Feb 19
Dirty Harry is the quintessential vigilante movie. A big gun solves almost every problem and things like due process are just exasperations to scoot around to get the bad guys. It’s a skewed dream world for most of us, of course, but for some the ideology of the classic Clint Eastwood character is the stuff justice really ought to be made of.
Canadian director Norman Jewison brings Fiddler on the Roof to the big screen in this very entertaining 1971 musical film. It won three Oscars and was nominated for several more, with John Williams picking up a golden dude for Best Song Score Adaptation. Oswald Morris snagged an Oscar for his cinematography, while the movie also scooped one for Best Sound.
The film follows the play very closely, I’m told, and retains nearly all the dialogue. A new scene was added for the movie production, but a couple of songs were omitted from the Broadway version. Casting was somewhat controversial, too, with the inclusion of Chaim Topol as Tevye considered somewhat of an issue as Zero Mostel had originated the role in the 1964 theatre production.
Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks gets compared an awful lot to Mary Poppins. The two films are similar in many ways, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen Mary Poppins so I’m going to avoid comparisons as much as I possibly can. In the case of Bedknobs, Disney scores with a musical comedy that successfully employs some creative and highly entertaining animation to go with some brilliant song and dance numbers.
I was able to check out the director’s cut version of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which thankfully includes the full version of the lively “Portobello Road” segment. With the songs for the movie recorded in full stereo (the spoken parts were done in mono), the music jumps from the screen with all the joy and glee intended. Musically and artistically, it is one of Disney’s stronger pictures.
Nov 7
Woody Allen’s Bananas is an uproarious comedy about getting wrapped up in something bigger than you are. Sandwiched between two devilishly hilarious sequences involving Howard Cosell and ABC’s Wide World of Sports, this 1971 picture is Allen’s third feature-length movie. It finds the filmmaker immersed in his Marx Brothers phase and the zaniness is running full tilt from start to finish.
What’s notable about Allen’s films from this particular phase is that he never lets the story get in the way of a sight gag or a joke, even when it may work to the flick’s detriment in some way. Bananas balances the elements and the picture achieves a great deal of comic momentum as it slips towards its finale.
THX 1138 is the directorial debut of George Lucas, representing a fuller version of one of his student films from the University of South Carolina. Lucas used inspiration from a variety of sources, with the most obvious being George Orwell’s 1984. THX 1138 also shares themes with Brave New World, The Machine Stops, and the short film by Arthur Lipsett 21-87. Francis Ford Coppola helped produce THX 1138, along with Warner Bros. The overall style of the film appears to also take some lessons from French New Wave, as the visuals are very austere and bold.
Lucas is certainly a visual filmmaker, as his Star Wars films would attest to. His love for effects is certainly apparent in his first film, too, as the androids and characters he creates have deep science-fiction relatives. One can see some visuals from Lucas’s future work coming together in THX 1138, so viewing it is an interesting experience. Never particularly gifted in working with actors, Lucas’s films tend to rely more on the effects than anything else and this film is no different. Perhaps the only exception to this rule is in American Graffiti, where he demonstrates somewhat of an ability to conduct his performers.
