Sunday, October 27, 2019

"1984" (1984)

A very faithful adaptation of George Orwell's famous dystopian novel. Director Michael Radford makes the very important decision to set the film in a 'future' from the vantage point of the period the book was written, the late 1940's. Therefore there's no ultra-sophisticated technology, about the only advanced gizmos around are the pervasive screens that encroach on everyone's lives everywhere you look. In hindsight this works to the advantage of the movie as it doesn't date it in the least. Here we are almost 35 years hence and the film still looks fresh. Credit cinematographer Roger Deakins for the moody, washed out look. The story is a cautionary allegory, the struggle of one man versus Power in all it's oppressive forms. John Hurt is perfect as the little man, Winston Smith, who can't stomach the dehumanizing tyranny of The State and who finds a modicum of solace in an furtive love affair with a fellow co-worker (Suzanna Hamilton), and possible lifeline of help from yet another co-worker, a somber Richard Burton in what was to be his last film role. Fair warning, the plot turns truly horrific when we discover just how the government is going to bend Smith to it's will, the word torture doesn't even begin to describe it, so set your expectations accordingly. This is scary stuff. But what's even more frightening is just how prescient this tale is for our current nervous times. Couldn't 'Big Brother' be a stand-in for all the screens, the internet, and closed circuit cameras that fill our lives? Isn't 'Newspeak' just another word for 'Fake News with all it's Anternative Facts'? Even our endless involvement is far off wars is echoed in the relentless agitprop that's constantly fed the  brainwashed masses in Winston's world. Hell, maybe they should just re-release the thing and call it "2019".


Tuesday, October 22, 2019

"Oliver Twist" (1948)

This could very well be the definitive adaption of Charles Dickens' beloved novel about an orphan waif falling into a band of young boy pickpockets in Victorian London. Director David Lean and his production artists create the perfect atmosphere of the dark, dirty, oppressive city during the Industrial Revolution. Given the year it was made, post WWII, and still building it's way out of the bombing devastation, it's no wonder Lean paints the location in inky noir blacks and shadows to parallel the recent history. Cities can be dog-eat-dog urban jungles no matter the period. Now, when discussing this story, the knottiest problem is always going to be the infamous character of Fagin, the stolen goods fence who's the caretaker for the street urchins. In the book there's no getting around the anti-Semitism of the characterization (he's called "the Jew" over 300 times). The film excises this terminology but still portrays him (by an unrecognizable Alec Guinnass), as a filthy and miserly villain with a nose so big he looks like a toucan. The insinuation is still queasily there. But the rest of the cast is perfect, embodying the Dickensian gallery of characters that runs the gamut from comedic to nefarious. As little Oliver, John Howard Davies hits just the right note of innocence and defiance. And look for a teenage Anthony Newley as the rapscallion Artful Dodger!


Friday, October 18, 2019

"Jet Storm" (1959)

Ah, the myriad guilty pleasures to be had from that tried-and-true sub-genre of thrillers, the commercial jetliner disaster movie. Whether it's John Wayne having a nervous breakdown in the cockpit of "The High and the Mighty", or Doris Day as a wide-eyed stewardess having to land the plane herself in "Julie", or those matched set of over-the-top campfests the "Airport" movies of the 1970's, they're all the stuff of giddy unintentional humor. Add to the list this forgotten British number that is, plot line for plot line, an exact duplicate of the first "Airport" and pre-dates it by over 10 years! Richard Attenborough is an unhinged passenger on a transatlantic flight from London to New York carrying a booby-trap bomb device. He's mad at the world and he's gonna take down everyone on the plane with him. Of course, we get to know the variety of passengers and crew members along the way. How they deal with their possible demise and who gets to survive is the stuff of most of the movie. Along the way there's witty banter, flirtations, fisticuffs, and freak-outs. Perfect popcorn fair if you like this sort of thing. Especially noteworthy is Hermione Baddeley as a boorish nouvue riche widow, bulldozing her way over everyone in the plane. She's so deliciously hateful you wish they'd stick the bomb in her mouth just to shut her up.




Wednesday, October 16, 2019

"Dead of Night" (1945)

This British anthology film now looks like it could have been the inspiration for TV's "Twilight Zone." A collection of five tales of the supernatural ranging in tone from eerie, to comical, to downright terryfying. They're all connected but to say how will only spoil the fun of the eerie denouement. The clear standout story is the justifiably famous one with Michael Redgrave as a ventriloquist with a creepy relationship with his dummy. His wooden friend, Hugo, is the forerunner to all those cinematic devil dolls that have haunted us for years, the "Poltergeist" clown under the bed, Karen Black's native figurine in "Trilogy of Terror", and that evil scamp Chucky. But this dummy is no dummy, and he'll haunt your dreams for quite a while.  You just might believe that a leering piece of wood and cloth could really be responsible for murder. Don't watch this one with the lights out.