From: Paul R. Suarez
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:08:15 EDT
Subj: "(More than) 10 Movies I Dig"
"(More than) 10 Movies I Dig"
by Paul R. SuarezIt is easier for me to compile a list of my top ten fave records than movies. Don't even get me started on Rush's POWER WINDOWS, Peter Gabriel's SECURITY or, oh, yes--this is supposed to be a movie list.
Yes Eric, Letterman's sometimes hilarious lists notwithstanding, I think "Top Ten" lists are pretentious in concept and masturbatory in practice. But as you hopefully can tell from the list that follows, I dislike pretension more than onanism. By way of introduction, I do want to reiterate a personalized version of the caveat that introduced Eric's list: in addition to finding the term "best" problematic when referring to the artful commerce of movies, I must say that these movies (except for the first three) aren't necessarily even my all time favorites per se. If I sat and thought even longer than I already have, I'm sure a few titles would get swapped out for others. {Like THE PLAYER and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS which I regret not including upon first drafting this list. --Paul, two months later}. I've also chosen not to enumerate the list (again, except for the first three). These are the fourteen films that came to and stayed in my mind from the time I first read Eric's list until the time I hit send on this e-mail message. Most are memorable for me because they moved and/or excited me in ways that keep me returning to them. Others pics herein merit mention even though I may have only seen the film once. At the end of my working on the list, I was disappointed in how biased the list is in favor of the contemporary and the domestically-produced. Oh well.
1. ORDINARY PEOPLE - What an intense movie to pick as one's favorite, but I've been called an intense guy. The only thing that wrecks me more than the fact that this is Robert Redford's directorial debut is Mary Tyler Moore's performance as the mother, Beth. Redford won the DGA Award, Best Director Golden Globe and the National Board of Review Best Director Award for this pic. Moore won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress but was "only" nominated for an Oscar. Film critic Danny Peary writes that Redford's direction is so "precise and cold" (and Moore's performance so strong) one might think "that . . . [Moore] . . . directed [the film]." Hutton won an Oscar for Best Supporting (!!) Actor. It was not until many years after I first saw this picture for the first time on laserdisc at a friend's house that I was able and willing to be honest with myself about my emotional response to it having much to do with still-unresolved issues related to my being the younger of two male children, my mother and family in general. There is no other movie I simply can not make it through without crying. The scene on the golf course wherein Beth, responding to a neighbor with whom she is golfing having said that he "just want[s her] to be happy," screams at him that--before he talks about happiness--he better make sure one of his children "hasn't drowned in that swimming pool [he's] so proud of" is unforgettable. "I tried to off myself--isn't it in there!?!" C'mon with that DVD, Paramount.
2. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY - Where should I begin? The wildfire advent of DVD (more players shipped to retail last month [April 1999] than in the remainder of the calendar year following the format's March 1997 roll-out; a market penetration speed that is four times that of the CD and 13 times that of the VCR) has heightened my appreciation of just about everything I've seen on the little disc so far in the same way my appreciation of different genres of music skyrocketed in 1986 when I bought a CD player. I'm re-visiting many movies and experiencing for the first time many others that have been on my "I wanna see that" list for a long time. At the top of the list of the former is this contemporary reference standard for smart, loud, well-written action movies. I find this imaginative pic as repeatedly enjoyable as the T-1000 is relentless. Regarding one of the very first DVDs I bought, STEREOPHILE GUIDE TO HOME THEATER Senior Contributing Editor Lawrence B. Johnson writes: "Perhaps the single most compelling theatrical transfer ever made to laserdisc, in visual and audio aspects alike, T2 also makes the jump to DVD in smashing form. If it isn't THE exemplar of DVD, it certainly is of reference quality--a dazzling exercise in cinematic chiaroscuro, with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that can raise gooseflesh." I love the often steely, icy blue look Adam Greenberg achieved on this pic. I love Brad Fiedel's percussive, synthy, moody, rhythmic score. If your pulse doesn't quicken during the astounding pursuit through and out of the Galleria, into the streets of the Valley and then into the Los Angeles River canals, you better look out for Deckard because you're obviously a replicant. Along with Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart and recording engineer/producer George Massenburg, Jim Cameron is a member of this fallen Catholic's New Holy Trinity. Definitely looking forward to the special edition DVD Artisan Home Entertainment currently has in production. {Skedded for spring 2000 release.} "I have detailed files."
3. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - Danny Peary writes this "picture has non-stop nail-biting action--each sequence could be the HIGHLIGHT of another film." I can't mention my hysterical enthusiasm for this movie without also mentioning the man who introduced me to the instrument that is the symphony orchestra, John Williams. Seeing/hearing him perform cues from his scores each summer at the Hollywood Bowl is one of the entertainment highlights of my year. "The Map Room: Dawn" is right up there with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK's "The Asteroid Field" on my all-time list of favorite cues of orchesral scoring. It accompanies one of the most memorable moments in this pic. As FILM SCORE MONTHLY editor Lukas Kendall comments in the CD liner notes of Digital Compact Classics' re-release of the score, "The medallion theme and Indy's discovery theme . . . blend in perfectly and a choir is introduced as the moment of truth is reached--the sun's light is focused through the headpiece and burns a spot on the model of the ancient city." "I'm making this up as I go."
THELMA & LOUISE - I desperately wanted them to escape. Callie Khouri's Oscar-, Golden Globe- and WGA Screen Award-winning screenplay is insightful, poignant, funny and rich with hysterically funny bits of dialogue, often sassily delivered by Susan Sarandon, one of my favorite actresses. Bits such as Thelma refusing the convenience store clerk's suggestion of a large, single bottle of Wild Turkey instead of the dozen or more little airline-sized bottles she's clumsily gathering from the counter are gems. Also, given everything that has happened theretofore, so is Louise's anti-littering admonition ("Thelma, don't you litter!") just as Thelma is about to throw one of said airline-sized bottles out of the car. Geena Davis is superb at playing a wreck. Only her perf in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT rivals her work here. I like the sighing, plaintive guitar that is prominent throughout Hans Zimmer's score (more on Hans later). Michael Madsen is noteworthy as a tough guy with a heart. There I go again, crying at the movies. "In the future, when a woman is crying like that, she isn't having any fun." "You shoot off a guy's head with his pants down, believe me, Texas ain't the place you want to get caught."
GOOD WILL HUNTING - I'm sure the film writer Eric mentioned, Joseph McBride, could come to some interesting Rorschach test result conclusions based upon my inclusion of this pic and ORDINARY PEOPLE on my list. It was heartening to see two guys my age not only write and act in, but be acknowledged with deserved awards for writing and acting in, a project that is wise beyond their collective years. "I don't love you."
HE GOT GAME is the first Spike Lee movie to bring me to tears in addition to making me think about cultural politics and race in America. Contrary to some critics, I think Ray Allen's perf as Jesus Shuttlesworth is strong. (Thank you MTV Movie Awards for honoring Allen with the Best Breakthrough Male Performance pewter popcorn tub.) Based upon their perfs in this pic, I feel Denzel more than held his own going one-on-one with Allen (who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks) and Allen could carry the leading role in a bigger budget film. It is a remarkable, moving scene wherein Jesus finally meets with his father Jake (Denzel) and--in a masterfully well-written blend of gravity, exposition and levity--we find out the real reason he was named Jesus, we hear Jake say to his son that in the midst of all the exploitation he is the only one who truly cares about him, we learn that Jesus really DOES know his Bible AND we then get a Biblically-related joke about Jake's hair. It had me laughing just moments after I'd started crying. This movie arguably exemplifies the most salient differences between Spike's earlier work and what he has done since CLOCKERS. I love Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and Lee's use of that piece and others by Copland in this movie is brilliant. In recent memory, it is the most effective use of classically-arranged source music to support, advance and augment the emotional impact of a contemporary narrative. Also of note is Malik Hassan Sayeed's cinematography, a distinctive break from the style of Spike's usual d.p. Ernest Dickerson. "This whole world is bugged."
CASINO - I got to the end of this pic and just sat for a while saying to myself, "wow." What an engaging yarn about, amongst other things, the crazy shit a man will do for the woman he loves. DeNiro gives you more performance with just his hands in this pic than most other actors do with their entire bodies in a couple of their movies. God knows DeNiro and the outstanding (at least in this movie) Sharon Stone must have had fun shooting some of the best arguments I've ever seen in a movie. My placement of this Scorsese pic next to Lee's HE GOT GAME is not accidental. Amongst other things, they both have an under-appreciated flair for the use of music in movies. There are over 55 songs listed in the credits of CASINO. "What's the point of skimming if we're being skimmed?" "Aww fuck you, Sam Rothstein! Fuck you!"
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION - Danny Peary again: "There is no courtroom drama more enjoyable than this adaptation of Agatha Christie's play." It is not a word I use often, but Marlene Dietrich's entrance in this movie is "fierce." I love Charles Laughton's performance, particularly in scenes with screen wife Elsa Lanchester. The shady bit wherein Laughton dupes his witness with blank paper and his recitation of memorized text from her diary into testifying as to what her stationery looks like, only to then pull the real diary she just described from his pocket is too much. The only scene that comes close in contemporary filmmaking is the oh-so-less-premeditatedly-sly scene wherein Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) re-directs Lt. Kendrick's (Kiefer Sutherland) line of inquiry regarding "code reds" of Cpl. Barnes (Noah Wyle) in A FEW GOOD MEN. "Miss Plimsoll, if you were a woman I would strike you."
TITANIC - Is this a surprise given how often many of you hear me quoting Caledon Hockley while sipping whatever beverage from one of my many TITANIC tumblers at the Late Shows? I doubt I will see anything more grand on the big screen in my lifetime. I'll never forget the excitement of the opening night screening at the Village with a crowd full of Digital Domain employees wearing crew jackets and shirts. I agree with JC when he says that James Horner's score breaks your heart every time--and what a damn impressive mix of that score by Shawn Murphy. And yes, there I go crying at the movies again. C'mon with that DVD, Paramount!! {Hopefully within 18 months or so after the movie-only DVD's August 31 street date, Paramount (and JC) will do what they should have done the first time: release a special edition with an anamorphic transfer that does Russell Carpenter justice.} "You can be blase about some things Rose, but not about TITANIC."
BRAVEHEART - What a grand telling of a proud tale. I have a big hard on for John Toll's work. (He should have won the Oscar for THE THIN RED LINE instead of Janusz Kaminski for "Shaving Ryan's Privates." The cinematography in TTRL is one of the few things I liked about the pic.) It's great to listen to how James Horner's scores for both this pic and LEGENDS OF THE FALL presage TITANIC both in terms of major melodic progressions and arrangements. Thank you Carl [Austin, manager of the Mann Plaza, home of the Late Shows], for enabling me to see this movie for the first time on the big screen years after its original release, which I sillily missed. "Who is this person that speaks to me as though I need his advice?" C'mon with that DVD, Paramount.
Summa Cum Laude Most Honorable Mention:
CRIMSON TIDE - What a corker of a movie. Gene and Denzel's work in this pic, particularly in shared scenes, is the kind that all at once solidifies my desire to be an actor and calls that very desire into question all at the same time. To hell with THE LION KING, when you say Hans Zimmer to me, it is his moody, para-military, ballsy, anthemic, martial, rousing score for this movie that I think of. Lots of low end synth combined with full orchestra, electronic percussion and a choral performance of "Eternal Father Strong To Save" to boot. Pardon my French, but the score fuckin' rocks. Thanks again to MTV for Denzel's Best Male Performance Award. Bravo, Don and Jerry, bravo. "Yes sir, I've seen [Lipinzzaner stallions]. Yes sir, I'm aware that they're all white. They're not from Portugal, they're from Spain. And at birth they're not white, they're black--sir."
THE FUGITIVE - Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones and a damn fine script--a contemporized telling of a classic story: a falsely-accused, just, righteous man doggedly pursuing redemption and truth so as to clear his name. The train wreck is phenomenal, a total lease breaker on DVD. Bravo to Andrew Davis: that wasn't shot in miniature--that's a full-scale, real train! It's been an interesting growth curve for former Elton John keyboardist James Newton Howard, whose score for this pic I like. "You find this man! You find this man!"
Cum Laude Honorable Mentions:
SET IT OFF - Yes, SET IT OFF. I didn't care for director F. Gary Gray's debut FRIDAY, but ya' gotta give it up: each successive project he has done has represented leaps and bounds growth from the one before--this being his second film and one of last year's runners-up to my list of fave movies of the year, THE NEGOTIATOR, being his third. Romance, humor, action, a bank heist involving a Suburban smashing all the way through the bank . . . plus Jada Pinkett AND Vivica Fox?! Yes, SET IT OFF. "Don't MAKE me get ugly up in here!" "We ain't robbin' stagecoaches--I need somethin' I can set it off with."
LOVE JONES - How refreshing it is to see a pic that places intelligent, attractive black folks center stage in a story not about da man per se, but about love, emotional need and relationships. Kudos to Nick Wechsler for the part his producer credit on this and THE PLAYER and his executive producer credit on EVE'S BAYOU would indicate he played in bringing these three noteworthy pics to the screen. "I am dancing on a ray of light. I am remembering love."
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS - Sure, I enjoyed L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (and it's a top flight DVD from Warner Home Video, by the way). But boy do I wish everyone who saw and praised it would also check out the in some ways similarly-themed DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS. Yes, Don Cheadle did win the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, along with the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor. However, those wins arguably make the absence of an Academy Award nom for him all the more a head-scratcher. The only consolation for his outstanding performance as Mouse not getting a supporting actor Oscar nom is that his omission arguably garnered him almost as much attention from those who saw this film as a nomination would have from those who obviously didn't. What with this pic and recent work by Kevin Hooks and Forest Whitaker, the past two years have been without precedent with regards to "black directors" sitting in the helmer's chair on projects of a nature wherein that typically has not been the case. This stylish, film noir entry from Carl Franklin more than presaged the assured hand with which he helmed another of my faves from last year, ONE TRUE THING.
I welcome your comments and criticisms, particularly recommendations on anything you think I should see based upon this list.
Cheers,
Paul R. Suarez