More Than One Lesson

FREAKS (1932)
Directed by: Tod Browning
Written by: Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon
Starring: Harry Earles, Leila Hyams, Henry Victor

When I say the name “Dracula,” I’m almost positive that most of you will think of an exotic European with slicked back hair, piercing eyes, and a cape. In other words, you’ll think of Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film. Even those who haven’t seen the film will think of that image. That’s how successful the movie was; seventy years later, we still picture Lugosi in that musty old castle.

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THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
Directed by: William Wyler
Written by: Robert E. Sherwood
Starring: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo

When my father died almost five years ago(!), the primary emotion that I felt was isolation. I knew no one else my age who had endured a significant loss like that. I constantly felt outside of my group of friends, all of a sudden. What’s worse, I always felt that, because they didn’t understand my grief, they judged it; as if, one day, I would be saying something about my dad, and one of my friends would say, “Okay, we get it! Your dad’s dead! Enough already!” It was a very frustrating place to be.

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THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943)
Written and Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook

Oh, what a rare delight! I get to talk about a movie that very few people have seen. In fact, I only know of one person other than myself who has seen the film; and, even then, he and I saw it in the same film class.

The film I’m talking about is Michael Powell’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Near the end of my college years, I decided to take a bit of a break and spend a semester in mostly critical studies classes. Basically that means that I spent all my time watching great movies and writing about them. It was like a semester-long vacation.

One of these classes was a study/comparison of filmmakers Michael Powell and David Lean. Powell I had heard about only in reference to a film that sounded interesting, which seemed to feature a character named “Colonel Blimp.” I was much more interested in David Lean, who, many of you know, directed such classics as Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. It wound up being a very interesting class, where I got to see a lot of movies that weren’t even on my radar. I was very grateful for being exposed to the films of Powell, a director who, sadly, has faded from the memories of modern movie-lovers.

Now, then, Colonel Blimp. An epic movie that will get the epic treatment from me, this is probably going to be one of my longer blogs. I apologize.

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MILLER’S CROSSING (1990)
Written and Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito

There is a scene in the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing where the main character has a gun aimed squarely at a man’s head. The man is begging for his life. He implores the main character, named Tom Reagan, to “look in his heart.”

Tom replies, “What heart?”

He pulls the trigger.

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DARK CITY (1998)
Directed by: Alex Proyas
Written by: David S. Goyer, Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs
Starring: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly

I remember when I first saw this movie. I casually picked it up at the video store, knowing very little about it. Two hours later, I was blown away. There are very few movies like Alex Proyas’ Dark City, and, upon watching it, it’s easy to see why.

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THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
Written and Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi

“I, I, I, I… this could be a lot more, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, complex. I mean, it’s not just- it might not be just such a simple… uh… you know?”

This line is uttered by the protagonist about halfway through the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski, and it pretty much tells you all you need to know about the character. Jeff Lebowski, known mostly as “The Dude,” is an unemployed, middle-aged pothead who stumbles into an old-time film noir plot, involving kidnapped women, corrupt millionaires, and constant double-crosses.

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VERTIGO (1958)
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Written by: Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

There are precious few films that I have a hard time getting an analytical handle on, but still love all the same. The fact is, there are just some movies out there that defy you to interpret them. Once you think you’ve got them all figured out, you see something different that completely obliterates your previous thought. As strange as it may sound, talking about these films is like trying to grab the wind. The harder you try to harness it, the more frustrated you’ll become. It’s bigger than you; you’ll never be able to hold onto it. Instead, it’s better to simply let yourself feel it and experience it, making peace with the fact that it will never belong to you.

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IN THE BEDROOM (2001)
Written and Directed by: Todd Field
Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl

It’s refreshing to see a film that so fully gets its subject. Todd Field’s In the Bedroomis about grief and the need for revenge, and Field shows such a thorough understanding of these two impulses, that it’s hard to imagine that this is his directorial debut.

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OUT OF SIGHT (1998)

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RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies