THE UP SERIES (1964-2019, GREAT BRITAIN)

Given me a child when he is seven and I will give you the man.-Jesuit proverb

The featured players of the Up series

at different life stages

In 1964, Granada television in Britain chose fourteen seven-year-old subjects for a television special about what it was like to be that age. This original film was directed by Paul Diamond and was originally supposed to be a one and off special. The subjects of the film were chosen by a young researcher named Michael Apted, who saw the potential for something really special here. Apted took over as director of the project and filmed the children again at age fourteen in 1970. He then filmed all the subjects in the film every seven years (all that would participate) all the way until 63 Up in 2019.

I had heard about this series over the years, but never watched it. We got the 56 Up! DVD at the library a couple of years ago, but really wanted to see the films from the beginning. In recent weeks, I noticed Britbox had all the episodes and my wife and I decided to plunge in and watch them.

I don't binge watch shows often, but The Up Series is definitely one I'd recommend going that route with. I feel like I just met these seven-year-old kids a couple of weeks ago and watching a show a night, they quickly are all reaching retirement age. It acts like an only slightly less speedy Picture of Dorian Gray with the featured kids.

We see the participants make schooling decisions, marriage decisions, career decisions and family decisions. Through the episodes, the extended family of the participants become players in this drama as well. Other participants keep their family out of it entirely. We also see past shows cleverly edited into each new show to give the viewer perspective.

One of the elements in the choosing of the original subjects is class. You have the prep school boys, seemingly born with silver spoons in their mouth and poorer East End kids that have to struggle for everything. The truth is of course much more complicated than that.

Here are the subjects for the film:

John, Andrew and Charles on the couch

in 14 Up

The Three Prep School Boys on the Couch

John Brisby, one of the upper class kids, was seemingly on the path to being a barrister from age seven. He likes to point out in later episodes that he had to struggle a lot more than what is portrayed in the earlier films.

Andrew Brackfield was one of the funniest of the seven year old kids, going on about he read The Financial Times on a daily basis. He later became a solicitor, but seems to spend a lot of time in his garden as the years go on. He appears to have one of the happier marriages and families in the film.

Charles Furneaux is the third of the Prep School boys. Charles didn't participate in any films after 21 Up, despite later becoming a documentary filmmaker himself!

Jackie, Lynn and Sue on the slide at age seven

The Three Working Class Girls on the Couch

Jackie Bassett is one of the three girls in the film that are usually filmed together. Her life has had her ups and downs with marriages, kids, work and health. She often seems to have a love/hate relationship with director Apted. I find her one of the most interesting subjects in the film.

Lynn Johnson was one of Jackie's friends who definitely had her ups and downs. She married young and had a family early, but kept her marriage together throughout her life. I certainly like the fact that she worked at libraries and a bookmobile for many years. She had many health issues over the years which she talks about in many episodes. She died in 2013 at the age of 57.

Sue Davis is the third of the three girls filmed together in episode one. She had her ups and downs with marriage and divorce over the years. She also had a potential singing career that she points out she was never able to follow through with. In later years, she is seen as being happily engaged to the same man for 21 years!

The Charity Boarding School Classmates

Symon Basterfield was the only participant of mixed race in this film. He worked at various jobs over the years which the viewer gets to experience vicariously (There's Symon on the fork lift again!). He married and had five kids only to divorce. His second wife was a strong presence in 49 Up and 56 Up.

Paul Kliegerman was also one of the funniest of the kids at seven. The clip that they show about his fear of marriage because his wife might serve him greens makes me laugh every time they show it. In actuality, Paul has had the same wife since 21 Up, and we see many of their travels through the outback and raising of their family over the years. One of the most likable participants in the film, we see Paul reunited with his classmate Symon in 49 Up (or was that 42 Up?)

The entire group together at 21 Up

The Academics

Bruce Balden may be the person I identify the most with in the film. Always concerned about social issues and injustice early on, he becomes a teacher in the inner city and in Bangla Desh for awhile. It didn't seem like he would ever get married, but did in 35 Up in a ceremony conducted by fellow Up participant Neil Hughes.

Nick Hitchon started out on a farm and went to boarding school before going to Oxford and eventually becoming a professor specializing in Nuclear Fusion at the University of Wisconsin. Nick's first marriage is documented in 28 Up, but that didn't last and seems happy with his second wife in later episodes. 

I just want to promote me band!

Peter Davies was a Liverpudlian youth who in 21 Up said some negative things about the Thatcher Administration which he got some criticism for and decided not to participate in the series again until 56 Up to promote his folk band!

This is pointless and silly!

Suzy Lusk had a most interesting evolution on the show. She went from being one of the rich kids in the beginning to being from a broken home and deciding the project was "pointless and silly" by the age of 14. At 21, she was an angry chain-smoking young lady who would never want to have kids and was mad at the world. By 28, she married someone who seemed to change her worldview for the better and has appeared to have a happy life (with kids!).

Tony Walker at 7 Up and 56 Up

The breakout stars

Tony Walker-"I want to be a jockey when I grow up. I want to be a jockey when I grow up!" I always quote Tony's seven-year-old aspirations to my wife before we start a new episode. Tony is one of the lower East Side kids who did indeed become a jockey for awhile before becoming a taxi driver among other things. The fast talking Tony seems to be one of those people who can probably get away with a lot just by talking his way out of things. Married at 28, his wife was featured in all the subsequent episodes and they are not afraid to speak openly about the highs and lows of their relationship.

Neil Hughes at 56 Up and 7 Up

Neil Hughes was the Liverpool youth who had aspirations, yet never seemed to find his way. He was often depicted throughout the run of the show as homeless or suffering from a form of mental illness-yet always finding a way to survive. He later became a local councilman and even a preacher (performing the marriage ceremony for Bruce Balden).

I think for the most part the participants haven been shown in a positive light. I mean there aren't any villains in this piece (Maybe Charles, only because he wouldn't participate after 21 Up) and I hope the lives of all of them continue to improve through 63 Up, 70 Up, 77 Up...

A QUESTION OF SILENCE (1982), CAROL (2015)

Three women converge of the shop owner
in A Question of Silence

A Question of Silence is a story of three women. One is a seemingly happy, plump middle aged waitress. But is she really happy? She's alone and perhaps she isn't really as contented as she seems. Another is an attractive office assistant. Her boss relies on her to run the office, but seems to have little respect for her ideas. The third is a housewife with a family. The three women don't know each other but find themselves at a dress shop one day. The housewife attempts to steal a garment and is approached by the owner. The three women converge of him and...well, they beat him to death.

The women are in custody and are interviewed by a female criminal psychiatrist named Janine. Janine tries to understand them at first and actually comes to sympathize with them as time goes on.

A feminist parable to be sure. What is the director/writer Gorris trying to say? And should a man watch this with a different eye than a woman? I'm not sure, but I don't think anyone watches A Question of Silence and says, "Wow, that was entertaining!" Of course, it wasn't meant to be.

Carol (Cate Blanchette) meets Therese (Rooney Mara)
in Carol

We recently read the 1952 novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith for my book club. It is the story of a young lady named Therese who slowly becomes enamored by an older married woman named Carol. It is a book that really delves into Therese's thoughts and somehow makes intricate details and mundane thoughts interesting. I actually liked this book more than some of the women in my book group who thought she relied on this detail too much and neglected getting on with the story.

Having read the book makes the praised film adaptation Carol interesting. I've seen it before, but looking at it right after reading the book makes it seem somehow less than when I first saw it. Granted, film is a different medium and taken as a stand alone without knowing about the book, it is a pretty good study of these two women. It also recreates the time well and Cate Blanchette and Rooney Mara are good in the lead roles.

Overall, the story is about a clear love between two women that can not be expressed because of the time and the situation they are in. But the end surprisingly does give them and the reader (or viewer) hope that they can both ultimately be happy.

The Price of Salt
(listed under Highsmith's alias
Claire Morgan)

DIVA (1981, FRANCE), SABOTEUR (1942)

Jules the postman (Frederic Andrei) 

shares his love of the Diva with a friend

Diva is the story of a young Parisian postman who literally bumps into a prostitute with an incriminating cassette tape that she hides in Jules's moped. The prostitute is killed and Jules finds he is quickly in over his head in a situation not of his choosing. The plot of the film also involves Jules's obsession with an classical singer named Cynthia Hawkins who never lets herself be recorded. Ah! But Jules has a bootleg recording of her, which he listens to constantly. So essentially Jules has one recording he loves and another one that he wants no part of.

This engaging French thriller reminds me a great deal of some of Alfred Hitchcock's movies that feature an everyman that gets involved in a situation way over his head, such as The Man Who Knew Too Much. That film also had a similar musical tie-in in the plot.

Diva Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) 

sings live...so don't record her!

I wanted to team Diva up with a Hitchcock film that I hadn't seen before, so I chose Saboteur, a 1942 film which also features an average guy that gets involved in a situation over his head.

Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Bob Cummings) is an average Joe that is falsely accused of setting a fire at the factory that killed a friend of his. He is sought by police and ends up on the run, but has a clue about the identity of the real culprit, a man named Fry (Norman Lloyd). The acts of sabotage turn out to be much bigger than just Fry, which Barry discovers a little bit at a time. He also picks up a blonde (Priscilla Lane) along the way who wants to turn him in at first, but of course later becomes an ally.

The film culminates with a memorable scene with Fry dangling from the Statue of Liberty with Barry unsuccessfully trying to save him.

Saboteur isn't top twenty Hitchcock, but it's not bad either. It does seem like a bit of a test film in retrospect for Hitch's later North by Northwest. Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane aren't Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, but they're likable and effective enough. And the conclusion on top of the Statue of Liberty is good, just not as good as the Mount Rushmore finale of North by Northwest.

Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane have issues
in Saboteur

As in many Hitchcock films, we do have many memorable supporting players. I especially like the truck driver looking for excitement that helps Barry escape from the police. Otto Kruger plays a sophisticated villain here...Otto seemed to played a sophisticated villain a lot. Also on hand are Vaughan Glaser as a blind man that also helps Barry and a train full of circus performers who debate between themselves whether or not to turn in our fugitives.

My favorite of all of the supporting players is Norman Lloyd as Fry. Norman became a frequent Hitchcock collaborator throughout his career. I know him best in later years as Dr. Auschlander from St. Elsewhere. Norman provided insights on the commentary track of Saboteur and he mentioned that Hitchcock felt it was a mistake to have the bad guy in peril at the end of the movie because the audience isn't really invested as much on whether or not he falls as they would be if it were the hero. This is another improvement the director made in North by Northwest.

As of this writing, Norman Lloyd is still alive at age 105 and comes across in his commentary as an extremely charming guy.

Norman Lloyd hanging on to the Statue of Liberty
for the moment is Saboteur

Norman Lloyd as Dr. Auschlander
in St. Elsewhere

RED PSALM (1972, HUNGARY), THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME (1989, SOVIET UNION)

Circle of unity in Red Psalm

Well, comrades. I must say Red Psalm depicts a lot of solidarity amongst the peasant workers being put down by the business interests and using the army as an instrument to fight against them. They do this through a lot of singing "Long live the workers! Long live the rights of workers society! Let's dance and celebrate the cannon of the liberator!" The camera is always moving and there are many effective scenes of the people moving one way hand in hand while the camera goes in the opposite direction. The scene where the army opens fire is enhanced by the lack of blood depicted. The people fall down, but fall down as one.You hear me brothers and sisters?

And remember comrades, don't be distracted by our sisters occasionally taking their clothes off!

Random trumpet blowing in The Asthenic Syndrome

Okay, comrades. I wish I got more out of The Asthenic Syndrome. The black and white section of the story shows a woman who has lost her husband and is going through grief. The larger color second half shows a teacher who suffers from the titular affliction of falling asleep at inappropriate times. The story isn't presented in an easy to fathom narrative most of the time. At least it's not too capitalist.

Both of these films might gain from repeated viewings. Red Psalm may bring you to its camp by sucking you into it's rhythm. The Asthenic Syndrome may be more palatable with a context of what to look for established in your mind before diving back in.

THE LAST EMPEROR (1987)

AND THE FINAL BEST PICTURE WINNER

THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IS...

#1 The Last Emperor

The young emperor prepares to greet his subjects
in the opening scene of The Last Emperor

Lastemperoritis-The inability to finish a list of movies you want to see because you never seem to be in the mood to watch a three-hour film about a toddler that becomes emperor of China.

"What interests Bertolucci-who by now had emerged as far more the child of Freud than of Marx-was the indecision, the passivity, the powerlessness of Pu Ti. And by far the most beautiful passages of the film are those of his sexual education and later humiliation, as a figure so pampered that he hardly has identity, let alone character."-David Thomson, Have You Seen...

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The Last Emperor is Bernardo Bertolucci's epic which covers roughly fifty years of China in the twentieth century is undeniably beautiful to look at. The story of the young emperor trapped by his own title and then set out into the world as a commoner and eventually a prisoner has appeal, too. It has a Lawrence of Arabia flavor to it which had to appeal to Academy voters. It even had Peter O'Toole-Lawrence himself as the only prominent Westerner in the cast! There were some slow parts, so I can't say I was riveted from beginning to end, but I think this one could have easily been an entry in the 1001 book....And it only took me thirty-two years to get around to seeing it!


1987 Best Picture Nominees
The Last Emperor
Broadcast News
Fatal Attraction
Hope and Glory
Moonstruck

The Last Emperor and Hope and Glory were the only two films nominated for Best Picture this year that didn't make the 1001 book.

The Last Emperor famously won all nine categories which it was nominated, including Best Director (Bertolucci) and Best Screenplay (Mark Peploe and Bertolucci) and Best Original Score (Three artists, including Talking Head David Byrne). It received no acting nominations.

Well, I've seen them all now. Ninety-some odd films that have won Best Picture. I'm working on watching the major contenders for next month's Academy Awards, we'll see how that goes.

John Lone and Joan Chen in The Last Emperor

Oscar Best Picture winners

1927-28: Wings and Sunrise

1928-29: The Broadway Melody

1929-30: All Quiet on the Western Front

1930-31: Cimarron

1931-32: Grand Hotel

1932-33: Cavalcade

1934: It Happened One Night

1935: Mutiny on the Bounty

1936: The Great Ziegfeld

1937: The Life of Emile Zola

1938: You Can’t Take It with You

1939: Gone with the Wind

1940: Rebecca

1941: How Green Was My Valley

1942: Mrs. Miniver

1943: Casablanca

1944: Going My Way

1945: The Lost Weekend

1946: The Best Years of Our Lives

1947: Gentleman’s Agreement

1948: Hamlet

1949: All the King’s Men

1950: All About Eve

1951: An American in Paris

1952: The Greatest Show on Earth

1953: From Here to Eternity

1954: On the Waterfront

1955: Marty

1956: Around the World in 80 Days

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958: Gigi

1959: Ben-Hur

1960: The Apartment

1961: West Side Story

1962: Lawrence of Arabia

1963: Tom Jones

1964: My Fair Lady

1965: The Sound of Music

1966: A Man for All Seasons

1967: In the Heat of the Night

1968: Oliver!

1969: Midnight Cowboy

1970: Patton

1971: The French Connection

1972: The Godfather

1973: The Sting

1974: The Godfather: Part II

1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976: Rocky

1977: Annie Hall

1978: The Deer Hunter

1979: Kramer vs. Kramer

1980: Ordinary People

1981: Chariots of Fire

1982: Gandhi

1983: Terms of Endearment

1984: Amadeus

1985: Out of Africa

1986: Platoon

1987: The Last Emperor

1988: Rain Man

1989: Driving Miss Daisy

1990: Dances with Wolves

1991: The Silence of the Lambs

1992: Unforgiven

1993: Schindler’s List

1994: Forrest Gump

1995: Braveheart

1996: The English Patient

1997: Titanic

1998: Shakespeare in Love

1999: American Beauty

2000: Gladiator

2001: A Beautiful Mind

2002: Chicago

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004: Million Dollar Baby

2005: Crash

2006: The Departed

2007: No Country for Old Men

2008: Slumdog Millionaire

2009: The Hurt Locker

2010: The King’s Speech

2011: The Artist

2012: Argo

2013: 12 Years a Slave

2014: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2015: Spotlight

2016: Moonlight

2017: The Shape of Water

2018: Green Book

2019: Ford v Ferarri? The Irishman? Jojo Rabbit?

Joker? Little Women? Marriage Story? 

1917? Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood? Parasite?

(We'll find out this year's winner on February 9th)

SHOAH (1985), THE PAWNBROKER (1964), PASSENGER (1963, POLAND)

 Passenger

Passenger is Andrzej Munk's uncompleted film that begins with a lady on a passenger ship named Lisa who sees a another woman board. Lisa becomes distraught because of recognizing the other woman from a life that she thought she had put behind. This life was when Lisa was an SS officer and the other woman (named Marta) was a Jewish inmate of the camp.

The issue with Passenger as a viewing experience is that it was never completed. Munk died in a car accident during the filming and what we are left with is what was put together by filmmaker Witold Lesiewicz. I will say what we have is often compelling. We see mostly flashback sequences with Lisa as a harsh camp guard and are left with her rather undefined relationship with Marta. Lisa actually saves Marta from death on several occasions. The audience is left to wonder whether the reason for this  is just the latent humanity of Lisa or a possibly even a latent attraction? We don't really know the answer because the film was never completed. Many of the scenes from the ship are still pictures with voice-over narration. It's a shame the film was never finished, but the slightly under an hour remainder is worth a watch, if you don't mind being left with more questions than answers.

 Shoah

Claude Lanzman's documentary of the Holocaust called Shoah. on the other hand, took over a decade to complete and is over ten hours in length. The first thing that is striking about Shoah is that there is no archival footage used. What we have are interviews that take up the entirety of the film. It reminded me a little of the Marcel Ophlus films like The Sorrow and the Pity, though Ophlus's films had some archival footage to back his story up.

There are many interviews with survivors of the camps. We have the reminiscences of people from neighboring villages to where the camps were. There is a memorable interview with a barber who cut the hair of those about to be killed. We have a couple of academic scholars to attempt to add some clarity to what went on and why. Perhaps most frighteningly we have interviews with some of the villains from this tragedy, those that worked in the camp, ran the trains going to the camp and coordinated the liquidation as if they were running a business on a strict deadline.

The film was shot from the mid 70's until the release of the film in 1985 and is an invaluable historical record of those that were there.

The Pawnbroker

Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker (1964) is a story based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, about a man named Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) who lost his entire family to the holocaust and years later runs a pawn shop in New York City. Nazerman has an assistant named Jesus Ortiz who he is teaching the business. But there is no happiness in Sol's life. As he points out to Jesus, the only thing he respects now is money. It isn't out of greed he does this, but simply because there is nothing left of value to him to hold on to.

This is a pretty powerful film and one I'm surprised I haven't seen before now. There is much to see in the film as far as symbolism (The ultimate sacrifice of a character named Jesus, Sol's attempt to run his hand down on a spike as if being crucified himself etc.). It is also a worthy addition to the impressive career output of director Lumet and may also be Steiger's best performance.

I love the look of dramas from the sixties that were still filmed in black and white. The cinematographer of The Pawnbroker was Boris Kaufman, who also filmed On the Waterfront, as well as several other films for Lumet.

 Deaths-Head Revisited 1961

These movies made me think of The Twilight Zone episode Death's Head Revisited...which I myself revisited. It features a former SS guard named Lutze (played by Oscar Beregi) who goes back to visit the concentration camp where he brutally tortured and murdered people during the war only to now be haunted by the ghosts of prisoners past (led by Joseph Schildkraut). One of my favorite Twilight Zones and featuring one of the easily most despicable heavies from the series.

Tribunal 1999

I thought there was an episode of the classic Outer Limits episode about a concentration camp, but could only find an episode from the reboot of the Outler Limits from 1999 titled Tribunal. This episode has a modern day reporter finding a surviving war criminal from one of the camps. The reporter is aided by a time traveler which leads to some interesting plot twists and leads to the war criminal being executed by a younger version of himself!...

Shalom...

RAISING ARIZONA (1987), A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988), THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (1989)

Three 80's Films I haven't seen for sometime...

A Fish Called Wanda

When a heist movie is done well, it can be an awful lot of fun to watch. A Fish Called Wanda boasts a quartet of stars: seductive Jamie Lee Curtis, hysterically psycho Kevin Kline, and ex-Pythoners Michael Palin and John Cleese at the top of their game. I'm glad to say that this one is still as funny as ever three decades later. This movie also defies my you should never kill a dog rule. If it is done by Michael Palin as an animal lover, it's okay and pretty funny.

Whatever happened to...But whatever happened to the movie Fierce Creatures which reunited the four stars of Wanda? Has anyone actually seen it?

 Raising Arizona

I saw Raising Arizona at the theater when it first came out and was my introduction to a Coen Brothers comedy film (Blood Simple was more film noir). I'm happy to say that Raising Arizona is still quite funny after all this time. I like that the Coen's characters are broad, but human and even the criminals have a soft side to them...Everyone seems to love that baby, even the crooks! Holly Hunter, John Goodman, William Forsythe and Trey Wilson round out the fine cast. And has Nicholas Cage ever been funnier? (In a comedy, I mean).

The M. Emmet Walsh factor...It seemed for awhile in the late 80's, character actor M. Emmet Walsh popped up in almost every movie I watched, either in a new one or with something I happened to pop into my new VCR...Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, The Jerk, Straight Time, Fletch, Harry and the Hendersons, and of course his two appearances as a swim coach, in Ordinary People and Back to School.

M. Emmet Walsh in Raising Arizona

The Accidental Tourist

The first two movies lived up to my expectations, but it was harder to judge with The Accidental Tourist. You see, I've seen it but I remember very little about it. Seeing it again, it's a hard film to warm up to (Just like William Hurt's main character is a tough nut to crack). The thing to keep in mind is that Hurt's character Macon has gone through a tragedy (his son being killed) that is hard if not impossible to ever get past. It causes irreparable harm to his relationship with his wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner). He only finds any degree of getting past anything when he starts a relationship with a quirky dog trainer named Muriel (Geena Davis). Quirky is a good way to describe this whole movie, but I did warm to it eventually, as Macon warmed up to Muriel. I liked the emotional payoffs at the end of the film as well. I'm not sure what to make of the strangely possessive relationships between Macon's brothers and sister. Maybe this is delved into more in the original novel.  

Have I read Anne Tyler's original novel? No, but maybe I should.

ENTRANCED EARTH (1968, BRAZIL), THE OFFICIAL STORY (1985, ARGENTINA)

Everything's political they say. When you tell a story, you have overt politics in the foreground or maybe just the assumption of the way society should be so far in the background you wouldn't even know it was there.

Academic Edward Said stated that one of the most political writers of the 19th century was Jane Austen (of all people) just for that reason.

Entranced Earth

"To a degree, the failure of  Earth Entranced results from its unwillingness to accept the fictional logic of its melodramatic plot."-Roger Greenspun, New York Times, May 15, 1970

"Attacked with equal vitriol by both the Left and the Right, the film was neglected in favor of Rocha's rural epics. Yet seen today it seems not only Rocha's masterpiece, but also that of the new Latin American Cinema."-Richard Pena, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

No escaping the politics of Entranced Earth and there are plenty of divergent opinions on it. Essentially, the plot involves a poet named Paulo, who at different times backs a Right Wing dictator and a Left Wing ideologue, both of whom eventually let Paulo down. Paulo then becomes a revolutionary. The plot is confusing much of the time. I don't know whether to give the film credit here for realism or be critical of it for making me scratch my head. It did make me think of how politics is usually convoluted...and not just in third world countries. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The Official Story

"Beside The Official Story, most of the political movies of recent years seem tub thumbers and point pounders. Luis Puenzo's film is unwaveringly committed to human rights, yet it imposes no ideology or doctrine."-Walter Goodman, November 8, 1985, New York Times

The political situation is really magnified in human terms in The Official Story. Alicia is an Argentine teacher with a husband and an adopted daughter whom she loves dearly. Alicia is content in her life, but can't turn away when she learns some of the things that have been going on in her country over the last few years, including the circumstances in which she adopted her daughter. A powerful film that should challenge some of your beliefs no matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum.

GLORY (1989), TRAINING DAY (2001)

Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery host a podcast called Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All-Time Period! That's a pretty bold statement, but I'll look at his two Oscar winning roles and try to make a determination.

Denzel bound for Glory

Glory is the story based on the writings of Union Captain Robert Shaw (Matthew Broderick) who leads the 54th regiment, one of the first black regiments that fought for the Union during the Civil War. The film depicts the struggles of the regiment to be taken seriously and culminating in the bloody battle of Fort Wagner in 1863. It is a very well done and inspiring epic.

Performances: The regiment includes Morgan Freeman (the leader), Andre Braugher (the intellectual) and Jihmi Kennedy (the wide-eyed innocent), and Cary Elwes (as Shaw's right hand man). They are all good. The real surprise to me is Broderick, who has never been a favorite of mine but really shines as the young commander here.

Washington on your side: But today's blog is about Denzel Washington. He plays Silas Trip, the most cynical of the troop. You wonder in the early scenes how he is going to be able to come together with the rest of the troop in the end, especially after being whipped as a deserter by his own outfit. Washington never loses his inner strength and resolve even in the scene where he is getting beaten. Of course, he does conduct himself like a soldier at the end, dying in battle, and helping in his own way to turn the tide of the war. I can't fault Denzel's Oscar here as he's undeniably a huge screen presence. (Next case)

 Denzel teaching

in Training Day

Training Day features Denzel in a dominating performance as an Alonzo, an L. A. cop with a rookie named Jake (Ethan Hawke) trying to make peace on the streets of the city. Or is he? He's a tough guy, but it's Denzel, you got to like him, right? He plays fast and loose with the rules, but he's got to do that, right?

Then he sets up his drug contact (Scott Glen) and shoots him at point blank range and tells Jake to take the credit (or blame) for the shooting. This is dirty pool, but maybe we can justify it by the fact that he gets a bad dude out of circulation. Right?

Then the final setup has Alonzo setting up Jake to be executed by some hoods as Alonzo escapes with stolen drug money to pay off the Russians, who have threatened his life if he doesn't. Jake escapes before having a battle with Alonzo and Alonzo is forced to walk away without the money. In the final scene, Alonzo is ambushed by the Russians and killed.

Washington on your side: Having a star with the toughness and likability was essential here as the final double cross comes as a surprise. Denzel handles it well and he's hard to look away from even when he's doing something really awful. Another Oscar for Denzel. I can't argue with this one either.

Training Day didn't make the 1001 book, maybe because there are some plot elements that may be a bit far-fetched even in the context of the film. Jake just happening to have the ID of the cousin of the guy who is about to kill him because Jake saved her from getting raped earlier in the day and the guy calls her to confirm it all while Jake has a gun pointed at his head comes to mind. But don't think about some things too closely.

Dear, Kamau

He's certainly one of the best. I may have to listen to more of your podcasts to be persuaded definitively.

Kamau Bell and I discuss the relative merits

of The Pelican Brief and the last

season of St. Elsewhere

THE HORSE THIEF (1986, CHINA), THE BLUE KITE (1993, CHINA), SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN (2002, CHINA)

The Horse Thief

Sometimes the circumstances and mood aren't quiet right to see a certain movie.

The Horse Thief is Tian Zhuagzhuang's story of a poor rural man in Tibet who tries to take care of his family. It starts by him stealing a horse, which isn't ultimately enough to save his dying young son. We see a lot of religious rituals in the greater society and mostly hardship and strife in the context of the family of the man, his wife and son. We don't get to here much dialogue either.

I watched this film in five parts on the Daily Motion website. Perhaps I should have waited to find it on DVD as the frame froze up more than once during my viewing. I watched parts of it more than once, but it wasn't really connecting with me the way that it perhaps could have.

The Blue Kite

The same director's The Blue Kite has plenty of dialogue and is set in a specific time, starting in China at the time of Stalin's death in 1953. The film depicts a lot of suppression by the Communist ruling elite for the main family in the film, which got Zhuangzhuang exiled from making films in China and the film banned. The most interesting part of this film is the succession of men in the life of a young woman and her son named Tietou. The struggles of each man in making the family is slightly different and all are hampered by the Communist regime. Tietou eventually runs out of father figures and is taken away by the state to a somber image of a blue kite. I could honestly get my teeth into this one a little more that The Horse Thief, though The Blue Kite also wasn't without some slow parts.

Springtime in a Small Town

Springtime in a Small Town is Zhuangzhuang's remake of  the 1948 classic, Spring in a Small Town, The new film has a couple of strikes against it right off the bat. First, it is a remake of a beloved movie (at least in China) that doesn't have a lot of action elements for the film to update to begin with. It also has to balance the line between being faithful to the original while being distinctive enough to justify a reason for remaking it. Color photography also seems like a drawback here.

I find this remake to have merit despite these drawbacks.  It is interesting to note the similarities between this film and the original and note where director Tian Zhuangzhuang decided to make some changes. Springtime in a Small Town is worth seeing, but the original alone may be enough for some viewers who may not want to make a second trip into the rubble.

 I would probably concede that The Blue Kite is the best film of this trio of films, but I probably liked Springtime in a Small Town the most.

A TIME TO LIVE, A TIME TO DIE (1985, TAIWAN), A CITY OF SADNESS (1989, TAIWAN)

A Time to Live, A Time to Die

A Time to Live, A Time to Die is an unpretentious and largely unremarkable film that occasionally reaches unexpected depths of feeling.-Janet Maslin, September 23, 1986 New York Times.

A City of Sadness, which was clearly viewed in its own country as a huge step forward in the ability of cinema to look, finally, at Taiwan's recent past, constitutes a real turning point-a fact which also enabled the film to become a great public success-Jean Michel-Frodon,  1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

________

The two films from Taiwanese director Hou Hsia-hsein watched for today have much to recommend them. They are important cinema histories of post-World War II Taiwan and the director uses the experiences of his own childhood to convey much of the story. They are also very well crafted.

That really should be the end of today's blog, but I have to be honest. I didn't really connect too heavily with either film. Well, let me take that back. I did relate to A Time to Live, A Time to Die, but that was only after getting even less connection to A City of Sadness.

The director still has my respect. And I still have The Puppetmaster still on my list to watch. There may be hope yet! I may like The Puppetmaster so much that I will go back and watch City of Sadness with fresh eyes! You never know.

A City of Sadness

THE KILLING FIELDS (1984), SALVADOR (1986)

We made a mistake...We underestimated the kind of insanity that seven billion dollars worth of bombing could do.

Haing S Ngor and Sam Waterson

in The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is the moving and tragic story of the U. S. involvement in Vietnam and more specifically the story of the escalation of the war in Cambodia as seen through the eyes of two journalists, Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson) and Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who won an Oscar for this). A gripping film throughout and one I certainly thought was deserving of its accolades when I saw it at the theater upon release. Seeing it again (Thirty-five years later!) I find the relationship between the two journalists the core of the film, with much of the second half involves Pran trying to get out of Vietnam several years later. The final scene is one that definitely brought tears to my eyes.

Definitely one for the see once in your lifetime list and if you haven't seen it in thirty-five years, one to watch a second time! (Putting on my viewing queue for 2054.)

You let them close down the universities, you let them wipe out the best minds in the country, you let them kill whoever they want, you let them wipe out the Catholic Church, you let them do it all because they aren't Commies! And that, Colonel is Bullshit!

Oliver Stone's Salvador features journalists in another hotspot, El Salvador, during the early 80's. Roustabout journalist Richard Boyle (James Woods) and his friend Dr. Rock (James Belushi) travel to El Salvador where the reckless but talented Boyle runs into all sorts of stories to cover assuming he gets out of it alive. Part of the problem is inherent within the country, but much of that problem can also be related to how the United States handled things there.

Boyle also runs into a fellow photojournalist (John Savage) whose penchant for getting in harm's way to get the perfect photo eventually costs him. The film is a fictionalized story of true events, and depicts historical events within it, including the assassination of Archbishop Moreno and the murder of four American missionaries by Salvadorian militants.

John Savage and James Woods

in Salvador

Other 80's films featuring journalists in hotspots include Under Fire (Nicaragua) 1983, Cry Freedom (South Africa) 1987 and The Year of Living Dangerously (Indonesia) 1982.

GANDHI (1982, GREAT BRITAIN), A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984, GREAT BRITAIN)

Colonialism: Control by one power over a dependent area or people

 Ben Kingsley as Gandhi

Gandhi is the epic three-plus hour retelling of the life of Mahatma Gandhi. It mentions in the opening credits, that they can't tell everything about this life in so short of a space, but they do hit most of the highlights. We see Gandhi when he was a young lawyer in South Africa and and the roots of his non-violent movement. We then see in later years his struggle against the rule of the British empire and how he essentially defeats them through resistance. (Not passive resistance, as he states that he has never been passive about anything).

Academy awards went to director Richard Attenborough, screenwriter John Briley and to Ben Kingsley for his iconic portrayal of Gandhi.

I think the film still resonates as an impressive epic work that should be seen. Whether or not it sugar coats things about Gandhi and avoids things that may be less positive is another matter. Gandhi has the look and feel of one of the great David Lean films which leads us to...

Judy Davis, Victor Banajee and Peggy Ashcroft
in A Passage to India

...A Passage to India which was the last film directed by David Lean and is based on the book by E. M. Forster. The plot involves a Brit named Adela (Judy Davis) who is traveling to India with her future mother-in-law Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft). They befriend a local doctor named Aziz (Victor Banagee) who takes them on an picnic with many others to a cave where a series of unfortunate events leads to an accusation of rape by Adela against Dr. Aziz. Much of the last half of the film deals with the trial of Dr. Aziz and the truth coming out.

This large scale film is admirable in a lot of ways, but it doesn't quite hit the notes of Lean's greatest work (Lawrence of Arabia) or even Gandhi for that matter. Admittedly, that's a pretty high standard and this is still a recommended film and one I had never seen before now. I also haven't read Forster's book, but if I get on an anti-colonialism book kick (I have before), I may pick it up.

Academy Awards went to supporting actress Ashcroft and to Maurice Jarre for his impressive score.

The Fox factor: James Fox plays the very sympathetic Henry Fielding in A Passage to India.
His brother Edward Fox play the very unsympathetic General Dyer in Gandhi.

 Edward Fox in Gandhi

James Fox in A Passage to India

The Saeed Jaffrey factor: Jaffrey plays the role of Patel in Gandhi and Hamindullah in A Passage to India.

Saeed Jaffrey in Gandhi

Saeed Jaffrey in A Passage to India