fides and awards it had gathered up over the years. I knew some of my favorite underappreciated actors like Billy Crudup and Frances McDormand appeared in it. However, part of me remained wary. Cameron Crowe's recent output has been pretty poor, and I've been avoiding Kate Hudson for ages. I'll also admit to a minor bias against movies about rock bands, after seeing one too many "Behind the Music" episodes that were all about the personal drama, and not so much about the music.
Crowe doesn't make that mistake. The key to "Almost Famous" is the writer/director's personal connection to the material, which is apparent in every frame and every line of dialogue. Cameron Crowe famously based much of the screenplay on his own experiences as a young music journalist in the 70s, touring the country with various rock bands. Here, his stand-in is young William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a precocious teenager who escapes from under the watchful gaze of his mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand), to follow an up-and-coming group, Stillwater, with an assignment to profile them for Rolling Stone. Despite the advice of William's quasi-mentor, music writer Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), he befriends the band members, including lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) and guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). William also falls for the lovely Penny Lane, who famously declares that she is not a mere groupie, but a "Band-Aid," who is there to support the music, not to chase the fame. Penny and her friends Polexia (Anna Paquin) and Sapphire (Fairuza Balk) travel with the band, and help to draw William into their world.
"Almost Famous" charts the usual ups and downs of any narrative about a rock band on the road, and William's journey of discovery and loss of innocence hits all the familiar stops too, but Crowe imparts such a wonderful affection for the experience. His characters are so well drawn and well written, they make the clichés their own. You've got Russell Hammond, who lets the fame go to his head and makes bad decisions, but his talent is genuine and his love for music runs deep. He forms an oddball friendship with William that is antagonistic, affectionate, and great to watch. And then there's Penny Lane, the very best character that Kate Hudson ever got to play, a dream girl with such an aura of possibility around her, it's no wonder that both William and Russell fall for her charms. The characters who get less screen time, like Lester and William's mother, still come across as rich and complex, even if they're only on the other end of the phone. I even liked Fairuza Balk's appearance as Sapphire, and I haven't liked her in anything since "Return to Oz."
Crowe sells the allure of the rocker lifestyle beautifully, not just the giddy fun of traveling from city to city on a tour bus, having parties every night, and living out of hotels, but being part of this strange, wonderful community of artists and music lovers. There's a great moment when the whole gang is in transit on the tour bus, and one by one they start singing along to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," which is playing on the soundtrack. It happens out of the blue, right after the famous "I Am a Golden God!" sequence, and creates this wonderful sense of connection and belonging. And that's what Crowe wants you to take away from the film. I knew then that this was not going to be one of those stories that ended in bleak disillusionment. Drugs, alcohol, and free love do their damage, but never to the point where the movie becomes dark or maudlin. I'd categorize "Almost Famous" as a comedy first, one that finds the lighter, more uplifting and feel-good side to any situation without coming off like it's betraying the seriousness of what's going on.
I've seen my share of Cameron Crowe films, and I'm familiar with all his idealistic dreamers and his beaming muses. You will find no shortage of them here, along with some of his best Cameron Crowe-ian dialogue, full of grand pronouncements and offhand profundities that no one could get away with saying in real life. Stil, I think Crowe's efforts to portray the era accurately probably curbed any temptation to get too precious, and the style works for a story like this, where everything is a little larger than life, a little gilded around the edges by nostalgia. And there is no shortage of contributors to praise, from the production designers, to the cinematographers, to everyone keeping track of all those perfect period details that add so much to the look and the feel of the movie.
And of course the soundtrack is to die for.
---
Crowe doesn't make that mistake. The key to "Almost Famous" is the writer/director's personal connection to the material, which is apparent in every frame and every line of dialogue. Cameron Crowe famously based much of the screenplay on his own experiences as a young music journalist in the 70s, touring the country with various rock bands. Here, his stand-in is young William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a precocious teenager who escapes from under the watchful gaze of his mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand), to follow an up-and-coming group, Stillwater, with an assignment to profile them for Rolling Stone. Despite the advice of William's quasi-mentor, music writer Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), he befriends the band members, including lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) and guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). William also falls for the lovely Penny Lane, who famously declares that she is not a mere groupie, but a "Band-Aid," who is there to support the music, not to chase the fame. Penny and her friends Polexia (Anna Paquin) and Sapphire (Fairuza Balk) travel with the band, and help to draw William into their world.
"Almost Famous" charts the usual ups and downs of any narrative about a rock band on the road, and William's journey of discovery and loss of innocence hits all the familiar stops too, but Crowe imparts such a wonderful affection for the experience. His characters are so well drawn and well written, they make the clichés their own. You've got Russell Hammond, who lets the fame go to his head and makes bad decisions, but his talent is genuine and his love for music runs deep. He forms an oddball friendship with William that is antagonistic, affectionate, and great to watch. And then there's Penny Lane, the very best character that Kate Hudson ever got to play, a dream girl with such an aura of possibility around her, it's no wonder that both William and Russell fall for her charms. The characters who get less screen time, like Lester and William's mother, still come across as rich and complex, even if they're only on the other end of the phone. I even liked Fairuza Balk's appearance as Sapphire, and I haven't liked her in anything since "Return to Oz."
Crowe sells the allure of the rocker lifestyle beautifully, not just the giddy fun of traveling from city to city on a tour bus, having parties every night, and living out of hotels, but being part of this strange, wonderful community of artists and music lovers. There's a great moment when the whole gang is in transit on the tour bus, and one by one they start singing along to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," which is playing on the soundtrack. It happens out of the blue, right after the famous "I Am a Golden God!" sequence, and creates this wonderful sense of connection and belonging. And that's what Crowe wants you to take away from the film. I knew then that this was not going to be one of those stories that ended in bleak disillusionment. Drugs, alcohol, and free love do their damage, but never to the point where the movie becomes dark or maudlin. I'd categorize "Almost Famous" as a comedy first, one that finds the lighter, more uplifting and feel-good side to any situation without coming off like it's betraying the seriousness of what's going on.
I've seen my share of Cameron Crowe films, and I'm familiar with all his idealistic dreamers and his beaming muses. You will find no shortage of them here, along with some of his best Cameron Crowe-ian dialogue, full of grand pronouncements and offhand profundities that no one could get away with saying in real life. Stil, I think Crowe's efforts to portray the era accurately probably curbed any temptation to get too precious, and the style works for a story like this, where everything is a little larger than life, a little gilded around the edges by nostalgia. And there is no shortage of contributors to praise, from the production designers, to the cinematographers, to everyone keeping track of all those perfect period details that add so much to the look and the feel of the movie.
And of course the soundtrack is to die for.
---
Sunday, July 1, 2012
TJE 7/1 – The Man From Earth (2007)
Certain cult films pick up a reputation for overcoming their production limitations, for being more than the sum of their parts. "The Man From Earth," a bare-bones science fiction film that mostly takes place in a single room, is one of these. It was made on a budget of $200,000 and features a motley collection of vaguely familiar actors, including Tony Todd, Richard Riehle, and William Katt. Director Richard Schenkman is mostly known for Playboy videos and made-for-television movies, and it shows. The film has the visual aesthetic of a sub-par episode of "Murder She Wrote," is terribly overscored, and it's a little hard to remember at times that it's supposed to be a feature film.
But then you have the script, the last work of the great Jerome Bixby, who wrote some of the most memorable installments of "The Twilight Zone" and the original "Star Trek." It contains a truly fascinating premise: What if there was a man, who by an extraordinary biological quirk, had been alive for thousands of years, since the Cro-Magnon days, and had lived through the whole of human history? "The Man From Earth" introduces us to such an individual, Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith), who is packing up to move on to a different life, after spending ten years teaching at the local university. His fellow professors come to say goodbye, and on a whim he reveals his true identity.
Roughly the first eight minutes of the film are awful, as the various characters and the film's central conceit are clumsily introduced. There is some noticeable overacting, particularly from John Billingslea, playing biologist Harry, who mercifully settles down once the plot gets underway. After John comes out as a cave man, his colleagues, initially amused and incredulous, question and test his story, theorizing about how his claims might possibly be true. Among them are also a psychiatrist, an anthropologist, an archaeologist, and an art historian. They theorize and debate with each other and with John, drawing on their academic knowledge to interrogate John's wild claims from different angles.
How does John know that he's as old as he claims to be? What are the limitations of his knowledge? Did he ever meet anyone famous from history? How far has he traveled across the globe? What were his earliest days during the ice age like? When did he first realize he was different, and how did he survive? Did he ever fall in love and have children? Does he believe in god? Some of the answers are pragmatic and logical, others fanciful, and there are a few touches of the absurd, which serve to keep the audience wondering whether John is really telling the truth about himself, or spinning a shaggy dog story to end all shaggy dog stories. The possibilities are so irresistible, you want to believe it's all true.
Thus much of the film is taken up by long conversations, which is terribly uncinematic, and the talent involved is not good enough to compensate for it. There's no action and only some bare bones of a dramatic arc, but the ideas are interesting and handled in a refreshingly serious, thoughtful way, so it still held my attention. I can certainly see why "The Man From Earth" has attracted the cult following it has. Still, I can't help thinking that this would have made for a much better radio play or even a TED lecture. The film is at its best when John is recounting memories or sharing his theories about human evolution, religion, and the curious circumstances around his own existence. Everything else falls awfully flat.
I like the potential of "The Man From Earth" more than I like the film itself. This is one of those stories I'd love to see in more capable hands, but then I don't know how you could do a more sophisticated film version without compromising the simplicity of the concept. On the other hand, I think Bixby's existing script could certainly stand some improvement. Maybe it was Smith's anodyne performance, but I came out of "The Man From Earth" not particularly caring for John Oldman. I appreciated how cleverly thought out he was on a cerebral level, but his humanity didn't come through enough. So the love story didn't work. And the little twist at the end didn't come off right. And the rest of the characters were just as bad, if not worse.
I've been oversold on some of these smaller genre films before, so I wasn't really disappointed by "The Man From Earth." It has its good points, but there are simply too many problems with it to call it a classic. I think it's certainly worth watching though, especially if you're a science-fiction fan like me who likes headier, more conceptually daring stories.
---
But then you have the script, the last work of the great Jerome Bixby, who wrote some of the most memorable installments of "The Twilight Zone" and the original "Star Trek." It contains a truly fascinating premise: What if there was a man, who by an extraordinary biological quirk, had been alive for thousands of years, since the Cro-Magnon days, and had lived through the whole of human history? "The Man From Earth" introduces us to such an individual, Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith), who is packing up to move on to a different life, after spending ten years teaching at the local university. His fellow professors come to say goodbye, and on a whim he reveals his true identity.
Roughly the first eight minutes of the film are awful, as the various characters and the film's central conceit are clumsily introduced. There is some noticeable overacting, particularly from John Billingslea, playing biologist Harry, who mercifully settles down once the plot gets underway. After John comes out as a cave man, his colleagues, initially amused and incredulous, question and test his story, theorizing about how his claims might possibly be true. Among them are also a psychiatrist, an anthropologist, an archaeologist, and an art historian. They theorize and debate with each other and with John, drawing on their academic knowledge to interrogate John's wild claims from different angles.
How does John know that he's as old as he claims to be? What are the limitations of his knowledge? Did he ever meet anyone famous from history? How far has he traveled across the globe? What were his earliest days during the ice age like? When did he first realize he was different, and how did he survive? Did he ever fall in love and have children? Does he believe in god? Some of the answers are pragmatic and logical, others fanciful, and there are a few touches of the absurd, which serve to keep the audience wondering whether John is really telling the truth about himself, or spinning a shaggy dog story to end all shaggy dog stories. The possibilities are so irresistible, you want to believe it's all true.
Thus much of the film is taken up by long conversations, which is terribly uncinematic, and the talent involved is not good enough to compensate for it. There's no action and only some bare bones of a dramatic arc, but the ideas are interesting and handled in a refreshingly serious, thoughtful way, so it still held my attention. I can certainly see why "The Man From Earth" has attracted the cult following it has. Still, I can't help thinking that this would have made for a much better radio play or even a TED lecture. The film is at its best when John is recounting memories or sharing his theories about human evolution, religion, and the curious circumstances around his own existence. Everything else falls awfully flat.
I like the potential of "The Man From Earth" more than I like the film itself. This is one of those stories I'd love to see in more capable hands, but then I don't know how you could do a more sophisticated film version without compromising the simplicity of the concept. On the other hand, I think Bixby's existing script could certainly stand some improvement. Maybe it was Smith's anodyne performance, but I came out of "The Man From Earth" not particularly caring for John Oldman. I appreciated how cleverly thought out he was on a cerebral level, but his humanity didn't come through enough. So the love story didn't work. And the little twist at the end didn't come off right. And the rest of the characters were just as bad, if not worse.
I've been oversold on some of these smaller genre films before, so I wasn't really disappointed by "The Man From Earth." It has its good points, but there are simply too many problems with it to call it a classic. I think it's certainly worth watching though, especially if you're a science-fiction fan like me who likes headier, more conceptually daring stories.
---
The July Experiment
Here we are, in July 2012, and with a temporary lull in the entertainment world, before Comic-Con and "The Dark Knight Rises," so I thought it would be a good time to try a little experiment. For the next few weeks I'll be writing and posting a movie review a day. I've always wanted to try this, since I follow a few review blogs that follow this format. There may be additional posts for television reviews or news analysis depending on what comes up, but the goal is to post one review every day in July regardless. I'll keep track of my progress on this post, and update it regularly.
Please note that this isn't a film diary. I'm not going to write a review for every film I'm going to watch, and to give myself some leeway I'll probably use a few titles I saw in June. I'm doing this to get myself in the habit of writing more and putting out more content. Lately it feels like I've been skating by on a bare minimum, and that's never a good place to be.
So here goes...
TJE 7/31 - J. Edgar (2011)
TJE 7/30 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011...
TJE 7/29 - Angel Face (1952)
TJE 7/28 - Momo (1986)
TJE 7/27 - You, the Living (2007)
TJE 7/26 - Flash Gordon (1980)
TJE 7/25 - Keyhole (2012)
TJE 7/24 - The Dark Knight Rises (With Spoilers)
TJE 7/23 - The Dark Knight Rises (No Spoilers)
TJE 7/22 - The Turin Horse (2011)
TJE 7/21 - Boys Town (1938)
TJE 7/20 - Baraka (1992)
TJE 7/19 - Shame (2011)
TJE 7/18 - Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
TJE 7/17 - Margaret (2011)
TJE 7/16 - Kafka (1991)
TJE 7/15 - Goon (2011)
TJE 7/14 - Mirror Mirror (2012)
TJE 7/13 - Happiness (1998)
TJE 7/12 - Papillon (1973)
TJE 7/11 - Anchorman (2004)
TJE 7/10 - Shanghai Express (1932)
TJE 7/9 - Headhunters (2011)
TJE 7/8 - Brave (2012)
TJE 7/7 - From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
TJE 7/6 - My Week With Marilyn (2011)
TJE 7/5 - The Major and the Minor (1942)
TJE 7/4 - My Favorite David Lean Film
TJE 7/3 - The Boys From Brazil (1978)
TJE 7/2 - Almost Famous (2000)
TJE 7/1 - The Man From Earth (2007)
---
Please note that this isn't a film diary. I'm not going to write a review for every film I'm going to watch, and to give myself some leeway I'll probably use a few titles I saw in June. I'm doing this to get myself in the habit of writing more and putting out more content. Lately it feels like I've been skating by on a bare minimum, and that's never a good place to be.
So here goes...
TJE 7/31 - J. Edgar (2011)
TJE 7/30 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011...
TJE 7/29 - Angel Face (1952)
TJE 7/28 - Momo (1986)
TJE 7/27 - You, the Living (2007)
TJE 7/26 - Flash Gordon (1980)
TJE 7/25 - Keyhole (2012)
TJE 7/24 - The Dark Knight Rises (With Spoilers)
TJE 7/23 - The Dark Knight Rises (No Spoilers)
TJE 7/22 - The Turin Horse (2011)
TJE 7/21 - Boys Town (1938)
TJE 7/20 - Baraka (1992)
TJE 7/19 - Shame (2011)
TJE 7/18 - Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
TJE 7/17 - Margaret (2011)
TJE 7/16 - Kafka (1991)
TJE 7/15 - Goon (2011)
TJE 7/14 - Mirror Mirror (2012)
TJE 7/13 - Happiness (1998)
TJE 7/12 - Papillon (1973)
TJE 7/11 - Anchorman (2004)
TJE 7/10 - Shanghai Express (1932)
TJE 7/9 - Headhunters (2011)
TJE 7/8 - Brave (2012)
TJE 7/7 - From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
TJE 7/6 - My Week With Marilyn (2011)
TJE 7/5 - The Major and the Minor (1942)
TJE 7/4 - My Favorite David Lean Film
TJE 7/3 - The Boys From Brazil (1978)
TJE 7/2 - Almost Famous (2000)
TJE 7/1 - The Man From Earth (2007)
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