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Goin’ To Town
Golddiggers of 1933
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Good Night and Good Luck
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Goin’ To Town 1935 (Paramount) Alexander Hall ; dialogue by Mae West 2.5 Mae West sporting her best strut singing two blues songs and wearing fabulous hats cocked to the side; Paul Cavanaugh as handsome, distinguished Englishman Carrington has energetic delivery; Ivan Lebedeff as crooked suave Russian with slicked back hair and spats living in Argentina. Starts out in typical old western town (20th century) where everybody is neatly dressed. Her one-liners are tame. “Marriage. That would be a new kind of racket for me.” West agrees to marry a rich outlaw (?); when he dies in a cattle rustling, she inherits all his property making her a millionairess. To her manager, “Just look after the cattle. I’ll take care of the men.” Decides to seduce suave, snobby Englishman Cavanaugh, who is prospecting for oil on her property; long seduction scene with him where she uses mild double entendres – “You like girls who like pink tea and stick out their little fingers when they drink it.” He: “You’re a dangerous woman.” She, “You look good to me too.” West decides to follow him to Buenos Aires, where she will get him by entering her horse in the races and pretending she is a “lady”. She hobnobs with the rich upper set in BA – night clubs and horse racing – and enjoys attracting the attention of all the elegant, stylish men and women. Rich people are snobby, stiff, concerned only with money and social standing. Nice racetrack scene – close race, suspense, dirty tricks, and lots of West’s money riding on the result. About prospective elderly suitor – “He collects antiques.” West “Do you think he’ll last ‘til I get him home.” West marries a rich man strictly to improve her social standing, but the rich ladies plot to run out of town. Hilarious scene with Mae West singing Delilah’s love song in French in duet with Samson in Saint-Saens’ opera. In silly ending West is accused of her new husband’s murder, but she is of course cleared. She then marries Cavanaugh who has recently acceded to a lordship and returned to court her; they are last seen in a ship heading for England.


Golddiggers of 1933 1933 Mervyn LeRoy, Busby Berkeley 3.5 Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers (smaller role), Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee. Pleasant, entertaining story about chorines living together and struggling to find work; which they do, more or less; they “trap” two upper crust Bostonians to marry them – financially very advantageous. Focus is music/dance number of the incomparable Busby Berkeley. Best is immortal “Pettin’ in the Park” that shows women undressing, explicit silhouetted nudity; a sexually active baby who leers at the girsl, looks up girls’ dresses, and tries to catch the dancing girls naked before they finish changing behind the translucent curtain; mocking of Victorian/Puritan sex rules; and ends with Dick Powell using a can opener to take off the tin armor of his girlfriend, obviously a metaphor for those pesky old behavior rules. Also the opening number ‘We’re in the Money,’ which has a section in which Ginger Rogers, clad in a coin vest, sings the number in Pig Latin; the number also suggests that girls may have to resort to more extreme means (trapping wealthy men?) if they can’t keep their jobs in show business. The “Forgotten Man” number at the end is supposed to celebrate the unfortunate Depression unemployed, but is pretty flat compared to the other three. Dick Powell is song writer/performer; has very good high tenor voice, and lots of liveliness. Other theme is the scheming women, who use their sprightly beauty to trap wealthy men so they won’t have to struggle any longer to make a living. Joan Blondell is the cutest, peppiest of the women, but all of them are pretty lively and pretty including Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler. Movie is fairly risqué (references to nudity; dancers obviously bare chested behind translucent screen; references to being in bed with a man, etc.); also makes reference to marijuana (“What have you been smoking?”). This movie could not have appeared without major changes after 1934.


Gomorra 2008 Matteo Garrone (book Roberto Saviano) (Italy) 3.0 Toni Servillo as waste disposal entrepreneur, Salvatore Cantalupo as master tailor, Salvatore Abruzzese as Totò, Gianfelice Imparato as Camorra bagman. Shockingly and depressingly realistic film about the Comorra’s stranglehold over the northern part of Naples. Set in massive decaying public housing projects and semi-industrial wastelands on the outskirts of the city; few of the characters appear to be professional actors, they are so ugly, vicious, overweight, sweating, unshaved, inchoate, mostly stupid, and poorly dressed. The Comorra controls everything in the neighborhood – if you displease the leadership, you might be murdered or just kicked out of your (extremely ugly and tattered) apartment. The film has hardly any plot and it does not waste time with character development: in the first scene in a tanning salon we are thrown into a gang war within the Camorra organization; we are givencertain characters, who are barely introduced and explained, and you just move forward with the ever-escalating violence. There is no resolution of issues; the film ends with the usual scenes of confusion, violence, and death, and one assumes that it all will continue. The narrative follows several plot lines: 1) Servillo is a respectable-looking mob-related entrepreneur, who disposes of toxic waste in illegal fashion, bribing local farmers to allow him to dump poison on their land; 2) Imparato is a bag man paying the employees of the organization; when things begin to look grim for him, he rats on his own men to another organization, and four of his friends are murdered in a hold-up; 3) Two extremely stupid kids who run around spouting lines from ‘Scarface’ decide to operate on their own, steal weapons from one of the sub-gangs, and they are then murdered in retribution in an ambush; 4) Cantalupo, a master seamster working for a Camorra-controlled clothing factory, sells his services to a rival Chinese factory with violent consequences; 5) Little Totò delivers groceries for his mother, but he is then drawn into working for one of the gangs. The violence is rather matter-of-fact – sudden, bloody, not terribly noisy (no huge explosions, but just pop sounds from the guns), and always quickly over with; very little of the surreal, obscene wallowing in violence that one sees in American movies by Tarantino, DePalma, etc. The viewer goes away with the impression that the civilization that tolerates such random, vicious criminality is lost. Unpleasant, muck-raking exposé at its most elemental and violent; Europe is challenged to do something about it.


The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966 Sergio Leone (Italy) 4.0 Features the famous three – Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach – and a host of convincing and amusing villains; there are no female characters except for unhappy widows and a prostitute with a heart of gold. Very entertaining Leone western about the involvement of the three in a search for a gold treasure buried in Sad Hill cemetery; takes place in the desert, magnificent mountains and endless vistas of West Texas and New Mexico (actually filmed in the Almería desert of southern Spain) in the era of the American Civil War (has to be one of the few westerns that take place in the early 1860s). Plot has Eastwood and Wallach as swindling partners, who have a falling out and then engage in semi-comic tit-for-tat revenge acts that continue to the final scene; they come together with real bad guy Von Cleef in the final scene looking for the treasure in the cemetery. Three main characters are well-defined, distinct and amusing. The especially vicious Van Cleef is perhaps most impressive and memorable with his prominent nose, “angel eyes”, well-chiseled face with horizontal moustache and broad black hat filmed in iconic Leone close-up that in wide screen includes the (huge) expanse of his hat. Although the apparent star, Eastwood is not quite so pungent: more easy-going and retiring, fair haired and fair skinned, less intrusive in the screen, laconic. Wallach seems to have the most screen time: hilarious; a complete hypocrite, who is able to play the affectionate brother, the man humbling himself in prayer before God, a good and loyal friend (but always the viewer is reminded – perhaps by a smirk, an eye peering between two fingers – that he is playing a role); and he is essentially a self-interested materialist who sweats greedily over the prospect of finding the treasure and he digs with trembling hands when he finally finds what he thinks is the grave. Despite the title, there is little moral difference among the three: Van Cleef is probably the most ruthless, but Eastwood has almost as little compunction in shooting down opponents, often in cold blood; Wallach kills plenty of people as well and has little regrets, but he endears himself to the viewer by his overt foolishness and sense of humor. Leone’s world has little of the high-falutin’ themes and moralism of the 50s American westerns: scores of men die for often no good reason; all three main characters are greedy and ruthless who often don’t bother to draw their guns fair and square from their holsters (although they do in the final scene); there is no significant female character; the West is definitely not civilized after the action is over. Morricone’s score plays major role throughout film; unlike “Once Upon a Time in the West”, however, it is used for punctuation rather than an operatic score that dominates throughout. One symphonic theme toward the end, but of course the memorable one is the quaver theme played in endless variations. Leone’s visual style adds a mythic quality to the film: slow moving, not much dialogue with long moments of silence, widescreen pictures of heroic vistas with a tiny lone rider making his way across the barren wilderness. There is a big anti-war subtext: the main characters keep weaving through the Union and Confederate armies fighting in the Southwest; scenes of countless wounded and dead on the ground, of hospitals, and of prisoner-of-war camps; and the men happen upon a huge battle scene (where did all the money come from?) overlooking a bridge that has to be protected at the cost of thousands of men if necessary. The commander of the Union forces can die happy only when he knows that the bridge has been destroyed. An over-long movie could be made better by tightening back to the 161 minutes of the original release. Great ending: when the three finally find the gold in the “Unknown” grave, Eastwood proposes a three-way shootout to settle who will get the money; after a long wait with a lot of music, he kills Van Cleef, but spares Wallach by taking the bullets out of his gun; he then has Wallach stand on a rickety cross with a rope around the neck, and Eastwood leaves with half of the loot lying on the ground in full view of the greedy but helpless Wallach; when Wallach is about to teeter over and thus hang himself, Eastwood from afar shoots the rope allowing Wallach to fall to the ground (thus repeating the confidence trick they had pulled several times in the beginning of the movie). Wallach curses him and Eastwood rides off accompanied by Morricone.


The Good, the Bad, the Weird 2008 Jee-woon Kim (Korea) 2.5 Kang-ho Song humorous, scruffy, and tough always clad in an aviator’s cap and riding his motorcycle across the desert sands (the Weird); Woo-sung Jung impossibly cute in cowboy hat and duster as more or less honorable bounty hunter (the Good); Byung-hun Lee mean as a snake and looking like a pop star with his black hair covering one eye (the Bad). Extremely colorful and dramatically empty action picture based on Sergio Leone’s two masterpieces – ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. The film is set in Manchuria around 1930 that has been turned into a kind of Wild West of the East. It mixes Korean, Chinese, and Japanese characters, the latter provided by the humorless and methodical Japanese army. The plot is inconsequential: all parties – the three main characters, the Japanese, and at least a couple of rival gangs – are after a map that purports to show the location of a huge treasure; what there is of a plot involves their rivalry and collisions as they compete to get to the treasure first. The climax is a three-way shootout, as in Leone’s film, in which all three main characters seem to perish; a postscript however suggests that at least Kang is still alive, and maybe Jung; the treasure appears to be the oil that spouts out of the ground as the three are lying unconscious. Song’s characters is entertaining and rather endearing – he remains laughing and good-humored through the worst of crises; the other two remain colorless; not even the villains in the film are interesting. The viewer doesn’t care how the film turns out, but it is amusing and entertaining to watch the mise-en-scene and the extended action sequences. The initial sequence is memorable with the train cutting through the desert landscape, the cgi eagle making a pass at a carcass on the tracks just before the locomotive passes, and then the extreme, bloody violence as several bandit groups attack the occupants of the train. Probably 20 minutes of the action sequences could have been cut for repetition, but who is going to cut them out after all that money? The connection to Leone’s great films is strictly plot, mise-en-scene, and a Morricone-imitative musical score: Kim does not try to build suspense dramatically with the long operatic close-ups of Leone, nor does he place the action in its historical context as carefully as did his predecessor in ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. Perhaps better seen as ‘spaghetti western meets Hong-Kong kung-fu’?


Good Bye Lenin 2003 Wolfgang Becker (Britain) 3.0 Daniel Brühl as Alexander, Katin Sass as mother, Maria Simon as sister. Rather long but affecting movie about a East German young man who protects his sick mother (a great fan of socialism) against potentially fatal disappointment by creating false environment to convince her that the DDR is still is existence after its collapse. Film is very good at depicting the impact of the breakup of the DDR on its citizens, many of the older generation regretting the reunion with the West. Humorous confrontation of the two societies that seems to emphasize the absurd consumerism and hyper-activity of the capitalist West in contrast to the calm and restfulness (and at least the good ideals of brotherhood and mutual help) of the Communist regime. Film rather nostalgic about the ‘good old DDR:’ its crimes, oppression and demoralization of its citizens are swept under the rug. Sometimes very amusing, especially the faked TV programs devised by Alex and his friend to give mom the impression that the DDR is still thriving; just before she dies, they admit that the two Germanies are reunited, but with the West essentially joining the East in a renewed socialist Fatherland (thus explaining how the streets of East Berlin could be filled with western cars). Acting is excellent, especially Brühl and his mother. Second main focus is the devotion of Alex to his mother, which is profound, but as the lie grows and takes on its own independent life, Alex begins to come off as obsessive and manipulative – Why can’t he trust that his mother will adapt to reality, especially since all the women in the family are insisting that he tell the truth? A third image is the realm of space and space travel that seems to represent an alternative ideal realm of eternity and peace: mother’s ashes are finally spread in the atmosphere by a toy rocket that busts into a fireworks display. Film sometimes annoying but touching.


The Good Girl 2002 Miguel Arteta 3.5 Mike White writes and plays the security guard. Low key movie with highly realist texture in small Texas town, where most protagonists work at sub-K Mart ‘Retail Rodeo.’ Anniston’s drawling Texas voice over just right mix of insight and homespun poetry; days of quiet desperation with pothead, stupid (although rather sweet) husband Phil. She has fling with psychotic Jake Gyllenhaal, who flips out, robs the store and then commits suicide. Kind of farcical revolving doors as Jennifer tries to get out of multiple trouble (she ends up pregnant). She makes decision to stick with the town out of desperation, and then shows ingenuity in plotting to get her husband to accept Jake’s baby as his own (blaming it on Mike White). Zooey Deschanel very amusing as coworker who takes liberty with announcements and makeovers (named after Zooey in ‘F and Z.’)! Sweet tempered, satirical, rather sad and existential. Excellent small movie.


Good News 1947 Charles Walters 4.0 June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken*, Patricia Marshall. Peppy and infectious musical about college life; adapted from 1927 Broadway hit and from 1930 Hollywood version; new songs by Freed and Comden. Allyson is demure and a little dull, and Lawford, who obviously is fluent in French, is no song and dance man; but the two show pep and flair in the final number, ‘Varsity Drag.’ Plot is throwaway – boys and girls trying to get together (the ultimate aim is to pair off, and everybody is at the end of the show); light-hearted look at college life, where sororities are queen, football is important, the professors are a bit hostile, but they come around at the end to support the team in its big game. The heart of the show is the song and dance numbers. ‘The Best Things in Life are Free’ is sung by Allyson (a simple girl) and then by a very young Mel Tormé. ‘Good News’ starts the show with the incomparable McCracken leading the way. The French song between Allyson and Lawford is clever and endearing (this is where they fall in love), and the big dance number ‘Varsity Drag,’ sends us off at the end with a lot of energy. The highlight of the show is “Pass the Peace Pipe,’ which takes place in a college soda fountain with way too many kids crowding the premises; Joan McCracken is outstanding with enormous energy and precise dance movements at the head of the pack incorporating the American Indian motifs. She is completely charming in this what appears to be her only movie (she dies in 1961 of complications from diabetes). Light-hearted and inconsequential, but very entertaining and (perhaps because of McCracken) strangely and unpredictably poignant.


Good Night and Good Luck 2005 George Clooney 3.0 David Strathairn does an excellent imitation of Edward R. Murrow (a very serious word smith with an inflexible code of ethics and with a cigarette always in his hand and the smoke curling upwards), although he doesn’t look much like him, George Clooney in fairly anodyne, smiley role as CBS producer Fred Friendly, Frank Langella as very commanding in role of CBS CEO William Paley, Robert Downey Jr. as another newsman who is secretly married to Patricia Clarkson (which is against CBS policy), jowly Jeff Daniels as a smooth assistant CEO. Perhaps overrated historical recreation of Edward R. Murrow’s decision to stand up to Joseph McCarthy, and the role it played in McCarthy’s fall and the consequences for Murrow. In black and white the film focuses almost entirely on the CBS newsroom, the esprit de corps of the guys united in their crusade against the demagogue bully; there is a little relief from the guy energy in the three or four jazzy songs by a female vocalist and in the subplot of Downey’s and Clarkson’s marriage and how they will probably lose their jobs because of it (she had to remind him to take his ring off before he goes to work). Much of the story is taken from real transcripts, especially of Murrow’s broadcasts, and from newsreel footage of McCarthy (no actor plays him in the film). The theme of the movie is primarily our responsibility to speak out and to act in order to preserve public decency and freedom in the face of people like McCarthy (with the obvious parallel to Bush and his campaign to reduce our civil liberties so as to “fight terrorism”). Also the culture of American television. Paley is a friend of Murrow, supports him and refuses to censor him, but he remembers that in American broadcasting the bottom line is financial; thus when at the end of the film sponsor Alcoa drops Murrow’s news program, Paley reacts by taking Murrow off the evening news and putting him on Sunday afternoon documentaries (the affiliates are all screaming for entertainment programming). Movie is framed by beginning and end of 1958 Murrow speech in which he speaks of the great educational potential of American television and decries its descent into entertainment and pandering to someone’s cynical low assessment of public taste (he would be more upset if he were to experience American television in 2006). In the end, McCarthy is discredited and censured by the Senate (the Army Hearings); Murrow and his crew played a role in softening up and alerting public opinion with their anti-McCarthy broadcasts in 1953. Movie is informative, perhaps too didactic for my taste.


Goodfellas 1990 Martin Scorsese 4.0 Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, Lorraine Bracco. Perhaps Scorsese’s best film combining art and entertainment; has to be one of the most entertaining movies ever made. Follows career of Henry from early teenage years until his crash and entry into the Federal Witness Protection Program. Early years when non-Italian guy envies big shot lifestyle of the local mafia and joins up (although being non-Italian, he can never be a made man); best years when he marries Bracco, prospers, makes a lot of money, and then goes to jail; decline when he starts to deal in drugs without boss’ knowledge, takes the stuff, makes mistakes, and then is arrested; he cops a plea in order to avoid being murdered by Jimmy, which he knows is coming. A kind of mafia guy in the trenches look at the subject; what was life as a common mafia guy like, as opposed to the guys at the top (‘Godfather?’). Almost incredibly vivid movie that knocks your eyeballs out: garish colors, outlandish personalities that are clearly delineated and about whom you care even if they are bastards; extreme violence (Henry crosses the street and brutally beats up the guy who molested Bracco with repeated blows to the face (meant to be disfiguring) without any edits; the black guy’s brains blown onto the bed when Tommy suddenly shoots him in the back of the head; the guy who bought a pink Cadillac for his girlfriend found in the Cadillac with both their brains blown out; crazy Tommy shot suddenly in the back of the head when he arrives at the house to be “made;” and of course opening sequence when “dead” body in trunk makes noise, then stabbing, shooting, etc.); great memorable profane dialogue. Unforgettable: the opening sequence and its prequel later in the movie (Tommy borrows the kitchen knife from his sweet mom); steady cam follows Henry and Lorraine through the corridors of nightclub in their first visit – point being that Henry is now a big shot; steady cam introduces us to all the characters as it winds through the busy nightclub; Tommy (Pesci)’s tirade in the nightclub when he has everyone convinced that he is going to blow away Henry for laughing at his jokes (“Do I aMUSE you?”); Bracco holding gun in close-up to the face of sleeping Liotta and threatens him for a full minute. Wonderful sequence of Henry’s final day – nervous, jump cuts, doing too many things at same time, constantly looking up at helicopter, Jimmy pissed because the guns he brought don’t fit his silencers, preparing drug shipment on airplane, and all the time preparing the ziti for his little brother; then police sweep down on him at his house. Pesci’s hyper excitable personality has audience on toes throughout; Jimmy turns paranoid at end, and murders almost everyone who participated in the Lufthansa heist ($6m). Bracco wonderful as wife; turned on by the alpha male, rich and famous lifestyle of Henry; always remains passionate and becomes wiser and more knowing as time passes; strung out, hysterical, and loyal at end. Liotta carries movie with his reserved, sensible personality, a little on the outside compared to Tommy and Jimmy, and yet he goes over the edge, and is saved from death only by the Feds looking for their witness. Wonderful script co-written by Scorsese and Pileggi that sucks audience into characters and suspense, and keeps us on our toes at all times. The voice-over throughout film adds greatly to atmosphere (Henry most of the time, Lorraine on a couple of occasions)l; essentially the commentary and description of the two principals after their dreams have been punctured and they have been relegated to suburbia like two ordinary schmucks. Great loud, age-matched soundtrack of rock music that keeps us excited. You never want to stop and think; you just experience the film and love every minute of it! Has any movie ever radiated such enthusiasm for film?