Monday, June 7, 2010

Bigger Than Life

Bigger Than Life (Criterion #507).
1956 20th Century Fox.
Starring: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Jerry Mathers (uncredited)
Scene deleted: Marilyn Monroe
Director: Nicholas Ray
Buy Bigger Than Life from Amazon.

James Mason is Ed Avery, a school teacher and family man who is secretly moonlighting as a cab driver to earn extra money to support his wife Lou (Rush) and son Richie (Olsen). Ed keeps pushing himself harder despite suffering increasingly painful spasms. Finally, Ed collapses, and while hospitalized, learns that he has been stricken by a rare arterial disease. The doctors have given him less than a year to live, but they do offer to provide him an experimental treatment with cortisone. At the time, cortisone was a new, and not fully tested as a drug.

Ed makes a full recovery and returns to work and family life, but things are not the same. For one thing, Ed has adopted a carefree attitude towards money. What's worse, Ed begins going through some very violent mood swings, where he finds himself talking down at just about everyone, family included. His closest friend, Wally Gibbs (Matthau), also finds himself on the receiving end of Ed's sudden outbursts. He soon comes to the conclusion that it's the cortisone at the root of the problem, and Ed is taking far more of the experimental drug than he has been prescribed, claiming that it's the only thing keeping him alive. Finally, one Sunday, Ed experiences a psychotic episode that threatens the safety of his family and best friend.

Bigger Than Life is a great look at drug addiction and psychological unhingement being brought into a 1950s suburban American home, which is probably why it was not a box office success at the time. Everyone needs to see this picture at least once. Highly, highly recommended.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Make Way for Tomorrow

Make Way for Tomorrow (Criterion #505).
1937 Paramount Pictures, now owned by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Maurice Moscovitch, Minna Gombell
Director: Leo McCarey
Buy Make Way for Tomorrow from Amazon.

Leo McCarey directed this Depression-era drama in the same year that he also made The Awful Truth, one of the all time great screwball comedies. McCarey won the Oscar for Best Director for the latter film, but he couldn't resist remarking "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture." Orson Welles, in a conversation with Peter Bogdanovich, commented that Make Way for Tomorrow "would make a stone cry".

The bank has foreclosed on the house that Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Moore & Bondi), a couple in their late 60s, have owned while bringing up their five children. The Coopers knew about their money problems, but did not act on them, and they instead waited for things to turn around for them. Ma and Pa turn to their children for help, but none of them can take both of their parents in together. Barkley moves in with his daughter Nellie (Gombell) and her husband Harvey (Hall), while Lucy is taken in by son George (Mitchell) and his spouse Anita (Bainter). The new living situations prove stressful for everyone involved.

Later on, the plan for the Cooper children is for one of them to take in both Ma and Pa so they can spend the rest of their lives together. Barkley is experiencing health problems, and it's believed that he would be better off in a warmer climate, but Lucy decides to move into a home for older women, which means the separation between she and Barkley will likely turn into a permanent one. Still, the Coopers still have one more day to spend together before moving into an uncertain future apart.

This isn't the most depressing film ever made, but it's close. Highly recommended, though.

P.S. Dear Criterion, please consider releasing My Son John if you ever want to issue another Leo McCarey film. While you're at it, I hear Duck Soup just might be available!

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now (viewed June 5th and 6th).
1979 American Zoetrope; distributed to DVD by Paramount.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Joe Estevez (uncredited)
Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Available from Amazon as part of Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier.

The story of the making of Apocalypse Now is probably just as well known as the film's story itself. Director Coppola had originally cast Harvey Keitel as Captain Benjamin Willard, but replaced him with Martin Sheen only a few days into filming, unsatisfied with Keitel's portrayal as the troubled veteran. Filming on location in the Philippines saw its share of troubles, ranging from Typhoon Olga striking the region in May of 1976, halting production for a month. In addition, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos agreed to let his army provide helicopers and pilots to help work on the film, but the government would sometimes recall them from the set to help battle bands of rebels nearby.

Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during production (his brother, Joe Estevez, stood in for him and also provided voiceover work where needed in post-production), and when it was his time to appear, Marlon Brando showed up reportedly drunk, very overweight, and unfamiliar with the script, or the novella it was based on, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A compromise was reached, and Brando was allowed to largely improvise while Coppola filmed him in shadows and using a taller stand-in to disguise the actor's weight gain. Coppola did not escape the filming unscathed either: he threatened to commit suicide several times.

As for the rest of the story...

Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen) is a special operations veteran. He has returned to Saigon after finding it nearly impossible to adjust back to civilian life back in America. Willard is actually still battling his demons even after returning to the scene of the war. Despite all of his hardships, Willard is assigned by two intelligence officers to travel up the Nung River deep into Cambodia, and find the rogue officer Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Brando), who has assembled a large platoon of Montagnard troops who worship him like a god. Citing some very disturbing radio broadcasts and recordings made by Kurtz, Willard is assigned to terminate Kurtz's command "with extreme prejudice". Willard would prefer to make the trip alone, but he is assigned a crew comprising of the no-nonsense Chief Phillips (Hall), the chemically enhanced surfer dude Lance (Bottoms), the young South Bronx hepcat Clean (Fishburne), and Chef (Forrest), someone totally unprepared for what he's seeing away from his native New Orleans. Before the mission to find Kurtz begins, Willard and his men end up taking part in a mission led by the loud and boisterous Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Duvall), where they seize a Viet Cong village near a beachhead that seemingly is perfect for surfing. After the fighting stop, Kilgore cheerfully informs Willard that he "loves the smell of napalm in the morning" since you all know it smells like victory.

Willard, whose mission is classified, so his companions are pretty much in the dark as to why they're going so far up the river, spends much of the time reading up on Kurtz, becoming more obsessed with his target, even coming to understand Kurtz's motives. In due time, several crew members are killed, Lance goes insane, and after encountering a loopy American photojournalist (Hopper) upon arrival at the compound who seems to idolize Kurtz, it remains to be seen if Willard will complete his mission to terminate with extreme prejudice.

Highly, highly recommended movie.