A Night At The Movies XXXXVI: The Naked City

This movie is considered to be a classic of cinematography.  All B&W with true unvarnished views of New York City from the late 1940s.  I did appreciate some of the views and shots in the movie, but the crime story here was….odd.  A model gets murdered and it turns out, like in real life, that those who seem to not be involved really are and nothing in the story is neat and tidy.  There are twists and turns, but some of the characters and vignettes that showed up in the film were very dated for a typical movie audience in the late 40s.  Some characters were a little too nice, or a little too stereotypical.  Then there is the omniscient narrator, throwing commentary out about the characters and the city as the story progresses.  I did find it interesting that the narrator was strictly neutral – sometimes mocking the police for not getting anywhere, but other times routing them on.  Same with the murderer – pointing out how much he’s in deep now, and then rapidly telling him not to go and do something that will just make it worse.

So in the end this is one of those movies that I can say “Yep, I’ve seen this classic” but I still have mixed feelings about my enjoyment of it.  I did not hate it, but I didn’t exactly feel fully enriched by having watched it either.

A Night At The Movies XXXXV: Defiance

WWII was a period of massive change and upheaval, and very often I find a movie that covers this era that fits into the “too amazing to be true but yet it is” category.  Interestingly they always seem to be about the Jewish experience in WWII.  Europa Europa was the first, Schindler’s List was another, and now I can add Defiance to that list.

Defiance (if you haven’t seen it) is the story of a small group of Jewish brothers who escape their town being attacked by the Nazis and take to the country to live off the land in Belarus.  Eventually they come upon other escaped Jews and as more and more show up, they form a small band and later a community out in the forest.  They act as partisans but also try to live with dignity and not be like the Nazis they’re fighting against.  However, in war nothing goes well and indeed this happens to the group.  They’re constantly hounded by the Nazis and leave their first encampment in late fall and have to try and quickly build another one before winter sets in.  They manage this, survive the winter, but then get hunted by the Nazis again in the spring and then run through the swamps to try and escape.  They accomplish this only to run right into a Nazi infantry platoon supported by a Tank.  And due to good fighting they survive, again.  They all make it through the war and build an even larger community and the main characters who enabled all these Jews to escape and live a life of freedom in the forest leave for the US and start a new life, never making a big deal out of what they’ve done.  I would think that if the book which chronicled these events was never published then no one would know this story at all.  All in all – a triumph of humanity and desire to survive in spite of war and all the odds against them.

I found this to be not your typical war movie.  It’s not overly preachy, nor overly violent, nor a special effects/gung-ho action pic.  I found it interesting for the Nazis simply being shown simply as a menace.  You never really see them much except in occasional fights and certainly the movie never shows their point of view at all – so no Nazi nemesis playing an intricate game of cat and mouse against the lead characters, no general scheming for their demise, nothing – you know they’re the force of evil but they are mostly relegated to a force of influence in the film, not a constant menace.  The occasional vignettes in the film are notable as well.  For some reason I keep remembering one of the main characters (a woman) is out foraging in the winter and is sneaking back to camp and is set upon by a wolf.  The wolf wants her food and attacks, and luckily with a pistol she wins.  Rather than just dusting herself off and getting back to camp shaken from the attack she picks herself up, picks up the food, and picks up the dead dog too.  Everyone is starving and meat is in short supply.  It’s a notable story – it shows what happens when people are forced from their homes and choose to live rather than curl up and die.  Bad things happen but you’re not left depressed at the end of the film.  So I’m glad I saw it and I wonder what other untold stories are out there from this era that have yet to be told.

A Night At The Movies XXXXIV: The Singing Revolution

I watched a documentary last night which was brief history of Estonia from 1939 to 1992, covering how the culture held together under invasion from the USSR, the Nazis, and again by the USSR.  What was particularly striking about this little Baltic nation was that despite extensive damage from WWII and deep cultural suppression by the USSR, the collective aspect of Estonian culture, and their need to sing as a group, survived.  Indeed, as the title of the movie suggests, it was that group singing that brought the nation together on more than one occasion, no matter what the Soviets tried to do.

The most interesting aspects of the movie for me were the later years, especially the Glasnost and Perestroika era under Gorbachev.  As the Estonians put it mildly as they were interviewed in the film, this was Gorbachev’s big mistake, giving aspects of free speech in the Soviet system to question things and demand better.  And the Estonians did.  They began questioning things, and got away with it – things that if they had done it in the past they would have been brutally crushed.  Just about all of the leaders of the movement had been in prison before under the Soviet system, so one wonders if the threat of jail held nothing over them, but regardless of such potential threats they still spoke out.  On top of that – the Estonian citizens ate up the message being put out by the small organized resistance questioning things, and came out in droves for meetings that the resistance movement organizers thought would be barely attended.  This is even more of a special thing in that 40% of Estonia’s population had been forcibly relocated over the years and replaced with ethnic Russians, and that slight majority turned out in droves for these events.  And then the singing – as the events attracted more and more people, the old national anthem got sang – even though it had been banned since the late 40s, and everyone still knew it in the crowd.  That collective mass singing culture of the Estonians unified them to push for more and more.  The final moments of the film chronicle the fall of the Soviet Union, from attempts in the Baltic states to break away from the USSR, to the military interventions and crackdowns in Latvia and Lithuania, and how the troops were dealt with in Estonia.  As Soviet troops were coming back into Estonia in droves it took a lot of courage in those 12 hours for the self-identified Estonian assembly to declare itself a free nation even as hard-liners arrested Gorbachev and some fighting was occurring in Moscow.  Most of you know how all this turned out – the USSR collapsed and every state in the USSR declared itself a free nation, but you could argue that Estonia certainly catalyzed or helped push over the edge a lot of what occurred.

A good documentary – and interesting for me in how a collective culture held together despite Soviet occupation and how something as nonviolent as singing helped reunify a country and give it its courage to peacefully throw off Soviet rule.  Certainly if Gorbachev hand’t been willing to be lenient I think none of this would have gotten as far as it did, but still, it’s rather interesting to see a mass resistance movement come together like this.

A Night At The Movies XXXXIII: The Longest Day

I’ve seen a lot of classic war movies, but not this one.  After watching it I found it has its pros and cons.  Maybe I’m jaded but I found the all star cast a little annoying.  I felt they were there to bring in audiences but they didn’t really help the movie become better.  Star power alone doesn’t make the movie – the story does.  So that being said (and keeping in mind I’m very familiar with D-Day) I found the movie good, but not great.  I am glad that they did not have all the Germans and French speaking English – having them rave and rant, yell orders, and muse on the events of the day in their native languages was a big plus in the movie.  I actually found the Germans and French to be better characters with more depth than the US and English actors which fit stereotypes a little too much.  Then again, the movie was created with the audience of the era in mind.  Saving Private Ryan in the 60s would have set off riots – whereas this movie shown today would have barely gotten much interest in theaters.  So keeping in mind who the movie was made for – it fits well.  I think the “G” rating for this film is bogus – this is a PG film for current audiences, not something you take the whole family to for fun.  If you want to educate someone on the event who is young, this movie isn’t it.  Hand them a book first.

So good things about the movie:  It never slowed and gives you a nice overview of everything, from the nighttime paratrooper raids to the actual dawn invasion of the beaches.  You get to see the story from the view of French Resistance, RAF, Free French Commandos, British Commandos and Paratroopers, Germans of all stripe (infantry, generals, pilots), and of course, the US paratroopers and the infantry that had the difficult task of trying to take the spots behind enemy lines and the even more difficult task of storming the beaches.  So that overall picture of the events of one day did make it a good movie on the whole event, not just a narrow window into partial events of the day or the story of a particular group.  The movie is not my favorite or the best WWII movie I’ve ever seen, but it is a good one.

A Night At The Movies XXXXII: Cloverfield

Saw this for Halloween, and this was a well done “monster destroys a city” movie.  Not campy, fast moving, and filled with just enough tension to keep you glued to finding out what will happen next.  I enjoyed the simple homages to Godzilla movies and the first person views of everything throughout the movie – watching the monster and its spawn/parasites tear things apart in glimpses until you really get a good look at it face on at the end of the movie.

I kept in mind that this was a movie, not a realistic depiction of things, but there was one thing I could not help but nitpick on in the back of my mind throughout the movie.  One of the main characters was trapped in her building and had her right shoulder impaled by a piece of rebar from the concrete.  While she was in lots of pain as the other characters rescued her and pulled her out of the rebar later on she’s running around and working with that shoulder as if it wasn’t damaged.  Of course everyone is hepped up on adrenaline and it’s a movie, but still, I couldn’t shake it and it bothered me.

Overall a very good terror movie (not horror) with the right balance of dread and tension and an appropriate ending (not all ends well) to make it a great Halloween movie.  I would definitely recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

A Night At The Movies XXXXI: 61*

When I was a kid I wasn’t a big baseball fan, but then my parents took me to see “The Natural” and I saw the fascination.  There is something uplifting and very captivating about a good baseball film and this movie, 61*, is one of them.

The movie is about the season where it looked like two Yankees, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, were going to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record.  Seeing the entire history of the season, from its highs and lows and the toll it took on both Maris and Mantle, really makes the whole thing even more amazing, especially since Maris broke the record in the final game of the season.  What was perhaps fascinating to me was the reaction people had to the whole thing – from the sports writers to the fans.  You can see humanity at its worst and best in this film – worst in people wanting to tear something down that threatens their perception of how things should be done, and best in how a team works for each other to achieve the pennant and to support their friend going for the record.

If you like Baseball films I highly recommend seeing this film.  It’s well done, the acting is very good, and everything in the film captures the vibe of the late 50s/early 60s  and this event.

A Night At The Movies XXXX: Steamboy

Anime night again – and it was an awesome Steampunk movie.  I chose to watch it without subtitles which I thought would take away from all the images if I had to pay attention to them while listening to the movie.

I greatly enjoyed the movie for the artwork and images that it put together.  The movie captured that late 19th century industrial vibe so well, and yet added its own touches.  The steamtroopers in their medieval armor, lots of trains spewing smoke and steam, and of course the steamcastle itself.  The movie is a feast for the eyes if you like this era and this type of theme, and if not, then if you like non-SciFi type Anime then you would probably enjoy it as well.  The end credits were interesting and if I hadn’t noticed that they seemed to be continuing the story slightly I think I would have missed them by turning them off like I normally do at the end of a film.  So if you haven’t seen it, stick around through the credits.

A Night At The Movies XXXIX: Time Chasers

Another MST3K send up of an early 90s film.  Definitely worth the laughs (including the report of dead Keebler Elves and the yells given by the officer in charge of the Revolutionary War Troops) but my god what a bad film.  I suppose one cannot help the features one is born with, but this movie had a lead actor (I refuse to accept this as our hero!) with a chin that in profile was just bizarre to look at.  Described as a “chin butt” and needing “chinderwear” – well – maybe you just should see it for yourself.   Or not.  The plot was full of holes, the effects were not very special but the fun and comments made it a worthwhile experience for an evening.

So now a request – I’m looking for suggestions of other outstanding MST3K movies to see.  I’ve seen more Mike episodes than Joel episodes, and while I’ve seen quite a few MST3K episodes, it’s been so long that in some cases it’s like watching them for the first time.  I will tell you that “I Accuse My Parents” may be my current favorite but I’d love to have other suggestions.  Suggest away, please!

And is “Santa Claus Vs. The Martians” worth seeing or not?

A Night At The Movies XXXVIII: The Count of Monte Cristo

This was the 2002 film, not one of the older ones.  I have not read the book by Dumas so my comments will only be on how this movie stood on its own – not how it compares to the book or how well it does (or does not) in retelling the story accurately.

The movie has a really slow start.  Honestly I was really begninning to worry as the events in the first 20 minutes were boring to the point that I thought the movie was going to be bad.  None of the characters was terribly likable and the main character who would later become the Count of Monte Cristo was a wimp and an idiot.  However it began to pick up after this and once the main character was in prison it began to get much better.  The theme of this movie appears to be the ever consuming needs of revenge along with the cost of that need.  When you look at the film in this light it becomes a much more enjoyable film as you watch the main character move from being a loser doomed to die to someone determined to live and have his revenge.  He does indeed get his revenge, but also gains redemption and is able to put the consuming revenge aside at not too great a cost.  So other than the very slow and boring start to the film (and a little bit of slowness towards the end) it wasn’t too bad.  Not a great film, but above average.

A Night At The Movies XXXVII: Amazing Grace

Another period “Costume Thing” historical movie, this time about William Wilberforce, the man who abolished the slave trade in England in the early 19th century. The movie put into perspective a very turbulent time in world history but I knew about, but never really thought about in detail nor did I ever think about it from so British a perspective.  So in the period where this man tried to end the slave trade and all its evils, you had the US colonies revolt and win their independence, a mad king on the throne, and revolution in France followed by war with Napoleon.  And this great man chose to lead the righteous crusade to end slavery in the middle of it all.  It was not an easy road to go down and the movie did a very good job nicely summarizing his life and many attempts to make this happen including its final success.

My completely non-historical comment about the movie is that they did a very good job in the movie with make-up making the actors look their respective ages throughout the time period covered in the film.  The fashions that changed slightly, the aging and greying of both hair and wigs, and the non-perfect appearances of the people of the era – all well done.