The Anderson Platoon
Directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer
Written by Pierre Schoendoerffer
1967/France IMDb link
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme. — Robert McNamara[/box]
A veteran of the French Indochina War imbeds himself with an American platoon in the long war’s next phase. He captures the way the GIs try and fail to create a little piece of home on the frontlines. But war is indeed hell. Narrated by Stuart Whitman.
This brought back memories of the family (mostly me and my Dad) arguing about the War at the dinner table while the TV blasted graphic images of combat. The U.S. government would never allow those images again.
What we saw every night on TV during the Vietnam War.
Week End Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Written by Jean-Luc Godard 1967/France IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Roland: What a rotten film. All we meet are crazy people.[/box]
A film about everything and nothing. Mostly nothing.
I will confess that I did not give this film my 100% attention. Anyway, a married couple has many adventures on the way to see the wife’s parents on the weekend. A film of endless traffic pile-ups, explosions, philosophical observations and other such rot.
It’s a red-letter day! I never have to watch another film by Jean-Luc Godard as long as I live!
Oedipus Rex (Edipo Re) Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini Written by Pier Paolo Pasolini from the play by Sophocles 1967/Italy IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] “How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be/ When there’s no help in truth.” ― Sophocles, Oedipus Rex[/box]
Pasolini’s primitive interpretation of the ancient tragedy made it seem to come to life.
The film begins and ends with scenes of contemporary Italy. A father is jealous of the attention his wife is giving their newborn. Then we segue to ancient Greece – not the Greece of the Parthenon but a more primitive time.
Oedipus is born to Jocasta and Laius, Queein and King of Thebes. A soothsayer predicts that the baby will grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. You didn’t mess around with predictions in ancient Greece and the parents send the infant off with a servant to die of exposure in a particularly barren location. The servant takes pity on the boy and hands him off to the servant of the King and Queen of Corinth. The childless couple adopts the boy and raises him as heir to the throne. One night Oedipus has a terrible dream and asks permission to seek an interpretation from the Oracle at Delphi.
At Delphi, the Oracle does not interpret the dream but rather predicts that Oedipus will murder his father and marry his mother. Terrified of returning to Corinth, Oedipus is guided by fate to Thebes where the prophecy comes true, unbeknownst to any of the principals. A plague forces Oedipus to determine who is infecting the community.
The Ancient Greece of Pasolini might as well be on another planet with its endless deserts and bizarre costumes. This is not a civilized time. The drama has an overblown style that just happens to completely mesh with the size of the story. Themes that have persisted through the centuries include the inexorability of Fate, the struggle to come of age, and the search for the truth. I liked this a lot. You might too if the description appeals.
The Flim-Flam Man Directed by Irvin Kershner Written by William Rose based on a novel by Guy Owen 1967/US IMDb link
First viewing/You Tube
[box] Mordecai Jones: Educational Credits: “M.B.S., C.S., D.D. – Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Dirty-Dealing!”[/box]
This is an OK con man comedy along the lines of The Sting and Paper Moon which are both superior, despite the heroic efforts of George C. Scott in this.
Curley (Michael Sarrazin) is AWOL and on the run from Military Police. He hitches a ride on a train and meets Mordecai Jones (Scott). Jones takes a liking to the youngster and proceeds to introduce him to many different scams. Some take advantage of the greed of the victim. Others are just theft. Along the way the two run up against Sherrif Slade (Harry Morgan – what a career he had!). Curley falls in love with Bonnie Lee Packard (Sue Lyon) the daughter of one of their marks. With a ton of great character actors including Slim Pickens, Jack Albertson, Alice Ghostly and Strother Martin.
I probably shouldn’t be reviewing this as the copy on YouTube was blurry and distracting. Also I came specifically to hear the title tune, which was written by Laura Nyro and covered by Barbra Streisand. It was nowhere to be found! Setting those things aside, this is moderately enjoyable fare.
Viy Directed by Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov Written by Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov from a story by Nicholai Gogol 1967/USSR IMDb link
First viewing/YouTube
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Movies on the “They Shoot Zombies Don’t They” List
[box] “I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.” ― Nikolai Gogol[/box]
Horror Soviet-style turns out to be entertaining if not particularly scary.
Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov) is a bit of a sad sack and is studying to be a monk. He and a few of his fellow students go on vacation, which consists of a lot of drinking and other sinful behavior. They run out of money and don’t have a place to spend the night. An old crone at a farmhouse agrees to take them in but they must all occupy different rooms. Khoma is left sleeping in the barn next to some livestock. The old woman enters and tries to seduce him. She talks him into letting her mount his back and flies off with him.
Clearly she is a witch and Khoma proceeds to beat her savagely. As the old lady succumbs to the blows she transforms into a young beauty. Khoma runs away. On her death bed, she instructs her father to sent for Khoma to pray for her soul. She dies and the father forces Khoma to spend three nights praying over her corpse. She and monsters from hell try to scare him to death.
The plot summary may not suggest it but there is a good deal of comedy in this film. Such a relief to get back to a List film that actually tells a story. What these guys could have done with a bigger special effects budget!
Terra em transe (Earth Entranced) Directed by Glauber Rocha Written by Glauber Rocha 1967/Brazil IMDb link
First viewing/YouTube
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] The camera is an object that lies. – Glauber Rocha[/box]
Your cranky critic found this beautifully shot film to be too weird for words.
Paulo Martins is a poet and journalist in the fictional country of El Dorado. He opposes both the populist and reactionary candidates for leadership. Meanwhile, outright revolution fills the streets.
Ok, the first problem is that the hero is a poet and speaks in ridiculously didactic “poetic”dialogue. The second is there really is no story – just a bunch of events that allow Rocha to take freakish Felliniesque close-ups of the bad guys. I think experimental political cinema is not for me. The English-subtitled print currently on YouTube looks great.
Zatoichi Challenged (Zatoichi chikemuri kaido) Directed by Kenji Misumi Written by Ryozo Kashahara; story by Kan Shimozawa 1967/Japan IMDb link
First viewing/Criterion Channel
[box] There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. — Napoleon Bonaparte[/box]
Number 17 in the series about my favorite blind swordsman is one of the better entries.
The basic plot outline is always the same: Zatoichi is honor-bound to protect women and children against the predation of evil yakuza gangs and kicks ass while doing so. In this one, a woman on her death bed asks Zatoichi to bring her small son to his father, an artist. En route, the two run into a troupe of actors that Zatoichi must also protect. Turns out the father has been blackmailed by the gang into producing highly illegal pornographic images.
This moved along at a good clip and has some awesome swordplay. It also looks really handsome and Shintaro Katsu is up to his usual superb standard. Does continue the unfortunate trend of saddling the hero with an annoying comic-relief kid but mostly just great.
Marketa Lazarova Directed by Frantisec Vlacil Written by Frantisec Pavlicek and Frantisec Vlacil from a novel by Vladislav Vancura 1967/Czechoslovakia IMDB link
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] “I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.” ― Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”[/box]
One stunning image follows another in this violent tale of the clash of paganism and Christianity during an endless winter in medieval Europe.
I stopped trying to figure out who all the characters and what they were doing about half an hour in. Notably, pagan robbers abduct and rape the title character, whose father had dedicated her to God.
The situation devolves into all-out clan warfare. Did I mention that the winter is endless?
This is one of the most visually beautiful movies I have seen. I might get more out of it on a second viewing. The rape and other violence make that unlikely.
Privilege Directed by Peter Watkins Written by Norman Bogner, Johnny Speight and Peter Watkins 1967/UK IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Rev. Jeremy Tate: This black card will be issued to you as you leave the Stadium tonight. On it there are three words.They are simple words but they are vital words. They are words which we must now, all of us, begin using because, since the end of the War, we in Britain have become apathetic, slack, loose in our morality. National cohesion has become unimportant to us! We must fight this. We must. Now, all of us begin to use the words on the card! “We will conform.”[/box]
Innovative directing cannot save terrible acting and a ponderous tone.
It is some time in the near future, as of 1967. The British Government controls the population through its idolization of pop singer Steven Strayer (Paul Jones).First, an ultra-violent act releases societal tensions.Then, the government decides it would prefer a nationalistic mass religious conversion. Jean Shrimpton plays an artist who tries to set Strayer straight.
I thought both Jones and Shrimpton were zombie-like, despite their fake emotional outbursts. The plot plays out like an ersatz “1984”. The music is OK. Other people appear to like this way more than I did.
Journey to the Center of Time Directed by David L. Hewitt Written by David L. Hewitt 1967/US IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] Dr. ‘Doc’ Gordon: And since space-time is a continuum, the present is only a point moving constantly along that continuum
Mr. Denning: When you put it like that, Doctor, even I can understand it[/box]
Don’t watch this if you are already bored. In fact, no need to watch it at all.
A group of scientists in 1968 is experimenting with time travel. They are threatened with losing their grant. So they stage a demonstration. Unfortunately, they lack control of the process.
We see scenes ranging from 1 million B.C. to 6968 A.D. Unfortunately, they are all glimpsed through a monitor from a cardboard set while scientists spout endless “scientific” jargon. Don’t bother.
The Anderson Platoon
