August Filmfest

First go-round on the new DVR went pretty well, all things considered.  I found a few movies playing this month that I needed, got some from the library, did an interlibrary loan, and watched some that were on Turner Classics even though they weren't coming up on the list.  After last month's eight movies, we're down to six, but who cares?  It's not a race, as I need to keep reminding myself.  Here it this month's batch, from least to most favorite.  Unfortunately this was a bit of a down month overall, but there were some that were pretty good.

6) MASH (1970) - There are very few movies on this list that I would describe as ones that I hated, but MASH just might make that group.  I had seen clips here and there of the spinoff TV show, and hated that too, but people kept telling me the movie was funnier.  No such luck.  It's supposed to be a dark comedy about the Vietnam War, but it was really hard to find the comedy parts.  Jokes consist of people talking over one another so things are indecipherable, some really mean-spirited and borderline misogynistic pranks, and the constant reminder that the "heroes" just don't give a shit.  Then it ends with a very long and utterly pointless football game scene.  At times, Hawkeye was a little likable, but everyone else was awful.  As a movie, it was tedious, boring and depressing, but as a comedy it was a real disaster.  I hope to never see this movie again.

5) The Wild Bunch (1969) - I don't like most Westerns.  You know it and I know it.  So if a Western is pretty unremarkable, I'm not likely to enjoy it.  If instead it features emotionless and unpleasant "antiheroes" in some rote robbery scheme, you can imagine where the review is headed.  In some ways this was a neat idea, since it's set at the end of the cowboy era, so there could be a lot about how the traditional outlaw is feeling marginalized as technology approaches, but every single person in it is at best nondistinct or else flat-out unlikeable.  The story is blah, as we follow some bandits to rob a weapons train for no real reason save money, so you're unlikely to get drawn in there.  And I won't give it away here, but the ending shootout/finale is totally unsatisfying.  Comparing this to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which came out in the same year, and it's no contest.

4) Spartacus (1960) - Entry number two in a pair of remarkably similar epics on this list, after Ben-Hur.  The story is actually very comparable, with a slave of ancient Roman times rising up to become an inspirational leader against the overwhelming powers that be.  These are always at least okay, though they're always so long that they do drag on a bit.  I liked Ben-Hur better for some reason; the protagonist was more believable or likable, but Spartacus did have some pretty entertaining supporting characters.  There's a very clever, conniving member of the Senate that is fun to watch as he subtly backstabs some of the others.  Aside from that, though, the love interest seems forced (almost literally), and the ending is just pretty darn depressing.  But it's worth a watch if you want to know why everyone says "I am Spartacus!"

3) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - Hard to find this movie in DSM.  I had to interlibrary loan it from Perry (or was that Pella?).  Anyway, this is a fun, though apparently historically inaccurate depiction of a real-life mutiny in imperial British times.  It seems that Captain Bligh wasn't truly a cruel ship's captain, but setting that aside, this version is pretty satisfying.  The film version of Bligh is so deliciously nasty that you can't help but feel that somebody needs to rise up and put him in his place.  With the dashing Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian, it's easy to cheer for the good guys.  So, yeah, it's a fun tale of adventures and drama on the high seas, with a typical struggle between the really bad and the mostly good.  The only things that I didn't really like were the new midshipman, who was just obnoxiously chipper and happy to be on the boat, and the slightly draggy last act.  If you don't use it as a history lesson, it's a quality film.

2) Woman of the Year (1942) - BONUS!  This wasn't on the list of top 100 movies, but it is listed as the 90th best comedy and 74th best romance by the AFI.  So per the original plan, I shouldn't have watched it til I finished the top 100, but in today's no-rules environment, I wanted to watch it so I did!  It's the first Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy collaboration, and as such it's fun and pretty cute.  Fairly standard romantic comedy fare, with two newspaper writers from totally different worlds getting married and trying to fit in together.  There's a little bit of good banter between the two, some actual serious moments, and a great slapstick-y ending, which did in fact make me laugh out loud.  For a moment I thought this was going to come dangerously close to reinforcing traditional gender roles, which would have been sad given Katherine Hepburn's strong character (in real life and the film), but it pulled through pretty well.  This isn't like a Great Film, but it is fun to watch.

1) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - One of the younger classics on the list, and a good one to be sure.  If you've seen this film before, you know that a lot of the appeal is predicated on a twist ending, which usually makes me think that the rewatch value is lessened.  But just as I discovered with the Sixth Sense, Shawshank really does hold up over time.  This is one of those if it's on, I'll watch it for a while movies, but I hadn't seen it all the way through in some time.  When I did, I got to once more experience Tim Robbins in perhaps his best film role as the soft-spoken, wrongfully (?) imprisoned Andy Dufresne, and Morgan Freeman beginning his career renaissance as the wise older supporting character.  They both do a great job adding humanity to the roles, and you can't help but to feel inspired by Andy's journey.  And there's a really good, emotional sequence with the minor character Brooks.  All of it melds together really well to tell a great story in a never-dull film.  It may not be one of my absolute favorites, but still, if I catch it on TV, I'll usually stick with it for a while.

That's August!  There are still 75 movies on the AFI Top 100 lists, so I should be doing this for some time to come.  Even though this month wasn't spectacular, this has been a really cool project, as I've found a bunch of movies that I really do enjoy that I never knew.  September starts on the creepy side with the already-begun Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and who knows where we'll go from there?  Find out in another month!