George Stevens was famous/notorious for being so affected by filming concentration camps during WW2 that all his movies from then onwards were weighted down with "significance"; certainly he devoted more time and care on each one, especially when it came to shooting re-takes, but he was a man of great talent and some marvellous films resulted. This one, however, he buckled under the weight of good intentions - the importance subject matter seems to have overwhelmed him, and as a result all the life and humanity and passion is squeezed out of it.
It's certainly beautiful - Stevens was an ex-cameraman and his films are all beautifully shot, none more so than this. The desert landscapes are beautiful, as are the sparse corridors of power of the ruling Romans/Jews (stone floors, curtains, lit by flame), the white robes that people where. Too beautiful - Jesus (Max von Sydow, ideally cast) never seems human, but nor do his disciples, even normally sure-fire characters like Judas and Peter. The best performances were from Jose Ferrer, as the all-too-practical Herod, and Donald Pleasance, as Satan (the scene where he attempts to corrupt Jesus is the creepiest and easily the most effective).
Another problem is one endemic to all Jesus films - because so many of the things He said are well known, whenever he speaks its like he's reciting quotes rather than speaking dialogue.
The film was criticised for its all star cast but I think that works - a new star comes along every ten minutes or so to keep things lively. I did find Shelley Winters a bit jarring, and John Wayne is hilarious for all the wrong reasons as the centurion who says "truly this was the son of god". Charlton Heston is effective as John the Baptist (wearing not many clothes, like most Heston roles in the 60s, very restrained compared with Alan Badel in Salome), and there is good work from Sidney Poitier, Claude Rains, etc.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Movie review - "How the West Was Won" (1962) ***1/2
After the departure of Dore Schary in 1957, MGM was ruled by Joe Vogel and Sol Siegel for the next five years or so. The influential film of their regime was Ben Hur, a massive hit which caused them to think the solution to the studio's problems was big budget remakes of earlier successes, leading to Cimarron, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and their Waterloo, Mutiny on the Bounty - but they had a lot of successes, too, notably North by Northwest, Time Machine and this one, a massive epic in Cinerama, a huge screen technique now gone but ripe for revival, I think (it lives on in the form of Imax). This must have looked terrific on a large scene, with several epic action sequences - a trip down the rapids, buffalo stampede, shoot out on a train. But its great strength is that writer James Lee Barrett never loses sight of the human element. Its not terrifically interesting but it is always to the fore.
The first half is split into two halves: one about James Stewart falling in love with Carroll Baker along the rivers (with some river pirates as very effective villains - we don't often see river pirates in Westerns); the second about Debbie Reynolds falling in love with Gregory Peck. The second half centres around George Peppard, who was a bit of a fave of the Vogel-Siegel regime, coming off Home from the Hill, and it's a big responsibility but what do you know he carries the film very well, believably growing from callow youth to respected elder - it's in three sections, one about the Civil War, one about Indians and the railway, the final one about bandits (in the form of Eli Wallach). Peppard doesn't get a romance subplot (apparently there was one with Hope Lange which was cut - instead Carolyn Jones just appears as his wife) but has more than enough to do.
James Stewart is a bit too old for Carrol Baker, who was stuck with a number of older leading men at this phase of her career; I've got a lot of time for Baker, she was sexy with a distinctive voice and on screen magnetism, and works well here; she seems a lot more natural than Debbie Reynolds who is professional as always but maybe a bit too mechanical (and not 100% believable as a woman just interested in money - maybe she and Baker should have swapped roles, but then I don't think Baker could sing and dance and Reynold's role required it). Gregory Peck is fun as a gambler, as is Wallach as a villain and Richard Widmark as a ruthless railroad man. The music score is a deserved classic.
The first half is split into two halves: one about James Stewart falling in love with Carroll Baker along the rivers (with some river pirates as very effective villains - we don't often see river pirates in Westerns); the second about Debbie Reynolds falling in love with Gregory Peck. The second half centres around George Peppard, who was a bit of a fave of the Vogel-Siegel regime, coming off Home from the Hill, and it's a big responsibility but what do you know he carries the film very well, believably growing from callow youth to respected elder - it's in three sections, one about the Civil War, one about Indians and the railway, the final one about bandits (in the form of Eli Wallach). Peppard doesn't get a romance subplot (apparently there was one with Hope Lange which was cut - instead Carolyn Jones just appears as his wife) but has more than enough to do.
James Stewart is a bit too old for Carrol Baker, who was stuck with a number of older leading men at this phase of her career; I've got a lot of time for Baker, she was sexy with a distinctive voice and on screen magnetism, and works well here; she seems a lot more natural than Debbie Reynolds who is professional as always but maybe a bit too mechanical (and not 100% believable as a woman just interested in money - maybe she and Baker should have swapped roles, but then I don't think Baker could sing and dance and Reynold's role required it). Gregory Peck is fun as a gambler, as is Wallach as a villain and Richard Widmark as a ruthless railroad man. The music score is a deserved classic.
Movie review - "Jesse James" (1939) ***1/2
The reasons why the James boys turned to crime are famously whitewashed in this sympathetic version - nasty railroaders led by Brian Donlevy terrorise local farmers and kill their ma with dynamite (which has basis in truth), so no wonder they go bad.
But to be fair, it's shown Jesse James goes too far - very well played by Tyrone Power whose dark good looks suit the part, its clear he turns mean and bitter through crime, makes his wife's life very hard, and Randolph Scott is a very sympathetic law man (the businessmen eg Donald Meek, are almost all bad).
Henry Fonda complements Power excellently, the colour photography is divine. The middle section gets a bit repetitive - Jesse-is-bad-Jesse-is-bad - but perks up for the "oh isn't it just so ironic" death scene. You haven't seen scenery chewing til you've watched Henry Hull as a newspaper editor here.
Movie review - "The Wicked Lady" (1945) **** (re-viewing)
Craptacular classic of British cinema, made by people who never quite matched this again (in their homeland at least - Michael Rennie and James Mason went on to do fine work in Hollywood).It remains the quintessential Margaret Lockwood performance, all flaring nostrils and gestures; you can't say its great acting but its very effective and still works today, helped considerably by all the cleavage showing costumes she wears. It's a terrific role and she really goes to town - I mean a woman who pinches her best friend's fiancee then takes to the highway because she's bored... it doesn't get much better than that. And it's only because mum died - fantastic!
Very adult compared to Hollywood films of this time - it's fairly explicit Lockwood has sex with Griffith Jones before marriage, and with Mason; she catches Mason in bed with another woman; Mason rapes her (which is a bit dodgy). Rarely has a film whacked its subtext over the audience's head with less subtlety - it's like in every scene a caption scrolls across the bottom of the screen: "this is the subtext: XXX".
James Mason stands out in a role originally meant for Stewart Granger (a precursor of Granger's poor knack of picking projects, which wasn't so bad in Britain but which would become endemic in Hollywood); Pat Roc is also effective in the Phyllis Calvert role, as is Michael Rennie. Even Griffin Jones, who starts out so wet, develops a bit of spine and gets stuck into things.
Riotous fun, a landmark in its own way, and they never managed to successfully repeat it - Leslie Arliss never made another well known film, nor did Lockwood or Pat Roc really.
Movie review - "Knocked Up" (2007) ****
The director of The 40 Year Old Virgin follows it up with a film that manages to be raunchy, true and very sweet all at the same time. It sort of ambles along in the way many scripts by directors do, lacking the tightness of structure - but this means the film is less predictable (for instance, there is no "appearance of an ex" scene for the two leads, or an overdone ticking clock).
Seth Rogen is magnificent as the slacker hero and Katherine Heigl very likable as the TV girl who gets preggers - she's perhaps just a bit too beautiful and nice to go for Rogen; I know a lot of stressed out TV girls who would go for him, because he makes her laugh and because to be blunt they're desperate to get hitched, but we don't see that here - she's young, seems to be well adjusted and well liked, so is threatens the reality of the piece, but you like the actors and the whole thing so much you go with it. (Heigl has just earned the worship of the entire overweight-underweight-comic-book-reading-section of the Western World - she could spend the rest of her life making money out of attending sci-fi conventions).
Some of the arguments between couples are so spot on and funny - not just between the lead duo but between her sister and brother in law (I especially liked the "just because you're shouting doesn't mean its not mean" exchange and the "I'm hormonal I'm allowed to be angry").
The film "goes there" in the way many pregnancy comedies don't - we see the crowning (nb the baby sfx, pregnant tummy, etc is very well done), there is a s*x scene involving pregnant Heigl. Several lovely moments - the girls trying to get into a nightclub, the initial seduction, the montages.
And it is the best film in recent memory when it comes to supporting characters - there is a dazzling gallery of them, from the wonderful bitchy workmate of Heigl's, Rogen's loving dad (Harold Ramis, perfect), Heigl's chilly mum (Joanna Kerns, also perfect - she encourages her to have a "proper baby"), the stressed out Chinese doctor, the stoner Asian, Rogen's flatmates (who have a definite hierarchy, with the guy with the beard a sort of sophisticated slacker). Judd Apatow is clearly a man who loves actors and characters and it comes through. Wonderful.
Seth Rogen is magnificent as the slacker hero and Katherine Heigl very likable as the TV girl who gets preggers - she's perhaps just a bit too beautiful and nice to go for Rogen; I know a lot of stressed out TV girls who would go for him, because he makes her laugh and because to be blunt they're desperate to get hitched, but we don't see that here - she's young, seems to be well adjusted and well liked, so is threatens the reality of the piece, but you like the actors and the whole thing so much you go with it. (Heigl has just earned the worship of the entire overweight-underweight-comic-book-reading-section of the Western World - she could spend the rest of her life making money out of attending sci-fi conventions).
Some of the arguments between couples are so spot on and funny - not just between the lead duo but between her sister and brother in law (I especially liked the "just because you're shouting doesn't mean its not mean" exchange and the "I'm hormonal I'm allowed to be angry").
The film "goes there" in the way many pregnancy comedies don't - we see the crowning (nb the baby sfx, pregnant tummy, etc is very well done), there is a s*x scene involving pregnant Heigl. Several lovely moments - the girls trying to get into a nightclub, the initial seduction, the montages.
And it is the best film in recent memory when it comes to supporting characters - there is a dazzling gallery of them, from the wonderful bitchy workmate of Heigl's, Rogen's loving dad (Harold Ramis, perfect), Heigl's chilly mum (Joanna Kerns, also perfect - she encourages her to have a "proper baby"), the stressed out Chinese doctor, the stoner Asian, Rogen's flatmates (who have a definite hierarchy, with the guy with the beard a sort of sophisticated slacker). Judd Apatow is clearly a man who loves actors and characters and it comes through. Wonderful.
Movie review - "Bowery at Midnight" (1942) **
El cheapo Monogram effort complete with sets that wobble when the actor grips on to them too much and a plot familiar to The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse i.e. a respectable professor is also a master criminal. It features not one but two beloved cult tragic stars - Bela Lugosi and Tom Neal - both of whom are very effective (Neal had a great the-world-hates-me snarl), and there is a good moment when the nominal hero goes undercover to Lugosi's flophouse, recognises Lugosi, who tells him "have you ever wondered what people thought about just before they died" and gets Lugosi to shoot him. I also loved how the other doctor would revive Lugosi's victims and keep them in the basement! But its very confusing - I had trouble differentiating between the cop and the rich guy - with some amateurish acting from the ingénue and the female lead.
Book review - "I'm Chevy Chase... and You're Not" by Rena Fruchter
Most comedians are intriguing creatures - almost all of them seem to battle major demons (drugs, depression, etc) despite being brilliantly talented - none more so than Chevy Chase. Shot to national fame during the first series of Saturday Night Live then international fame with Foul Play, he really seemed to have it all - tall, genuinely handsome and virile, funny both with a line and a pratfall, intelligent, multi-talented (he played in several bands and was a writer), prestigious upbringing.
And he had a very good career - perhaps not as good as he could have, but still pretty good, being one of the major stars of the first half of the 80s. In the second half it went pear-shaped; he seems to have fallen into the trap like Ryan O'Neal did in the second half of the 70s - to wit, making films that seemed to be commercial but weren't, mainly because they were all obviously made just to be commercial (sequels to Fletch and Caddyshack, a reteaming with Dan Ackyroyd). The demise of the Fletch franchise was especially galling because Chevy was so perfect in the role and there was a whole series of books to derive plots from.
Some of this was bad luck, a lot of it was Chase's own fault - over the years I've read hints that he was a bit of a bastard (e.g. in the oral history on SNL his reappearances on the show are bagged - Will Ferrell says his hosting in 2002 was "a low point"; there were allusions to drug problems; William Goldman talks about his pretension on Memoirs of an Invisible Man) and was looking forward to this bio to illuminate it.
It does but only half does - Fruchter (who wrote a beautiful memoir about her friendship with Dudley Moore) pulls her punches in a major way. For instance, we get a chapter on Chase's drug addiction - but its only really a chapter, and not until a fair way into the book, after we've already covered many of Chase's experience on television and in Hollywood - chapters which would have been illuminated by knowing about his drug troubles then rather than "oh by the way he had a drug problem".
And while Fruchter does admit Chase's humour can be inappropriate at times, she doesn't really go into it, and has too many quotes from people justifying/forgiving his behaviour (other actors - and the problem getting quotes from actors is they usually want to be liked), and accepting too many quotes from Chase uncritically for things like "I was only mean to the director/producer because I was sticking up for other members of the crew", which is a standard lie from a star to justify bad behaviour (e.g. George Lazenby with On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and is overly sympathetic for what was evidently a major lack of professionalism for his 90s talk show (where Chase shifts the blame over to the network or his depression). (She did get Neil Simon and Carl Reiner to go on the record which is interesting) And she quotes too much from internet reviews and has a slightly irritating structure, which isn't always strictly chronological. So its not definitive.
Its is interesting, though - Fruchter is superb on music and the chapter on Chase's musician-ship is fascinating (he even cut an album - if he does want to make a "comeback" I think a concert/stand up piece would be ideal).
It is also very strong on Chase's family tree and horrid upbringing (an abusive mother and step father), which explains a lot of bad behaviour (most of his siblings had major problems in their life too) and makes the soft-soaping later on in the book doubly frustrating because its not needed, we know he's had a hard time. She also has the bright idea of quoting some of Chase's writings.
So this isn't a slap dash work, it is thorough and well written - I just wish it had been a bit tougher.
And he had a very good career - perhaps not as good as he could have, but still pretty good, being one of the major stars of the first half of the 80s. In the second half it went pear-shaped; he seems to have fallen into the trap like Ryan O'Neal did in the second half of the 70s - to wit, making films that seemed to be commercial but weren't, mainly because they were all obviously made just to be commercial (sequels to Fletch and Caddyshack, a reteaming with Dan Ackyroyd). The demise of the Fletch franchise was especially galling because Chevy was so perfect in the role and there was a whole series of books to derive plots from.
Some of this was bad luck, a lot of it was Chase's own fault - over the years I've read hints that he was a bit of a bastard (e.g. in the oral history on SNL his reappearances on the show are bagged - Will Ferrell says his hosting in 2002 was "a low point"; there were allusions to drug problems; William Goldman talks about his pretension on Memoirs of an Invisible Man) and was looking forward to this bio to illuminate it.
It does but only half does - Fruchter (who wrote a beautiful memoir about her friendship with Dudley Moore) pulls her punches in a major way. For instance, we get a chapter on Chase's drug addiction - but its only really a chapter, and not until a fair way into the book, after we've already covered many of Chase's experience on television and in Hollywood - chapters which would have been illuminated by knowing about his drug troubles then rather than "oh by the way he had a drug problem".
And while Fruchter does admit Chase's humour can be inappropriate at times, she doesn't really go into it, and has too many quotes from people justifying/forgiving his behaviour (other actors - and the problem getting quotes from actors is they usually want to be liked), and accepting too many quotes from Chase uncritically for things like "I was only mean to the director/producer because I was sticking up for other members of the crew", which is a standard lie from a star to justify bad behaviour (e.g. George Lazenby with On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and is overly sympathetic for what was evidently a major lack of professionalism for his 90s talk show (where Chase shifts the blame over to the network or his depression). (She did get Neil Simon and Carl Reiner to go on the record which is interesting) And she quotes too much from internet reviews and has a slightly irritating structure, which isn't always strictly chronological. So its not definitive.
Its is interesting, though - Fruchter is superb on music and the chapter on Chase's musician-ship is fascinating (he even cut an album - if he does want to make a "comeback" I think a concert/stand up piece would be ideal).
It is also very strong on Chase's family tree and horrid upbringing (an abusive mother and step father), which explains a lot of bad behaviour (most of his siblings had major problems in their life too) and makes the soft-soaping later on in the book doubly frustrating because its not needed, we know he's had a hard time. She also has the bright idea of quoting some of Chase's writings.
So this isn't a slap dash work, it is thorough and well written - I just wish it had been a bit tougher.
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