115. The
Young Philadelphians (1959) — Anthony Judson Lawrence (Paul Newman) is
raised as the scion of a Mainline Philadelphia family with a Princeton
education and a career as a lawyer. He
falls in love with an equally privileged young woman (Joan, played by Barbara
Rush), but is persuaded to delay their marriage by her father, who makes him a
better offer. It seems as if every
Mainline person in Philadelphia knows everyone else, and all the old men look
like the pictures on the “Community Chest” and “Get Out of Jail Free” cards in
Monopoly. Tony’s family secrets and his
way of life are put on trial when he has to defend his college roommate (Robert
Vaughn) in court against a charge of murder.
This drama has a great courtroom climax and enough of a plot to overcome
its soap opera tendencies. Newman is
terrific and very handsome, the women are sophisticated and haughty, and Billie
Burke, as a wealthy if somewhat ditsy client, is delightful. I am guilty as charged of loving this
movie. 4 cans.
116. Spencer’s
Mountain (1963) — I recall being more enamored by this family movie when I
first saw it at age 13, but now it seems pleasant enough but more dated and
corny. Henry Fonda plays Clay Spencer,
patriarch of a family of nine children, one of whom, Clay Jr. (James MacArthur),
is graduating from high school. Poppa
and his wife Olivia (Maureen O’Hara) are proud but poor folk, living in
beautiful Wyoming. He wants to build a
dream house up on Spencer’s Mountain, while she is just trying keep that brood
fed. Clay Jr. dreams of going to
college, but can’t afford it. Will he
win a scholarship? Can the family afford
to let him leave the farm or will he end up working in the quarry with the rest
of the Spencer clan? MacArthur is way
too old to be believable as a high school student/graduate, and Fonda channels
characters from his other movies, such as “Mr. Roberts” and “On Golden Pond,”
showing his gruff but loving side. This
movie is from writer Earl Hamner Jr. and was the basis for the long-running TV
show, “The Waltons.” 2 cans, not because
it was bad, but it moves slowly and seems a bit corny to me now.
117. Harry
& Son* (1984) — Paul Newman, who also directed, is Harry in this
bittersweet story of an aging father and the son who can’t please him. Harry is a widower, living with his son
Howard (soft-spoken Robby Benson), the son who can’t hold a job and who aspires
to be a writer. Harry only knows hard
work. He’s been in construction for
years and now demolishes buildings, but he gets spells where he can’t function
properly. As he tells his son, “I want
to work and can’t. You can and don’t
want to.” They are both frustrated with
each other, but there is obvious caring and love between them. The unlikely casting of a very young Ellen
Barkin as a former girlfriend of Howard’s who is now pregnant, and Newman’s
real wife, Joanne Woodward, as the local pet store owner who has an eye for
Harry, round out the cast. Newman is
good as a man losing his grip and aspiring to better things for his son, and
Benson is quiet and effective as hapless Howie.
3½ cans.
118. When
the Game Stands Tall* (2014) — I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for sentimental
sports movies, even though they are generally riddled with clichés even if they
are based on real stories. From “Brian’s
Song” to “Rudy” to “Remember the Titans,” these movies typically have the
obligatory health scare or death scene of someone dying far too young. They normally have the underdogs positioned
to come from behind and take home the big prize, even if that prize is — as in
the case of “Rudy” — just getting into the game. Here, too, Jim Caviezal plays real life high
school football coach Bob Ladouceur, coach of the DeLaSalle Spartans, owners of
a remarkable 151 game winning streak.
The team hasn’t lost in years but we know it wouldn’t be much of a movie
without the drama of the streak being threatened. Ladouceur works hard — almost tragically hard
— not just to coach his team, but to help them develop into responsible young
men who would do anything for each other and the team. There is a lot of pressure on the players to
uphold the standard set by each previous year’s team, and the town — and the parents
— add to that burden, even as Ladoucer does not. The movies isn’t as sentimental as some
others I’ve seen, and, though it has heart, it doesn’t pack quite the dramatic
punch as they do, either. Let’s give it
a field goal — 3 cans.
119. Rudy (1993) — And speaking of “Rudy,” I
couldn’t resist watching this classic when I spotted it on TV tonight. If you don’t get a lump in your throat and a
tear in your eye watching the diminutive Rudy finally get his chance to play
football for Notre Dame, then you have no heart. Sean Astin puts his all into playing Rudy, a
kid determined to get into Notre Dame and even more determined to play
football. Despite being “5 foot
nothing,” Rudy’s willingness to do anything for the team endears him to the
other players (at least the ones who don’t feel that he is showing them up with
his all-out effort at every practice), who insist to the coach that Rudy be
allowed to dress for the final game of his senior year. With only seconds left on the clock and the
chant “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy,” reverberating around the stadium, the coach
reluctantly lets Rudy into the game, his first time playing real football for
Notre Dame. This heartwarming movie,
based on a true story, shows us what determination and persistence mean, and
how sometimes dreams really do come true.
4 cans.
120. Good Job: Stories of the FDNY* (2014) —
Actor and former firefighter Steve Buscemi sits down with active and retired
members of the New York Fire Department to discuss how they view and do their
jobs. The tough but touching documentary
reveals the dedication and the trauma of fighting fires, of losing friends, of
seeing the first loss of life, of noticing that the sheets on a child’s bed are
the same as the sheets on your own child’s bed.
These brave men and women were born to do this job, or didn’t know what else
to do with their lives. Some women and
African Americans entered hostile work environments among the 90% white male
workplace, but they proved their mettle more than the “probies,” the
probationary firefighters, and most cannot imagine doing anything else. Many are now suffering the symptoms of
illness directly related to the job or have watched their comrades die during
or after the biggest loss of firefighters in the history of the FDNY, on September
11, 2001. This is not a group of people
prone to sharing their stories — even with their loved ones — but here they
open up and enlighten all of us about their lives and what they do to serve the
people of New York. An excellent HBO
documentary is the result. 4 cans.
121. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) — Can it
really be 30 years since Eddie Murphy brought brash and clever cop Axel Foley
to the screen? Here he is the proverbial
fish out of water, a Detroit cop who goes to Beverly Hills in search of the
killer of his childhood Detroit friend.
He can improvise his way through any situation, and, though the Beverly
Hills Police Department is strictly a by-the-book precinct, he eventually wins
their support, too. There is comedy,
drama and great 80s music here, and Murphy brings plenty of life to Axel
Foley. I hadn’t seen this movie in
years, but it was well worth revisiting.
4 cans.
122. Nixon By Nixon: His Own Words* (2014) —
While there might be debate over what President Richard Nixon knew and when he
knew it about Watergate, this much is clear:
He and several of his key aides knew of the existence of a recording
system in his office, on his phone and on their own phones and they proceeded
to speak candidly about Watergate and every other issue anyway. It appears Nixon either forgot he was being
recorded when he told Counsel John Dean that getting a million dollars to pay
off the men involved in Watergate would be easy or that he felt that he, as
President, could protect the recordings from ever being released. Whether he was ordering the monitoring of
Henry Kissinger’s phone calls, trying to collect dirt on Teddy Kennedy through
the Secret Service, banning all reporters from the Washington Post from the
White House or referring in a pejorative way to Jewish people and others,
everything he said was recorded. As we
know from the tapes released at the time of Watergate as a result of a ruling
by the Supreme Court, Nixon and his staff were deeply involved in the Watergate
cover-up that led to his resignation as President. This documentary provides a fascinating
account of Nixon, not only from the recordings, but from interviews he
conducted after he left office. Who
among us would want our private conversations made public? But Nixon’s hubris led him to believe he
could do or say anything with impunity because he was the president. Now we know it’s not the crime, it is the
cover-up that gets you in the end. And
we know that recordings — today video, then audio — will relay the truth. These recordings, released in 2013, reveal
much about the abuse of power.
Fascinating and sad. 4 cans.
123. Blow Out* (1981) — This movie is
neither the sequel to “Shampoo” or the prequel to “Hairspray.” John Travolta plays Jack, a sound engineer
who is out one evening recording sounds when he sees a car careen off a bridge
after what sounds like a gunshot — not a blowout. He jumps into the river and rescues a young
woman who was a passenger in the car.
The police seem curiously uninterested in the woman (Nancy Allen) since
they are trying to protect the reputation of the dead driver, a political
candidate, a married man who wasn’t supposed to be with the woman in the first
place. But Jack can’t let it go, since
he knows the accident wasn’t an accident.
John Lithgow and Dennis Franz play the bad guy and a mercenary
photographer who staged the incident to blackmail the candidate. This movie has its share of suspense but
seems a little hard to believe at times. Still, director/writer Brian DePalma knows how
to grab our attention, and Travolta gives what I’d call a “sound”
performance. Get it? 3 cans.
124. The Roosevelts: An Intimate Portrait*
(2014) — This Ken Burns documentary occupied much of my time this month with
its 7-part, 14-hour airing on PBS. The
rich history of the Roosevelts — from Theodore to Franklin and Eleanor — is
lushly documented, replete with thousands of photographs and hundreds of film
clips on the two presidents and one of the most famous women of the 20th
century. Their family histories and
political ambitions are thoroughly explored against the culture and tenor of
the times in which they lived. Teddy was
surely a “rough rider,” a man who loved to hunt and kill animals but who also
set aside massive tracts of land for preservation. He built the Panama Canal and fought in the
Battle of San Juan Hill, perversely proud that his regimen suffered the most
causalities. Franklin and Eleanor,
distant cousins to each other and related to Teddy, had far different
upbringings but married young and stayed together despite his infidelities,
which might have ruined his political aspirations. Eleanor, meek and abandoned as a child, grew
into her own social consciousness and added her views to Franklin’s plans to
bring the country out of the Great Depression upon his election as President in
1932. She forged her own life as he
continued to serve as president through World War II and until his death just
after he was elected to an unheard-of fourth term in 1944. Much of this story is known, but no one can
document a story and make a grand tale seem intimate better than Ken Burns and
his collaborators. This series is a
“good deal.” 4½ cans.
125. To Catch A Thief (1955) — When a cat
burglar targets wealthy women vacationing along the French Riviera, suspicion
naturally points to “retired” burglar John Robie (a dashing Cary Grant). To prove his innocence, Robie must catch the
real thief, while simultaneously warding off the police and the doubts of
beautiful young heiress (Grace Kelly).
With Grant and Kelly as the leads and the backdrop of the gorgeous
French Riviera, who even cares about the plot?
The story is satisfying, even if it is not that difficult to figure out
whodunit. 3½ cans.
126. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) —
In light of the recent passing of comedy icon Joan Rivers, I thought it was the
right time to view this documentary again.
Bawdy and profane, Joan Rivers was one of the few women to do stand-up
comedy and to hold her own against the countless men commanding the stage and
TV shows. Once the chosen one as permanent
guest host of Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” Joan became persona non grata
when she accepted Fox’s offer of a show of her own. Johnny never spoke to her again, her show was
quickly cancelled and her husband Edgar committed suicide. All of these events are covered here and lend
a sense of sadness to Joan’s life of desperation, as she tried to keep her
“”book” filled with nearly any kind of gig that is offered to her. She maintained a sumptuous lifestyle, living
in an apartment she described as one where Marie Antoinette would live. She shows us the myriad of card catalogs
containing virtually every joke she ever wrote and performed. She was tireless, fearless and ruthless —
about other people and about herself.
She was, as the title says, a piece of work. And very, very funny. 3½ cans.
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