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Monthly Archives: March 2021

The California Reich (1975)

Posted on March 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

The California Reich
Directed by Keith Critchlow and Walter F. Parkes
1975/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Fred Surber: Well, the understanding I have on the six million is that… like a lot of people believe is like the Nazis in Germany murdered six million people… and according to the war records I’ve been able to find, pertaining to World War Two, there was something like nearly five million Jews involved, but as far as killing them, they weren’t. Most of them were… I don’t recall exactly what the term is, to concentration camps.
Interviewer: What if it were true? What if the stories were true?
Fred Surber: I’ll tell you the truth, I really wish they were. I’m one of these old fashioned people. I’d really like to go back to the places in Auschwitz and places like that and just roll in the dirt. I really would.

Forget Bergman, this was the most depressing and enraging film experience I have had in years.

There is no narration. The film lets the members of American Nazi Party show us how vile they are out of their own mouths. If you passed any of these folks on the street, you would never know the darkness within. Amazing people can stand to live with that much hate, resentment and entitlement inside them. And to teach little children to be the same!

The focal point of the film is the clash between the ANP and anti-fascist protestors at San Francisco State University in 1975 but most of the film is set in calmer surroundings.

Well 55 minutes was all could take of this stuff. If I want to be depressed and furious I can turn on the TV news.

The California Reich was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.

Nashville (1975)

Posted on March 1, 2021 | 6 comments

Nashville
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Joan Tewkesbury
1975/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Albuquerque: Now, if we don’t — we don’t live peaceful, there’s gonna be nothin’ left in our graves except Clorox bottles and plastic fly swatters with red dots on ’em.

Altman and Tewkesbury cram 24 characters and almost that many subplots in one movie. That we care about all these characters is a testimony to their mastery of the craft.

As the movie begins, a plane lands in Nashville bearing Hal Phillip Walker, a populist candidate for President representing the Replacement Party, along with his campaign staff. He drives around town in a van with a bullhorn spouting his folksy political philosphy. His is a grassroots campaign popular with young people. His supporters will be seen carrying signs and handing out flyers throughout the film. The finale of the candidate’s day will be a rally with free country entertainment.

Others are arriving to perform at the Grand Ole Opry or to seek fame as country musicians. All these people become interrelated in some way in the many threads woven through the film.

One of the stories involves Linnea (Lily Tomlin), a white singer in an all-black gospel choir, who is raising two deaf children without much support from her husband Delbert, who is working as the lawyer for the Hal Phillip Walker campaign. One of the groups in town, Bill, Mary and Tom, is a folk-rock trio. Tom is a serial philanderer who sees Linnea as a challenge. The other girls approach him and he does not resist.

A second thread is the return of star Barbara Jean to the stage after an accident. She is still frail and it’s up in the air whether she can stand up to the pressure. With Henry Gibson as an arrogant phony country legend; Barbara Baxley as his pixilated Kennedy-loving wife; Geraldine Chaplin as a perfectly hilarious BBC documentarian; Keenan Wynn as a man whose wife is dying and cannot get ditzy groupie niece Martha (Shelley Duvall) to show any interest; Karen Black as Barbara Ann’s rival; Gwen Welles as a wannabe; and Barbara Harris as another wannabe. We also get cameos by Eliott Gould and Julie Christie.

This is one of my favorite movies. I know it’s kind of messy and misanthropic but that doesn’t matter much to me in this case. I can’t think of a movie in which a cast the scope and size of this one in which every minute is made to count. Unfortunately, human nature has not changed for the better in the years since this came out. I always break out in chills when Barbara Harris belts out “It Don’t Worry Me.” Recommended.

Keith Carradine won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for “I’m Easy”. The film was nominate in the categories of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Tomlin), Best Supporting Actress (Blakely), and Best Director.