The journey continues...

...and continues.  Know what?  100 Movies is a LOT of friggin' movies.  Thank you to those who have already read the previous two posts.  Thanks for stopping by this one.  I'm still gestating this idea, and the last film I'm going to discuss today inspires MUCH more than I'm going to write about it today, and I may do so.  Then again, I may not.  I'm not that educated.  I'm a guy with a keyboard and web access.  That doesn't make me a qualified writer.  It makes me a writer.  On my silly little blog.  About my silly little quest to watch an arbitrary list of films by the end of a calendar year.  Bah.  And again, for the record, I'm watching them all.  Even the ones I've seen a dozen times.  Part of this is the experience of immersion.

As I stated last time, I'm digesting these films and writing about them in blocks of five.  The first five were films I'd never seen, this five I had, the next five (I'm through 13 total as of this writing) I haven't seen, and so on.  I think that takes care of the preliminaries.  Let's get on with the show.

Films 6-10


6.  "The Graduate."  I love this movie.  I have for a long time.  When starting on the list of films I'd seen, it seemed like a nice starting point.  Couple of things really stood out to me when watching this film.  1.  I'm older than either Murray Hamilton or William Daniels were when the film was made.  I cannot fathom that.  I don't think either of them looked out of place as the fathers of college age children, nor as longtime business partners.  It made me think perhaps this life of mine is going quicker than I think...that has nothing to do with the film.  2.  Anne Bancroft is HOT.  Well.  Was.  I'm sorry, but the sexiness (and that is the proper term) with which she portrays Mrs. Robinson is steamy.  Steamy.  3.  Plastics.  Cliche, but it's still funny.

What were my reactions?  Mike Nichols made a really great film. He made a film, that, while decidedly of its era, is still relevant today.  There are lots of great camera techniques, there are lots of moments that are decidedly "artistic."   I love the isolation in the SCUBA suit, especially.  Also of note is the montage of Benjamin and his inability to move, blended seamlessly with scenes of himself and Mrs. Robinson and their affair.  Other great things:  Buck Henry's performance.  Seeing both Richard Dreyfuss and Mike Farrell.  Yup, BJ Hunnicut is a bellhop.  Didn't know that before.  It's kinda cool watching a film with "X Ray" by IMDB on the Wii U controller.  It's a rolling service that spotlights each actor on the screen.  Mike Farrell popped up.  I knew Dreyfuss.  Never saw Farrell.  Oh.  And the soundtrack is pretty OK.

As with any film, there are flaws, and there are a few I noticed, and bothered me.  1.  I do not believe for a second that Benjamin would come upstairs simply because Mrs. Robinson chastised him for being ridiculous in the initial seduction.  I really don't believe he'd unzip her dress.  No way, no how.  2.  I know Benjamin was trying to make Elaine have a miserable time.  I can think of a whole lot of easier ways to do it than the path he chose.  3.  The whole experience in Berkeley falls flat for me.  It kills a lot of momentum. I don't know how it could be fixed...but it's deflating. It's vital to the plot...but something about it seems out of place.  4.  The friggin' door to the church is locked.  With people inside.  I know, "Maybe they thought Benjamin would show up..." Bullshit.  It's just a hackneyed plot device to get a better shot.  I know a little bit about directing.  I've got a couple of moments like this in the show I just directed.  Things I did to make something better later.  Know what?  If someone calls me on them, I'll say, "yup, that moment was wrong.  Sorry."

I love "The Graduate," though.  If you've never taken the time to watch it, please do.  It's a great film.




7.  "Forrest Gump."  It's hard to believe that a film that is nearly 20 years old can be considered "Modern," but this is the first real "modern" film I watched.  By the way...there are precious few others on this list.  Yet "African Queen" is still here...bullshit.  Still pissed I had to watch that as part of this.

Back to "Forrest Gump."  Know what?  This is a great film.  It has been derided over the years because 1994 happened to be the year of a couple of other great films ("Pulp Fiction" and "The Shawshank Redemption" - and "Quiz Show" is pretty goddamned good, also), and people tend to think "Forrest Gump" isn't on par with the first two...and that may be true.  It may not.  I'll have to see how I feel as I watch those two again.  "Forrest Gump" won the Oscar for Best Picture over those two.  That is not the film's fault.

I assume most everyone reading this has seen this film.  I encourage you to watch it again.  Yes, the fantastical is just that...fantastical.  I'd love to meet a man who met JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Elvis and John Lennon.  I'd love to meet a man who was in on the ground floor of Apple.  I'd love to meet a man who was not only a collegiate All American Football Player, but a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, a world champion ping pong player, a shrimp tycoon, and a long distance runner.  No such man exists.  Yet...he does.  And that is what is central to my viewing of "Forrest Gump" this past month.  Forrest is all of us.

Here's what struck me this time through.  The acting in this film is really, really solid.  Gary Sinise is a dynamo. Mykelti Williamson, Robin Wright Penn, Sally Field...the kid who played young Forrest Gump (not the Hayley Joel Osment version, the kid who grew into Tom Hanks), all of them are committed, real, characters.  But mostly, it's Tom Hanks.  Want an acting lesson?  Watch the introduction of Jenny to Lieutenant Dan on Jenny and Forrest's wedding day.  I'm sorry.  That's bloody well brilliant.  See the knowing glance that passes between Sinise and Hanks, knowing Jenny's fate...yet acknowledging the happiness of the day.  It's a clinic.  I learned from it.  You can, too.

Technically, this film was right on the cutting edge.  Yes, the mouths don't move quite right, and there is a certain "Clutch Cargo" feel to them when Forrest is intertwined with old footage of actual celebrities...but holy crap, what a chance Zemeckis took.  And it worked.  It's enthralling.  It's engaging.  Hell.  I still believe Sinise's legs were really gone.  That was BRAND FREAKING NEW TECHNOLOGY when this film was made.  Kudos for it holding up 20 years later.  So.  It's no "Pulp Fiction."  I'm not necessarily convinced that's a bad thing.  It's still a hell of a movie.  Enjoyed it tremendously, and sometimes, that's what a movie needs to do.  Entertain.



8.  "Easy Rider."  This was one of the surprises on the list when I perused it.  If you sat me down, before I watched it again, and asked me to name my personal "top 100 films" list, I can pretty much guarantee that this film would not be on it.  I watched this film during my brief stay at college.  I had taken...a drug which may or may not be associated with a long stretch of road on Chicago's lake shore the night I saw the film.  It was 1986.  It was a different time.  My impressions of the film were hazy and hallucinatory...but I remember the ending really bummed me out.  "They were just trying to be free..."

That was 1986.  What do I as a sober, upstanding, nearly 46 year old man think of "Easy Rider?"  I think it's a hell of a film.  I think it's quite revolutionary, given context.  I think the ending still bums me out.  I think the choices Hopper made as a director were interesting, to say the least, and I applaud his vision.

Other impressions:  Jack Nicholson is not that great in this.  He's talked about a lot when this film is discussed, but he just wasn't that exciting to me.  It was also fun to see a young Toni Basil (yes, the woman who recorded "Mickey" - I understand he was so fine he blew her mind), now that I know she was in it.  The hallucination scene wasn't that great.  The soundtrack is amazing.  The transitions into new scenes are pretty cool, but it gets old after like 3 times.  Again, when you are trying something revolutionary, occasionally it becomes revolting.  Oh.  And the ending is a bummer.  No other word.  Bummer.

I think this film is very important.  I think sitting down with great films is making me look for things I wouldn't normally look for...I see why it is on the list.  I encourage you to watch it and find out why that is as well.



9.  "King Kong."  Awesome.  This movie is amazing.  It belongs in the top 100, hell, it might belong in the top 10.  What was accomplished in this film technically is nothing short of miraculous.

I had watched this as a child on WLS Channel 7's afternoon movie.  I hadn't seen it in at least 33 years.  Here's what struck me as I was watching it.  I calls 'em "observations:"

1.  Kong could not possibly have encountered, and defeated that many LARGE ASS CREATURES in a day every day.  That wore a little thin.  The idea of filming those scenes with stop motion...however...was thrilling.
2.  Bruce Cabot is a STIFF.  As was Robert Armstrong.  That was a lesson in BAD acting.  Fay Wray was sexy as hell, and actually quite good, considering the beasts she was asked to play opposite.  And I'm not talking about Kong.
3.  HOLY CRAP.  How the hell did they do this?  How did audiences react?  This is an amazing piece of filmwork.
4.  Um.  We've seen several people die.  Carl Denham, when identified at the end as that man by A POLICE OFFICER isn't dragged into the streets and arrested/beaten/torn to shreds?  Nope.  He just gets to say a kick ass line.  Bastard.  No acting piece of crap, getting to deliver a line like that.
5.  Damn, this movie is good.

Watch it.  Please.  It's corny.  It's not very modern.  At one time it was.  Try to keep that in perspective.



10.  "Citizen Kane."

OK.  I put the number one movie on the list in the the first 10 films I watched.  My favorite film is "The Godfather."  I also LOVE "Casablanca."

This is the greatest film ever made.  My opinion.  Shared by others.  I have a deep, abiding love of what Orson Welles accomplished with this.  This could be a whole film school.  This could be a whole entry in this blog.  Know what?  I think it's going to be.  I'll comment on "Kane" when I have an hour to write about it, and probably go scene through scene.  It's that freaking great.

Quick impressions on Randy Knott, ordinary guy:

1.  Joseph Cotten's singing of "Charlie Kane" is haunting.
2.  My GOD, this is great.
3.  Orson Welles was only TWENTY FUCKING FIVE WHEN HE MADE THIS?!
4.  I can't.  I have to go MUCH longer on this one.  I have to sit and do this while I watch it again.  I won't be sad about having to do so, I can assure you.  I'm going to "live blog" this as I watch it again.

Please watch this movie.  Please.  Please understand that not everything you will see will be spoon fed to you.  Damn.  Damn.  This is a film.

I'm one short of the next 5.  Getting there.  Thanks for reading.