Hello, fellow moviewatcher! So I'm still trying to figure out how I want to steer this site. I had the idea to use it as a way to track the movies I've been watching. I figured I could break it down into three categories. As an added bonus, I'll try to add a morsel of trivia. I'm still not certain about the frequency of my posts, but you can expect way more posts here than my MySpace/Facebook blogs, so be sure to make this a bookmark and check often. Let's get started and see how things works!
IN THEATERS:
"No Country For Old Men" (2007)
Starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
This movie is INTENSE. Like "United 93" intense. Like it would be hard for me to go back and re-watch this. I was off-kilter for about a day and a half. I was SO glad I didn't catch the matinee. Without revealing too much, I'll say the movie is about a soulless killer (Javier Bardem) with a psychosis on par with the Joker and Two-Face. There are people chasing people and everyone is out to kill somebody. There are a series of mind games that will keep you vested in wanting to know "Is he smart enough to figure it out?" It unfolds very much like a novel. In fact, when it ended, I turned to the person I saw the movie with and said, "I bet the book ends the same way." Sure enough, the last page is virtually word-for-word the last scene.
What works so well is that all the characters are very intelligent and very crafty and even humorous. The cinematography and the sound are also top notch. The landscape is haunting. The sound is atmospheric and almost minimal except when used with great effect for violence. It is my choice for best sound of the year.
The movie is considered by many to be the best of the year. It was nearly unanimously praised upon release. I felt it was too oblique and far too intense to be my favorite of the year, but I'm not going to argue with anyone about it. It certainly is one of the Top 10 (if not the Top 5) of the year as far as a technical achievement. Also, look for the Coen brothers' trademark colloquial dialogue, realistic use of violence, and maybe a few shadows from their past achievements.
BIT O' TRIVIA: Heath Ledger had been in talks to play Llewelyn Moss, but withdrew to take "some time off" instead.
ON DVD:
"One Day In September" (1999)
Directed by Kevin MacDonald.
The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation. (Synopsis written by Jon Reeves)
This documentary won the 1999 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. That's all it took for me to watch it. I wished I had read the description because the only thing I knew about the event was that Israeli hostages were taken during the '72 Olympic games in Munich. I was very captivated by every turn of events right until the end. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that things went from bad to worse. Even more frustrating is the increasingly open opportunities officials gained yet were consistently (and with greater degree) botched up. It's a tale where the bad guys win, and that's always very sad. The hardest thing to watch was the Palestinian terrorists' bodies given a hero's welcome to their home country. As for expectations, I should've asked, "When is the Best Documentary winner ever an uplifting kind of movie?"
BIT O' TRIVIA: The Israeli version is narrated by Rafi Ginat and includes updated information regarding the claims of the families against the German authorities in the subtitles at the end of the film.
RE-VISITING:
"Fog of War" (2004)
Directed by Errol Morris
Robert MacNamera was the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. Simply told, it's a rundown of his 11 Rules of War. However, it is told with breathtakingly bold frankness with enough exciting history lessons that it is hard to look upon it as "just another boring documentary." It's hard to put in words why this works so well, but it does. MacNamera's words work wonderfully as a 21st century version of Sun Tzu's "Art of War." It is my 2nd favorite documentary of all time (next to Bowling For Columbine), and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in history, war, or just movies in general. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature of 2004.
BIT O' TRIVIA: McNamara originally agreed to an hour-long interview for the Errol Morris PBS series, "First Person" (2000). The interview lasted eight hours and McNamara stayed for a second day of interviewing. He also returned months later, for two more days of interviews. Morris found himself with more than enough material for a feature-length documentary.
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