Category Archives: Movie Reviews

General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
Written by Barbet Schroeder
1974/France/Switzerland
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

 

Idi Amin: [a Telegram to Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania] I want to assure you that I love you very much, and if you had been a woman I would have considered marrying you although your head is full of grey hairs, but as you are a man that possibility does not arise.

 

You can’t help being entertained by the antics of Idi Amin, even knowing the depth of his evil.

Barbet Schroeder agreed that Amin, the brutal dictator oppressing and murdering his fellow Ugandans, could arrange the scenes shot for this documentary so long as Amin himself appeared in the scene.  Amin acts like a buffoon throughout.  My favorite part is where he demonstrates his strategy for taking the Golan Heights back from Israel using a tank, some of the most bedraggled soldiers ever seen, and a helicopter.  He plays the accordian and demonstrates traditional dance moves.  He also takes the crew out to visit his extensive collection of crocodiles. We learn from the narration that the bodies of his opponents wound up in their stomachs. The movie closes with him organizing a charity drive for the U.K. where he has heard the people are hungry.  This movie is absolutely fascinating.  You really cannot take your eyes from the flamboyant, charismatic dictator and his bizarre fantasy world.   Many of his statements are so outlandish even he laughs.  But you can also see the evil peeking through at points.  It’s an unsettling experience.  It is estimated that Amin’s policies of political oppression and ethnic persecution killed between 100,000 and 500,000 Ugandans.

 

 

Best Director-winning Francis Ford Coppola’s critically-acclaimed gangster epic sequel The Godfather, Part II (1974), — actually a prequel — became the first ‘sequel’ to win Best Picture. It would help launch the trend toward blockbuster sequels. It was the first instance that a sequel received the subtitle of Part II.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1975, Howard Hawks received an Honorary Oscar inscribed “A master American filmmaker whose creative efforts hold a distinguished place in world cinema.” Jean Renoir received one that said “A genius who, with grace, responsibility and enviable devotion through silent film, sound film, feature, documentary and television has won the world’s admiration.”

We lost Samuel Goldwyn, Patricia Collinge, Betty Compson, Duke Ellington, Agnes Moorhead, Donald Crisp, Otto Kruger, Walter Brennan, Vittorio De Sica, Pietro Germi, Anatole Litvak, and Jack Benny.  Chevy Chase, Jeff Goldblum, Edward James Olmos. and John Rhys Davies made their film debuts.

Following impeachment hearings started on May 9th  Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency on August 9th, making him the first and only President to do so. His vice president, Gerald Ford, took office after him and soon gave Nixon a full pardon for his wrongdoing.

Inflation continued to spiral out of control around the world reaching 11.3% in the USA and 17.2% in the UK as the global recession deepened.  A 55 MPH maximum speed limit was imposed in the U.S. to conserve gasoline.  Daylight Savings Time started in January to conserve power.  President Ford announced an amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.  Heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

“The Way We Were” spent three weeks on the Billboard charts making it the number one single of 1974 in the US.  There were no Pulitzer Prizes awarded for fiction or drama.  Time magazine named King Faisal of Saudi Arabia “man of the year for 1974.” The magazine said the king was “a principal factor” in quadrupling oil prices, and that he “holds more power than any other leader to lower or raise, them” in the future.

Syria and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on the Golan Heights on June 5. Isabel Peron, Juan Peron’s third wife, became President of Argentina after the death of her husband, making her the first female president in the world.  Soviet authorities expelled author Alexander Solzhenitsyn,  revoking his Russian citizenship.

The Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang was discovered at Xi’an, China. The skeleton “Lucy”, a distant ancestor of man, was discovered in Ethiopia.

The Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner was developed.  Pocket calculators appeared in the shops.  A very primitive word processor came in use.  The UPC bar code was introduced.

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Here is the short list I will pick from for the year.  Suggestions and warnings welcome.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Directed by Peter Yates
Written by Paul Monash based on a novel by George V. Higgins
1973/USA
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

 

Eddie ‘Fingers’ Coyle: [sighs] I shoulda known better than to trust a cop. My own God-damned mother could have told me that.
Dave Foley: Everyone oughta listen to his mother.

Robert Mitchum is perfect as a sad-sack ex-con in this excellent, if dark, violent, and depressing, thriller.

As the movie begins, small time hoodlum and devoted family man Eddie Coyle (Mitchum), is awaiting sentencing for his latest crime.  If Eddie doesn’t get a little mercy from the prosecutor’s office, he will go away for several years as a three-time loser leaving his aging wife on welfare.  The only currency Eddie has with the Man is his connections in the Boston mob.  In particular, he knows people who are trafficking in weapons in the underground illicit gun trade.  He tries to make a deal with Treasury Agent Dave Foley (Richard Jordan) in exchange for some information but Foley plays him like a fiddle demanding ever more active participation in the investigation.

Unbeknownst to Eddie, criminal associate Dillon is also informing for Foley.  The guns in question are being used in a series of bank robberies.  Let’s just say that Eddie could use some better friends.

Robert Mitchum is brilliant as the washed-up man with a past – basically decent, fatalistic, world-weary and tired.  By this time, he knows he’s the perfect patsy.  It’s a rock-solid neo-noir with other fantastic acting and a gritty atmosphere in keeping with the dark subject matter.  An interesting meditation on corrupt cops and even more corrupt robbers.  With a nice jazzy score from Dave Grusin. That Mitchum performance makes this a must-see for a fan-girl like me.

Wishing all my readers peace, love and understanding this Christmas.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Lady Snowblood (Shurayukihime)
Directed by Toshiya Fujita
Written by Norio Osada; story by Kazuo Kamimura and Kazua Koike
Japan/1973
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

 

Yuki Kashima: Look at me closely. Do I look like someone you raped?

This is a well-made vengeance film with plenty of action.  But it has more blood than a Herschell Gordon Lewis film and was not for me.

It is Meiji Era Japan, when the Japan began opening to the west.  But the story could have taken place in any era.  The story begins with the difficult birth of Yuki and the subsequent death of her mother.  The mother had been gang raped and the family robbed.  Yuki was conceived with the specific purpose of exacting vengeance for the wrongs done to her family.  She is trained to be a strong highly skilled warrior.

When she attains adulthood, Yuki (Meiko Kaji) is a killing machine.  We watch as she slays bad guys left and right.  She has an unerring ability to hit several major arteries with a single stroke of her mighty steel, causing bright red blood to flow in geysers.  You can only imagine what ensues when she slices the body of an enemy in half.

This movie was taken from a manga comic and everything is greatly heightened from reality.  The fights are flamboyant and contain some wirework.  The blood is clearly faked and not realistic.  Still I had to fight the urge to just stop watching several times.

This film and its sequel (which I won’t be watching) were a major influence on Quentin Tarrantino’s Kill Bill, Vol 1 and Vol 2.  The film has a 7.7/10 IMDb user rating so your mileage could definitely vary.

The Best Picture winner The Sting had a number of notable aspects:  it was the first Universal Studios film to win the Best Picture Oscar since All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); Edith Head won her 8th and final Best Costume Design Academy Award;  Julia Phillips, one of the film’s producers, became the first woman to be nominated for and to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Groucho Marx received an Honorary Oscar “in recognition of his brilliant creativity and for the unequaled achievements of the Marx Brothers in the art of motion picture comedy”.  Henri Langlois received one “for his devotion to the art of film, his massive contributions in preserving its past and his unswerving faith in its future”.

The science-fiction classic thriller Westworld was the first feature-length movie to make significant use of “digitized image processing,” a primitive term for what has evolved into CGI (computer-generated imagery) in the present day. It marked the first use of 2D computer animation (CGI) in a significant entertainment feature film in a “computer vision” sequence – the ‘android POV’ (infra-red) of Westworld’s malfunctioning robotic-android Gunslinger (portrayed by Yul Brynner) on a killing spree.

In negotiations with Fox, George Lucas wisely cut his directing fee for Star Wars (1977) by $500,000 in order to gain ownership of merchandising and sequel rights. In a revolutionary approach to Hollywood film-making and merchandising, Lucas accepted $175,000 in return for a much more lucrative forty percent of merchandising rights. Merchandising of movie paraphernalia associated with the film encouraged an entire marketing industry of Star Wars-related items (i.e., toys, video games, novelty items at fast food restaurants, etc.).

We lost John Ford, Bruce Lee, Edward G. Robinson, Betty Grable, Cecil Kellaway, Robert Siodmak, Noel Coward, Merian C. Cooper, Veronica Lake, Robert Ryan, Jean-Pierre Melville, Anna Magnani, and Laurence Harvey.  John Candy, Laura Dern, Rutger Hauer, Bernadette Peters, and Skellan Skarsgard made their film debuts.  Doesn’t seem like a fair trade somehow.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade ruled states could not outlaw abortion.  Oglala Lakota Native Americans and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began their occupation of the site of the Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota during February.  The group surrendered in May.

The U.S. withdrew its troops from Vietnam.  The five “dirty tricksters” that burglarized Democratic Party headquarters in January 1972 were convicted and sentenced to prison in January.  A Senate Select Committee began investigating the White House connection to the scandal and cover-up attempts in March, with gavel-to-gavel TV coverage.  General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup in Chile.

The Arab-Israel Yom Kippur War was fought in October.  In the same month, the OPEC oil cartel restricted sales to countries that had supported Israel in the war causing gasoline prices to skyrocket and stagflation to roil economies.

“Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn spent four weeks on top of the Billboard charts, making it the number one single of the year in the US.  The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and That Championship Season by Jason Miller won for Drama.  The Washington Post won the Public Service in Journalism Pulitzer for its investigation of the Watergate scandal.  Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” was Judge John Sirica.  In 1973, as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over Watergate-related recordings of White House conversations.

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Here is the short list I will pick from for the year.

Special Request:  I am inclined to skip a couple of films from the 1001 movie list that I have not seen – Turkish Delight and La maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore).  Anybody, are these worth seeing?  Also I am curious but hesitant about La grande bouffe.  Finally, there are a bunch of “They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?” horror films at the bottom of my list.  Any dogs or gore fests among them?  Suggestions also welcome.

Frenzy
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Anthony Shaffer from a novel by Arthur La Bern
1972/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Greatest Horror Films on theyshootzombies.com

Robert Rusk: I don’t know if you know it, Babs, but you’re my type of woman.

You know you’re in decline when your set pieces move from atop Mount Rushmore to the interior of a potato truck.  Still this is as good as late Hitchcock gets and is entertaining.

The film begins with beautiful vistas of the River Thames accompanied by appropriately majestic music.  But as the camera focuses in on the bank, we see a victim of the Necktie Strangler floating in the water wearing only a necktie.  The Strangler rapes his victims  before he murders them.

Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) has a hot temper and a giant chip on his shoulder and is now broke, having lost his job at a pub for sneaking a drink he claims he was going to pay for.  He is in a relationship with barmaid Babs Milligan (Anna Massey).  Richard’s friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) runs a stand at the Covent Garden market and is usually good for a few bob and a place to stay.

Following a night in a Salvation Army shelter, Richard decides to pay a visit on his ex-wife who is a marriage broker.  She evidently still has a soft spot for him, takes him to dinner, and slips him some cash.

This is not a mystery but a “wrong man” thriller.  So we know at all times that Bob Rusk is the Necktie Strangler.  He seems to have fun strangling ladies that Richard knows and Richard is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The suspense is will the police figure this out before Richard pays the price.

This represents both a departure for Hitchcock and a return to his roots.  Hitchcock entirely abandons restrictions of the past with a fair bit of nudity and extra-marital sex.  But at the same time this is a return to the wrong man theme and has more of a twinkle in its eye than in his prior two attempts at spy films.  The potato truck scene is exciting.  Actually my favorite part is the poor police inspector who has to endure the results of his wife’s passion for French gourmet cooking every night. Not essential except for completists.

Sleuth
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Anthony Shaffer from his play
1972/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Andrew Wyke: You said everything was in plain view!
Milo Tindle: Well aren’t I the shifty old sly boots, then.

Imagine a movie where two very different but great actors try to upstage each other for the entire running time.  Now imagine they are given a brilliantly literate screenplay and one of the best directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  That is Sleuth.

It would be criminal to give away any of the plot so I will but set the stage.  Andrew Wyke (Lawrence Olivier) writes old-fashioned crime fiction replete with a brilliant aristocratic private detective and dense police inspectors.  He lives in a palatial estate in the English country side. Every inch of the house and grounds is stuffed with playthings.  Anywhere you look there is a puzzle, or a mechanical toy, or other kind of oddity,  Despite his proclivity for “fun”, Andrew is in all respects a very conservative, class-conscious lord of the manor.  He has a sharp tongue and a keen wit.

Milo Tendle (Michael Caine) is a much-younger half-Italian hairdresser from Soho.  He has been having an affair with Andrew’s wife and wants to marry her.  Andrew has invited Milo to his place to discuss the matter.  What Milo lacks in breeding he makes up for in street smarts and cunning. Let the games begin!

I saw this on stage and then this film on original release.  Fortunately, I forgot some of the plot twists!  At any rate, there is so much to look at and absorb that I can’t imagine this movie ever getting old. Such fun to watch Olivier and Caine do their thing!  Highly recommended.

Both Caine and Olivier were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar rejected by Marlon Brando.  Both of them were as good and had more screen time than Brando but, of course, The Godfather has “important” written all over it.  Mankiewicz got a nod for Best Director and John Addison was nominated for his Originial Score

This was Mankiewicz’s last theatrical film.  Nice to see him go out on a high.

 

 

Apache Indian Sacheen Littlefeather declined Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather on his behalf as a protest against government Indian policies.

The X-rated Deep Throat was the second hard-core pornography feature film widely released in the US. It came after the feature length X-rated Behind the Green Door by the Mitchell Brothers. Both films contributed to the explosion of the porn industry and ‘porn chic’ by being exhibited in many mainstream film theatres. Deep Throat was one of the most financially successful films ever made (grossing over $1,000,000, but costing only $24,000 to make). However, it was ruled obscene by a New York court in 1973 and prints of the film were seized when it was subsequently banned in 23 states, and the film’s exhibitors (and actor Harry Reems) were found guilty of promoting obscenity and fined. The publicity only fueled the worldwide box-office gross of the film.  It seems like a lifetime ago when I actually saw Deep Throat in the theater on original release as some kind of dare with office colleagues!For the first time in 20 years, 82 year-old silent comedian/director/producer Charlie Chaplin returned from exile and set foot on US soil. Two decades earlier, he was denied a re-entry visa amid questions about his leftist politics and moral character.   Chaplin accepted an honorary Academy Award “For the incalculable effect he has had in making motion The pictures the art form of this century”. His standing ovation lasted a record 12 minutes.

The world lost Maurice Chevalier, Brian Donleavy, George Sanders, Bruce Cabot, Margaret Rutherford, Brandon DeWilde, Oscar Levant, Akim Tamaroff, Miriam Hopkins, Edgar G. Ulmer, Leo G. Caroll, and William Dieterle.  Ned Beatty, Jody Foster, Bob Hoskins, Isabelle Huppert, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Kingsley, Steve Martin, and Nick Nolte made their film debuts.

Richard M. Nixon won re-election by a landslide.  The Watergate Scandal broke.  Terrorists attacked the Munich Olympics killing eleven Israeli athletes.  Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” spent six weeks atop the Billboard Charts and was the number one single of the year.  The Pulitzer Prize for Literature was awarded to Wallace Stegner for Angle of Repose.  No prize was awarded for Drama.  Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger were named Time Magazine’s Men of the Year.

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I’m enjoying cherry-picking these later years.  Here is the list I will pick from.

Photo Montage of Oscar winners

Photo Montage of Major Oscar Nominees

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Directed by Mel Stuart
Written by Roald Dahl from his book
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

 

[last lines]
Willy Wonka: But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.
Charlie: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.

What a treat!  This one works at any age.

The setting is a kind of heightened alternative universe where the colors are especially bright and everybody’s personalities are outsized.  The mysterious Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) disappeared several years before and no one has been observed going into or out of his factory since.  Nonetheless production has remained prodigious.

Charlie (Peter Ostrum) lives in a slum with his widowed mother and four bedridden grandparents (they literally share the same bed).  Charlie thinks of his family before he thinks of himself but, being a boy, loves candy.  Willy Wonka comes out of retirement to announce that five golden tickets will be included in the millions of candies he sells and the winners will be invited into his factory to see and experience its wonders.  The grand prize winner will receive a life time supply of chocolate.  Greedy children all over the world start buying up Wonka bars like there were no tomorrow.  Charlie is poor and can get his hands on maybe three bars.  But the last one contains a golden ticket!  Like all the other winning children, he is approached by a competitor offering lucrative cash awards for bringing back Wonka’s latest invention, the Everlasting Gobstopper.

All the children are entitled to bring one guest and Charlie’s Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) suddenly finds he can walk after all!  Then we are introduced to the truly dreadful children who are the other contestants.  All these children enter a wonderland.  But some of them just cannot follow the rules or heed the advice of the Oompa Loompas who churn out the candy.

Gene Wilder is so incredible in this movie.  He is just the perfect mixture of sweetness and slyness.  I cannot imagine anyone else in the part.  The story, too, has something for everyone.  Good wins out over evil.  Actions have consequences.  And kindness does pay. There’s a slight feeling of foreboding that undercuts the fantasy and makes the movie work on many different levels.  I also love the music.  Recommended.

Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley and Walter Scharf were nominated for the Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score Oscar.