Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Awesome movie. It definitely leaves its mark, and it's probably the best film I've seen about the post-Yugoslavia tumult.

I love this movie (it's the first movie on my review thread), but you mentioned that the appeal of the film lies with the kids, but I completely disagree...the appeal of this film is Elisabeth Shue's performance as Chris, which is absolute perfection.

I'm glad to hear some other people really appreciate The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). You right it really shows the cost of the war on the people back home. I hope when we get to the Top 100 Countdown of the 1940s that The Best Years of Our Lives is watched by everyone who submits a list.


By 'kids' I mean Elisabeth Shue too, to me a 17 year old is a kid. Yes she was the best part of the film, so I was saying all of them were kids who went on an adventure.

What I liked about it:

• It had a cool setting in the snowy mountains of Utah.

• It has a good story of revenge by a man of mystery.

• It had great cinematography and music score.
  

• It had a great cast of actors playing colorful characters.

Nods to:

• Klaus Kinski as Loco

• Jean-Louis Trintignant as Silence

• Vonetta McGee as Pauline

What I didn't care for:

• Ultra close ups of actor's faces. I never like that in a movie.

• The English dub makes the dialogue sound odd and off kilter. But I bet in Italian the dialogue was much better.

My thoughts:
I'm glad to have watched The Great Silence as it's an under seen Spaghetti Western by the other Sergio....Sergio Corbucci. Klaus Kinski makes a really great, bad guy... really creepy and yet still real. He added so much to the film. The outdoor on location filming makes this film look as beautiful as it is violent.

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Director: Marlon Brando
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer
Genre: Western

About (spoiler free): After two bandits rob a Mexican bank, the older bandit 'Dad' Longworth (Karl Malden) goes for horses and takes the stolen money with him. Leaving behind his younger partner, Rio (Marlon Brando) to be captured. Some years later Rio escapes from prison and seeks revenge on Dad who's now in California.

My thoughts: The opening scene jumped into the story with no set up and so I didn't know what was going on. The first 15 minutes are confusing. But when Marlon Brando and Karl Malden end up on top of a hill surrounded by the law...that's when the film got more interesting!

What sold me on One Eyed Jacks, was the second act when Brando ends up at Karl Malden's house and encounters the wife and daughter of his former friend. The tension between Malden and Brando was tense and done well. But for me it was the doomed romance between Rio and Louisa, that made the film so memorable.

Brando is great in this. He's the bad guy who's a no good liar and yet he's human enough for me to still root for his character. Karl Malden was also good at being subdued but powerful. What Marlon does with a furled brow and a sulk, Malden does equally well with a cold icy stare. Slim Pickens as the slimy bad Deputy, made for a really 'good' bad guy. And I even liked the wife of the Sheriff, Kay Jurado, who's also in the western classic High Noon.

I really liked Louisa (Pina Pellicer), she had this vulnerable sadness quality to her that made her memorable. I was saddened to learn that she died only a couple years after making this movie.

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So glad you liked One-Eyed Jacks; I was counting on it.

I really appreciate it that you try to find these great under seen films for the Hofs. I enjoyed it! and one of these days I'm going to watch Pina Pellicer's other movies too. Sadly she didn't get to make many.

Probably the only other Pellicer movie you can find is Macario which is very good.

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Thanks Mark, I'll put Macario on my list.

My thoughts: Red River does a lot of things right, and there's a few things I wish it had done differently, overall it's a fine and powerful western. But first the good stuff:


John Wayne, he's a bastard in this film and a damn good one! He got my 'dander up' and that's a sign of a strong actor. Some people think Wayne can't act because he always plays the same roles. BS! The man can definitely act and he does vary his performances, he's in top form here.

Montgomery Clift, they could have easily made his character an arch type, wimpy guy, who couldn't do anything right. But nope, he's tough enough, but fair...He's a quick draw and will use his gun but he's not cold blooded. He's fleshed out and three dimensional and makes the movie work. He's a unique actor, I like him in the films I've seen him in.

Walter Brennan, Brennan lightens the mood so our senses have a chance to reset and be ready for the next tension filled scene. I always like him, he adds a lot.

Quo the Native American, yes I'm even going to review him! He paired well with Brennan and also added a lighter touch when it was needed. Thumbs up to the script writer for respecting his character and not making him look foolish.

Cherry Valance, cool name for a character. John Ireland rocks this role. Good story element as he appears to be the antagonist and a direct threat to Montgomery Clift. This really adds tension and excitement. The way his character finally turns out, is a sign of intelligent script.

I loved! the on-location shooting. The film looks so rich and vast with the wide angle shots at the start of the film of the wagon train. Later there's nice wide angle shots of 1000s of cattle. Very impressive and a hallmark of Howard Hawks, he goes big here!


What I didn't like: The wagon train scene when the girl is shot through the shoulder with an arrow, she doesn't even flinch...she actually smiles. Say what?

The ending, seemed cold heartened, Cherry Valance is killed and laying there and they just forget him....and everyone ends on a happy note. The happy ending didn't work for me. We have this huge buildup with Wayne, half crazed with revenge, comes to Abilene to kill Clift. After a dramatic fight sequence, the girl gives a speech and then almost automatically they're friends again.

Still Red River is one of the all time great Westerns.

Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine
Genre: Western

About: A group of people some who are social outcast take a journey on a stagecoach through dangerous territory. Along the way they are threaten by Geronimo and learn valuable life lessons.

My thoughts: I liked it! It's a tightly made movie with no extraneous moments. It's a lot of story packed into 96 minutes of action and characterization, all while being visually stunning.

This has action...with a very mixed group of people all packed like sardines into the stagecoach, evading the threat of Indian attack, and from Geronimo no less. It's very cool that they used Native American actors for the Indian close up shots.


I was impressed by the stuntman who jumped onto the lead horse on the stagecoach, and was 'shot', and then hit the ground, actually sliding under the horses hooves and the stagecoach! That was done without edits, that was real folks! And the most dangerous stunt I've ever seen performed in a movie!

Audiences at the time must have loved seeing Monument Valley. And of course John Ford's amazing camera shots, makes the film look great.


Stagecoach is one of the great early westerns. It might not compare to more modern westerns and that's what most of us are use to, but in it's day it was a damn fine film.




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Hey, I watched Stagecoach several months back.
As you know, Westerns are my least favorite of genres, but I liked it for Andy Devine (he's pretty much hilarious in everything... as soon as he starts speaking. Love that voice!)

I didn't know that westerns were your least favorite genera. Yeah good ole Andy Divine, you got spot his voice from a mile away. So did you like Stagecoach?

Yes, except I watched it very late one night and fell asleep toward the end.

Now, I'd be interested in seeing the 1966 remake - the one with Ann Margaret and an all-star cast.

I like to see that one too. Maybe I can find it somewhere. I'm still on a waiting list at my library for Airplane. One of these days it will be my turn to check it out. I mean I watched all the four original Airport movies so I have to watch Airplane

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Genre: Mystery,Thriller, Romance

About: A San Francisco police detective (James Stewart) during a robbery chase, nearly falls from a tall building...and develops acrophobia (the extreme fear of heights). The detective now retired is hired to investigate the strange activities of an old friend's wife (Kim Novak), who according to her husband has been possessed by the spirit of a woman who committed suicide a 100 years earlier. The detective ends up falling in love with the mysterious woman.

My Thoughts: When Vertigo came out it was panned by audiences and critics alike. Hitchcock blamed James Stewart for being too old to have a believable romance with Kim Novak. Hitch also blamed Kim Novak, saying she was the wrong choice. Personally I liked Kim Novak in this and everyone loves James Stewart. I never thought of him as being too old for her either.

I love the way Hitch incorporated vertical themes into many of his scenes and sets, which of course supports the film's title and theme. Two examples are shown below in the photos.


What I thought failed was: the special effects for the scenes where we see the effects of vertigo. They didn't feel intense enough. Hitch needed to have a couple more brief scenes establishing just how impeded James Stewart's character was by his fear of heights. This is the main part of the film and it should have been emphasized more.



I think Hitch failed to convey a budding romance between the two leads...or maybe they just didn't have chemistry? They meet, they're in love, then they're separated and they can't live without each other. But it doesn't feel like we the audience, falls in love at the same time. Hitch is a great technical director with his use of creative studio lighting and in Vertigo I think it's Hitch's love for pazazz that gets in the way of the human element being realized.

But hey, this is still a Hitch film which makes it better than the average flick. And you can't go wrong with James Stewart in the lead, especially when Hitch makes even the smallest details look so important.



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Cherry Valance is also the name of the character that Diane Lane played in the 1983 film The Outsiders.

I loved the shooting location in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. It gave a really authentic look to the town, with all the mud, rain and evergreen trees. The small, rustic town built on a step mountainside also added to the film's ambiance. One beautiful movie to look at!


Great sets too...I loved the look of the film and the cinematography choices. The entire film was expertly handled by Altman. It's really near flawless. I especially liked the scene of the man dancing on the ice, which reminded me of one of the greatest movie scenes ever filmed.

I liked the story premise too, it was an interesting subject matter and I did enjoy watching it. Overall there's a lot to like here, unfortunately there's a few things that didn't work for me:


The theme song that played over and over, drove me nuts. It took me out of the film and was distracting as I kept focusing on it instead of the film.


The interior shots were to dark at times and hard to see, but they sure looked authentic. Just a tiny bit more light would have helped. I read other reviews that mentioned the darkness and sound quality so I know it just wasn't me. I also read Robert Altman deliberately 'frosted' the negative of his film so that it would have a dark slightly hazy look, that could not be corrected later on by the studio. An artistic choice that I liked.

But I don't like Warren Betty, I never have. His movie star fame didn't last long and he's not much of an actor either. Though I will say he's perfectly cast here as a successful but clueless business man. And true to Altman's style he spends a lot of time on colorful dialogue and yet doesn't give us much insight or development on the characters (or maybe I just couldn't hear it!) I felt like I didn't even know what Julie Christie's character was about. Nor did we get much on the momentous task of building a thriving town out of the wilderness mud.

McCabe & Mrs Miller is the kind of film that can grow on you and takes more than one viewing to get it's full effect. However as I already knew what was coming at the ending, the rewatch wasn't emotional rewarding and the last 20 minutes with the hired guns dragged for me.

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Like you said, I didn't care for that movie on my first viewing but loved it on my second. Of course, I have an advantage over you with loving the theme song and liking Warren Beatty.