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Reviews
Goodfellas (1990)
Ugly Movie
Semi-spoiler
On a personal note...this movie was filmed, in part, in front of my family's home (the red house across from Bracco's "home" in the movie...you know the scene...Ray Liotta runs across the street and pistol whips the neighbor's son, who is polishing his red Corvette - since I was, in reality, the son who lived across the street, I suppose, that was me taking all that punishment). Anyway, I was home visiting when they filmed for over a month on my street. It was interesting to watch the care (bordering on fanaticism) that Scorcese took in endlessly rehearsing minor scenes and then finally filming them. Which leads me to my point.
So much time, money, and effort spent to produce such an unpleasant film. Lord knows, it's not that everybody needs to be Pollyanna...we all are aware how truly wretched life can be...but why spend time watching loathsome, worthless characters act out pointless violence? There just has to be some better way of spending our time. Yep, we are base animals...as Scorcese incessantly likes to remind us in this and his other films...Thank you! We get the idea! However, why not take all that talent and time and produce something the uplifts the human spirit rather than denigrates it? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Glorify gangsters, not me!
OK...Goodfellas lovers...come on and pistol whip me...I'm waiting.
Resurrection (1980)
Fine Film...A Personal Favorite
This beautiful movie is a wonder to watch...After a near-death experience, Ellen Burstyn discovers she has healing powers and proceeds to do good work in a quiet, unassuming way...which, nevertheless, gets her into trouble.
It is odd that I would like this film so well since 1) I am an atheist with zero belief in an afterlife; and 2) had my own near-death experience where I saw nothing...no light, no tunnel...just nothing. Still, this film taps into my spiritual side...whatever that is...perhaps the acceptance that things go bump in the night for no good reason.
My pleasure in watching this film is enhanced by it's firm insistence that the gift of healing is not rooted in any one religion or even in religion itself. In these troubled times where religion often does more harm than good, the message of this film is both rewarding and healthy. Couple this with fine performances and slow, but well-paced direction, and you have an unusual movie which can movie even the most jaded of viewers (me!)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Wonderful Film!
Spoiler...I suppose
This fine film does something very few films have ever done. It creates a world of anti-celebrity. Richard Dreyfus, along with others, are "invited," selected, chosen, whatever by space visitors, for reasons which we cannot understand. I can think of no more satisfying moment in film then the point where the aliens pass over the government's chosen representatives in favor of the common men they have selected. Every time I watch this movie, I am amazed at how much joy this brings to me....that anyone, including nobodies, may be chosen at any time for wondrous things. Not that I sit around waiting for aliens to tap me for adventure or for anything in particular to go bump in the night...It's just the pure pleasure of contemplating the possibility. An excellent film!
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Watch the 1995 Version Instead
Virtually worthless movie version with an old Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett and numerous pointless changes (e.g. moved 50 years into the future). Couple this with the usual shortshrift a 2 hour movie gives to its subjects and you have a mediocre effort which really gives incredible weight to that old chestnut: "read the book."
Instead, enjoy the wonderful 5 hour version done in 1995 by the BBC and A&E. It is "without fault"..."Impossible" you and Mr. Darcy say...YOu will think otherwise when you watch it.