Filmically Perfect

Our first attempt at a call-in show was wildly successful, at least as far as we were concerned! Thanks so much to all who called, especially those who were not able to get on the show! We are now planning to do more of these and some other outlets to let our friends be heard!!

One of the most reverential and human films about the subject of religion, Robert Duvall’s The Apostle has rightfully earned its place on the List of Perfect Movies. This is a film about real people, told by an actor with a keen eye. A film that can be enjoyed equally by the religious as well as the secular.

A powerful film from one of the hot new directors of the late 1960’s, Arthur Penn. One of the few films that successfully manages to tweak “the old west” while at the same time being highly reverent to the ways of the American Indians. A truly great film, to be watched again and again, if only for the wonderful scenes between Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George.

What can we say? This is it--the original article. The one and only real, genuine, except-no-substitutes KING KONG, in glorious, luminous Black & White. Not someone else’s idea of what the story should be but the REAL DEAL. A film that has survived the ravages of time and will be long remembered after the fourteen different edits of the recent “remake” have faded away in a digital haze. Do we love this film? Why, yes, how can you tell?

Richard Donner’s magnificent, half-finished epic has become the iconic embodiment of The Man of Steel, regardless of the machinations of the suits at Warner Bros. and DC Comics. Christopher Reeve’s portrayal is up there with Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera and Sean Connery as James Bond: Often imitated, never equaled. Ironically, Donner has been allowed to “finish” his version as best he could and it is now available as “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.”

Lewis Milestone’s ground-breaking sound film epic treats WWI not as an allegory, as many of its predecessors had, but as a painfully human story, showing the hopes and fears of a group of young men being thrust into battle. While in no way an obscure film, it had been cut to ribbons by a variety of editors over the years until it was merely a shell of its former self. Enter The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center, which worked diligently for more than five years to restore this magnificent film as close as possible to its original form.

It is thought that these shorts were made so that the executives at Paramount could see just how good or bad W.C. Fields was on the talking screen. I guess he must have impressed them as he was immediately pressed into feature films! Of the four shorts he made for “King of Comedy” and golfing buddy Mack Sennett, these two are the most unusual and, ironically, are also both public domain, allowing you to view or even download the complete films for yourself!

Gordon Parks’ breakthrough detective film resonates with as much or more power than it did when it exploded on the scene back in 1971. Richard Roundtree leads the cast as John Shaft, the hero of Ernest Tidyman’s series of novels. The fact that Tidyman was a white novelist makes this film’s resonance all the more amazing.

Below left is one of Gordon Parks’ best known photographs, taken in 1942. Parks became a highly respected photographer, doing much of his best work for LIFE magazine. Rather than retiring, he became a filmmaker in the 1960’s, as well as writing books of poetry and even music for the sequel to Shaft--Shaft’s Big Score!

Henry Hampton’s fourteen hour journey through the American Civil Rights Movement should be required viewing for all, especially those groups today who feel they are getting a bad break. Here is the story of a people, born and raised in the USA, citizens all, expected to follow the laws and pay their taxes, yet still treated like property in many parts of the South. A powerful tribute to truly brave Americans.

“Are you a mod or a rocker?”

“I’m a mocker.”

Ringo’s exchange sets the tone for Richard Lester’s wild, free and groundbreaking little film. In the pantheon of musical performance films, everything is either before HDN or after HDN. This movie, release just about a half year after The Nutty Professor shows the world of teens as it was becoming: not the staid, old big bands and stodgy dances of the past, but fast paced, casual and terribly, terribly hip.