Once again, I must turn to Seinfeld to help set the tone for my blog entry. This time, it’s Season 8, Episode 17: “The English Patient.” Mr. Peterman and Elaine are in a theater watching the movie The English Patient. Peterman stares, enraptured, at the screen. Elaine is totally frantic with boredom. PETERMAN: Elaine, I […]
Entries Tagged as 'War'
English Patient, The
October 27th, 2009 · No Comments · 1996, Adaptation, Color, Drama, English Patient, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Ondaatje, Miramax, Naveen Andrews, Nudity, Ralph Fiennes, Sex, War, Willem Dafoe
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Platoon
October 17th, 2009 · No Comments · 1986, Color, Drama, F-Word, Left-Leaning Politics, Oliver Stone, Original Screenplay, Orion Pictures Corporation, Platoon, War
Oliver Stone is to directing movies what a croquet mallet is to carving a turkey. Platoon is yet another movie – the most heavy-handed to date – that proves war is hell. War is hell. I get it, Hollywood. I get it. In fact, I’ve been getting it since All Quiet on the Western Front […]
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Deer Hunter, The
October 9th, 2009 · No Comments · 1978, Christopher Walken, Color, Deer Hunter, Drama, F-Word, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, Original Screenplay, Paul and Storm, Robert De Niro, Universal Pictures, War
The Deer Hunter is the biggest waste of film and talent since West Side Story. Worse, it’s a movie that didn’t need to be made in the first place. It already was, in 1930. Only then it was called All Quiet On the Western Front. A couple of years after that it as called Cavalcade. […]
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Patton
October 1st, 2009 · No Comments · 1970, Adaptation, Cinemascope (Wide Screen), Color, Drama, Francis Ford Coppola, George C. Scott, Patton, Swearing, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, War
This is an epic movie in the vein of Lawrence of Arabia. Both movies are about war. Both are about men larger than life. The differences between the movies are World War I (Lawrence) vs. World War II (Patton, a British commander (Lawrence) vs. an American commander (Patton), and of course, the setting (Arabia in […]
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Bridge On the River Kwai, The
September 18th, 2009 · No Comments · 1957, Adaptation, Bridge On the River Kwai, Cinemascope (Wide Screen), Colonel Bogey March, Color, Columbia Pictures, David Lean, Drama, Jack Hawkins, War
The second color movie in a row! And – surprise! – another adaptation! I love making-of featurettes. The one for this movie, The Bridge On the River Kwai, is outstanding. An hour in length and worth many conversations with friends and family, this behind-the-scenes feature is as remarkable as the movie itself. Watching it, I […]
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From Here To Eternity
September 14th, 2009 · 1 Comment · 1953, Adaptation, Black and White, Columbia Pictures, Composer: George Duning, Drama, From Here to Eternity, Inciting Incident, Mid-Point, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Screenplay Structure, War
Hollywood returns to form for this, the 17th adaptation out of 26 Best-Picture films. With From Here to Eternity, Hollywood has chosen as Best Picture movies based on novels, short stories, plays (or characters in one of the three) 65% of the time. A plot summary written by Ed Sutton on the Internet Movie Database […]
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Casablanca
September 4th, 2009 · No Comments · 1943, Black and White, Casablanca, Claude Rains, Composer: Max Steiner, Drama, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Michael Curtiz, Original Screenplay, Peter Lorre, Smoking, Sydney Greenstreet, War, Warner Bros. Pictures
Every scene. Every song. Every character. Every line of dialogue. Every plot twist. Everything about Casablanca is perfect. If you haven’t seen this move, shame on you. Frankly, this is the one movie that should be issued at birth. “Mr. and Mrs. Stevens? You have a lovely baby daughter. Here’s the birth certificate. And her […]
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Mrs. Miniver
September 3rd, 2009 · 2 Comments · 1942, Adaptation, Black and White, Clara Bow, Composer: Herbert Stothart, Drama, M-G-M Studios, Mrs. Miniver, Walter Pidgeon, War, William Wyler
Oh, Mrs. Miniver, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways… I may not be alone in my dislike for this movie. The curmudgeonly book The Real Oscar: The Story Behind the Academy Awards, by Peter H. Brown, indicates a great deal of politics are behind the Oscar picks (what a surprise!) and […]
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Gone With the Wind
August 31st, 2009 · 1 Comment · 1939, Adaptation, Clara Bow, Clark Gable, Color, Composer: Max Steiner, Drama, Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell, Olivia de Havilland, Swearing, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh, War, Warner Bros. Pictures
Rhett Butler. Scarlett O’Hara. Melanie Hamilton-Wilkes. Mammy. Prissy. Ashley Wilkes. Gowns as big as Tara. A cause as lost as the Robinson family in space. Gone With the Wind is the first Oscar-winning movie in color – and a darn good thing, too. No movie yet (not even The Great Ziegfeld) so demanded to be […]
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Cavalcade
August 25th, 2009 · No Comments · 1932-1933, Adaptation, Black and White, Cavalcade, Drama, Fox Film Corporation, Frank Lloyd, Herbert Mundin, Mordaunt Hall, Not Released In United States, War
I didn’t think I was going to be able to watch this movie today. Cavalcade is one of only two Oscar-winning movies (the other being the 1927 silent film Wings) that has not been released on DVD in the United States. So don’t look for it in your local Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, FYE, […]
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