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Peter and Paul (1981)
Peter And Paul (1981) Robert Foxworth, Anthony Hopkins
When Cecil B DeMille developed "The Ten Commandments" in 1956, there began a wave of sorts of motion pictures devoted to Biblical themes, which, in order to deliver those themes were of "epic" proportions. With every good intention, these films tried to follow Scripture as closely as they could because there were enough Biblical scholars which could easily prove them wrong in their historical rendering.
Hollywood, as we all know, is not religious. It's reputation for exploiting anything it can for money is familiar to us all. In the case of "Peter And Paul", there are two exceptions.
Proctor and Gamble, one of the most reputable companies in the world was faced with a rumor dilemma in the early 80's. Many will remember the scandalous innuendo accusing P&G of association with a church of Satan. Their evidence was the 60 year old logo on P&G products depicting a circle in which a crescent man-in-the-moon was encircled with a group of stars. Despite Proctor and Gamble's passionate attempts to put and end to these lies, public suspicion still abounded. One more possibility existed to end this insidious slander. This would be the first exception.
"Peter And Paul" is the story of the two major apostles in the New Testament.
Robert Foxworth as Peter is a brilliant performance from beginning to end. I'm tempted to believe that he was absorbed in his character so much that it may very well be the reason he was able to portray Peter so effectively. Why Mr Foxworth did not receive an Emmy for this role, I can't understand.
Anthony Hopkins, on the other hand, needs the entire four hours of this picture to really involve himself into his portrayal as Paul. His initial dialog with Jose Ferrer, a brilliant actor, is weak and irritating. The only forceful emotion he shows is when he blows up at Peter and Barnabas (Herbert Lom). His sermons to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and the Greeks in Antioch are not convincing. Only during his time with Luke and Timothy, does his character become really poignant.
Exception number two. It has been widely speculated that the reason this beautiful motion picture never made it to the big screen is because the producers wanted to literally deliver it "in house". In other words, television touches the heart more than movies ever could. That has always been true and always will be. The dad, mom and kids around the TV who use Tide, Cheer, Prell, Crest, Bounty and the endless assortment of P&G products would be impressed by the announcer stating that "Peter And Paul is sponsored by the products and services of the Proctor And Gamble Company", while the logo of the moon-man and stars was emblazened across their TV screens. It was a beautifully creative idea for all the right reasons, but unfortunately, didn't work. It has also been widely speculated that it was P&G's competitors who started the rumor. A few years later, disgusted with the continued lies and harassment, Proctor and Gamble pulled the logo from their entire product line. Jealous, competitive liars had won.
"Peter And Paul" is an epic whether on the motion picture screen or not. Any professing Christian will be deeply touched by this movie and even non-Christians cannot help but be moved by its message of love and perseverance in the face of strife and suffering.
It is impossible to take the 30 years of history that encompassed that era and relegate it to four hours. The importance of this movie is the message of hope and faith that it conveys and that we can all understand its meaning in our lives today.
Airport (1970)
Airport (1970) Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Helen Hayes
No modern motion picture in Hollywood's history has been subjected to more adoration, ridicule, applause, rejection and all of the other contradictory expressions of public opinion as this movie. For 35 years, I've heard it from both sides of the critics' fence. Outstanding and superb on one side and stupid and ridiculous on the other side. These are the reasons for the axiom to watch the movie yourself and form your own opinion.
Nominated for an astonishing ten Academy Awards including Best Picture, "Airport" was the forerunner of a series of disaster movies that would find their place in the 70's and 80's. There is enough trivia connected with this movie to fill a library.
Unlike many of Hollywood's more "noticed" efforts, the central theme of "Airport" centers not around its billboard stars, which I have reversed in the banner above, but in the supporting cast around which the theme is created. Rarely has a movie shown such a diversity of cast as this one.
Burt Lancaster's over-acting notwithstanding, his portrayal of the embattled airport manager of Lincoln International Airport (O'Hare's alter ego) lends the first emotional crisis of the movie. His influence in the story itself is a series of highs and lows.
Dean Martin never tried to make his mark in the world as an actor. The reason he was loved by so many, including myself, was his easy going demeanor and the fact that he had one of most beautiful singing voices of any man alive. The fact that Universal Pictures wanted him in the movie is rather a no-brainer...he was so handsome.
Martin and Lancaster provide the "star" quality, but it is the myriad of supporting actors and actresses that provide the substance: Van Heflin as D O Guerrero, the psychotic, delusional and even pathetic man who sets the sequence of events for the last half of the movie.
Maureen Stapleton, his long-suffering and equally frightened wife.
Dana Wynter, the selfish, hot-tempered wife of Mel Bakersfeld (Lancaster).
Barbara Hale, wife of Vernon Demerest (Martin) who tells her brother Mel that she is Vernon's "disaster insurance" (against marital infidelity) and realizes too late that she was wrong.
George Kennedy, the enthusiastic, aggressive maintenance manager who does what the Boeing "book" said couldn't be done. HIS over-acting was on purpose and it was great.
Jacqueline Bisset, Vernon's love interest and the gorgeous stewardess carrying his child. The scene between her and Martin in the cabin before takeoff, when she lets him know she's pregnant is precious. Her beautiful voice and accent could boil lead.
And here she comes...(drum roll) Helen Hayes, gifted with the title of First Lady of The American Theatre. And a proper title it is, so much so that Oscar had the chance to walk home with ten people, but he picked her. She is the only performer to win both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. As we all know, her performance here was priceless.
Producer Ross Hunter bet the bank on this motion picture and won. It grossed a mind-boggling 70 million dollars, unheard of for a movie at that time. Dean Martin got the tithe. Universal Pictures had their coffers stuffed for years. Director and Screenplay Oscar nominee George Seaton was set for life. Alfred Newman's opening credit music is atrocious and exhausting, but once you get past that, "Airport Love Theme", played twice during conversations between Martin and Bisset, is no less than beautiful.
"Airport" is a standard, classic masterpiece and always will be and no "movie critic" will ever convince me otherwise. I formed my opinion on my own. Now dust it off of your shelf, watch it again and form your own.
Airplane! (1980)
Airplane (1980) Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack
To say that "Airplane" is a whacked-out, goofy, non-sensical and hilarious motion picture is a gross understatement. These terms cannot even come close to describing it. You'll just have to see it for yourself. Every time you might try to find a sequence even remotely resembling a serious moment, forget it. It just won't happen.
This movie is a psychological revelation. You have four of the most talented, serious character actors performing roles that, traditionally in their careers, would have been unheard of and unthought of early on. But here you have them, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen and Peter Graves in reciprocally roles so polarized you wouldn't have recognized them twenty years ago. In other words, having acted out so many serious roles all of those years, these veterans couldn't wait to act goofy, irreverent and downright rude. Lloyd Bridges sniffing glue as his hair flairs out then jumping out a window, Peter Graves releasing gas and throwing up on his control console and Leslie Nielsen witnessing Julie Haggerty doing something with a balloon auto-pilot that...well, shouldn't be done.
There is no point in my trying to review plots and scripts because there simply aren't any. Just suffice it to say that if you have a couple of spare hours to do absolutely nothing than to absorb yourself in total hilarious nonsense, you should have a great time.
(Warning: Although the Motion Picture Association Of America rated this motion picture PG (Parental Guidance)rather than PG-13, some material may be unsuitable for younger children. Please review this movie beforehand).
WarGames (1983)
Wargames (1983) Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman
"Wargames" is truly an astonishing motion picture for a myriad of reasons not the least of which have to do with both the plot and the superb dialog.
David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is a 17 year old truant case, undisciplined and lacking in academic interests whose only passion is video games. When he reads of a video company in California that promotes what he likes, he goes almost berserk, dialing numbers at random to reach the company. He inadvertently taps into a Sunnyvale phone line and pulls up a game list that amazes even him. With the help of a couple of computer whizzes, he learns the identity of the man who created the games. Stephen Falken (John Wood) was a government computer engineer that created the self-teaching games to provide the foundation for a new, highly sophisticated machine called WOPR located at Norads defense headquarters in the Colorado Rockies. WOPR's job was to perform functions that conscience-gifted human beings couldn't do: Launch a nuclear war and produce potential genocide. All David needs to do is find the "password" to get into the system and play the games.
How David finds this password is the crucial element in the story line. When his friend (not girlfriend until later in the movie) Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy)reads an article to David on the fact that Falken is dead and the reasons why, David stares at the monitor screen. "It can't be that simple" he states. Well, it IS that simple, David discovers the password and from that time on, the sky begins to fall.
With the discovery of Falken's password, David unknowingly taps into the central computer registry of WOPR, commanding it, again unknowingly to obey any command he gives it. This provides the basis for the rest of the movie.
Dabney Coleman as the central system chief and Barry Corbin as the four star slack-jawed general portray their roles brilliantly and their characters are interwoven under the talent of director John Badham.
The New York Times fell in love with this movie at first sight, calling it "provocative", in addition to many other flattering adjectives that they used. They were, of course, right. If only it could have had a stronger ending, I could have easily given this movie a "10". But what the heck, I know you'll fall in love with it anyway.
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
The Caine Mutiny (1954) Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson
In what would be one of Humphrey Bogart's last motion pictures before his death in 1957, one of the most sterling actors of all time gives a poignant and most memorable performance as a lonely, broken commander of a naval mine-sweeping ship who desperately seeks the acceptance and loyalty of his otherwise uncaring, subordinate officers.
The perpetrator of this treachery is the Communications Officer, Lt Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray). A cynical know-it-all who actually knows nothing, he plots a course of deception and cowardice to convince Captain Queeg's first officer, Lt Steve Maryk (Van Johnson) to believe that the Captain is unstable and that he (Maryk) should step in and "relieve" the Captain of his duties. The first officer tells Lt Keefer in no uncertain terms that he will not be a party to his suggestions, but only after several unsavory incidents from the Captain, does he take Lt Keefers suggestions to heart.
Meanwhile, Ensign Willis Keith (Robert Francis), a Princeton graduate is emotionally involved not only with the affairs on ship, but with a pretty night club singer, May Wynn (her name in real life). Through out the movie, at least where "Willie" is concerned, its a see-saw scenario between military protocol and romance. Add to this the obsessive, compulsive nature of Willie's mother and things become very interesting.
This motion picture differs in most in the fact that it has two climaxes which work together. The typhoon and the court martial. These two integral elements help explain the other parts of the movie.
Based on the novel by Herman Wouk and directed by Edward Dmytryk (Till The End Of Time, The Young Lions) The Caine Mutiny bridges the gap between staunch patriotism and heart felt emotion. It is by far Humphrey Bogart's last tribute to the motion picture industry and everyone who loved him.
(Special note: Almost everyone, as of this writing, who appeared in this motion picture has passed away except for Van Johnson, who will turn 89 late this summer. Robert Francis who played Willis Keith, died in a plane crash not long after this film was made).
Big Jake (1971)
Big Jake (1971) John Wayne, Richard Boone
If ever there was "vintage" John Wayne picture, this is it. Strong and determined to do the right thing, Jacob McCandles sets out to rescue his kidnapped grandson with the help of his two renegade sons, (Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum)and an Apache friend Sam Sharpnose (Bruce Cabot). Maureen O'Hara as Martha begins the sequence of events that leads to the rescue, in what would be her fifth and final motion picture with Wayne. But there is danger front and back. As Wayne and his "posse" pursue the kidnappers, another band of no-goods are pursuing Wayne after learning of the million dollar ransom they are carrying. Everything we loved about John Wayne is epitomized in "Big Jake". His son Patrick stars with him in the movie, his other son Michael produced it and even John himself helped direct it when Director George Sherman became ill (yet Wayne would not allow Sherman's name to be taken off of the credits). One of the most poignant scenes is the look on Jacob McCandles face when he sees his grandson for the first time. It wouldn't be going overboard to say that all of John Wayne's western roles can be summed up in "Big Jake".
Namu, the Killer Whale (1966)
Namu, The Killer Whale
This beautifully remarkable movie was produced in 1966 and provides any family member a chance to enjoy the interaction between benevolent humans and a creature considered a threat. It pits an ignorant, small town against an oceanographer (Robert Lansing) and a shop keeper (Lee Meriweather) in working to educate the local township that Namu is not a threat, but a lonely animal needing attention. The scene in which Lansing and Meriweather engage in play with Namu inside the lagoon is priceless and the background music is equally so. Moreover, when Namu miraculously rescues the very man (John Anderson) who tried to kill him, makes this movie unbelievably precious. Mandatory viewing for everyone.