Goldfinger (1964)

It’s with Goldfinger, that, to me, the Bond series really starts feeling like it’s found its stride.  It always surprises me how short this movie is, under two hours.  I usually forget what happens in the pre-credit sequence of this one.  This is because, for an unknown reason, the video we had of this movie growing up (taped off television) started with the main title, which is one of my favorite of the Bond main title sequences.  The theme song, so famous now, and deservedly so.  I love the images from the previous movies shown on the gold-painted girl.  Really cool.

The humor – a key point for me – is much stronger in this film, with quite a bit of funny dialogue.  The repartee between Moneypenny and Bond – always a highlight – is spot on.  And the priceless look Bond has when Q tells him he needs an hour to show him all the ins and outs of the Aston Martin.  The “pressing engagement.”


And, of course, the lovely Aston Martin, with its full array of weaponry, defenses, and ejector seat.  Oh how I love that car!  There’s a reason when, in the newest Bond, Skyfall, the audience cheers when the garage opens and there’s the Aston Martin (at least they did in my theater!).  It’s a beautiful little car loaded with awesome gadgets.

Goldfinger is a great bad guy, cold, calculating, but also rather harmless-looking – which just makes him more dangerous, and he has the perfect loyal henchman:  Oddjob.  Oddjob is willing to give his life to see his boss's plan succeeds.  I love how Goldfinger explains one version of his plan to a roomful of men, convinces them of the awesomeness of said plan – then kills them all with deadly nerve gas.  Hah!  Now that’s a great egotistical, classic Bond film bad guy.  The real plan is quite awesome, and I love the scene when Bond figures it out, and Goldfinger smiles on, encouragingly.  I love this movie for the sheer simplicity of what Goldfinger intends to do:  make the US gold supply radioactive so that his own gold becomes worth a fortune.  It's quite brilliant.




Pussy Galore, as played by Honor Blackman, is quite lovely and cool, very unruffled, very capable.  However, I never understand why she switches sides.  It happens so suddenly, with no explanation.  There she is, telling Goldfinger how she intends to spend her cut of the money, and then BAM!  She just up and betrays her boss.  That abrupt change of heart bugs me every time I see the movie.  Like really bugs me.  Betrayal is a huge deal for me (for either side), and this betrayal of Goldfinger's trust seems unjustified.  It's that plot failure that keeps me from rating this movie higher.



Other than the beautiful scenery driving around Europe, the locations in this film are very non-exotic.  Miami, Fort Knox, Tennessee… Not that that’s bad, it’s just rather boring after Jamaica and Istanbul in the previous two films.


Favorite parts:  the golf match.  Bond’s anger over Jill’s death in front of M.  Bond and Q.  "No, Mr. Bond.  I expect you to die."  Bond scruffy when he wakes up on the plane.  Bond's peek-a-boo match in his jail cell with the guard.

I really like this movie, and I think it’s one of the best Bonds; however, it’s not one of my top five favorites.

Music: Great
Theme song:  One of the best.
Credit sequence:  Great
Bond girls:  Pussy is cool, but... bugs me.  I like Jill Masterson a lot.  Tilly isn’t there long enough to make much of an impression.
Bad guys:  Excellent
Felix:  I’m quite fine with this Felix.
Overall personal rating: 4 out of 5 stars

From Russia With Love (1963)

I always want to like this one more than I do.  And yet, every time I see it, it never quite does it for me.  I like many elements of it, but ultimately, it just doesn’t satisfy me.  Bond movies typically meander and can be slow, which is fine, but the whole gypsy camp section -- even when the bad guys arrive and shoot the place up -- just makes me yawn.  And for no reason I can figure out, I can’t seem to retain the gist of the plot when I watch this one.  In the beginning, I’ll think, Okay, I have it.  Then I always get midway through and think, what’s going on again?  Then Grant shows up, and I get it again.  I think I just never get invested in the plot enough to really get wrapped up in it.  Going after the decoder, while actually a really good spy plot, just isn't carried off in a manner that pushes my personal buttons.



On the other hand, I love Lotte Lenya as Colonel Klebb, and I love Robert Shaw as Grant.  Two top notch, distinctive bad guys.  I particularly love how you don’t hear Robert Shaw speak until he finally hooks up with Bond.  The whole section on the Orient Express is my favorite part of the movie, with the tension between Grant and Bond slowly increasing until their showdown.  Every time I see this movie I think that if it had been made in the 1980’s, Rutger Hauer would have played the Grant role.  I should mention that I also love Vladek Sheybal is in this.  He’s one of those unmistakable actors I first saw in The Wind and the Lion and watched for ever after.  He is great as Kronsteen.  And Walter Gotell, who will go on to have a recurring role as General Gogol in future Bond films, gets to play a menacing henchman.





I love Pedro Armenderiz as Karim Bey, with all his sons who work for him.  I LOVE the Istanbul scenery, particularly the cisterns under the city that they row through.  Connery’s Bond is perfect throughout, from his playfulness, to the violent side of him when he thinks Tanya’s betrayed him.  He's fabulously good-looking, as always.  I particularly love the scene when he throws his hat onto the rack from the doorway, only to find Moneypenny is not alone, and M is with her.  Classic and awesome.



Favorite parts – Bond on his date in the beginning with Sylvia Trench, just relaxing on a day off.  Everything with Bond and Grant on the train.  Rosa Klebb and Bond’s fight at the end.

Music: Good
Theme song:  Good. Instrumental during credits, sung at the end, and I like both versions a lot
Credit sequence:  Meh, kind of boring
Bond girl:  Gorgeous, but… bland? 
Bad guys:  Love them all
Overall personal rating:  2 out of 5 stars

Dr. No (1962)

I’m quite fond of Dr. No.  Solid, but not outstanding.  It’s rather raw and violent and lacks polish, not bad things.  This is a cold and efficient Bond, who is perfectly willing to kill some time making love to the woman he knows is arranging to kill him before he has her picked up.  Sean Connery is oh-so-young-and-handsome and looks great the entire movie.  He gets beat up physically a bit more than usual as well.



The plot is interesting and engaging but not one of my favorites.  I love the beautiful beach and island scenery.  I love the intro to Moneypenny and M and Spectre.  I love the playful flirtation between Bond and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) that continues throughout the series.  And I love the easy way M (Bernard Lee) can always take Bond down a peg.





Dr. No himself is more scary when he’s just a voice giving orders than when you finally meet him.  But I do like villains who are willing to get their hands dirty fighting Bond, and Dr. No runs right after Bond when Bond starts the place self-destructing.  I appreciate that.  I also like his quite creepy visit when he stands over Bond while the latter is sleeping.  I do like the way he delivers his lines when he’s conversing with Bond, with that just perceptible sneer of disdain when Bond refuses to join him.  He’s very serious, has no sense of humor, and really needs to select more capable henchmen.



I am not fond of Jack Lord as Felix Leiter.  Just… no.  Least favorite Felix.  Makes me grumble every time he’s in a scene.  The less said about him the better.

Our main Bond girl, Honey, played by Ursula Andress, is pretty cool.  Beautiful, of course, and she has that fabulous, iconic entrance.  I find it fascinating that she plays an innocent bystander who has nothing to do with the good guys, bad guys, or even plot, who gets sucked in to danger by being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  She might be unique in that aspect.  I believe most lead Bond Girls are either working for/associated with the bad guys, or the good guys, or have something someone needs in the story.  Although, now that I think about it, there’s some secondary role women who are wrong place/wrong time characters.  None of them as memorable as Honey, however, and I don’t think any are leads.  Will have to wait and see!



Favorite parts:  “Bond. James Bond.”  The tarantula... and the crazy music that goes with its demise.  Bond singing on a beach.  Bond barefoot on a beach.  Bond wading through rivers.  Bond getting zapped by the electrified air vent.

Music: Meh
Theme song:  Well, the intro to the Bond theme is, of course, awesome.
Credit sequence:  A very scattered affair.  Starts out promisingly, but isn’t one song the whole time, cuts abruptly, so it’s rather lame.
Bond girl:  I like Honey, don’t love her
Bad guys:  Okay
Overall personal rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Bond. James Bond.

Well, it is James Bond time over here!  I’ve started watching them, in order, and plan to write up my thoughts on each as I go.  Unfortunately, I’m having issues with my main computer right now, so we’ll see how this process goes.

But for starters, let me talk about James Bond in general.  I love James Bond.  Bond was a huge part of my childhood and life.  Still is.  Growing up, I wanted to be James Bond and go on missions to save the world.  Everything about those movies appealed to me, and yeah, I’m sure they shaped quite a bit of who I became.  Back in the '70s, when they’d play a Bond movie Sunday night on television, my parents would let me and my sister watch the pre-credits teaser, then we’d have to go to bed when the main title credits rolled (though we could still hear the theme songs from our bedrooms!).  Then, slowly, as we got older, we were allowed to watch more and more of the movies.  I couldn’t tell you what my first Bond film was on television, other than it was one of the Sean Connery ones.  I can tell you my first Bond film in the theater was The Spy Who Loved Me.  Roger Moore was the active Bond during my youth and teenage years, so he’s the one I got introduced to on the big screen.  I’ve been watching them in the theater ever since…

One of the things I love about James Bond movies is that there are so many flavors of Bonds and films to choose from.  There’s something for most people.  There are advocates for every actor who has played Bond, there’s someone who loves or hates each film, etc.  Even my own family can get into enthusiastic discussions defending one Bond over another, one movie over another... We're very passionate about our favorites.

The following reviews have nothing to do with what’s best, but simply what I like.  At the end of watching and reviewing all of them, I’ll post my Bond favorites lists, from bad guys, girls, films, music, theme songs, credit sequences to James Bond himself.  I’m sure some of my choices will make people go, what??? That’s your favorite???  Hee.  But, hey, Bond and everything about the movies is very subjective, and for me, it's also tied up with my family and growing up.

All reviews will contain spoilers, I’m sure.  And so, first up soon will be Dr. No.

Edited to add links here:

Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
View to a Kill
The Living Daylights
Licence to Kill
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
Skyfall

Millions (2004)

I rented this one solely because I am a fan of director Danny Boyle.  I first saw Trainspotting, which while I can't say I liked, was very affecting and had some moments I still love.  Shallow Grave was terrifying and creepy and has haunted me ever since, but in a good way.  A Life Less Ordinary is one of the few comedies I really really love, and Sunshine is a great sci-fi thriller that I had to buy on DVD after my first viewing of the film.  I wasn't sure what to expect from Millions, as Boyle's work is so frequently dark, and it concerns one of his favorite themes:  what happens when people unexpectedly have a ton of money drop into their lap.  I was very curious to see which direction he'd take that premise in this movie, and I was not disappointed.

Millions is a really charming and sweet movie... sort of the exact opposite of Shallow Grave, and really was quite lovely.  In this one, a satchel of cash thrown from a train lands on a young boy's, Damian (played wonderfully by Alex Etel) cardboard playhouse.  He spends his days talking with the various Saints he reads about, and he thinks the money has come from Heaven for him to do good with.  However, this movie takes place just days before pounds are going to be converted to Euros, so the money must be spent or converted immediately or it will be worthless.  Damian shares the find with his older brother, Anthony, who has distinctly different ideas on what they should do with the fortune.  The movie follows their adventures, as Damian gives it away to the poor and needy, and Anthony secures himself a position at their new school and starts buying things.  I love when Anthony wants to invest in property and meets with a real estate agent.

Of course, the money is stolen money, and the thief comes looking for his satchel, but while there is some mild suspense and danger, the film never crossed over into the darker places it could have gone.  It stays light and I was never too worried for the kids.  This stayed a serious, but ultimately happy movie, and I really liked that.  I smiled a lot during this movie.  The scene with Damian on the train tracks at the end is very touching.  It's filmed in part with a fantasy-like quality that really just keeps the whole film clearly in Damian's point of view (he's the narrator).  At the same time, it's got so much heart and tenderness, and I just loved the whole thing.  I love Damian's scenes with the Saints, I love him trying to locate more people in need he could give money to.  I love the kid's dad, played by James Nesbitt, who's trying to raise his kids the best he can after the death of their mother. 

This may be one that I have to buy on DVD, I loved it that much.

What's up, Netflix?

Please please please tell me Netflix did NOT change their search views of movies for actors/directors from an easy-to-read, all-movies-on-one-page display, to a new view with like only ten movies on a page, with a picture of the DVD cover and a description all on the main page now.  Those latter two items used to be in a nice little pop up only if you wanted to see them.  Because this new display is not an improvement.  This is frustrating.  And awkward.  And why the heck would I want to now scroll through multiple pages to see all movies for a certain performer?  Netflix just made browsing for movies twice as hard and twice as long. 

Was there something wrong with all movies displayed on one page where I can see what I've seen and not seen in one spot??

Please tell me this is a temporary glitch, and I'm not going to begin to hate going to Netflix's website.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

I guess I’ll be saving my Skyfall review for the end of my James Bond marathon.  My sister just picked up Dr. No for me, so… that will get under way shortly!  In the meantime, there has been almost no DVD movie watching going on here.  Just a couple more trips to the theater to see Skyfall again, and today… The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  (In 2D, cuz while I loved Avatar in 3D, that seems to be the only film I like, and I’ve found zero use for 3D elsewhere.)

Spoilers on the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in general follow, so stop now if you don't want spoilers!

Some personal background… I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, particularly the first movie, Fellowship of the Ring.  Saw that one a lot.  But then, Boromir (favorite character in the book, favorite character in the movie) gets killed and… well…  I like Two Towers and Return of the King a lot… but I love Fellowship.  It doesn’t help that I got the worst migraine of my entire life from my first Return of the King viewing and barely could convince myself to go back and see that one a second time.  I haven’t seen that one since the theater, either.  It's very hard to watch these films on a small screen.

But the look, the feel, the gorgeous landscapes, the music, the emotion… I love these things about the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I’ll admit, I got teary a lot during the trilogy, but probably not at the parts where you’d think.  Return of the King was the biggest “culprit” and there must be seven or eight parts where I could not stop from crying.  Like when the beacons of Gondor are lit.  That’s one of the most beautiful sequences I’ve ever seen on film, and the visuals coupled with Howard Shore's music… I bawl.  Return of the King has quite a few of those type of moments.  And I cannot make it through Fellowship without tearing up when the eagle rescues Gandalf from Saruman’s tower.  That giant bird is so beautiful, so awesome… usually, I’m in tears the minute the moth returns, just knowing what's coming.

How does that bear on The Hobbit?  Well, because… it was beautiful and emotional, and I got teary-eyed at quite a few places.  Darn near started sobbing at one point.

So, on to The Hobbit.  I went into this movie with rather low expectations, actually.  I read the book only once, around twenty years ago, where I’ve read Lord of the Rings quite a few times.  Other than a few key scenes, I actually don’t remember what happens.  I intend to keep it that way, as not remembering what happened in the book freed my brain up from doing the constant comparison thing.  Thank goodness.  I have also avoided almost all reviews, another good thing.

I was delighted to find out how wrong I was.  I quite enjoyed the whole thing.  I know this movie has a long running time, but it sure didn’t seem long at all to me.  I liked all the new characters (favorite of the new dwarves?  The archer, of course… Kili.  Why yes, I am so predictable.  Sigh.), I loved seeing all the familiar places and faces.  And most importantly… it felt just like Lord of the Rings, and that’s all I really wanted.  To return to that world and share in an adventure.  Some of my family complained about too much CGI, but that comment seemed odd.  I mean, there was no less CGI in the first trilogy, and with the exception of the wargs (which just looked terrible and fake to me), I thought the CGI was better and more seamless here than in the earlier films.

The negatives: oddly, the movie felt rushed!  I think this is a focus issue with the script.  By the end of Fellowship, you knew all the main characters quite well.  Not so in this one.  By the end I had little knowledge of who the individual dwarves were or even Bilbo.  The defining character moments seemed distinctly lacking.  No "it comes in pints?  I'm getting one!"  No conversations like the one between Aragorn and Boromir after they've reached Galadriel where Boromir talks about his love of Gondor (one of my favorite moments in all of the films).  You feel what those characters felt, and by extension, cared about them.  I didn't bond with the characters in Hobbit and that is unfortunate.  I'm hoping that will be remedied in the next films.

Another negative was the lack of menacing bad guys.  The goblins/trolls/orcs were icky and way too disgusting... but not actually scary.  Gross does not equal scary.  I think the only truly scary bad guy was the Witch King... and he's a familiar face and only in the film for a tiny moment.  And speaking of gross... a little too much of that, was it necessary?

So what did I cry at?  Stuff no one else ever cries at, LOL!  Mostly scenery -- aerial shots of our group trekking through absolutely gorgeous country.  And at the end, because the eagles are back.  I hadn’t remembered that, and all it took was Gandalf whispering to a moth, and I was already tearing up.  Then I had to wait and wait for them to actually arrive, but then they came, in all their swooping glory, and yeah, much waterworks.  They’re just too beautiful.  I cannot NOT cry. 

I'm still processing and need to see it one more time after things settle in my mind, but overall, it is still a worthy addition to the Middle Earth films, and I am quite looking forward to the next ones.

December

During December (and probably well into January), I was going to be re-watching all of the James Bond films, in order, including the ones I'm not fond of.  I was going to start on the 1st, except that Netflix has Dr. No on long wait right now.  Grrrr.  They are messing up my grand plan!  The question then becomes, do I start with From Russia with Love and come back to Dr. No when I can get a copy?  Or wait?  Come on, Netflix, it's not like it's an obscure flick!

So, instead, I got Road House (1948), with Richard Widmark, Cornell Wilde, and Ida Lupino.  I had mixed feelings about this film.  I really loved the first half.  The first half of this film great.  Then we had a courtroom scene (yawn), and then the movie lost momentum and tension for me and sort of wandered around until it finally ended.  This does seem to happen with a lot of noir movies of this time period.  I had the same split feelings for They Drive By Night.  First half is great, second half... not so much.  Probably, not coincidentally, has a courtroom.  I know there's a few other films too, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

The first half of the film is tense, sexy, and intriguing.  I loved Cornell Wilde as the sensible business partner in Richard Widmark's business.  He's the one who manages the finances, looks after Widmark, and in general really keeps the road house of the movie's title running smoothly.  I loved the scene where he meets Ida Lupino's character, a singer from Chicago that Widmark's brought back to sing at the road house.  It was beautifully filmed, with smart dialogue.  Ida Lupino was also great as the singer who both Wilde and Widmark fall for.  And I loved Celeste Holm as the fourth member of the group.  She might be my favorite character in this movie. Of course, this film is very early in Widmark's career, which means his character's not playing with a full deck, and his character's full psychotic rage will come into play.  I much prefer Widmark's later films where he's playing heroes, or morally ambiguous shady characters.  But he sure can play violent-crazy like nobody's business when he wants to. 

Unfortunately, the second half of the film lacked all the real tension of the first half and seemed to depend instead on the audience being worried about what Widmark will do.  That isn't enough for me, and where I wasn't sure where the first half was going (I admit, I had not actually read the Netflix DVD sleeve which gives the plot synopsis before watching the movie, so I did not know what it was about or where it was going), the second half was predictable and just made me roll my eyes.  But the first half sure was entertaining!

Here, there, nowhere

Sorry for the absence. I'm here, just working on other things and making time to blog has not been a priority. I've also been watching very few movies lately. I did go to see the new Bond movie in the theater, Skyfall. I have a review post started on it, but it's just sitting in my drafts unfinished.  Story of my life right now.  But I really loved it.  It's probably my favorite Daniel Craig Bond film, even over Casino Royale, which is a hard Bond film to top. 

Mostly my life has been filled with lots of opera, both watching and listening, at home and at the LA Opera. LOTS of opera, pretty much non-stop.  Whenever I go into an opera mood this intense, the movie-watching tends to fall by the wayside, as watching a movie gets in the way of listening to an opera.

I've also been writing a lot.  I'm not officially doing Nanowrimo this year either, but that apparently didn't stop me from jumping in mid-month anyway, just for the fun of it.  I also have a new short story in an anthology out in bookstores now.  I'll post that info soon.

The rest of the time is work and family... and blogging has slipped to the bottom of the priority totem pole.  Sorry about that.  I am reading and checking in on everybody else's post, though. 

What's on your shelf?

About this time of year, I get curious as to how many DVDs I rented from Netflix in the previous year, and how many of those I liked so much I had to buy the DVD

From last November until now, it appears I rented exactly 50 DVDs from Netflix. Two of those were re-rents.  On the Instant viewing, only 12 movies.

Five of those viewings turned into DVD purchases for myself.  A sixth movie, my sister bought before I had a chance to, but I still may end up picking up a copy.  Oddly, every one is a modern movie!  Weird!  Particularly considering how selective I am in my DVD buying habits.  In fact the only classic movie I seem to have purchased all year long was "Night Song," with Dana Andrews. I would still like to pick up The Prisoner of Zenda with both versions, I just haven't yet.  I've been quite in the mood for it lately.

The DVDs I bought:

The Big Bang (2011)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
13 Going on 30 (2004)
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Lockout (2012) - the one my sister snagged ahead of me

The only one of those I ever reviewed here was The Big Bang.  I've been pretty neglectful of this journal this past year, though, and I tend not to review modern films.  Here's the quick rundown on each, and why I had to buy myself a copy.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - I admit, I haven't seen any of the other Mission: Impossible films, though you think because of my love of action they'd be right up my alley.  I'm not a Tom Cruise though, and the films just never appealed to me.  This one, I rented because Jeremy Renner was in it.  If I hadn't already been in love with him, this movie would have done it, and I'm sorry I didn't catch this one on the big screen.  I just really enjoyed this film.  I bought it so I can watch Jeremy Renner's parts over and over, but I found I also didn't mind Tom Cruise in this film, and I love Simon Pegg's character.  And Tom Cruise climbing the building?  Awesome.

13 Going on 30 - This is decidedly not a movie you'd expect me to own.  I don't do well with most chick flicks.  However, Mark Ruffalo was so adorable in this film, and I like Jennifer Garner, and did I mention how adorable Mark Ruffalo is?  So, yeah, bought it for the cute guy.  No regrets.

Tropic Thunder - Okay, I bought this one simply because I haven't laughed outloud that many times in one movie... ever.  This is a movie I wouldn't recommend to most of the people I know from the blog world.  It's most definitely R.  It's rude, it's crude, it's gross... but somehow, that didn't stop it from tickling my funny bone pretty much nonstop.  This is so rare that I had to own it.  I think I watched it about four times in a row before I returned the disc.  There's some parts I can do without (Jack Black, looking at you, buddy), but Robert Downey Jr. is priceless, and the rest of the supporting cast is great.  I've never been a Ben Stiller fan, but I actually liked him a lot in this.  If I need a pick me up, this is now the go-to movie for me.  I can't stay angry or down with this movie on.  I'm laughing just writing about it.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - This one also makes laugh outloud.  Robert Downey Jr. again (not a coincidence, I think.  I can't think of a serious actor who makes me laugh more. He just cracks me up.) with Val Kilmer.  This one has a modern noir feel to it, with Val Kilmer as a genuine private eye, and Downey Jr. as an actor tagging along.  Murder, mystery, mayhem... with Raymond Chandler book titles as chapter headers.  Downey Jr. narrates the whole film, talking directly to the audience.  Whenever he and Val Kilmer are together, it's pure gold.  The rest, well, it's also most definitely an R movie too, and there's some parts that I could do without here too, but the two main stars make up for it.

Lockout - My sister and I watched this one together and both flipped over it.  Sci-fi, action film with Guy Pearce looking extremely hot.  He's also extremely funny.  This movie is pure popcorn fun.  The whole plot falls apart if you apply any logic, but it was so much fun, neither my sister nor I cared.  We loved the characters, the actors, and the action, so it was a win-win.

Common denominators?  Yeah, can you say Avengers?  Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.  Also -- humor.  I seem to have bought only the movies I found really funny.  Even the Mission Impossible film had me laughing quite a bit, though it would be the least humorous of the group.

Backlash (1956)

I would have liked this movie quite a lot except for Donna Reed's character.  She plays a thoroughly unlikeable type with a one-track mind (to get her share of some lost gold).  She's a tough woman, who has been abandoned and has been making her way alone through the world and doing quite well at it.  That's pretty awesome, actually, particularly for a fifties film, and I wouldn't have minded her at all if she didn't inexplicably change her tune three-fourths of the way through.  All of a sudden, for no good reason, she abandons her goal.  Okay, Richard Widmark would be a good enough reason for me... but it's not good enough in the movie because she doesn't even like him, sets him up to be killed more than once... then, inexplicably she starts liking him too.  She does an unexplained one-eighty in personality and goals.

This. Does. Not. Work.  This is bad storytelling, and it ruins an otherwise very strong female character.  I guess I should be used to this, because it happens all the time, but Donna Reed plays a colder customer than most, and so her abrupt change of heart is harder to believe.

Ah well.  On the other hand, I still enjoyed the rest of the movie because of Richard Widmark, the plot, and the other supporting actors.  The plot was quite nifty.  There was an Indian massacre at a place called Gila Valley.  Five men died, one ran out on the others.  Those six men had been partners and had $60,000 in gold between them.  The gold is missing, and no one knows what happened to it or the unknown sixth person.  Jim Slater, Widmark's character, knows his father was one of the men and is trying to find that sixth man to both find out the truth and get revenge for his father's death.  Donna Reed's character is searching for husband, who was also one of the six.  It's a neat setup, and I really liked where it went.

John McIntyre was slyly evil as the head of one side of the range war.  Harry Morgan and Robert J. Wilkes play a violent pair of brothers looking for the gold and Widmark.  Barton MacLane plays a capable Army sergeant who has information Widmark and Reed need.  And William Campbell runs around as a hotshot gunslinger eager to gun down anyone who slights him.

There's some nice action scenes:  a couple of Indian attacks, some shootouts, and a range war.  It has lovely on location scenery and a satisfying ending.  Someone just needs to rewrite Donna Reed's character so she's believable and this would be well-above average for me.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

I attended the Lawrence of Arabia screening last night.  This is the first time I've seen Lawrence since I was a kid.  My family went to see it on the big screen back in the '70's.  I was probably 9 or 10 years old, maybe younger.  I remember being blown away, but over the years, I retained only three vivid memories of the film.

Warning, spoilers follow!!

Those three memories were the opening scene (Lawrence crashing on his motorcycle), the death of the first kid in quicksand, and the death of the second kid when the detonator exploded.  I know, pretty depressing that my brain hung onto all the death scenes.  But they affected me greatly, particularly the last one, which haunted me ever after.  Not quite as scarring for me as the death at the end of The Green Berets, but close.  The rest of the film was a hazy memory of desert, camels, war, trains, and Maurice Jarre's music.

Thirty-some-odd years passed.  I never saw Lawrence in all that time.  I caught snippets every now and then, but that was it.  I owned the score on LP, of course, and played my tape of it over and over.  (Quick edit to add that hearing the music during the movie on the big screen, in context, was a completely different and awesome experience from simply listening to the music on record.)  But that record and those memories were my only real contact with Lawrence until last night, when I had my second viewing, also on the big screen.

May I say, wow.  I mean that multiple ways.  It's a big screen movie, meant to be seen like that, it looked great (though between the viewing last week of The Birds and this one, I'm getting annoyed with how dim the projection actually is.  Thank goodness there's a lot of sunlight/bright desert shots in this one.  But all of the night shows and even the darker indoors shots, were dim, faded, and difficult to make out the details.  There's an inherent brightness and clarity to real film, even in night scenes, that seems to be lacking in these versions).  But more than that, I realized how personal this movie was for me.  I may not have seen it for thirty years, I may not have remembered ninety-five percent of it, but I realized last night exactly how much of that first viewing imprinted on me when I was young.  It was extremely formative.  It influenced me in so many ways I can't even begin to explain it.  And I didn't even know it had been such a strong influence on my youthful self until I saw it again and recognized myriad things that shaped me.

It was quite eye-opening, and so very... I have no other word for it but "personal."  I'm quite glad I went to the screening by myself, as I needed to watch and experience the movie alone, and I needed to dwell on it afterwards alone.  I still can't entirely sum up my feelings.  Some movies aren't just movies, they're a lot more than that.  Lawrence, to my great surprise, is one of those.

As for the evening, I got there about twenty minutes before the film, and there was already a "making of" type film playing.  I don't know how much of it I missed, but I was quite bummed that I hadn't gotten there early enough.  We only had about 15 people in the audience, not nearly as many who attended The Birds, but I overheard some people saying that it had been sold out at the theater closer to them and they'd driven out here to see it because it was not sold out.  I guess attendance depends on which theater you are at?

I was quite amused to compare this movie to The Bridge On the River Kwai, which I do not enjoy and find dreadfully boring, where I absolutely loved Lawrence.  There are just as many long, loving (boring) shots of the desert in the first half of Lawrence as there are of the jungle in Bridge.  The difference for me is simply that I love the desert, I ache to go there, I find it beautiful.  I do not love the jungle.  I couldn't care less about the jungle, and I most certainly do not want to go there.  So what works for me in one movie and not in the other is due solely to my own taste in landscapes, nothing more.

As an adult viewer, I loved the story of Lawrence, and I really really loved Peter O'Toole's portrayal of him.  He's brilliant, and there's so many facets to the character as he plays him.  I'm extremely fond of non-verbal moments, and this movie gave me plenty of that.  Lawrence doesn't actually talk that much, and I love his silences more than anything else.  He conveys so much throughout -- pain, vulnerability, pride, stubbornness, fear, accomplishment. His Lawrence is so human.  And those blue eyes!! Yowza.

All the other actors are equally great.  Omar Sharif is amazing, so is Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guiness, and Arthur Kennedy.  I love the two actors playing the two doomed teenagers, who stuck in my memory over everything else.  Everyone works so well in this movie.  The scenery is beyond gorgeous.

It was an evening well spent, and I'll be thinking about things for quite awhile.  I can't wait to see it again, but I really have no desire to break my big-screen streak on this one.  So, I will wait until it plays in the theater again.