February Failures

I'm not meant to watch movies in February.

I watched Buchanan Rides Alone way back at the beginning of the month. The whole movie is pleasurable, but the ending shootout across a bridge is sublime.

Ink crashed my computer.

I watched Return to Oz in preparation for writing a "My Essentials" post only to discover that I no longer consider this childhood favorite essential. I have become a grumpy old man.

I love The Thin Man. I'm embarrassed to say that I watched it in fits and starts, bits and pieces, five to ten minutes at a time. I couldn't concentrate. You know I'm going through a funk if Powell and Loy can't keep my attention.

I've been uninterested in Smallville, even though the past few episodes have been better than the filler episodes that have been all too common lately.

Arrietty was a delight. So, there's that.

I tried watching Texas Killing Fields. I got twenty minutes in and decided that I didn't care about it and didn't want to put in any more effort. I stopped watching.

I watched a few episodes of the TV series Wanted Dead or Alive. It's decent. It's easy to forgive slight flaws when you've got so much packed into 25 minutes.

I'm off today and was all excited to attack a pile of TCM recordings on VHS that my mother sent to me. I got about twenty minutes into Exit Smiling, a silent comedy, and was really enjoying it. I pressed stop to leave the room to use the bathroom. Instead of just stopping, the VHS player ejected the tape and decided to eat part of the tape in the process. Now, I can't finish the movie and I'm afraid to put any other tapes in the machine. I'm reminded now of one more reason why I was so happy to leave VHS behind.

I haven't watched Lonely are the Brave. I've got no NWI. I'm tempted to cancel my disc plan, too. Port of Shadows is still sitting on the shelf unwatched.

The death of the Western

Like the rest of y'all, I'm looking forward to Brandon's reporting to us as he explores the 1960s. Maybe more than the rest of you, I'm interested in the Westerns he'll write about.

I just now finished watching The Gunfight at Dodge City. Directed by a "b" movie workman. Featuring a screenplay by one of the guys who cooked up the story for The Narrow Margin. The DP worked on B-pictures and settled in TV work. I'm not sure what sort of box office draw McCrea had in '59, but I doubt that he was at the top of the list at this time. All this to say, Gunfight is firmly a B oater. As such, it is, of course, thoroughly enjoyable.

More than this, though, I was struck by how self-aware the script is. This isn't quite some pop po-mo meta-Western. It's really not that at all. But, it does play with the genre in a self-conscious way. It suffers some as a talky picture. There's a lot of talk about what makes a man and what constitutes a position of authority and different types of people. There's a really obvious moment when the saloon mistress talks about the corrupt sheriff switching his hats from white to black depending on whom he's interacting with.

The thing resolves neatly in a standard street gunfight, but the unalloyed heroism of the moment is undercut by an unusual voiceover narration that repeats an important pre-credits monologue about killing men that the film starts with.

At another moment, McCrea's Bat Masterson gives a speech about his take on law enforcement being that "there's a law" and that it "will be enforced." Later, however, when the law is used maliciously against a friend, Masterson turns his back on enforcement in favor something right apart from and against the civil law.

I'm just pecking out impressions. I don't think that Gunfight is much more than an enjoyable (and in so many ways typical) standard Western film. I do find it interesting as a signpost on the road of the Western no longer believing in some of its tropes in an entirely unexamined way. Mann and Boetticher and old masters like Ford and Hawks were similarly challenging the foundations of the Western in a grander way. Peckinpah and Leone would eventually continue the dismantling through the 60s (even as dudes like Hathaway would stubbornly assert the old ways).

I'm not sure what I'm getting at. I'm rambling. I guess that I'm just agreeing with Brandon that something transitional was happening around '59-'60. Take a look at the 500 Westerns page. Look at the old masters still making Westerns in '59, then look at the lists from the following years. There's a sea change. How the West Was Won is the big bloated end of the old Western in '62. The new style and new themes had already been intimated throughout the 50s, but they explode in the 60s and 70s as the former "purer" unselfconscious ways fade away. By '69, the Western had completely died. Of course, I believe in resurrection. The Western was reborn and transformed even as it was dying. It lives strong now. There have been multiple deaths and resurrections since the 70s (just as there were in different ways pre-50s; transition to sound, maturing of themes, etc). Quantity may be lacking at this point in film history, but we've been blessed with quality. The Coens' True Grit is about as good as it gets. Meek's Cutoff is a tremendous achievement in transforming and maturing the genre in a direction that has never fully been explored. No film project has me more excited than thinking about Aaron Katz shooting a Western. The genre has died many times. It is alive and well in 2012.

End ramble.

My Essentials: The Narrow Margin

Brandon started his "essentials" posts a couple of years ago now (though he hasn't had any recently). It's about time I imitated his example.

The Narrow Margin is essential.

I admit to being predisposed to like it.

I lived right next to a train station for about half of my life.

I love train movies. The Lady Vanishes might be my favorite Hitchcock film. I'm the only one in CR5FC to defend Unstoppable. I'd love to get the chance to see James Benning's RR. I sometimes spend half an afternoon meditating on the idea of RR. I often dream of trains.

The train is the constant presence in Narrow Margin. The sound of it is always present. The narrow confines of the train naturally limit the action; the environment bottles up actualities until the pressure is unbearable. Within this space and this time, something MUST surely happen.

A gangster's widow is willing to testify in a court of law. Ruthless men are willing to kill her to prevent this. One policeman, Detective Seargent Walter Brown, is charged with stopping this from happening. He doesn't like the woman he's protecting. He doesn't like his situation.

Narrow Margin rides the noir rails right to the end. Characters are never quite what they seem. Black and white are all mixed up in shades of gray (or maybe Brown?). The world, unlike the train, goes off the rails at times.

Brown does what is right because it's right. Decidedly not because he likes it. It's often a character flaw (often a weakness for a woman) that gets noir men in trouble. Just as often, the strong noir men are strong because they've clung to a moral code even when it doesn't feel good and is not easy.

This widow doesn't seem to deserve kindness. Her existence and predicament are the cause of Brown's partner's death. A good man dies. A worthless woman lives.

Brown knows that it is his job to risk his life for the worst of the worst.

He knows that compromising his code to give up the worst, even to give them over to the natural conclusion of what their life has been, is worse than death. Given a task, a man must perform it with integrity.

So, the code is still black and white. There's often only a narrow margin between the two colors, but the distinction remains. The world in which this code is played out, however, is a wash of gray.

Finally, isn't Marie Windsor one of the greatest actresses ever?

Don't read anything else about this film. Avoid spoilers. Watch it because I told you to. Because out of all the movies out there, this one is... Essential.

January 2012 Recap

20 Features
Septien (2011) **
Bellflower (2011) *
Warrior (2011) **
The Muppets (2011) **
Another Earth (2011) ***
The Set-Up (1949) ****
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ****
Moneyball (2011) ***
The Guard (2011) ****
The Mark of Zorro (1940) **
The Secret of Kells (2009) ****
Winchester '73 (1950) ****
Rhythm on the Range (1936) ****
Vampyr (1932) **
Rhythm on the River (1940) ***
L'Age d'Or (1930) ***
City Lights (1931) *****
The Mummy (1932) **
One Hour With You (1932) ****
Horse Feathers (1932) ****

3 Documentaries
Brother Born Again (2001) **
The Legend of Masty Huba (2010) ***
Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl (2011) ***

2 Shorts
Small Fry (2011) ***
The Red Balloon (1956) ****

TV
Justified Season 1
-"Veterans"
-"Fathers and Sons"
-"Bulletville"
Robin Hood
-"The Knight Who Came to Dinner"
-"The Wager"
-"The Prisoner"
-"A Village Wooing"
Smallville Season 4
-"Onyx"
-"Spirit"
-"Blank"
-"Ageless"
-"Forever"
-"Commencement"
Smallville Season 5
-"Arrival"
-"Mortal"
-"Hidden"
-"Aqua"
-"Thirst"
-"Exposed"
-"Splinter"
-"Solitude"
Battlestar Galactica
-"Razor"
The Golden Globes
The Story of Film 1-4

pathetic.

January's almost over.

There's not much to say.

One Hour With You is an enjoyable Lubitsch musical from '32. I should write more about it, but I probably won't.

Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl and The Legend of Masty Huba are two documentaries that I enjoyed, proving that I get along just fine with the genre.

Horse Feathers is through and through enjoyable. The world might be a better place if one-hundred-million-plus people all watched Horse Feathers at the same time this weekend instead of watching the Super Bowl.

I was going to get a flat bottom, but the girl at the boathouse didn't have one.

And more Smallville. Highlights have been a vampire sorority and Lois working as an undercover striptease dancer. Most episodes have about 30 minutes of ridiculous fluff mixed in with 10 solid minutes exploring the background mythology and advancing the show's core story. When it's good, it's great. When it's not good, it's ridiculous. I've lasted this long. I'm starting to doubt whether I can make it through five more seasons of this. The reason that I keep watching is because it's easy to do. By the time I'm ready to sit down and watch something, it's usually about 9:30pm and I'm ready for bed. It's easier to swallow 42 minutes of goofy Smallville and get some sense of completion instead of starting something 120 minutes and falling asleep (or, even worse, staying up and not getting enough sleep).

Sorry that this post is so pathetic. Hopefully, whatever movie Ben picks for February will inspire me to get back into a regular writing habit.

I plan on posting a January recap later today. I tried doing this a couple of years ago, but gave up after a few months. I'm hoping to keep up with it this year. It'll make year end review a lot easier. Also, I'll be giving star ratings. I know that you've all been waiting for this. It's a simple 5-star system. No half points. I stole it from Netflix/GoodReads. *=Hated it, **=Didn't Like It, ***=Liked It, ****=Really Liked It, *****=Loved It. Nice and lame and emotional. It should go without saying that this is in no way neat and tidy even though it may look that way.

Maybe he got too gay with the vestal virgins in the temple.

While I was sick, I watched two Bing Crosby pictures.

Rhythm on the Range is nearly perfect. It's a standard RomCom plot boiled to just the right temperature. I was at the height of being sick when I saw this and it was just what I needed. Seriously, my medical insurance should have covered the cost of this DVD.

Rhythm on the River is entirely pleasant, but nowhere near as delightful as Range. The ghostwritten lyrics/tunes plot couldn't be any more relevant in our age of abundant copywrongs.

Jeff may be happy that I dig Bunuel in '30.

L'Age d'Or is often funny so I can give it a pass. It's ten times more interesting and exciting than Vampyr. At least, it's funnier. This is only the second Bunuel film I've seen. Cross my fingers, I'm a fan.

I can also totally agree with Jeff's '31 pick.

City Lights is just as good as it always is. I love that Chaplin will hold on a gag long enough for it to not be funny, to the point that it's funnier.

Most recently...

I really wanted to like The Mummy. It's just fine. Okay, it's a huge disappointment. I only wish I'd seen it in early adolescence, the perfect time to enjoy a vestal virgin obsession. As it was, I admit to being more than a little bored.

We could be arguing about snow.

Jeff, I'm not feeling the Birth of a Nation comparisons. Sit down and watch the whole Griffith masterpiece with Chris and you'll know I'm right about that one.

Griffith makes racism fun. Dreyer makes vampires boring. I know who I'm siding with.

I'm being silly, but the point is that Griffith's film is emotionally engaging while Dreyer's isn't. I respect that this is entirely subjective. Here I stand.

I conceded that there were some interesting images in Vampyr. Sure. I also got sick of the gauzy cottony look pretty quick. I think that there are a few interesting things here. Enough to steal and use in a better movie. Not nearly enough to hang my hat on in this one.

"If you can't admit that VAMPYR is great merely for its "how" instead of its "what" then you need to call BIRTH OF A NATION a piece of trashy, low-brow garbage passed off as one of the greatest films ever made right now!"

BUT! It's precisely the "how" that I'm calling into question here. Specifically "how" Dreyer uses text in the film. This relates to the entire "how" of the visual structure of the film. I think that it breaks the flow, neatens things up, and renders the whole ridiculous. I think that Dreyer fails in his "how" by trying to tidy things up. I also think that the main actor is a doofus.

I'm starting to realize how great it is that the whole world, but especially Denmark, has moved past the 1930s.

Jeff's Round Rump.

I'll join the chorus singing Jeff's praises. Those 30s lists are tops.

I decided to stop diddling around and get serious like Jeff. I decided to start with his #1s from each year. I decided to start with my copy of Vampyr that I bought a couple of years ago at a Hollywood Video going out of business sale and have never watched.

What a stupid idea.

I went in with high expectations.

I'm trying to start most of these sentences with "I" to indicate how subjective this all is. I hope I'm getting through to you.

I disliked Vampyr.

I feel guilty. I feel like I should feel more guilty. I feel like I don't care.

Apparently, Vampyr was considered a terrible mistake, the absolute low point, in Dreyer's career for decades. I agree with this assessment.

Unfortunately, recently, Vampyr has been critically rehabilitated and everyone loves the damned thing.

I think it's a mess.

There are some fantastic images and some interesting camera motion.

So what?

The narrative is lame. Lame. Lame. Lame.

The use of so much text is not some quaint throwback to the silent era. It's a weird crutch that delivers lots of information that that makes sense of the film which is otherwise senseless. A man delivers a book that says, "open if I die" (or something stupid like that), then the man dies and we get pages and pages of the book to read that let us know that we are dealing with a scary vampire. Seriously, Dreyer, you're really good at making images. Why so much text? The vampire story is stupid. Heck, I'd probably like the movie better if it made less sense and was just a series of dreamy images strung together. The text reveals the bald face of the stupid story.

I feel like I should log this thing on GoodReads instead of posting about it here.

Maybe I'm just angry at Dreyer for making something so trashy and low-brow and trying to pass it off as an art pic.

Some people say that this should just be enjoyed on the level of "mood" or "atmosphere." My problem is that I couldn't get into any mood or atmosphere. If I'd been in one of the original audiences, I would have had fun howling insults at the screen and laughing while throwing jujubes and popcorn.


"It is incomprehensible that Mr Dreyer has spent time, money and talent on this screenplay which is not worthy of the effort. (…) However, the generally macabre tone of the film makes it difficult for the acting to change the overall impression that we are here dealing with some fantastical nonsense […]. It is worth neither clapping nor hissing at."

Of course, I feel inadequate railing against all of you uber-film-nerds who really understand Dreyer and how special Vampyr is.

Next up: L'Age d'Or. I can't wait to smack Jeff around and tell him how wrong he is about that one. :)

Bleh. Being sick stinks.

After finishing a couple of errands, I plan on spending the rest of the day laying on a couch and watching movies. There are some perks to feeling bleh.

I wrote the following a couple of days ago, but never posted it...

I've fallen behind, I know. Blog fatigue, early winter edition, is setting in. I've also been grumpy and sick. We need something good to argue about.

Mark of Zorro, Mammoulian style, didn't really do anything for me. Give me Robin Hood any day.

Secret of Kells is a beautiful animated tale. It's the most striking animated feature I've seen in a while. I want to celebrate its innovation, but I'm sure that at least a dozen Japanese films did it all first.

---

Brother Born Again showcases everything I dislike about documentaries.

I'm going to reconcile with my brother. This is serious emotional territory. Why don't I film it to advance my career?

If my sister came at me with a movie camera, I'd punch her in the lens cap.

Who looks at their family life and thinks, "This situation I'm worrying about would be better if I documented it on film." I don't like people who think that way. I don't like MTV's The Real World or any of its devil spawn. I don't like these sorts of documentaries.

I know it's not Tuesday yet, but that was spoiler-free and I'm tired of sitting on the film. End rant.

---

I thought that the action in Smallville would pick up post-graduation, but things have been dull.

The BSG made-for-TV movie Razor was just okay. I'm looking forward to completing BSG in 2012, but I'm taking it slow.

---

I watched The Set-Up earlier this month and forgot to write about it. I love Manny Farber's review of this movie. Farber was a boxing fan and could smell out the phony parts. He also couldn't deny the power of Ryan's performance.

I watched Winchester '73 last night. Way back when, it was my first Anthony Mann film. It holds up even better than I remembered. I think that I might prefer Night Passage (same screenwriter, similar themes without the hokey Winchester thread, some of the same actors, different director), but Winchester delivers the goods. I've been sick the past few days and a good western was exactly what I needed to perk me up.

The virtue of vulgarity, or the other way around.

Chris is right about Moneyball. Its biggest failing is that it's only really good and not great. It does everything right that a Hollywood movie should do. It's smart and interesting and easy to watch. And then, when it's all over, you feel satisfied, but not in any lasting way. I'm starting to warm to Sorkin. The film's greatest strengths and weaknesses are found in the script. Sorkin's biggest flaw, as far as I can see, is that he'll often have characters deliver plot points instead of proper dialogue. This keeps things moving along briskly, but the characters are always in service of an Idea. Character doesn't matter as long as we get the point.

The Guard, on the other hand, offers an abundance of pleasures. And an abundance of Character. There is a "moral" or a "Big Idea" here, but it only finds expression in and through personality.

The film is a bit uneven and often, especially in the beginning, errs on the side of silliness. This would be a weakness if the silliness weren't so danged endearing. Okay, it's still definitely a weakness. Your enjoyment of this movie will probably depend on how much you're able to smile along at the winking.

The protagonist, the guard Boyle, is extremely likable. At least, I like him.

I had a fond, emotional response to this film.

Boyle goes about his job in a manner I can only respect, lightheartedly avoiding all the layers of bullshit (always present) while finishing the real work set before him, the important "relational" (what a stupid word, I just put Brandon to sleep again) parts; proving to others that the only way to take your work seriously is to take it all lightly. Get the work done and ignore the bureaucracy.

Brief indiscretion with a pair of prostitutes aside, Boyle is a fucking role model. I admire his work ethic.

(Pardon the sudden lapse in language. It is obligatory to drop at least one f-bomb in any review of any film written and/or directed by a McDonagh.)

The film also features the best philosophically-minded criminals since the Dude and Walter faced off with those Nihilists.

In so many ways, this is the same "unorthodox cop" genre movie that you've seen dozens of times before. It knowingly comments on that genre with a wink and a nod in several directions at once. Still, this isn't a deconstruction in the sense that Drive is. The Guard laughs at some of the genre constructions, but ultimately upholds them and especially values self-sacrificial Virtue.

Brendan Gleeson is fantastic as always.

Finally, I want to point out that the Calexico score is among the best of the year, if not THE best of the year.

I won't say any more. Watch it. I expect some of you to disagree with me. I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.

There's a quieter moment in the film that marks the exact spot that I fell in love.

Here's a picture:


Killing Little Protestants. That's Funny.