Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Loosely based on historical fact, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid tells the tale of two infamous outlaws, their exploits and their run from the law.  Butch (Paul Newman) is the leader of the Hole in the Wall gang, who rob banks and trains.  The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) is Butch’s right hand man.  Problem is, the ways of the old wild west are coming to and end and civilization, law and order are creeping closer to the gang.  After robbing the same train once too many, Butch and Sundance realize they’re being tailed, and they can’t seem to shake their trackers.  After some daring escapes, they decide to go to Bolivia with Sundance’s girlfriend Etta Place (Katharine Ross).  Bolivia should be far enough away from the law, right?  But a whole new world of challenges are there, and I can’t help but remember what Uncle Remus said, “You can’t run from trouble, there ain’t no place that far.”

The movie starts off well with some good old things we come to expect in westerns.  There’s gambling, some fancy shooting, a rivalry within the gang that Butch handles easily and a couple train robberies.  Those are all fun, especially the great scene where they use too much dynamite and blow the whole train car to toothpicks and the money just flies around them.  I cracked up.

After that, it becomes a very slow chase.  Through rocky desert, canyons and jumping into the river, it’s a great time to show off the beautiful land, but that excitement felt in the beginning is gone.  Soon they meander to New York for some photos and wind up in Bolivia.  When they arrive and see nothing but crumbling buildings, a family of hogs and a llama we were thinking the same thing:  Why the hell would they pick Bolivia?  Because it has a nice ring to it?  One thing to remember is that these were outlaws, not geniuses.  Not everyone in history made very good decisions.

In Bolivia, they fall back into old habits and start robbing banks.  Once they learn how to speak a few Spanish phrases, that is.  Nothing like pulling out a crib sheet in the middle of an armed robbery.  It’s funny, absurd and starts to bring back that fun we felt in the first half hour.

What the film does best is cinematography.  In the beginning we’re shown a little silent film explaining just a bit about Butch, Sundance and the Hole in the Wall gang.  Then the film starts up, borrowing the same sepia tones as the silent film and photos of the time and continues for a few scenes.  Color is introduced when we follow the duo out to the desert and there’s plenty of natural scenery that would be best in color.  It’s affective and the camera always captures the natural beauty we associate with the old west.

While I have some mixed feelings about the whole film, it ended well for me.  In the final scene, that excitement and gun-slinging that I was hoping for was back.  If it wasn’t for that very bad-ass last stand, I would have been disappointed.  This is not your typical western, Butch and Sundance have too many funny lines for that.  I usually enjoyed their banter, but it seemed too cute for outlaws at time.  And though Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head won best original song, the music just feels jarring in a western.  I mean, this was a western right?  It looks like it, but doesn’t sounds like it.

“You just keep thinkin’, Butch. That’s what you’re good at.”

Out of Africa

“I had a farm in Africa.”

Out of Africa can easily be summed up as “Meryl Streep in Africa.  Adventures and romance occur.” That’s way too easy and doesn’t do the film justice at all.

Karen (Streep) is a Danish woman who marries her lover’s brother, Bror (Klaus Maria Brandauer), out of convenience and to have the title of Baroness.  It seems she’s destined for a normal, boring woman’s life, until her husband moves them to Kenya, Africa.  They agree to run a cattle farm, but when she arrives, Bror informs her that they’re going to grow coffee instead, a risky task that has never been tried at that elevation before and won’t turn a profit for years.  Throughout their marriage, Bror pulls more stupid surprises like this on Karen, but thankfully, it only makes her a stronger woman.

World War I starts up and the men go to protect their lands, while Karen is left to take care of the whole farm.  When people come around to round up all the women and children for their safety, Karen rides out into the African wilderness to join her husband and the men to fight.  We watch in excitement as Karen realizes that she has no fear and can scare away lions attacking her camp in the middle of the night.

Since Bror is gone most of the time, Karen starts seeing a hunter, Denys (Robert Redford).  Their relationship grows from him making sure lions don’t attack her to romance where he kind of moves in with Karen.  But the fact that he goes on safari without her bothers Karen.

It seems that she yearns for the traditional life of a wife, but it’s too late forthat.  She’s a part of African colonization, helps educate the natives, befriends them and runs the coffee farm she didn’t even want all on her own.  The epic story of a woman stepping up and braving the wilds of Africa all around her is astounding and moving.

What really won me over to let Out of Africa reign in 1985 was the cinematography.  From beginning to end, every shot is just beautiful.  Images of giraffes running across the African plane in the hazy sunset is just breathtaking.  The airplane scene is like meditation for the eyes and ears.  Though it’s three hours long, this film is one to be seen because of what you see.

“Think of it, never a man made sound and then Mozart.”

 

All the President’s Men

All the President’s Men is hailed for being a movie of great historical significance, integrity in journalism and the power of the honest written word.  It is the story of two real life Washington Post investigative journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who slowly uncover details about the Watergate break-in that eventually lead to President Nixon’s resignation.  When the break-in first happens, Woodward (Robert Redford) was investigating just to write a typical story about it, but notices oddities.  Why would top lawyers be assigned to the defense so quickly?  Why are Republican fund raisers linked to this incident?  He and more experienced Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) investigate further, to find that many people are afraid to talk.  What are they hiding?  Could this go all the way up to The White House?

One of the most interesting parts of the film is when Woodward meets with the man with the most information, known then only as Deep Throat.  They meet in secret, in the shadows of a parking garage.  The anonymous source was the key to finding the truth and exposing the Watergate Scandal with the advice of, “Just follow the money.”

Though the sets my at first seem like an ordinary newspaper office in the early seventies, no detail went unnoticed.  About two hundred desks were ordered to match those from the Washington Post’s office and props were even made to look like out of date phonebooks.  And I’m sure a lot of meticulous hands went around that sprawling room to make sure every desk is ever so slightly disorganized with papers sticking out here and there.  That attention to detail is what won All the President’s Men the award for best art direction.

I hate to rain on this film’s parade, but I found it quite boring.  Watergate is old history to my generation and investigative journalism seems more controversial and colorful today than it was thirty years ago.  Think of the generation gap like this: back then Nixon’s Watergate was scandalous, but I grew up with Clinton’s Impeachment blown all over the news.  He helped us justify a difference between “sexual relations” and “oral sex” at the age of fourteen.  How much did your history teacher have to back-peddle over what Nixon said?

If you are interested in the events and reporting of Watergate, the infamous Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein or Deep Throat, I would completely recommend this film for you.  If you want a look at journalism in the 1970’s, this is also beneficial; I believe it is still shown to aspiring journalism students.  But if Watergate is old news to you and journalism seems a little dry, skip it.

“Howard, they’re hungry.  Remember when you were hungry?”

The Sting

It was just an average 1936 day outside of Chicago for Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Luther Coleman when they pulled a con on someone.  They didn’t realize the man they just got thousands of dollars from worked for Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).  Lonnegan is the notorious con man who has a murderous streak when he’s cheated.  When he has someone kill Luther, Hooker seeks revenge.

He finds Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), a much more experienced con artist who lives next to a carousel.  Hooker convinces Gondorff to help him get Lonnegan.  Together, with a whole crew behind them, they hatch an elaborate scheme to con half a million dollars out of Lonnegan.  But Lonnegan is onto them, has men trying to kill them and Hooker left a counterfeiting trail for the FBI to follow.

From the moment we see Hooker sporting a maroon pin-striped suit, we label him a loose cannon.  When he loses all his money in a single spin of roulette, it’s confirmed.  Robert Redford expertly brings out the cocky kid just wanting revenge who’s in real need of the more experienced Gondorff.  With Paul Newman playing Gondorff, we know we’re in for a treat.  We first meet him passed out drunk on the floor, but it isn’t long until he’s molding the game around Lonnegan and keeping three steps ahead of him.  I especially enjoyed the scene where Gondorff pretends to be drunk during a crooked card game.

How do the two try to put Lonnegan over a barrel?  It’s more fun to watch and find out rather than to be told.  That’s what makes this such a good movie, the twists, the double-crossers only too late finding out they’ve been triple-crossed.  The surprises aren’t just for the bad guys, but for the viewer as well.  How did George Roy Hill know I loved surprises?

I’ll be the first to admit, the movie can feel long or boring in the middle, especially if you miss a piece of the puzzle.  You could get lost and thus, lose interest.  Thankfully those surprise moments bring clarification now and then and can keep you on track.  My advice; watch The Sting when you’re in a thinking mood, don’t just veg out to it.

“Sit down and shut up, will ya? Try not to live up to all my expectations.”

Quiz Show

In 1957, Sputnik was a threat, television was brand new and game shows were all the rage.

The most popular game show is Twenty-one, a quiz show where contestants put in a soundproof booth, grilled with multi-part questions, with no multiple choice and no knowledge of their competitor’s score.  It makes Who Wants to be Millionaire look like patty-cake.

For the past few weeks, Herb Stempel (John Turturro), a dorky looking Jewish man from Queens, has been winning Twenty-One.  When the show’s producers find Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) a clean cut college professor looking to play on another game show, Tic Tac Toe, they redirect him to play on Twenty-One.  They want him to overthrow Herb since his ratings have leveled out.  Besides, Charles is much easier on the eyes and can make intelligence look cool.  Dan Enright (David Paymer) is sure that Charles will be a hit in homes across America, but first they have to make sure Herb will fall.

So they tell Herb how he has to answer one question: What film won Best Picture in 1955?  They want Herb to answer On the Waterfront and take a dive.  Why did they have to pick that question?  Herb knows the correct answer is Marty, he loved the movie so much he saw it three times.  For Herb, this isn’t just a moral dilemma, but he’s prided himself on being a know-it-all, how can he take a dive on such an easy and close to the heart question?  Herb is told by Dan Enright that he will be on other shows if he takes the dive, and Herb believes him.

Those moments in the booth, under the hot lights, where all of America is waiting for Herb to answer, “Marty” are so tense.  Everyone knows the answer, as they watch they say it, as if trying to help him out.  He sweats, he knows the right answer but he can have a career in television with the wrong answer.  As he chokes out, “On the Waterfront,” everyone is so disappointed.

But Herb is quickly forgotten, now they have shining Charlie to worship and adore.  He even gets his face on the cover of Time magazine.  All he has to do is act intelligent and say the answers NBC gives him.  The setup seems too easy, until Herb lets the secrets behind the show loose and investigator Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow) goes snooping around for the truth.

John Turturro plays Herb, at first I couldn’t remember where I had seen that face before, upon a quick IMDB search I couldn’t believe this was the same person who played Pete in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?  Here Turturro pours so much eccentric energy into Herb, he’s wonderfully odd and passionate, but those qualities don’t always look good when trying to prove a big television company for fixing their game.

The moral issues faced by the characters, mainly Herb and Charles, are the central issue of the story.  Each week, they go on television with the answers memorized and the outcome all ready known.  When Charlie is visiting with his family, his father doesn’t exactly call half an hour of a quiz show a hard day’s work, but at the same time, he feels pride in his son.  Charlie is a good man just wrapped up in the whole quiz show plot.  When things finally get exposed, he hopes he can just lay low and avoid the shame of cheating and deceiving the whole nation.

We’ve seen Robert Redford’s work before in Ordinary People.  His skills only sharpened into the ’90s.  He makes quiz show feel like part big cooperate corruption, part moral drama and part investigation crime film.  The story, array of characters and detailed image of 1957 America he creates is more intelligent than any quiz show.

Before you write Quiz Show and Slumdog Millionaire into the same category, know that these films are wildly different.  The only real similarity between them is a game show background.  I cannot recommend one or the other because they are so opposite and both have great ideas to offer.  I would recommend Quiz Show to anyone who enjoys a good conspiracy, moral drama or 1950’s setting.  Of course, if you enjoy John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes or Rob Marrow this is a must see.

“Sixty-four thousand dollars for a question, I hope they are asking you the meaning of life.”