Change Your Image
maestro-45
Reviews
Stalin (1992)
Best HBO programming ever!
With Stalin HBO outdoes itself and it can be attributed entirely to Robert Duvall -which is not to say that the rest of the cast is not top notch, it is. Historically Stalin is one of the greatest monsters that ever walked the earth. Duvall manages to catch this ghastly aspect of the man but still makes the Soviet tyrant irresistible. No doubt about it those old Soviets who took over Russia after the czar were a ruthless bunch and among that murderous crowd Stalin rose to the top of the heap by out doing every one in the terror stakes. Given what was going on in the world Stalin may have been the right leader for Russia -- rule that mess of nationalities with an iron hand. This is not to excuse his terror, but to recognize that that country was largely ungovernable except by force. Since the fall of communism about 20 years ago, Russians have told pollsters that they have nostalgia for Stalin's good old days. Maybe not for his drop of a hat terror, but because he got things done. Robert Duvall captures this and make the character likable while he goes on his merry murdering way. Especially in his interaction toward the end, the last scene he has with his grown up grand daughter. It is some of the best acting ever put on film and a must see!!
The Outsiders (1983)
Coppola Masterful
The story goes that Coppola did this film and Rumble Fish back to back using same locale and much of the cast. The way that cheapskate Roger Corman used to do with his b c d movies back in the fifties and sixties. The difference is that Coppola can take simple material and spin into gold as in stay gold Ponyboy. His sensibility is very profound and it shows all over this film. When the guys hide out in the church, it reminded me a bit of Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter, with those kids trying to find sanctuary down the river somewhere. The film becomes allegorical and the extraordinary and young cast is completely believable.
Cimarron (1931)
Cimarron Affecting
I have seen this film a few times, most recently on DVD. It is clearly an old film, just out of the silent era. Yancy is quite the blow hard, but actually a believable character. The various title cards that show the passage of time and the evolution of Osage from a bunch of mud and shacks into a modern city is extraordinary. By the time we get up to 1930 when Sabra is the first lady of the city, while Yancy is gone who knows where, we feel we know her very well. Her speech at the luncheon is most affecting and shows that Irene Dunn knows how to pull off a great performance. Later when she embraces the long gone Yancy who asks her 'are you alright,' it is heart wrenching. As he declares Sabra, 'wife and mother, stainless woman, hide me in your love.' My my it doesn't get much better than that. Cimarron really does look like an actual artifact from the 19th century, and if we view it on those terms, it holds up better than most films.
Tell Them Who You Are (2004)
This film is a mess
Given the subject matter this could have been a great documentary. Instead it looks like a hap hazard home movie. Mark Wexler totally lost control of the subject -- his father. You get a real sense of who Haskell Wexler is, pretty much of a jerk. He gets thrown off of a film, One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest, and he thinks it is because the FBI interfered or threatened the producers. This is ridiculous. He sounds like a total pain in the ass to work with, which is why he was fired from the film. No less than Elia Kazan concedes he is brilliant, but he would never work with him again. Mark's documentary of his father is all over the place, very incoherent, seems to go nowhere. Compare it to My Father the Architect that came out about two years ago and it comes up lacking.
The Cotton Club (1984)
As good as Coppola gets.
I have seen the Cotton Club countless times on video and on cable and saw it when it first release about 20 yrs ago. The picture always holds up. The combination of story, music and characters is as solid know as when it originally debuted. Because of the problems with the production, especially the problems that Robert Evans the producer was having, the picture was basically dumped, and disappeared. Everyone attached to it seemed to disown it, which is too bad, since it ranks as good as anything Francis Ford Coppola has ever done -- and he has done a lot of the greatest cinema ever made. Most, if not all of Cotton Club was done on sound stages, but Coppola makes the whole thing believable and he ties several stories together at once: Richard Gere and Diane Lane; and Gregory Hines and Lonette McKee. With the great music, the original stuff by Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington etc., neatly held together with new stuff by John Barry, The Cotton Club is a genuine musical, that, for my money, is more effective than Chicago, that Gere would star in more than 20 years later. If you have the chance, catch The Cotton Club on DVD or on cable. You will not be disappointed, and, if you are like me, you will rank this film as a worthy cousin to Mr. Coppola's masterworks, The Godfather I & II, and The Conversation.