Raiders of the Lost Ark

I must have seen some form of an Indiana Jones movie before I was five, because I remember being no older than six and trying to use a jump rope as a whip to swing from the tree in the yard.  I realize now that the Indiana Jones trilogy has influenced me much more than normal people should be influenced by a film.  Perhaps it was the reason I had that stage where I constantly wore a hat or became so interested in ancient history and mythology.  There were a few Indy-inspired daring moments in my first car that I’ll never attempt again.  My poor, well-loved leather jacket looks like it has been to hell and back, though it’s never seen a day quite as exciting as Indy’s.  But I keep patching her up and recounting stories of the battle scars.  The one thing I didn’t understand about Indy was his fear of snakes, I find them beautiful and their scales are soothing, but everyone needs their kryptonite.  It’s no surprise that Raiders of the Lost Ark is my all time favorite film, and I seriously doubt that anything, new or otherwise will ever change that.

In case you’re the kind who has only caught Raiders in bits and pieces over the last thirty years, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is an archaeologist.  He’s one of the fantastic lucky ones who travels the world looking for key pieces of ancient lore.  His travels seem to take him to booby-trapped temples and leave him running from angry natives on a regular basis.  Because of his extensive knowledge and daring reputation, he is asked by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Hitler’s band of Nazis do.  That leads him to Nepal, to borrow an ancient relic from a colleague’s daughter and old flame, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).  After an exciting gunfight that burns Marion’s bar to the snowy ground, they’re off to Cairo, to meet his old friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies).  But the Nazis are on their trail and kidnap Marion.  The Nazi’s search for the Ark is lead by Indy’s old rival Dr. Belloq (Paul Freeman), but without the headpiece that Indy holds, they’re digging in the wrong place.  But when the Ark is found, it’s important to remember that legend and religion say that it holds the wrath of God.

Frankly, Indy should be dead with all he’s been through.  There are so many moments of sheer luck, but that amazed kid in us is hanging on that every moment, cheering him on so much that we completely buy into every close call and would be crushed if he were flattened by that rock.  Or shot by those arrows.  Or trapped in the Well of Souls.  Or ran into that propeller blade.  The list extends every few minutes.

Marion is a bad-ass girl that we can be proud to cheer on with Indy.  Right away, she proves that she is tough, drinking that fat-faced Nepal guy under the table.  She can throw a hell of a punch square on Indy’s jaw and stands her ground when Toht and his gang enter her bar.  Best of all, she’s a modern 1930’s woman who has had to fend for herself, can wear the pants and does not need to get dolled up.  She doesn’t complain about the desert and a monkey on her shoulder does not spoil her looks at all.

Raiders of the Lost Ark holds one of the greatest action scenes ever put on film.  Spielberg is great at mixing action with suspense, but this is one of his crowning moments in directing.  When Indy thinks that the Ark is being put on a plane, he and Marion set out to either hijack the plane or stop it from leaving.  Throughout the scene, the obstacles just keep piling up in a matter of seconds: the propellers are going, there’s a giant bald Nazi to fight, Marion gets stuck in the cockpit making the plane spin, knocking over gasoline that is running toward fire.  It is a crazy, pupil dilating, suspenseful action sequence that through flawless editing is shown in a sequence that perfectly escalates the tension up to the very last moment.  And then everything explodes.  In my lifetime, it’s safe to say I’ve watched that scene over 500 times, and I still get so excited that I cannot look away until everything has exploded.

But the film isn’t all brawn.  There’s a good mix of history and mythology that helps Indy along the way and get ahead of Belloq.  Honestly, a few things that I learned in this movie helped me out in Sunday School.  Best of all, we’re also shown the scholarly side of Indy.  He’s a professor, complete with glasses, using fancy words like neolithic.  There was a connection in my mind as a kid saying that if I stayed in school, learned my mythology, history and religion, I could also become an adventuring archaeologist traveling the world discovering ancient treasures.

I may not be living that exact dream today, but what I’ve really taken away from my lifetime of idolizing Indiana Jones is that being an adventurer is a state of mind.  You don’t have to wear a fedora to be daring and a leather jacket isn’t going to protect you from any crazy stunts.  Lessons learned.  But knowledge can only empower you and part of learning is new experiences.  Simply stepping out of you comfort zone to try new things can be an adventure.  If you get the chance, travel some place new, go out of your way to help someone or just try something you’ve been afraid to before.  It can be anything from a new hair-do to sky diving.  Or holding a snake for the first time.  I promise, they’re not slimy.

“Yes, the actual Ten Commandments, the original stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing…  Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?”

On Golden Pond

Only at the age of twenty-five, I’ve already found bits of me growing old.  Those few gray hairs have already multiplied to a streak and after a good downhill hike, I feel it all through my hip the next day.  There used to be some unspoken idea of invincibility floating through my mind, now I see that if we’re lucky enough to see our prime there will be a decline.  Of body and possibly the mind.  But as we inevitably age, we should not let these truths become a burden.  It’s important to take each year as a celebration and find happy things to come back to that will help keep us young in spirit.

In the film On Golden Pond, an old couple returns to their summer lake cottage they have had since their days as newly weds.  Right away, Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) is excited to return, “The loons, they’re welcoming us back.”  “I don’t hear a thing,” says her husband, Norman (Henry Fonda).  At first we get the idea that Norman is an old foggy, just a grouchy old man who’s mind is going along with his body.  He only lets his guard down around Ethel, the scenes where he can admit to his fear when forgetting things is heartbreaking and sweet.  I could not bear the thought of Norman and Ethel split apart.

Their only child, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), will be visiting with her fiancé and his son for Norman’s 80th birthday.  Norman and Ethel haven’t seen Chelsea for years.  They love her just as much, but it seems their relationship is strained, especially between father and daughter.  Chelsea and Bill (Dabney Coleman) can only stay for one day, since they’re going to Europe and ask if young Billy (Doug McKeon) can stay there for a few weeks.  It seems kinda low at first to just pop in for a quick visit and ask for some babysitting services, but having a thirteen year old boy around does Norman a lot of good.  Though there’s some immediate friction, Norman and Billy become thick as thieves and have some adventures together between weeks of boating, swimming and fishing for old Walter.  But when Chelsea returns, she’s jealous of the quick bond Billy has made that she has always wanted with her father.

There’s something amazing about watching two of the greatest veteran actors together in their golden years.  Hepburn and Fonda both won lead acting Oscars for their perfect portray a pair of old loons still busting with life.  Sadly, On Golden Pond was Fonda’s final film.  Between his hilariously delivered smart-ass-old-man lines, “Oh, sure.  Black bears, grizzlies.  One of ‘em came along here and ate an old lesbian just last month.”, and his touching moments of vulnerability, this really is one of his greatest roles.  It’s wonderful to see him become suddenly invigorated by the presence of a young boy.  And Hepburn’s portrayal of an old woman who doesn’t live by her age is amazing.  From old song and dance routines she does alone, practicing her loon calls and even diving into perilously cold waters, Hepburn’s Ethel is an amazing woman.  Best of all, Norman and Ethel together are the perfect couple who have only bonded closer after so many years.

On Golden Pond is such a touching story filled with reasons to celebrate life, love and happiness.  There are so many films out there about youth and young love, but films about happy people in their seventies or eighties are very few and far between.  Our culture tends to dismiss people after too many wrinkles or candles on the cake.  If we can make it to those high numbers, what an accomplishment, what a life.  And if after fifty years together you can still call your spouse a friend, you’ve got more to celebrate than most people.  I’m not big on tears, or admitting to them, but this film made me cry and thankfully my husband was there.  I only hope to say the same thing in fifty years.

“Life marches by, Chels. I suggest you get on with it.”

Atlantic City

In the film, Atlantic City looks like a stubborn floater in the toilet.  There’s graffiti everywhere and buildings being demolished left and right.  A build board on a rundown apartment building pokes fun at the city’s embarrassing decline, reading, “Atlantic City, you’re on the map again.”  If it were not for the people who are too old go anywhere new, the city would be a ghost town.  They keep the casinos in business and gives the younger people, who must have steered wrong at some point to land in Atlantic City, jobs in those casinos.

Sally (Susan Sarandon) works in the oyster bar of a casino, but she’s training to become a dealer.  When her bohemian looking husband, Dave (Robert Joy) and sister, Chrissie (Hollis McLaren) (who is pregnant by Dave) arrive unexpectedly, Sally is less than welcoming to them.  They’ve traveled a long way, and though the back story is never fully revealed, it seems that Sally owes Dave for helping her leave their hometown in Saskatchewan, Canada.  Along the journey to Atlantic City, Dave has found some drugs he plans to sell.  Problem is, Atlantic City seems to have some standards about how drug dealers should dress for success and Dave looks like a hitchhiking hippie.

Enter Lou (Burt Lancaster), an aging man who lives in the apartment next to Sally’s and considers himself a big time gangster, though he only occasionally pulls some small deals.  He’s a kind old man, who takes care of the elderly lady downstairs, Grace (Kate Reid).  Dave strikes up a little friendship with Lou, and has Chrissie take care of Grace for a while so Lou can sell the drugs for him.  But while Lou is making the deal, Dave is murdered.  Now that Lou is making wads of cash thanks to Dave, his odd sense of chivalry tells him that he is obligated to help Sally.

In the beginning of the film, we see Lou watching Sally through her kitchen window as she does an odd routine.  She rubs fresh lemon juice all over her neck and chest while listening to opera music.  At first, we assume Lou is an old creepy man watching for kicks.  In a scene later, after the relationship between Lou and Sally has grown and see understand Lou’s need to protect beautiful young women, he confesses to watching Sally.  What he says, and the way he says it is not creepy, he has a real sense of admiration.  The way he describes what she does in detail shows that he watches her in this private moment in an attempt to understand her in a soulful way.  The fact that Lancaster can pull that conversation off perfectly and convince me that he’s not a creepy old man watching from his window, deserves his Oscar nomination.

In the end, Atlantic City is a well written tale of small time crime and passion.  The characters are likable and the situations don’t get too far fetched for our imaginations.  Best of all, the film shows us how people can get stuck in the crumbling world of Atlantic City and how fitting it is for them.

“You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then.”

Chariots of Fire

No doubt that there are still amazing athletes competing all over the world today, but lately it seems that we aren’t told about the positive attributes of athletes today as much as we hear about the scandalous behaviors some take part in.  Their vast range of offences are all over the news, yet they still play and have competitive salaries.  Sadly, even if these athletes have not been model citizens, the younger generations will still idolize them.  Chariots of Fire tells the story of athletes truly worth of praise.  One puts his personal frustrations to a positive outlet in his running, the other has such a strong conviction of faith he’s unwilling to compromise his beliefs for his sport.  Not even for king and country.

Directed by Hugh Hudson, the film is based on a true story of two British runners who competed in the 1924 Olympic games in Paris.  Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) is a Jew studying at Cambridge, but doesn’t because of his class and race, is often singled out.  Running becomes a compulsion for him, a way to prove himself in Cambridge where he is constantly a Jew first.  Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is a Scottish missionary who’s looking for his best attribute to please God.  That happens to be running.  In their first race together, Harold loses to Eric, which pushes him to hire a professional trainer, Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm) who helps Harold’s technique and his mind set.  Both runners go on to compete in the Olympic games, but Eric is scheduled to race on a Sunday.  Because of his faith, he simply refuses to race then, even with pressure coming from the Olympic committee and the Prince of Wales (David Yelland).

I really enjoyed the bits of training scenes edited in.  There’s very little dialogue here, we simply watch and understand what each exercise means.  Harold need to learn to be lighter on his feet, and pace his strides correctly.  Running on sand is perfect for learning both of those techniques.  One of my favorite moments was when Mussabini sets up hurdles for Harold to jump, each with a glass of champagne on them.  The objective is clear, simple and classy.

What people remember most about Chariots of Fire is the iconic music and image of the young men running through the surf on the beach.  It really is a wonderful moment, worthy of starting the film and bringing it to an end.  At the beginning I had ideas of athleticism, competition and running toward Olympic dreams. What I saw at the end was a moving portrait of model young men full of unrelenting honor and integrity.  There must be no more celebrated moment than to be held up after winning an Olympic event in front of your loved ones, knowing that you have held strong to your ideals and have made them proud.

“You can praise God by peeling a spud if you peel it to perfection. Don’t compromise. Compromise is a language of the devil. Run in God’s name and let the world stand back and in wonder.”

Reds

John “Jack” Reed was an American journalist, and communist activist who wrote Ten Days that Shook the World, a first hand account of a crucial point in the Russian Revolution.  His wife, Louise Bryant was a feminist writer, and journalist beside him.  Reds is a three hour epic telling the true story of Jack, Louise and their part alongside the Russian Revolution.

The story begins when Jack (Warren Beatty) and Louise (Diane Keaton) first meet.  She’s an artist trying to be a serious writer and married to another man.  Louise leaves her husband to be with Jack, but he often leaves her alone to travel and cover political stories.  While Jack is away, she has an affair with Eugene O’Neill (Jack Nicholson) a poet and playwright that would later win the Pulitzer Prize.  Louise and Jack marry without ever mentioning the infidelity, but when it comes out later,he admits to his affairs as well.  This causes Louise to leave.  They don’t see each other again until Jack asks Louise to go to Russia with him to write about the revolution.  He’s always supportive of her work, but is afraid that no one will take her seriously if she doesn’t go to and write about the most important thing happening at the moment.  Their work within the revolution rekindles their relationship and inspires Jack to bring the ideals sweeping Russia back to the United States.

Edited in throughout the film are clips of interviews of those who remember the time period.  Some are firsthand witnesses to the Russian Revolution, others knew, met or caught glimpses of Jack and Louise in real life.  The very first moments of the film are the “witnesses” telling us a few things about Jack and Louise in their own words: Jack was a playboy.  Louise was an exhibitionist.  Their opinions and statements are often contradictory of each other.  One says about the outbreak of WWI, “There was a lot of anti war rallying.”  And the next person says, “There wasn’t anyone against the war.”  These interviews bring a personal feel to the story and remind us that this piece of history wasn’t too long ago.

Unless you are really into political journalism, the Russian Revolution or a semi-biopic about the relationship between Jack Reed and Louise Bryant, this is probably not your film of choice.  Three ours of those three topics, even with a little Jack Nicholson charm sprinkled in, is a very long film to get through.  No doubt, it is a beautiful, thoughtful film with an engaging story mixed with history and love.  But sadly, I was starting to get bored when the political talk began to take the main stage and by time it was time for some train exploding climatic action, I was just thinking about investing in a nice ushanka.

“You dream that if you discuss the revolution with a man before you go to bed with him, it’ll be missionary work rather than sex.”