L.A. Confidential (1997)

IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU they were making a movie about police corruption in 1950s Los Angeles, starring two unknown Australian actors, and directed by the guy who did The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, would you believe it would win two Oscars and turn out to be one of the best films ever made?

Plot:
Against the background of 1950s Los Angeles, L.A. Confidential intertwines stories of police corruption, the battle for control of the L.A. underworld, a mass shooting in a late-night café, and a pimp who has his prostitutes surgically altered to look like famous Hollywood starlets.

Critique:

It shouldn’t have worked. A period piece, two virtually unknown foreigners as the leads, and half a dozen plotlines running concurrently over a span of nearly two and a half hours. Yet L.A. Confidential is one of those rare instances when all the elements come together to create, without hyperbole, a modern masterpiece.

From the performances of the actors (perfectly cast by the legendary Mali Finn), to director Curtis Hanson’s vision of the L.A. of yesteryear (he’s a lifelong Angelino), to the Oscar-winning script by Hanson and Brian Helgeland (brilliantly pared down and adapted from James Ellroy’s mammoth book), to the infectious soundtrack (mixing standards and Jerry Goldsmith’s score), to Ruth Myers’ costume design, all the pieces of L.A. Confidential connect masterfully into one perfect, ambitious puzzle.

In terms of the performances: Yes, Kim Basinger’s Oscar-winning performance as high-end call girl Lynn Bracken is good and worthy of recognition, but it’s hardly the best performance. It doesn’t even come in second or third. She’s trumped by a top-tier ensemble cast that includes:

• Russell Crowe, whose brutish Bud White has a deep-rooted issue with criminals who abuse women
• Guy Pearce as clean-cut Edmund Exley, who won’t step outside the law to deliver justice, but learns how to work the system
• James Cromwell as police captain Dudley Smith, who questions Exley’s abilities to go above the law to stop criminals and get confessions
• Kevin Spacey as slick detective Jack Vincennes, who thoroughly enjoys his gig as advisor on Badge of Honor, the hottest cop show on TV
• Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens, publisher of the scandal magazine Hush-Hush, who’s always looking for an angle or scoop
• David Straithairn as Pierce M. Patchett, a respected businessman and philanthropist who also employs prostitutes who are “cut” to look like movie stars

With L.A. Confidential, Hanson perfectly captures the dichotomy of Los Angeles that exists to this day: The idea of image versus reality. The glitter and fame of Hollywood that masks the city’s seedy, violent underbelly. And a supposedly honorable police force that’s mired in corruption, racism, and brutality. (The fact that Hanson opens and closes the film with Johnny Mercer’s “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” is no accident.) It’s a world where polar opposites join forces to help each other’s cases and uncover awful truths – and where one cop sworn to serve and protect turns out to be a callous, cold-hearted criminal behind the very crimes and corruption our anti-heroes are investigating. It all culminates in a final shootout that’s a master class in choreography and editing.

L.A. Confidential is one of those films that requires a second viewing to catch everything you missed, but it’s hardly a chore to do so. Character nuances become more noticeable, the narration and multiple storylines flow together better, and terrific instances of foreshadowing are much more appreciated.

Kevin Spacey has said that if L.A. Confidential hadn’t been released the same year as Titanic, it would have won the Oscar for Best Picture. Off the record, and on the QT: He’s absolutely right.

Rating:
Is it suitable for your kids?

Despite being set in a time when movies were largely free of inappropriate material, L.A. Confidential has plenty of content not meant for all audiences. There are scenes of brief nudity, discussions of drug use, graphically violent footage of mob hits, and more than a dozen people dying by bloody shootings. There’s also frequent adult language, plus occasional glances at vintage nudie and S&M magazines. High school kids and older is probably the benchmark to use when deciding if L.A. Confidential is suitable for your kids.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Factoring in its subject matter, nearly all-male cast, and police procedural setting, I’d gamble that L.A. Confidential is more for dads. In fact, it should be required viewing for all dads who love movies.


L.A. Confidential
* Director: Curtis Hanson
* Screenwriters: Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland
* Stars: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell
* MPAA Rating: R


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Watership Down (1978)

APOLOGIES ALL AROUND for the uneven frequency of my reviews lately. Hopefully I can get several fresh reviews posted before 2010 is history.

On that note, I bring a review of a film that was a milestone in my movie-viewing…

Plot:

When neurotic visionary Fiver (Richard Briers) tells his brother Hazel (John Hurt) that something bad is going to happen to their warren, a small group of rabbits – including Hazel, brutish Bigwig (Michael Graham Cox), and clever Blackberry (Simon Cadell) – set out on a quest for a new home. In their adventures, they encounter dangerous predators, other warrens with strangely-acting rabbits, and ultimately a warren run with fascist-type discipline by General Woundwort (Ralph Richardson).

Critique:

With my initial viewing around age 10, Watership Down was the first film to show me that animation can be more than just slapstick cartoons or Disney fare (not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things). My young mind knew I was experiencing something on a whole new level as I watched Hazel lead his (often doubting) followers through dangerous passages on the quest for a place to call home.

Speaking of Hazel, writer/director Martin Rosen gives this two-dimensional, animated rabbit more complexity than many living, breathing, human characters in motion pictures. In the face of danger and the threat of destruction, Hazel rises to the occasion: Bigwig may have the muscle, and Fiver may have the vision, but it’s Hazel who becomes the group’s de facto leader. He’s like a cotton-tailed Moses, struggling to lead his people to a promised land.

And much like Moses’ The Ten Commandments, it can be argued that Watership Down is an epic story in its own right. From the exodus taken by the rabbits, to the ensemble cast, to the conflicts and obstacles they face on their way to their destination, the film is a sprawling journey – one that culminates in a confrontation with a seemingly unbeatable foe (General Woundwort, one of the most underrated villains in movie history).

Another biblical aspect of Watership Down is its use of spirituality. Faith plays a significant role in the film. Starting with the prelude showing how rabbits were created by their god Frith, the rabbits’ devotion to Him is woven into their dialogue and decisions – all the way up to the heart-pounding climax where Hazel pleads with Frith to save his people from Woundwort’s army.

A couple nits: The character of the bird Kehaar (Zero Mostel), while necessary to the story, serves up comic relief that largely falls flat – and in a German-accented voice that quickly gets old. Also, the animation is a bit iffy at times: There’s frequent choppiness when the rabbits are in action, and items that will soon come into play are sometimes colored more obviously – making these scenes feel a bit Hanna/Barbera-esque.

Watership Down is an amazing film that’s hard to categorize. It’s a decidedly mature animated feature that’s alternately somber, exhilarating, quiet, scary, trippy, terrifying, violent, action-packed, and bittersweet. Revisit it if you haven’t seen it in a while; see it now if you’ve never had the experience.

(An open plea: While Warner Brothers did release a Region 1 (US) “Deluxe Edition” DVD of Watership Down in 2008, there’s a Region 4 “25th Anniversary Edition” from 2003 that has many more extras, including full-length director’s commentary by Rosen. If anyone knows where I can get a Region 1 or region-free version of this edition, please e-mail me and let me know.)

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

It baffles me that, after more than 30 years, stores and libraries still file Watership Down in their Children’s or Family section simply because it features animated bunnies. Don’t be fooled – Watership Down is not for young children. It’s rated PG for a reason – well, several reasons: Rabbits are snatched by birds of prey, caught in snares, buried alive, engage in bloody fights, and shot by a farmer. (That being said, I would argue that Watership Down is a near-perfect film for the transition from childhood to adolescence.)

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

While Watership Down is a great film, be sure you inform her that it’s not about cute, fluffy bunnies playing in the meadow. It’s heavy, serious stuff – but it’s also a moving, engaging film.

Carrots?! Where??!!

Watership Down
* Director: Martin Rosen
* Screenwriter: Martin Rosen
* Stars: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham Cox, Simon Cadell, Ralph Richardson, Roy Kinnear, Hannah Gordon
* MPAA Rating: PG


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Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

YET ANOTHER FIRST for Dash: We finally took a step out of animated movies and watched his first live-action film.

And we did it with one of my all-time favorites – not just from my childhood, but to this day.

Plot:

Poor paperboy Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) and his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) dream about what lies behind the factory walls of reclusive candymaker Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder). Then one day, Wonka throws a worldwide contest by hiding six golden tickets among his chocolate Wonka bars, granting the winning ticketholders a tour of his factory.

Critique:

So many elements come together to make Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory a deliciously timeless classic that it’s best to address them one by one…

The cast.
Wilder seems to be genuinely enjoying if not relishing his role as the eccentric Wonka. He comes off as alternately endearing and maniacal – spouting off quotes from Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Keats as he implicitly tests the honesty and goodness of the kids touring his factory.

13-year-old Ostrum does a great job of getting the viewer to root for good-hearted Charlie, who ultimately finds a golden ticket (in one of the film’s most exciting, uplifting moments) and is joined on Wonka’s factory tour by the other winners: German glutton Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner), obnoxious Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), spoiled brat Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), and television addict Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen).

The music.
The songs by composers Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse have stood the test of time, with many still memorable after 40 years: Wonka’s signature tune, “Pure Imagination;” “Cheer Up Charlie,” which could have come straight from the classic Disney songbook; the cautionary songs by the Oompa Loompas, Wonka’s pint-sized, orange-skinned employees; and “The Candy Man,” written for the film and later made famous (or infamous) by Sammy Davis, Jr.

The settings.
From Charlie’s could-be-anywhere village town (in reality, Munich) to the fantastic rooms of Wonka’s dream-like factory, the settings are truly the stuff of fairy tales. The set pieces in the factory are amazing – a world of chocolate rivers, candy trees, fizzy-lifting drinks, and fruit-flavored wallpaper (director Mel Stuart credits the imagination of Oscar-winning art director Harper Goff).

Author Roald Dahl adapted his own book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the Willy Wonka script (with a polish by first-time screenwriter David Seltzer), yet apparently he hated the film. With all due respect to Dahl, it doesn’t matter. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a wonderfully yummy treat with a morality-tale center – a fun adventure that speaks not only to children, but the kid inside each of us.

Tidbits:
* Both Anthony Newley and Sammy Davis, Jr. wanted to play the role of the candy store owner who sings “The Candy Man” in the film, but director Stuart felt it would be too showbiz and would shatter the illusion of the story. (The role went to Aubrey Woods.)
* When the children first enter the sprawling Chocolate Room, their reactions are real – it was actually their first view of that set.
* Skip the 2005 DVD release and watch the 2001 edition, which features a bunch of extras including an insightful, often funny commentary by the now-adult Wonka kids.

Rating:

What did Dash think?

Dash did enjoy Willy Wonka, giggling and chuckling along the way – though I don’t think he was as enthralled with it as I’ve been over the years. Maybe it was because it was his first non-animated film, or because it ended an hour past his bedtime. Bottom line: While I think he liked it, I don’t anticipate repeat viewings.

Will your kids like it?

Kids of a certain age (I’ll say 7 and older) will really enjoy Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It’s a visual and musical feast, Wilder’s Wonka is an iconic character, kids can really get behind the character of Charlie…and really, isn’t it the dream of any child to have their own chocolate factory? (Though maybe these days, it’s more about owning a fruit-snack factory.)

Depending on your sensitivities, there may be a few things to consider if you’re thinking of letting wee little ones watch Wonka:
* The implied off-screen fates of the children who didn’t listen to Wonka during the factory tour, including being made into fudge, de-juiced before exploding, burned in a furnace, and stretched with a taffy-pulling machine
* A scene where a wife must choose between her kidnapped husband’s life or giving his captors her case of Wonka bars (it ends with a soft punchline aimed at adults)
* Passing references to Grandpa Joe’s pipe tobacco
* The boat ride on the chocolate river is a nightmarish, bad acid trip with Day-Glo colors, creepy images (including the beheading of a chicken), and Wonka’s scary a capella song (with a reference to “the fires of Hell”) which ends with him screaming the lyrics before stopping the boat

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

I hope that she had already seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a child, but if not, here’s your chance. It’s great viewing for you and her to share, either with or without kids.

I want my right arm back and I want it NOW!!!

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
* Director: Mel Stuart
* Screenwriter: Roald Dahl
* Stars: Gene Wilder, Peter Ostrum, Jack Albertson, Michael Bollner, Denise Nickerson, Julie Dawn Cole, Paris Themmen, Roy Kinnear
* MPAA Rating: G



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High Plains Drifter (1973)

THROUGH THE HAZE of a desert plain, a stranger (Clint Eastwood) on horseback appears in the distance. He makes his way across the plain, down a hillside, past a graveyard, and into the small lakeside desert town of Lago.

The stranger stops in Lago’s saloon for a drink, and here’s the greeting he gets:


Oh, and after the above mayhem, he proceeds to rape the insulting town tramp (Marianna Hill).

Welcome to the first 10 minutes of High Plains Drifter.

Plot:
The people of Lago hire the nameless stranger to protect them from a returning trio of outlaws (led by Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis) who have a score to settle with the town. While many of the townsfolk want the stranger to protect their town, several others (who want the secrets of the town preserved) scheme to have him removed…permanently.


Critique:

There are many elements that make High Plains Drifter such a powerful film. The strong script by Ernest Tidyman (The French Connection, Shaft). The eerie, piercing, foreboding musical score by Dee Barton. The performances of the ensemble cast. But a large amount of the film’s success belongs to the superb direction by Eastwood.

High Plains Drifter was only Eastwood’s second film as director (and his first western), but already he was showing his skills behind the camera. In addition to a strong use of point-of-view camerawork, Eastwood fills the film with masterful shots using angles, reveals, foregrounds, backgrounds, mirrors, lighting, and shadows. He spends exactly the right amount of time with each shot; not a second is wasted on any given scene.

A thesis could be written about how Lago is an allegory for Hell. (Tidyman’s script is truly on a literary level.) Some examples:
• The stranger rides down a hillside to enter Lago (a descent into hell)
• The following passages of dialogue after the stranger demands every building in town be painted red…
o Preacher (Robert Donner): “You can’t mean the church, too!” Stranger: “I mean especially the church.”
o Bartender (Paul Brinegar): “When we get done, this place is gonna look like hell.”
o Later, after the hotel owner (Ted Hartley) declares, “200 gallons of blood-red paint…it couldn’t be worse if the devil himself had ridden right into Lago!” – we cut immediately to the stranger sleeping in bed.
• And when you see him backlit during the fiery climax, wielding his bullwhip, you’d swear the stranger is the devil himself.

Eastwood’s stranger is an antihero for the ages, and High Plains Drifter is a dark morality tale that just happens to be a western. As the story unfolds, it becomes all too clear who the stranger embodies – an “avenging devil” who’s come to collect on the sins of the town’s past.

High Plains Drifter often gets dismissed or lumped in with Eastwood’s “spaghetti westerns” (A Fistful of Dollars, The Good The Bad & The Ugly) or lackluster efforts like Hang ‘em High. I admit, I was guilty of this perception until I actually watched High Plains Drifter years ago. It’s now one of my top 25 favorite films of all time. (See the others on my profile page or my reviews under the label “filmfather favorite.”)

Trivia:
• “Lago Averno” was the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno.
• Shortly after the film's release, Eastwood wrote to John Wayne, suggesting they make a western together. Wayne sent back an angry letter, denouncing High Plains Drifter for its violence and revisionist portrayal of the Old West. Eastwood didn’t reply back, and they never worked together.

Rating:

Will your kids want to watch it?

High Plains Drifter may be a western, and kids may love cowboys, but this is one dark, R-rated western that young’ins shouldn’t see till they’re older. Many people are shot, a woman is raped, two men are whipped to death, and another is hung by a bullwhip. There are also a couple of morning-after bedroom scenes with Eastwood and a lady friend. And to top it off, a horse is shot and a little person (The Wizard of Oz’s Billy Curtis) gets punched out by a full-sized man.

Will your FilmMother like it?

The perception (correct or not) is that girls don’t like westerns. Well, I often say that High Plains Drifter is a western for people who don’t like westerns – but love a good tale of morality, revenge, and the price for covering sins of the past. Also, push the literary angle if you think that’ll play to her intellect; I’m still trying to get it to work on my English-teacher wife. (How about tonight, honey?)

Dammit, I said RED. This is clearly mauve. That’s it, I’m off the project.

High Plains Drifter
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Screenwriter: Ernest Tidyman
• Stars: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitch Ryan, Jack Ging, Stefan Gierasch, Ted Hartley, Billy Curtis, Geoffrey Lewis, Walter Barnes
• MPAA Rating: R


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Suddenly (1954)

IN THE YEARS BETWEEN the end of World War II and his Oscar-winning role in From Here To Eternity, Frank Sinatra was in a slump. Women didn’t need to fawn over him now that their boys were back home from overseas.

Perhaps desperate to try anything – and maybe not knowing the comeback he’d enjoy from Eternity – Sinatra played against type as a villain in Suddenly.

Plot:
• The town of Suddenly, California is a quiet, small place where not much happens (“They’re thinking of changing the town to Gradually,” jokes a cop to an out-of-towner). But today is special: The President is arriving by train at 5pm.
• In town, sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) pines for Ellen (Nancy Gates), who lost her husband Pete in “the war” three years ago (I’m guessing Korea, since it’s 1954). She’s overprotective in raising her scrappy (and mouthy) 8-year-old son Pidge (Kim Charney) while sharing her hilltop home with her father-in-law (James Gleason).
• That afternoon, a trio of sharp-dressed men (led by Sinatra) visit Ellen’s home, announcing themselves as Secret Servicemen who need to inspect the house because of its direct view of the train station in the town below.
• During their “inspection,” Tod shows up with the real head of the Secret Service (Willis Bouchey). Sinatra’s crew opens fire, killing the Secret Serviceman and wounding Tod. It’s here we learn that Sinatra’s character, John Baron, is a hitman hired to assassinate the President for half a million dollars. He and his team hold Ellen, Tod, Pidge, Pop, and an unsuspecting TV repairman (James Lilburn) hostage. Baron’s rules are simple: Anybody tries to stop him, and he kills Pidge.

Critique:

Director Lewis Allen plays out the events of Suddenly within a four-hour span (and a taut 75-minute film) with very little musical score, providing a relatable level of realism – and an atmosphere of tension, helplessness, and fear. The script by Richard Sale (The White Buffalo) offers clever tricks and turns, as well as many memorable lines of dialogue. (Ellen: “Haven’t you any feelings at all?” Baron: “No, I haven’t, lady, they were taken outta me by experts.”)

It’s intriguing and entertaining to see cinematic “good guy” Sinatra and film noir heavy Hayden both play against type. Sinatra is terrific as Baron, an unbalanced killer who tries a bit too hard to prove his toughness. He’s a villain that's easy to despise – a scrawny weasel who assaults kids, menaces women, and kicks people in their bullet wounds. (It’s a shame he didn’t take more chances like this.) And Hayden does a great job of using Sale’s dialogue to “get” to Sinatra’s Baron in an attempt to throw him off his game.

Contrary to popular belief, Sinatra did not try to have prints of Suddenly removed from the marketplace following John F. Kennedy’s assassination; Sinatra’s family has gone to great lengths over the years to debunk this popular rumor.

Suddenly is an edgy, grim thriller for its era. Get past the dated, hokey intro and you’ll be rewarded for your time.

Where to watch Suddenly:
• Suddenly fell into the public domain years ago and now exists in many ultra-cheap versions of poor quality. However, a newly restored version of Suddenly was released this summer, featuring the original black and white film and a colorized version (see below).
• You can also view or download Suddenly free from Archive.org.


On a side note…I requested interviews from two of the surviving stars of Suddenly, Nancy Gates and Kim Charney. I never heard back from Gates, and Charney (who’s now a surgeon) declined my request.

Rating: 4.5 stars
(out of 5)

Will your kids want to watch it?

Teens might find Suddenly entertaining if they give it a chance, but I can’t imagine young kids wanting to watch it – unless they’ve got some kind of early fascination with black-and-white crime dramas. And while there’s no actual bloodshed in Suddenly, it has plenty of gunplay (including several shooting deaths and one injury), plus a rather nasty electrocution.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

I don’t know how your FilmMother feels about classic movies; my wife admittedly has trouble staying awake for black and white films. But if your other half has a thing for film noir or Ol’ Blue Eyes, she’ll enjoy Suddenly.

A man so powerful, he owned the world's first invisible cigar.

Suddenly
• Director: Lewis Allen
• Screenwriter: Richard Sale
• Stars: Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Gates, Kim Charney, James Gleason, James Lilburn
• MPAA Rating: N/A


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