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clivemorrow
Reviews
Strange Holiday (1945)
An eerie film that is still relevant
I just came across this film and watched it yesterday. I had never heard of it before and decided to give it a try. I found it an eerie and haunting little film with a very powerful message. An ordinary American businessman is on a holiday camping, hunting and fishing in the forest. When he goes home afterwards he finds that his city has been taken over and is now run by Nazis. He is arrested and beaten and told by the head Nazi, "this is our America now."
Considering what happened last week, when a huge crowd broke into the Capitol in Washington DC in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden from becoming the new President of the USA, this film that is three-quarters of a century old shows that it is still scarily relevant.
At the end the prisoner John Stevenson is seen holding the bars of his jail cell and saying, "freedom is not a gift, it is a victory." What a timely reminder that freedom has to be protected, even fought for, or it could be taken away from us. Claude Rains has to carry the film and he does so excellently. Most people probably don't know this film but it deserves to be widely known because its message is urgently in need of being heard. Anyone who values democracy will be haunted by what it shows and what it says. Only 75 minutes long but it packs a punch! I recommend this to anyone and all the more so in our present situation.
La La Land (2016)
A film that brought back memories
It was a dark Monday night in January and so I went to the movies. This is the film of the moment so I went to try it, without too much idea of what I might see. I saw it described as a musical. I wouldn't call it that - it's a romance with some music and dancing in it and a little touch of fantasy. The two leads were unknown to me, so I was coming to them fresh. I liked Ryan Gosling; he played his character cool and understated - just right, I thought. As for Emma Stone, what can I say about this young lady? She is not "conventionally" beautiful but she has what I would call an "interesting" face. Every emotion she feels registers on her face and in her lovely eyes. She comes across as elegant and stylish - she had me hooked on her from the start. She wants to be a movie actress and he wants to own his own jazz club. It is a struggle but they both make it in the end. What makes this film great is that five years later she comes back with her husband and little child. A conventional romance would have seen them finish with each other but this film has the courage to show that you don't necessarily end up with someone you love. That is true in real life. She and her husband see Sebastien in his jazz club and the memory is triggered. They both wonder how things would have gone if they had married each other. When I got home I was in bed quite a while before I slept. Even after I slept, I dreamt. In my dreams I saw scenes from the film and I also saw the face of the girl I loved 20 years ago. I don't know where she is now but she helped make my life better. There are people you never forget. So to everyone who made this film - the director, the screenwriter, the cinematographer, the composer and above all the two stars I say thank you. This is why I love music and dancing and films. This film touched my heart because it reminded me of the happiest time in my own life. This is why the arts are an essential part of human life. Will it do well at the Oscars? I'll be very surprised if it doesn't!
The Time Machine (1960)
A sci-fi classic.
I recently read the book "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. It kept me from sleeping for a while because I thought the Morlocks were chasing me! This film I have loved since childhood but now I see that it differs from the book quite a lot. Nevertheless, the spirit of the novel is in this film and it is so much better than the Guy Pearce film of 2002.That film was bizarre, especially in the way it showed the Eloi living in cages on cliffs above the sea. Then there was the incomprehensible part played by Jeremy Irons.
This film starred Rod Taylor and he was ideal for the part.The book was written in 1895. The film has him starting off on the last day of 1899. He sees 1917, 1940 and 1966 before going to 802,701. The world of the Eloi and the Morlocks is evoked extremely well and there is great imagination in the sets. Rod Taylor is exactly the way I imagined the Time Traveller to be when I was reading the novel.
Yvette Mimieux also plays Weena in just the right way. The book ends with the narrator saying that he is glad that "mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man." Rod Taylor died at the beginning of this year and "The Birds" and this are the two films for which he will always be remembered. Some things have been changed, but I feel sure that if he had lived to see it H.G. Wells himself would have approved of this film.
Metropolis (1927)
The zenith and the nadir of silent films.
This film is a legend and now I know why. I was lucky enough to see it on a big screen last week and was mesmerised by it. Hollywood is the famous American film city but this film is German and that has to be borne in mind at all times. The reason for my title is simple. The film is the greatest silent film I have ever seen and is silent films at their zenith. However, as it was released on 10 January 1927, silent films were coming to their end and when "The Jazz Singer" was released on 6 October of that year they were soon rendered obsolete.
This film however will never be obsolete because it deals with universal human themes. I don't see it as supporting either Nazism or Communism. Hitler admired it but Fritz Lang made it at the height of the Weimar Republic and some of that republic's famous partying can be seen in the film. I don't think it was Communist either, but rather a plea for simple common human decency in the face of inhumanity.
What struck me the most was the Biblical allusions. There was a Tower of Babel, a Great Flood and a not quite human woman being referred to as "The Whore of Babylon." That was relevant to me as my own church is studying the book of Revelation right now!! Since the Bible is so little studied in our own time, I wonder how much of those themes would actually be recognised by younger viewers. They might be more likely to see the film's link with Star Wars and other famous science fiction films much more quickly. I would call Metropolis more a work of prophecy than of science fiction. It still has a relevance in its call for people to be treated as more than just labouring machines. It may be 87 years old but its message is as true today as it was on the day of its premiere.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
I wish it could be 1955 forever!
You will remember how Fonzie said that in an episode of "Happy Days" - he had a photo of James Dean in his locker, similar to the way Plato has a photo of Alan Ladd in his locker. This film sums up American society in the middle of the Fifties. I often feel that the Fifties are unfairly maligned - the Forties are all about the Second World War and the Swinging Sixties are the pop culture at its height. The Fifties are often dismissed as "that boring decade in between." Nothing could be further from the truth. To me, the Fifties was the decade when our modern world was born - the "counter-culture" started then, not in the Sixties. James Dean still seems like a modern young dude. So many powerful scenes in "Rebel" prove that. My favourite is the flick-knife fight with Buzz. Watch Dean's face in that scene and then how he flicks Buzz's knife away, moving with reflexes like a panther and then holds his own knife to Buzz's throat - that scene seems incredibly modern to me, even with an actual gap of 58 years.
Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo both said in interviews many years later how much they idolised Jimmy and what an influence on their acting careers he had. So many young actors have said the same in the decades since. There is no doubt this film is dated but yet that doesn't matter at all. Watching it is still a pure pleasure, thanks to Dean's performance. It deserves its legendary status and Jimmy's image will live forever because of it.
There is not too much more that can be said that other reviewers haven't already said about this great film. For anyone in that difficult decade between the ages of 15 and 25, when you're struggling to transition from childhood to adulthood, it is a film you will instantly identify with. Bravo to the three young stars and to director Nicholas Ray. They all did a superb job, with Jimmy truly outstanding.