Say Amen, Somebody Directed by George T. Nierenberg 1982/US IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
Gospel music is the purest thing there is on this earth. – Elvis Presley
This truly excellent look at gospel music is less a documentary and more a joyful experience for the ears and heart.
The film captures fascinating interviews with the Father of Gospel Thomas A. Dorsey and the equally legendary Willie May Ford Smith. The joyful part consists of amazing performances by Smith and three singing acts – Delois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters, Zella Jackson Price, and the O’Neal Twins, Edgar and Edward, backed by a choir.
These performances are the equal of the greatest performances by the best soul singers ever. If you have any interest in the history of pop music from honky tonk blues through soul and R&B you will likely love this film. Highly recommended.
Victor/Victoria Directed by Blake Edwards Written by Blake Edwards from a screenplay by Reinhold Schunzel 1982/US IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
Norma: You two-timing son of a bitch! He’s a woman!
This could have gone badly off the rails. That it did not is tribute to the director and his cast.
The setting is Depression-era Paris. Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is a classically trained soprano with a beautiful voice. This is not what Paris nightclubs are looking for and she is down to her last sou. As she is preparing to run out on a dinner tab, she meets Carole “Toddy” Todd (Robert Preston). He is also flat broke after he started a riot while performing at a gay club. The two immediately like each other. He gets a brilliant idea after Victoria has to dress in a male lover’s clothes when hers shrink.
Toddy decides for some mysterious reason that Victoria will be convincing as a female impersonator and he is right. She becomes the toast of the town. But her cover may be blown with the arrival of gangster King Marchand (James Garner). King is so attracted to the “gay man” that he becomes obsessed with proving he is a she.
First you have to get past the major sticking point that Andrews is far too feminine for this to work. And yet it does. It’s not a musical but Andrews and Preston do several numbers on stage as part of the story. Preston is a total delight in this film – very lovable and very arch. His relationship with Andrews is central to the film and it is sincere and even touching. James Garner plays himself but what a self. I always like him.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl Directed by Terry Hughes and Ian MacNaughton Written by the members of the Monty Python troupe 1982/UK/US IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)
Argument Customer: Yes it is! An argument is an intellectual process! It isn’t just contradiction!
Mr.Barnard: Look, if I’m to argue with you, I have to take up a contradictory position!
Argument Customer: Yes, but it’s not just saying “No it isn’t!”
Mr.Barnard: Yes, it is!
Argument Customer: No, it isn’t!
Fans of Monty Python will not want to miss this live performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
The show is comprised of super-classic sketches, including songs and pieces such as “The Last Supper”, “Sit on My Face”, the “Silly Olympics”, the “International Philosophy Show”, the “Four Yorkshiremen sketch”, “How Sweet to Be an Idiot”, and, “The Lumberjack Song”.
The troupe seems to have had a very good time and the audience concurred. I laughed out loud with frequency. The humor is perhaps even more irreverent than it was on TV.
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Directed by Steven Spielberg Written by Melissa Mathison 1982/US IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Elliott: He’s a man from outer space and we’re taking him to his spaceship.
Greg: Well, can’t he just beam up?
Elliott: This is *reality*, Greg.
A suburban family has just been through a divorce. Children Michael (Robert MacNaughton), Elliott (Henry Thomas) and Mary (Drew Barrymore) are adjusting to life with their now single mother. Elliott is at the just the age where he longs to do the things teenage Michael does but where he has neither the ability nor Michael’s permission to do them.
One day Eliott’s life changes with the arrival of an alien spaceship. The occupants are apparently on some sort of exploratory mission. E.T. is accidentally left behind when the spaceship is forced to suddenly flee. Elliott has the great good fortune in becoming besties with the homesick little creature.
All the children have many adventures in attempting to conceal their find from grownups. These intensify when they become responsible for protecting him and helping him to get home.
This, to me, is a perfect children’s movie but not one this grownup needed to see again before she died. There is something about it that is a little too cute and saccharine for my taste. I think it belonged on the List though.
Missing theme song
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I am gradually recovering this website. The links should now work. Comments are not showing up on the public site but rest assured I do receive them as an administrator. With luck, this too will be fixed soon.
The Atomic Cafe Directed by Jane Loader, Pierce Rafferty and Kevin Rafferty 1982/US IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)
Civil defense film: Be sure to include tranquilizers to ease the strain and monotony of life in a fallout shelter. A bottle of 100 should be sufficient for a family of four. Tranquilizers are not a narcotic, and are not habit-forming.
This excellent documentary contrasts the reality of nuclear explosions with the propaganda surrounding the subject in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
The film contains no narration. It begins with the Trinity atomic bomb test and continues to the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the pop culture embrace of the bomb immediately thereafter in the heady days of victory. We proceed deep into the Cold War of the McCarthy era and government reassurances about the survivability of the bomb.
This film is surreal in a way that could be appreciated by Salvador Dali. The insanity around the subject is simply mind-boggling. We are constantly reminded of the reality of the human cost of the entire enterprise. It is just amazing what lies people will believe, especially when told to them by the Government. I’m old enough to remember our teacher telling us that nuclear war could break out the next day during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I thought this was thoroughly fascinating.
The Thing Directed by John Carpenter Written by Bill Lancaster from a story by John W. Campbell Jr. 1982/US IMDb page
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
First viewing/YouTube rental
Nauls: Maybe we at war with Norway?
John Carpenter’s “The Thing” blends science fiction, horror, and gore into a neat package.
As the movie begins, we see a helicopter chasing a dog over Antarctic wilderness and shooting. American scientists nearby deduce it is a Norwegian chopper and find its actions weird and alarming. Ace helicopter pilot and general bad ass Mac Ready (Kurt Russell) and the base’s doctor Blair (Wilford Brimley) go out and investigate and find that the Norwegians have burned their base and there are apparently no survivors. The two discover a disgusting thing. Of course, they must take it back to their base for an autopsy.
Before long they find out aliens are among them and are slowly assimilating into the bodies of first dogs and then men. The men become paranoid as it is impossible to tell who remains human.
The selling points of the film are the horrifying and gruesome special effects during transformation sequences. They are truly awesome but not awesome enough for me to want a rewatch of all that blood and tissue.
First Contact Directed by Robin Anderson and Bob Connelly 1982/Australia IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube (free)
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. – Margaret Mead
“First Contact” is a fascinating look at the White Man’s contact with a million people in the Papua New Guinea highlands who were living in the Stone Age.
Australian gold prospectors penetrated into the interior of Papua New Guinea in 1930. The people were isolated in settlements and their only outside contact was with enemy tribes with whom they fought for territory. They saw their first wheel on the bottom of an airplane. The appearance of white men, with their metal tools, gramophone, guns and plethora of trade goods, was cause for great astonishment. They wondered if they were being visited by the spirits of their ancestors. Soon enough they would learn that these aliens were not so different from themselves.
The film contains historical footage as well as interviews with Australians and Papua New Guineans who were there at first contact. I lived in Papua New Guinea for three years and just had to choose this movie as my first for 1982. We lived a very privileged existence and it was still scary as hell.
I have recovered my site but not my formatting. I will have to attempt to recreate it. Please forgive me for any annoyance. I will however return to posting.
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.
Amazing Grace Directed by Alan Elliott and Sydney Pollock 2018/US IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
Rev. Franklin: I went in the cleaners one day in Detroit to pick up some clothes, and Aretha had appeared on a recent television show. And she told me, “I saw your daughter Aretha last night.” I said, “Yes? How did you like it?” She said, “It was all right. But I’ll be glad when she comes back to the church.” I said, “Listen baby, let me tell you something. If you want to know the truth, she has never left the church.”
This concert film captures a two-day session that produced the tracks for Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace” album (1972), which remains the best-selling gospel album of all time as well as the best-selling album of Franklin’s career. It was filmed at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles on Jan. 13 and 14, 1972, with a crew of film and sound engineers and five 16mm cameras, all directed by Sidney Pollack. She was backed by Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir.
Unfortunately, Pollack had never made a concert film and the editing process was beset with technical difficulties. Pollack turned it over to Alan Everett in 2007 when he was dying of cancer.
If you love Aretha Franklin, as I do, you will not want to miss this. She really pulls out all the stops. Recommended.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
Photographs and videos found in this blog, unless indicated, are not owned by me and are here only for the purpose of education and discussion. Media found here are not intended for any commercial purpose. Copyright infringement is not intended.
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