Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Surprisingly effective!...This one is heady with heartfelt emotions of despair with a dashing ray of hope illuminating the decaying urban streets. Our forlorn heroine is Lucy (Lillian Gish) a young girl born of a prostitute mother. The only person in her life is her father (Donald Crisp) a brutish boxing champ full of rage. He likes nothing more than brutally beating his daughter with a horse whip. He's one of the most vilest bad guys I've seen on film. He gave me the creeps...and my heart went out to poor little Lucy. Lucy's one chance in life is when she meets the 'yellow man', a Chinese immigrant (Richard Barthelmess) who falls for this frail flower.

The film is told as a fable and does so very effectively. It's interesting that there's a secondary theme of religion and trying to convert 'heathens' in foreign lands. There's also a unique for it's time positive view on Buddhism. We also see scenes of Chinese culture. The lead is played by a white actor, but, this was a cutting edge film in it's day as it showed interracial love on the big screen.

The movie ends as strong as it starts and stays true to it's fabled style of story telling. A must see.

"What a long, dull trip it's been" should've been the afterword. The story basically goes wherever the boy goes, and everywhere he goes is the same...a crowded gathering. There isn't much variation for a movie of this length. The film is wholly focused on the characters, though they're not memorable or interesting enough to warrant my attention or care. Their conversations are trite and mundane. There's the protagonist, the boy (Patrick Fugit). He's a newbie rock journalist trying to get a story. But he's 15-yrs-old. Apparently he can just leave school and hit the road on a bus tour with some band. I guess truancy didn't exist then. This adventurous idea was suggested by his new groupie friend (Kate Hudson), who's pretty much a drifting character. Anyhow...I don't think there's anything wrong with the boy. He's honest, humble, patient, kind-faced...which is why he doesn't fit into that scene, and why I find the character an annoyance. He's like the little brother you had to drag along with you on a date in high school—a third wheel—or the young sibling at someone's house party. You just want to tell him to go hang out with kids his own age. Maybe when he's a bit older and more forthright, he can stick around. A journalist is supposed to be assertive, even a budding one, if he or she wants to succeed that is.

The kid's mother is annoying too in a hyperbolic way. She calls her son almost every day to make sure he's not doing drugs. Even a narc officer isn't that persistent.

What I don't like most of all about this movie is that characters are stereotypical and dialogue is contrived, as if based on what someone thought the era was like. (I know it's supposedly a true story from the director's life, but maybe he wanted to conventionalize it for the screen) Let's also not forget the soundtrack, repleted with the usual collection of songs from the time. I cringed when they sang "Tiny Dancer" on the bus. Nauseating. Lester Bangs was right, rock music was already dead by then.