Cinema Outcasts » Classic

La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle for Algiers)

peter — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:59:31 +0000

I loved this movie because of the realism that it portrayed with the guerilla conflict that had ensued during the 1940’s. Based on real events, the storyline is based in the French occupied city of Algiers. Algerians are treated as outcasts and the French soldiers desperately try to keep them in place. The beginning is mind blowing because we start out with the ending first. As the story continues, we begin to see the evolution of the revolution. The movie starts out small, and then progresses with each strike by either the French or the Algerians.

When the French cafes are bombed and destroyed, there is so much realism that the scene looks like it was caught on the nine o’clock news hour. These scenes are what heightened the story for me because they seemed very authentic and it helped create a tense moment. These tense moments between the realistic bombing sequences and the militia that France forces into the ghettos of Algiers were terribly captivating. All in all, this movie is a very intense and sweeping drama about the conflict and betrayals during a revolutionary time.

On the Waterfront

peter — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:40:15 +0000

Industrial era meets humanity. In an era which is believed to be one of the most tumultuous and exceedingly depressing times in our world’s history, this movie shows the meaning of true humanity. Elia Kazan is well known for paving the way of the method actor into Hollywood’s illustrious golden age of cinema, the most famous of them being Marlon Brando.

On the Waterfront shows why Brando is so great. Kazan allows him to act without any restrictions. Because of this, most movie critics believe that Brando delivers perhaps the greatest performance as an actor ever. I’m not one to boast, but Brando is almost pitch-perfect as Terry Malloy. The way he moves like a caged guerilla with a tender heart exemplifies the way he’s able to transform himself. And Terry Malloy is one of those rare characters that people identify with, even though he is a bit naïve. The rest of the cast is rounded out perfectly, even Rod Steiger as Brando’s money driven brother.

This movie has stood the test of time, and because it has, remaking this movie would probably result in a complete failure. Each scene from the film feels dirty and black and white look is perfect for the industrial time. Look out for the Taxi scene; it is one of the greatest acted scenes in the history of Hollywood.

The French Connection

peter — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:35:24 +0000

This is probably my third favorite movie of all time and I sometimes find myself watching this movie two times in one day! In an era where action movies have too many editorial cuts and are shot with crazy angles like the TV show 24 (technology trumps human instinct), this movie shows the under belly of what it’s like to be a detective in a depraved city.

It is rumored that this is the only story where Gene Hackman actually researched his part. The movie won several awards and Hackman went on to win his first Oscar. However, that’s beside the point. The movie has one of the greatest car chases in Hollywood history, it has a realistic story based on true events and it has one of the greatest characters in Hollywood history, Jimmy Doyle. In fact, the obsessive nature of Hackman’s character Doyle helps keep the movie interesting and enthralling. He is able to keep people on the edge of their seats. Doyle’s partner, Det. Buddy Russo (aka Roy Scheider) helps display the type of humanity that a detective might portray in a narcotics situation. The director William Friedkin gives the movie an authentic feeling by filming in the urban areas of New York City and by capturing the type of people that you would normally see in their native habitat. This film is a must for those who are into CSI and it is a must for those who love crime sagas.

The Seventh Seal

joseph — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:18:48 +0000

I have had a hard time picking a tenth film in our “Editor’s Choice” series (which may not have been that big of a deal, since I don’t remember when we decided to put a limit at 10 or if we’re still doing that). I was debating putting the Quay Brothers’ Institute Benjamenta here, which is a beautiful film but I wouldn’t know what to say about it, and anyways I think Ingmar Bergman should be recognized here. I almost wanted to list his later film Winter Light simply because of the devastating brilliance of the last line spoken in the film, which is so astonishingly anticlimactic it stays with you for a long time. I could even go with his more lighthearted Smiles of a Summer Night, which has a poetic rhythm mirroring the comedies of Shakespeare, or Trollflöjten which is a flawlessly cheeky-yet-faithful adaption of a Mozart’s Magic Flute Opera (though I decided to rule that out because it was made for Swedesh Television). The Seventh Seal is a great place to start with Bergman, an abstract, timeless classic that depicts a medieval knight’s battle with Death in the shape of an absurd game of chess. The absurdity of it is in the fact that everyone’s life is a game played with death that we will all eventually “lose,” it’s only a matter of when; we are all being strung along in an inescapable dance of death. Bergman is known for making depressing films — he has even admitted he can’t watch his own movies because they bring him down — but films that deal with hopelessness or existential despair can often reveal a sense of inner strength that is lacking in films with the so-called “Hollywood ending.” Bergman’s films deal with the anxieties and doubts that we all have, and he has the courage to say that there aren’t necessarily any easy answers, or angels to save us, but we are all in this same wayward ship, and sometimes telling this truth can be uplifting in it’s own way.

Lawrence of Arabia

peter — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:12:54 +0000

Lawrence of Arabia is one of the most beautiful and captivating movies that I have ever seen. Winner of ten academy awards, this movie deserves every credible achievement that it was bestowed. David Lean’s editing background helps the movie move at a decent pace. Although the movie is a bit long for those of us in the MTV generation, the movie as a whole is more satisfying than the epics that come out today. For me, the endless streams of sand dunes, and the wide shots of all the extras riding their horses into the ancient cities is pure eye candy. And Peter O’toole’s performance as Lawrence draws on influences of comedy and drama which keeps the entertainment factor moving. I remember seeing this movie in a theater long ago, and the images, music, and storyline still haunt me today. For those of you who haven’t seen it, go see it. If you have any sense at all, this movie will stay with you.

Once Upon a Time in the West

joseph — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:30:51 +0000

Although it was not as impactful perhaps as the “Dollar” trilogy, this is my favorite Sergio Leone — and “Spaghetti Western” — film. A sweeping, beautifully paced journey through a world that probably never existed until folk like John Ford and Akira Kurosawa helped germinate it in the mind of the Italian filmaker. Charles Bronson as the tortured hero seems like a constant dam about to burst with machisimo, Henry Fonda is brilliantly cast as the depraved villian, and you can’t not like Jason Robard’s bandit-with-a-heart-of-gold, who Leone reportedly told Ennio Morricone that he was like the “Tramp from Lady and the Tramp.” Claudia Cardinale plays the worshipfull Jill, a brave-faced ex-prostitute who inherits some very valuable property on the American frontier, but in the saddest way possible.

Rashomon

joseph — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:14:54 +0000

It may be debatable which is the best Kurosawa film, but this one is my personal favorite. It’s a work of bold, abstract beauty that questions reality by consensus. A rape and murder mystery is told and re-told from different perspectives (we even get a version of the story as told by the spirit of the murdered man, via medium). Each person has a completely different version of what occurred, and the mystery is never really “solved.” We are left doubting that any of the actors were telling the “true” version of what happened. Man is revealed as a creature who’s self-image is guarded jealously against a cold reality, which causes a Monk to nearly despair against the whole of mankind, until, in the midst of the fog in a desolate town in feudal Japan, a glimmer of hope is found.

Planet of the Apes

lefrenchie — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:34:27 +0000

Movies that stand the test of times are a rarity, it’s even truer with science‐fiction movie, but the Charlton Heston timeless masterpiece is a different breed of a movie; despite spawning a slur of sequels, and spin off tv shows; the original Planet of the Apes, got stuck in popular culture thanks to a brilliant final plot twist photographed with brilliance, with imagery that is printed in the collective consciousness.
Under the simple premise of an astronaut crash landing on a planet where man is the animal and the ape is the dominant specie, lays a philosophical fable about human society, from the futility of war to racism, with a hint about the debate over evolution. The movie is filled with themes and ideas, that forty years later still resonate, and are still as valid now as they were then.