I, like many cinephiles, own a lot of movies. I have not yet been lured to the world of primarily streaming films at home and every time there’s a sale on a Criterion (or similar) edition of a movie or a fun box set it is hard for me to resist slapping the money down to purchase a few, even if I don’t have a ton of money at the time. While I sometimes buy old favorites, I’m more likely to pick up something I haven’t yet seen based on the director or reputation or even supplemental features on the Blu-ray. The problem is that I’ve developed a bit of a back catalog of movies that I own but haven’t yet watched. I’ve got some time on my hands, so now’s a good a time as any to get them watched. This project is already 3 films deep (Stalker, Forbidden Planet, and Breathless) and since it seems like it’ll likely stick now, I’m making it official by putting the reviews of those films up here along with the full list of films I own but haven’t watched. This’ll be an index of sorts for keeping track of what I’m watching. There are around 90 movies on the list and I want to get to all of them by this time next year. I think that’s pretty doable, even with other obligations peeking their dumb faces in to distract me. It’ll be fun, follow along.
Tag: Spielberg
30 Day Film Challenge: Day 19 – Your Favorite Action Film
Day 19 – Your Favorite Action Film
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Spielberg)
Is there a character more iconic than Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones? You’d be hard pressed to find one, I think. There’s something about his cavalier method of handling the tight spots he gets himself in that just makes you want to be him. The guy that just shoots the master swordsman and throws a Nazi off a blimp, explaining he had “No ticket,” is probably the coolest guy ever. On top of the superb character work, the direction of this movie is impeccable. Spielberg gets the grandeur of the archaeological dig and the near slapstick fight scenes and the sly dialogue all pitch perfect. There’s not a sour note in the film. It also holds up remarkably well. There’s something about its adherence to classical storytelling styles and ideas that just works. Unlike, say, Star Wars, it’s not trying to be anything other than a roaring good time. There’s nothing about good and evil to clog it up. It’s just a guy going after an artifact and a girl.
Notes:
- Han Solo may have been Ford’s breakout role but I think Indiana Jones is what he should be remembered for. It plays to his strength’s perfectly.
- The fourth film in the series is not the abomination that some would have you believe. If you think that surviving an atom bomb in a fridge is any sillier than the Holy Ghost melting your face off or grabbing your heart out of your chest or a cup that keeps you alive for centuries you have another thing coming. Crystal Skull is made in the exact same spirit as the other three films.
- “We named the dog Indiana.” Later movie but I still love it.
- Trailer! How can you not love it? The music, the dead guys on sticks. 30 years ago or today, this movie is great.
30 Day Film Challenge: Day 16 – A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate
Day 16 – A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate
Here we go. If you didn’t already hate me for disliking Aliens be prepared to quit reading in disgust.
When I was young my mother purchased me the VHS box set of the original trilogy. I watched these films over and over and over again. They were some kind of wonderful. Then the re-done versions came to theaters and I saw all of them. It should have been magical but I don’t recall any of it. When The Phantom Menace came out I loved it. My friend and I (both 11) returned after a Friday night showing and busted out the broomsticks to play at being Jedi and Sith. Because The Phantom Menace was so awesome. What I’m saying is that I was young and stupid. I mostly stopped watching Star Wars after Episode III arrived (and I thought that one was pretty good, too). I returned to the original series recently and, while there are moments of greatness (“I know.”) it’s mostly just poorly written nonsense for kids. Now, let me be clear, there are plenty of movies ostensibly made for kids that are great in their own right; Where the Wild Things Are and the majority of Disney and Pixar films are still great to this 23 year old, among others. But Star Wars is just stupid. From the annoying main character to the horrible dialogue and the silly robot characters, everything is just too dumb for me to enjoy. If this movie wasn’t so well loved I’d just be indifferent to it. But if I tell somebody that I don’t like Star Wars they’ll get all red faced and try to punch me. It’s happened. I really hope that as the generation of people that saw it as a kid in the theater dies out it will be recognized as mostly bad.
Notes:
- That’s not to say nothing good came from Star Wars. Knights of the Old Republic is a terrific video game and there are some books I recall liking in the Expanded Universe (of course, I was a kid when I read those, too).
- If you want to see something better than Star Wars I’d suggest the Indiana Jones series. It takes the only good part of Star Wars and gives him his own thing to do.
- Most of the reason why Indiana Jones is better than Star Wars is that it’s directed by Spielberg instead of Lucas and Lucas didn’t actually write the scripts. As Harrison Ford said about Lucas’s dialogue, “You can write this shit, George, but you can’t say it.” Agreed.
30 Day Film Challenge Day 7 – A Film That Reminds You of Your Past
Day 7 – A Film That Reminds You of Your Past
War of the Worlds (2005, Spielberg)
I was a shy kid, mostly just going to class and then coming home to play videogames and do homework. In 2005 I made myself start to socialize with my peers. War of the Worlds is the first movie I went to see with people my age and not family. It also comes near the beginning of my film obsession. It’s a movie that isn’t exactly a masterpiece but I think it’s underrated, problematic ending aside. Combining the beginning of making my own friends, making film a big influence in my life and the summer before my senior year of High School makes War of the Worlds a movie that means a lot to me.
Note: This is my second Spielberg. I think he’s good and often great but he wouldn’t be one of my favorite directors. His movies just happen to fit for this sometimes.
30 Day Film Challenge Days 1-6
The 30 Day Film Challenge is a fun little project that I started doing over at The Reelists website. That website is shutting down so I’ll be continuing it here. The idea is to pick a movie based on certain criteria for each day of the month. First up are the 6 movies already posted there. I’ll just put them here for completion’s sake. Later today I’ll post Day 7.
Day 1: Your Favorite Film
There Will Be Blood (2007, Anderson)
If there’s one thing that Paul Thomas Anderson is good at it’s examining the way broken people deal with the broken world they live in. There Will Be Blood is the epitome of that idea. Daniel Plainview (played perfectly by Daniel Day-Lewis) will tell you that he is an oil man and you will have to agree. The problem is that he is single minded in his quest for oil. His nemesis Eli Sunday (Paul Dano’s performance has been maligned but I think he does a good job of being the sniveling opposite of Day-Lewis’s towering inferno of a show) is similarly broken, leaning on religion as a way to exploit the small town people he purports to lead. The movie is deeply serious on first viewing but after multiple exposures the dark comedy comes to the fore. It’s a great example of what movies can do and the technical craft is second-to-none.
Day 2: Your Least Favorite Film
How can I hate Aliens, you might ask. Let me count the ways. It’s a sequel that completely changes the tone and world of the original film (which is a masterpiece, by the way). Instead of a smart and scary thriller we get a dumb and explosion-y action film with nothing horrifying in the 137 minute run time. Remember the characters in Alien? They had depth and a purpose. The sequel gave us people that spout one-liners like they were going out of style and lacked anything resembling nuance. And then the creatures. One alien was enough to kill the entire crew of the Nostromo but a hundred aliens left three survivors (thankfully killed in the superior third film)? The increase in numbers did not lead to an increase in scariness. And there’s a boss fight! A freaking boss fight. Aliens, you did what every other sequel does but for some reason people love you and condemn the rest. Not I! Boo, Aliens, Boo.
Day 3: A Film You Watch to Feel Good
Jurassic Park (1993, Spielberg)
Sure, Jurassic Park has a few people dying in it. And it’s not exactly a carefree romp or anything. But it is super fun and fulfills the promise of cinema to the fullest extent. The great thing about movies is that you can see and hear things that don’t exist. It’s limited only by imagination and the craftiness of the artists behind the scenes. In the case of Jurassic Park the imagination is great and the craftiness greater. Like most young boys I was fascinated by dinosaurs. They were so big and there were so many kinds. And thanks to Steven Spielberg and Stan Winston I could finally see real live (or real clever use of CGI and giant puppets) dinosaurs. And that’ll make me happy any day of the week.
Day 4: A Film You Watch to Feel Down
Hoop Dreams (1994, James)
The great thing about Hoop Dreams is that it’s a documentary about two kids that are chasing a dream. The terrible thing about Hoop Dreams is that they fail. It’s a 3 hour movie about people struggling against the system and themselves and losing. Not exactly what I would call uplifting. The two kids aspire to go to a good basketball school and transition into the NBA. While not the easiest goal to meet it certainly seems doable to young William Gates and Arthur Agee. But when one pushes his schooling to the side and the other’s body starts to fail him already the dreams begin to disappear. There are moments of joy sprinkled in there – Arthur’s mother getting her nursing assistant certificate made me cry – but most of it is utterly depressing. It is on my list of 100 greatest movies but I’d never watch it unless I wanted to be super sad.
Day 5: A Film That Reminds You of Someone
Those of you that know me might be surprised that this is the first Frank Borzage film from me. Many of you might not have seen a film from Mr. Borzage. Allow me to explain. My final semester in college I took a film class that focused solely on the films of Frank Borzage. He’s an old Hollywood director that nobody else seems to care about. But my professor, Bob Smith, really loved him. His appreciation was infectious and by the end of my time in his class I, too, had become a huge Borzage fan. Liliom is not a typical Borzage movie. It’s got a lot of flaws (mostly in the whole spousal abuse element and some of the acting choices) but those flaws serve only to highlight the spectacular look and feel of the film. To quote another Borzage film, “Everywhere… in every town, in every street… we pass unknowingly, human souls made great by love and adversity.” I’d like to thank Bob Smith for introducing me to Frank Borzage and for being the best teacher I’ve ever had.
Day 6: A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere.
How can a movie remind me of a place that doesn’t exist? It’s just that good at the world-building aspect of film. Peter Jackson took J.R.R. Tolkien’s base novels and planted them firmly in the already otherworldly land of New Zealand. The combination leads to a place that doesn’t really exist outside of the frame of the film but within that frame it’s as real as anywhere. It takes a special film to make me nostalgic for a place I’ve only experienced through books and movies. The Fellowship of the Ring is that movie. I would live in a hobbit hole in a second and even listening to that flute piece that plays seemingly throughout the time spent in the Shire is enough to bring me back to that place I’ve never been and will never go to.
Benefits of a Classical Education 