Oklahoma!, screenplay by Sonya Levien, William Ludwig, based on dramatic play by Lynn Riggs

Oklahoma!, screenplay by Sonya Levien, William Ludwig, based on dramatic play by Lynn Riggs

Oklahoma has won two Academy Awards and was nominated for a further two at the Ceremony in 1956

However, this viewer must state upfront that he was not crazy about this musical, in spite of its poster image with:

“It’s Here!

The best-loved Musical of our time…

Now a motion picture big as all outdoors”

Well, maybe, but apart from Rod Steiger, one of the greatest actors of all time, there was little to make it so resplendent.

The plot is simple, maybe too crude, even if that should be compensated by the music and dancing.

Indeed, there are a couple of songs that even this critical spectator enjoyed and the modern ballet was impressive.

The Surrey With The Fringe on Top was one of the favorite chants, notwithstanding the crudeness of the lines:

“Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry

When I take you out in the surrey,

When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!”

The verses of the songs do not contrast however with the manner of speaking of the protagonists.

None of them has attended school.

Well, not for more than two years.

They say:

“You was, they is” on a regular basis.

And Now For Something Completely Different (Monty Python masterpieces- these are films that one should see instead of losing time with Oklahoma):

Some of the characters involved do have Signature Strengths and I refer here to Curly McLain, simple but also showing:

Vitality, Love, Kindness, Persistence- he sells everything he has, Bravery, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

Gratitude, Hope, some Humor, Modesty, Perspective and more

When his nemesis and rival for the affection of Ado Annie Carnes is bidding for lunch with her, the hero takes this to an extreme.

Curly has only five dollars to use to gain permission to lunch with the woman he loves, in a charity event.

However, when Jud Fry, the evil personage portrayed by the genius actor Rod Steiger, outbids him, the romantic hero gives all he has.

First, he sells his saddle for ten dollars, and then he gives away his horse for fifteen and finally sells his pistol.

That is commendable.

Perhaps outstanding, glorious.

The other song that I have enjoyed is Oh What A Beautiful Morning:

“Oh, what a beautiful mornin',

Oh, what a beautiful day.

I got a beautiful feelin'

Ev'rything's goin' my way.”

Oklahoma! Has been remarked upon by The New York Times, albeit it is somewhat hard to see why.

It is on the prestigious newspaper’s list of Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made:

https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/checklist/16

The More the Merrier, story by Robert Russell and Frank Ross

The More the Merrier, story by Robert Russell and Frank Ross

The More the Merrier is a very interesting, often amusing comedy from 1943, the year of…Casablanca

This film was nominated six very important Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, Best Director…

Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Writing, Screenplay and Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning the latter.

The Best Picture Award went to Casablanca and in completion, there were other movie classics like:

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Ox-Bow Incident, In Which We Serve, Watch on the Rhine

William Goldman highlights in his outstanding Adventures in the Screen Trade the fact that in those years, phenomenal motion pictures did not even reach the short list for prestigious prizes.

Furthermore, The New York Times has included The More the Merrier on its list of Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:

https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/checklist/15

Connie Milligan is portrayed by Jean Arthur, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Oscars.

Because World War II is creating a shortage, Connie wants to participate in the effort and rents part of her apartment.

She does not want a man to be her flat mate, but Benjamin Dingle aka the Academy Awards Winner for this role Charles Coburn is not just persistent, but also inventive and eliminates the competition waiting outside.

The sexagenarian Benjamin Pringle does not stop at occupying half the flat, but invites Joe Carter to come in.

Joe Carter has to pay six dollars a week- that might be $ 400 in the dollars of this day- and will get half the room.

Mr. Dingle has another plan.

He wants his landlady, Connie Milligan to become involved with this new guest, but before that, he has to break the news.

Connie was more than reluctant to get the older Benjamin Pringle in, imagine her shock when she discovers there is another man in the flat, who has to share the same bathroom, kitchen and the rest of the facilities.

Joe Carter is attractive, polite, interesting and the many women they meet in the city are all eager to communicate with him.

There are eight women to any man in this town, since most men, especially the eligible, young ones are fighting the Great War.

Hilarious moments involve the rush to the washroom and out, getting the milk, making the coffee, fetching the newspaper, operations during which Benjamin Pringle is left out on the corridor, from which he has to climb the fire escape staircase, knock at the door of the rest room and startle his property owner.

Connie Milligan is engaged to be married to a rather pompous, arrogant and self-absorbed man called Charles J. Pendergast.

This man is an obstacle in the path of the union between to soul mates, Connie and Joe Carter.

When Pendergast takes his fiancée out to diner, the infatuated Joe looks with his filed glasses at the couple.

When a teenage neighbor is poking around and asks about his spying, the romantic hero says he is a…Japanese spy.

Henceforth the police come to investigate and to take to the station both the alleged spy and his host.

The fiancé arrives at the station with Benjamin Dingle and this scene is both awkward and funny.

The More the Merrier is an exultant, exuberant film.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, written by Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, directed by the latter

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, written by Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, directed by the latter

                What an unorthodox scenario!

Nevertheless, when we consider that the Killing of a Sacred Deer is the work of Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, we should reconsider

                These are the filmmakers responsible for:

                Kynodontas and The Lobster

One critic has said that the Killing is actually mainstream…when compared with the aforementioned peculiar films.

Peculiar?

                Much more than that!

               

To state the obvious, this is not everyone’s cup of team, indeed, the undersigned was not thrilled.

The critics have mostly loved this motion picture that has a Metascore on IMDB of 73, whereas this viewer would just give it 45, maybe.

Trying to make a forced, absurd joke…this film has a Sophie’s Choice moment, if in an absurd register.

Steven Murphy aka Colin Farell is a successful, adroit surgeon that makes a mistake and kills a patient.

That was Martin’s father and in the aftermath of that death, the surgeon and the sixteen year old form a strange relationship.

Strange, but not in the context of a narrative that suggests that this teenager has some outré, supernatural powers.

It is unclear why Dr. Steven is making lavish, expensive gifts and what is the reason for this abnormal bond.

One thought was that the doctor might have pedophile inclinations, but it all has to do with the day when he had operated on a patient, after he had drunk and that has affected his ability to do his job.

Martin becomes close to Kim Murphy, the daughter of Anna aka Nicole Kidman and Steven, but it might be better said that the girl has a peculiar, strong interest in the teenager that would cause such havoc in the family.

Because of his feeling of guilt, Steven accepts to come to Martin’s house, where the boy’s mother talks about the extremely beautiful hands that the doctor has and then…starts kissing them.

Furthermore, the surgeon is under pressure from the son, who keeps talking about how good looking his mother is (Alicia Silverstone) and how well they look as a couple, hence Steven must leave his family.

Steven Murphy is trying to explain that he loves his wife and children and this scenario is illusory.

Well, if you think so, your family will die!

So the script becomes both weird and frightening.

Because, if it sounds as a preposterous threat from a despondent teenager, who wants his mother to find closure and deal better with adversity and her trauma, events confirm the powers of this boy.

Evidently, if it is not a coincidence between the prophecies and occurrences.

First, the son of the family, Bob, cannot use his legs one morning and the test results show there is nothing wrong with him

Therefore, we can conclude...this is what? Witchcraft, superpowers?

Kim has the same symptoms and both children have to lay in bed, where they experience exactly what Martin has predicted or menaced.

Steven tries to kidnap and make the person responsible for all this change the fate of his family.

Then comes Sophie’s Choice- a parent has to decide what member of his family he would sacrifice…

A relative of this viewer enjoyed this movie very much, but it could be hard to find merit in a very bizarre tale.

The Vegas Strip War, written and directed by George Englund

The Vegas Strip War, written and directed by George Englund

                This is the last role for the remarkable Rock Hudson

Alas, on the most popular film site, IMDB, there is no review from a critic and only three from viewers!

Instead of going out with a bang, the great actor has only had the chance of a minor film, without much impact.

The Vegas Strip Show is not on the same level with other great films in which Rock Hudson had acted:

The Giant- with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, Pillow Talk or Lover Come Back, to name just three

Sharon Stone, who astonishingly turns sixty this year, 2018, has a role in a film about a …Casino,

Eleven years before her achievement in the Martin Scorsese classic, with Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci.

Rock Hudson is the hero of the motion picture, Neil Chaine.

He has a nemesis that reminds one of Donald Trump.

Gray Ryan looks like the awful president and acts like him.

Many of the contractors working for the obnoxious leader of the free world have not been paid, when he was only a real estate mogul.

In addition, there are many other instances wherein the flawed businessperson has been accused of malpractice or worse.

From the University, to harassment, through insults and lies, some fourteen thousands legal actions have been brought against this false, pretentious, ridiculous clown.

Neil Chaine is a different sort of executive and casino manager, almost a role model for ethical behavior.

He has some shortcomings, for we are not talking about a perfect or supernatural being here, the hero is only a man.

His partners eject him and he has to try to start from the ground up, across the street at the Tropicana.

The Vegas Strip War is about the dispute between the protagonist and his former associate at the Desert Inn.

Both rivals try to attract a boxing super game that will establish the World Champion for the Heavy Weight title.

James Earl Jones portrays a boxing manager called Jack Madrid, modeled on the famous promoter Don King.

If the practices of Don King might have been different, the hairstyle is clearly indicating this showman.

Sharon Stone is Neil’s girlfriend and she criticizes Jack Madrid for his flaws and talks about his hairstyle.

Rock Hudson has a line where he talks about the cells at Alcatraz and the fact that they were meant to prevent…

Homosexuality

It is somewhat strange to hear the gay actor talk about the issue, given that he was the first major public figure to announce that he had AIDS, a disease for which he searched the cure and attracted world attention.

The actor has hidden his sexual orientation- these were very different times.

In The Vegas Strip War, there are quite a few tense moments, even if most lack authenticity for this viewer.

The clash between competing egos, the mendacity of the Trump-like nemesis of the hero is believable.

However, the whales that win more than two and half million from the Tropicana and the idea that the house could lose and so big seem preposterous.

It is true that decades ago the casinos did not have the ability to film everything and catch you as you do math in your head- in the words of the hilarious Bill Maher- but it still looks amateurish.

Moreover, to cap it all, the hero is off to the rival casino, to gamble all the money left, trying to save his business.

Come on, give me a break!

Becket, based on play by Jean Anouilh and translated by Lucienne Hill

Becket, based on play by Jean Anouilh and translated by Lucienne Hill

Becket is a spectacular, effervescent, triumphant, delightful, ecstatic, masterful motion picture.

It was nominated for a formidable Twelve Academy Awards and that includes the most prestigious ones:

Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role…Twice: for both Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, with solid performances

The list continues with Best Actor in a Supporting Role for John Gielgud as the King of France, Louis VII,

Best Director and it won for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

The plot has at its center the unusual love between King Henry II and his friend Thomas Becket.

The former is portrayed by the outstanding, classic Peter O’Toole and the latter by the equally glorious Richard Burton.

It is written that Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton have enjoyed the set of this masterpiece, perhaps too much:

"Me, Burton, Richard Harris – we did in public what everyone else did in private then, and does for show now. We drank in public, we knew about pot." Both Burton and O'Toole won Oscar nominations for Becket but said they were drunk throughout most of the shooting.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/15/peter-otoole-60s-hellraiser

to begin with, King Henry II and Thomas Becket are roaming the country, drinking and chasing women.

Nevertheless, Thomas Becket is the more moral character even in those days of Wine and Glory.

When they find an attractive girl, even if smelly, in a hut in the middle of the forest, Henry wants to possess her.

Becket saves the poor young woman and says that he wants her for him, given the favor that he can ask for.

However, a little later, the woman that Becket loves is asked in return for the wild inhabitant of the forest favor.

In addition, Gwendolen is in love with the friend of the king and she would rather die than be taken by someone else, be it his majesty, the king.

Henry II is not just in love with Becket- in a platonic way, I guess- but he admires the sophistication, wit and personality of his friend that he considers responsible for an improvement in his own status.

Therefore, his royal highness has a brilliant idea and nominates his companion to be the next archbishop of Canterbury.

Thomas Becket is despondent and divines that this anointment will transform their relationship.

“Please do not do that my king!”

Nevertheless, Henry II is sure that this move will end all the problems he has had with the clergy.

Soon after the nomination and confirmation, the new Archbishop has to deal with Adversity and choose sides.

A noble man and his entourage kill a priest and the king is taking the view that the killer should not be punished.

Only this issue provokes a confrontation, for the law says that ecclesiastic authorities must judge a priest.

The conflict is savage and the Archbishop is declared an enemy of the king and of the country.

He has to run to France, where he is under the protection of Louis VII, king of France and enemy of England.

There is a truce, or conciliation, even if Thomas Becket would not concede to the authority of the king…

Not before God that is…he is the subject and loyal servant of Henry II, but the Honor of God comes before that of the king.

Moreover, he has to pay an important price for that.

Roman J. Israel, Esq., written and directed by Dan Gilroy

Roman J. Israel, Esq., written and directed by Dan Gilroy

                Roman Israel is an unusual lawyer and role model.

Considering that he is a complex character, role model as he might be, he has a few flaws and he breaks the law.

However, this is getting to far ahead and jumping to conclusions.

Denzel Washington has an exceptional performance and he was rightly nominated for another Academy Award.

The lawyer profession is among the most despondent, derided, lugubrious and insufferable, at least in America.

Lawyers have the highest rates of divorce, depression and suicide.

Moreover, they “benefit” from a substantial number of jokes.

One of them has this lawyer on a yacht, from which he falls into the water. Very soon, a shark comes around, but departs without injuring the man over board…

It’s a miracle, cries one of the people on the vessel

No, it is not…it is an act of professional courtesy, says another

Nevertheless, Roman Israel is a different type of counselor.

He has a big heart and many Character Strengths, such as:

Curiosity, Love of Learning, Wisdom, Persistence, Hope, Gratitude, Creativity, Fairness, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

Open mindedness, Self-regulation, Mercy and Forgiveness, Social Intelligence, Bravery, Spirituality

Having said that, it must be added that he faces a serious challenge and he does commit a grave mistake.

In the first few scenes, the hero has to Cope with Adversity and Trauma- this is one aspect of Positive Psychology.

Indeed, we all have to face Adversity at different moments.

Roman’s partner has suffered a heart attack that has rendered him unconscious and then into a vegetative state.

Roman J. Israel Esq. used to be the one working in the office, without having to face judges or prosecutors.

He takes a few cases to court, but he does not handle well the emotions and injustice of the men involved.

Police officers have been unfair to his client and refused him access to a toilet, an act that the judge considers normal.

When the lawyer argues that this must be considered detainment or arrest and continues to support his point, he is held in contempt.

The fine is ten thousand dollars and this is one counselor that has a very small salary, of about five hundred per week.

The law office has to be closed and Roman J. Israel Esq. has to find a job, which is a very difficult enterprise.

He has a case where a young man has been a somewhat innocent participant in a felony, resulting in the murder of a clerk.

The suspect offers to cooperate with investigators, offering not just a testimony, but to help them find the killer.

When Roman Israel talks with the prosecutor, he is offered only a reduced sentence of five years, which he feels is too little.

The representative of the state hangs up the phone very quickly, and the prisoner commits suicide.

Given his despondent state, the lawyer breaks the seal of confidence and the privileged attorney –client relationship and divulges the thereabouts of the murderer in exchange for the reward.

In a way, this is the moment when Superman transforms himself into Lex Luthor, or anyway, the role model becomes just another human being.

How could this happen?

There are plenty of reasons for that and then there is the lugubrious prospect that the hero will pay a heavy price.

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci

                The Last Emperor is actually… not the last.

Notwithstanding the fact that China is officially a republic and a communist one at that, it is still governed with imperial pretense.

In other words, Xi has imperial powers, which are not unusual for communist regimes, as 1984 can attest.

As a former inhabitant of such a “piece of communist heaven”, far away from China though, I can talk about the despondency of these regimes.

These imperial leaders indulge in reveries about this being the Paradise on earth promised by religions and accomplished by…

The likes of Che Guevara, Mao and the rest of The Wild Bunch

Communist empires are much more lugubrious than any of the systems they replace, Mao and Stalin have each killed many more than Hitler, an aspect of history that is too often alas forgotten.

Hitler was a mass killer, lunatic, insufferable and a monster, but so were, if not worse, the communist counterparts.

Yet, stern as reality was and is young people and leaders in the west harbor illusory images of communist paradise.

Men like Corbin and Melenchon indulge in dangerous illusions, divine preposterous scenarios disconsidering the communist massacres.

Therefore, The Last Emperor of the film is in comparison a real benign figure and a Role Model when placed near Mao.

The system had flaws of course.

One would be not just retrograde and fundamentalist to invoke and harbor visions of new empires.

Yet that is exactly what the undersigned is doing.

I long for (aspects of) the Victorian British Empire.

The civilized China of this age, without the Emperor, has a Xi who is ready to wage war against Taiwan.

In fact, they will surely threaten and then attack the island, in just a few decades from now, if the Taiwanese do not give in.

Which they will not.

China is creating artificial islands in the South China Sea that they have long now considered as something of a Chines lake.

They bully neighbors, have stolen secrets from companies, which they anyway force to capitulate when they enter their market.

This is what one might think about while pondering the themes of The Last Emperor, which is a resplendent film.

The hero can be of course derided for his many flaws, but I think the predominant feeling is one of pity.

That sounds strange, given that this was an emperor, who had two wives and a multitude of servants.

However, the emperor was trapped in the Forbidden City and he had to do so many things he did not want.

As for the wives, well, they ended up by being more of a nuisance than a joy, after the initial unmistakable pleasure they offered.

When the Japanese have occupied China, the emperor has been accused of betraying his country, which maybe he did.

However, is it betrayal, when one is on the other side from a land that has become a murderous tyranny?

Perhaps this is the thinking of a traitor, but if I were to choose between the communist country I had to live in and any of its democratic supposed enemies, I would not have hesitated for a second

Hence, my sympathy is all for this Last Emperor, that the despicable communists have locked up.

They have replaced him with a heinous, lamentable, lugubrious, indulgent, stern, derisive figure- Mao

In addition, the Last Emperor to date is Xi, a man who would not control North Korea, bullies all those around…worse than leaders of empires from the old days.