Funny Girl

Loosely based on the life of Fanny Brice, Funny Girl tells the story of the young Jewish girl’s rise to becoming the star of Zeigfeld’s Follies through her comedic talent, not necessarily her looks.  When I say loosely, I mean the film takes a lot of liberties leaving out many events in Brice’s life and the character becomes more iconic Barbra Streisand than anything else.  I would not consider this a biopic, but rather a musical inspired from Brice’s life.

Fanny’s only aspiration is only to become a star, but everyone can see that her looks may hold her back.  She works hard trying out for any part out there, even if she has no idea how to roller skate, she’ll do it.  Through some blunders, she realizes that her main talents are singing and comedy.  However, when she is picked by the great Florenz Zeigfeld (Walter Pidgeon) to become one of his famed Follies, she sees that she might be a fish out of water.  With a daring and unconventional surprise, she propels herself forward into stardom.  Along her way to the top, she meets a handsome gentleman who makes his fortune by gambling, Nick Arstein (Omar Sharif).  He’s a dreamboat who wants to give Fanny everything she’s ever dreamed of, it seems too good to be true for this rising star.

This is the kind of musical that’s so wonderfully quirky and utterly full of Streisand, most are likely to either love it or hate it.  I was surprised how much I loved it, perhaps my closeted Glee fan status helps this out quite a bit.  If any Gleeks have not seen Funny Girl, it’s essential to many references throughout the show.

Streisand’s Fanny was a little annoying at first, but she really grew on me.  Even better, I always thought she was at her best while singing.  Best of all, many of the songs are wonderfully funny in a surprising way.  In the red private restaurant scene, the duet between Nick and Fanny had me cracking up with lines like, “Isn’t this the height of nonchalance, furnishing a bed in restaurants?”

What I loved about Fanny are her reasons for becoming a comedian.  Her legs are too thin to be a chorus girl and her nose doesn’t make her a typical beauty queen.  She knows this, and in that ornate, perfectly Zeigfeld bridal finale full of fair and practically perfect women, Fanny turns her lead role on its head at the last minute, knowing exactly how to win over the crowd.  Her comedic genius stems from a defense mechanism, and it works perfectly for her.  Over and over throughout the film, it’s intriguing to see how Fanny uses her funny girl talents to ease the pain in tough situations.

Now, when you look at the Oscar history records and see that Streisand tied for best actress with Katharine Hepburn, there is something to keep in mind.  Streisand was a voting member of the Academy that year and, of course, voted for herself.  I don’t blame her, who wouldn’t do that?  I drove over an hour just to hold the Oscar that later went to Jeff Bridges.  But to vote for yourself, and knowing that that one vote tied you once with the great 4 win, 12 nomination Hepburn, it feels like an awkward joke.  It’s like being a freshman who invited yourself to a senior party.  After all, this was Streisand’s very first film.

“Who told you you’re allowed to rain on my parade?”

Doctor Zhivago

Based on Boris Pasternak’s novel, Doctor Zhivago is the story of a doctor/poet during the Russian Revolution.  In the present, we have Zhivago’s half brother, General Yefgraf (Alec Guinness), questioning a young girl, whom he thinks is Zhivago’s child.  With a collection of Zhivago’s poems in hand, he proceeds to tell her about Yuri’s life, beginning from his childhood when his mother died, through his efforts as a doctor in the war and his hardships in the revolution.

The film quickly becomes a love story set on top of the revolution.  While Yuri (Omar Sharif) is an idealistic student of medicine, he meets Lara (Julie Christie), a poor girl naively caught up with Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger).  Later, Lara is not so helpless, breaks into a party and shoots Victor in front of Yuri.  Later, in the war, Yuri and Lara find themselves working together in a makeshift hospital.  These are just unfortunate meetings of chance, but can mean so much to a poet.  But Lara is married to a revolutionary, Pasha (Tom Courtenay) and Yuri starts his own family.  As the revolution intensifies and his poems gain him an unwanted reputation, he and his family travel out to the country to live peacefully.  In the nearby town, there is Lara again and soon she and Yuri start a passionate affair that does not stand a chance against the revolution closing in around them.

David Lean is one of the film masters who makes all his movies look amazing.  Doctor Zhivago is full of beautiful shots using the Russian scenery and brutal snow to his advantage.  The costumes, sets and little details go a long way here.  There’s something poetic about shots of ice crystals on windows that melt away to usher in the daffodils of sprint.  The one image that completely floored me was the snowy palace in the middle of winter.  Between the beautiful Russian architecture and the amount of snow drifting all over the building, it’s an unforgettable image.  The things Lean can do with snow or sand just overwhelm me.

While the film passes for a good epic, I feel that it lacks heart or personality.  For example, in Lean’s masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is an amazing character.  He’s often strange but fantastic and the audience genuinely likes him.  We could gush on describing him for hours.  But here, Yuri Zhivago has a basic lack of characteristics.  I thought for a moment how I could describe him, my list read as 1. Poet and 2. Mustache.  He is such a passive protagonist, events happen around him, things happen to him.  His poetic personality is hard for viewers to identify with and connect to.  I acknowledge that he is a person that helps shape these events, but I don’t see those events shaping him.  In real life, it is not a bad thing to just go with the flow, but in a three hour film we need more from a protagonist.

One thing that really bugged me was the fact that Yuri was an influential poet, good enough for his work to be banned, yet we never hear a word of his work.  I realize that his poetry should not be at the center of the story, but it needs to be in there somewhere, perhaps it could shed some personality on Yuri.  At least we see him writing a couple times.

In the end, Doctor Zhivago is a good looking epic that becomes a so-so love story.  With Lean’s wonderful reputation, it’s best not to get too excited when you pick up Doctor Zhivago.  I had high hopes that just became disappointments.  Those snow scenes are beautiful, but can only heal so much.

“The personal life is dead in Russia.  History has killed it.”

Lawrence of Arabia

Before the film begins, the screen is black and music plays, just as David Lean intended.  I know it’s tempting to skip the Overture, but don’t do it.  Relax.  Close your eyes.  Unless you’ve already seen the film, what you imagine is nothing to the expansive natural imagery you’re about to witness.  The crisp blue sky will lay perfectly on the soft clean sand.  Huge red canyons and rocks as tall as skyscrapers look like they were just set there perfectly.  When a tiny camel shaped dot comes running across, you’ll realize the grand scale and openness of this land.  This is the only music that could explain this land, and let you take it all in and sigh at it’s beauty.  Cherish the moment.

The film is based off of T.E. Lawrence’s autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.  In WWI Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) is a British intelligence officer who seems bored with his work in Cairo.  When he is given leave to investigate the Arab revolt against the Turks, he unites the Arab tribes led by Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) and Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness).  He becomes accepted and honored by the Arabs and leads them across the desert to attack the Turks.  The British army did not expect this from the young man, especially when he shows up wearing white Arab robes, but they cannot argue with his results.  As Lawrence continues to lead the Arabs in desert raids, including derailing Turkish trains, he becomes more and more conflicted between his British ties and Arab friends, who at times seem to worship him.

In a conversation, we see Lawrence remembered as both a great hero and “the most shameless exhibitionist since Barnum & Bailey.”  Peter O’Toole plays Lawrence is an unusual but charismatic man.  He enjoys letting matches burn down to his fingertips and believes being in the desert will be “fun.”  There is an odd sense of determination about him and regularly puts himself in mortal danger but becomes a hero in his survival.  By the second half of the film, it seems he’s just asking for it and gloats his acceptance and power over the Arabian troops.  This seems to go to his head,  he tries to blend in and pass himself off as an Arab, but to no avail.  As he becomes driven by new found blood lust, his friend Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) holds his barbarous secret.  Through it all, we love Lawrence, we understand his human flaws and conflict between loyalties.  And is crystal blue eyes are the one thing that can match the desert’s beauty.

The desert is full of exciting obstacles that Lawrence must brave.  Learning to ride a camel is the least of his worries when he learns that men from one tribe do not permit men from another tribe to drink from their well.  Ali kills his first guide over a well dispute.  There are also natural threats, like sand storms, the beautifully eerie sand cyclone and quicksand that can swallow a man in moments without leaving a trace.  These seem to frighten Lawrence and fuel his curiosity as much as ours.

Over the years, Lawrence of Arabia has been hailed as one of the best films ever made.  It won seven of it’s ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and holds the fifth highest spot on AFI’s top 100 films list.  Stephen Spielberg once viewed the film with David Lean and claims to watch Lawrence of Arabia before directing all of his movies.  But be warned, Lawrence of Arabia is a nearly four hour epic.  It may not be the best film for fair-weather film fans who buy tickets mostly for romantic comedies.  However, for anyone who wants to claim even a mild interest in film, this should be at the top of your must-see list.  No excuses.

“What attracts you personally to the desert?
It’s clean.”