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anton_merrick
Reviews
To Have and Have Not (1944)
So much better than Casablanca (hark: minor spoilers)
Lemme put it to you this way: Take a novel written by Ernest Hemingway, add in a script based on that novel written by William Faulkner, add in Howard Hawks' badass direction, and enter Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - you end up with one of the best written, best acted, best directed movies known to man. I first saw this movie more than 12 years ago, and some of the lines still stick in my mind.
One of the best things about to have and have not is the way Bogey and Bacall verbally spar throughout the movie. Quite apart from the later Hollywood tradition of the plot pushing the two characters together, quite apart from their believability as a couple, this movie's engine is the genuine interactions between the two leads. Watching these two hard boiled characters come to trust, then love, is one of the best things ever put on celluloid.
By comparison, Casablanca seems (with all due respect to the Casablanca fans) a little staged. Bogey and Bacall light up each scene they're in - comparatively Ingrid Bergman seems a little stiff, not as evocative as the oh so hot Lauren Bacall.
Summing up - watch this movie.
The Great White Hope (1970)
James Earl Jones at his best
It's criminal that this movie doesn't get the type of attention or respect it deserves. Great White Hope chronicles the life of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, and his bouts with the racism of the 1900s. Before this movie, I never understood where James Earl Jones got his reputation from. Clearly it's from this. He commands all of the scenes he's shot in, demonstrating a mastery of his craft that I've rarely with any other actor. Jones rages and roars through the movie, conveying a mixture of pride and frailty that is simply not to be missed.
At the risk of being redundant: don't sleep on this movie. It's James Earl Jones at his best.