AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2 (3 Viewers)

[MatthewLouwrens]

The Producers is one of my absolute favourite comedies. It's not perfect, and some parts don't really work (LSD in particular dates the film a bit too much, although his Love Power song is funny), but most of it works, and works at a comedic level that I am in awe of every time I watch it. There's a reason why a comedy legend like Peter Sellers took out an advert in Variety to proclaim the genius of the film.

Springtime For Hitler in particular is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I completely lost it when they cut to the overhead Busby-Berkley shot.

Zero Mostel is great, but Gene Wilder (an actor that I've never really rated before) really surprised me. Just his performance in that first scene where he is terrorised by Max is one of the most perfectly measured timed and executed pieces of comic brilliance I have ever seen. Mel Brooks really knew how to et great performances out of Gene Wilder.

The stage show is really great (although the varying reports about the movie version have me worried, I'm still looking forward to it). But the thing that surprised me about the show was that the ending was reworked, and worked a lot better. In the orignal film, the characters are arrested after trying to blow up the theatre. Firstly, it just seemed a bit too much, plus they weren't actually arrested for their scam - that obviously just came out in the trial.
But in the stage show they're arrested for the actual scam that they commit, and not for some excessive action taken later. Which is just more satisfying from a storytelling viewpoint.


I have a real love-hate relationship with Mel Brooks. Even in his great films (Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein) there is a lot of material that I hate, as well as some really great material that make it worth ploughing through the bad stuff. But The Producers is so close to perfect that even the lesser material never feels like a chore to watch.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

The Big Chill

Now that was a great film. A group of friends come together for the funeral of one of their number, and stay together for the weekend. And as they talk, and drink, and do drugs, and have sex, they start to examine their lives, where they are, whether they are where they want to be, and just what has happened to change them from the idealists they once where.

Films like this live and die on the strength of the characters. Do you believe that these people really exist. In this case, the characters seem to leap off the screen fully formed. At no point did they seem unreal. I absolutely believed in their existence, the relationships between the characters were convincing. And it is aided by a great ensemble cast with incredible chemistry together. There are times when a film works so well that it just seems effortless, almost as though anyone could make that film. This is one such film.

The film is listed on the Songs list for the song "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", and it is a great song, but it is one of many in this film, and I'm not sure why the AFI decided to list the film for this song over all the others. The film has a great soundtrack, with some incredible classics to be heard.

Absolutely and unreservedly recommended.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Silver Streak

Sometimes, you watch a film and find yourself thinking "What were the AFI thinking?" That is how I reacted to Silver Streak.

Gene Wilder stars as a book editor who falls in love with the assistant to a prominent art historian. The girl's employer is murdered, Wilder is thrown off the train by the bad guys, and must try to stop the bad guys and save the girl he loves. And on the way, he teams up with a car thief, played by Richard Pryor in the duo's first on-screen pairing.

My main problem is the inconsistency of tone. For the most part, it's an average comedy thriller, much the same as the many other "innocent man gets involved in murder plot" comedies that have been made. In that respect, it has nothing to merit itself above all the others - it's just fairly typical and average. But the problem is that whenever he ends up off the train, the tone changes wildly. (Just listen to the score whenever he is walking along the tracks if you want an indication of how radically the tone changes - it seems almost like he is worried because he will miss an appointment, rather than because there has been a murder and the girl he loves is in danger.) Can you honestly recognise that the train scenes came from the same film as the farm scene? Or the sheriff-interview scene? And by the time Richard Pryor appears, the film is past the halfway mark in its 2 hour running time (much too long) when it suddenly changes again into a buddy-comedy. And then there's the almost obligatory train-out-of-control-and-going-to-crash scene at the end which again felt half-hearted and from a different film again.

But all this inconsistency of tone could be forgiven if it would just be funny. The problem is that it isn't. I cannot think of a single scene that even prompted a smile, let alone a laugh. Wilder and Pryor have great chemistry together, and would go on to do some films together that I remember as being pretty funny films (although it has been years since I saw Stir Crazy or See No Evil Hear No Evil), but this film is just not funny. Even listed almost at the bottom of the AFI Laughs list, it's an undeserved placement and there are many great comedies that should be listed ahead of this one.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Your grandfather; he died in Australia, in a penal colony. And your father, he was a good man too.


An unexpected John Ford/John Wayne film, The Quiet Man tells a sentimental and fanciful tale of a fighter (Wayne) who returns to Ireland to win the local beautiful girl over the objections of her hard-headed brother. The film culminates in a fight between bother and swain and you can pretty much fill in the rest of the story, just being sure to populate with plenty of local color and characters.

That Ford never takes any of this too seriously allows us to enjoy what would otherwise be routine.

 

[glen_esq]

The Sandpiper (Minnelli, 1965) :star: :star: ½

100 Songs - The Shadow of Your Smile

Melodrama I liked more than I thought I would. Corny, sappy, dragged at times but I still liked it.

I think Minnelli's very good with melodramas, showcases Taylor and Burton at the height of their fame, and features some great photography of California's Big Sur. Also a nice turn from Eva Marie Saint as Burton's wife.

Plot involves free spirited Taylor, a painter and beachcomber of sorts, falling in love with the Reverend, Doctor Burton, the head of an exclusive boy's school. They have a torrid affair that turns Burton's world upside down.

Filmed at the tail end of Beatnik culture, just before Hippies, so we have Taylor hanging out with artsy fartsy Beatniks - which is pretty neat when one of them is Charles Bronson. I'm trying to imagine Taylor as a Hippie.

The song suits the film, corny, sappy. Is woven nicely into the score of the film. We only hear one verse of the lyrics (mercifully I suppose) over the credits at film end.

 

[Eric Emma]

Doctor Zhivago- Awesome! This is the second David Lean film I've seen the first being Lawerence of Arabia. I absolutely love how he tells the full story of a man's life, I love the scope of the picture. The film itself is beautiful I love all the different locations. I think the acting is absolutely top notch as well as the script 5/5

Chinatown- A very solid movie but for me it was too reminincent of The Big Sleep and other film noir movies. It felt like it was following the formula already set by previous films. But the film is very well made, the acting is top notch and the story is also good. So I give it 4/5.

Annie Hall- Great Dialouge and great characters, also cool editing techiques. But my two beefs with it is that at some parts it just beame like a stand-up comedy routine or just tons of chatter and secondly it lacked structure, and for me I hate that I got have some idea where something is going to keep me hooked. 4/5

 

[Adam_S]

The Sting - :star::star::star::star:
HTF revote addition

 

[Eric Emma]

Easy Rider- 3/5- The 40 minutes were quite boring and seemed just so out there, and had no real purpose then the movie started to take some shape and form, and Jack Nicholson were kick ass. I dug the editing at some points of it and the film had some cool points and I liked it, but in the end I don't see what so amazingly spectacular about it that it deserves to be on AFI best 100 list. Though I hear it open the doors for INdependent movies...

On the Waterfront- 4/5- Solid film, the characters and the story are all really good. Except the film is slow, the whole pace is really slow and while I know the film is going for realism, it cut down on the enjoyment factor just a tad hence why I rated it as 4/5 instead 5 stars... But Marlon Brando performance is absolutely excellent.

Bridge on the River Kwai- 5/5- Just Awesome! I love how David Lean's Movies at least the ones I've so far Lawerence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago both take like a hour to set up the film and the rest is like the dominos falling. Guiness's performance is truely amazing as well. The movie is just great!

 

[glen_esq]

The Big Broadcast of 1938 (Leisen, 1938) :star: ½

100 Songs - Thanks for the Memory

Series of comedy sketches and songs, loosely tied together by a silly script - a race by two ocean liners across the Atlantic. Stars W.C. Fields, and Bob Hope in his first full length film.

The highlight of the movie is definitely the AFI song. Hope sings this in duet with actress Shirley Ross, who plays his ex-wife in the movie. In the song they reminisce about their marriage, a perfect mix of humour and sadness over what they had lost. A really fine performance. This was the first of two (!) Oscar winning songs by Hope.

As for the rest of the movie - W.C. has some funny one liners and great skit where he plays pool. A couple of other songs were OK, some weren't, and there's some very lame comedy.

Movie's formula reminded me of 1933's International House which also starred Fields, and was a movie I really liked.

 

[glen_esq]

Adam - I'm now done the 100 Songs list.



Hair (Forman, 1979) :star: :star: :star:

100 Songs - Aquarius

Country boy John Savage is drafted and heads for New York to report for service. Has a couple of days to spare, and hangs with Treat Williams a group of hippies. During which time he falls for rich, straight Beverly D'Angelo.

Four really terrific songs, inventive choreography, and some nice camera work all helped me to enjoy it. Liked Savage and Williams, didn't realize those guys could sing.

Loses some points because it didn't really convince me it was set in 1968, the atmosphere too often felt like 1979.

The song Aquarius is great, and was nicely staged at the beginning of the movie.




I'm moving on now to complete the Quotes list. Have these 5 to watch:

Dead Poets Society
Knute Rockne All American
Soylent Green
Beyond the Forest
A League of Their Own

 

[Adam_S]

rewatched Lady and the Tramp tonight. Gorgeous to finally see it in 2.55 and a stunning transfer. Not really a passions movie, it's a movie about maturation, trust, and family, but I suppose it deserves a spot for the dinner scene at Tony's.

the songs in here are pretty few, but those that are, are golden, We are Siamese, Bella Notte, He's a Tramp.

On the other hand, the Siamese cats are really just a set piece, no more different than a chase-and-boom sequence in a Michael Bay film. They add a great moment, but it really does feel somewhat out of place in terms of the overall storytelling.

Still a brilliant, brilliant movie, I'm so happy to finally have it on DVD, one of Disney's absolute best films.

My jaw just kept dropping in astonishment at all the character touches, and little elements, the fantastic incredible animation of everything in the film. It's among Disney's most effective even if it's not the most arty (Sleeping Beauty).

:star::star::star::star:

 

[glen_esq]

Soylent Green (Fleischer, 1973) :star: :star: ½

100 Quotes - Soylent Green is people!

The quote pretty much spoils the movie. We're left with a good supporting performance from Edward G. Robinson, a performance I liked from Charlon Heston, and a cheesy, 70s retro look for the 21st century.

Low production values hurt. But I liked the film's grittiness and environmental message. Not a great film, but better than I was expecting.

 

[Adam_S]

Judgement at Nuremberg - :star::star::star::star:
OARDVD
3/29/2006
Stars List - Spencer Tracy
Stars List - Burt Lancaster
Stars List - Marlene Dietrich
Stars List - Judy Garland

What difference does it make if a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded... sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the shadows. We will go forward. Forward is the great password. And history tells how well we succeeded, your honor. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.


Superb film, slightly dated by the use of zooms.

There was only one moment I disliked in the film, and that was the cut away to the marshall while they were discussing hangings, naturally the marshall was black.

Performances were astonishing and superb, I think the single best moment of the film was when Burt Lancaster (Ernst Janning) just looked at Emil Hahn and brutally bared Hahn's soul, spat on it and dismissed it with that one look. That was the scene when the defendents are at dinner after the footage of the camps and Hahn goes off on how it was 'impossible'.

It was a bit odd seeing stars like Clift and Garland in their roles, but Garland was wonderful and I really liked Clift, even if it was a showy part. So many gorgeous long takes in the film with a floating crane camera that slowly moves about the courtroom, beautifully directed and my compliments to the camera team for a terrific job.

The chemistry between Tracy and Dietrich was superb, Dietrich is perhaps the most gorgeous woman aged 59-60 (when this was shot) that there ever was, wow. And such an utterly superb actress, she and Lancaster were in a completely different league than every one else, acting circles around them all.

Spencer Tracy was wonderful, as always, but he was just a tad over the top, he has the incredible sincerity to pull off the role, but I still always see Tracy, I couldn't tell you his name in the movie, he was just Tracy. Whereas Dietrich was always Mrs Berthart. And I didn't ever think of Janning as anyone but Janning, the performance was so great.

The awarded performance by Maximillian Schnell of lawyer for the defense Hans Rolfe was a delicious and showy part. It's easy to see why he was nominated and awarded for the role. I find him way over the top though, I always knew he was acting and really enjoying the acting too, in his case, I was most aware that there was 'a performance.'

A powerful film, and like anything from World War II or the Civil War, is still relevant today because they are questions of what our civilization chooses as its most deep and fundamental definitions of morality and the distinction of what is and is not human--and without those in place, with only cold, convincing logic, there is no meaning or definition to our society or the principles we choose to call laws--be they labeled natural, divine, international, states, national etc--at the fundamental level there has to be a conscious distinguishment between right and wrong, and the hard willingness to stand by those despite the pressures of individual circumstance or affiliations. And Spencer Tracy makes the right, and terribly difficult (and unpopular) decision, and he says the right line to end the movie on. Superb, through and through.

Damn near flawless.

 

[Adam_S]

I caught Harold Lloyds teh Freshman way back in November but never posted on it.

Very good film, entertaining, not wild about it though, a bit bored in parts.

:star::star:

 

[george kaplan]

His name was Dan Haywood.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Song of the South

SotS is a live-action-animated hybrid film about a young boy who goes to live at his father's childhood home, and cannot cope at all well, what with bullying and missing his father and the like. But down there, he meets Uncle Remus, whose sories about Brer Rabbit outwitting Brer Fox and Brer Bear are both funny and help him confront situations.

There are two films here. The live-action part is retty dire. The story is uninvolving, and it's really just a collection of events that happen, rather than a well-constructed story that actually goes anywhere. Most of te acting is pretty weak, with Bobby Driscoll as the central character sadly one of the worst offenders.

Fortunately, James Baskett does give an excellent performance as Uncle Remus. He was given an honourary Oscar for this performance, according to the IMDb, "for his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world". And it is a deserved honour. He imbues the character with such joy for life, with such wisdom and compassion that it really is a delight to be able to watch.

He also acts as a bridge between the frankly dull and boring live-action parts and the much more enjoyable animated segments. As Remus tells his stories, we see the adventures of Brer Rabbit in typical Disney lively animation. And those are wonderful, a true delight. Fast, funny, and the only thing that made the movie tolerable to watch.

The film made it into the list because of its song, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", which won the Oscar for Best Song. And it is a wonderful delightful enjoyable song- although, I will admit that, since it is a song I have grown up knowing, I'm probably not terribly unbiased in that assessment.

Finally, any discussion of SotS must address the question of whether the film is offensive and racist or not. It is this issue, after all, that has limited its availability. I'm not qualified to comment on whether the film is offensive or not - I don't know enough about American history to know the intricacies of the Reconstructinist perod when it is set, or African-American sensitivities to know about any elements that may offend. I will observe that, as many have commented before, the portrayal of the African-American characters is much more universally positive than the portrayal of the white characters - and surely that is a good thing.

 

[Adam_S]

It's late, I've been on set all day so I hope I dont' get any of these too wrong:


Depends who you're asking, there are a variety of stereotypes for black characters, the stepinfetchit, the pickaninny, the mammie, the black buck, the succabus, the uncle tom, coons etc. A lot of these are vaudevillian-type portrayals with big EYES, gaping/vacant expression and "y's massa, no massa" type dialogue, typical expressions of these characters are as simpletons, or ignoramuses--so completely helpless and 'lesser' that they're dependent on the kind generousity and understanding of white folks to survive.

A couple of these are 'negative' in the sense that the black buck is supposed to be a violent ignorant man bent on killing white men and raping white women as his only obsessions--several characters in birth of a Nation for instance.

Then the succabus is basically the same for a woman. usually stunningly beautiful but also incredibly lustful and desirous of much sex with white men, which naturally causes those poor christian men to sin, but it was her fault, she really wanted it, really she did, but she's evil, evil, she'll have a dark end she will! King Vidor's Hallelujah! uses a succabus, who destroys a black man's life and family with her appetites for sex and money and power.

The pickaninny can be pretty bad, innocently its a child who can't talk but can raise his eyebrows and make big eyes, it's a derogative and demeaning term to say the least.

Coons are like unrepentent thiefs, shiftless and untrustworthy. Again really derogatory, also a general term like 'niggar' but not quite as extreem

The 'positive' stereotypes like the Mammie are generally found offensive. The mammie is always enormously fat. Usually she's full of earthy wisdom and sayings. She's usually a cook and a nanny. Like most other black stereotypes she's usually given a subhuman intelligence/emotional capacity. She's also a safe way to contain the sexuality of the 'other' (culturally created by the dominant culture) that is seen in the succabus figure. Usually this is contained into an educational faculty, often in a wholesome and humurous way. Gone with the Wind is a relatively harmless Mammie, the 1930s Imitation of Life has one of the worst, with the character literally saying, "I'm so dumb I don't want any money I earned (or that you owe me) because I'm just too dumb I don't know anything about money so it's much better if you keep all the money yourself you good and kind whitefolks and please please just let me continue to be your servent, I love being a servent (who wouldn't), you're white and wonderful and I"m just a black fool and I love being a servent!" (the character creates a national brand of pancake syrup that is immensely succussful and makes a mint).

Stepnfetchit=Barney Fife but black and much much more dumb and completely unable to follow a line of reasoning (A causes B and B was bad so avoid A), which even a dog can successfully manage. Usually gets into good natured, friendly trouble and is rescued by a white man who is equally good natured. Very innocent fellow everyone likes.

Uncle Tom's are black men that apparently liked slavery, because it was such a good thing. They're usually old men. The common varient on this was the uncle Remus character who told black stories or sang black songs, might be a preacher, usually full of advice and widsom.

There is also the 'mystical, magical minority' which broadly also applies to Native Americans and Aborigenes and other 'uncivilized' cultures who display a power or capability non-human, Usually they're too stupid to know how to control, properly utilize, or exploit their talent in their own best interests. For example, although I don't think it was intended to hit this stereotype so cleanly, the main character in The Green Mile, is a pitch perfect example of this one.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

OK, that's interesting. Thanks for that clarification, Adam.

 

[Adam_S]

Roman Holiday - :star::star::star::star:
Passions List
Stars List - Gregory Peck
Stars List - Audrey Hepburn
04/13/2006
OARDVD

An excellent film I loved the deilberate pace and beautiful control of the comedy and drama and storytelling, a superb balance of all those qualities and the technical is top notch too. Probably my second favorite William Wyler film after Best Years of Our Lives.

Wonderful, Audrey Hepburn was incredibly stunning with one of the all time great performances, so open yet nuanced and layered, just superb, her first film too!

Adam

 

[Lew Crippen]

While I do like Roman Holiday, this movie more than any I can think of at the time, points out the greatness of Cary Grant. I can’t watch the movie without thinking how much better Grant would have been than Gregory Peck (a superb actor).