IT’S
A WONDERFUL LIFE (2 hrs & 9 min, b&w, 1946)
Frank Capra’s widely cherished melodrama speaks
metaphorically to human beings everywhere and their major lifelong
struggles. James Stewart is a small town
citizen teetering on the edge of despair, who has to be shown in flashback by
an angel how and why his life has mattered for good despite seeming
disasters. It is a warm and wonderful
narrative, told with a big heart and a glorious and well-sustained sense of
humor from start to finish. Lionel
Barrymore is unforgettable as the town ogre and Donna Reed quietly sparkles as
Stewart’s sweetheart /wife and mother of his kids.
LAWRENCE
OF ARABIA (3 hrs & 42 min, color, 1962)
The elusive British military officer T.E. Lawrence
is immortalized by the preeminent acting of Peter O’Toole in Director David Lean’s
finest cinematic accomplishment. T.E.
played a major part in the Middle East campaign in World War I. His odyssey is ever so compelling and
complex; he embodies the paradoxical struggle between commitment and
megalomania. The desert photography is monumental. They do not make movies any better. I urge all readers of this to consult my
website, enspiritus.blogspot.com, for my full review, posted on Dec. 12, 2012.
LIFE
OF PI (2 hrs & 7 min, color, 2012)
Imaginative
writing, directing (by Ang Lee), and visual effects combine to give us a top
flight work of cinema artistry that unlocks the mind and heart and soul of a
gifted Indian boy in his teens. The
tragic misfortune of a shipwreck from which he is his family’s only survivor
propels him on his journey to find God, with a beautiful but extremely
dangerous Bengali tiger, who teaches him how to stay alive at sea and becomes a
life force from which he learns intangible things as well. Those who consider themselves on a spiritual
quest should be right at home with it.
Great scoring too!
LILIES
OF THE FIELD (1 hr & 34 min, b&w, 1963)
An itinerant construction worker (Sidney Poitier)
gets involved in the affairs of a band of refugee East German nuns who have
settled in a southwest community. The
starchy mother superior’s (Lilia Skala) enticement of him into building a
chapel for their use makes for endearing humor, intercultural feuding and
moments of unspoken and uneasy truce making.
Director Ralph Nelson, on a shoestring budget, took great pains, navigating
through the delicate material with confidence, respect for all his characters,
imagination and a simplicity of style that is hauntingly effective.
LINCOLN
(2 hrs & 30 min, color, 2012)
Steven
Spielberg’s superb biopic dramatizing the last four months in the life of our
16th President, highlighted by the passage of the 13th Amendment to
the Constitution freeing the slaves, is exciting and consistently
revealing. The film’s approach is
studied, measured and somewhat dark and brooding. Daniel Day-Lewis amazes beyond belief in the
title role with great support from Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, and Sally
Field as Mrs. Lincoln. Spielberg plays
nothing safe, but he leaves most Americans shrouded nonetheless in national
pride and soulful wonder.
LION
KING, THE (1 hr & 28 min, color, 1994)
This remains my choice for the best of Disney’s
animated musical features. It is both
epic in sweep and at times down-to-earth funny.
A just and benevolent lion ruler teaches his cub son to accede to the same
awesome pinnacle of power. But the
father is murdered and the kingdom shattered, leaving the son to go a mean
distance to find himself, return and reclaim the kingdom from the evil usurper. The visuals are a breathtaking miracle to
behold, the vocal score is rapturously beautiful, and we are moved to inquire
after a multitude of timeless themes.
MALTESE
FALCON, THE (1 hr & 44 min, b&w, 1941)
John Huston’s first directorial effort, based upon a
Dashiell Hamett yarn, is choice film noir.
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) opens up a dangerous can of worms when he
investigates a client (Mary Astor). He
gets involved in the connivings of two creepy men (Sidney Greenstreet and Peter
Lorre) and in a frantic struggle to obtain possession of the famous bird-shaped
statuette of the title, alleged to be worth a fortune. Every disclosure in this thriller is worth
all its weight and more; even after the final fade-out, we are still left
pondering. Layer by layer the superb
screenplay delivers.
MAN
FOR ALL SEASONS, A (2 hrs exactly, color, 1966)
Paul Scofield is magnificent as this man of the
title, a 16th century judge in the court of Henry VIII, who stood against his
king when the latter declared himself spiritual as well as temporal ruler and
decided to break with Rome. The
screenplay by Robert Bolt, based upon the stage hit, evolves with other
exciting personages equally as well portrayed – by John Hurt, Leo McKern, Orson
Welles, and Wendy Hiller. We are given a
cogent but concise look at the political and religious landscape in that
century. A soul-stirring and
ideologically challenging piece of work – a film for all seasons!
MANHATTAN
(1 hr & 36 min, b&w, 1979)
Woody Allen (also Director and Writer) plays a
divorcee courting a teenager (Muriel Hemingway) while becoming entangled with
his married friend’s (Michael Murphy) mistress (Diane Keaton) and suffering
continued mental cruelty from his lesbian ex-wife (Meryl Streep). He creates something sage and beautiful about
identity displacement in the modern world.
The script charts exciting paths to the hearts of the characters, ones
well worth traveling again and again.
Gordon Willis’s b&w photography and Gershwin’s music on the soundtrack
give the picture class as well.
MIDNIGHT
COWBOY (1 hr & 53 min, color, 1969)
Two more pathetic but fascinating characters you
will not find in the annals of cinema than Jon Voight’s Joe Buck, a tall young
Texan who comes to New York to hire out as a stud, and Dustin Hoffman’s Rico
Rizzo, a crippled, thievish hobo who tries to be his pimp. John Schlesinger’s genius direction combines
with a superb screenplay by Waldo Salt, based upon a James O’Herlihy
novel. The vibrant camera captures
details, both panoramic and close-up, as it takes in the streets of the Big
Apple. A powerful depiction of the
tragic underside of life in urban America!
MODERN
TIMES (1 hr & 23 min, b&w, 1936)
My favorite of Charlie Chaplin’s screen gems, a
satire on industrialization, urbanization and the place of work in a person’s
life. Blown out of an assembly line job
by a nervous breakdown, the Little Tramp (seen for the last time) meets up with
a nervy gamin (Paulette Goddard), an adolescent orphan fugitive. Together they must clear some formidable
hurdles in their episodic life on society’s frail edge, and they give us
entertainment, both touching and hilarious, in very generous servings. And I am always transported into poetic
heaven by the bittersweet ending.
MOONSTRUCK
(1 hr & 42 min, color, 1987)
Director Norman Jewison gives us a saucy, sassy,
dippy romantic comedy, a superbly original screenplay by John Patrick
Stanley. It concerns the wild romantic
turnabouts in the lives of a lively Italian American family, and everything
about it works with maximum success. And
it is v-e-r-y fu-u-un-n-ny! ! ! Cher,
Olympia Dukakis, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia and others form a
magnificent ensemble, who fumble and tumble and dicker and bicker their way
into our deepest affections. The
climactic sequence at the kitchen table covers a lot of human territory!
MY
LEFT FOOT (1 hr & 43 min, color, 1989)
Irish painter Christy Brown’s life is most amazing,
not only because of the cerebral palsy he had to live with but also because
Director/Writer Jim Sheridan allows his blemishes of personality and character
to erupt before our eyes and still manages to tap into the reservoirs of the
audience’s compassion. The film is high
voltage, both in its comic and serious aspects, and makes fierce music. Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrait of the man, who
only had his left foot with which to paint, will linger in the mind long after
final fadeout. Brenda Fricker is totally
authentic as his mother
To
read other entries in my blog, please consult its website: enspiritus.blogspot.com. To learn about me consult on the website the
blog entry for August 9, 2013.
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