So Kevin and I have been ever so slowly working our way down the AFI Top 100 American Films, the 1998 version. We're only watching movies I haven't seen yet, although I have to admit that we skipped over #94, Goodfellas, bc I just wasn't up to mob movie gore at the time. Here's what we've seen so far and some brief thoughts.
- Yankee Doodle Dandy - fun; energetic; idealized version of George M. Cohan's life
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - earnest; preachy, especially toward the end when What's His Head goes off into a monologue at his dinner guests;
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Unforgiven - great, just great; great characters; great lines ("Deserve's got nothin to do with it."); stayed with me for some time after watching it
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Bringing Up Baby - fun romp; good dialogue and rapport between Grant (so handsome) and Hepburn
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The Searchers - the overarching story of Ethan searching and searching and not giving up is great; Hollywood-ized Debbie (the kidnapped niece; obvsly wearing makeup; perfectly groomed brows; beautifully arranged hair; her Native American clothing is like an ensemble) is kinda distracting this many years on
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The Apartment - another fun romp with sad parts that work; deals with a kind of accepted, everyday infidelity; schmoozing one's way up the ladder; broken relationships & family at the end; refreshingly not neatly tied up at the end
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A Place in the Sun - great (true-ish) story; felt like it was missing some foundational stuff; also, Taylor is obvsly beautiful, but wasn't convinced of why the Clift character was so drawn to the Taylor character; what was it that made them so fatefully drawn to each other? I.e., it didn't seem like a great love affair worth killing over.
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My Fair Lady - the lovely music stuck in my head for ages after watching this; squirm-inducing misogyny and classism, but I suppose that was par for the course at the time period depicted in the movie; had a hard time with the Harrison character as the love interest...he looks old enough to be at least her father! And Hepburn's a waifish thing to begin with so the age disparity is a bit of a stretch. Bonus: a young Jeremy Brett as Freddy, Eliza's more age appropriate suitor; Brett later played a wonderful Sherlock Holmes in the British TV series; he was just perfect in that and I miss the series
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The Jazz Singer - I dunno; I guess it's included bc it's considered the first talkie although some say it's partial talkie and others say there were other talkies before it...; stilted, quick (88 minutes!) flyover of the Jolson character's life; cheezy ending where a Broadway premier was delayed to the next day so that Jolson's Jakie could be cantor at an important service; like that would ever happen...there's too much money involved
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Patton - heh; some great dialogue; a favorite exchange: Clergyman says, 'I was interested to see a Bible by your bed. You actually find time to read it?' Patton replies, 'I sure do. Every goddamn day.' From what I understand, Patton was very much as portrayed by Scott. Patton's strong character is in itself fascinating; that Scott recreated the man's essence so well is incredible.
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Easy Rider - more great dialogue; my favorite: 'I'm hip about time.' I know that wasn't supposed to be funny, but it's just so dated and stereotypical 60's that I laughed out loud. Just wish I had more occasion to use it. For a movie that seemed to simply track a couple of guys biking around, it and its bigger themes of division, prejudice, violence, conformity, etc. stayed with me for some time afterward. Also, dunno if this was supposed to be the audience reaction, but, at the end, when the guys in the trucks shot Billy and one redneck said to the other, 'We have to go back', I thought they meant they have to go back bc they really hurt that guy and they can't leave him like that, but what they meant was that they really hurt that guy and they can't leave the other one alive. Oofah. Great soundtrack; I'm gonna get that CD via interlibrary loan and get it on my pod.
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Frankenstein - It's alive! Alive! As stilted as The Jazz Singer, but boy does Karloff do a lot without words. It's like there's the rest of the actors and then there's Karloff.
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Next up: Mutiny on the Bounty.
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