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Reviews
Men in War (1957)
One of my favorites
No director I know made the scenery as much a dramatic player as Mann did. Whether it was the West in the great Westerns he directed or the imaginary Korea of this movie, it seemed as though you were in the scene yourself watching from a tree. The movie is calm, almost contemplative, and even though you could argue the soldiers were stereotypes, they were so believable and so well acted, they seemed part of the scenery as well. The danger in the movie is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and the men die as most men do in war, carelessly, and almost wastefully. The actors are superb, totally believable, and in the case of Robert Keith heart-breaking. I recommend this film to anyone, it's simply the best largely unknown war film ever.
Out of the Past (1947)
Build My Gallows High, Baby
I love this movie. Mitchum is cool, tough, arrogant and a total schnook, who gets dragged through hell by a woman, Jane Greer, who he should have known not to trust. He is like Fred McMurray in Double Indemnity, or Burt Lancaster in the Killers, men whose emotional and moral strength is non-existent compared to their physical strength.
The convolutions of the plot in any film noir are far less important than atmosphere, script and the sense of doom that hangs over the characters. From the moment Steve Brodie rides into the small town where Mitchum has made a life, and Brodie has on black trench coat, the clear signal is that Mitchum is doomed, in spite of his supposed street smarts and physical strength. Mitchum conveys a doomed quality in most of his best work, and the sense is that he knows it but is too curious to take the trip and not strong enough to resist the excitement. The brittle snappy conversations are meant as the character's badge of hipness and wisdom, and really a sign of how displaced they are from normal human emotion. "Out of the Past" is really an important moment in the maturity of the movies because no one escapes clean because they are all flawed, all caught up in events that they can only start not finish. In other words, fools on fools errands, trying to survive by their wits and not possessing anywhere near enough.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
At Dawn We slept
This movie has many great strengths. The photography and music are great, and the battle scenes are authentic. The fact that both sides cooperated in his making give it total historical accuracy. It does not take the truth and corrupt it , as the overblown Pearl Harbor does, inventing a romance and inflating the Dorie Miller story so that Cuba Gooding Jr. could have more to do. The actors look like military people, not like the ones in Pearl Harbor who probably never served, unlike Jason Robards, who plays Gen. Short and was a actually a Pearl Harbor survivor, and Neville Brand, who plays Lt. Kennedy, and was a highly decorated WW 2 combat soldier.
The build-up to the attack is long, what might say too long, and absolutely accurate, but it does slow down the movie. Unlike Pearl Harbor the movie which focused on three main characters, Tora, Tora, Tora gives a bigger canvas but does not leave us with any memorable performances. So in many ways, its strengths could be also classified as weaknesses. If you want to see one movie to show you what the attack was like from both sides and from the planning to the culmination, this is your movie, however.
The Killers (1946)
Women can trap your soul
This is one of my favorite movies. I must confess that I love Film Noir. Ava Gardner was never better than she was as Kitty Collins, and I can understand why the Swede would throw it all away for her. This is also my favorite Hemingway short story and Robert Siodmark uses shadows and light as well as any director ever. You want to reach into the shadows to warn Burt Lancaster, "don't, she's no good". The story may seem fairly straightforward, a robbery gone bad, but the atmosphere of danger, plus the sexual tension whenever Gardner is on-screen is palpable, and the acting is first-rate by all.
This was Lancaster's first movie and while his line readings were not always the smoothest, nobody ever has moved on screen with the combination of catlike grace and barely suppressed rage that he did. You can easily see why he became a great star. After you see the movie as many times as I have, you realize that it is really about the dislocation that the Depression and WW 2 made in peoples' traditional ways of thinking, and their increasing belief that they could no longer control their own fates. It is really is an interesting character study and I recommend to everyone.
Carlito's Way (1993)
Going Straight ain't easy without a straight lawyer
Carlito's Way isn't without a lot of flaws. It is too long, and the ending does not hang together because there's no way that the cops would not have shut down Grand Central. If Carlito was willing to kill in the opening scenes of the movie why wouldn't he have taken care of Benny in the club? These mistakes are in the minor category. Pacino is really good in this, he holds something back, letting you look inside him rather than screaming in your face, as in Scarface and Heat. Penn is beautifully slimy, the atmosphere reeks of 70's New York City, in fact the city seems to be a character in the movie. Penelope Ann Miller is heartbreakingly sad in a thankless role. I find myself watching the movie more than once in spite of its flaws.
If you are looking a cool movie with good performances, this is a good choice.
One False Move (1991)
Cops, crooks and culture clash, who will live?
This is a movie that I really like. On the surface, it is a tension-filled film noir about a trio of drug dealers fleeing justice after committing a brutal crime. It is also the parallel story of two Los Angeles detectives thrust into dealing with an ambitious small town sheriff, Hurricane Dixon, played very well by a young Bill Paxton. They are more sophisticated investigators but Hurricane knows the small town of Star City and the players very well, and in one case too well.
This was the first film directed by Carl Franklin and was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton and they both did a great job. Every time I see the movie something new hits me. The connections among the characters run deep and cross racial, class and gender lines and the payoff, even though shockingly violent, is great because every character stays in character right to the end. There is no copping out in the script to soften the ending. It is really one of the best films about crime, punishment, race and class in the recent film history and the careers of everybody involved, Paxton, Thornton, Franklin, Michael Beach, and Cynda Williams got a well-deserved boost from this one.
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Sheriff must take best friend's son to justice
I am usually a huge fan of John Sturges directed films, love Bad Day at Black Rock and The Great Escape, but Kirk Douglas' overacting hurts some here. The tension is already built in and Kirk needed to dial back and let the tension breathe. The photography and the supporting performances are right on and man was Carolyn Jones a good actress. The bartender in this movie played the bartender in so many movies that I thought he just hung around all the movie sets serving drinks
The town is an interesting place. The way it is set up almost looks like a maze, and that's a neat director's point. It reminds me of the lot used the great Gregory Peck movie "The Gunfighter". Anthony Quinn does a good job in his role, which I think was a little underwritten.
The best thing about Sturges movies is that they are never too long, and I don't know of any Hollywood director who built tension as well as he did. It may not be a movie you want to watch more than once, but it is a good watch one time.