Carmen Jones (1954)

Star Rating: 2
Length of Film: 105 minutes
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James, Joe Adams, Brock Peters, Roy Glenn, Nick Stewart, Diahann Carroll, LeVern Hutcherson, Marilyn Horne, & Marvin Hayes
Oscar Nominations: Dorothy Dandridge ( actress), Herschel Burke Gilbert (music)
Berlin International Film Festival: Otto Preminger (Bronze Bear)

Carmen Jones is based off of George Bizet’s opera Carmen. Oscar Hammerstein II kept Bizet’s music, but changed the lyrics. As an opera fan, I am very partial to the opera. They kept with the same story line, but modernized it. The actress who plays Carmen (Dorothy Dandridge) is absolutely breath taking and perfect for the role of Carmen because of her raw sexuality. I was disappointed, however, that her voice was dubbed over by opera singer Marilyn Horne. Soldier Joe (Harry Belafonte) singing voice was also dubbed and replaced by LeVern Hutcherson.

I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if I hadn’t had any background knowledge on Bizet’s opera, because it’s really hard to compare to an opera that’s one of the greatest in the world.

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Star Rating: 4
Length of Film: 124 minutes
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Natalie Wood, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie, Barbara Loden, Zohra Lampert, Warren Beatty, Fred Stewart, Joanna Roos, John McGoverrn, Jan Norris, Martine Bartlett, Gary Lockwood, Sandy Dennis, Crystal Field, & Marla Adams
Oscar: William Inge (screenplay)
Oscar Nomination: Natalie Wood (actress)




Set in Kansas 1928, Dean (Natalie Wood) & Bud (Warren Beatty) have been going steady for 4 years. The movie starts out with the two main characters in a parked card facing a waterfall making out. Things start getting hot and heavy...

Deanie- Bud..
Bud- Deanie, please..
Deanie- Bud, I'm afraid. Oh Bud...don't, Bud.
Bud- Deanie...
Deanie- No...we mustn't, Bud...no...no...
[Bud gets out of the car]
Deanie- Bud, don't be mad
Bud- I better take you home

Bud has a sister, named Ginny (Barbara Loden) who's very promiscuous; she's already had an abortion, and an annulled marriage, to say the least, she's very experienced, sexually. Bud becomes frustrated not getting any from Deanie, after 4 years of dating, and discusses it with his father. His father Ace, (Pat Hingle) tells him NOT to get married, and that he needs to go to school first. Once he's done with college, then he can marry Deanie. Dad even offered to pay for their honeymoon. Then...dad told Bud to find another girl, to fulfill his needs, sexually. He breaks it off with Deanie, and goes for the girl with the reputation for giving it away, sending Deanie into a depression.

Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) kept pushing Deanie, asking if she has given herself to Bud and that's why she's upset. This whole scene is going on while Deanie is taking a bath. This is Deanie's response:
"No mom! I'm not spoiled! I'm not spoiled mom! I'm just as fresh and virginal like the day I was born, mom!"

Very powerful! Natalie Wood did a really good job playing a teenager whose life was turned upside after being broken up by her longtime boyfriend. She didn't know where her place was in the world anymore, especially since her life was wrapped around Bud. She had to deal with the stress that her boyfriend broke up with her, because she wouldn't have sex with him.

During English class, she had to sit behind the girl who her ex boyfriend is currently sleeping with and the teacher reads a poem by William Wordsworth:

"That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."

The teacher calls on Deanie, she gives her interpretation of the poem, and asks to be excused, storming out crying. Deanie mopes around the house for months, and her girlfriends bring up the dance, Bud's friend "Toots" (Gary Lockwood) asks Bud permission he could ask Deanie. Bud agrees, and he asks Deanie. While getting ready, Deanie sings the same song, that promiscuous Ginny was singing. Deanie is not the same girl she was in the beginning of the movie. She cut her hair, and dressed more seductress like, in a red dress, revealing her shoulders.

Toots puts the moves on Deanie (at the same spot where Bud took Deanie in the beginning of the movie). She got upset and ran towards the rocks, started climbing, and was headed toward the waterfall, jumping to her death. Classmates caught her before she could, and her parents decided to send her to a hospital, for help.

While Deanie is in the mental institution, Bud goes off to Yale, where he can't focus, and ends up being kicked out. Depressed and drinkin, he meets an italian waitress named Angie. She flirts with him and invites him to the kitchen for pizza.

He's so handsome! I absolutely loved him in Bonnie & Clyde

Time goes by and we visit Deanie at the hospital. She is painting and chatting with a man. Deanie's parents visit and invite her to dinner at their hotel, and she turns to her nurse for guidance. She speaks up and tells the parents shes had a long day and needs her rest.

After 2 years being hospitalized, Deanie goes back home and is engaged to a doctor she met at the hospital, he was also a patient. While at home, the first thing Deanie wanted to do was visit Bud. Her mom tried to sidetrack Deanie, but she was determined to see him. Her father, gave Deanie the address, and she went with two of her friends from school to see Bud.

Deanie got the closure she needed...foreshadowing to the quote Deanie read in school, 2 years ago. "Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."



Dead Man (1995)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 121 minutes
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Mill Avital, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, Eugene Byrd, Michaelle Thrush, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Mark Bringleson, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina, & Robert Mitchum
Cannes Film Festival: Jim Jarmusch (Golden Palm nomination)



William Blake (Johnn Depp) leaves his home in Ohio to travel to the town of Machine for an accounting job. When he gets there, the job was already filled by someone else.

William decides to stick around and meets up with a former prostitute Thel Russell (Mili Avitali) where they rendevouz in the bedroom, then her ex boyfriend comes... guns ablazing.

The ex-boyfriends father, John Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) hires 3 hitmen to hunt down and kill the individual who murdered his son. The 3 hitmen are all from different backgrounds and had to work as a team, which of course causes friction and comedy. While on the run, William runs into a Native American Indian (Gary Farmer).

William Blake: What is your name?
Nobody: My name is Nobody.
William Blake: Excuse me?
Nobody: My name is Exaybachay. He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing.
William Blake: He who talks... I thought you said your name was Nobody.
Nobody: I preferred to be called Nobody.

 

 

The interaction between William and Nobody was the best part of the movie. There's also a scene where a man is dressed in a woman's dress. Quite humorous... This movie is in black and white, which is weird since it was made in 1995, but the director was influenced by photographer Ansel Adams. Here are a few of his most favorite works, and maybe after seeing the pictures and then seeing the movie, you'll understand.

 

 

Straw Dogs (1971)

Star Rating: 3



 Length of Film: 118 minutes
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna, Del Henney, Jim Norton, Donald Webster, Ken Hutchison, Len Jones, Sally Thomsett, Robert Keegan, Peter Arne, Cherina Schaer, Colin Welland
Oscar Nomination: Jerry Fielding (music)








Mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), and wife Amy (Susan George) move back to her hometown. David has some issues adjusting to life there, especially when Amy and David disagree on each other's roles in their marriage. David wants to work and be the bread winner where Amy should wait on him hand and foot.

The couple hired workers to restore the barnhouse, one of them being an ex of Amy's; Charlie Venner (Del Henney). Frustrated with her husband, she decides to take off her sweater, and purposefully place herself in front of the window where the workers could see her.

The men taunted and teased David because of his intelligence, to try to win their friendship, he invites them on a hunting trip, where Charlie stays behind. At first he flirts with Amy, then he goes too far.

Amy fights the rape, but soon gives up, and allows him to have sex with her.

David comes back and fires the men. Later that week, they went into town for a town social.  A young woman flirts with the town idiot,Henry and they leave with each other. These two characters reminded me of Lennie from Of Mice and Men. All hell breaks loose, when David and Amy take David home, and the town is pissed and start banging on their door. For the first time in the movie, he grows a pair and stands up to the townies. They broke the windows, so David boiled water and threw it at them.

Glory (1989)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 122 minutes
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy, Andre Braugher, John Finn, Donovan Leitch, J.D. Cullum, Alan North, Bob Gunton, Cliff De Young, Christian Baskous
Oscars: Denzel Washington (actor in support role), Freddie Francis (photography), Donald O. Mitchell, Gregg Rudloff, Elliot Tyson, Russell Willliams (sound)
Oscar Nominations: Norman Garwood, Garrett Lewis (art direction), Steven Rosenblum (editing)



Colonel Robert Shaw (Matthew Broderick) a liberal blue blood is in charge of the first all black volunteer company. Colonel Shaw is accompanied by a dick, whom we do not like, Major Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes).

Matthew Broderick

The other main characters of the movie are former slave Sargeant Major John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and Private Trip (Denzel Washington). Trip is the arrogant young black man who runs his mouth and gets himself in trouble. There's a scene where get he gets lashed in the back by a whip, while John Rawlins is the level headed, older gentleman with all the life experiences and is the "father figure" to all the young military men.

Morgan Freeman

Denzel Washington

The movie was quite boring in the beginning, it has been a month since I've watched this movie and all I can remember about the movie is how good my pint of Ben & Jerry's was. I was bored... I understand that in the beginning of the movie, you have to allow the audience to get to know the characters, but oh my goodness... the good stuff didn't happen until the last 15 minutes of the movie! Before the soldiers marched off to fight at Fort Wagner, they were eating dinner at the campground by fire and they sang a spiritual titled "Oh my Lord, Lord, Lord". As a music fanatic, I loved this song! This is the part of the movie where everything turned around for me. Here's a link to the Youtube video of this scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K83kzZJ5v0&feature=related


The end battle scene at Fort Wagner was unbelieveably good! The only thing I did not like, was that it was at night, and it was hard to see everything, but you can't change history. When it comes to war movies, this is one of top ones I've seen. I've already watched Platoon, and was not impressed by it, this movie, I thought it was great, other than them spending too much damn time for the audience to get to know the characters.

Glory- #253 out of 1,001

The Red Shoes (1948)

Star Rating: 3

Length of FIlm: 133 minutes
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine, Albert Bassermann, Ludmilla Tcherina, & Esmond Knight
Oscars: Hein Heckroth, Arthur Lawson (art direction), Brian Easdale (music)
Oscar nomations: Mmichael Powell, Emeric Pressburger (best picture), Emeric Pressburger (screenplay), Reginald Mills (editing)






The Red Shoes is the ultimate ballet movie. It focuses manly on the dancing, but of course, there's a love triangle between the three main characters; Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), Boris Lemontov (Anton Walbrook), and Julian Craster (Marius Goring). Boris is the owner and director of the ballet company, he meets Victoria at a party, and her Aunt got Victoria an audition. In the meantime, composer Julian Craster got his chance. They base a ballet after Hans Christian Anderson's "The Red Shoes" about a girl who can't take off her shoes and dances till she dies.

Anton Walbrook- Doesn't Sean Penn look like him?!

Marius Goring

Moira Shearer

Boris finds out about Victoria and Julian, and so he fires her. He then tells Victoria it's either dancing or Julian... she picks Julian. They marry and move to London where Julian composes an opera. Boris allows Victoria to come back to dance in the revival of The Red Shoes. Julian finds out, and storms into her dressing room.

The cinematography in this movie is beautiful, same with the dancing and music. I will admit that it didn't keep my attention, 100%. I got bored. Be prepared for slow parts, but the ending is tragically good!  

On the Town (1949)

Star Rating: 4
Length of Film: 98 minutes
Director: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, Vera-Ellen, Florence Bates, Alice Pearce, George Meader, & Judy Holliday
Oscar:Roger Edens, Lennie Hayton (music)



Three sailors, Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra), and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) only have 24 hours leave, and want to get laid. Cab driver Brunhilde (Betty Garrett), finds Chip and puts the serious moves on him; inviting him to sit in the front with her.

Gabey sees a poster advertising Miss Turnstiles and makes it his mission to track her down; Miss Turnstiles, whose real name is Ivy (Vera-Ellen).

While visiting the Museum Of Natural History, Ozzie stands next to a statue of a caveman, and anthropologist Claire becomes fascinated with Ozzie and how much he looks like the statue and that's how a "true man" looks like.

It's a cutesy, feel good movie that's funny and has a very sexual context for being 1949. It's worth watching!