The Usual Choices
The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan)
A Christmas Story (Bob Clark)
The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
Scarface (Brian De Palma)
Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)
But how about...
Zelig (Woody Allen)
All the criticisms of this film, which usually relegate it to the status of Minor Woody, are based on the comment "it's a one-joke premise". What they neglect to mention is that it is a GREAT joke: a pathologically-shy man, after an upbringing of abuse and neglect, develops a physical/mental condition which enables him to involuntarily resemble those around him. If Leonard Zelig (played by Woody, of course) is in the company of fat men, he becomes heavier; if he is with African-Americans, his skin darkens; if he is with Nazi swine, he acts/yells/combs his hair the same way. Filmed as a B&W mockumentary, Zelig is both amusing and pitiful, his brushes with the famous (Lindbergh + Capone + Chaplin + Babe Ruth + The Pope) are beautifully melded and the movie succeeds in holding up and questioning a very human trait: our instinct to conform and be with each other.
...and what about...
The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
This is the classy psych-thriller which Director David's talent was promising for years, first-time-proof that he was more than just a schlock'n'shock master. Christopher Walken wakes from a 5 year coma and discovers that he has developed the ability to foresee (through touch) traumatic events in the futures of individuals. The story unfolds at an almost leisurely pace despite featuring a serial-killer, drowning children, bloody suicides and world annihilation! This is Christopher's most appealing performance (he keeps the idiosyncrasies to a minimum...although even when limping, he does it like nobody else), and Martin Sheen gives an OTT flipside to the moral invulnerability of President Josiah Bartlet. Watch this and wonder what sort of a job Cronenberg would do on a Doctor Fate movie.
...not to mention...
Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode)
When it comes to armed conflict, I am an ignoramus. I try to keep up...I awake to the ABC News; I watch two different news services at night; I am a newspaper holdout. But, to no ultimate avail. The Balkans, West Africa, The Middle East...I still don't entirely understand what all the fighting is about. All I've learnt is that the good guys and the bad guys are all bad guys, and that the ordinary citizens cop the majority of the bullets and the bombings.
This movie is more about the observation of, rather than the participation in, a morally-tricky war (in fact, most of this bloody conflict is fictitious, which means that a text-book geopolitical knowledge is unnecessary). What is presented is everyman history: a low-grade civil war in Nicaragua + the CIA has its grubby fingers in it + there are no sides, only playing-pieces + there are no loyalties, only deals. The deaths are appropriately graphic and despicable (there's no action-excitement here) and you soon realise that the tension you feel is actually fear. Rightly so.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Daniel (Sidney Lumet)
A fail which is a real shame. An imagined account of the Julius & Ethel Rosenberg case, this film is centered around a fictitious grown son named Daniel who is seeking the truth of his parents' lives. It cuts in and out of this quest, Daniel's and his sister's childhood memories and spoken-to-camera descriptions of different methods of execution (very art-theatrical...and too many strands in the weave). Some crucial scenes in the film just don't work at all (for example, the jail visits by the children and the attack on the protest bus). This is compounded by pedestrian (and, in one case, just blatantly lousy) acting. Daniel is a worthy and potentially affecting story, but has been disfigured in this telling. Somebody else needs to have a crack at it...Paul Thomas Anderson...busy?
My Top 10 Films of 1983
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| More additions to Woody's beloved collection of cohonies. |
#02 A Under Fire (Spottiswoode)
#03 A- The Dead Zone (Cronenberg)
#04 A- The Right Stuff (Kaufman)
#05 A- Local Hero (Forsyth)
#06 A- Man of Flowers (Cox)
#07 A- Cross Creek (Ritt)
#08 B+ Gorky Park (Apted)
#09 B+ Baby It's You (Sayles)
#10 B+ Never Cry Wolf (Ballard)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ The Meaning of Life (Jones)
#12 B+ WarGames (Badham)
#13 B+ Educating Rita (Gilbert)
#14 B+ Careful, He Might Hear You (Schultz)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B The Dresser [it focuses on the wrong character]
> B Heat and Dust [part postcard from India; part British Raj love story; neither are completely interesting]
> B A Christmas Story [must be an American thing]
> B The Ploughman's Lunch [unfortunately, shallow people tend to also be dull people]
> B Twilight Zone: The Movie [1 great; 1 good; 2 just-barely-okay; fun bookends]
> B Never Say Never Again [just another fair James Bond movie which has its moments]
> B Terms of Endearment [a bit too much of the ol' smilin'-through-the-tears]
> B Heart Like a Wheel [a strong woman as a drag racing champion...good for her. I hate drag racing.]
> B Silkwood [I waited for the rush of outrage, but it was more like a dawdle]
> B Yentl [a feminism 'n' theology 'n' gender-bending musical with unmelodious songs sung very well]
> B- I am the Cheese [nice lead performance in a middling film based on a fairly good kids' book]
> B- Max Dugan Returns [a lighthearted & pleasant piece of nothing-much]
> B- Trading Places [early Eddie Murphy rather than late Preston Sturges]
> B- Tender Mercies [a lot of country music is self-pity; this movie fits right into that tradition]
> B- Something Wicked This Way Comes [aka Mayberry Relocates to the Twilight Zone]
> B- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi [I liked it more when it was Episode III]
> B- Testament [only watch this nuclear holocaust movie if you think your life is unjustly happy]
> B- Superman III [drop Richard Pryor and they may have had something, or at least a chance of having something]
> B- Risky Business [all it amounts to is one underwear dance and a teenager having a prostitute]
> B- The Big Chill [once The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" blasts out, everything else after pales]
> C Scarface [aka La Grande Bouffe, American Style]
> C Octopussy [this is to James Bond as the 1960's Batman TV series is to the Dark Knight]
> C Betrayal [three dreary people talking and talking about themselves to each other]
> C Daniel [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C Strange Invaders [strives to be a B-Movie sci-fi pastiche but only makes it to amateurish]
> C Videodrome [a story about video nasties, and in the telling, becomes one]
> D Star 80 [is it just me or is this one of the ugliest films ever made?]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1983 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
All the Right Moves (Chapman); Angelo, My Love (Duvall); Another Time, Another Place (Radford); Bad Boys (Rosenthal); Blue Thunder (Badham); Brainstorm (Trumbull); Cujo (Teague); Curtains (Stryker); El Norte (Nava); Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Bank; Hovde; Meyer); Eureka (Roeg); Independence Day (Mandel); Lianna (Sayles); Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (Oshima); Psycho II (Franklin); Utu (Murphy); The Wicked Lady (Winner)
Best Performances of 1983
Michael Caine in Educating Rita
Tom Courtenay in The Dresser
Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies
Albert Finney in The Dresser
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment
Meryl Streep in Silkwood
But how about...
The seven astronauts in The Right Stuff
A story about the early days of the American Space Race, TRS looks at the seven pilots who were the first Americans to go into space (apart from a monkey named Albert...but I guess he was an immigrant, so...). While the film focuses on only 4 (played by Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid and Fred Ward) of the 7 men (the others are Lance Henriksen, Scott Paulin and Charles Frank), it seemed churlish to elbow those last three actors out of the spotlight...the strength of the story is about teamwork (mateship is the better term) after all. The men manage to portray heroes who are more than just thrillseekers...they have quirks, loyalties, flaws and fears, but are united by the desire to achieve something that no other mortal had at that time. They want to be written in the history books, and extraordinary courage is the entry fee. While there is no way on this God's Earth I would strap myself onto a flying bomb, this team of actors makes me understand why it is a life & death risk which some men are determined to take.
...and what about...
John Lithgow in Twilight Zone: The Movie
Scared of flying? Scared of heights? Scared of the dark and what's outside? Nah, me neither. What truly terrifies me is what goes on inside my head. My thoughts, mixed with imaginings and memories, are what guide me towards the heebie-jeebies (this is why something like The Blair Witch Project scares me shitless, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre merely revolts me). John plays a plane passenger who is the victim of his own mind...and it turns out that what he thinks, is what he sees. An acting tour de force of fear-in-total-control, this is possibly the greatest performance in a horror film (okay...second-best...first is Michael Redgrave in Dead of Night, agreed?). John hates flying at the best of times...a thunderstorm hits...there is something out on the wing...nobody else can see it...drugs don't help...it's still there...it's a figure...laughing...determined to bring this plane down...
...not to mention...
Barbra Streisand in Yentl
A tough job done well. Imagine this being pitched to a Hollywood producer: "I want to make a film set in 1910 Poland about a young Jewish woman who pretends to be a man so she can become a theological student...and it will be a musical. And I want to be the star and direct it...even though I've never directed a film before." Lumbered with anonymous, tuneless songs, Barbra belts out the words with absolute power & passion anyway, playing a boy whilst clearly still being a pretty woman with a feminist agenda. The light romantic comedy structure is a good fit for her (Funny Girl + The Owl & the Pussycat), and I love the fact that her inherent Noo Yawkness remains...I guess you just can't take the Bronx out of the Babs. Watch and listen to the great star do her thing.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Al Pacino in Scarface
Gangsters are not supposed to be mild-mannered, I get that. The whole theme of the film is Having Too Much, I get that too, (not that it overly helps my appreciation of the film) but does Al the Violent Criminal have to be so excessive in his depiction of excess? Talking like he has a mouthful of marbles, with an accent that must be based on some stand-up comedian's idea of Cuban, Al is out of control (like he was in that scene with Hank Azaria in Heat), a thug who is an exaggeration of a thug. In films like The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Carlito's Way and Donnie Brasco, Al was reined in, portraying criminals who were still recognisably human, regardless of their misdeeds and horrors. With Tony "Scarface" Montana, he is let off the leash by the director and becomes a loud barking dog that is soon a test of endurance...for nearly three bloody hours. Not cathartic; just awful.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1983
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| Chris regrets ordering the Pork Vindaloo. |
#02 Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone
#04 Nick Nolte in Under Fire
#03 The seven astronauts in The Right Stuff
#05 Albert Finney in The Dresser
#06 Matthew Broderick & Ally Sheedy in WarGames
#07 Barbra Streisand in Yentl
#08 Rosanna Arquette in Baby It's You
#09 Joanna Cassidy in Under Fire
#10 John Hargreaves in Careful, He Might Hear You
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Norman Kaye in Man of Flowers
#12 Ed Harris in Under Fire
#13 Greta Scacchi in Heat and Dust
#14 Peter Billingsley in A Christmas Story
#15 Monty Python in The Meaning of Life
#16 Michael Caine & Julie Walters in Educating Rita
#17 Alfre Woodard in Cross Creek
#18 Barbara Carrera in Never Say Never Again
#19 Robert MacNaughton in I am the Cheese
#20 Mary Steenburgen in Cross Creek
#21 Ross Harris in Testament
#22 Rosemary Harris in The Ploughman's Lunch
#23 Burt Lancaster in Local Hero
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Tom Courtenay in The Dresser [overdoes the fawning, the mincing and the pinky in the air when having a drink]
> Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies [simple and reserved is not the same as genuine and deep]
> Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment [I prefer my Shirley a bit more restrained]
> Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment [Jack in slathering sex-creep mode]
> Meryl Streep in Silkwood [it takes more than chainsmoking and titflashing to act feral]
> Cher in Silkwood [so she plays a friend...big deal]
> Eric Roberts in Star 80 [plays a great creep, which is some kind of achievement...but who wants to watch it?]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1983 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Zelig (Woody Allen)
SILVER: Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode)
BRONZE: The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone)
SILVER: Nick Nolte (Under Fire)
BRONZE: Albert Finney (The Dresser)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Barbra Streisand (Yentl)
SILVER: Rosanna Arquette (Baby It's You)
BRONZE: Greta Scacchi (Heat and Dust)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: John Lithgow (Twilight Zone: The Movie)
SILVER: John Hargreaves (Careful, He Might Hear You)
BRONZE: Ed Harris (Under Fire)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joanna Cassidy (Under Fire)
SILVER: Alfre Woodard (Cross Creek)
BRONZE: Barbara Carrera (Never Say Never Again)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Fred Ward & Dennis Quaid & Ed Harris & Scott Glenn & Lance Henriksen & Scott Paulin & Charles Frank (The Right Stuff)
SILVER: Matthew Broderick & Ally Sheedy (WarGames)
BRONZE: Monty Python (The Meaning of Life)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story)
SILVER: Robert MacNaughton (I am the Cheese)
BRONZE: Ross Harris (Testament)
The Alternate Razzies for 1983 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Star 80 (Bob Fosse)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Richard Pryor (Superman III)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Diana Scarwid (Strange Invaders)
