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Reviews
War Horse (2011)
I wasn't drunk enough
I never even made it to the plow. I can endure, and even enjoy, lots of sentimentality in a movie; but when it's accomplished with nothing but overacted sap that has no connection to realism whatsoever, I have to be totally intoxicated to endure it. I wasn't drunk enough to make it past the horse training lessons that showed a painfully unbelievable boy-man whispering sweetly pleaful sentences into a pretty horse's ears. That unnecessary tripe was an insult to the bond that happens between a person and an animal when they work to make a few commands understood between them, and eventually communicate through a whole range of body and tone languages.
Once the credibility of the film was so completely trashed in those early scenes, there was no point in watching any further.
When movies like this get Oscar nominations, it turns the Academy Awards into a meaningless Hollywood cronies parade.
Bound for Glory (1976)
Better than good: Important
BOUND FOR GLORY compassionately portrays that Woody Guthrie's gift to mankind was about being at life's mercy, deliberately staying on a par with everyday people -- not just understanding and speaking for them, but being them and speaking for himself.
BOUND FOR GLORY had the courage to abstain from the bigger-than-life formula for Hollywood success, and never hurried its pace to placate a predictably impatient audience. The scenes, and David Carradine morphing into Woody Guthrie, took whatever time was needed to ripen into the enriching story of inherent human value, undeniable personal dignity, and the insidious soul-starving quality of greed that this masterpiece movie tells.
Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, Randy Quaid, and David Carradine all delivered academy award worthy performances. No saints, no heroes, no cavalry to the rescue; just actors tenderly disappearing into heart capturing characters who are disturbingly vulnerable, familiar, ordinary, and profound.