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SCREENING LOG
-7/5-7/11, 2004
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Everyday People (2004, Jim McKay)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365020/
mixed
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939, John Ford)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032155/
I couldn't quite get over this film's raging lionization
of Lincoln which even surpasses what you find in MR. SMITH
GOES TO WASHINGTON -- it proves that Ford could be every bit
as corny as Capra. But one can argue that this is Ford's attempt
to vindicate the overstuffed legend of Lincoln, to make everyone
renew their belief in the impossible ideals he embodies, because
these ideals, as ridiculous and impossible as they may seem,
are still worth striving for. So on the one hand you get some
really painfully grandstanding moments like the ending and
some of the speeches... but then you get the breathtaking
moments of quiet with Lincoln looking out at the river, reflecting
on his lost love, and he really becomes a three-dimensional
human being, and an emotionally heartbreaking figure at that.
And then there's the way he saves the two boys from a mass
lynching, and the way he argues his points in court -- these
are incredibly cheesy scenes and yet they are a vivid illustration
of Ford's belief that laws are not what make man, but man
makes laws -- Lincoln being a heroic exemplar of this axiom
(and Tom Doniphan, 23 years later, being the darker revision).
Lincoln does not so much carry out the laws of American civilization
as translate them into an idiom that his countrymen can relate
to, one that underscores certain moral imperatives and gets
others to care deeply about them -- which is exactly what
Michael Moore has done for our generation! I'm not yet resolved
to how the ostentatious parts of the movie fit with the more
intimate revelations. This is a flawed but quirky film, and
possibly more profound than the more "perfect" STAGECOACH.
yes (#7 for 1939 between MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and
JOUR SE LEVE)
Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/
Almost too perfect in its design and execution, its well-poised
balance of narrative efficiency and quirky sentiment, of broad
stereotype and revelatory gestures. And of course, a legendary
foundation myth, portaying the West as a land of tremendous
opportunity for self-determination and renewal, where the
antiquated hypocrisies of both North and South can be transcended
by the valiant, the earnest, the true. Ford sells this ideology
with both technical mastery and heartfelt convinction; the
film's lilting, robust rhythm alone bears this out. YES (#5
for 1939 between ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS and MR. SMITH GOES
TO WASHINGTON)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939, Frank Capra)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031679/
Capra's observations on big business' control over media
and the government are remarkably fresh and resonant to the
situation presented in FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and THE CORPORATION
-- long considered a stalwart of small-town conservatism,
Capra here looks very much the predecessor of Michael Moore.
It's amazing how everyone talks about Capra-corn, the cheeseball
Johnny-come-lately hopeful sensibility his films shamelessly
espouse, and yet it's hard to think of another director who
has as many poisonous cynics populate his films. Jean Arthur
is perhaps the ultimate daughter of Dorothy Parker from the
1930s, which makes her transformation back into Capra-ology
all the more remarkable, done not so much through implausible
emotional narrative maneuverings as through an honest confrontation
with her conscience, facing with a hard choice as to how to
live her life. It's certainly less forced than Claude Rains'
180 degree turn which mars the film's ending in sentimental
catharsis -- but it doesn't dampen Jimmy Stewart's stunning,
borderline psycho performance, clinging desperately to his
ideals with as much intensity as he would later demonstrate
in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and his more explicitly dark 50s
performances. It's amazing that no one really talks about
how dark and disturbed Stewart's onscreen persona really is
-- he's too often sentimentalized as the quintessential Capra-esque
actor. Such a term in itself merits reconsideration -- there's
more going on here than corn. yes (#6 for 1939 between STAGECOACH
and YOUNG MR. LINCOLN)
The Corporation (2003, Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/
See, here's a movie that makes you appreciate the powerful
filmmaking of Michael Moore, warts and all. This exhaustive
and illuminating indictment of the corporate world, its malevolent
nature and a laundry list of its abuses on both humankind
and the environment spends the better part of 3 hours compiling
its argument, but it seems uncertain of how to negotiate its
dual roles as an "objective" information piece or a polemical
call to action. It utilizes a peculiarly robotic, Chris Marker-ish
voice-over, a hipster lounge soundtrack, MTV graphics and
Errol Morris-like campy archival films, woven together to
move swiftly and slickly through a litany of acutely observed
grievances with corporate culture. But this left-wing hipster
academic aesthetic can be as alienating as it is hypnotic
-- and in its own way is as predictable as Moore's broadsides
against Bush. But Moore's films are a lot more impassioned,
confrontational and enlivening than a more studied and assiduous
effort like THE CORPORATION, a film that's as likely to exhaust
you as inspire you to take action, and one that may be more
disingenuous in its more overt claim to objectivity -- at
least with Moore you know that you're going to hear just one
side. With this film, one can say that it's not analytical
enough -- as much as it tries (or pretends to try) to let
all sides speak out both for and against capitalism, it ultimately
settles squarely on a one-sided argument that it seems too
content to let stand as truth. Still, this puzzling documentary
has more going on than most movies, and raises a host of unsettling
questions that strike at the heart of the single most dominant
institution of our time. And I will never drink non-organic
milk again!!! yes (#10 for new films seen in 2004 between
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and GOODBYE LENIN)
Queen Kelly (1929, Erich von Stroheim)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020298/
Of course it's impossible to truly evaluate since it's a
fragment of the five hour was originally conceived and almost
inevitably aborted -- but as is it feels like much the same
material covered in THE WEDDING MARCH, though more shockingly
lascivious in its sleazy depiction of humankind's worst elements.
yes (#10 for 1929 between DAYS OF YOUTH and I GRADUATED, BUT...)
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