ALPHAVILLE is a whacked-out Cold War/ Nuclear paranoid flick that can best be described as someone’s bad dream. I’m sure Mr. Lynch must have been influenced by this French/American effort. Absolutely mesmerizing!
BULLITT. The best chase sequence ever filmed combined with Steve McQueen’s very on-edge cop. A wild ride from beginning to end !
COTTON COMES TO HARLEM. The very end of the ‘60s into the early ‘70s was the era of “Blaxploitation” films. Most were crud, but a few were in intriguing views into a culture most White Americans were barely familiar with if at all…true, there is exaggeration and nonsense in this movie, but it still stands as a great cop film if nothing else.
DAVID AND LISA explores the issue of autism before most people were aware of what it was… its really a love story set in an exclusive mental hospital. It is far more realistic than RAINMAN and, I think, more powerful as well.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is a special movie and, as it came out in ‘67 , may have helped start the Black-oriented flicks that would follow . Set in an era of racial tension, this movie makes good use of fine acting and a whodunit plot that is well-written and paced.
LITTLE BIG MAN. I have written elsewhere about the death of the Western a genre which used to be a staple of Hollywood fare and now only exists as an occasional exercise in screen art. This movie is one of the nails in the lid of the Hollywood Western’s coffin. It is a revisionist view of the post-Civil-War West culminating with the destruction of part of the 7^th Cavalry under Lt. Col. Custer by a combined force of Northern Plains Indians. Everything Hollywood held up so dear about that place and time is lampooned which makes it a lot of fun…nothing escapes the satire: Native Americans, gunslingers, pioneers…they all get blasted to wondrous effect. A long movie, but a romp nonetheless !
LOVE WITH A PROPER STRANGER. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen in a rare, non-action role. A romantic comedy with dramatic overtones…very well done, very gritty and ,speaking of coffin-nails, one of the nails in the Breen Office’s coffin.
GOLD FINGER is the second and one of the best of the James Bond movies. Mr. Broccoli and his people got it together and right for this one. Great bad guy, great photography and gorgeous women…and the man who really brought the character to the screen, Sean Connery.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is one of the later, “big” Westerns. The myth is alive and well in this star-strewn film and it delivers excitement and heart in huge measures. Yule Brynner as a gunslinger? It could happen ! And it does. Based on the Japanese classic, THE SEVEN SAMURI, the ensemble effort not only made a memorable full-color feature but gave us a great theme song as well.
PATTON. Well, yes, there’s been some rewriting of history here, especially about the Sicilian Campaign and how the general managed to get himself into the doghouse bigtime, though the essentials are factual enough in that the old boy did manage to berate some poor slobs (one of whom had actually performed heroically until he snapped and another who had important family connections in Washington) in not one but several aide stations and hospitals…. Even back in North Africa because he refused to consider psychological trauma as a medical condition. He had a running fight with the staff physicians about this matter for years. It was inevitable ALPHAVILLE is a whacked-out Cold War/ Nuclear paranoid flick that can best be described as someone’s bad dream. I’m sure Mr. Lynch must have been influenced by this French/American effort. Absolutely mesmerizing!
BULLITT. The best chase sequence ever filmed combined with Steve McQueen’s very on-edge cop. A wild ride from beginning to end !
COTTON COMES TO HARLEM. The very end of the ‘60s into the early ‘70s was the era of “Blaxploitation” films. Most were crud, but a few were in intriguing views into a culture most White Americans were barely familiar with if at all…true, there is exaggeration and nonsense in this movie, but it still stands as a great cop film if nothing else.
DAVID AND LISA explores the issue of autism before most people were aware of what it was… its really a love story set in an exclusive mental hospital. It is far more realistic than RAINMAN and, I think, more powerful as well.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is a special movie and, as it came out in ‘67 , may have helped start the Black-oriented flicks that would follow . Set in an era of racial tension, this movie makes good use of fine acting and a whodunit plot that is well-written and paced.
LITTLE BIG MAN. I have written elsewhere about the death of the Western a genre which used to be a staple of Hollywood fare and now only exists as an occasional exercise in screen art. This movie is one of the nails in the lid of the Hollywood Western’s coffin. It is a revisionist view of the post-Civil-War West culminating with the destruction of part of the 7^th Cavalry under Lt. Col. Custer by a combined force of Northern Plains Indians. Everything Hollywood held up so dear about that place and time is lampooned which makes it a lot of fun…nothing escapes the satire: Native Americans, gunslingers, pioneers…they all get blasted to wondrous effect. A long movie, but a romp nonetheless !
LOVE WITH A PROPER STRANGER. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen in a rare, non-action role. A romantic comedy with dramatic overtones…very well done, very gritty and ,speaking of coffin-nails, one of the nails in the Breen Office’s coffin.
GOLD FINGER is the second and one of the best of the James Bond movies. Mr. Broccoli and his people got it together and right for this one. Great bad guy, great photography and gorgeous women…and the man who really brought the character to the screen, Sean Connery.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is one of the later, “big” Westerns. The myth is alive and well in this star-strewn film and it delivers excitement and heart in huge measures. Yule Brynner as a gunslinger? It could happen ! And it does. Based on the Japanese classic, THE SEVEN SAMURI, the ensemble effort not only made a memorable full-color feature but gave us a great theme song as well.
PATTON. Well, yes, there’s been some rewriting of history here, especially about the Sicilian Campaign and how the general managed to get himself into the doghouse bigtime, though the essentials are factual enough in that the old boy did manage to berate some poor slobs (one of whom had actually performed heroically until he snapped and another who had important family connections in Washington) in not one but several aide stations and hospitals…. Even back in North Africa because he refused to consider psychological trauma as a medical condition. He had a running fight with the staff physicians about this matter for years. It was inevitable that ,at last, he’d probably step on the wrong toes, but the main reason he was relieved of command and put in limbo was because ,in Sicily, he had offended the Allied Command…that is ,he had tweaked British Field Marshal Montgomery’s nose as well as the fact that he had disregarded the Allied battle plan almost entirely. Scott’s Oscar winning portrayal is genius.
YELLOW SUBMARINE. Not great animation, but the colors….the colors ! Seriously, the music, the voicing by the Fab Four and the graphics are stunning. The best pop music of that age.
was relieved of command and put in limbo was because ,in Sicily, he had offended the Allied Command…that is ,he had tweaked British Field Marshal Montgomery’s nose as well as the fact that he had disregarded the Allied battle plan almost entirely. Scott’s Oscar winning portrayal is genius.
YELLOW SUBMARINE. Not great animation, but the colors….the colors ! Seriously, the music, the voicing by the Fab Four and the graphics are stunning. The best pop music of that age.