The Wind and the Lion (1975)

Why does The Wind and the Lion insist on being so silly? It describes war, excesses of masculinity, and numerous senseless killings. But it is rated PG and is much more interested in joking and good-naturedly shaking its head about the politics of colonialism and the horrors of war. I was not charmed.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is a comic bit of fluff posing as a western. It's a kind of tongue-in-cheek fantasy version of the story of Judge Roy Bean – not that there are serious versions of the man's story. But John Huston's film reminded me of all of the most farcical sections of John Ford's movies. This is just a series of silly scenes intercut with the occasional sentimental scene.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean might, however, be notable for the fact that it came out in 1972 – the same year as Deliverance – and Bill McKinney and Ned Beatty each play one of Judge Bean's deputies.

The Man Who Would Be King

This came very highly recommended. Someone – I forget who – told me years ago that this was his favorite film.

But I don't know. Watching two drunks (Caine and Connery) make fun of the military and the government of the British Raj was funny, but watching these same two assholes become kings in Kafiristan did not inspire affection or even, if I am perfectly frank, interest.

Plus, The Man Who Would Be King has a bit of a strange narrative frame that I didn't really understand, so when we returned to that after the main narrative, the film's ending left me totally cold.

The Briefest of Reviews from 1972

Fat City refers to a kind of dream; the term is the equivalent of easy street. But Fat City is a movie about a boxer starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges (in 1972! so cute). I am not calling this a boxing movie, because it isn't really that. This is much more a movie about poverty, about living in Northern California and trying to find work and drinking a lot. Keach goes back to boxing because he loves it, but physically it costs him dearly, and if he doesn't win he doesn't win much money. Almost all of the victories here (and there aren't even many of those) feel hollow. This isn't a very pleasurable picture. But the pleasures that are here a related to Susan Tyrrell, as Keach's hard-drinking girlfriend – part of my difficulty with the film is the amount of screaming the two do at one another, but her performance is really great – and Jeff Bridges. Tracking this man's professional trajectory would be totally fascinating. At this point in his career, Bridges was playing hopeful, slightly feckless young men, and this is another of those. Fat City is definitely worth watching, but not a lot of fun.

A Few Movies, I Guess

The thesis is having problems, I think. I mean, I am working on the conclusion, but I just don't have anything else to say. I am so tired of my own voice that I don't want to conclude anything.

Plus, this shit is not exactly the most uplifting of topics. So today I took a break from working on my (for many reasons) depressing conclusion and watched a gay romantic comedy that had gotten good reviews called The Bubble. It's by Eytan Fox, the Israeli director who also directed Yossi & Jagger and Walk on Water. Well, I thought it was a gay romantic comedy. Turns out, it's much more of a gay romantic drama. The film is set in modern-day Tel Aviv and it's a sort of Romeo & Romeo love story where one Romeo is a Palestinian and the other is an Israeli. It's actually filmed like a romantic comedy for most of the movie, too. I was going along with it and loving this movie, and then The Bubble turned on me and it got very serious all of a sudden. I suppose that a film about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and suicide bombers entering Tel Aviv should not be all fun and games and anal sex, but this movie was not what I needed to make me smile after writing about the links between queer subjectivity and violence. I guess it isn't the movie's fault that I wanted it to be a romantic comedy, but I did and it wasn't.

Also caught Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. The animation is pretty, but there's no plot to this movie. It sort of started to drive me crazy after a while. Plus, the lack of plot means that there's no emotional hook for the film. Instead of following a narrative arc and involving me in the characters, the film just sort of keeps happening until it finally ends. Strange. It was, as I said, very pretty to look at, I did laugh out loud once when Karl Marx appeared, and there were some other really smart moments, but mostly I was bored.

There was a moment in Persepolis when the little girl who is the film's star is hugged by her uncle and he's so large and she's so small and I leaned over to my companion and said "I wish I were that small so someone could hug me like that." I don't even think I can remember ever being hugged like that by someone so big. It seemed like such a nice feeling in that moment on the screen.

Also watched John Huston's 1984 Under the Volcano. It was alright. Rather Tennessee Williams-esque, and I guess I don't mean that in a good way. Tragic, earnest. Very Night of the Iguana. It starred Albert Finney as a total drunk and Jacqueline Bisset as his wife. I guess I thought it was kinda unmemorable.

And then tonight I went to see the Coens' No Country for Old Men again. I liked it even better this time. What a fucking brilliant movie! I think I am going to try to see There Will Be Blood in the theatre again, too.

Three More Movies

Zhang Yimou's Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles is a story about an old man who has a nearly irreparable relationship with his son. To fix his relationship with his son, he decides to travel from Japan to China to film something for his son: something that his son has wanted to see for a very long time. The film is about technology and human relations—the technology sometimes intervenes, sometimes cannot help at all. It's an interesting movie about communication and translation and finding the ability to be clear about emotions without the help of media. It's Zhang Yimou, too, so that means that the movie looks gorgeous. This is a far cry from Yimou's wide, sweeping costume dramas that are usually more about style than substance (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower). This, rather, is a simple story about human connection. I liked it okay, but I found it to be a bit of a retread of old material. I suppose I'm a bit tired of crusty old men finding new joy and new reasons for living in the eyes of children. It's an old story, after all.

Mommie Dearest is a fucking classic. I hadn't seen it until now. Faye Dunaway gives a performance that is sheer brilliance and the little girl who plays Christina Crawford, Mara Hobel, is extraordinary. Faye's transformation is, in itself, extraordinary. She tears into the role and it's absolutely delicious to watch. I loved every minute of it. It's campy, sure, and it's a horror movie, of course—a genre not traditionally taken seriously by anyone—but this is a great movie. (P.S. We also watched some of the John Waters commentary. That man is a genius.)

Today's movie was John Huston's film noir piece The Asphalt Jungle, which I loved. The ending is too 1950s for my taste, but it's still a great noir picture, easily one of the best I've seen.