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JimP-6
Reviews
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
Atmospheric film in need of restoration.
If ever a film needed restoration, this is it. Creepy atmospheric follow-up to House of Dark Shadows lacks the coherent plot of the first picture. Apparently the studio forced director Dan Curtis to cut his 2 hour movie down to 90 minutes so it could be sold as a double feature with House of Dark Shadows or other horror flicks--and it shows. It often doesn't make any sense and you wind up frustrated, as if you just had a good dream but can't remember it all. Word is that a complete uncut print has been recently discovered. A new DVD release of this picture restoring the missing pieces would be a big seller among Dark Shadows fans and horror film aficionados alike.
The Fantasticks (2000)
A brilliant and faithful cinematic adaptation of a classic stage musical.
The Fantasticks is one of those theatrical pieces that works so perfectly on stage that it seems impossible to adapt to the screen. I attended a pre-release screening, and can happily report that director Michael Ritchie has beautifully accomplished the near impossible feat, translating the simple heartwarming stage musical into a simply stylized film musical while retaining all of its charm.
The show on stage is performed without sets and with a lot of poetic suggestion from the script and imagination from the audience. On film it is not exactly transported to reality, but would more accurately be described as surrealistic, which fits the musical format perfectly. The film is set in the 1920s, a relatively more "innocent" time, at least in our memories, and thus makes the innocence and naivete of the young lovers easily palatable. The characters, let by Joel Gray as one of the fathers, live in the middle of a barren desert, their houses situated side by side and separated by a white picket fence. A mysterious carnival sets up shop nearby, run by magician/illusionist El Gallo, whom the fathers hire to arrange an abduction that will bring their children together. The story plays itself out pretty much the same as on stage (the original writers were wisely retained), and due to its strange, surrealistic quality it all makes sense in a dream-like way, even when the characters break into song.
All but one of the beautiful songs are in the film--the "Plant a Radish" song is gone, but is not really missed, as it didn't advance the story that much. The "Rape Ballet" song from the original version of the show has been changed to a more politically correct similar song that didn't use such an ugly word as "rape" but serves the same purpose. (I'm told that several years ago the original song had been replaced by this one in the stage show as well, though I'm not certain. The show has been playing Off-Broadway for 40 years.) Perhaps the most well-known song from the show, "Try to Remember" is not sung at the beginning as on stage, but rather at the very end, which is quite fitting for the film as selected clips of the preceding film are intercut like faded memories. The "Metaphor" song is cleverly staged at the carnival in front of a silent film of romantic scenes. "Soon It's Gonna Rain" is sung under a big tree with El Gallo hiding in the branches while sprinkling glittering rain onto the love-struck couple, and performers from the carnival hiding in the bushes providing vocal accompaniment--a skillful melding of the theatrical and cinematic.
The vocals of the actors are all superb. Musical arrangements which where just a piano and harp on stage are now fully orchestrated, but not overdone and work well. Finally, in keeping with the theatrical spirit of the piece, the cast actually does a curtain call from the carnival stage during the end credits.
Theatre purists should not be wary of this film. Fans of the show should not be disappointed as long as they are not expecting a mere filmed stageplay. Understandably, it is not really a commercial picture to compete with the special effects action flicks popular with the coveted teen audiences, so it will just have a limited theatrical release in big city art houses. In fact, the picture was film five years ago but languished on the shelf as a difficult-to-market film. Thankfully it will finally introduce millions of non-theatregoers to the wonderful story and songs, and will probably do most business on home video among traditional musical lovers. One hopes it will get a DVD release to take advantage of the wonderful score and the ability to search for favorite songs at random.
See "The Fantasticks". Especially if you are an adult. It will remind you of what it was like to be young and innocent. You will want to revisit that feeling over and over again. As this work reminds us, that innocence is something none of us realize we have until we have lost it. There's no other way to know it. Kind of bittersweet, but a paradox of life.
It's Pat: The Movie (1994)
One of the most underrated comedies of all time.
I was a fan of Julia Sweeney and her Pat character since she I first saw her create it at the Groundling Theatre in L.A. I began watching SNL after years of shunning the show when I discovered Pat was appearing there, and was equally delighted to see it made into a feature. I know I am in the minority, but I have to say that this is one of the funniest characters ever created. I can understand why it flopped, though, because the humor is original and intelligent, a biting satire on gender stereotypes, celebrity, and society in general. It's plain that the suits at Disney just didn't get it--anything straying from the mainstream carbon copy by the numbers mass entertainment mold goes over the head of the bean-counting businessmen--so they didn't even give it a national release. So naturally it was doomed to bomb. And the critics and mass audience just like to go with the flow--if the preconception is that something is bad they simply go with the flow and agree. I've watched It's Pat multiple times, and like I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, The Munsters, The Producers, Some Like It Hot, Mad Mad World and other intelligently written and acted comedies, I laugh each and every time, and often and different scenes. On the other hand, the 100 million dollar Men In Black to me was unwatchable--I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes, and even that was painful to endure. Julia Sweeney should be proud that her comedy is too good and smart to be revered by the masses.
1776 (1972)
An overlooked and underrated movie
Despite this being a musical, it is one of the most realistic cinematic treatments of this period of history. The Founding Fathers, usually thought of as some kind of cardboard icons cut from a historical textbook, are delightfully portrayed as regular people with faults, fears, humor, and sexuality. Franklin and Adams are the perfect comedic team, trading barbs with each other as they try to start an unlikely revolution--probably not too different from how it really happened. The Revolutionaries were just that--more rebellious scoundrels than the revered nobleman they have come to be thought of today. William Daniels as Adams gives one the finest performances of his career, one that is often overlooked for his work on TV. To me it's his signature role.
Amazingly, the film is always interesting even though we know how it's going to end. We all know that the Declaration of Independence was passed by the colonies, but what's interesting is how it got there despite what initially seemed to be impossible odds.
The songs add much to the humor of the show. Not only is it a laugh seeing these historical characters break into song and dance, but also the lyrics are quite clever and music memorable. There are also a good number of more dramatic songs, and a moving love ballad between John and Abigail Adams, with lyrics taken from their actual letters to each other. The "Momma Look Sharp" number, an anti-war song about a mother searching for her dead son, is an obvious allusion to Vietnam considering the picture was made in 1972.
Unfortunately, the movie released on video is missing about 40 minutes of footage that was deleted after initial screenings to cut down on the length of the picture. Bits and pieces are cut from several scenes and songs, but the most damaging deletion is the entire song "Cool Considerate Men" which kind of explains the antagonist position, and when omitted much of the subsequent action loses impact and sometimes doesn't even make sense. Also, it was shot in wide screen cinemascope, using full advantage of the wide frame, so it doesn't transfer too well to pan and scan TV format--entire characters are lopped off the edges of the frame, especially in "The Egg" number--the interaction among Adams, Jefferson and Franklin sitting side by side is completely ruined. So if at all possible, see the complete widescreen uncut picture available on laserdisc. Once you see the uncut version it will really be hard to watch the edited pan and scan video version. The laserdisc even has a newly remixed stereo surround soundtrack--something that wasn't even heard in the original theatrical presentation.