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Robin and Marian (1976)
A film of depth and quality
Is this Sean Connery's best performance?...well it's certainly up there among his best and it has always struck me as something of a pity that this movie was virtually ignored on it's release, it deserved better. Made in Spain with wonderful photography and with a quite haunting music score it seemed to have everything going for it, but alas it was a failure at the box office and even now it's rarely shown on T.V. Perhaps it was a little too radical and while Robin was still a hero, Marian was now not only older but far wiser than her former lover. The evil sheriff had finally been defeated and Robin was once again the victor, but while he was high on the strength of his win, Marion knew his race was won and there would be no more days like these. Although she had been in a convent for many years her love for Robin was as strong as ever and rather than watch him decline and either end his life in chains or at the point of the sword of some inferior warrior she eased his way from this world to the next and made sure he died as he had lived as a hero. A haunting movie beautifully shot with and outstanding score and also notable as Audrey Hepurn's final movie appearance. Maybe in years to come it might well be appreciated more than it is now...it deserves to be!
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
A strange and haunting film
Sometimes I awake in the early hours of the morning and for a few minutes I am not in bed, or in my room even, I am in some strange shadowy place where people long dead are still alive, or I am a child again or maybe I am an old man. This "foggy" period might last a few minutes and then I either wake up fully or drift back to sleep. But for those few minutes I am in the world where "Jennie" lives. This place which we all visit from time to time was captured in a movie that is now rightly regarded as something of a masterpiece of macabre film making. Portrait of Jennie is a movie that draws you in to a strange world where there is no difference between yesterday, today or tomorrow..where the people you meet appear friendly..yet.. they are somehow different..somehow not real. Jennie is one of these people while you are not. You can never join them until you leave your world behind..a world which is bright and crisp and real and enter their strange dream like world. You want to be with Jennie but there is something misty and dark and threatening felt, but unseen in the background. Sometimes it can be seen in Jennie's eyes..what is it?....Portrait of Jenny is a genuinely haunting film and a classic of American cinema of the forties. This movie captured perfectly the strange atmosphere of that place between sleep and consciousness, this world and the next. A great film that like Jennie, has never aged and never will.
Major Dundee (1965)
Major Dundee: Fatally butchered?
The final edited or, in this case butchered version of Major Dundee was not the film either Peckinpah, Heston or the studio intended it to be. But the studio must take nearly all the blame for a very flawed movie which could easily have been so much better. Still, that it remains watchable gives some indication of just how good it could have been and, as the problems which beset production are now near legendary, the following might be of interest to those who have not so far delved into the subject too deeply. Charlton Heston wanted to make a movie about the civil war, the studio wanted to make an epic cowboys and indians adventure while Peckinpah was intent on creating a monumental, and lengthy western, complete with an intermission!.The original budget was three million dollars but, the studio back tracked on this and instructed Peckinpah to keep to a budget of one million as well as reducing the length of the shoot. It's a well know fact now that as the film ran over budget, Charlton Heston offered to forego his salary to help with costs, never thinking for a second that the studio would accept such a selfless offer... they did and Heston was poorer by some three hundred thousand dollars! Of all the film that ended up on the cutting room floor due to the studio's butchery, perhaps the greatest loss to us and the movie itself, was a long elaborate, operatic battle scene, which Peckinpah intended to be shown in what would soon become his trademark ie, slow motion. One final snippet which shows how hard and frustrating the shoot was in the extreme heat where even the normally laidback Heston lost his cool, occurred one evening as the sun was setting and Peckinpah wanted Heston to lead his men down hill at a canter. This he did and the director called for a retake but this time he called Heston a stupid P....K Hestons own words! and told him to lead his men down at a gallop!. Heston flipped and raising his sabre, charged full speed at Peckinpah sending him diving for cover. Heston said many years later that this was the only time during his long career that he ever lost control to such an extent. In anycase, the scene and the movie were eventually completed and Major Dundee today remains a classic example of both malign studio interference and a lost opportunity of creating a great film.
El Cid (1961)
El Cid: not to Charlton Hestons liking!
For me, El Cid is a wonderful movie, great story, magnificent action scenes and shot very close to where the original saga is believed to have taken place. I'll never forget the image of the dead El CID riding along the beach into eternity on his magnificent white horse. Taking all this into account,I was very surprised to read where Charlton Heston said he was very disappointed with this particular movie and believed the director was not equel to the task of directing such an epic undertaking. This was not obvious to me as I found the battle scenes very exciting and very well executed, but the late MR. Heston stated that had the directing duties been undertaken by David Lean, who was his preferred choice, the movie could have been really great, rather than just "adequate" Hestons own words. Still, it remains for many people a great film and in these days of boring CG effects, it is a great example of movies as they should be made.
Topaz (1969)
A low point for Hitchcock?
One of the few poor films of the great mans long career. It's fine for "dyed in the wool" film buffs to point out the few good scenes in this film, but though TOPAZ has it's merits they are neither obvious or relevant to the average movie fan. In a career as long as Hitchcocks the wonder is that he did not make more poor films and it's to his eternal credit that he maintained his high standards throughout his career. But this movie was without doubt his nadir and lacked most of the charactoristics that made his previous films so unique. The story was indeed interesting but the pacing of the film was so sluggish and the direction so lack lustre that suspense was rarely apparent and then never maintained, but simply melted away like smoke as the actors, who seemed rather bored embarked on another long bout of dialogue. As for the ending, well one might ask what ending? Again dedicated movie buffs will appreciate the downbeat ending, but the reaction of the average viewer, for whom the movie was intended, is virtually without exception one of complete disbelief. The ending of this film was quite frankly amazing but for all the wrong reasons. Still, Hitchcock was not washed up yet and shortly after this movie he made Frenzy, not one of his best of course but far better than Topaz. Incidentally the French star of Topaz was killed in a plane crash some years after working on the film, while that other great character actor John Vernon died about two years ago after acting in some fine films over the years.
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Ryan's Daughter: almost great!
The reputation of this film seems to ebb and flow like the waves of the Atlantic ocean which so dominates the scenery. A vast budget and a shoot lasting more than a year, combined with director David Leans reputation for delivering huge money making blockbusters, resulted in what were probably unachievable expectations for this film. Lean, previously so successful in creating incredible panoramic images on film, seemed to have taken on too great a challenge with this undertaking. The story was indeed interesting, affecting and at times very touching and human, while the cast lead by a towering Robert Mitchum was, as in all David Lean productions, second to none. However, everything, story, cast and master director,were all dwarfed and ultimately swallowed up by the shear power and grandeur of the landscape. It was difficult at times to not to be both distracted and disinterested in the intrigues of the lives of the characters, when the wild fury of the Atlantic was unleashed in all it's majesty or when, as Trevor Howard remarked as the first sign of the approaching storm appeared over the top of the mountain, "it was if the Lord himself was coming" or words to that effect. Perhaps in a film of great battles, where the clamor of the fighting could compete with the thunder of the storm and the turrets of medieval castles could distract us momentarily from the towering battlements of the mountains, the lives of the characters could become more relevant. To see the major fault in Ryan's Daughter we have to look back briefly to David Lean's two previous epic's, Laurence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago and to the locations in which the stories are set. In Laurence of Arabia the desert is hot, still, tree less and despite it's undeniable stark beauty, it is also largely featureless. In such a setting as when the Arab appears out of the sun, every small movement is apparent, every nuance of the actor is noticed, we are drawn in close to the characters, we can see the sweat on their brow. Similarly in Doctor Zhivago, the landscape although beautiful,is almost in a state of frozen sterility and the only place we the audience can find warmth is in the faces and lives of the characters. In Ryan's Daughter however, the elements of nature are in constant motion, changing, threatening, overbearing, unassailable. Even Mitchum if he were at his most powerful and brooding could not shine in such a setting. For me personally, the one great scene in the film was when Major Dorian decided to commit suicide. It was David Lean at his best. It was evening, the sun was sinking, the tide was ebbing and the breezes of the day had died away. For the first time since the beginning of the film, the elemental forces of nature which had been vying for our attention became stilled. It was as if they like us were holding their breath and watching,quietly waiting to see what Major Dorian would do. The strange stillness even reached into the teacher's house and was only broken when the force of the explosion which killed Dorian rattled the cutlery. Soon after this at the very end of the film, with Major Dorian dead and with the teacher and Rosy possibly having a new start, the scene was one of freshness with the countryside damp, lush and clean after overnight rain. A great film? well, Freddy Young's photography was certainly great and he deserved his Oscar, but Young's expertise played no small part in this films failure to draw the viewer in and become involved with the characters.Young, at the behest of Lean, gave a virtuoso performance of his art and, as we have seen his efforts while extraordinarily beautiful to look at, left the actors trying to compete against nature at it's rawest and most volatile and, left the film as a whole fatally flawed...As a matter of interest,I live near to where Ryan's Daughter was filmed and many of my older friends and two of my uncles worked as extra's for the duration of the film. Every time I watch this film I can recognize the faces of so many old friends who have now passed on.Perhaps a short note about the actors and their relationship with the locals during filming might be of interest. Leo Mc Kern who played Ryan, was liked by the local people and the extra's on the film although he suffered from bouts of frustration and perhaps even depression, from the difficult conditions and prolonged shoot, and it was no surprise that after the film was finished he took a year off and toured Australia in a camper van with his family to recover! Trevor Howard who played the priest was a terribly bad tempered and sour man who was disliked by all who came in contact with him whether they were working on the film or not. John Mills however was a gentleman to his core, who mixed freely with the extra's and local people and is very fondly remembered by all. Robert Mitchum was... well Robert Mitchum. In truth Mitchum was a man who, from the very start was sullen and withdrawn, and this increased as the shoot went completely out of control. A true story my uncle told me about Mitchum might not be widely known so I'll repeat it here. One day David Lean was setting up the extra's for a scene and it went on for hour after hour. Suddenly Mitchum exploded. He ran in front of David Lean and turning his back, he dropped his trousers and exposed his behind to the camera. Referring to the extra's, he roared at Lean,"you've photographed every damn bum in Ireland now photograph mine".