Here comes the classic adventure movie. And it stars my favorite actor of all time - Humphrey Bogart. He's the man. But, despite his amazing stage presence, his easy to produce vintage Bogey pissy attitude, this isn't one of my favorites.
It's a good movie overall, has some great scenes and is simple in its premise....but I prefer the suave Humphrey Bogart that's all tuxedo'd up (see: Casablanca mainly) as opposed to the grimy, dirty, salt of the earth type guy. And that's pretty much how you can divide all of his characters, right down the middle.
Back to the movie though. It's essentially about gold diggers in Mexico. You've got your bandits, your federales, your paranoia, your gun fights. And everything sorta works out in the end. Bogart gets really paranoid off and on throughout the movie which is fun to see but the best scene has got to be their standoff with the Bandits. This is where we get the famous line: "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" and was not delivered by Cheech Marin unfortunately. And its not originally from Blazing Saddles, in case you thought that.
Anyways, if you're looking at wading your way into Bogey's library - you could definitely start in worse places. A good Sunday afternoon adventure flick for sure.
Here's the badges guy in all of his glory:
#37 - The Best Years of Our Lives
As soon as it got to the guy with the hooks for hands I realized I must've seen some of this back in the day on a boring, rainy Saturday on tv...odds are on The New VR or something. Either way, I didn't watch the whole thing - I just remember hooky (my name for him).
Right after this movie, actually during it, I went online and bought it on bluray. That says a lot for a movie from the 50's. But it really is amazing. The first full drama that I've watched on the list and based on the time it came out it really was incredible, and even still relevant to this day.
It's really simple. Three guys (Army, Air Force, Navy) meet up on their way home from the war and end up becoming friends. The guy from the Navy had his hands blown off and has hooks (True story: he's really from the war and really had his hands blown off). The whole movie is really about them getting reintegrated into society and the troubles of adapting back into their old lives - which they know deep down they really can't. The guy from the Army becomes an alcoholic, the guy from the Air Force comes back to shitty marriage, and the guy from the Navy. Well, he's got no hands. And throughout it all, the guy with the real disability makes the most of what he's got and acclimates way better than the other two.
It truly is an incredible movie. Better than so many other movies that follow the same premise (Jarhead, Stop Loss, etc.) How do we treat these veterans when they come home? No jobs really waiting, hostility from the people that never left. Can they just carry on with their lives?
Just a fantastic movie and I highly recommend it. If not for anything than to see the guy with hooks (who won an Oscar btw) play the piano, or light a match, or eat a sundae. It's truly impressive.
#36 - The Bridge on the River Kwai
This is a good ole, run of the mill POW camp movie. Although this POW camp looks like a good time. Not like you hear from other people, no bamboo shoots up the finger nails, no beatings. Just whistling, singing and a bit of manual labour.
So this British regiment gets captured by the Japanese and goes to this POW camp. Their mission over the next few months? Build a bridge...over...the river....kwai, you got it! Anyways, most POWs would do a shitty job so as not to help the enemy. But Obi Wan Kenobi, the CO for these Brits decides to be very Britishy and wants them all to do a great job because....hey...we're British. We do great jobs (especially in surrendering to the Japanese).
While at the same time, another 'real' British regiment wants to blow the bridge up...for obvious reasons.
It all climaxes with the opening of the bridge, Obi Wan being super proud. But then realizes that the bridge is wrapped in explosives and tells the Japanese commander. Brutal. What an idiot, I thought this whole time that Obi Wan was going to be the hero....instead he's just a super dummy.
Long story short, chaos ensues and right before his death - Obi Wan realizes he screwed up royally...dies, falling on the detonator, bridge explodes and everyone is happy. Except all of the British soldiers that died because Obi Wan was a tattle tale.
What. A. Dummy. Good movie, but embarrassing if you're British. Here's Obi Wan's surprised face when he realizes he pooched it: "What have I done?"
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