Field Trip! The Sweet Smell of Success - 1957

Where have I been? Not that I actually have consistent readers awaiting my every entry with bated breath, but I was at the Austin Film Festival. Which was awesome. One of the events at the festival was a screening of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success with an introduction and discussion by Kenneth Turan, the film critic for the Los Angeles Times. So, it was back to the Drafthouse, the site of my Independence Day field trip.



Sweet Smell of Success starts Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, our decidedly homoerotic friend from Spartacus. Curtis plays a publicity agent called Sidney Falco. Burt Lancaster plays an all powerful newspaper columnist called J.J. Hunsecker. Hunsecker's little sister, Susan, is in love with a jazz musician called Steve Dallas. Seriously, how do these people think they can get by with these names? Doesn't Hunsecker and Falco seem like it should be a buddy cop show? J.J. wants Sidney to break up the romance between Susan and Steve or he's generally going to make Sidney's professional life suck. The film follows Sidney around New York as he wheels and deals to improve his own career and break up the romance. Sidney concocts a plan in which he'll smear Steve and then have J.J. stand up for him only to have Steve to go berserk because he knows J.J. was behind it and then Steve looks like the lunatic. No wonder this guy's name is Dallas because this whole thing pretty much looks like the plot of an episode of Dallas.

Anyway, Sue Ellen hires a private detective to get proof that J.R.-- wait, sorry about that. This whole thing goes down as planned and Steve goes off on J.J. mission accomplished, the lovers are divided. Yet this is not good enough for J.J. because when Steve insulted him, he didn't just insult him, he insulted his readers and thus America. Watch Glenn Beck much, do you, J.J.? So, he does what any man would do in the same situation: he has Sidney plant marijuana on him and has him beaten and arrested by corrupt cops. That's rational, right?

So, Sidney comes to the house and tries to keep Susan from killing herself, who has sort of set him up. Sidney stops her from jumping off the balcony and then Susan sort of lets J.J. think Sidney tried to rape her. She relents in the end and tells the truth, but not really before J.J. is going to set Sidney up to get Dallas-ed by the cops. Susan leaves home to be with Steve and leaves J.J. heartbroken and Sidney just broken.

The thing that everyone commented on in the discussion was the cinematography and how fresh the movie felt. It used actual locations in New York and that in itself lends the film a kind of awesome, "This must be what Mad Men felt like" kind of energy. It sort of had a strange reception history: not being recognized in its own time and later seen as a masterpiece. What struck me about the film was the phenomenon of violence, you didn't see the onscreen physical violence and it reminded me of something Martin Scorsese said about Age of Innocence: that it was the most violent film he'd ever made because people's hearts were being broken. I felt like that was the case here: we don't see Steve and Sidney getting beat down, but we do see people's hearts getting broken by the realities of the world.

By the way, I recommend The Breakfast Club if you're ever at the Drafthouse for the brunch menu.

Questions, comments, concerns? Why don't you post them?

Field Trip! Independence Day, 1996

Apparently, one of the signs you're getting old is when a movie you saw in the theater plays on Turner Classic. I had this happen to me recently when they showed The Last of the Mohicans. I've heard more of this from my parents. Anyway, Independence Day isn't playing on Turner Classic yet but wait for it.

The film is a symbol of a simpler time. Back in 1996 when Will Smith was just a TV actor and blowing up the White House wasn't actually something people were trying to do. It's reminiscent of the great disaster films of the 1970s and features a huge cast: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica Fox, Randy Quaid, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, that girl who plays Anne on Arrested Development and of course, Bill Pullman as the president, back when fake presidents were still only white guys. Roland Emmerich directed the film and came up with the idea while doing press for Stargate. He and his partner apparently wrote it during a month-long vacation in Mexico which pisses me off for a few reasons. The film was epic, the marketing was epic, the hype was epic, one of the first summer movies to have a Super Bowl commercial. If you didn't see it, I don't know where you were during the summer of 1996. This film was destined to become a Fourth of July ritual. Come on, I live in Texas. It's freaking a hundred degrees in July.

I remember when I first saw this movie. I was thirteen, I lived in a smallish town and could not freaking wait to see this movie. Some of you may recall it came out July 2nd. What I really remember besides how awesome I thought it was is that it took thirteen days for me to get to see it because every time my mom or dad went to buy tickets they were sold out. Thirteen days! That's like the Cuban Missile Crisis!

Why bring this up? I don't know if you have ever been obviously but Austin, Texas is home to one of the most magical places on Earth the Alamo Drafthouse, commonly known as the Drafthouse. The Drafthouse is a movie theater but that description hardly does it justice. It is a movie theater where you are served awesome food at your seat, not just popcorn, but I do think they make the best popcorn. It is also notable for its programming, not just movies but events like The Lord of the Rings feast which they are known for (you eat when the hobbits eat in all three films) and things like a Moulin Rouge singalong. They are also home to Master Pancake a performing troupe that mocks well known movies, with a running commentary during the film and a mid-film sketch. It is hilarious. Anyway, not too long ago Master Pancake mocked Independence Day as part of Fantastic Fest and their special guest was Bill Pullman! President Whitmore with the speech! I almost didn't get tickets but I prevailed. It was amazing and some of the best money I have spent. It reminded me of how I felt about that movie and how much I love that speech. I just read that apparently other countries don't quite care for the speech, they think it's jingoistic and apparently why the world hates us. It still gives me goosebumps. Take a look:



Sorry for any foreign readers, but remember when the aliens invade, we've got the weapons, okay? Anyway, the mid-movie sketch this time involved that famed speech. Luckily, someone else there made a video so I don't have to subject you to the crappy pictures I got off my cellphone and try to explain how freaking hilarious it was. The premise is that President Whitmore takes questions on the fight against the aliens and one is from Thomas Jefferson, who resents his usurping the Independence Day leitmotif in his speech. Thus, he delivers an alternate speech.



I guess if you thought the last speech was too pro-American you didn't much like this one either. I find it difficult to decide between the first and the second. Let me know if you remember anything about the time you saw Independence Day or the first time you saw a movie you saw in the theater on Turner Classic.

No, seriously which one of you is Spartacus? 1960

I have a certain level of fondness for the epic. It reminds me of a time when the studio system ruled and the moguls who ran Hollywood thought big. Like really big. I am sort of embarrassed to say that I hadn't seen Spartacus before. Actually, Gladiator is one of my all time favorite movies and I can see how that film owes a lot to this one. It reminds me of an episode of The Sopranos where Ralph Cifaretto is watching Spartacus after Chris Moltisanti recommends it because he is obsessed with Gladiator. Ralphie watches the pivotal battle at the ludus and says, "This is a great gladiator movie?! They didn't have flat tops in ancient Rome!" Then he killed his girlfriend later in that episode so that was really the high point.

Anyway, while I do concur that they probably did not have flat tops in ancient Rome I was surprised at how much the film had to offer. Spartacus is played by Kirk Douglas who I guess was doing this after Paul Newman got the part in Exodus. (Do I feel a need to bring up Paul Newman a lot? Yeah, but why not?) He leads a slave revolt and opposes the Roman general Crassus who I knew would win from the History Channel. Crassus is played very sympethetically by Laurence Olivier. Most of the time in these sword and sandals epics they just played the Romans like the root of all evil, not to say they were great, but just depict them as people doing the best they can like my other favorite HBO series Rome. Anyone else miss that show? He is helped by escaped slave Antoninus played by Tony Curtis in a bit of casting that just throws me off but works okay. He falls in love with Varinia played by Jean Simmons who you may remember from The Robe or maybe Guys and Dolls. I remember her as the chick who didn't lock down Paul Newman in the first thirty minutes of Until They Sail. (See, got in another one.) Also hot young Julius Caesar played by John Gavin. Seriously, hottest Julius Caesar ever.

This film was written by Dalton Trumbo who had been blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s. It was also directed by Stanley Kubrick so I find it hard to look at this film without imparting it with political meaning. For instance, Kubrick has repetitive scenes of gladiatorial training and Roman military power. Roman society was basically built on conquest, the essence of the military-industrial complex. They're all caught up in it, Romans and slaves alike, getting trampled just the same. I also loved the scenes depicting Roman political machinations which were so carefully crafted and not just treated as pieces of plot we had to get through.

Now, Stanley Kubrick did some great work. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell was going on in 2001, but you know, I respect him. Now, let's remember Eyes Wide Shut. Yeah... Or how about that he was the originator of AI but could never get it together because he could never find a robot he liked well enough to play the robot kid part? I'm saying, yes, the guy was probably crazy but he managed to work withing the studio system here and got an excellent result. What if we still had the studio system with moguls keeping crazy directors in line? Imagine a world where M. Night Shyamalan films still made sense. Imagine if the second two Matrix movies had not been ruined. Imagine the possibilities.

Even with all that, I think this clip from The Critic may still be my favorite clip from Spartacus.

My Own Prejudices: Pride and Prejudice, 1940

I think any girl from the ages of fourteen to twenty-five probably at some point traverses across the romantic literary terrain of Pride and Prejudice and quickly becomes infatuated. You read the book, you watch Colin Firth in that wet shirt and then you find out Jane Austen died alone and single and you get really depressed and have some ice cream. You also eventually develop your own prejudices about what constitutes a good Darcy just like there are debates about who makes the best Bond: some people like Sean Connery's suaveness, some people prefer Roger Moore's easy wit and then there's always some idiot that tries to persuade you Timothy Dalton was the best. So, for me Colin Firth is my Darcy. So, I was curious when I read that Colin Firth was first intimidated by the part because Laurence Olivier had done it. I don't know a lot about Laurence Olivier except that I couldn't make it through Othello because of the blackface. Okay, moving on.

The 1940 edition of Pride and Prejudice is directed by Robert Z. Leonard and seriously, Brave New World's Aldous Huxley is one of the writers. Seriously. Laurence Olivier stars as Mr. Darcy and Greer Garson is Elizabeth Bennet. Let's face it, we don't really care about any of the other characters. I'm sure Jane is nice and all but let's face it, we don't care. Darcy is somehow less of a jerk, which somehow makes him less appealing. I know everyone is going to end up in therapy because of that one. This Darcy kind of comes off like a wimp and I don't even want Elizabeth to end up with him. I just stopped caring. Also, I hate to sound like a bitch, but I think Greer Garson may just be too pretty to be Elizabeth Bennet. I know, awful, but to me Elizabeth Bennet is the romantic heroine of the bookworm girl. She's smart, she's not ugly, but Greer Garson is pretty enough to be a cinema star. (No offense, Jennifer Ehle. Any woman that gets to be the girlfriend of Colin Firth and James Purefoy is my hero. The latter is a reference to Bedrooms and Hallways, which has its own Jane Austen moment.) Meanwhile, there are some changes made that I hate. If you've seen the 2005 version, you know that they compressed some of the plot. Well, this movie is even shorter. So this version is even more compressed. No trip to Pemberley and the scandal with Lydia gets wrapped up in about the same five minutes that Jane and Bingley get together, then Elizabeth and Darcy get together. Also, the whole thing with Lady Catherine? Instead of her being an actual snob, Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth and treats her badly just to make sure she's not a gold digger. Really. I could have forgiven the random archery scene if we had not had that. I think we probably have some studio head of the Golden Age to blame for that one. "Yeah, but how do we know Elizabeth just doesn't like Darcy for his money?"

So, I didn't like this one. I'll go back to my miniseries on DVD. Meanwhile, a clip from Bedrooms and Hallways.

The VIPs, 1963: Actually, They're All Around

Sometimes I think of classic films as a portal into the past: a visual representation of how the world was or how they perceived the world should be. Case in point: The VIPs. Most of the film takes places in a London airport and a hotel by the airport. We see a world that doesn't exist anymore for a number of reasons: the de-glamourization of air travel, the decline of the British Empire and security restrictions following 9/11. The VIPs has multiple story lines that all coincide in the end so in that way it is like Love Actually or Crash. Let's go through some of the players.

Orson Welles is a film director accompanied by a ditzy Italian starlet who is trying to get out of the country before he owes a lot of money to the taxman. The Duchess of Brighton has to take a job in Florida to support the upkeep of her aging homestead. Margaret Rutherford won an Academy Award for the performance. Rod Taylor plays Les Mangrum, a businessman who needs to get to New York to make a bad check he wrote good. His secretary, Miss Mead, is played by Maggie Smith who somehow looks exactly like Maggie Smith as you know her today. I'm still trying to decide if Maggie Smith of today looks young or if the Maggie Smith of yesteryear looks old. Then, we have the main event or at least what gets bums in seats: Elizabeth Taylor plays Frances Andros who's leaving her husband Paul Andros to run away with Marc Champselle played by Louis Jourdan. This was 1963 about the time Cleopatra came out, so Burton and Taylor were still a seriously hot commodity. Oh, and there's a cameo by David Frost. Seriously.

We start out with the Reception Manager at the airport. And here is how the world is different: Reception Manager? Someone to meet you at the ticket counter and do all the crap people hate having to do when they fly? Does that even exist anymore? He's in charge of all our VIPs. We meet Paul and Frances Andros as Paul gives Frances a going away gift as she is on her way to a vacation in Jamaica. Or so she says... On the way in, they happen to bump into Marc Champselle. Frances pretends she doesn't like Marc but things change when Paul leaves because it turns out that the two are eloping together for reasons I don't understand. I really don't. Okay, he works a lot, but doesn't seem to be cheating. He buys nice gifts or his assistant does, come on, he hired the assistant. He thinks he's sending her on a very nice vacation and he came with her to the damn airport. I mean, come on, he didn't kill anybody. She stayed with Paul Newman when he was an alcoholic and sort of hung up on his dead friend. Of course he had those abs... Anyway, re: Paul Andros: Let's just buy a Dr. Phil relationship book and have a conversation, people! I know, when I'm neglected by a millionaire I'll feel differently, well, let's just see. I'm willing to find out for an Hermes Birkin tote. You know, for science.

The thing that delays all of their plans is the fog. Fog sets in. In London. London Fog. Who would have thought it? I love the symbolism of the fog, it's the thing that clouds everything, stops all action and leaves only thought about where they are, what they are doing and if they are where they want to be. Mangrum is worried his check will bounce. Orson wants his money. This is where Anthony Asquith really becomes the Hitchcock of the relationship drama. He uses every plot development to further the tension. See, Frances left a note for Paul telling him that she was leaving him for Marc, assuming that he would go to his board meeting and by the time he read it, she would be over the Atlantic. But if the flight is delayed by the fog, well, then we have a real problem. Frances decides to call home to tell the maid to tear up the note before Paul gets home, but Paul picks up the phone. Uh oh. Well, if the plane can just take off before Paul reads the note and gets to the airport. Well, that's not going to happen. After a false start into their planes, everyone is back in the lounge and guess who has managed to drive over. The way Asquith does the shot is incredible, stop on Taylor and Jourdan as they look up in shock and Burton simply steps into frame. Well, he read the note and he's not happy. Like he has a gun. I didn't know people could get guns in England. Did he have to say he was going to use it to pop a cap in a fox? What? This leads to a chase through the airport past the immigration terminal where Frances and Marc escape from Paul. Yeah, how would an all powerful businessman ever get past an immigration checkpoint? I don't know, buy a ticket? The news comes out that they're all stranded for the night and will be staying at the airport hotel. Instead of buying a ticket, Paul has Marc called over to a private airport office to show how all powerful he is. He offers Marc money to walk away. Yeah, this is pretty much a J.R. Ewing move right here, but I can't say that I blame him for being unhappy. Gun probably too far. Marc refuses, explains how unhappy Frances is and generally leaves Paul feeling like crap.
So, we all head to the hotel where Paul and Frances have an argument that really makes me wonder what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall in the Burton-Taylor household. She's unhappy and he decides to let her go, pretty much. Down in the lobby, a despondent Paul writes a letter and meets up with Maggie Smith who asks for the money Mangrum needs to stay out of jail. Paul recognizes Maggie is in love with Mangrum and gives her a blank check. Anyway, this makes our girl a hero and Paul gives his letter to the hotel manager to put it in the mail.

The next morning, the fog has cleared and all of our characters are here in the light of day. The hotel manager gives Frances the letter Paul gave him because he doesn't want to waste a stamp. Seriously, whatever happened to customer service? The guy just asked you to put a stamp on an envelope and drop it in the mail. This hotel sucks. Marc confiscates the letter to be read in New York and we resolve some of the other plot points, but why spoil everything? So, they happen to bump into Paul at the airport who has seriously deteriorated in the twenty four hours since his wife ditched him. Like remember Mark Antony after he lost the Battle of Actium? About to there, only no miniskirt, thank God. Frances tries to get him to go home, but he's clearly a broken man. She demands to see the later. Marc doesn't want to budge, but he relents. Turns out this is a suicide note. Paul's just done without Frances, which by the way, if you read a Richard Burton biography everyone tries to kill herself to hang on to Richard Burton. Seriously? Elizabeth Taylor, Sybil Burton, we can't act like grown women, we have to try to kill ourselves? What kind of message does that send? Anyway, Marc thinks this is a ruse. So, Frances decides even though she loves Marc she loves Paul enough to not want to see him kill himself. So, then we have something like a happy ending and you'll find that love actually is all around... Wait, wrong movie in a London airport.

Okay, so check out the trailer and check out Richard Burton. He was actually a very interesting guy apart from Elizabeth Taylor. Check out this trailer, it's crazy.

Marjorie Morningstar, 1955 - You Can't Always Get What You Want

Lately, I've been taking a look at Natalie Wood. I first saw her in Sex and the Single Girl, which ends awesomely in a way that I wish I could end a movie, but I had only known her name, mostly as some chick that drowned. That remains a mystery, but I decided to take a look at some of Wood's earlier work. She started her career as a child actor under the control of a tyrannical and mysterious mother, eventually coming into her own as an actress in her adulthood.

The movie I would like to discuss today is Marjorie Morningstar, which is about a young woman trying to come into her own. It's based on a novel by Herman Wouk of the same name. The story centers around Marjorie Morgenstern, a Jewish girl living in Central Park West with her family. Marjorie's parents want her to go to college and marry the son of the local retail impresario. There are worse fates in life, but Marjorie is looking for more in life. Her friend Marsha Zelenko gets her a job a girls' summer camp. One night, Marjorie and Marsha sneak over to the resort across the lake where Marjorie meets Noel Airman, played by Gene Kelly. On the one hand, this part kind of works for Gene Kelly. Noel helps her get a job at a resort, Wothwind and gives her the name Marjorie Morningstar. She also meets Wally, another Jewish kid and under Noel's tutelage. He also seems a little sleazy but that could just be me. Marjorie becomes a star at the camp and her mom dispatches her Uncle Sampson to keep an eye on her. Here we have the two poles pulling her back and forth: Uncle Sampson being family and tradition. Noel being the potential of her own ambition. Or rather it would have worked for Gene Kelly five or ten years before this. Seriously, too old for this movie. What we're saying is that I guess we couldn't get Paul Newman because he didn't dance? Just an FYI, I think most films could have been improved by the presence of Paul Newman. Except The Robe. That thing was just bad. Uncle Sampson dies and Marjorie flips out at Noel which means we will not be seeing him for a while.

We move forward in time. Marjorie has graduated from college, is looking for work as an actress and dating a doctor. This is interrupted when she's met by Noel, who's been trying to make himself into a respectable person by getting a job at an advertising agency. Because from watching Mad Men I know everyone who works at an ad agency is respectable. Marjorie ditches the doctor for Noel and her mother makes her invite Noel to Passover dinner. Now, this is revolutionary for the time. Jewish characters and events were rare if not entirely absent from films at this time, mostly because Hollywood studio chiefs- though largely Jewish themselves- wanted to sell their product to the widest market possible and they did not think that market would accept Jewish characters and themes. See, Noel Airman is really Noel Ehrman. Yeah, I know, I didn't buy that Airman was a real last name either. Noel is one side of the choice that Marjorie can make if she chooses to abandon her own Jewishness and pursue an acting career. Noel slips back into his bohemian lifestyle and writes a musical. The play gets invested in by some rich people and gets produced, then turns out to be a total failure. And here is where I always have a hard time with movies like this: Gene Kelly wrote and choreographed a musical and it was a flop? What? It's like when I'm watching a movie where Frank Sinatra is a loser and I think, hasn't this guy noticed he can sing? Okay, so this tears the relationship apart because it was so stable to begin with. Noel runs away and Marjorie goes to Europe to find him because I guess she just has the time to go to Europe to look for her boyfriend. Wally meets up with her in Europe and actually Noel is back at Southwind. Marjorie goes back to try to help Noel and when she sees him there, he's happy. She realizes this is all he's ever going to be. She gets back on the bus (she can go to Europe but she can't get to the Catskills outside of a bus?) and there is Wally. So, we're led to believe that Marjorie will end up somewhere in the middle of abandoning and keeping tradition. With Wally. Super. I know obviously Gene Kelly is not going to work out, but is that doctor still available?

Okay, so this film is impressive for its time. It confronts the then widely accepted notion that in order to pursue success in America you had to abandon your roots and also depicts the struggles of women albeit in an upper middle class kind of way. Marjorie has choices, a lot of women didn't. Still, not my favorite movie. Also, it's sad to see Gene Kelly in a role that was so wrong for him. It seems as if his career peaked at a certain point and he never quite found his footing again. As for Natalie Wood, this role is just right for her but she's been better. Something about the performance is too restrained, but maybe that's right because Marhorie is sort of life's doormat.

Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961- Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

I'm not sure what these blog posts should be categorized as. They're not quite a review, not quite a formal critique and sort of a rant. Well, let's not put me in a box, shall we?



Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961, was directed by Stanley Kramer, written by Abby Mann and stars Spencer Tracy and everyone else. I mean that. In short, it is about the perilous intersection of politics and justice. Spencer Tracy plays Dan Haywood, a retired judge from Maine, charged with running the tribunal of a group of Nazi judges, foremost among them, Ernst Janning, played by Burt Lancaster. Judge Haywood arrives in war ravaged Nuremberg ready to give out some American justice, but quickly finds that this is more complicated than it seems. For one, he can't believe that a man as educated and distinguished as Janning could possibly be guilty of these crimes. The prosecutor is Colonel Tad Lawson, played by Richard Widmark, who seems overly zealous in this proceeding, but we'll find out why. The defense attorney is a German lawyer, Hans Rolfe, played by Maximilian Schell, who is determined to preserve the honor of the German people. Also for some reason, there's a young William Shatner, constantly taking me out of the movie. Also complicating Haywood's mission is the increasing importance of keeping the Germans as allies with the Cold War starting up. Though the movie is sort of an amalgamation of history, the themes are all right. At this time, the war crimes tribunals were diminishing in importance as the Cold War escalated.

The courtroom proceedings deal with the Nazi-era actions of the judges: a case where a man was forcibly sterilized, a Jewish man sentenced to death for having improper contact with an Aryan and so on. The question at the heart of it is were the judges most bound to country or justice? Also, to what degree were they aware of Nazi atrocities and therefore culpable for them? The latter question figures throughout the rest of the film for all the German characters. The first victim is Montgomery Clift as Rudolph Peterson, a baker's assistant who was sterilized under the Third Reich's public health laws. Lawson demonstrates the cruelty of the practice and Rolfe is left to do the unpopular, to try and defend the laws by demonstrating that Peterson is in fact mentally handicapped, and therefore the judges were right. Rolfe does this by citing Oliver Wendell Holmes' own defense of similar laws in Virginia. That's right, America gets burned. Seriously, he's not even making that up. Look up the progressive movement, people. There are two juxtaposed points of view: Lawson wants to judge the judges using the standard of justice, Rolfe wants to use the standards of the time. What affects me most in this portion is Peterson himself as he testifies. Throughout his entire ordeal, everyone, even the doctors and nurses who perform the sterilization, tell him they think it's wrong what's been done to him, but they can't do anything about it and they just do what they're told.

In this time, Haywood has also met Mrs. Bertholt, a German general's widow, played by Marlene Dietrich. She insists that no one had any idea what was going on outside of the SS. Not even her husband who was executed for what was going on in what Mrs. Bertholt sees as postwar blood thirst by the victors. Yeah, okay, lady, the Americans are the ones with the blood thirst. Also, Haywood has asked his household staff what they knew about the Holocaust, but of course, he doesn't call it that. He points out that the Nazis had a lot of rallies in Nuremberg. His housekeeper tells him that she and her husband never went. Haywood points out that Dachau is not that far away, what did they know about that? She claims they knew nothing and then asks even if they had known, what were they supposed to do? They were little people. So, you didn't know anything, but if you had known what could you have done? Haywood doesn't quite seem to be buying this, either, but is too polite to say so. Now is as good a time as any to confess my own personal bias: I'm not a big fan of the school of "We didn't know what was going on..." because I've been to a few concentration camps and besides the stench which still existed some sixty years after the fact, none of these places are so far that no one would notice. I'll grant you Treblinka and Sobibor and maybe Auschwitz are that far off, but still, nobody wondered where all the Jews went? As for the school of "I was just following orders..." I'll get to that later.

At the same time we have Mrs. Bertholt and Herr Rolfe trying to convince us that the Germans are a civilized people who got taken for a ride by some sociopaths, Colonel Lawson is committed to proving that they're all guilty because they went along with it. Why is that? Here's one of the biggest reasons that this is a landmark film. Colonel Lawson swears himself in as a witness and shows us the actual newsreel footage of the concentration camps after liberation. He shows us the ovens where bodies were burned, the gas chambers made to look like showers and some of the images were so awful that even I was shocked and I thought I had seen everything. The footage shocks the American judges and the German ones. For the first time, the German judges get some hint of what they've been accused of. One in disbelief asks a fellow Nazi inmate, something to the effect of, "We couldn't have killed that many people, right?" The Nazi answers that it's not really killing that's the trouble, it's disposing of the corpses. The former turns back shocked. On the outside, Mrs. Bertholt asks Judge Haywood about it. She acts like it's some tired anecdote that Lawson tells for the hell of it every chance he gets and for that, I could just sic Ari Ben Canaan on her ass. That would have been a plot twist no one saw coming.

The next big part of the case is when we review the case of a Jewish man, executed for having an indecent relationship with a then sixteen year old Aryan girl, Irene Hoffman, played by Judy Garland. Irene tells us that Feldenstein was friends with her deceased parents, like a father to her and their relationship was taken out of context. Some time passes and Herr Rolfe reopens the whole can of worms to try to prove that Irene and Feldenstein were having an affair. He also asks Irene why she was so irresponsible as to maintain her friendship with Feldenstein when she knew the law. Here's the irony: Irene Hoffman is the person who tries to do the right thing and because of that, she went to a concentration camp for two years. Janning finally feels compelled to speak, to explain what happened, to tell the tribunal that Germany was in a catastrophe and what the judges did, they did for love of country and they never knew it would end up the way it did.

In the meantime, the Berlin Airlift has started and Haywood is getting pressured to give the judges a light sentence. Irony. Haywood finally concludes by delivering a Spencer Tracy-esque monologue at sentencing, explaining that the judges knew what they had done was wrong under German law and international law and he can't let that go. They all get life sentences, to the distress of Mrs. Bertholt who won't answer Haywood's calls. Before he leaves for home, Haywood has a final meeting with Janning, who tries to clear his conscience. Janning begs Haywood to believe him when he says he never knew it would come to that, the millions of deaths. Haywood tells him it came to that the first time he sentenced an innocent man to death. His complicity legitimized the actions of the Reich.

First of all, Schell is so damn good as Rolfe. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, remarkable considering how much you want to hate him or that could just be me. He is mesmerizing. He defends the wrong and unpopular and turns the tables on the world when he points out how the world praised Hitler, negotiated with Hitler and the Germans should have stopped them? Also, the film poses difficult questions about the reality of world where justice was turned upside down, what could people have done? What were Germans supposed to do? This is revolutionary as this could have so easily followed the path of films before and stuck to more clear cut good guys and bad guys. I think the conclusion the film reaches is that only because nobody did anything or pretended to not know, were the Nazis able to enact their horrible plans and for that, everyone's culpable.

Exodus, 1960: Where Are We Going?

Okay, so obviously, I am not that good at blogging consistently, but that's probably okay because no one seems to read these anyway. Passover and Easter are just finished, Holocaust Remembrance Day is this Sunday and I find that my thoughts turn to the film Exodus. Exodus is not really what we would consider a Holocaust film since we live in the post-Schindler's list era, but I would guess that it is probably one of the first films to deal with the reality of the consequences of the Holocaust. It's an epic by Otto Preminger, scripted by Dalton Trumbo, formerly of the Hollywood Blacklist. It's debatable whether Exodus or Spartacus was his official exit from the blacklist, but we can be sure Trumbo wasn't known for his brevity.It attempts to depict the scope and complications of the founding of the state of Israel and sometimes, it doesn't succeed, but then again, what could?

Exodus is the story of a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors, among them Dov Landau, a survivor of Auschwitz, played by Sal Mineo. Jill Haworth plays Karen Hansen who survived the war in hiding with Danish parents. They and the rest of the group are helped by a native born Palestinian member of the Haganah, Ari Ben Canaan, played by Paul Newman. Yeah, you read that right: Paul Newman plays the Palestinian part and it's not at all like the time he played the Mexican guy in The Outrage. Interesting fact: Ari is the only Israeli protagonist of a major Hollywood movie until Adam Sandler in Don't Mess With The Zohan. I bet the Israelis would probably rather forget about that and just remember Paul Newman. He meets resistance from our token American, Kitty Fremont, played by Eva Marie Saint, but let's not go too far ahead.

Kitty is touring Cyprus because this is what you do when you're an American with no husband and a fabulous wardrobe. A group of Jewish refugees has been diverted there because they can't be allowed into Palestine because that would tick off the Arabs and well, you've seen the news, right? So, Ari swims into town, by the way, anyone who cares: awesome chance to see Paul Newman with no shirt, I'm just pointing it out. Ari is tasked with helping the refugees sail for Palestine with no actual hope that they'll make it, but that they will create an international incident of some sort. Meanwhile, Kitty has met Karen. Kitty felt strangely about the Jews at first, but now wants to adopt Karen who she thinks is almost like an American. Oh, my God. Could you not just slap her now? Just as she gets permission to take Karen to America, Ari absconds with the refugees including Karen in order to take them on a boat and demand that they be allowed to set sail for Palestine, but remember they can't do that because of the Arab resistance to the idea and you've seen the news. While we wait for the British to change their mind, Kitty goes aboard to talk to Karen who has gone all Zionist on her and to argue with Ari about his methods. The film at this point posits an interesting question: In the aftermath of the Holocaust, what is acceptable for Jews to ensure their future? Ari threatens to blow up the ship in order to prove a point, which I don't think makes a lot of sense, but you get the idea. The refugees go on a hunger strike until the British change their mind and they do. So then they go to Palestine and live happily ever after, right? The operative word being Palestine.

When they arrive, Karen goes to Gan Dafna, a youth village. Dov sneaks off to join the Irgun, the more extreme Jewish resistance force. More extreme than having a hunger strike and threatening to blow yourself up? You bet! The head of the Irgun is Akiva Ben Canaan, Ari's uncle. Akiva forces Dov to disclose that he survived Auschwitz by being used for sex by the SS, but this is oddly enough, a tamer version of what the novel said. In the novel, Dov makes it through by being a Sonderkommando, one of the prisoners tasked with making believe for those about to be executed that the gas chamber was just a shower and later disposing of the bodies. That or sex abuse? You try to choose. I think it's interesting that Hollywood 1960 thought people were ready for Nazi molestation, but not the reality of the Sonderkommando. Karen goes to Gan Dafna, greeted by Barak Ben Canaan, Ari's dad and Taha, the Arab chief of the nearby village and a close family friend of the Ben Canaans. So, this country is the size of Rhode Island and everybody knows everybody? Got it.

Back in town, Kitty is trying to help Karen find her father who she thinks came to Palestine, when she runs into Ari at the hotel restaurant. There, sparks fly because well, Ari is Paul Newman. Ari has to leave to go talk to his Uncle Akiva about whether or not they should be blowing stuff up to get rid of the British. Akiva thinks they should be, Ari seems to be leaving his options open. Okay, so the next day Ari and Kitty set out for Gan Dafna, when we make a stop in the scenic Jezreel valley, where Ari is from and also, some stuff happened. Ari tells her that he wants her to understand that he's a Jew and that this is his country. Kitty says that Ari makes her feel like she's a Presbyterian when he can't forget he's a Jew. Wow, lady, wow. Really? They kiss for some reason and then are out of frame, so I can only assume they had sex on the side of the road from my years of watching James Bond movies. Not really safe, I don't think, but then they go and meet his family. Wow, this relationship is moving fast. Then we go to Gan Dafna, where Kitty meets with Karen and learns that the Dafna in Gan Dafna is in fact, Ari's dead girlfriend, who was tortured and murdered by Arabs. Then suddenly Kitty wants to break up with Ari seeing as how they've only been together since that afternoon, because he'll always be a Jew and she'll be Presbyterian and she doesn't think his family likes her? It's all pretty stupid. Let me be clear, Paul Newman, Palestinian freedom fighter or not, is Paul Newman. It would take a little more than a dead girlfriend statue, hostile relatives and Judaism to scare me off. Seriously.

It's intermission! Because this movie is long! We meet back with Ari and Kitty and Karen. No, this isn't awkward at all. They take Karen to see her father who has been traumatized by something and doesn't acknowledge his daughter. As they leave, there's an explosion: the Irgun, including Dov have attacked the British. This leads to Dov and Akiva being captured by the British and subsequently scheduled for execution. Ari has to go bust them out of jail, and Akiva is fatally wounded in the course of their escape. Ari is wounded and taken to Taha's home, where Kitty treats his wounds and apparently gets over their interfaith issues. Seriously, lady... At the same time, the UN is voting on the Palestine issue. The UN votes for a Jewish state, everyone celebrates, but if I have learned anything from history, it's that when the British leave someplace, everything goes to hell. Except in America. I guess we had a Civil War later, so yeah, maybe everything does go to hell when the British leave somewhere. Canada, we're waiting. Taha is getting pressure to attack Gan Dafna with an Arab force that appears to be headed by a Nazi, who looks like he was also in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I remember that guy disintegrated. Taha warns Ari and Kitty to get out and the movie loses me again when Taha explains that he can't join forces with Ari because he now realizes he's a Muslim. Okay, so you're just going to ditch your buddy in order to align yourself with the guys working with the Nazi from Central Casting who want to go kill all the kids at Gan Dafna? Again, seriously?

Dov has arrived at Gan Dafna where Karen stands guard. He tells her he wants to marry her and they'll have a real life together. Ari and Kitty go to evacuate all the young children from Gan Dafna because now Kitty is all in with Ari, even though he kind of tries to keep her out of it. Yeah, I might draw the line around here, tell Ari I would be at the hotel when this whole war thing ended. Karen is found dead before Ari and the rest of the Haganah go to attack the Arab village. Where Taha is dead, presumably killed by some of his fellow Muslims. They bury Karen and Taha together, to share it in peace and Ari swears quite movingly that someday, the living Jews and Muslims will share the land of Israel in peace. Kitty and Dov go off too, and they all board trucks to go to the next fight.

So, this movie has some flaws, for the most part flaws seen in the novel of the same name by Leon Uris. For one, the view of the Israeli Arab conflict, which modern audiences probably see as simple, not giving enough time to the Arab Palestinian side of the conflict and most of the Arab characters are villains and Taha is sympathetic, but it's not like he's a good guy. It's bizarre that this film got made at all and was probably only made because it was based on a popular book. You might remember this from the first season of Mad Men in the episode called Babylon, the characters talk about the novel and Don Draper tells Rachel Menken that it's going to be a movie starring Paul Newman. "Well, now I have two reasons to see it.", Rachel quips. I'm with you, sister. It is also from a time when there was no real questioning of whether or not Israel had the right to exist and a time where the reality of the Holocaust was somewhat forgotten and not yet again recovered. It attempts to illuminate a conflict that most of us still don't understand and still rages on and one that nobody has attempted to confront, until Don't Mess With The Zohan. Yeah, I think people would probably just as soon forget about that.

Cleopatra, 1963: What's Love Got To Do With It?

It’s February. A month that conjures up Valentine’s Day, Black History Month and NBA All Star Weekend. In this blog, I’ll probably deal more with the first two and probably not at all with the last one. Unless we can count Semi Pro as a classic film. Wait, what about Space Jam? Anyway, I’d like to start by talking about one of the great love stories that gets retold time and time again: Caesar and Cleopatra. And Antony, poor guy. The 1963 Cleopatra is known for two things: it cost a lot of money and Taylor and Burton hooked up while making it. In light of the fact, that it started off their on-again/off-again and finally off-again relationship, I would like to point out that not all love stories end well. Especially this one.
We start the movie and join up with Julius Caesar and his armies at Pharsalus, where Caesar defeated Pompey and start Caesar’s pals want him to return to Rome and start sorting out that whole mess. Instead, Caesar puts Antony in charge and decides to go to Egypt and stop the civil war between young King Ptolemy and his sister- some chick named Cleopatra, so that the grain supply isn’t disrupted. Oh, foreign affairs in the Middle East. It never goes well. So, off to Alexandria. Where it’s market day and Ptolemy has set up shop to watch how Caesar is going to handle shoppers. Actually, I work retail and I would like to see how Caesar and his legions would handle throngs of barbarous shoppers. I’d buy tickets to that, but on this occasion it turns out to be a huge letdown because Caesar is going to shop his way through the market to Ptolemy. WHAT?! I’d also like to point out that Caesar’s body slave is mute, which is why I’m guessing he doesn’t tell Caesar stay the hell away from Cleopatra. This is when Caesar finds out that Ptolemy had Pompey killed shows him his head in a jar, which upsets Caesar for reasons that the film doesn’t bother to understand. While Caesar hangs out in his room in the palace, Apollodorus shows up with a rug that contains Maggie the Cat! No, just Cleopatra. They mostly argue and he has a seizure and at some point we’re meant to believe that they fall in love. Anyone else find that difficult to believe? Anyone? Bueller?
Cleopatra comes to warn Caesar about her brother’s troops, he’s not really worried. Later, she finds out that’s because he’s already burning down the city, including the Library of Alexandria. My favorite line here is when Cleopatra rattles off the contents and her tutor, Sosigenes, adds “the testament of the Hebrew God.” Like the 1963 audience would go, “Oh, crap! He just burned the Bible!” Now Cleopatra is going to go yell at Caesar some more. There will be boring battle scenes. Eventually, Caesar installs Cleopatra as Queen of Egypt. This isn’t enough for our Cleo, though, she wants to be wife of Caesar and rule the world as Alexander would have wanted it. Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar’s son, Caesarion and has her handmaidens present him to Caesar by laying him on the ground and getting Caesar to pick him up in front of the other Romans, thus legally recognizing the child as his. I personally think there’s a way out of this, like Caesar could probably just say he was going to trip on the kid, so he just as soon picked him up. Back in Rome, they apparently take this sort of thing seriously because all the senators are on the Senate steps gossiping about it. Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, played by Roddy McDowell does not seem thrilled. Oh, also, Caesar’s wife is trying to act like it doesn’t bother her when Mark Antony visits her. I’m thinking she’s just trying to not look at Antony’s ridiculously short toga. Short to the point of distraction. Like, really.
Caesar has to go home and he promises to send for Cleopatra when, you know, he’s totally lost his mind. So, we’re going to skip over the last few years of the Roman Civil War and go back to Rome, where Caesar is pissed off that nobody will just fall in line. Sounds like a good time to have Cleopatra visit. Cleopatra arrives with a racially insensitive dance crew, some rhythmic gymnasts and a giant Sphinx. Really? The streets of Rome are wide enough that a giant gold Sphinx can go through it unimpeded? I really don’t want to harp on historical stuff so much, but come on. Caesar keeps getting pissed off by no one doing what he says, Cleopatra gets pissed off since no one will do what Caesar says, since I guess Caesar does whatever she wants him to do, so it’s really like they’re disobeying her. How dare they not want to obey the lady who just ran over Rome with her giant Sphinx float! Anyway, the Senators decide to tell Caesar that they’ll make him Emperor of Rome on the Ides of March. Nobody wants Caesar to go, but he’s going to go. And get shanked. A lot.
Cleopatra decides to leave town even though Antony wants to hit on her. He and Octavian are going to go kill Caesar’s killers, mostly Antony. Unfortunately for Antony this is pretty much the peak of his career, he’s going to blow all of his money and go begging Cleopatra for some. Now, he’s going to be pathetic and ask for money, plead for Cleopatra’s affections and generally make an ass of himself. You would think his pal, Rufio, would try to save him from himself, but instead Rufio is going to set the two of them up on a date. Since everything is going to hell in Rome for Antony, Cleopatra is going to send him back to make peace with Octavian. So, Octavian is going to marry off his sister to him. Cleopatra is going to stab her mattress and hang on to the grain supply. Do you think the Romans knew their food supply was dependent on how pissed off Cleopatra was? So, Antony has to come begging… AGAIN. You would think this guy would learn. She makes him divorce Octavia and marry her. This plays into Octavian’s plans and pisses off the Romans, so Octavian throws an arrow at Cleopatra’s tutor and we have to all go to a naval battle. Antony seems to be doing okay for a while, he’s apparently better at fighting than holding his own with women. Then Cleopatra thinks Antony’s ship is burning so she decides a good time to head home. Antony sees Cleopatra leaving and well, makes an ass of himself. He jumps ship to follow Cleopatra and arrives on her ship to be put on suicide watch once he figures out he made an ass of himself. Now, I love Burton in this part, personally. Cleopatra finds him hanging out in Caesar’s tombs and demands that he speak to her. Oh, my God, lady, leave the guy alone already. Haven’t you done enough? Antony loses it; he finally realizes he’s made an ass of himself and generally ruined his life over a chick. Not cool. He screams and rails with such anger that I would not want to be around when those two argued in real life. Maybe a little, like you see a couple across the way in a restaurant.
So, Cleopatra arranges for Antony to go die in battle. Only his troops abandon him which is probably a smart move on their part. She sends away her kid and locks herself in her tomb. Antony returns home to find Apollodorus the last one in the palace. He lets Antony think Cleopatra’s dead and helps Antony shank himself. Then tells him that Cleopatra’s not dead, so he can go make an ass of himself one more time. Super. I’m thrilled. He dies just before Octavian shows up with Caesarion’s ring, so now he’s dead, so Cleopatra decides this is as good a time as any to get poisoned, thus thwarting his plans to drag her through the streets of Rome, presumably not on a golden Sphinx. Does anyone else think it’s odd she never hit on Octavian?
Overall, I think the film is bombastic. Four credited screenwriters. There’s a hint. I never buy the love story for a minute. I think maybe Caesar got stupid and Antony got really stupid. Then again, love can be stupid. For fun, you can watch the 1937 Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert in the title role. It’s ancient Rome/Egypt with Howard Hawks-esque dialogue. They should have gotten Cary Grant to be in it. If you have even more time to spare, I would also recommend the excellent HBO series Rome, with Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy playing Caesar and Antony, respectively. Purefoy wears a significantly longer toga than Burton, though he sometimes wears much less. Enough said.

Cleopatra on IMDB: