Category Archives: 1981

Ragtime
Directed by Milos Forman
Written by Michael Weller from a novel by E.L. Doctorow
1981/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental

Younger Brother: What kind of music do you play?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: Anything they ask me to, and then I play ragtime.

This was even better than I remembered it.

The story takes place in New York City and its environs in the days before WWI.  It is intended to give a panoramic view of the time.  Mother (Mary Steenbergen), Father (James Olson), and Younger Brother (Brad Dourif) are an upper middle class family living in New Rochelle.  Father is very proper and conventional but in the end is not such a bad guy.  Mother and her brother march to a different drum.

A maid finds a black baby in the garden and Mother immediately wants to take it in.  Finally, the mother (Debbie Allen)  is found and Mother insists on taking her in as well.  The father of the child, Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) soon makes an appearance.  His mastery of the piano has secured him steady employment and he is now prepared to marry.

Simultaneously we follow the story of Evelyn Nesbitt (Elizabeth McGovern) and her jealous husband Henry Thaw.  Thaw becomes enraged when a nude statue, rumored to have been modeled by his wife, is placed atop Madison Square Garden.  Although millionaire Stanford White denies this, Thaw starts following him with murderous intent and finally achieves his aim at a show in the Garden.  He comes from a wealthy family who secure him the best defense attorney (Pat O’Brien) and pay off Evelyn to lie on the stand.

Also simultaneously, we meet a Jewish immigrant artist (Mandy Patinkin) who eventually  becomes an early movie maker.

Little Brother becomes obsessed with Evelyn but she is a ditzy free spirit who is certainly is not ready for any type of commitment.  This leaves him ready to perform any number of rash acts.

Coalhouse is very proud of his brand new Model T.  Right before his wedding day, the car stalls in front of a fire department.  The firemen resent the idea that a black man could have a new car and dump excrement on the front seat.  Coalhouse demands that they clean it.  But they don’t and the authorities take their side.  The car is badly damaged overnight.  Things subsequently spiral out of control as Coalhouse seeks justice.  With James Cagney, in his last film, as a police commissioner and Donald O’Connor as Evelyn’s  dance instructor.

It is hard to single out a performance from the ensemble cast as they are uniformly excellent.  The movie is long but the story is gripping.  And it was so much fun to see all the old movie stars.  Cagney has a substantial part and is fantastic.  Forman never made a bad film and the period detail here is out of this world.

I have a friend who has done extensive research on Nesbit and am wondering what she thinks about her portrayal in this film.

“Ragtime” was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Rollins), Best Supporting Actress (McGovern), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score (Randy Newman), and Best Original Song.

Theme song for another movie but appropriate here.

Quest for Fire (La guerre du feu)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Written by Gerard Brach from a book by J.H. Rosny Sr./Anthony Burgess creator of special languages/Desmond Morris creator of body language and gestures
1981/Canada/France
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)

[first lines] Title Card: 80,000 years ago, man’s survival in a vast uncharted land depended on the possession of fire. / For those early humans, fire was an object of great mystery, since no one had mastered its creation. Fire had to be stolen from nature, it had to be kept alive – sheltered from wind and rain, guarded from rival tribes. / Fire was a symbol of power and a means of survival. The tribe who possessed fire, possessed life.

I was mesmerized by this very strange movie.

The film is set in the time of pre-history when Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis co-existed. The population has migrated to a climate with cold winters. Fire is essential to humans for heat, cooking, and to scare away wild animals. We are introduced to a group who disastrously loses its carefully tended fire supply to marauding Neanderthals. Three of its young men are sent out in search of more. They have many harrowing adventures.

The group battles another that has captured women from yet another tribe.  One (Rae Dawn Chong) escapes and attaches her self to the men, who eventually accept her.  She has a more sophisticated language and leads them back to her little village.  In the course of more wandering, fire and romantic love are discovered.

I was a bit nervous going in but I totally loved this.  There is no dialogue that we can understand and no subtitles.  And way too many things are discovered in a very short period. I’m sure the accuracy could be picked apart in many other ways.  But the filmmakers have created a world here and, once one surrenders to it, it is totally engrossing and thought-provoking.  Rae Dawn Chong does an amazing job and so do her male counterparts.  Recommended.

Quest for Fire won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Missing theme song

Arthur
Written and Directed by Steve Gordon
1981/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental

Lola
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pia Frohlich and Peter Märthesheimer
1981/West Germany
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

 

Lola: A whore is something for sale, like that Ming thing there. Except you can touch them, and they’re not so rare.

Fassbinder’s scathing critique of capitalism in the “New Germany” is also a feast for the eyes.

The year is 1957.  Lola (Barbara Sukowa) is a singer/prostitute and a favorite at the brothel she works at.  She is being kept by a wealthy and thoroughly corrupt building contractor, Schuckert.  As the movie begins, Lola is thinking she does not get nearly the respect she deserves. Simultaneously, a new building commissioner is coming to town.  Van Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is a kindly, traditional, strait-laced man with a vision of building apartments for the community.

At first, von Bohm is enthusiastic about Schuckert’s proposal.  Schuckert is enthusiastic because he can milk millions out of the community.  The community fathers are as corrupt as he is.  When Schuckert tells Lola Von Bohm is too good for her, she accepts the challenge.  Before too long, Lola figures out how she can play the two men against each other and come out on top.

This film is Fassbinder’s take on The Blue Angel (1930).   He adds brilliant color to the story as well as a lot of wit.  The acting is fantastic and so is the script and filmmaking.  Recommended.

No trailer with subtitles

Too obvious but the only possible missing theme song

Escape from New York
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Nick Castle
1981/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Bob Hauk: It’s the survival of the human race, Plissken. Something you don’t give a shit about.

I loved the setting for this dystopian action adventure.

It is 1997.  Since the late eighties, Manhattan Island has been used as a maximum security prison.  The prisoners are allowed to govern themselves.  Provisions on the island are scarce and gasoline is precious.  Punishment for escape is swift and fatal.

As the story begins, a plane is hijacked and the President (Donald Pleasance) is ejected via an escape pod.  He is deposited in the center of Manhattan.  He carried a briefcase containing a tape explaining nuclear fusion that he was supposed to reveal at an international summit (a more McGuffinish McGuffin is hard to imagine).  Prison warden Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) is tasked with rescuing the President and the tape.  His only hope is Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), an ace pilot and bad ass.  Snake has 24 hours to complete his assignment.  He will die if he does not complete it by the deadline.  He will be pardoned for an offense that was about to send him to Manhattan if he succeeds.

Snake lands atop the World Trade Center.  The first person he meets is loopy cab driver Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine) who somehow secures enough gas to drive him around town.  Next he hits up “friends” Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau). Brain knows that the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) and his minions are holding the President as a bargaining chip to escape via the Brooklyn Bridge.  Much action follows.

This is the kind of thing I would not have sought out in 1981 but decades of movie watching have made me realize it is something special.  The concept is intriguing and the production is out of this world.  I particularly liked the black and grey vision of New York.  In this case style over substance won me over.  If the concept appeals, I can recommend it.

I’m with Gene on this one.

Mommie Dearest
Directed by Frank Perry
Written by Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, etc. from a book by Christina Crawford
1981/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

Joan Crawford: Why can’t you give me the respect that I’m entitled to? Why can’t you treat me like I would be treated by any stranger on the street?
Christina: Because I am NOT one of your FANS.

This film might have been saved by a better script and a different leading lady.

Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) has it all and fights constantly to keep it.  One thing the much-divorced actress lacks is a family.  She can’t have children of her own or convince an adoption agency she is a fit mother so she essentially buys two, Christina and Christopher.  They make great props for her press events.  She shows them much affection until they demonstrate that they have wills and needs of their own.

Joan gets into a running battle with the strong-willed Christina.  She must resort to harsher and harsher punishments but they just terrify the little girl.  It doesn’t help that Joan becomes a belligerent drunk and loses her mind as her career goes down the tubes.

This movie destroyed Faye Dunaway’s career and with good reason.  She was horribly miscast.  She was a good actress but not one who could disappear into a character.  So her Joan Crawford just seems like Faye Dunaway on a rampage.  In addition, she reportedly was extremely difficult to work with and thought she was turning in an Oscar-winning performance.  The script is pure sensationalism and exploitation.  The film does have some camp delights but not enough to recommend watching it.

Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate)
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
Written by Jean Aurenche and Bernard Tavernier from the novel “Pop. 1280” by Jim Thompson
1981/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime channel

Lucien Cordier: They say we are made in God’s image though if that were true I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley!

Is this a jet black comedy?  It is certainly not a murder mystery.

It is 1938 in French West Africa.  Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) is the Chief of Police in a small town.  He is a real sad sack, hired because of his laziness and ability to turn a blind eye.  He is the butt of everyone’s jokes.  He is married to Huguette (Stephane Audran), who is openly having an affair with her “brother” that lives with them. He takes up with Rose (Isabelle Huppert), a sex pot who is the victim of her husband’s physical and verbal abuse.

After his latest humiliation, he goes to the big city and is  told to give back double of what he gets from his tormentors.  Somehow Lucien believes this is a license to kill, which he does with abandon for the remainder of the film, being careful to always have a fall guy for his crimes.

The story this has most in common with is Taxi Driver (1976).  The Philippe Noiret character is a complicated mix of clown and avenger.  He comes to view his job as taking out the trash.  There is not one sympathetic character in this movie.  The story could have been told in a more compelling way but I love the actors and the staging so much that I can recommend it.  But only if you like well-done dark stories about unpleasant people.

Thief
Directed by Michael Mann
Written by Michael Mann based on a book by Frank Hohimer
1981/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Apple TV free

 

Frank: You’re marking time is what you are. You’re backing off. You’re hiding out. You’re waiting for a bus that you hope never comes because you don’t wanna get on it anyway because you don’t wanna go anywhere. Ok?

Michael Mann’s film debut features some stylish action and the character study of a man trying to change his life in all the wrong ways.

Frank (James Caan) spent 17 of his formative years in prison, starting with a two-year sentence for stealing $40.00.  While there, he earned another 15 years for manslaughter when he killed to protect himself from rape.  He also learned safecracking  from his friend and mentor Okla (Willie Nelson).  As the movie starts, he has been free for four years and is putting this skill to work.

Frank specializes in high stakes jewel and cash heists. He just needs one last big score before he goes straight.  He wants the same thing as many men have – a wife, a child, and a house.  Unfortunately, he has expensive tastes and feels he is running out of time. He sets his sights on diner hostess Jessie (Tuesday Weld) and she agrees to his awkward  and premature proposal.  He gets an offer he is unable to refuse from big-time fence Leo (Robert Prosky).  But his explosive temper is a bad fit for the work Leo has in mind.

The crime story is the old one of the thief in search of one last heist.  This part is brilliantly stylish and reveals Mann’s budding talent.  The character study part kind of misses the mark for me.  I love Tuesday Weld.  She didn’t make nearly enough movies.  This is also probably Caan’s best work as an actor.