Movie Review: On the Waterfront
Year of Release: 1954
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Plot outline: A young stevedore takes on the mobster who rules the docks (IMDb).
In many ways, On the Waterfront is a movie about redemption and standing up against the wrongs with the world. The screenplay is based from a series of articles by Malcolm Johnson about the dirty corruption that is going on in the docks from mob-controlled unions. It is filled with great dialogue, amazing development, and lots of heavy drama that goes on throughout the movie. Yet, it's Elia Kazan's direction that really shapes the story into something far more powerful with its imagery and grittiness. Shot on location in Hoboken, New Jersey, there's a beauty and ugliness to the location as he doesn't sugarcoat it one bit. At the same time, the camera is engaging with its close-up of characters and the locations they're in. With striking compositions that are memorable, Kazan's direction is definitely top-notch. What he does overall is create a movie that is engrossing in every scene and performance that goes on as he makes a movie that is truly solid. The casting is brilliant. Lee J. Cobb is magnificent as Johnny Friendly, the no-holds-barred, hard-talking mob boss who wants to have total control of everything. Rod Steiger is excellent as Charley, Friendly's right hand man. Karl Malden is brilliant as tough but sympathetic Father Barry. His best scene is in the ship where he talks about a man's death and the monologue he brings with such authority and passion. In her debut, Eva Marie Saint is great as Edie Doyle. A determined young woman seeking justice for her brother's death while finding the soft, caring side of Terry Malloy underneath his quick-talking, street-wise demeanor. Saint's performance is dazzling as a woman who is a bit tough but also who doesn't know much about the dark world of the streets. Finally, there's Marlon Brando in one of his iconic performances of his career. In the role of the tormented Terry Malloy, Brando exudes all of the charm, wit, and struggle of that character along with someone who is troubled by demons and the fact that people call him a bum. Brando's performance is filled with a tough guy attitude who can talk fast, be tough, and not be someone to messed with. Yet, there's a softness in him as he deals with guilt and the fact that there's someone like Edie who he wants to connect with. Brando has great rapport with all of his co-stars while he manages to make Terry Malloy an unlikely hero. What Brando brings to the screen is charisma and a vulnerability that makes him connect with the audience as he has one of the movie's most famous lines in cinema about what he could have been. It's truly one of the most marvelous performances captured in cinema. (SF)
My judgement: **** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: La dolce vita (The Sweet Life)
Year of Release: 1960Country of Origin: Italy, FranceDirector: Federico FelliniCast: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Alain Cuny, Walter SantessoPlot outline: Young writer Marcello struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity at home (IMDb).La dolce vita received universal acclaim upon its release in 1960, and in retrospect it best represents its director. In this masterpiece, Federico Fellini achieved the ideal balance: between social observation and unconscious imagery, between artistic discipline and freedom, and between the neo-realism of 1950s Italian cinema and the orgiastic flights of his later work. In its time, it shocked people. The Catholic Church condemned it. It was considered a dirty movie because it was frank about sex and included nudity, albeit brief. Divine decadence may have been restricted under the Hollywood Production Code, but European filmmakers operated under no such constraint. Today, La dolce vita is hardly shocking, except that it's shockingly good. The movie's cautionary aspect is even emphasized by the passing years: Its empty glamour is not unlike our empty glamour, and its media and celebrity-drenched world is nothing compared to our own now. The moral journey that is "la dolce vita" is that of Marcello, a strangely passive man with intense but vague artistic and spiritual longings. It is Marcello's blessing and his curse that he's handsome enough to be passive. He just has to hang around in the right places -- on Rome's Via Venetia, mainly -- and life and women come to him. The movie's structure is audacious. At nearly three hours, it's made up almost entirely of disparate incidents, each covering an individual night and each ending at dawn. The unifying element is Marcello and his progress as a man. Fellini gambled that the incidents would be fascinating in and of themselves and that Marcello -- handsome but hopeless -- would be sympathetic and compelling. He was right. On many of Marcello's journeys, he's accompanied by aggressive photographer Paparazzo whose name in the plural became synonymous with heartless, intrusive celebrity parasites. La dolce vita is always two things at once: It's a wallow in decadence disguised as a moral saga, and it's a moral saga disguised as a wallow in decadence. It's always both, and that tension is always there, within the film and the filmmaker. Fellini critiques Roman decadence but offers no alternative but boredom; he exposes the frivolity and meaningless of it all, while offering no higher vision. Accordingly, the movie can be seen as an essentially despairing work, but it certainly doesn't feel that way, because the filmmaking is so exuberant. La dolce vita is a bittersweet masterpiece that grows more poignant with time (MLS)My judgement: **** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: High Sierra
Year of Release: 1941
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart
Plot outline: An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist (IMDb).
High Sierra is the last time Humphrey Bogart is forced to take second billing, and for good reason. He’s a tour-de-force in this crime epic, and pretty much carries the entire movie. The script by John Huston is good, but not as tight as some of his better efforts. While it does a good job moving through quite a bit of story, many of the supporting characters are underdeveloped and forgettable. This is compounded by patches of uncharacteristically trite dialog and ill conceived comedy. But the movie makes good use of the scenic beauty of the Sierra Mountains with dark cinematography that makes it foreboding in the manner that would develop into film noir. High Sierra is a great role for Bogart that - with a tighter script - could have been part of a great movie. (FML)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Lawrence of Arabia
Year of Release: 1962
Country of Origin: UK
Director: David Lean
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif
Plot outline: Epic rumination on a flamboyant and controversial British military figure, T.E. Lawrence, and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service (IMDb).
Mr. Dryden: “If you give them artillery, you’ve made them independent.”
Gen. Allenby: “Then I can’t give them artillery.”
Col. Brighton: “It’s your decision.”
Gen. Allenby: “No. I’ve got orders, thank God. Not like that poor devil; he‘s riding the whirlwind.”
Mr. Dryden: “Let’s hope we’re not.”
Set in the trackless expanses of the Middle East in World War I, the movie shows T. E. Lawrence’s attempt to make a nation of the Arabs, something quite different from the continued exploitation intended by the British crown. He is posted to spy on King Feisal and report back to HQ, but he is a two-edged sword who ends up identifying more with the Arabs than his British countrymen.
Lawrence of Arabia is a movie which celebrates the silence and emptiness of the vast Arabian desert. It was produced in a time when only the best would do. Clearly, David Lean only used the finest snippets to make his epic. The vast shots across the shimmering desert showing a miniscule rider approaching, the glorious sunsets, the Arab encampments, the battles, all combine to make this movie a must-see masterpiece. The story is both epic and personal, the performances are all first rate, the dialog is excellent, and the cinematography is legendary ... in short, it’s very hard to find any fault with David Lean’s creation. It also does a masterful job of character development: we learn that Lawrence is quite an uncommon man, right from the first few frames. Meant to be seen in 70mm, Lawrence of Arabia will undoubtedly lose some of its majesty on even the best high definition television. This is a larger-than-life production meant to be seen on a larger-than-life screen. With the exception of a few shots of the sun which burned through the stock when they tried to actually shoot it, everything in the movie is real. In an age where CGI has become routine as a way to cut costs, the difference between thousands of actual, human extras versus thousands of computer-generated extras is astounding. It is a pity that epics such as this may never be made again due to Hollywood’s obsession with formula movies. Lawrence of Arabia is a modern classic that has to be seen to be believed. (GC, FML)
My judgement: **** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Teacher's Pet
Year of Release: 1958
Country of Origin: USA
Director: George Seaton
Cast: Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young, Mamie Van Doren
Plot outline: A tough city editor assumes a fake identity to study journalism with a lady professor who's criticized his work (IMDb).
Teacher's Pet is an overlong but enjoyable romance revolving around a seemingly mismatched pair. Though the movie is essentially a prototypical romantic comedy (the fake breakup is usually a dead give-away), it's hard not to get wrapped up in this simple, effective little story. The sassy 34 year old Doris Day was sexy (quite different from the later "professional virgin" roles that she became famous for). But, with Clark Gable at 57 (just 4 years before his death), it's a bit of a stretch to think these two could be a match. Gig Young, playing Erica's comedically perfect boyfriend (he's won the Nobel Prize, can dance professionally, and plays a bongo!), steals every scene he's in. Gable delivers an expectedly charismatic, hilariously deadpan performance. It's clear that the movie would have benefited from the removal of a few needless subplots, though this is a relatively minor complaint for a movie that is otherwise breezy and likeable. (DN)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
Year of Release: 1954
