Funny place, that Urbandale Library. In many ways the best of the metro libraries, this month it did something so utterly bizarre that I was unable to complete the monthly filmfest on time. You see, one of my movies this month was “The Jazz Singer,” which I planned to get at the Urbandale Library. I checked the catalog, saw it was in stock, ran out there, picked it up and brought the disc home. Imagine my surprise when I found that the disc I had was only “special features,” disc 3 of a 3 disc set. Apparently Urbandale
5) Easy Rider (1969) – Have you ever longed to see what would happen if Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper did a lot of drugs and aimlessly rode motorcycles around the Southwest? No? Me neither, but that’s what I got with this movie. The entire plot can be summarized thusly: Two guys make a lot of money off a drug deal, buy motorcycles and decide to go to Mardi Gras. There are but two interesting parts to this movie: Jack Nicholson’s character, and the filmography during the acid trip. But neither of those come in until at least halfway, and the ending is so lame and arbitrary that you can’t help but feel disappointed. Very, very pointless movie.
4) Swing Time (1936) – This seems to be a pretty standard Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie. I don’t really know, since it’s the only one I’ve seen so far, but it’s relatively light-hearted, has some laughs and some romance, and a lot of singing and dancing, so it pretty well fit my expectations. The plot is a pretty well-rehashed romantic comedy formula with the couple who hate each other when they meet, go through stuff together, and by the end, well, they might just be in love. Which is fine. This is fun, fluffy and has some catchy songs. My only complaint is the ending with Astaire’s rival dude, which came off very rushed and out of character, like they just needed to tie up that storyline. Other than that, it was nice, but not a favorite.
3) Patton (1970) – I fully expected to hate this, being just the type of bleeding-heart pacifist liberal that General Patton would probably hate. But as the three hours of this movie wore on, I realized it was pretty interesting and that Patton was really quite a character. Lots of his philosophies were things that I don’t necessarily agree with, but you can’t deny that the man was very enigmatic. From his beliefs in reincarnation to his zeal for competition with the enemy generals, and of course the famous speech in front of the flag, there’s a lot more to General Patton than you get out of history books. And the movie, I think, does a really good job of focusing on Patton the man, and not just the battle sequences. Still, war movies aren’t really my thing, so it wasn’t top of the list, but I was pleasantly surprised.
2) The Sixth Sense (1999) – I originally saw this movie shortly after it came out and thought at the time it was really good. Since then I have seen the exponential decay of the quality of M Night Shyamalan’s movies over the years. So when I came back to this, I figured, okay, I already know the twist, and don’t all of Shyamalan’s movies suck anyway? Once again I found myself pleasantly surprised as “Sixth Sense” was really his pinnacle. Granted, there is the whole sci-fi/supernatural aspect to it that makes geeks like me love movies like this, but there’s also a lot more. The material is naturally heavy stuff and Shyamalan delves right into it, pondering questions of life and death, and exploring the depth of emotion that permeates it. I thought this would be a popcorn movie, especially on second viewing, but it was a lot deeper than I remembered.
1) Sophie’s Choice (1982) – Wow. This was a very powerful film. I don’t know how I’d never seen it or even heard of it before this project, but I’m glad I did. On the surface, it’s about a young writer and the friends he makes in the building he rooms in. But as he develops relationships with these people and there pasts begin to unravel, we learn more about them, and see the fragility of human existence as we experience joy and sorrow with them. Meryl Streep is incredible as Sophie, the Holocaust survivor with deep inner torment, as is Kevin Kline as the man who loves her. This movie is tragically, hauntingly beautiful. It will leave you emotionally drained, but it is absolutely worth it. This is now my favorite of the movies I’ve seen so far on this project.
Next month I’ll finally see The Jazz Singer, plus the following:
12 Angry Men (1957)
Frankenstein (1931)
Platoon (1986)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Duck Soup (1933)
Two Marx brothers movies in a single month? That might be too much corny, zany, ridiculousness for even you to handle.
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