"Bitter Sweet Romance with Panorama View"

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

Year: 1965
Country: United States/Italy
Language: English
Number: 433
Director: David Lean
Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger

David Lean's three hour long epic, Doctor Zhivago, is based upon the Nobel Prize winning novel by Boris Pasternak, which is set during the Russian Revolution where we follows Pasternak's alter ego, Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a poet and a doctor whom is thorn between two women, his wife and stepsister, Tonya (Gerandine Chaplin) and the young and beautiful, Lara Antipova (Julie Christie) who Yuri meets several times during the revolution, from the crowded Moscow to the ice cold Ural mountains, but no matter what, the revolution will always find them.

Doctor Zhivago is without a doubt a very beautiful film, with all it's sets, costumes and landscapes, and the thought of how big the russian empire is, makes it even more breathtaking. Well that was my immediate reaction after I saw it the first time. But after years of watching other russian films by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, Doctor Zhivago seems now like romance pocket books, with to many love cliches, and Omar Sharif's over the top theatrical facial expression, who was terribly miscast in the lead. The Magic is gone. And I can't lie when I say that the first hour of the film was so boring, and to long for character buildings, which could have been shorter, and I don't care if it's all in the book. 

But what I liked about this movie, is still the things which I was impressed by the first time. The beautiful cinematography, the landscapes, costumes, the art direction and Julie Christie. So my conclusion is that this movie is simply eye candy, with the right romantic tone and conflicts. So if I had to chose some one to recommend it to, it would have been the ones who haven't seen any russian movies, and since Zhivago follows pretty much a safe recipe, it's a good start for more breathtaking adventures about the mysterious and the majestic country called Russia.

Grade: B-

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"O.K. I Get It!"

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

Year: 1957
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 323
Script: Leon Uris
Director: John Sturges
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet
Oscar nom: Best Editing, Best Sound
IMDb: 7.2
RT score: 82%

John Sturges' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is another film about the legendary western lawman Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) and his friend, the gambler and former dentist, Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas) who both goes to the town of Tombstone to track down the Clanton brothers. It all ends up with the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Having seen "My Darling Clementine" with Henry Fonda, I felt that this movie was quiet historical inaccurate, for instance, the actual battle was only 30 seconds, while in this movie it's goes on for eight minutes. This is a typical Hollywood film, where the actions scenes need to be boosted up in order to get people's attentions, and make a tough guy out of every character, like they did with Lancaster and Douglas in this film. And it doesn't help with the song playing in the background, which lyrics only pushing the words "O.K. Corral" to our faces. We get it, it's a gunfight at the O.K. Corral!



Least the Henry Fonda version was deeper incense of the characters, moral standards and weaknesses. This version chooses the simplest way, by use of alcohol, even Wyatt is a heavy drinker. There wasn't any romantic scenes, in Clementine, because the characters kept their feelings for themselves, which only made it more appealing. This movie is so superficial as it could have been. It's kind of weird that I keep comparing it to another movie, but speaking in an objective perspective this movie did drag, there was to many shootout and robbery scenes that doesn't have any relevance to the story.

But what I did like about this movie, was actually the gunfight, although it's inaccurate, there's pretty much excitement in it. And Kirk Douglas certainly give us a great sneaky and charismatic performance as the reckless, but loyal companion, he's simply cool. But Lancaster on the other hand doesn't not quiet fit in to this role, it's just to theatrical and his flashing physique does not fit into the western genre.

Grade: C-

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"Excuse Me, You're in My Spot"

THE HEARTBREAK KID

Year: 1972
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 542
Director: Elaine May
Starring: Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin, Eddie Albert
Oscar nom: Best Supporting Actor (Eddie Albert), Best Supporting Actress (Jeannie Berlin)
IMDb: 6.9
RT score: 90%

Elaine May's comedy The Heartbreak Kid, is the story about the newly weds, Lenny (Charles Grodin) and Lila (Jeannie Berlin) who's off to their honeymoon to Miami. On the trip, Lenny seems to have second thoughts about the whole marriage, specially after their first night in bed together. When they finally arrives Miami, and Lenny can finally rest in the sun, a young tall blond goddess, named Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) suddenly appears, and says "excuse me, you're in my spot". And from that moment Lenny is madly in love with this college girl, with a rich and overprotective father (Eddie Albert). So this mean's Lenny is up against two problems. The first one is to gently get rid of his wife, and convince Kelly's father that he's good enough for his daughter.

What do I think about this comedy? Well I will not call it a classic, because I don't find it very special, or very funny for that matter. It's an easy going comedy, that doesn't give our main character to many challenges, it all appears to easily for him. And the ending is certainly not satisfying. And I also find Jeannie Berlin to be over the top annoying. But what I really liked about this movie was Eddie Albert's performance as Kelly's father. A really strong performance with authority and repentance. A real badass performance. Plus the movie also features a really sexy Cybill Shepherd.


Grade: C+


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"To Be or Not To Be"

PARADISE NOW

Year: 2005
Country: Palestinian Territories/France/Germany/Netherlands/Israel
Language: Arabic
Number: 1033
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Starring: Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal, Hiam Abbass
Oscar nom: Best Foreign Language Film
IMDb: 7.5
RT score: 89%

Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now is an amazing film that takes us deep into the Palestinian society, where every one is portrayed as human beings. Roger Ebert said something clever to some one who criticized him for "humanizing those animals". Ebert replied that by calling them animals they think exactly the way we think about them. It's not a movie that chooses a side, but it certainly shows us that these are not the monsters, but humans with all the emotions intact, with their fears and doubts.

We follows two young palestinian mechanics and best friends, Said and Khaled, who both have decided to enlist as suicide bombers to bomb Israeli targets in Tel-Aviv by dressing up like Israeli civilians, wearing black suits. But the plan doesn't goes as planned, when they trying to sneak out via the border fence, and they run in different directions to hide from the israeli guard patrol. It's a crazy day, and it's seems like their mission isn't going to be pulled off, while the the two friends try to find where the other person is. They might even have a second thought about the whole operation.

This film is a great study of the human mind, and the inner conflicts they have because of their insecureness about their mission. But it's also kind of surprising that these two ordinary men, with an ordinary job, who seems not to be very religious, who sits in the sun, smoking on a water pipe and drinking tea, becomes suicide bombers in the first place. Every character is three dimensional, every one has empathy for each other, and even ask questions about the situation and the conflict itself.

Paradise Now also has some funny moments. like when Khaled is giving his speech in a video statement, and the camera man have forgotten to record it. Or when Khaled is complaining about the tape around his body is to tight, when the fact is that they are never going to take them off anyway. This comical undertone destroys the myth of the well organized evil terror network. What a genius film that gives us the palestinians point of view, and how bad the situation really is. The acting is absolutely superb with real blood, sweat and tears, with great dialogues and realistic outbursts. This is truly the best film about the Israeli-Palestine conflict.


Grade: A


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"Let the Camera Tell the Story"

THE RED AND THE WHITE

Original title: Csillagosok, katonák
Year: 1967
Country: Hungary/Soviet Union
Language: Hungarian, Russian
Number: 471
Director: Miklós Jancsó
Starring: József Madaras, Tibor Molnár, András Kozák, Jácint Juhász
IMDb: 8.0
RT score: 67%

Miklós Jancsó's The Red and The White, is a wonderful made and well crafted war film, that is set in Hungary in 1918 where the russian revolutionary war also took place, between the white conservative forces, versus the red bolshevik army. It resulted in a red victory and a short lived soviet state, but it was only after four mounts it was dismissed and monarchy was once again established.

This movie focuses on a bunch of Bolshevik prisoners, some are executed, while the rest is sent out in the forrest naked, just so that the czarist troops can enjoy themselves by hunting them down one after one. As arrogant as they are, they underestimate the revolutionaries, because the reds have the people on their side. The czarist forces are portrayed as brutal and inhuman, specially in a scene where a bunch of the white soldiers tries to rape an innocent peasant girl, along with all their murderers and executions. While the red forces in the other hand are portrayed as heroes and martyrs, that in the end forms a line and walks slowly ahead towards an even bigger army of whites, that shoots them all down. And in the closing image we see one of the red soldiers rises his sword in salute for the dead ones.

What's really special about this film, is the cinematography with many long-takes that last for many minutes. It is not one position, but a moveable camera that jumps from one event to an other, without thinking it's just one scene, and it engages us even more, in that way that we feel like we watching as it really is, which gives the movie a more realistic tone. The story is great, because it follows the red forces, and it is their actions that drives the story and keeps it going. It doesn't follow some certain people, it follows many of the prisoners, of every culture and ethnicity. The only thing that is negative about this movie is the portraying of the white soldiers, and some of the details to make them look bad, like their own orchestra, which might be a turn off, and even a propaganda cliché. But then again it's communist Hungary. But besides that this movie is perfect, in length, in cinematography and in excitement.


Grade: A-


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"A Truly Dark Noir"

THE BIG HEAT

Year: 1953
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 263
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby
IMDb: 8.0
RT score: 100%

Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, is probably among the greatest film noir I've seen, and I don't usually like this genre, but this is an exception. It's the story about the police detective Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) who just come a cross a murder, that looks like a suicide, but is in fact something bigger, according to a lover of the murdered, which ends up dead. Dave becomes more involved in this case than he should, because it might effect his love ones. But Dave is one of those who doesn't leave a case unsolved.

The Big Heat is a great film noir. The reason I think it's great is because it isn't as stylistic as the other noir films. Here there's is no glamour, every one has an average look. A killing is a horrible thing, not poetic in any ways, which this film is able to bring out perfectly. Glenn Ford gives us a pretty solid performance as the vengeful policeman, that won't rest until he track down the killers. In other words, Fritz Lang, the creator of the greatest thriller ever made M, has once again given us a great film that shocks us, thrills us, engages us and makes us ask questions, but the only problem I can think of is that some of the question that keeps bugging us becomes unanswered. But otherwise I loved every second of this movie. 


Grade: A-


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"Happy 50th Birthday, Algeria!"

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

Original Title: La battaglia di Algeri
Country: Italy/Algeria
Language: French, Arabic
Number: 436
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Starring: Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash
Oscar nom: Best Foreign Language Film (Italy) Best Original Screenplay, Best Director
Venice: Golden Lion, FIPRESCI Prize
IMDb: 8.2
RT: 99%

It is now 50 years since Algeria got it's independence from the french, after countless of bloody battles that cost over one million dead's, most of them civilians. It was on the 1st of November, 1954 that the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) declared war against the french settlers, and this has become their national day. They weren't as experienced as the french soldiers, they where basically just local villagers with no war experience and was a easy match for the french forces, who did every dirty trick in the book to tear their network apart, specially with the help of torture, which made the international society react and the french came under a high pressure. And also the french experienced inner conflict between leftists and conservatives. It's was in other words their Vietnam.

The Battle of Algiers is set in the Algerian capital Algeries where we follow three FNL members, who see all the repression in the Casbah (the muslim part of the city) and decides to assassinate as many of the local police men and politicians they can, to draw international attention. But as always the french's revenge is ten times worse, specially when a bomb is placed in the middle of the casbah and many civilians dies. It's from then the FNL have to plant bombs in the french part of the city like in cafes and airports. Then the government decides to use the highly experienced paratroop squad, lead by Colonel Mathieu to track down all the FNL members, no matter what.

The Battle of Algiers is a wonderful piece of film making. It's almost like a documentary, filmed in black and white, hand held, locations where it really happened and with amateur actors. It also even features the real resistance fighter Saadi Yacef playing basically himself. The only professional actor in this film is Jean Martin as the french paratroop general with his characteristic sunglasses, which makes him one of the greatest bad asses in the history of motion pictures. And to top it all, there's the Ennio Morricone soundtrack.

What I even love more about this movie is that it's never aged a bit, since it was released in 1966. It is as relevant today as it was then. We can clearly see the same thing going on in many countries today as in this movie, like in the on going Arab spring and the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was actually banned in Israel for many years. It was also banned in France, mostly because of the portraying of the french forces in the movie. And one other fun fact is that this movie was screened in Pentagon right before the invasion of Iraq, to do the opposite of what the moral of this film is. In their case it was how to eliminate a whole terrorist network.

The Battle of Algiers is a wonderful example of what kind of powers the motion pictures has. It's not just entertainment, it also has an objective to educate us, to tell us how it really is, or how some certain people feels about it. The perfect political drama, and probably one of the few movies that actually have change the world, and actually educated us, and influenced us politically. And I hope it's still with us after another fifty years from now, which it certainly will.


Grade: A


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