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SCREENING LOG
- 8/18-8/24, 2003
Back to 2003 Index
I watched BITTER VICTORY, DESTINY (1921), SCARLET STREET,
THE BIG HEAT, THE INFORMER, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, THE THIN
RED LINE, FORT APACHE, THE TERRORIZERS, ALIENS and WAGONMASTER.
I devoted much of the week examining works from Fritz
Lang and John Ford. With Lang, I developed a deeper
sense of the Catholic sense of morality and psychology that
pervades his work, not to mention his remarkable flair as
an energetic storyteller. With Ford, I experienced nothing
short of a revelation with two of his finest pictures, HOW
GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and FORT APACHE, two masterpieces where
Ford's tremendous powers of human observation and sensitivity
shine more brightly and with more lyricism than almost any
other Ford picture IÕve seen.
John Ford through the years
The Informer (1935)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0026529
Early Ford talkie that won him the first of many Oscars,
about a swaggering dimwit who informs on his IRA buddy and
is paid back with his own guilt, but eventually finds redemption.
Such psychological preoccupations -- not to mention the beautiful
dark expressionist photography used to illustrate them --
seem more the territory of fellow Catholic filmmakers Lang
and Hitchcock - and the film with its sympathetic portrayal
of a self-destructive numskull's salvation anticipates Scorsese's
RAGING BULL by four decades. To me the only thing about this
film that resembles later Ford films is the overplaying of
salt-of-the-earth characters which IÕve frequently found to
be his Achilles' heel. But even if Ford is still trying to
find his voice, his cinematic talent is most definitely on
display in this exciting and riveting tale. #5 for 1935
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0033729
This classic is often condescended to as the film that unjustly
beat CITIZEN KANE for the Best Picture and Director Oscar,
but I'll be damned if this isn't one of the most masterfully
rendered experiences of humanity in the history of Hollywood,
overflowing with all of the emotional sensitivity lacking
in Welles' masterpiece -- and Welles must have been paying
attention because THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS seems to follow
this film's example -- both are sensitive elegies to a way
of life gone by. Ford's affection for the Welsh mining town
that sets the stage for inexorable changes in family and community
is so evident that you'd think it was based on his own memoirs,
not Richard Llewellyn's novel. Ford depicts them with unabashed
sentiment but it rarely comes off as treacly or cheap; his
aim is so true that many moments overwhelm the viewer with
beauty. Only once in his earnest line of argument concerning
community values does he become preachy (appropriately enough,
during a sermon scene). The film's ending, one of the most
moving I've seen, reflects back on the entire film as a testament
to the tremendous power and poignancy of nostalgic memory,
especially that of John Ford. Tied with CITIZEN KANE at #1
for 1941
Fort Apache (1948)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0040369
My skepticism towards the widely acclaimed Ford movies like
THE SEARCHERS and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE only deepened
when I witnessed this, my favorite Ford movie of the moment,
and one that I feel deals with the issues of racism of THE
SEARCHERS and the artifice behind myth-making of LIBERTY VALANCE
with much more vitality and richness. Any sort of concise
synopsis wouldn't do this movie justice: essentially it's
about a glory-seeking colonel (Henry Fonda) assigned to lead
a barren outpost to contend with the Apache nation; unfortunately
he brings along the chip on his shoulder which exacerbates
his ability to understand his new environs and the men who
loyally serve him. Perhaps this film's totally unexpected
relevance to the situation in Iraq is a big reason why I was
blown away by it, but there are so many other things I love
about this movie. The frontier outpost community in this film
is brilliantly realized, from its officious, custom-oriented
officers and their modest, sensible wives, to its ragtag grunts
scrounging for alcohol; from its morning drills to its evening
dances; from the tender spontaneous romantic interludes between
John Agar and Shirley Temple (what a fox!!!) to the rigid
but suggestively coded exchanges between men in uniform; from
John Wayne's beautiful scene making peace with the Apache
to Fonda's infuriating strategy to make war -- and how all
of this gets interwoven seamlessly together is nothing short
of a miracle. John Ford hits on so many different moods and
moments and human notes over 126 minutes and among so many
different fascinating characters that you could make a piano
out of them. This is one of the most beautifully realized
self-contained worlds in the history of cinema. #1 for 1948
Wagonmaster (1950) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0043117 Ford has
gone on record as calling this one of his favorite films --
my guess is because it doesn't rely on any stars, just the
Western Myth itself, reduced to its barest elements -- rugged
men leading civilians westward towards the promise of a new
America, contending with wilderness, Indians and outlaws on
the way. You may have to be a fan of Ford's sentimental streak
and unabashed love of gross caricature to go so far as to
call this a masterpiece -- personally I'm not willing to go
that far, while I concede many fine moments in this film as
only Ford could do. My enthusiasm for Ford lies elsewhere:
in his tremendous sociological insight and human nature, in
his sensitivity to the workings of community and history,
and in his ability to break down his own myths just as easily
as he builds them up. #8 for 1950
Fritz Lang through the years
Destiny (1921)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0012494
Lang's breakthrough feature is an impressive early showcase
of cinematic hocus-pocus and Lang's early mastery of the medium.
A sad-faced shrouded figure of Death (who apparently would
go on to inspire his counterpart in THE SEVENTH SEAL) takes
the life of a young man but takes pity on his bereaved lover
and offers her three chances to save his life in three alternate
and exotic settings. The special effects are startlingly sophisticated
and seamless, but equally startling is how Lang's career-long
preoccupation with the individual's obsessive but failed desire
to redress Death and Fate is already strongly manifested this
early. #1 for 1921
Scarlet Street (1945)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0038057
This quirky and disturbing study of a hapless schmuck accountant
whose adulterous desires lead him to get exactly what he deserves
is perhaps the most unflinching and haunting of the seven
Lang films I've seen, portraying the crisis between Catholic
morality and modern hedonism with painful precision. Edward
G. Robinson plays the accountant pitch-perfect -- he's both
likeable and pathetic, and his transformation into a murderous
monster is both horrifying and completely believable. Lang
doesn't settle for any easy answers -- Robinson's character
is victimized and exploited by a ruthless prostitute and her
sleazy pimp who mistake him for an accomplished painter, but
what's really interesting is how much the timid accountant
is culpable for his misfortune (he is the one who leads them
to think he is an artist). Is it okay to cheat on your wife
if you've never asked for anything else in your life and your
feelings of love for the other woman are true? Lang's answer
seems to be a resounding and provocative NO, and Robinson's
downhill slide, in which one falsehood leads to a series of
others, offers plenty of food for thought. #3 for 1945, between
ROME, OPEN CITY and LES DAMES DE BOIS DU BOULOGNE
The Big Heat (1953)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0038057
A taut, efficient and influential crime thriller that delivers
on many levels, starring Glenn Ford as a detective out to
shakedown a crime boss who's got his clutches on a good number
of the police force -- Ford pays dearly for his obsessive
quest but is helped along by a fallen woman (Gloria Grahame)
who ultimately sacrifices herself for his salvation. Lang's
Catholicism ends on an optimistic note this time, but is no
less heartfelt over the price paid for redemption. Great acting
by Ford, Grahame, Alexander Scourby as the inflappable boss
and Lee Marvin as Grahame's abusive boyfriend. #6 for 1953,
between THE BIGAMIST and SUMMER WITH MONIKA
The rest, in order of preference:
The Thin Red Line (1998, Terrence Malick) fourth viewing
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120863
I've only previously seen this film three times on a pirated
video which someone made by sneaking into a movie theater
and videotaping only 1/2 of the screen -- and yet Malick's
visuals and cinematic audacity shone through this bastardized
version (in some ways it even added to the film's otherworldly
aura). Since then I've saved myself for a big-screen encounter,
and got it during Lincoln Center's 50th Anniversary celebration
of CinemaScope. I could better appreciate what is so revolutionary
about the first two hours: the audacious use of voiceover
-- at once corny and breathtakingly innovative; the way the
film evokes the ebb and flow movements of the battlefield,
the moments of endless waiting running headlong into explosions
of overwhelming violence; a wholesale reconception of the
star system, with name actors intermingled with no-names (well
at least they were at the time; Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel,
John C. Reilly and others have done pretty well for themselves
since!) such that the film breathtakingly realizes an entirely
new sense of democracy among its cast; and of course the sheer
visual beauty of the whole damn thing, thanks to John Toll's
cinematography and enhanced by Hans Zimmer's brilliant score.
And having a less obfuscated view of the film due to the optimal
print and a better grasp of my own overwhelming feelings,
I could see that the last hour of the film is almost completely
extraneous. Whatever my feelings towards this often flawed,
often incomparably beautiful film may be now or in the future,
I will always have a nostalgic affection towards it due to
its significance in the development of my film tastes -- this
film was the one that really opened my eyes to seeing movies
in poetic terms rather than rhetorical, in seeking out new
possibilities rather than being satisfied with existing formulas
-- and so I went from singing the praises of SAVING PRIVATE
RYAN (admittedly a masterful exemplar of rhetorical cinema)
to a near total rejection of rhetorical/conventional filmmaking
a year later. I've struggled between the pros and cons of
the two sides since, but for the most part, I haven't looked
back.
As a bonus, here's what I wrote back in 1999 when I listed
this film as my #4 film of the 1990s:
After watching this film in China (off a shoddy pirated VCD
that had been taped in a Hong Kong movie theater) I would
ride my bike through the Chinese countryside surrounding my
apartment, humming the hymn that opens this epic film, my
world opened up to the transcendent. This epic-in-verse of
a film did something to redeem my experience abroad, to fill
me with a sense of purpose. I realized that I was witness
to amazing things, just as the everyman cast of soldiers are
witness to a terrible assault on an Edenic island called Guadalcanal,
and as such are, in a way, touched by God. This movie made
me feel that we all are similarly touched, if we care to notice.
Since then I have kept this film in a sacred place inside
me -- it reinforced a pre-adult sense of wonder in everything
beautiful and terrible in the world. Sometimes when I walk
down the sidewalk the vision of the movie will take over --
and everything seems really blessed. It's the same vision
that American Beauty cheapened with its commercial packaging.
But nothing can cheapen the beauty this film will offer to
those who open themselves to it. #2 for 1998, between FLOWERS
OF SHANGHAI and WHEN ROCCO MEATS KELLY
Aliens (1986, James Cameron) fourth viewing
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0090605
James Cameron's greatest film, and one of the most ingeniously
conceived Hollywood products of the last 20 years, with enough
all-out entertainment value and fence-straddling ideology
to please just about anyone who can handle the intensity of
Cameron's thrill-ride. There are enough ambiguous but compelling
thematic elements to appeal to both right-wingers (revel in
the glory of guns and ammo; the only good alien is a dead
alien) and left-wingers (see how the arrogant handling of
guns and ammo combined with underestimating alien forces ultimately
leads to our destruction) -- these two seemingly incongruous
impulses come together most memorably in the massively influential
image of Sigourney Weaver as the New Woman of the 80s, a feminist
who perfectly balances her time between kicking alien butt
and spending quality time with her helpless surrogate daughter
(so is she beating the patriarchy at their own game, or merely
selling out by subscribing to their values? Who gives a sh*t
when she looks so hot in her tank top and matching uber-rifle???).
Cameron learned well from Howard Hawks (a wacky ensemble with
memorable names and one-liners) and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
(oodles of eye-catching gizmos interwoven with the narrative)
but this film really resonated with my recent viewing of NIGHT
OF THE LIVING DEAD -- the way claustrophobia is exploited
for maximum paranoid impact, and the way catastrophe gets
impossibly heaped upon catastrophe, making the viewer delirious
and numb, in a good, giddy way. This super-high-octane suspense
strategy is Cameron's signature throughout all of his efforts,
the thing he succeeds at delivering like no other filmmaker
before or since -- and here he simply outdoes himself. Some
parts don't play well -- Paul Reiser turns into the heavy
a bit too abruptly, and his plan to bring the aliens back
to earth rather far-fetched, but Cameron's filmmaking prowess
is too powerful to resist. #1 for 1986
The Terrorizers (1986, Edward Yang)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0091355
Included in Asia Weekly's 1999 list of the 100 greatest
Chinese films, this early effort by the master director of
A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY and YI YI blew the roof off Taiwanese
cinema by unflinchingly exploring the pervasive horrors lurking
beneath the everyday malaise of urban contemporary life. Yang
was a student of world cinema before he took the director's
chair, and it shows in this heady, unlikely mix of Antonioni's
environmental modernism, Bresson's image-driven montage, and
Nicholas Ray's tragically violent fatalism. Yang combines
these cinematic elements with a sprawling, multi-character
narrative that has become his trademark. There are no truly
sympathetic characters this time around so the film can be
alienating at times -- the real central character is the city
of Taipei as seen through Yang's eyes, and how it's spaces
and shadows have rendered its inhabitants into zombie-like
strangers, with homicidal consequences. #4 for 1986, between
IN THE WILD MOUNTAIN and THE OLD WELL
Bitter Victory (1957, Nicholas Ray)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050126
Ray's WWII character study involving a politically cunning
military glory hound (Curt Jurgens), the sad-eyed officer
(Richard Burton) who's been snogging his woman, and their
moral and logistical tug-of-war in maintaining their troop
through a highly risky covert operation in the Sahara, is
far from perfect for the most part but occasionally lands
a knockout blow as only Ray can deliver. It starts slowly
in setting up the love triangle and the mission in which the
emotional and moral truths between Jurgens and Burton will
eventually bear themselves out, and when they do they come
through in moments imbued with a poetic fatalism that is devastating.
No other filmmaker can capture a character's sense of personal
failure with as much pain, and make it feel like such bliss
-- his portraits of losers avoid feeling overly-romanticized
because they come across as startlingly frank and honest.
Burton and Jurgens are completely in synch with Ray's vision
and seem to approach their characters from within. Shot in
that unlikely combo of black-and-white CinemaScope, the pre-LAWRENCE
OF ARABIA desert feels like a vast, ever-shifting, ever-threatening
force that pushes these men to their psychic limits. #7 for
1957, between THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and A FACE IN THE
CROWD
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