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Reviews
Real Genius (1985)
There, But For The Grace Of God, Go I. A Truly GREAT Film
In the late 60's-early 70's I was a math and physics geek dreaming and working at getting a scholarship to Caltech, the real university fictionalized in the film. The Vietnam War and a draft lottery number of 5 intervened so I wound up joining the Navy and actually working on WMDs as I hunted the Great Steel Whales. I must have seen this film 50 times over the years and it's always funny and fresh each time.
Contrary to the opinions of many, The plot IS based on the true story of a Caltech grad student who invented the X-ray laser for eye surgery; only to have Edward Teller of the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Labs try to turn it into a space-based particle beam weapon for Reagan's Star Wars project. Many of the incidents depicted are taken directly from the hijinks Caltech students engage in during the annual Ditch Day celebrations.
I won't rehash the plot since so many have already done so on these pages. Suffice to say that a great, funny, literate script, journeyman direction by Martha Coolidge and believable performances by Jarret, Kilmer, Atherton, Meyrink, et all put this film a cut above virtually all the other 80's school and nerd comedies. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 was due to the somewhat cheesy special effects of the B1-B bomber used in the weapon's test.
Ironically enough, I lived in Pasadena in the late 90's/early 00's and drove past Caltech every day on my way home from work. There I would periodically see busloads of Chinese tourists from the People's Republic taking each other's pictures in front of the Caltech administration building. I always wondered how many of THEM had seen this film and if seeing it would have changed their enthusiasm for the place.
The Bedford Incident (1965)
An Actual Destroyer Sonarman's Review
I served for six years as a destroyer sonarman in the early to late 70's hunting the Great Steel Whales and actually found seven confirmed Soviet subs in a time when most ping-jockeys like me never found any. My list of confirmed subs were 2 Foxtrot-class diesel boats, 1 November SSN, 2 Echo II SSGNs, 1 Victor I SSN and 1 Yankee SSBN. I just watched this film on TCM for the first time in many years and was struck by how realistic and relevant it still is. As one reviewer pointed out, the film echoes a true incident involving a US Diesel sub trapped in Soviet territorial waters in 1958 that is also spotlighted in the book, "Blind Man's Bluff". My watch station was similar to Wally Cox's character standing sonar watches and my battle station was firing the Underwater Weapons Battery like James McArthur's character. So I'm VERY familiar with both the attraction AND danger of the Ultimate Hunt of the Leviathan.
Many comparisons have been made of this film to Moby Dick and Widmark's Capt. Finlander to Ahab, including how Finlander, like Ahab, inspired his crew to go along with his doomed hunt. For me, I compare Finlander to Robert Mitchum's Destroyer captain in "The Enemy Below". Both are tough, tenacious captains who drive their crews to the limit of endurance in pursuit of their submerged adversaries. Both have compelling reasons for engaging in that behavior. The difference is Finlander's ultimate obsession with the hunt dooms him and his ship like Ahab, while Mitchum's captain is ultimately redeemed by his rescue of his enemies' lives even while his ship is destroyed in destroying the submarine.
The other compelling character for me is the former U-boat Captain who corrects Poitier's reporter that it was Admiral Doenitz's Navy, not Hitler's. This I find especially relevant since Doenitz actually had Admiral Lockwood, commander of the US submarine force in the Pacific during WW2, testify in his defense during Doenitz's war crimes trial since Lockwood used the exact same strategy to defeat Japan that Doenitz used against the Allies. To me, he also presages Jurgen Prochnow's U-Boat captain in "Das Boot".
Add in a great supporting cast that includes Martin Balsam and a young Donald Sutherland as one of the Corpsmen working under Balsam, the use of a Farragut-class DLG model and special effects that recreate the North Atlantic coast of Greenland quite effectively for it's time, and the constant drumbeat of the sonar transmission and echo that serves to heighten the tension even more and you have a great yarn. I've know many sub sailors who've had to endure being lashed with that sonar for hours to days at a time and told me how maddening that can get.
Strangely enough, I ran into one of the crewmen from one of the Foxtrot subs I found and tracked over 20 years later when he towed my car home from Burbank Airport to Pasadena. At that time, they had just brought another Foxtrot sub called the Scorpion and had her on display next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I asked him if he'd ever been down there to go aboard for old times sake. his answer was No because he LIVED it for three years and had his bellyfull of it THEN.
Mackenna's Gold (1969)
A Western SO Bad It Defies The Laws Of Physics
This Review Contains Spoilers.
Maybe it's me. But after reading all the reviews, I found the positive reviews are almost directly proportional to the distance of the reviewer from the West. I was a kid growing up in the Mother Lode country of California's Sierra Nevadas, where they have their own lost gold legends, and have actually worked for the past few years on microwave radio sites in New Mexico, including the area of Reserve, Quemado, Datil and Magdalena where the Lost Adams Mine legends are said to be located. I'm also a Brother of Equal Indignity of the Ancient & Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, A 170-year-old Historical society with roots in the Mother Lode. So, I'm always interested in gold mining stories from the Old West.
I had seen this movie as a kid not long after it first came out, probably for Julie Newmar's nude scene more than anything else, and liked it then despite it's more hokey elements. Since then, I grew up and actually worked in areas of the Jicarilla, Mescalero, White Mountain and Chiricahua Apache reservations as well as the Navajo reservation. So I watched this film today with a much more informed and jaundiced eye than when I was a kid. How bad IS this movie? Let me count the ways.
1.Cinematography that wastes the natural beauty of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico while adding unbelievably cheap special effects including shadows that LENGTHEN in the morning(the defying the Laws of Physics part).
2.A script that wastes the talents of the actors, especially the townspeople played by Wallach, Wynn, Cobb, Massey, Meredith, Quayle and Robinson whose on-screen appearances and deaths shortly after reminded me of the guest stars in the opening credit scenes of the old Police Squad TV series. Sharif horribly miscast as the Bandit chief, Colorado, whose secret ambition seems to be to become Louis Jourdan in Gigi. Peck as the stolid, stalwart hero at his MOST stolid. Camilla Sparv as the damsel in distress made of wood. Ted Cassidy and Julie Newmar as Tall Apaches which worked OK when I was a kid until I met REAL Apaches and realized how SHORT Apache people REALLY are. And Telly Savalas playing, well, Telly Savalas.
3.Direction and production values that changed so much because they couldn't decide whether to shoot in cinerama, 70 mm or 35 mm, so they just decided to shoot some of the movie in each format and then edit it together with bubblegum, two band-aids and some spit.
4. Quincy Jones' execrable score that should be played on loudspeakers in front of his house for a month as penance.
5. The unbelievable ending sequences where the mere echoes of rifle fire and hoofbeats are loud enough to trigger a seismic event.
If there's ANY saving grace to this movie, it's having Newmar play her character, Hesh-Ke as a mute. Considering the roles I've seen Newmar play where she SPEAKS, that was the single most effective direction in the entire movie. That and her nude scene, which was apparently her OWN idea so kudos to HER for that.
So I give it three stars. One for the location shots, one for Newmar's Mute portrayal and one for her nude scene. If you want to watch a GOOD Greg Peck western, rent "Duel In The Sun" or "The Big Country".
La vingt-cinquième heure (1967)
A Haunting Kafka-esque Tale And IMHO Anthony Quinn's BEST Role
I was reading reports of the John Demjanjuk trial today and it immediately reminded me of this film. Like most others, I haven't seen this film in over 20 years and Quinn, who in my opinion gives his BEST performance ever, is luminous as Johann Moritz, a simple Romanian peasant, who is caught up as the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout World War 2 and has absolutely no idea why. Yet, through the entire story, he never loses his essential goodness, compassion and humanity.
Spoilers Follow: Quinn plays Moritz as an easygoing Romanian peasant married to Verna Lisi who is coveted by the local police chief. Falsely denounced by the Chief as a Jew, he is shipped off to a concentration camp with the other Jews of his town. While an inmate with his friends in the Concentration camp, he is spotted by an SS officer from the Nazi Office of Racial Purity who questions him about his background and ancestry. As a result, he is pronounced of Pure Aryan blood by the SS, given a job in the SS guarding the same camp where he was formerly an inmate and publicized in the German propaganda of the day. He uses his new position to smuggle food to his friends and, ultimately, saves their lives by killing the other SS guards who want to execute them. Captured by the Russians, he is thrown into prison for three years until he is tried as a War Criminal only to be acquitted because of the testimony of the Jewish friends whose lives he saved.
Throughout the film, Moritz never loses his essential humanity and acts out of love and friendship to do the right thing. Quinn inhabits the role of Moritz and displays the gamut of emotions far beyond even La Strada or Zorba. Many have compared this film to "Schndler's List", but I think a more apt comparison would be to Agniezka Holland's "Europa, Europa" or Jiri Menzel's "I Served The King Of England" as similar stories. Henri Verneuil's direction captures the Romanian peasant society perfectly while illustrating that ethnic prejudice was not confined to Germans/Jewish alone. Verna Lisi's performance is among her finest and the rest of the supporting cast are equally well-done.
As a result of all this, I actually found New DVD copies of this film available on Amazon.com. I ordered a copy for myself and HIGHLY recommend it to everybody else. SEE THIS FILM. If you're like me and most other reviewers here it will, simultaneously, uplift your spirits and haunt you for years as it illustrates the fundamental absurdity of War and Hate.
I'll Be There (2003)
No False Notes In This Craig Ferguson Comedy/Musical
Grace Slick, lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane, once said in an interview that there was something pathetic about 50-year-olds playing rock and roll. Grace should rent THIS film, if for no other reason than to see Joss Ackland as Evil Edmonds and his geriatric band, the BeeLzeeBOPS, prove you're NEVER too old to rock. I've been a fan of Ferguson since his days on the Drew Carey Show and enjoyed his two previous films, which he also co-wrote. Somehow I missed this one until recently, which is a shame since it's also his directorial debut. Much has been written about the film as a Charlotte Church vehicle which it really isn't. What it IS is a heart-warming family drama/comedy/musical about lost & re-found love, personal redemption, family values and friendship. Ferguson, who also wrote the screenplay, uses his own personal experiences as an 80's rocker and alcoholic to inform his story without descending into mawkish sentimentality.
Here Be Spoilers: The story revolves around Ferguson's Paul Kerr, an 80's rocker on the downside drinking his way into oblivion. After a drunken motorcycle accident lands him in the psych ward under suicide watch, he finds out he has a daughter named Olivia he never knew about, played quite winningly by Ms. Church, from a one-night-stand that he never forgot. This revelation, along with the arrival of his former band-mate and drummer, help him to quit drinking and begin to forge a relationship with his daughter both as a father and as a musician. This also allows him to finally reconnect with Olivia's mother, played quite well by Jemma Redgrave, while helping her to see her child's enormous gift and realize that he really HAS always loved only her. Toss in Joss Ackland's bravura performance as Olivia's Grand-dad, the aforementioned Evil Edmonds, an older, crustier, not-so-successful version of Kerr and you have the basic family. Add a great supporting cast of characters, a great screenplay that shows the humanity OF those characters and great singing from Church and what more do you need? Ferguson's Kerr, as the little boy who never had to grow up, stepping up as both a father and, ultimately, lover is dead on. Redgrave's Rebecca strikes the perfect tone showing her bitterness and anger towards Kerr as well as her vulnerability and love for her daughter. Church is a natural as Olivia, who loves her mother dearly but has music in her bones, a fact seen by Kerr, Evil Edmonds and, ultimately, by Rebecca herself.
So it ain't War and Peace. It's merely an excellent family movie which places it head and shoulders above the usual pedestrian family fare. THAT credit goes to writer/director Craig Ferguson. Bravissimo Craig. See this movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry. you'll sing along. If it can warm the heart of a jaded soul like me, then it ought to warm yours as well.
La bataille de San Sebastian (1968)
Anthony Quinn and Henri Verneuil Made A Great Haunting Movie Together. Unfortunately This One Ain't It.
I finally caught this film today for the first time. I was actually looking forward to it since I had already seen Quinn directed by Verneuil in "The 25th Hour(La Vingt-Cinquieme Heure)". THAT was a captivating, haunting film. THIS one wasn't. Quinn plays a Mexican Bandit on the run rescued by Sam Jaffe's Catholic Priest in sanctuary. Through a series of mischances, Quinn winds up in the role of Priest where he teaches the villagers to fight off bandits led by Charles Bronson and Yaqui Indians. I agree to the surrealist elements of this film which, quite frankly, detracts from the main story of an otherwise formulaic spaghetti western. So if you want to see a REALLY good film starring Quinn and directed by Verneuil, skip this one and find "The 25th Hour" instead.
The Lake House (2006)
An Implausible Story? Then Read MINE.
I first saw my wife and the love of my life crossing the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Avenues in Berkeley on her mother's 51st birthday in 1968, 3 weeks before my 14th birthday, dressed in a black silk top hat, long black velvet cape and dress. That girl became the template for every other woman I would be attracted to in my life. I didn't MEET her until 1989 in the SF Bay Area around the quake time. In the months around the quake, we got together as fellow writers but both our soon-to-be-exes accused of of having an affair, which we weren't. But it planted the seed in both our minds. For me, I had three straws to break before I could finally see clearly.
1. Cutting off the 580 shooter on the Oakland freeways the first night he murdered someone.
2. Having to go back INTO SF after the 89 quake to keep long-distance service working. You may not have been able to call across town, but you COULD call across the country because of my work.
3.The day before Thanksgiving in 89 when I didn't go to work to care for my sick daughter. So I didn't take the California St. cable car and get off at California and Kearney with my wife like I did every other day and it made the light. FORTY SECONDS later a 60-ton construction crane fell into that intersection and killed 6 people.
We left with each other on Dec 1. So, what does all this have to do with "The Lake House"? Twice a day, on the ferry ride from Vallejo to SF, we passed THIS place, Sandy Beach:
http://yfrog.com/3xsandybeachbysea002j
and we would both talk about what a cool place to live it would be.
When we had the courage to act on our love, I was looking for a place for us to live and actually FOUND a place there pictured here:
http://yfrog.com/3xlovenest004j
http://yfrog.com/3x9sandybeach002j
On The Dock Of The Bay.
It was a month after we moved in that my wife told me ALL about hanging out in Berkeley in 1968 between Shakepeare's and Cody's Bookstores at the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Avenues dressed in a black silk top hat, long black velvet cape and dress. My answer, "I wish you would have told me that at the beginning. I would have saved us a lot of time." We wound up living on the Dock of The Bay for 5 years and got to come down THIS road every night to THIS view.
http://yfrog.com/6yroadtoparadise002gd9j
Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
Too Bad Spike Lee Couldn't See The Forest For The Trees
When I heard Lee was tackling the black perspective of World War 2, I was encouraged and looked forward to seeing this film. Now, I think he lost whatever thematic vision he had in this film. It's all over the map and is about an hour too long. By adding the fictional elements to a tale of wartime massacre, it detracts from both. Strangely enough, there ARE compelling stories of the black experience in WW2. One of my favorites was in Studs Terkel's book "The Good War". It's about a half-black, half-German boy who grows up in the middle of Hitler's Germany and how his black skin ultimately saves his life from both the Death camps AND service in the Wehrmacht and Volksturm. The crowning end of his story is when his village in Germany is taken by Black troops who are completely surprised to see a black teenager there who speaks fluent German.
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
A Tin-Can Sonarman and Son and Grandson of Merchant Seamen Comments
My grandfather went to sea on square-riggers in 1900 and my Dad served as an Able Seaman all through World War 2. He was 400 miles ENE of Honolulu on 12/7/41 and heard the distress calls of the SS Cynthia Olson, sunk by a Japanese sub 200 miles North of them and 4 hours before the attack occurred. He went on to see action in the invasions of Attu, Kiska, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Iwo Jima. So he had the dubious honor of being shot at by representatives of all Three Axis Powers(4 if you count the Vichy French). He told me the following story about seeing this film.
He and his shipmate, Dudley, a fellow San Franciscan, had returned to the states after Anzio and were on a bus trip back to San Francisco. They had an overnight stay at some Podunk town in western Nebraska. With nothing else to do, they decided to see what was playing at the local theater. When they saw it was this film, wild horses couldn't keep them from watching it. They attended the screening and just laughed up a storm through the entire movie; especially at the scenes of an old Liberty ship slewing around the ocean like a Fletcher-Class Destroyer. They were SO loud and boisterous that the rest of the local crowd thought they were Nazi saboteurs and laid hands on them with the intention of beating the crap out of them THEN hanging them. Dudley and my Dad had to produce THEIR merchant seaman's documents and Sailor's Union of the Pacific and Seafarer's International Union cards to the crowd to save their skins. Once the crowd realized WHO they were, they were immediately carried to the local saloon and gotten rip-roaring drunk on the townspeople's dime.
I finally got a chance to watch it on TCM sometime back and agree to the potboiler and propaganda elements of the film. That said, I DO think the screenplay is a lot better than he gave credit for. Especially considering it was nominated for an Academy Award. The language and characters ring more true than false and I could swear to knowing many old salts just like the crew. My Dad later went on to sail with Jim Thorpe in 1947/48 and was an able seaman into the early 1960's. But I'll always remember "Action In Northern Nebraska" as one of his favorite sea stories.
So I leave you all with the admonishment and reminder he told me before I went to sea on Destoryers: "Keep her between the anchors!" "Just remember son. No matter WHERE you are at sea, you're NEVER more than seven miles from land...STRAIGHT DOWN!"
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (2005)
This Film Has A Special Resonance For Me
I never saw this in the theatre but caught it recently on STARZ. Like Steve, I'm a Southern California boy(Ventura-born)and lived in Pasadena for eight years. But this film touched me as a There-But-For-The-Grace-Of-God story.
I grew up in Northern California and saw my wife for the first time on her mother's 51st birthday, Feb. 17,1968, crossing the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Aves in Berkeley. I was not quite 14 and she was dressed in a black silk top hat, long black velvet cape and dress. That girl became the physical template for every girl I'd ever be attracted to.
Over the next 21 years, I went through junior high and high school, joined the Navy and hunted the Great Steel Whales, got married and had two children with a woman I knew I didn't love. I was working in San Francisco for A.T.&T. in the 1980's and started riding the Vallejo ferry into San Francisco in the summer of 1989, the same company my Dad had worked for as a deck hand at the time I saw her. Although I didn't know it at the time, the first person I met on the boat that day was her, 21 years later, sitting in my favorite seat outside.
We started talking and found out we were both budding writers. Over the next few months, we read each other's work and started writing a spy novel together. We were also both trapped in bad marriages. Then three things happened to me in the last months on 1989. The first was cutting off a killer called the 580 shooter on the Oakland Freeway one midnight going to work. Then 6 weeks later the Loma Prieta Quake hit and while she was on the pier, I headed back into work and kept long-distance phone service working through the emergency. By this time she had confessed her feelings to me and I was hit out of left field. While I processed that, I had to realize that the only time I looked forward to in the day was the time I spent with her. The final straw occurred on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
They had repaired the cable cars by then and we got free cable cars with the ferry pass. We would walk to the California Street cable car from the ferry, hop aboard and ride up to Kearney St. where I would get off. She would continue up to Stockton St. where she would get off. That Wednesday, my daughter was sick so I stayed home to care for her. So, the cable car didn't stop at Kearney and made the light. Forty seconds later, a 50-ton construction crane collapsed into the intersection of California and Kearney, killing six people. When we talked next, we left together. It wasn't until a month later that she told me she used to hang out in Berkeley in the same place, time and wearing the same clothes I had seen her in that day. And if we hadn't had the courage to stand up for love, I would have never known it.
That was 19 years ago and we have never been apart since. This film reminds me of what might have happened had I not had the courage that day. The fact that I've driven many of the streets on which the story is set and recognize most of the locations is a special bonus for me.