Back by Popular Demand It's Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

Walkabout

Moonstruck (1987) Jewison. Cher was brilliant and Olympia Dukakis top notch. But the rest of the cast — oh my —- talk about overacting. Director Norman Jewison tended to get broad performances in his films in this is a classic example. It’s amazing that Cher was so wonderfully restrained and I suppose if you care about Oscars, here's was well-earned. But Moonstruck is more notable for slapstick sitcom level acting from the likes of Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia and Julie Bavasso. A different director could have taken the same script and made a more realistic, more believable and more compelling film. Jewison’s version felt like a case of a lot of people trying too hard. As love stories go it's terribly unconvincing. This was my first viewing since the film came out. It’ll be my last.

His Girl Friday (1940) Hawks. My favorite film. Period. It’s perfect. It’s hilarious. It’s smart. It’s innovative. It’s got some points to make (about politics and the press). It’s as perfectly-paced a movie as has ever been made. It’s got Cary Grant in one of his greatest performances (along with Mr. Lucky, Notorious and Talk of the Town). Rosalind Russell was far from the first choice to play Hildy, indeed they’d gone through most of the women in actor’s equity before “settling for” Mr. Russell. They couldn’t have done better. (That’s the kind of luck you need to make something this good.) As always in pictures from Hollywood’s Golden Age the supporting cast is crucial and here they came through with flying colors. I especially take notice of the cynical, world-weary newsmen played by Regis Toomey, Porter Hall, Frank Jenks and Roscoe Karns. And Billy Gilbert deserves plaudits for stealing his two scenes as the governor’s messenger, Joe Pettibone. His Girl Friday is like the Beatles, everything came together at the right time and right place and you can’t imagine it being any better.

The Magnificent Seven (1960) J. Sturges. Not really so magnificent. Of course I loved it when I was kid, the presence of Steve McQueen was enough to make to great picture in my mind. It was based on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai which is to say it was re-imaging a classic. But it was ultimately a poor imitation. It would have been infinitely better if the Mexican villagers were allowed to speak Spanish, I mean beyond an occasional señor and gracias. All but one of those characters were cardboard cutouts. And speaking of one-dimensional characters, there were Eli Wallach and the the rest of the bandits. They were about as menacing as Yosemite Sam. And why is that the bad guys in movies back then happily ran towards gun fire? Even McQueen couldn’t save this picture. For one thing this was not the Mr. Cool we later got to know in movies such as The Great Escape and Bullit. Yul Bryner, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Charles Bronson were all wasted by a script that allowed for no real character development.  

Stardust Memories (1980) Allen. One of Woody’s best which is saying a lot in itself. I have no idea how many times I’ve watched the film since I saw it in Boston upon its original release. But I do know that I’ve enjoyed every viewing. I recall that some critics were miffed by how it seemingly poking fun at them. Evidence of their own thin skins and an ability to dish it out but not take it. Woody was clearly having fun spoofing everyone including himself. No one would make such a film who didn’t deep down appreciate his fans. No one would make such a film who was not introspective and thoughtful. No one would make such a film who wasn’t a comic genius. 

Walkabout (1971) Roeg. I’ve been watching Australian films on the Criterion Collection lately and though there’ve been a few misses, I’ve discovered several classic such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career and this film. Director Nicolas Roeg didn’t make much and even less that I’ve enjoyed but my goodness he hit it out of the ballpark with this look at a young brother and sister stranded in the Australian outback, ultimately finding a teenaged aborigine to guide them. It’s as beautifully shot a film as you’ll ever see and a masterclass in direction (how is it that Roeg didn’t do this more often?). It's meditative, original and a wonderful commentary on how modern culture isn't necessarily the best culture.

Action in the North Atlantic (1943) Lawson. Of course I like this picture. It honors the merchant marines serving in World War II. Though he later joined the army, my father was a merchant marine serving in World War II. He was at the helm of a ship that was torpedoed in the Arabian Sea by a Japanese submarine. So North Atlantic honors men like my dad who risked their lives to transport goods and weapons to the allies during the war. North Atlantic is — especially for a film of its era — a realistic account of what it was like to navigate seas swarming with enemy submarines. The cast is led by Humphrey Bogart and that’s a great start right there. Raymond Massey and regular supporting players like Alan Hale, Dane Clark and Sam Levene also feature. This film is one of many made during the war that was designed as war time propaganda. Like some it managed to both rally the Homefront and tell a rollicking good story.

My Wonderful Weekend, A Football Game Sandwiched In Between Four Films

L to R, Pangborn, Bracken and Demarest, Hail the Conquering Hero

My weekend was nice.

I watched Bullit (1968)Yates Friday afternoon, a film I first saw upon its initial release. I’ve never stopped loving it. My enjoyment of it comes despite the confusing — dare I say — plot. The script is a bit of a mess but director Peter Yates managed to rescue it. Supposedly an iffy script dooms a movie, but here is an exception to the rule. Of course the film would be nothing without Mr. Cool himself, Steve McQueen in the lead role. Bullit and The Great Escape (1963 J. Sturges were McQueen at his coolest. That the gorgeous Jaqueline Bisset played his love interest didn’t hurt either. McQueen is not only up against the mob (or the “organization” as everyone in the film calls it) but a crusading District Attorney (Robert Vaughn in his self-proclaimed best performance) who cares more about self-promotion than justice. The city of San Francisco is another main character and looks lovely throughout. It is highlighted in the film’s famous chase scene where, as those of us familiar with SF can vouch, a car turns down a street near the marina and suddenly is on the other side of town. Details are not what Bullit is all about. It is about maverick detective trying to do the right thing in the face of a criminal gang and slimy politician. That he goes about his business as such a cool guy enhances the fun immeasurably. The car chase scene is a masterclass in directing and editing. Two other chases -- on foot -- the latter at the movie's climax, are also noteworthy. 

Friday night I watched Preston Sturges’ Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) P. Sturges, the last of an incredible run of seven great pictures in five years that Sturges made from 1940-1944 (among them classics like Sullivan’s Travels (1941) and The Lady Eve (1941)). This is a film dominated by outstanding performances from supporting players, most were part of Struges’ “stock company” of regular bit players. The “star” of the film is Eddie Bracken, not exactly someone who shone in the firmament, but the shining is done here by lesser knowns particularly William Demarest and Franklin Pangborn who may have had more screen times and more lines in Hero than they did in any other picture. Harry Hayden as Doc Bissell, Jimmy Conlin as Judge Dennis and Raymond Wilburn as Mayor Noble also excel. It's especially nice to see Pangborn, who appeared in a plethora of great films in tiny roles, get some room to shine as the fussy befuddled and oh-so-well-intentioned Committee Chairman. Hail the Conquering Hero is a brilliant satire on the excesses of hero worship and its nefarious influence on the serious business of politics but is also a touching look at a community rallying together for decency and honesty. If Hero has a fault at all it could be that Bracken overplays his part at times (he was no Brando) but then his scenery chewing fits into the general zaniness that permeates the story. Like Bullit, I can’t wait to watch it again.

From Saturday's game, photo by author

On Saturday I went to a college football game, watching my beloved Cal Bears take on the heavy underdogs from UNLV. The Bears stormed out to a 14-0 lead and it looked like we’d be able to enjoy a pleasant, relaxed afternoon of cheering our team as they scored an endless series of touchdowns. But that is not the way of Cal football. Our heroes only managed six more points the rest of the game and had to rely on late-game defensive heroics to win by the skins of their teeth, 20-14. The ending was thus exciting and we cheered mightily as the final gun sounded and the home team had prevailed. No matter the sloppiness of play nor the lowliness of our opposition, it was a win and as such should be savored. That we did. A compatriot and I led a chant, with another we linked arms to sing along as Hail to California was played and I skipped down the street in celebration with the marching band who were having the time of their lives. It was all great fun. At home I read an online recap of the game where comments were generally very negative, fulminating against the Bears for their poor play. The game was a travesty, disaster was surely to come, heads must roll, the sky was falling. I marveled at how seriously people take college football and their inability to enjoy a simple win. Most, I speculated, had not been at the game and thus missed the excitement coursing through the stands as the defense held and held again. And what if the Bears had lost? Surely these same folks claiming gloom and doom would be flying off tall buildings. And how must they react to other more important issues such climate change, war in Ukraine, floods in Pakistan, global pandemics and American democracy in peril? Anyway, I had a damn good time and make no apology for it. 

Saturday evening the missus and I watched The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) Sayles which I’d not seen in about twenty-five years. It had been a favorite of mine back then and I was curious to see how I’d view it over two decades later. I liked it. A lot. Quite simply it’s a lovely story of a ten-year-old girl sent to live with her grandparents on an Irish isle to get away from the big city after her mother’s death. There she is told magical tales about a baby brother living on the open sea in a large wooden cradle and seals that can transform into beautiful women called selkies. These fables come true before her eyes and the resulting story is as magical as its premise. After watching Inish you’ll want to visit the Emerald Isle, I know I do. 

Sunday afternoon I watched another film that I hadn’t seen in about twenty five years, Se7en (1995) Fincher. It’s a film most remembered for its shocking ending, once you’ve seen it that particular “thrill” is gone. David Fincher is an excellent director (Fight Club (1999) and Zodiac (2007) are masterpieces) and his attention to detail, lighting and ability to sustain tension are evident here. There’s not a yawn in the picture, even knowing how it’s going to end. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are solid co-stars and their relationship slips neither into the good buddy cops nor the opposites attract cliches. The plot sometimes strains credulity but not enough to totally distract us from a compelling story. In other words, it holds up.

My weekend held up rather nicely too. I also managed to squeeze in a workout, reading the Sunday New York Times, taking a big chunk off the latest novel I’m reading (Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William!) and kept up with household chores. Now it’s back to ye olde grind.

What Film Had the Best Cast? I Try to Answer this Subjective Question -- Off the Top of my Head

Notorious with L-R, Rains, Grant, Bergman

I just saw a tweet that posed the question: "what do you think was the best movie cast of all time?" I saw one answer, The Philadelphia Story (1940) Cukor, before leaving Twitter and coming here to give my answer -- of sorts -- without thinking about it. Thus what I'm doing here is a form of live blogging, or stream of consciousness blogging in which I'm writing as I think. Should be fun -- for me a least. Let's see what I come up with.

As I said the only response I saw was The  Philadelphia Story and that was indeed a good cast with Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and Katharine Hepburn. It gets mighty thin after those three with two strong supporting cast members, Roland Young and Henry Daniell. If you're going by best three leads for a film than The Philadelphia Story is in the running.

Cary Grant reminds me of Notorious (1946) Hitchcock where it's him, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. Another excellent top three. The supporting players, especially Louis Calhern are good if not spectacular.

Claude Rains and Ingrid Bergman come to mind again as they were part of a terrific cast along with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid and some excellent supporting players in Casablanca (1942) Curtiz. The supporters include Sydney Greenstreet, John Qualen, S.Z. Sakall, Marcel Dalio, and Conrad Veidt. This one's definitely a contender.

I think of Rains yet again who was with Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell and Edward Arnold in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Capra. Supporting players include Eugene Pallette, H.B. Warner, Grant Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Guy Kibbee, Harry Carey and Jack Carson. A who's who of Hollywood beloved supporting players of the late thirties. That's a helluva cast.

Two Elia Kazan films come to mind. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was headed by Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. Not too shabby. But I think that's topped, if barely, by On the Waterfront (1954) with Brando, Malden, Lee J Cobb, Rod Steiger and Eva Marie Saint.

Let's see what the Seventies -- my favorite decade of film -- have to offer. Shampoo (1975) Ashby, immediately comes to mind. Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Carrie Fisher and Jack Warden is pretty formidable. 

The Deer Hunter (1975) Cimino had a stellar cast with Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale. That's an impressive foursome.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Allen is certainly among the best. Check this out: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, Dianne Weist, Barbara Hershey, Maureen O'Sullivan, Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan, Daniel Stern and cameos by future stars Julia-Louis Dreyfus and John Turtorro.

A more recent film with a great cast was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Tarantino. Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Samantha Robbie, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern and Emile Hersch.

I can't believe I hadn't yet thought of The Godfather (1972) Coppola. Pacino, Brando, Cazale, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Sterling Hayden.

Godfather Part 2 (1974) Coppola wasn't bad either with Pacino, Cazale, Keaton and Duvall returning joined by DeNiro, Bruno Kirby and Lee Strasberg.

The Ice Storm (1997) A. Lee has a great cast. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Cristina Ricci, Katie Holmes and Elijah Wood. The last four were just starting out in Hollywood when the film was made.

Can't forget The Great Escape (1963) J. Sturges. Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, David McCallum and Donald Pleasance. 

A recent Best Picture winner with a great cast was Birdman (2014) Iñárritu. Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Andrea Riseborough.

The Wild Bunch (1969) Peckinpah might have the best cast of any Western. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmund O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson and Strother Martin.

Speaking of Ben Johnson, he was part of a great cast in The Last Picture Show (1971) Bogdanovich with Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepard, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Timothy Bottoms, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quiad, Clu Gulager, and Sam Bottoms. Wow.

Spartacus (1960) Kubrick is another strong contender with Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Woody Strode.

Another all star cast from the seventies can be found in All the President's Men (1976) Pakula. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as your leads then Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards and Jane Alexander.

L-R, Lemmon, Cagney, Fonda, Powell

How about Mister Roberts (1955) Ford/Leroy with James Cagney, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell and Ward Bond. That's five huge stars (albeit Bond was always a supporting player but one who found himself in some of the great films of Hollywood's Golden Age) in one cast. Between them they represent such classics as White Heat, Public Enemy, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, The Lady Eve, The Grapes of Wrath, The Searchers and The Maltese Falcon, to name but two films for each.

Then there's The Departed (2006) Scorsese. How about this: DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen.

Another Scorsese picture, The Aviator (2004), boasts this cast: DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Baldwin, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Jude Law and Kate Beckinsale.

One mustn't forget A Bridge Too Far (1977) Attenborough with James Caan, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Elliot Gould, Ryan O'Neal and Maximilian Schell.

I'm going to stop with this one, JFK (1991) Stone. Kevin Costner, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Donald Sutherland, Ed Asner. Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Gary Oldman, John Candy, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Bacon. That's what I'd call an all-star cast.

I could go on and indeed perhaps will in a second installment. Again, this was just off the top of my head and perhaps I could find more and better casts (more for sure, better? doubt it) with more thought and a little research.

Of course this was purely an objective list. I did not include any films that had greats casts but are not, in my opinion, particularly good films. Also I was the arbiter of who was or is an important actor and that was reflected in the films I chose.

The original question was what is the best film cast of all time. So do I have a winner? Gimme a second here....In looking over what I've written I believe I made my case for one of them in writing about it, Mister Roberts with Fonda, Cagney, Powell, Lemmon and Bond. I may give that a re-think when I consider a sequel to this post. However it is possible that I won't find much to add to this and may not find anything to top the cast of Mister Roberts. It'll be interesting for me to dig into this further. At any rate it was a fun exercise.

Ten American Films That Capture The Soul of America

Wild Boys of the Road

The premise is simple. I here present ten American films from the last ninety years that in their own way reveal aspects of the American zeitgeist. As both a visual and oral story-telling medium, cinema is uniquely qualified to mirror society and its ever-changing norms and shifting ideals and concerns. Between them the films I've selected do not capture every aspect of this country’s culture, but they do represent different times, different moods and different places reflective of the American experience, spirit and soul. The films I selected are:

Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Wellman

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford

On the Waterfront  (1954) Kazan

The Great Escape (1963) J. Sturges

The Last Picture Show (1971) Bogdanovich

Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese

Do the Right Thing (1989) S. Lee

The Ice Storm  (1997) A. Lee

Mean Girls (2004) Waters

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Tarantino

I don’t pretend that this is a definitive list. One could easily include another dozen or more films (I’ve got examples at the end of the post) and other people would have selected some very different movies for the same task. But I believe these films, from nine different decades and ten different directors, provide an introduction into an exploration of the American soul through film.

The first two films on this list are both set during the Great Depression which effected nearly every American — most adversely. The Depression wasn’t just a devastating economic event that dominated political discourse, it insinuated itself into the culture. Early on movies did two things with the Depression: try to make sense of it and try to distract people from it. These two films stared the Depression in the eye.

Wild Boys of the Road follows a group of teenagers who’ve left home to take their chances on the road. The main protagonist Eddie (Frankie Darro) has done so to ease the financial burden on his parents. It is an unflinching look at the hardships everyday Americans faced, particularly those who “rode the rails.” We see the brutality of those enforcing the law, whether city police or railroad bulls. There is a rape, a boy is maimed and children are arrested. Despite this, Wild Boys of the Road is not a pessimistic film. It is imbued with the spirit of can-do American youth and the belief that everyone is entitled to an even break. Wild Boys is also not sentimental. The ending is hopeful, not sappy. The kids are plucky and determined, unwilling to bow to the enormous obstacles that have been put in front of their pursuit of the American dream. It is a classic of the pre-code era directed by William Wellman,  arguably the greatest director of the pre-code era. In addition to Wild Boys he directed Heroes For Sale (1933) which is another hard look at the Depression, The Public Enemy (1931) and Midnight Mary (1933).

My favorite of John Ford’s films is Grapes of Wrath which explores a different aspect of the Depression, the Dust Bowl and the migration west from it by the people who came to be known as Okies. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Steinbeck, the film follows the fortunes of the Joad family, specifically Tom Joad who we meet after he’s released from prison after serving time for manslaughter. Tom is a sort of everyman, despite his time behind bars (after all it was self-defense). Through him we discover the devastation that has been visited upon the Great Plains by the combined might of Mother Nature and banks. Farms have been lost, families displaced and some people have given up or gone mad. The Joad family embodies the spirit of a people who push on, dreaming of greener grass on the other side — in this case California, where there are supposedly jobs aplenty. Upon arriving in the promised land they are confronted by the hard truth that this is no eden after all and the competition for menial jobs is stiff and the bosses are greedy and uncaring. To organize is to court trouble. Strike breakers are a vicious enemy as are — sadly — the police. Grapes of Wrath is a beautifully filmed and filled with brilliant performances (Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine to name a few) and in my mind one of the best films in the American canon. Part of its brilliance stems from — like Wild Boys, only more poetically — it’s realism. Again this is a film without sentimentally but one with a sense of hope. A cynical movie about the Depression would be cruel. Grapes of Wrath is no joyous romp but it does reflect the power of the American spirit.

On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront is a compelling film on a lot of levels. It is about working men, it is about corruption, it is about organized crime, it is about unions, it is about the often very fine line between truth-telling and betrayal, it is about the power of the group and the power of the individual. Set in the docks of  New Jersey in the 1950s, Waterfront was a star vehicle for Marlon Brando who portrayed the conflicted longshoreman, Terry Malloy. Malloy is a simple working class stiff who coulda been a contender as a boxer but has had to settle for the dreary nine-to-five routine. He is protected by a strong union (albeit a corrupt one) but is also at its mercy. A crime commission is investigating the union and others like it and stool pigeons are being dealt harsh mob justice. It is a classic story of how far loyalty goes and the heavy price of being honest. It was also a story ripped from the day’s headlines and thus resonated with audiences. Waterfront looked at American brotherhood and its corruption by evil forces. Another dichotomy of the American Dream. Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint also feature as part of one of the best casts ever assembled. 

The Great Escape was a phenomenon in the early and mid 1960s. It had an all-star cast led by Mr. Cool himself, Steve McQueen. It was set during the “Good War” when Americans were unquestionably the good guys. It was a true story. It had action. It was smart. It was beautifully shot. Americans have always loved war pictures of all kinds and have made scads of them, from the jingoistic and racist to gritty dramas with strong character development to the fantastical explosion-laden adventure story, to the faithfully told true story. Stars ranging from John Wayne, to Humphrey Bogart, to Brad Pitt to Clint Eastwood to Lee Marvin, to Cary Grant to Henry Fonda to Ben Affleck to George C. Scott to William Holden have featured. Casablanca (1942) Curtiz, can be safely considered the most popular of WWII films, as well as one of the most critically esteemed. But the Great Escape — the true story of a mass escape from a German POW camp during World War II — symbolized American derring do in the form of McQueen’s character Virgil Hilts. He was an individualist, thumbing his nose at the hated Nazis and he did it with verve, as encapsulated by his vain attempt to escape through the Alps on a motorcycle. The British were our allies, they were good, disciplined, smart people, but to American audiences they lacked the panache of Yankees like Hilts. Hilts was a one-man case of American exceptionalism.

The Last Picture Show shone a very bright light on small town America, Texas style. It’s cast of characters included lonely housewives, carousing youngsters, grizzled and wise elders, dashing playboys and the mentally challenged. It is at heart a sad story of emptiness and loss and the great efforts people make to escape their doldrums, without physically leaving. Sex is an escape. Drinking is an escape. The movies are an escape. Sports are an escape. But only a character who joins the army really gets away (and that to the confines of military life). This is an America rarely depicted in films but one that tens if not hundreds of millions have lived in. Life offers small rewards, sparingly doled out. Despair lurks around the corner for most, yet hope is a constant — whether justified or not. The Last Picture Show avoids being depressing; it has compelling characters whose stories are relatable and engaging. When a teenage boy psychologically wounds the middle aged women with whom he’s had an affair, we feel her rage just as we sympathize with the young man. They are all victims. America would not have been ready for The Last Picture Show anytime before it’s premier, but it came at a time when — with an unpopular war raging in Vietnam and cultural values shifting -- introspection and self-critique came into vogue.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver takes us into the heart of the big city — indeed America’s biggest — and it is not a journey for the meek of heart. Our guide is one Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) a disaffected taxi driver, war veteran and loner who — when he can’t find love — looks for meaning. But his is a damaged mind and his quest ends in bloody massacre and this after he nearly assassinates a presidential candidate. Taxi Driver explores the underbelly of the American urban experience and the deranged individuals there formed. Yet is it a poetic film and like all great cinema is never depressing -- in large part because it is so honest. It is also about the loneliness of the big city and how easy it is to get lost deep in the recesses of your own mind. Bickle is hardly an American everyman, but he is a product of a culture that over values individualism. Bickle is, in his own way, also a crusader whose ultimate goal is to do the right thing.

American cinema has largely shied away from issues of race but a major exception can be found in Spike Lee’s seminal 1989 film Do the Right Thing. The tension is palpable, the violence as if from a documentary, the issues are timeless. It’s set in New York but could just as easily be in any other large American city. There are types of people but no stereotypes of people. These are strong, well-crafted characters who as an ensemble reflect much of the joy and pain of being an other in white America. Do the Right Thing climaxes in a confrontation between the white owners of a pizzeria and its black customers. Into this scene comes a character who is restrained by police officers  — as if the story was ripped from headlines from the future —and is  killed in the process. A riot ensues. No one wins. There’s a harsh message right there. No one wins. Like many great films, DTRT asks questions rather than feeding audiences easy answers. It thus allows — nay, insists — that viewers do their own thinking, examining both the state of American race relations and their own feelings on the topic. Lee has made much of the fact that many viewers are more concerned with the destruction of the pizzeria than they are with the death of a character. DTRT can thus be seen as a kind of American racial litmus test.

Ice Storm is simply the best representation of suburbia ever committed to film and not incidentally a clever look at the 1970s and the upper middle class. The wise ones here are the teenagers who variously pursue love or find meaning in comic books our follow the latest news on Watergate. The adults go to key parties for a sad, perverted form of the sexual revolution and incidentally cheat on each other in less open, totally dishonest ways. Truth is spoken by the teenaged girl whose offering of grace at Thanksgiving is an attack on American consumerism and the theft of the lands from Native Americans. This is a decadent America that has lost its values. It is a prettified suburban version of The Last Picture Show. Ice Storm is an exposure of desolation of hearts in a soulless land of cocktail parties and banality. Remarkably we don't come to hate nor necessarily dislike any of the characters, that would be too easy.

Mean Girls

I’ve long championed Mean Girls as not only a cultural phenomenon but, a great film. On the surface it’s a light teen comedy that satirizes the high school experience, but it’s — perhaps despite its own intentions — far more than that. It is wise and witty and revealing of the cliques, social hierarchies and peer pressure that make the high school experience a fraught one for many. High school can be a walk in the park for some students while a race through a land mine ridden field for others. Other teen films — including those set in high schools — tend to focus on boys and how they will be boys. As the title suggest Mean Girls has a primarily female cast and given the struggles and triumphs and dramatic ups and downs of its main character, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) it can be seen as post feminist. Hierarchies and status are based less on merit and more on wealth. Beauty is extolled over intelligence. Social standing trumps academic standing. There are a lot of aspects to the high school experience that are universal, but still others that are unique to the United States and Mean Girls is adept at portraying them. The films journey to a happy ending is a fraught one with obstacles aplenty. Along the way viewers are guided through socialization American high school style.

I don’t know that any other film has captured the time period it depicts better than Quentin Tarantino’s OUTH. The sights, the sounds and even the colors of late Sixties California are so vivid as to be transformative. It is also a film rich in themes and ideas and history. It is about celebrity, about the film and television industry, about an era, about cults and about the struggle to stay relevant and popular in a competitive world. As he did in another of his great films, Inglorious Basterds (2009), Tarantino re-writes history and again it feels like the right thing to do for the story. In addition to reflecting a time, place and a mood, movies are good for occasionally taking us away from reality and if creating a new one is necessary, so be it. But the broader point about OUTH is its exploration of a given time in which the U.S. underwent the mad melding of the hip new counter culture with the tradition bound. Some people fully embraced the hippie movement, others adapted aspects of it such as longer hair or experimenting with drugs or listening to rock music. The late Sixties were a time when squares like Dean Martin and cool cats like The Beatles were competing in music’s top forty. The establishment’s Bob Hope and the counter culture’s George Carlin were both making American’s laugh. The establishment was providing jobs and financial security at the same time it was benefitting from institutionalized racism and sending young men to die in Vietnam. Meanwhile the counter culture was offering exciting alternatives in everything from music to fashion to gaining awareness at the same time it was producing the Manson Family and drug overdoses and runaways. OUTH gets it all and through the mores it explores provides a uniquely American kaleidoscope.

Other films I considered for this article were: Heroes For Sale (1933) Wellman, My Man Godfrey (1936) LaCava, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Wyler, Rebel Without A Cause (1955) Ray, Midnight Cowboy (1969) Schlesinger, Shampoo (1975), Network (1976) Lumet,  Ashby, Platoon (1986) Stone, Boyz N the Hood (1991) Singleton, The Truman Show (1998) Weir, Milk (2008) Van Sant, and Get Out (2017) Peele. I highly recommend them all.

Evil Sometimes Wears a Nice Blue Suit

There's something particularly scary about evil disguised as ordinary looking middle aged men in nondescript clothing. For one thing it suggests that evil can be anywhere Danger may lurk within the guy standing behind you on line at the pharmacy.

There are two such regular looking fellows at the heart of Bullitt (1968), a film better known for its iconic car chase scene and its star, the late great Steve McQueen.

Under those long raincoats are weapons, including a shotgun that is used to blow two people nearly to kingdom come. These are not raving lunatics in sheep's clothing either. They are as placid and calm as a full moon though portending as much menace. We see nary a hint of emotion from either. They are methodical men going about their jobs. Because they are hired assassins it does not follow that they are erratic or colorful. Quite the contrary. They are virtually wordless, expressionless deliverers of death.

But there is one other more nattily attired man in a suit. While he is not nearly so deadly in person, his power is far more insidious and far reaching. He is the power hungry D.A. Chalmers. This is the quintessential slimy politician who sees his fellow man in terms of what they can do to ease his own climb to the top. Robert Vaughn played Chalmers and he was perfect. All clipped talking points, overdone and totally insincere flattery and politeness. Utterly ruthless and callous and all too realistic to be dismissed as just another character in a film.

Some might say Chalmers represents the prototypical ambitious politico, but he's an extreme and virulent strain of that species.

Countering these sartorially resplendent men is the more casually attired and infinitely cooler title character played by the coolest of the cool, McQueen. A turtleneck and sports jacket will do nicely for him.

Bullitt is a man of very few words, indeed a man of hardly any syllables. The 1950s and '60s were the golden age of silent leading men who betrayed little emotion. Like McQueen's Bullitt, they nonetheless were successful in both their jobs and with the ladies. Bullitt's girl is the utterly gorgeous Cathy played by the then 24 year old Jacqueline Bisset. Finding a lovelier woman at any time and place would be no small task.

This is a film with a wonderful economy of words but a similar and quite striking absence of a sensible plot. Yet over 40 years on Bullitt is a film much beloved by many people, including yours truly. While it makes little sense, it does a wonderful job of telling its confusing story. The chase scene is not aged a whit in all this time and in fact has yet to be outdone.

Director Peter Yates did a masterful job of pacing the film, his cuts from one scene to the next were especially effective. Yates also knew to slow things down occasionally and focus on the mundane. The scene were Bullitt and his partner are inventorying a victim's luggage is a prime example. While today I enjoyed my umpteenth viewing of Bullitt, I recently enjoyed my first screening of a later Yates film, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) with Robert Mitchum as an aging crook trying to stay out of prison. It's a film that demonstrates a similar willingness to contrast the ordinary and the everyday with extraordinary events. It's a film I'll be re-visiting.

Bullitt owes much to the star power of McQueen and its other star, the city of San Francisco. It too is cool and more casual than others of its type.

Other supporting players were regulars of the time period often seen on Tv, Simon Oakland and Norman Fell both played Bullitt's superiors. A young Robert Duvall also features as a cabbie.

But among the star power and the character actors and the chases and the tension, there lurks those guys in their suits. A banality of evil all their own.

Movies For Those Long Summer Evenings

Would I actually suggest that a person spend part of a lovely Summer day sitting at home watching a DVD? You better believe I would. For one thing you may be living in some God forsaken place where its too bloody hot to do anything but sit inside. But even if that's not the case and you're one of those outdoor types (hmm, the outdoors, isn't that where some movie scenes are filmed?) you've got to come inside eventually.

I'd imagined you'd can get plum tuckered out climbing hills, frolicking in the surf or puttering around in your garden. Let's say its dusk and you're ready to stretch out on the sofa. Perhaps you don't have to rise early the next day and fancy a movie that you can settle into. It would be my great pleasure to offer some suggestions. All of the following choices offer two things: a top quality viewing experience and length. Also, none are depressing or require taxing your cerebrum any more than you want to. And for my money you can watch them in the middle of a gorgeous day if you want to.

Chillin' With the Corleones Either The Godfather (1972) or The Godfather Part 2 (1974) will do. In fact make them back-to-back choices over the course of a weekend, just don't go overboard and watch the third Godfather film which is to the first two as Hoboken is to Paris and Rome. The original remains to me the greatest film of all time and part two the greatest ever sequel. One can watch them in a variety of ways such as exploring the tragic transformation of Michael Corleone or as a parable for modern times. For purposes of this discussion, however, they are best viewed for the sheer fun of their look, their performances, the characters and the scope of the story.

Lean On Me British director David Lean created two of the greatest epics on film, Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). If you're in the mood for a World War II  film set in the Eastern theater of operations and especially if you like a little POW action, Bridge is an excellent choice. It's a sprawling, audacious story with characters to match played wonderfully by the likes of Alec Guiness, William Holden and Sessue Hayakawa. If, however, you'd like to spend some time in the desert, maybe with Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, Lawrence is the way to go. Plenty of action and well defined, compelling characters here too. Either way you are going to see the textbook definition of classic cinema.

Indy Films In this instance Indy refers to Indiana Jones the hero of four films. Stick to the even numbered ones, two and four are best avoided. But Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the first in the series, and number three, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) are pure pop corn munching delights. These are much, much imitated films but their brilliance has rarely been approached and never equaled, let alone topped. These are rollicking adventures with comic book style bad guys, a charismatic hero (Harrison Ford with Sean Connery thrown into the Last Crusade as his dad) and superbly done scenes of derring do and disaster avoided just in the nick of time. Most films that are designed to be pure fun are pure shlock. Good action adventure is clearly not easy to do. Great action adventure is pretty much just these two films.

Fun With Fellini You want long, you want fun, you want excpetional and you want Italian. Look no further than Federecio Fellini classics La Dolce Vita (1960), 8 1/2 (1963) or Amarcord (1973). Three choices and each is, in my mind, better than the next. Like all other films on the list they are long and like the others you wouldn't have them a second shorter. Fellini had a lot to say and by God wasn't waste time being concise. Editing is so very time consuming and when you've put such beautiful films on celluloid as these, why bother? The first two offer the benefits of Marcello Mastrionni and a bevy of beauties. Amacord is my favorite though, a moving but unsentimental look at the great Italian director's hometown around the time he was growing up. All are, needless to say but I'm saying it anyway, Felliniesque, which means a melding of reality and fantasy and plenty of extraordinary characters.

Great Escapism Something about The Great Escape (1963) makes it seem the perfect Summer movie. A cast that includes Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn and David McCullum  may have something to do with it. Also you've got Nazis, not the Schindler's List kind who shoot people in the head but also not the To Be or Not to Be who are total buffoons. In other words Nazis that are just right -- at least for the action genre. Add to this a mass escape which includes the coolest motorcycle chase you'll ever see (at the foot of the Alps, no less) and you're in for some serious fun. This is the best of the umpteen World War II films that Hollywood cranked out during the Baby Boom years.

Kickin' it with Kubrick For hours of visual mastery you can't do better than either 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or Barry Lyndon (1975) two outsized classics from director Stanley Kubrick. I discussed 2001 in a recent post and Barry Lyndon in my preceding post, saying as much as I had to offer about both at the time. I will here add that both are great Summer films because you can watch them just for the look if you so desire, worrying very little about plot or themes.

Happy 100th Akira Why not celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa with a viewing of his masterpiece, The Seven Samurai (1954)?  This was one of many epic length Kurosawa films and clearly the best of the lot. It is also one of the most imitated films of all time, particularly of the action genre. Seven samurai are recruited by the poor but plucky residents of a small village to fend off a large group of bandits who are terrorizing their town. The ensuing violence is not terribly graphic but it is not silly, contrived or gratuitous. It is what I'd call realistically balletic. Warning: Watching Seven Samuarai may lead you to explore many, many more Kurosawa films.

Did Anyone Bother to Ask Lee Harvey What He Thought of the Movie?

Those of us who are students of the Kennedy assassination know the answer to this bit of historical trivia: What movie was playing when alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on November 22, 1963 in the Texas Theater?

The answer is, of course, Hell is For Heroes (1962).

Much as Manhattan Melodrama (1934) is principally known as the film John Dillinger had just seen when he was shot outside of a movie theater in Chicago. Hell is for Heroes is similarly more famous for who saw it then what they saw. Tis a shame, that.

I watched it via TCM Saturday. Ben Mankiewicz introduced the film. Having Mankiewicz as your host instead of Robert Osborne is like having Babe Ruth's backup start ahead of the Bambino. He may be good, but he's not "the man." Once you get over the fact that you're dealing with the second string you appreciate that the Manc (he needs a nickname) knows his way around a film intro too. Saturday he informed viewers that Hell is for Heroes was quite graphic. I hope he added, for its time (sorry, don't recall). If he did he was spot on.

Of all the many outstanding World War II films made, Hell is for Heroes is one of them. No, I'm not trying to be a smart ass (no effort required on my part). That Hell is for Heroes qualifies as one of the many excellent films dealing with World War II is nothing to sneeze at.

Gesundheit.

The man behind the camera was Don Siegal who was prolific as a TV director but was also responsible for the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry (1971).

The cast is fascinating. First off you've got one of my childhood heroes, Steve McQueen. He sports a wisp of a beard (recalling Vic Morrow in the TV series Combat) and attitude appropriate to the film's title. He's all surly gumption and stoic anger. Then there's pop singer Bobby Darin whose premature death not only cost the world some nice music but some nice film performances as well. (It also contributed to Kevin Spacey's bizarre obsession with the man, but that's a story for another time and another blogger.) I've not seen much of Darin the actor but he more than held his own in this film.

So you've got an acting icon-to-be and pop singer. Say, was there a comic in the cast? Funny you should ask. No less a personage than Bob Newhart, who was just becoming, "big." They even stuck a telephone bit for Newhart to do in the film. Because audiences then and now are quite familiar with Newhart's phone gags, it sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb thus distracting from the movie. Otherwise Newhart is just dandy in the film.

Who else? Why none other than Fess Parker, TV's Davy Crockett. What an odd duck. Parker was the poor man's Gary Cooper. Make that the destitute man's Cooper. His delivery was so flat you can barely tell he had a pulse. Cross him with Rip Taylor on coke and you'd have a normal human being. I'm not sure what Parker's appeal to audiences was but I'd have cast him as a dead guy in a heartbeat.

I know you're wondering if a bespectacled James Coburn is in the film and as a matter of fact he is. Coburn was incapable of a bad performance and he was a lot more versatile than people give him credit for. Coburn fans should check him out in this film.

I suppose the only thing missing from the cast was a troubled young man who was later to fall victim to the supposed Rebel Without a Cause curse. A guy who, you know, died of an overdose in suspicious circumstances at a young age that sort of thing, real rebellious type. Lo and behold who was that playing a Polish refugee who joins the squad? Yup, meet Nick Adams. His star did not burn quite brightly enough for most of you to have heard of him so you may have to look him up. Interesting chap who meet all the requisites aforementioned.

The movie itself (set in the European Theater, likely in the weeks following D-Day) has a well worn but well executed premise. A small squad of soldiers must valiantly hold off an enemy with vastly superior numbers. Equal portions of cunning, guile and bravery will be required. Internal conflicts arise among this melting pot of disparate characters. But the GIs pull together for the common good. There is the inevitable arrival of the "cavalry" but not soon enough to save all our heroes. Don't get too attached to any of the lads as a number "fall" in battle. One has a particularly grisly death and another a quite heroic one. Manc wasn't lying about the film's gritty realism. It's a splendid example of the beauty of black and white.

The closing shot has supposedly inspired a cult following and I can imagine far triter scenes to celebrate. It's powerful good stuff.

Manc tells us that McQueen did not get along with anyone on the set, most notably Darin. Us McQueen fans give him all the slack in the world. He may have been a pill on set but the on screen results were always good. He's part of the reason tht Hell is for Heroes is a helluva movie.

Wonder how Lee Harvey liked it.