Scream

“Do you like scary movies?”

Scream is what happens when slasher movies become a staple of our culture.  Those of us who grew up watching Jamie Lee Curtis run screaming through Halloween, or watching Freddie Cruger pick off teen by teen, know the wonderful, yet unsavory effects that horror movies can have on us.  We know when not to answer the door.  We know when to turn around.  We know when to leave the house rather than run upstairs, just like the characters in Scream do.  But to be honest, if we that were stuck in that situation, in that fight or flight mode, we would be making the same mistakes.

In Wes Craven’s 1996 hit Scream, a small town is terrorized by a masked murder targeting teens.  The murderer also seems to have a fascination with horror films, using trivia and “the rules” to terrify.  After two classmates are killed, Sydney (Neve Campbell) seems to be the next target.  This is even more unsettling for her, as this attack falls around the anniversary of her mother’s murder.  While she is worried, some of her peers seem to enjoy the mayhem.  The reporters have a field day, just as they did during Sydney’s mother’s murder.  As tensions intensify, and a curfew is set on the town, the teens have a party.  What a perfect place for some more murder.

The first scene perfectly sets the whole film.  What seems like an innocent wrong number, with even a bit of flirting, turns on a dime to terror and a grizzly murder.  The first time I began this movie (in my early teens) I couldn’t get through this first scene.  It was too tense and freaky for me at the time, and the worst part was how real this felt.  I began to imagine how easily this could happen to me anytime I was home alone.  Even now, by the time the she is being quizzed about Friday the 13th, I find myself standing two feet from my television, hand over my mouth to keep from screaming, loving and hating every moment.

The words from Principal Himbry (the uncredited Henry Winkler) ring sadly true for most of Generation X and on.  We are “desensitized little shits.”  We’ve seen too many slasher movies.  Fake blood and gore hardly fazes us.  Hell, I grew up hearing about terrible murders on the evening news while eating dinner.  If someone was brutally murdered in my high school I know someone would find a way to make a joke of it.  Maybe it’s our faults for being horrible people, or maybe it’s the media and society we were exposed to.  Either way, it brings us closer to the kids in the middle of Scream.  Especially Stuart (Matthew Lillard).

It seems Wes Craven has made this film especially for movie geeks.  It begins to reference horror movies right in the beginning and keeps it up to the very end.  One of the most important parts for movie nerds is how Randy (Jamie Kennedy) lays out the rules for surviving a horror movie.  Until then, they had been unwritten rules, more of a modern archetype that has been shaped over the past 40 years.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the rules, here they are.  Use them wisely if you ever find yourself within a personal horror movie:

1. You can never have sex.  Sex = Death.  Virgins will live.
2. You can never drink or do drugs.  Just another sin that will make you a target.
3. Never say, “I’ll be right back.”  You won’t.

Even if you have never seen a single horror film before, Scream can be a real treat.  It doesn’t rely on your film knowledge, though it helps.  Scream is simply a modern horror classic that will easily draw you in and make you scream.  The stakes are set high right from the start and only escalate from there.  There is a great mix of tension, gore and run-for-your-life terror that makes this film fun every time.

“No, please don’t kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!”

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

When Who Framed Roger Rabbit first came to theaters in 1988, I was three years old.  As far back as I can remember, my family had a copy of the movie on VHS, and it was regularly in the VCR.  There are many scenes I can play back in my memory like a favorite song, complete with cartoon sound effects.  I’ve always loved this movie, but never realized what a technical achievement it was, or that it was my introduction to film noir, for nearly twenty years.

In 1940s Los Angeles, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is a private detective who used to take cases for toons.  You know, cartoon characters, most of them live in Toon Town, like most Hollywood stars might live in Beverly Hills.  After Eddie does a job taking some incriminating photos of Roger Rabbit’s wife with Marvin Acme the same night that Acme is murdered, Roger becomes the prime suspect.  Ready to sentence him to a dip (which kills toons), is Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd), a dark and menacing gargoyle of a villain.  Working with him is a bumbling bunch of toon gangster-like weasels who often lose focus when something funny happens.  When Roger turns to Eddie for help, complete with an alibi for his innocence, the two uncover a plot that could destroy Toon Town and turn LA into the traffic-filled city that it is today.

Roger Rabbit is a unique cartoon character.  Physically, he looks like an odd combination of Mickey Mouse (similar red pants and gloves) and Bugs Bunny (same species).  However, he is a whole different kind of character.  He’s goofy, much more clown like, not very intelligent, makes his living off physical comedy (when he can get his cues right) and surprisingly, his wife is the hottest babe in LA.

Though Jessica Rabbit is a toon in this live action world, she attracts the attention of countless men, not the animated kind.  Her opening scene shows throngs of men anxiously awaiting her next stage performance, the way they’re drooling you wouldn’t expect a toon’s shapely leg to slip through the curtain.  Throughout the film, she is the main source of sex appeal, with all her drawn curves and boob-bouncing timpani sound effects.  Happily, she’s also a strong supporting character and a woman who can take care of herself.  She’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way.

At the Oscars, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nominated for six awards total and ended up winning four, including a special achievement award.  The film was nominated for best cinematography, sound and art direction.  It won awards for sound effects, visual effects and film editing.  The extra award was for the animation director, Richard Williams, in his achievement in creating and directing the animated characters within the film.

Some amazing bits of movie magic in the film happen when the toons interact with the objects around them.  As a kid, I never questioned if the toons were really there or not, it was all so fluid and natural.  I was about twelve before I started trying to figure out how the toons could pick up real life objects.  We see a Donald and Daffy playing pianos, baby Herman smoking a cigar, Roger breaking plates over his head and much more.  To show the toons interact with the things around them, puppets and robots were used in some scenes, and the animation was carefully put over whichever device caused the movement.  In the late 80s, quite a lot of creative ingenuity went into the effects, that could easily be done with computers today.

The greatest moments of the film are when real life characters and toons interact so well.  A saxophonist playing outside the film studio and the booms from Fantasia sweeping around him is flawless and natural.  Baby Herman harasses the woman pushing his buggy, even slapping her butt as she leaves.  It is Eddie’s interactions between Roger and Jessica that really bring the film together.  One of my favorite scenes is when Eddie has to hide Roger after he handcuffed them together.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a wonderfully fun and hilarious film that kids and adults can enjoy together.  This is one of the films that I have only grown to love more since I was a child.  Everyone will get a kick out of all their favorite classic cartoons walking around their real world.  Gags that may have been too childish for adults are much more accessible with Eddie and other adults reacting to them.  Adults have plenty of jokes sprinkled around just for them that are so fluid and flawless the kids won’t feel left out even when the punchline flies right over their head.

“Is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

Halloween

The first time I watched Halloween in its unedited entirety, I was about thirteen and babysitting my siblings.  Yes, perfect.  This was the late 90s, and the early days of parental passwords blocking television programs.  My technology-deficient dad needed my help to set the password, so I knew how to watch anything I wanted.  While my brother was excited to see the original slasher film, I remember my sister protesting, saying it was too scary and she’d tell on me.  Oh, please.  Like any smart oldest child, I asserted my dominance and threatened some sort of blackmail I had been saving on her.  Victory was mine that night, and we were all sufficiently scared that runaway maniacs could be roaming around the neighborhood.

John Carpenter’s Halloween from 1978 focuses on a small suburban town, its escaped manic’s return home after fifteen years, and a few teenage babysitters.  Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the bookish sitter, covering for her friends while they run off to fool around with their boyfriends.  She is also the more observant and skittish, noticing the eerie presence following the girls all day.  While Michael stalks the girls and moves in closer, his doctor (Donald Pleasence) is trying to find him, before it’s too late.

The film establishes the legend of Michael Myers perfectly.  It opens with a first person look at the murder from six year old Michael’s vantage point.  It’s perfectly creepy and brutal and seems to lack a soul.  In the present, the Myers house looks old, spooky and abandoned.  Local kids say it’s haunted and dare each other to go in on Halloween night.  That moment when a kid runs into Michael outside the school, we don’t know if there is a recognition, but he runs like he had just seen the boogeyman he was just talking about.

One of my favorite scenes is just a small moment towards the end, so please, if you have not seen Halloween, skip to the next paragraph, major spoilers!  I remember perfectly the first time my sister saw this moment, when Laurie thought she had killed Michael upstairs.  She tells the kids to run to a neighbor’s house to call the police and sits in the doorway crying and collecting herself.  Suddenly, we see Michael sit up behind her!  On cue, my sister and I proceeded to freak out, desperately trying to warn Laurie of the danger behind her.

In my opinion, Halloween is the best slasher film out there.  The situation is perfect; teenage babysitters with their guard down in their safe town and a manic is stalking them.  We love to see Michael stalk, biding his time building his eerie presence and our anticipation at the same time.  Our innocent characters are powerless against Michael’s brute, murderous insanity and we love to watch and wait for them to fall.  Enough suspense and fear is established to warrant the brutal and gory images of Michael’s murders.  Whenever I hear music from the film, the back of my neck feels prickly, bringing instant fear and recognition.  Most frightening of all, the film feels very real, like any late night alone in a quiet neighborhood could end screaming and becoming Michael’s next victim.  Happy Halloween!

“Boogeyman is coming!”

The Shining

Of all the films based on Stephen King’s work I have seen, The Shining has to be my favorite.  Purists can scoff all they want, complaining that Stanley Kubrick didn’t stay true enough to the novel.  I must say that both works are amazing in their own ways.  Read The Shining during a snowy winter, you might not sleep well for a while. However, the horror that engulfs the Torrance family shown in the film, is like no other movie I will ever see.

When Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes caretaker for the Overlook hotel during the winter, he and his family make the long journey through winding mountain roads to move in.  For five months, they will be the only living people within the huge building.  As an aspiring author, and recovering alcoholic, Jack welcomes the loneliness, hoping it will fuel his focus on writing.

For his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), cabin fever is not the only fear within the Overlook.  Little Danny has an uncanny ability to sense and see things, brought to him by Tony, whom his mother thinks is an imaginary friend.  Before even seeing the Overlook, Danny is granted horrifying visions of blood flowing out of an elevator and flooding the hotel halls.  Inside are memories of madness and murder that can manifest and take hold of the new caretaker.  Danny’s gift, called the shining, may be the only thing that keeps him safe.

One thing that always strikes me about The Shining is how huge the Overlook hotel is.  Outside, its size is overshadowed by the mountains and views around it. However, once we see the inside, it makes everyone seem so small.  As we watch Danny ride around on his big wheel, the hallways seems to twist and continue for miles.  It seems so easy to get lost in there, just like the hedge maze outside.  The cinematography works wonders here, framing every shot perfectly to make me feel that this family has been swallowed up by a monstrous hotel.

My favorite scene of the film takes place in that grand parlor that Jack has set up as a writing space.  After a scare and some shocking discoveries, Wendy has had enough and wants to take Danny to a doctor, but she must first discuss it with her husband.  Since he is not in the room, she takes a peek at what he has been writing, only to find one maddening sentence typed over and over.  Jack comes in, making her jump in fright.  What happens next perfectly shows their opposing characters.  Wendy professes weakly through tears that she wants to take Danny to a doctor.  To counteract that, Jack mocks her, gets angry and slowly leads her around the room, him always advancing while she backs away keeping a distance between them.  It’s like a very tense waltz, where Jack is in complete control, even though Wendy is holding a bat the whole time.  We can never imagine her landing a decent blow against Jack, especially the pathetic way she holds that bat.

God, I really do love The Shining.  It’s creepy, visually amazing, intense, grows on the characters and has some amazingly freaky moments that always scare me.  There are big moments that  rely on things you cannot even begin to explain, but they are so good that even party-poopers won’t care.  Blood flows out of an elevator, a barkeep and party appears out of thin air, those creepy twins pop up now and then, room 237 is one of the creepiest moments and then there is the guy in a dog suit.  And that last half hour climax of the film is something I can never turn away from.  If you have never seen The Shining, it is a must-see, especially around Halloween.

“Danny isn’t here, Mrs. Torrance.”

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of my favorite films and has been for many years.  I remember first watching it alone late one night, sneaking around the living room when I was seven years old.  There was a lot that I didn’t comprehend, but the basics were all clear to me and a love of suspense was instilled.  Though this film is great anytime, a chilly fall evening with the haunts of Halloween right around the corner is a perfect time for first-timers to experience the perfect suspense thriller.

Today, it’s hard to have any knowledge of Psycho without some major spoilers, so please, if you have any innocence about this film, stop reading and go watch it.  Psycho starts out with a classic Hitchcockian woman on the run plot and takes an unexpected turn, making it a story of murder where the victim’s family is getting closer to danger while looking for the truth.  It stars Janet Leigh as the woman on the run, John Gavin as her lover, Vera Miles as her sister, and Martin Balsam as a private investigator.

One of my all time favorite film characters is Norman Bates.  At first sight, he seems like a quiet and kind young man, a dutiful son just looking after his sick mother and the family business.  However, even before the murder we can tell there is so much more.  The argument with his mother that Marion overhears is so telling and makes him seem trapped and tormented by her.  The conversation about stuffed birds and his mother, they go together a little too well.  And one of my favorite traits about Norman is his nervous chewing.  Whether Sam is firing questions too quickly or there’s a chance the swamp won’t hide his secrets, he is always chewing.  Why was Anthony Perkins not nominated for supporting actor?

When I first saw the shower scene, it was the most terrifying thing I could have imagined at the time.  I think back to my seven-year-old self, straining to hear the tv I kept so quiet, afraid to wake my parents and face certain punishment.  Things seemed to be turning around for Marion, kind young Norman had helped her realize she could go back and make everything better and that hot shower was washing away her sins.  I was such a good little Catholic school girl.  But suddenly that shadow creeped forward, ripped back the curtain.  Then that scream, and those piercing violins, I couldn’t breathe.  My eyes widened as the shots clipped rapidly between the reaching knife and vulnerable flesh.  Before my mind could comprehend what just happened, the murderous figure was out the door and Marion slipped slowly down that tile wall into a gruesome death.  The blood swirling down the drain helped me relax and I realized my hand was clamped over my mouth.  Maybe I had nearly screamed.  As I looked into Marion’s dead open eye for the first time, I blinked and consciously tried to control my breathing.  I had never seen something so unexpectedly violent in all my seven years and while I had just been scared stiff, part of me loved it.  It has been a rush that I’ve been searching for in great movies all my life.

It was years later that I learned how important Psycho was to the history of film.  Hitchcock put out a campaign that no one would be allowed into the theater after the screening of Psycho had begun.  What Hitchcock made law for Psycho just felt like common sense to me.  Before this time, I guess people just waltzed into the theater anytime within the showing, regardless of what they missed in the plot.  But Hitchcock was a genius and didn’t want to let his audience down, knowing how perfectly he had crafted Psycho.

Today, I hope no one comes in even a minute late to watching Psycho.  There is so much to enjoy from the very beginning.  Being a former art student, I love the opening credits by Saul Bass.  And that first conversation between Marion and Sam.  And the way the cop with the dark sunglasses is so menacing.  And every single moment in the Bates’ house is amazingly tense!  Believe me, you cannot miss one second of Psycho.

“Hate the smell of dampness, don’t you?  It’s such a, I don’t know, creepy smell.”

Friday the 13th

Originally created to ride off of Halloween’s slasher film success, Friday the 13th has exploded into a huge franchise since 1980. There are currently ten Friday the 13th/Jason sequels, a 2009 remake and a big 80’s bad-guy mash-up: Freddie vs Jason.  But back when the horse was alive and not beaten to a pulp, Friday the 13th was just a simple slasher film set at a camp with a bloody history.

The film starts with some vague back story   We see teenage camp counselors having a sing-along.  Soon, a hormone charged couple sneaks off for some action and are killed by an unknown murderer.  The two main elements of the film are all laid out: sex and murder.

Flash forward twenty years to the present and the camp is being reopened.  As plucky, bright eyed Annie (Robbi Morgan) is strolling into town to work at the camp for a summer, the locals are uneasy about the news of Camp Crystal Lake reopening.  Besides the murder we saw, there are stories of a kid drowning and fires.  At the camp, a rag-tag bunch of late teens to early twenties kids (including Adrienne King and Kevin Bacon)are getting the place cleaned up.  One of their first scares is a black snake in a cabin, the few minutes of chaos and panic the snake causes is just a good indicator that they have no chance against a serial killer.  As evening turns to night, the counselors are picked off one by one as they separate from the group.

The camera works to create an uneasy feeling that someone is watching these people.  Many times, the camera is off in the distance, behind trees or something.  Then it starts to move and we realize that we could be seeing things from the killer’s perspective.  It’s a fun, kinda cheesy way to create some suspense.

When I get into a film, I have a history of yelling at the characters.  I had a lot of fun with this film, because these kids obviously don’t know how to survive a slasher film.  Strip Monopoly and sneaking off to have sex in a cabin, that’s fine, we need something to keep us interested while blood isn’t spilling.  But honestly, why on Earth would someone just waltz around on a stormy night with no pants on?  If these dumb girls weren’t already murdered, they’d surely wind up with very uncomfortable poison ivy.

This was my first time seeing Friday the 13th in one sitting.  From my film fascination, I knew quite a few spoilers and had seen the ending lake scene a few times.  While I found some of the acting just laughable, I got into the film enough to make it enjoyable.  The suspense was limp as a wet noodle, but I didn’t care, I was just waiting for the next dumb kid to wander off alone and meet a gruesome end.  And then I cheered about it, cause I don’t like those kids and want to see how the next will end up dead.

I would suggest seeing Friday the 13th with a group of friends.  Don’t take it seriously, laugh with your friends and raise a glass to every victim.

“It’s not bad enough to have Friday the 13th, we’ve gotta have a full moon too.”

Birdman of Alcatraz

The word Alcatraz evokes images of prison bars, riots and some of the most notorious criminals of the twentieth century.  Among those imprisoned there were Al Capone and Baby Face Nelson, but in 1962 no one was more infamous than Robert Stroud, The Birdman of Alcatraz.

Robert Stroud was first sent to prison in 1909 for manslaughter.  Sources say he knocked a man unconscious then shot him at point-blank range for not paying a lady for certain services Stroud was managing.  John Frankenheimer’s film glosses this over, sending us straight into his prison days in his first home behind bars, McNeil Island.  Stroud (Burt Lancaster) doesn’t bend to authority easily, bringing him time in the hole with no light and no communication.  When a minor slip up is about to cost him a visit with his mother (Thelma Ritter), Stroud confronts the guard and ends up killing him.  This second murder on his record nearly sends him to the gallows, his mother pulling strings and saving his neck.  Instead, Stroud is put in solitary confinement, where it seems that he will just waste away in with no purpose in his life.

One day in the exercise yard, a storm brings a tree branch down, complete with a helpless baby bird in a nest.  Stroud brings the bird into his cell, painstakingly nurses it and even teaches it to fly.  The images of him mushing up bits of his food in his tin cup and gently feeding the bird are beautifully uncommon for a murderer.  With Stroud’s bird chirping, the other prisoners want birds too.  Soon the whole solitary block is chirping with pet canaries.  As birds get sick, or their owners lose interest, they give them to Stroud.  Before you know it, baby birds are hatching and Stroud’s tiny cell is full of bird cages.  When disease strikes the birds, stroud begins experimenting with medicines and studying the birds more closely.  Over the years, he makes discoveries that help bird farmers and eventually writes an extensive book about his findings.

Regular readers know that I am a big fan of Burt Lancaster and his performance as Robert Stroud did not disappoint.  Accept for the fact that his hair was thinned as Stroud grew older, but that’s just me.  We understand Stroud to be quiet, brooding and calculating.  Early in the film, we see him kill a guard, but it comes about as part wanting to see his mother and self defense.  For a full grown man in prison, we get the feeling that he’s a mama’s boy; for awhile she’s the only one who visits him.  His redeeming qualities grow as he works with the birds, we suddenly see him as gentle and caring.  However, the reality of Stroud’s character has been described more as demented and cruel, along with scientifically brilliant.

While “Birdman of Alcatraz” has a great ring to it, it isn’t exactly true.  You see, Stroud only worked with birds in Leavenworth prison.  He was transported to Alcatraz in 1942 and they did not permit any pets there.  However, his reputation followed him, even through the riot of 1946, where the film portrays Stroud as a peaceful hero.

Birdman of Alcatraz found itself nominated for four Oscars, three of them acting awards.  Burt Lancaster was up for lead actor, Telly Savalas for supporting actor and Thelma Ritter for supporting actress.  The film’s other nomination was for black and white cinematography, very worthy considering all they did with so many cramped shots in a jail cell full of bird cages.

I think Birdman of Alcatraz is a fascinating and great film, but I can understand some finding a bit meandering.  The film’s focus becomes a balancing act between Stroud as a character, the less than perfect prison system and Stroud’s work with birds; some may want more focus on one thing or less on another.  However, anyone interested in a Robert Stroud, his work or Alcatraz should definitely check this out.  And of course, this is a must see for Lancaster or Frankenheimer fans.

“Fly my avian friends, I give you the illusion of freedom.”

Rope

I first saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope late one night in my old college apartment.  My roommate preferred to get to bed earlier, so I warned her about my movie and tried my best to be quiet.  Within twenty minutes, my vocal excitement had kept her awake and curious enough to see what the hell I was watching.  As I apologized and explained what was going on in the film, she stayed for a few minutes, standing, watching with me and getting just as worked up.  Soon, we were both on the couch, yelling directions at Jimmy Stewart and becoming far too stressed out.  It was a great moment for this Hitchcock fan.

In Rope, two young men, Phil (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall), decide to pull off the perfect murder.  We come in just as they have killed their friend, David (Dick Hogan).  Instead of immediately disposing of the body, they tuck it away in a chest.  They have bigger plans this evening, a party.  What’s the point of pulling off the perfect murder without a little danger?  Guests include David’s mother (Constance Collier), father (Cedric Hardwicke), girlfriend Janet (Joan Chandler), Janet’s ex boyfriend Kenneth (Douglas Dick), and Rupert (James Stewart) whom the murderous boys admire and got their idea from.

Some may consider this Hitchcock’s ultimate longshot film.  It is mostly comprised of 10 continuous shots, edited together to give the illusion of one fluid piece.  Simply put, when the camera ran out of film, the shot dissolved, usually into the back of a character’s dark suit, and the new reel began from there, fading back in without missing a beat.  It gives you the feeling that you shouldn’t look away, or that you’re a silent guest at the party.  However, if you can keep a sharp eye, there are seven conventional edits throughout the film.

The longshots and other elements make the film feel like a play.  All the characters move within one connected setting, revolving around the chest that only Phil, Brandon and the audience can feel the weight of.  Many times, the camera follows characters around, it bounces a bit, feeling a bit like footsteps.  Its focus on different characters in a confined space, or closeups of tell tale objects is what really sets it apart from anything that could be put on stage.

Of course, my roommate and I were not shouting about the inventive camera work, but the suspense.  Whenever someone hung around the chest too long, or looked at it questioningly or *GASP!* was about to open it, levels of chaos exploded in our minds.  All we could do was hold our breath, yell like mad people and slowly exhale.  Over and over.  I think we were both glad the film was only about 80 minutes long, we couldn’t take much more of that thick tension.

It is not all about the chest that creates tension.  While Brandon is surprisingly calm about their perfect murder, Phil slowly becomes a nervous wreck.  Brandon’s grand idea of serving dinner on the vile chest, casually flaunting the murder weapon out in the open and inviting Rupert without Phil knowing is enough to send Phil into a drinking binge.  Surely someone as superior as Brandon won’t be caught because of his friend’s loose lips.

Most Hitchcock films are centered around murder, even a few other than Rope discuss how to pull off a perfect murder.  Here we get a warped philosophy behind a perfect murder.  You see, their old friend Rupert once discussed with them how an elite group could be allowed to pick off those with less meaningful lives.  There’s even a scene where Rupert and David’s mother casually joke about how murder could solve problems like unemployment and overpopulation.  This talk can be all fun and games, but they don’t know that Brandon and Phil have taken it very seriously and intend to prove that they are part of that superior group that can get away with murder.  How awful they must think of poor David.  And some of the ways Brandon justifies his murder are downright disturbing.

Rope is an ingenious murder mystery dinner, where the guests don’t even realize there has been a murder, but they pick up on the mystery.  They keep wondering where David could be, it’s not in his character to be so late.  Meanwhile, we sit on pins and needles, worried sick like Phil or jonesing on the excitement of being so close to danger like Brandon.  And all we can do is pray that Rupert does or doesn’t open that chest.

“By what right do you dare to say that there’s a superior few to which you belong?”

North by Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest has been hailed as his most entertaining film.  With a case of mistaken identity putting a man in danger and being hunted across the country, it is an exciting time.  Throw in some planes, trains, automobiles and Mount Rushmore, the thrills take some unexpected turns over and over again.  Top it off with a dash of romance to twist the plot further and that trademark Hitchcock suspense and North by Northwest is nearly perfect.

The story is that of average ad man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), an unglamorous bachelor complete with a badgering, overbearing mother (Jessie Royce Landis).  He is mistaken by a group of foreign spies as government agent George Caplan, kidnapped and taken to a mansion owned by a Mr. Townsend.  There, his kidnapper (James Mason) forces him to drink copious amounts of bourbon and sends him off down a dark, twisty road in a sports car.  This is got to be one of the most memorable, and thrilling drunk driving scenes on film.  In jail, no one believes the intoxicated Thornhill.  When he tries to prove his story, it seems that his captors have covered everything up and merely posed as Townsend.  Realizing that only the real Mr. Townsend can prove his innocence, Thornhill goes to the UN only to leave there wanted for murder.  He has no choice but to run from both the police and his assailants while trying to track down this George Caplan, which turns out to be one hell of a goose chase.

On the train ride from New York to Chicago, Thornhill finds a companion to keep him busy and even helps hide him from the authorities.  Eve (Eva Marie Saint) is another one of Hitchcock’s blond beauties to watch out for.  While she aids Thornhill and pulls him in with her beauty, she has her own agenda.  But when Thornhill finds out, he still cannot let her go, and his chivalry leads to a daring rescue and chase, scaling Mount Rushmore.

One of the most memorable scenes of this film is the crop duster scene.  After making it out of Chicago, Thornhill is told to wait for a ride, out in the middle of harvested corn fields.  The flat, expansive and isolating scene perfectly depicts the fields of the mid-west.  When a plane in the distance seems to be “dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops,”  tension builds and it is a kick to see Grant run and dive from a swooping plane.  It’s one of the most iconic moments of the film, and ends with quite an unexpected bang.

I’ve got to say, I love how this trailer shows Hitchcock selling this movie like a vacation package.  In 1959, people were flooding to theaters to see big epic films, like Ben Hur.  That was some fierce competition.  So why not send them from New York, to Chicago and on to Mount Rushmore with some murder and suspense?  I guarantee you will never see that monument the same way after watching North by Northwest.

However, while Hitchcock was selling it, the Academy was not buying it.  In the end, North by Northwest took home no trophies for its three Oscar nominations: Original Screenplay, Editing and Art Direction in a Color Film.

Today, North by Northwest that is an essential Hitchcock film and can still make for a fun time.  When I meet someone that has never seen a Hitchcock film, I suggest North by Northwest along with Psycho and The Birds.  Of those three, it’s the one that is most fast paced, fun and as the plot continually twists, you have to keep on your toes.

“I don’t like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.”

A Soldier’s Story

Analyzing A Soldier’s Story brings me back to my college days where I took a course entitled Black Drama, where we discussed plays by and about African-Americans.  After watching this film, I honestly wished we would have discussed the play it is based off of, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play.  The work is electric with racial stereotypes and motives that would have sent my class into a week of compelling conversation.

Directed by Norman Jewison, A Soldier’s Story is set up as a murder mystery and reveals to be a portrait of self loathing racism by the end.  On an army base full of black soldiers, led by white officers in 1944 Louisiana, Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar) is murdered and an officer from Washington, Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins Jr.), is called in to investigate.  The fact that Davenport is black makes all the difference.  No one on the base has ever seen a black officer, bringing a new sense of pride to the black soldiers.  At first, all motives lead to the local Klan or white bigoted officers on base and the idea that he plans on questioning and possibly arresting the racist white men in town  is not settling well.

As he questions the different characters, mostly men from Waters’ troop, we are shown flashbacks that reveal more and more of Waters’ true character.  He was a small, light-skinned black man with a lot of ambition and hatred towards southern black men who, in his perspective, conform to racial stereotypes.  He singles out CJ Memphis (Larry Riley) from his troop, calling him “a clown in blackface” because of his laid-back attitude, southern dialect and bluesy musical talents.  Waters presses his hatred against CJ until he retaliates, which brings serious consequences.

All in all, A Soldier’s Story is a compelling film, but while it’s smart and thought provoking, it seems to be constrained by the idea and structure of a murder-mystery.  What this film is really discovering is an underlying racism within these African-American characters against themselves and the murder-mystery is here just to draw in and keep all races interested.

“Something’s wrong, ain’t it, sir?  I mean, those Klan boys, they can’t stand to see us in these uniforms.  They usually take the stripes and stuff off before they lynch us.”