They say an actor/actress needs the face, stage presence, and a good voice. Mannix and his secretary had an abundance of these attributes. Just think of, for example, Chuck Heston, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, etc., they all had the qualities, now look in the mirror and recite a few lines of Shakespeare. Right! You stink on ice!! That's why you're not making the big bucks.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Heat
(1995)
Blown away
30 July 2003
A friend comes by last night and drops off videos borrowed long ago, one of them is Heat, however, it wasn't ours, so she probably borrowed it from someone else. Anyway, my wife says 'do you know what this is about?' I say 'no', she says put it in, and I do, the video that is, and for the next three hours we are just blown away by this incredible drama, and we applaud at the end! DeNiro and Pacino are just as good as they were in Godfather II. I grab the case and look for the liner notes and for the part where it says 'nominated for 10 Academy Awards', but it's not there. So I come to this website today for more info about this masterpiece and learn this film, supposedly, is clinging to 250th place. What's up with that????
A Thunder of Drums
(1961)
READ THE BOOK
12 July 2003
Has anyone noticed that almost every World War II movie had a triangle of two service men competing for the affection of one girl, with the world at war playing a minor role, usually to showcase the courage and nobility of our boys at war? Hollywood trotted out this formula once again for this movie, ruining an otherwise fine tale of soldiers on a far frontier battling a clever and determined enemy in a nasty little war, with no quarter asked or given. In the 60's there was no way a book was going to be brought faithfully to the screen. It had to be dumbed down, it had to devote an inordinate amount of time on the love interest, it had to be the equivilant of a "G" rating. A Thunder of Drums was an ass-kicking book, which failed as a film because although it managed to depart from romantic notions of war, still was unable to conceive of a story lacking romance. Even relatively recently, The Last of the Mohicans managed to have our frontiersman hero and a British officer competing for the affections of a girl. I am not saying there is no place for romance, but I am suggesting that some films would be better off without it, like A Thunder of Drums.
Tell Your Friends