We all know the basic
story of Robin Hood. This movie is one
of the best versions of it ever made. Action,
adventure, romance. What more could a person ask for?
I love that Marian
wasn't just a fainting, helpless, damsel in distress; she actually participated
in the cunning moves and the saving, and the defending of England, but still in
a way considered "proper" for her time. I suppose in most portrays she
is pretty awesome. It would be pretty
badass to see her pick up a sword though.
Speaking of swords, Errol Flynn? is amazing. Athletic and charming, I can see why he is
so great.
I forgot Claude Rains
was in this, but I shouldn’t have because Claude Rains is in EVERYTHING. Seriously, pay attention to his tag on this
blog. It will only go up as I write about more films. He is cast in everything
because he is good. Better than good. He
is one of the greatest character actors ever.
Random: The horse
Marian rides is Trigger, of Roy Rogers fame (before he met Roy, obviously.) When Trigger died, they had his hide stretched
over a plaster model of his likeness, to be placed in the Roy Rogers and Dale
Evans Museum. If that weren’t strange
enough, after that museum was closed in 2009, the items from it (including
Trigger) were put up for auction at Christie’s in New York in 2010. I worked next to Christie’s at the time. I saw Trigger. It was weird. I’m still trying to figure out why they did
this to this horse. Stranger still,
some TV station purchased Trigger. On
one level, I get it. Kind of like the Natural History Museum. This does not make this seem any less
bizarre to me.
Favorite Quote:
Lady Marian
Fitzswalter: Why, you speak treason! Robin Hood: Fluently.
It has often been argued that 1939 is the best year in film. Such gems as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, Wuthering Heights (with Laurence Olivier), Ninotchka, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Gunga Din, and so many more were released that year. So it would seem to be good reason to assume that 1939 would be a year that was well represented on the list, and at 9 films it is;. But. 1942, and 1982 both top the list for most films at 11 each.
Does this make those 2 years the greatest? I'm not sure, but it does mean they have a lot of films that appeal to a lot of people.
Here are the films for each year on the list:
1939
1942
1982
Dark Victory
Bambi
An Officer and a Gentleman
Gone With the Wind
Casablanca
Blade Runner
Gunga Din
Mrs. Miniver
Diner
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Now, Voyager
E.T.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Palm Beach Story
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Ninotchka
Pride of the Yankees
Gandhi
Stagecoach
Random Harvest
Poltergeist
Wizard of Oz
Road to Morocco
Sophie’s Choice
Wuthering Heights
To Be or Not To Be
Tootsie
Woman of the Year
The Verdict
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Victor/Victoria
Of those 31 films, so far I've seen 15 of them, and they were all pretty fabulous.
I think trying to decide what the best year in film was is too hard of a task. There were so many good films released in the last 100 years, with so much talent. And these particular films cover such a variety of genres and audiences, from animated, to romance, to comedies, and action adventure fantasy films. How could you possibly say one year was the absolute best?
So, in conclusion, I need to watch more films from the list and blog more often. Please accept this post as an apology, and you are hopefully sticking with me as I'm slow to post things :-)
So, it seems that I'm terrible about keeping this updated. Right now things are hectic in my professional life, but that should be slowing down over the next two weeks.
I apologize for the radio silence here, and I shall return in two weeks with a (hopefully) awesome post about a great film from the list, or a stats post or something besides no post.
Oh the 80s. The shoulder
pads. The overly big hair. So ugly, yet so endearing. Working Girl
is a good example of the fashions of this time, plus it highlights a woman
trying to make it in the workforce, and having a brain in her head while still
being able to have some fun.
Seriously. Just look at the trailer
to see what we are dealing with:
Melanie Griffith plays Tess, a secretary who is taking business classes trying
to work her way up in the world. After leaving her job with her
pigheaded male coworkers, she is assigned to work for Katharine Parker (played
ever so snottily by Sigourney Weaver) who presents herself not as a boss, but
as a sort of peer. Of course, Katharine says this, and then treats Tess like a
servant. When Katharine tries to steal a business idea that Tess has, Tess gets
in touch with Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford in one of my favorite roles of his.
Seriously, if you only know him as an action star, watch this.) to help her
pull off the idea. Deception and some hijinks ensue (like crashing an
ugly 80s wedding!), and of course there is tons and tons of horrendous 80s
fashion and hairstyles. Note: its not all bad, but it is just SO 80s.
Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack help to round out the cast, and give us some of
the typical 80s looks that we would all expect.
Random: The main song in the film is "Let the River Run" by Carly
Simon. The womens choir sang this when I was in high school. I kind of
hated that song then. I kind of still hate it now. I don't find it to be
that thrilling as songs go, but it won all kinds of awards, so maybe I just
don't know what I'm talking about. But I really do hate it. Mind you, this does
not stop me from singing along if I can recall the words….
Favorite Quote:
Cyn: Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my
underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna. Never will.
#60 on Original, #66 on Anniversary, and #10 on Thrills
I’m having a Harrison Ford movie week. It started when I made the discovery about myself that if I find “Air Force One” on the TV, I can not turn it off. Apparently for me, it is just one of those movies. I continued with the original Star Wars trilogy, and then ventured off to a newer Ford film, “Morning Glory”. From there, I’ve gotten to the film that this entry is about, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
I forgot how creepy parts of this film can be, when snakes are coming out of corpses in particular. Also, a revelation from writing this blog, I guess I have kind of always thought of this as a semi-creepy film. I think this is a hazard of first seeing the film when I was VERY little, and then not seeing it again until I was much older. What can I say, first impressions die hard.
And this was a great film to give a viewer a first impression of Indiana Jones: daring, intelligent, and adventurous. I find it funny how almost timid he comes across when he is teaching a class, and how much of a badass he is when he is looking for an archeological treasure. Sometimes environment really does affect your personality. One of the things I like about Jones, and a lot of the characters Harrison Ford seems to play, they are flawed heroes. Indiana does gets shot and screws up sometimes. Han Solo does have issues with his ship and ends up trapped by Jabba the Hut. These characters are not perfect, and that is what makes them the every-person kind of hero.
The score for this film is awesome, as it usually is with pretty much anything John Williams works on. Just hearing the classic music piece, “Raiders March” or as we all probably call it, Indiana Jones’ Theme, invokes thoughts of daring and adventure.
The character of Marion Ravenwood is something of a conundrum for me. Sometimes she is totally self sufficient and fighting and protecting herself, and other times, she is screaming her head off as a damsel in distress. I guess if you put it in the context of when the story is set, 1936, then it kind of makes sense. But I want her to be so much cooler than she actually comes across. Also, she had to run around for a good chunk of this film with no shoes on. What is up with that?
I’ve always said that the easiest way to get a villain into your film without having to give any explanation for why they are evil is to have the bad guys be Nazis. The writers actually noticed this very late into filming, and there ends up being only one reference to the Jewish people and the Nazi’s hatred for them in the whole film, and it doesn’t come until the film is near the end.
Favorite Quote
Marion: You're not the man I knew ten years ago. Indiana: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.
#34 on Original, #25 on Anniversary, #2 on Cheers, #1 on 10 Top 10: Courtroom Drama
What can I possibly say about such a classic film. The story is heartbreaking and inspiring; the acting superb. It reminds me of a time in this country when people allowed hatred to cloud their judgment. (I’m sure this is still going on someplace, but I can hope it isn’t, can’t I?) It represents the people in this country that are willing to stand up for what is right, even when it seems that most of the world is against them.
I have never read the book. Most people read it in high school, but due to switching from regular to honors English classes, I somehow missed this and haven’t gotten around to reading it. So I don’t have the source material to compare the story to. But this brilliant work portrays the story to me with such a kind of quiet forcefulness, I don’t think I would have needed to read the book to understand fully what was going on, like some other book to screen adaptations.
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is so amazingly good and believable. I don’t know if any other actor could have played this part as genuinely as Peck did. Atticus Finch makes me want to be a better person, and I think for a film to have that kind of an effect on a viewer speaks volumes all on its own. Atticus’ strength lies in his inaction, in his ability to resist impulsive actions, and being the bigger person in situations with narrow minded people. I think Peck as Finch could say almost anything and it would sound wise. I’m not sure if this is because of Peck’s low pitched voice, or his way of speaking, but then again, I’m not sure if this matters. I think it just matters that Peck was perfect in this part.
There were other aspects to the film that helped to make it well rounded. The interactions between Scout and Jem; the townspeople coming to the jail the night before the trial, and Scout not understanding really what was happening, but diffusing the tension with an innocence that it seems only a child can possess. Being scared of their neighbor, Boo Radley, only to find out he wasn’t going to harm them.
I was surprised to see that Boo Radley was Robert Duvall. But I do think he was very good at portraying Boo’s “quiet way”. Over all the casting on this film was pretty near to perfect. Collin Wilcox as Mayella during her courtroom scenes was able to show exactly what her life was like simply in her eyes, even when her words were saying otherwise. Brock Peters as Tom Robinson simply blew me away. Peters portrayed the fear that Robinson must have felt, while still trying to maintain his innocence, perfectly. You could see that he was not only scared, but he was angry that this was happening to him. For an actor to be able to show that many layers of emotion takes great skill, and both Peters and Wilcox performed brilliantly.
One of the other AFI lists that I do not include in The List, is AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. The number 1 hero is Atticus Finch. With the 50th anniversary of the movie being this year, AFI has uploaded the segment from that special to their YouTube page featuring Atticus Finch. I suggest watching it, because this nicely sums up why I think in his own way, Finch is the bravest of all the film heroes. And he shows this bravery without blowing things up, and without a lot of special effects and camera tricks.
Every time I see Atticus Finch leaving that courtroom, with everyone in the balcony standing up to show their respect for him, my chest gets tight, and I feel the same pride that they must feel watching him help someone who deserves it.
Favorite Quote
Rev. Sykes: Miss Jean Louise. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing.
Basic premise: A teacher sees the potential in a group of trouble making students, and wants to teach them way advanced math. This is based on a true story.
Sometimes it takes other people acknowledging your potential for you to flourish. The students were pushed by a teacher, and he was able to get them to show their full potential. They were so use to people giving up on them, and not expecting things from them, that they had stopped trying. When this teacher did push them, he got amazing results.
I did find myself wondering how they were all doing in their other classes, because they spent so much time in math. I also really liked that the teacher fought for them, after they were accused of cheating on the AP Calculus exam. Those AP exams are no joke. (Side Note: I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about those or Regents anymore.) Sometimes all you need is for somebody to have your back in order to succeed. A little support goes a long way.
Also, I’ve always been terrible at math. I cannot imagine going through all of this to learn AP Calc. I probably would have ended up quitting, or being the one person who did not pass the AP test. Stupid math. To quote my friend Dr. Time, "I always say that the part of my brain that should have been used for math was used for Star Wars." Replace Star Wars with Beatles and you probably have my brain.
Favorite Quote:
Jaime Escalante: You only see the turn, you don't see the road ahead.
