Monthly Archives: September 2021

Watership Down (1978)

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Watership Down
Directed by Martin Rosen
Written by Martin Rosen from a novel by Richard Adams
1978/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Frith: There is not a day or night that a doe offers her life for her kittens or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief, but there is no bargain. What is is what must be.

This is quite watchable but could have been better.

The film begins with a narrator recounting the Lapine creation myth.  Lord Frith created all the animals but they were the same.  The rabbits got too big for their britches.  As punishment, he gave each kind of animal a special gift.  Many were given claws and teeth to kill the rabbits.  To the rabbits, he gave a bright white tail and speed.  The rabbits were told that they were to be the prey of any who could catch them but first they had to catch them.

We segue into the main story.  Fiver is a skittish psychic kind of rabbit who gets a premonition that something terrible is going to happen to his whole warren.  Hazel (voiced by John Hurt), his brother, talks many of the other rabbits into seeking out a new home.  Other rabbits prefer to remain behind.

The rabbits go through many dangerous situations and have several adventures along the way.  They meet an injured seagull named Kehaar (voiced by Zero Mostel) and nurse him to health.  Kehaar becomes a potent asset as a spy and warrior.

Finally, the rabbits meet up with a warren run by a dictator.  They want Hazel’s group to join their warren – or else.

This is not a children’s film.  The rabbits are not cute and have many scary enemies.  It tells a cautionary sermon about habitat destruction.  I thought it was pretty good until it starts getting all Animal Farm-ish toward the end and lost me.

Grease (1978)

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Grease
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Written by Bronte Woodward from the original musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Danny: You can’t just walk out of a drive-in.

I had a lot of fun watching this.  It was better than I remembered.

Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) have an idyllic summer romance on the beach.  Sandy is from Australia and they sadly part, thinking the odds are that they will never see each other again.  But Sandy’s plans changed and she finds herself in the senior class of Rydell High, which Danny also attends.  Problem Sandy is a good girl and Danny is a greaser, perhaps the head greaser.  However, they continue to be in love with each other though Danny does his best to conceal this from the guys.

Sandy is adopted by the Pink Ladies, girls that date greasers.  She begins a rivalry with Rizzo (Stockard Channing) who has a yen for Danny and Rizzo does her best to sabotage the romance.  The story covers such musts as multiple misunderstandings; a dance contest; and a drag race. The movie is filled with upbeat music and fantastic dancing that celebrates the joys and pains of highschool.  With an outstanding cameo cast including Eve Arden as the principal; Sid Caesar as the coach; Joan Blondell as a waitress; Frankie Avalon as a Teen Angel; and Alice Ghostly as the school’s car mechanics teacher.

I saw this first as a stage play and when the movie was released I was kind of disappointed because it did not capture the 50’s the way the play did.  However, on repeat viewing I didn’t care about that.  I just enjoyed almost two hours of high energy entertainment.  If you can tolerate musical comedies and want something that will put a smile on your face, I can recommend.

Halloween (1978)

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Halloween
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tommy: Laurie, what’s the Boogeyman?

A classic of horror cinema.

The setting is Haddonfield, Illinois, a small town mid-America. High-schooler Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis)  spends most of her evenings babysitting. She doesn’t date much because the boys think she is “too smart”.  She is best friends with obnoxious and mean Annie and Lynda. Her friends both have horny boyfriends.  On Halloween night Laurie and Annie are both babysitting and Laurie plays musical houses with her friends so they can fool around with their boyfriends.

In the meantime, Michael Meyers escapes from a mental institution.  Meyers had murdered his sister when he was six years old.  He has been diagnosed as a soulless killing machine. He heads straight to Haddonfield where he terrorizes the girls and their boyfrienfds.

I waited a long time to see this because I am a wimp.  I needn’t have worried since there is very, very little gore involved.  There are a ton of jump scares however.  Well done on the part of Carpenter, who also wrote the creepily effective score. Recommended.

Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978)

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Koko: A Talking Gorilla (Koko, le gorille qui parle)
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
1978/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

 

It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired – you quit when the gorilla is tired. — Robert Strauss

A fascinating documentary about a gorilla who learned to use sign language, and more broadly, man’s relationship to animals.

Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo and lived there until she was one year old.  She became ill and was then cared for by Stanford University researcher Penny Patterson who undertook to teach her American Sign Language.

She eventually learned over 1,000 signs and understood more than 2,000 words of spoken English.  She put together primitive sentences and created new words by combining signs she already knew.  She lived to be 48 years old and was quite the celebrity.

The subject matter is interesting on it’s own is even more interesting for the questions it raises.  What are the ethics of removing an animal from its own kind?  What are the ethics of training an animal to be “human”?  How much of the communication arose from Patterson’s subjective interpretation?  Recommended.