Taking advantage of some streaming Netflix and finally watching No Country for Old Men after having it for several months.
First up:
Omega Man (something I think Dan reviewed somewhat recently but could not find - maybe just via e-mail)
Charlton Heston plays the survivor of biological weapons gone wrong, as the scientist who developed the antidote. He lives in constant threat of being killed by a group of plague-ridden luddites. Much classic mid 70s camp ensues. The recent Will Smith movie, I Am Legend, is the most recent version of this story presumably made with vastly higher production values, but less nudity - boy the 70s were an anachronism in cultural norms.
Entertaining, and certainly a good premise for a movie, but so much of the feel of the film is painfully dated and hard not to MST3K.
Next
It Happened One Night
Clark Gable plays a irascible reporter who gets hooked up with a 'young' rich girl (Claudette Colbert - 31 at the time of release) running from her father for defying him with her choice of husbands. Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life) directs.
As with the best of the movies of this era the writing is great and the interaction between the two is sharp. As with other Frank Capra films, the scenes of 'everyman' are a great window into the times. The only thing that's tough to get past is (and common with many movies of this era) that the actors are vastly older than the characters they're playing. Not true with Gable in this case, but Claudette Colbert seems way too mature to be playing this young rascal.
Far better than Omega Man, though not to be judged by the same standards. Perhaps not a classic, really good nonetheless.
And finally....
No Country For Old Men
The Coen brothers' Oscar winning story of senseless violence on the west Texas plains.
Whatever penchant the Coens have for portraying violence, they manage to get mesmerizing (and subtle) performances out of their actors. Despite the violence (or perhaps partly because of), the tension ratchets up and up and up and then....well, saying anymore would ruin it.
I've had this movie waiting to be watched since some time in May, and for some reason couldn't bring myself to send it back or watch it. Clearly a sensible person would have done one or the other. I am not that person, not this time anyway. I'm glad I finally watched it. Many of the people I know that had seen it have given pretty mixed messages about it, but other than the very end, I think it was pretty great. This is a story about senseless violence, in the least glorifying portrayal possible.
2 comments:
Omega Man - May have just talked to you about it. Watch for it in Dan's Movies 2008!
I.H.O.N: Crazy, but "Gone With the Wind" is still the only Gable movie I've seen.
NCFOM: Don't see myself seeing this one, necessarily. Violence in movies has gotten harder and harder to see. Especially violence that is realistically portrayed and/or not in fantasy land.
Well, IHON shows off his talent to good effect. He is an odd duck as a leading man, lanky and angular, though I guess most of the men of that era were (Fonda, Stewart, Bogart even).
Definitely real violence in NCFOM, though much of it is shown as the aftermath. This is not Saving Private Ryan, with its depictions of arms/legs blown off and chunks of people flying through the air.
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