TCM TiVo ALERT
For
February
23–February 28
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
SEVEN
DAYS IN MAY (February
26, 9:00 am): In a three-year span, director John Frankenheimer was
on an incredible role: The
Birdman of Alcatraz, The
Manchurian Candidate both
in 1962, Seven Days
in May in
1964, and The
Train in 1965. Burt
Lancaster stars in all except The
Manchurian Candidate,
and is great in the three films. In Seven
Days in May, he teams up
with Kirk Douglas (the two co-starred in seven movies during their
cinematic careers) to make a memorable and outstanding film.
Lancaster is the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is leading
several of its members in a conspiracy to remove the president
(Fredric March) from office because he signed a nuclear disarmament
treaty with the Soviet Union. Douglas is a Marine Corps colonel and
military adviser who finds out about the proposed military coup and
tells the president. It's among the best political thrillers ever
made. An interesting end note: the shots taken outside the White
House were done with the permission of President John F. Kennedy
(those scenes were done in 1963 before his assassination on
Nov. 22 of that year), but Pentagon officials weren't cooperative,
refusing to permit Douglas to be filmed walking into that building.
The movie premiered in
Washington, D.C., on February 12, 1964, less than three months after
JFK's murder.
THE
FISHER KING (February 28, 4:00 am): This is an
excellent film that masterfully blends comedy and tragedy thanks to
superb acting from Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams, a creative
screenplay by Richard LaGravenese, and Terry Gillam, who doesn't get
the praise he deserves for his talents, as its director. Bridges is a
former shock jock whose on-air comments leads a listener to commit a
mass murder at a restaurant. Unable to get over the tragedy, he
attempts suicide only to be mistaken for a homeless guy by a group of
thugs who assault him. He's saved by Robin Williams, who is homeless
and apparently deranged. Bridges finds out that Williams' condition
was caused by the death of his wife at the hands of the guy who
opened fire at the restaurant years earlier. Williams is so lost and
shaken by his wife's death that his life's mission find the Holy
Grail and in his mind he is tormented by a red knight trying to stop
his quest. It's a beautiful film with a great ending.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
BEING
THERE (February 24, 10:00 pm): It’s one of the
great political satires with Peter Sellers as Chance, an illiterate
gardener who knows nothing except what he sees on television.
Dispossessed when the master of the house dies he wanders the streets
until picked up by Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), who is the wife of
influential industrialist Benjamin Rand (Melvyn Douglas). Ben Rand
and his circle take Chance’s simple utterances as profound wisdom,
and he rises to become an influential pundit in Washington. Sellers
is brilliant as Chance and it is sort of refreshing to see him assay
only one role at a time. But the real bravura performance comes from
MacLaine, who plays the sex-starved wife. She excels in several
difficult scenes that, if not handled right, would bring the film
down. That she wasn’t nominated for an Academy is surprising, and
yet expected.
THE
AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (February 25, 2:00 pm): An
excellent black comedy from writer Paddy Chayefsky and director
Arthur Hiller starring James Garner as Charlie Madison, a WWII “dog
robber,” one who procures various goodies for his superiors in the
Navy. Part personal assistant and part black marketeer, he procures
whatever scatterbrained Admiral William Jessup (Melvyn Douglas)
desires, from restocks of his liquor cabinet to personal massages.
When he runs into prim and proper war widow Emily Barham (Julie
Andrews), his life changes - and hers as well. She is totally
entranced by Charlie, whose proclamation of cowardice appeals to a
woman who lost a husband, father, and brother in the war. Just when
things couldn’t be better, Charlie and “love ‘em and leave ‘em”
roommate “Bus” Cummings (James Coburn) are assigned to land at
Omaha Beach on D-Day to film the landing for public relations
purposes. A great plot and a great cast makes this film one to catch.
WE
DISAGREE ON . . . THE ENGLISH PATIENT (February 28, 1:00 am)
ED:
C. The English Patient is a long (though
it seems even longer), intensely involving, but rather emotionally
shallow movie. It is the perfect example of what happens when
filmmakers attempt to adapt an extremely dense and layered novel:
they can only capture the superficial, intellectual aspects of the
plot while the inner life of the book remains beyond their reach.
I’ve read the novel by Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning
novel. It is a wonderful story about how the pressures of war shake
up conventional notions of personal betrayal, loyalty, integrity, and
even identity, none of which is adequately captured in the film to
the depth required in the novel. Instead, we get a fairly
conventional romantic melodrama spiced up with adultery that was
filmed amidst the sumptuous backgrounds of pre-war North Africa and
the end of the war in Italy. Ralph Finnes is the title character, the
survivor of a fiery plane crash, who is being attended to by nurse
Juliette Binoche, who lost her closest friends in the war and is
concentrating on Fiennes, possibly as a way to some sort of solace.
It later turns out that “the English patient” is really a
Hungarian count and mapmaker who fell in love with a married woman.
There sub-plots concerning Willem Dafoe, a wounded Canadian who may
have been sold out to the Nazis by Finnes, and two British
bomb-disposal experts, one of whom has a fling with Binoche. Even at
162 minutes, there’s not enough time to fully elaborate the plot
and the film seems rushed as a result, and some of the secondary
characters do not get the attention they need to get the movie over.
This, combined with the fact that much of the novel takes place
within the characters allows for only a superficial reading. This is
the sort of novel that demands the multi-part mini-series
approach Masterpiece Theater is famous for bringing
forth. As for the movie, sit back and enjoy the scenery.
DAVID:
A-. For years I avoided seeing this 1996 film. While
it won nine Oscars, including Best Picture, I was apprehensive to
watch as it's 162 minutes long and people I know who saw it, not just
limited to Ed, didn't think that highly of the movie. But I had a
free month of Amazon Prime in December and noticed it was available
at no cost so I took the plunge. Yes, it's really long – like
many epic movies – so I saw it over two viewings. Unlike
Ed, I've never read the book so I don't know what I missed. You have
to pay close attention to the film or you could get confused at
times. But overall, I found The English Patient to
be an exceptional film for the storyline, the acting and the amazing
cinematography. It's told in a series of flashbacks that are
flawlessly linked together. I can't stress how exceptional the actors
are in this film. Ralph Finnes as the title character, who's actually
a Hungarian count, is great and is able to tell a lot just by the
expression on his face; a face that is scarred from burns he suffered
in a plane crash. Juliette Binoche as his loyal nurse, who latches
onto the dying patient, is fantastic as is Kristin Scott Thomas as
the married woman who falls in love with Finnes' character. Perhaps
the best performance comes from Naveen Andrews, who plays a Sikh who
is a bomb diffusing expert and Binoche's love interest. The desperate
attempt by Finnes to get back to the dying Thomas is absolutely
heartbreaking and extraordinary moving. The length of the film kept
me from watching it for 18 years, but I was very pleased that I gave
it a chance as it's a memorable movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment