Reviews

Harold & Maude came on the satellite the other night and I became gradually transfixed. I'd never been a great fan of Cat Stevens but his music was perfectly fitted to the story. I'd seen bits of the movie before but not the whole thing. I'd have remembered it.

Many movies of the era come across as dated and annoying but this one doesn't. It evokes emotions that are always relevant and the period elements become inconsequential.

I was struck looking at the IMDb rating chart that it rates almost equally across all ages and gender. It is rare to find a movie that we "Over 50's" and youths both find great appeal in.

My wife is a polio survivor, and obviously handicapped, from the disease's last American days in the 1950's. I was a little worried about selecting it for our evening viewing because too often movies about a physical or other handicap tend to fall into a mushy wallow of pity and become insulting. Whatever failings this one has as an historical or biographical document, so ably pointed out by my fellow reviewers, it was clear to us that the real topic was his facing, accepting, and surviving polio and then moving on. It did so realistically and with complete grace. The portrayals of paternalism/pity/revulsion shown the handicapped by many and by Franklin himself were spot-on examples of the well-meaning but hurtful attentions that people carrying many different burdens get handed daily. The polio didn't ultimately define FDR-the man, any more than his hair color did but the movie does a wonderful job showing his transition to that realization, and yet never asks us to feel sorry for him.

Army recruits categorized as, shall we say, neither the best nor brightest, but they somehow get turned on when reluctant teacher DeVito reads Shakespeare's Hamlet to them and it hits a chord. The high point of the film is reached when one of those recites on command his "irrelevant" Shakespeare on a rainy night's drill to Sergeant Gregory Hines and finds in his memory from "Henry V" (with lead-in not at hand) "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother." This is a truly nice movie, about heroes but not about touting war. At a later point, my usually stoic wife shed some tears. Danny De Vito is surprising to me. He generally leaps over my expectations, no matter how far I raise them up.

There are three edit-versions I've seen of this. Best is the uncut. Another removes a small sex bit with Patti D'Arbanville topless but it's fine anyway. Another takes out many funny parts for "moral transgressions", loses the whole movie, and shouldn't be seen at all. I won't name those cable stations that show it. This is an important movie. Sam ("Killing Fields") Waterston and Jeff Bridges both really got their careers rolling in this. Slim Pickens climaxed his great body of work. Harry Dean Stanton revived his career. Director Frank ("The Swimmer") Perry got it right, grainy and relaxed like a home movie. Most laid back and brilliant, wit abounds, the scenery stuns, and it makes you feel good. A delight, at least for us of the Baby Boomer generation.

The satellite system guide said this movie was recollections of Holocaust survivors about the Jewish Resistance fighters. I expected the usual series of difficult-to-understand interviews with old people about their experiences but my wife likes those so we watched.

The thing is, this wasn't about the camps. It was about the Resistance, which most of us know nothing of. Truly heroic stuff about guys who formed guerrilla camps in the forests to blow up Nazi troop and supply trains and bridges and heated and wrapped the rails around tree trunks. One guy stayed in the city with some friends and proceeded to don uniforms of dead Nazi officers and SS in order to infiltrate their meetings and then run off and rescue those Jews the Nazis were about to raid. I can't do the excitement of it all justice.

The form is clear interviews with both historians and survivors along with actual film footage of the Resistance activities of contemporary semblance thereof. It's like American Experience with Ben Kingsley taking over for David McCullough. Well worthwhile from many points of view.

I'll agree with Doc except that I can't criticize Kline's accent. A little known delight, it jerks some tears out of me. Not to be missed is the near final scene when the detective (Ringo Starr lookalike Jean Reno) walks up the harbor with Kline and says, "Now I will tell you a true love story."

We have been seeing this on the TV Westerns channel. It's a very film noir western. Beside the always sturdy and moral Randolph Scott, there were two special delights. Ella Raines is my long favorite among the older actresses, with her bright eyes and rather sarcastic manner always seeming to be laughing at some private joke. I feel a personal connection to her in that she was born a month after my father and followed him by a month in death. She first captured my fascination in "The Suspect" with Charles Laughton and then in "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" with George Sanders. Josh White is the really special feature here. How often do you find such wonderfully played Delta Blues inexplicably inserted into the plot of a 1949 western? It's not a truly great movie but still a must-see because it is so ahead of it's time. "Bad Day at Black Rock" meets "O Brother Where Art Thou."

I happened upon this movie one cable afternoon with my aunt. You start watching and think "What the..."? It seems not to be about anything at all yet has great scenes and characters, rather like Wender's "Paris, Texas." The animated computer bear (must be seen) tipping trash cans tracking the fugitives is especially memorable. It seems long but makes for an interesting journey. Well worth seeing but not to show off your artsy sensibilities on a date. So rare, though, that the chance showing should be caught, like "Paris, Texas."

I recently saw the last 20 minutes or so of this movie and thought it looked very moving and hoped to watch the whole thing to see how the plot and characters developed. Last night I did, but they didn't. We end up with potentially touching moments where the now-grown boy expresses his feelings toward his mother and father and about his girlfriend but spend most of the movie meandering around his infancy. Where his later feelings came from are never developed, like his relationship with the little girl born to Mom's friend. All of a sudden, Mom has apparently always wanted to be a writer. The characters know it but it's news to the viewer. The scenes are all done wonderfully and believably, the acting is excellent in all cases, but the whole thing is never tied together. Delightfully moving moments in the beginning and the end leave the viewer wondering what happened in between. I expected to cry but ultimately couldn't figure out why.

I quite agree that it is a Dead Poets Society set at sea. It is a mistake to classify it as an Action Movie. It's about building trust and group reliance with some action scenes. The development of mutual respect between the boys is quite believable The acting is excellent in all cases. As a Jeff Bridges fan, I was surprised I'd never heard of it before it appeared on late night TV. The last looks exchanged between the captain and his wife are about as good as they get. Not a really great movie but I found it well worthwhile as a non-fan of action movies.

This is the man's answer to Terms of Endearment, especially for those of us who are older and have lost our fathers and remember baseball together. Ladies, turn away as your guy wipes his eyes a few times. Pretend it must be seasonal allergies.

This could almost become a cult classic, sort of a Plan 9 From The Calgary Stampede. The plot is pleasant, however unbelievable. The scenery is quite nice and the color is lush. And then there are those moments like when Chris outruns the herd of horses escaping from the corral. Like the previous commentator, I was unsure of the period setting, until I saw Chris with an electric lamp on while telephoning. There are no cars as I recall, though, so it might be a mixed-time thing? Jack Oakie and Chill Wills are in good form.