HOOSIERS

1986

Indiana-raised or not, Hoosiers has to be at the top of any sports movie list. OK, some baseball people might say Field of Dreams, but that fight is for another day. It may seem a bit hokey, but basketball in a small town often is like this. The love story between Coach Dale (Gene Hackman) and Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey) is a little forced, of course. It’s about the basketball, though, and coming together as a team. The players were actual Indiana high schoolers, including Warsaw’s Steve Hollar as Raif. (His dad was once my dentist) Does Jimmy make the last shot to win the championship? He sure does. Does it bring a lump to your throat every time? Yep. No apologies. Welcome to Indiana basketball.

BEST MOMENT

The title scene of Coach Dale driving past the cornfields and basketball rims, and the final scene in the Hoosier Gym which pans to the team photo are beautiful. Coach Dale walking out into his first game is familiar (“Welcome to Indiana basketball”), as anyone who has been to an Indiana high school game knows. I had an opportunity to spend some time in the Hoosier Gym, and have made that walk. Two other scenes stand out. The first is when the team arrives at Hinkle Fieldhouse ad they are in awe of its size. Coach dale has them measure the height of the basket and distance to the free throw line to show them it is the same as their gym at home. The other scene is the famous “Picket Fence” scene in which assistant coach Shooter (Dennis Hopper) devises the game-winning play. Don’t get caught watching the paint dry.

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THE THIRD MAN

1949

This is film noir, but the British, not American style. There is a difference. Set in bleak, shattered post-war Vienna, struggling author of Westerns Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives with a job offer from his friend, Harry Lime. But when he gets to the hotel, he finds out Lime has been killed in a car accident. He decides he will head back home, but meets some of Lime’s friends to investigate the strange circumstances of his death. He eventually finds Lime (Orson Welles) alive and learns he is selling diluted penicillin on the black market, resulting in many deaths. The film is marked by its stark, artistic cinematography and scenes depicting the bleak bombed-out city under multinational control. Also distinctive is the soundtrack of zither music by Anton Karas.

BEST MOMENT

Martins meets Lime at the famous Vienna ferris wheel, Wiener Riesenrad. Originally planning to kill Martins from atop the wheel for uncovering him, Lime relents when Martins tells him he let the police know Lime was alive. Lime goes into a soliloquy showing how little regard he has for people, comparing them to the insects they look like from the height they are. He offers no remorse or sympathy for those he has killed with his black market drugs, confirming his complete lack of morality. He is a dark heart living in the bowels of a dark city.

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BEING THERE

1979

In his last role, Peter Sellers is masterful in the role of Chance, a simple-minded man who has lived his entire life working as a gardener for a wealthy old man. He has never been outside the walls of the building, and all he knows of the world is from watching television. When the old man dies, Chance is turned outside for the first time. Through a series of events, his name is mistaken as Chauncey Gardiner, and he gains access to the most powerful of people, including the president, who take his simple, literal speech as metaphors for broader topics like economics, politics, international relations, sex and love.

BEST MOMENT

Much has been discussed about the final scene of the movie and its meaning. There are also several light comedic moments. But the best is the penultimate scene where pallbearers carrying the body of wealthy businessman and presidential confidant Benjamin Rand. They are clearly the most powerful men in the country, and they are discussing who they should support as a candidate in the next presidential election. Their choice is clear — Chauncey Gardiner.

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NETWORK

1976

Paddy Cheyefsky’s satire about television was amazingly prescient for what it predicted about the way we see entertainment and information presented to us. Three Academy Award acting wins for Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight, and two more nominations for Williams Holden and Ned Beatty. Finch plays Howard Beale, a network news anchor who has a mental break and goes on a rant on-air. His ratings spike, so he is given his own show, as the news department is placed under the entertainment division. The film foresees reality television, selfies, tabloid TV and bloviating opinion-makers.

BEST MOMENT

The most famous scene is the rant by Beale when he tells people to get up and open their windows and scream “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” But in a satire, the most satirical scene is where the domestic terrorist organization, the Ecumenical Liberation Army, is in the hideout negotiating financial terms of their contract with the network lawyers over their show, “The Mao Tse Tung Hour.”

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KING KONG

1933

When I first saw the original King Kong, it scared the hell out of me. I’ve had nightmares ever since. The thought of Kong looking in the window in the middle of the night is enough to send me into a cold sweat. Initially, I lumped the monster movie in with others I was watching at the time, like the Godzilla films and bad 50s creature features. As I got older, I understand what a cinematic achievement it was for 1933 in terms of Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion animation. It’s also a great beauty-and-the-beast story that had been told before and since, but never is such a way as this. It made Fay Wray a star as the first scream queen.

BEST MOMENT

The acting is a bit over the top by today’s standards, but it matches the hugeness of the film. Paying filmmaker Carl Denham, Robert Armstrong has several huge moments to get the audience going. The first is the tale he tells Fay Wary to get her to go on the exotic trip and plays his female lead in his next movie. But ever the showman, Denham is at his best after knocking out Kong with gas bombs, realizing what he has on his hands. “We'll give him more than chains. He's always been king of his world, but we'll teach him fear. We're millionaires, boys. I'll share it with all of you. Why, in a few months, it'll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.”

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THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

1962

The Cold War produced a number of outstanding films, made off the growing anxieties of global tensions. Many were built around potential nuclear conflict, but The Manchurian Candidate seems much more chilling as a psychological thriller where a presumed war hero Raymond Shaw has actually been brainwashed to be an assassin as part of a larger plot of a subversive takeover of the American government by a Soviet/Chinese coalition. Angela Lansbury, who is normally known for kindly matronly roles, is chilling in her role as the undercover Soviet operative and handler for her son Raymond, the brainwashed hero-made-assassin. Frank Sinatra plays a member of Shaw’s company who was also brainwashed, but has broken through and must get through to Shaw before his final mission. 

BEST MOMENT

Lansbury’s Eleanor Iselin, wife of the vice presidential nominee, reveals to her son, Raymond, what his final mission will be - to assassinate the presidential nominee so the VP candidate can step in and deliver a stirring speech and sweep into power. The reveal is uncomfortable both for its cold calculation and in Lansbury’s delivery as she shows that she is devoted operative, yet part of her is still a mother, albeit with an incestual hint as she first kisses her son on the forehead and then on the lips in an overly-lingering embrace. The film was released in 1962 and virtually disappeared after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, resurfacing in 1988 and finally recognized for its cinematic brilliance.

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BLADE RUNNER

1982

Growing up a science fiction geek, I’m pretty discerning when it comes to the genre. Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back are the best of that series, with the new Rogue One ranking very high. The Alien series also broke new ground, Terminator was great, Metropolis amazing, and as far as recent films, I like Interstellar and The Martian. But two movies set themselves apart, Blade Runner and 2001:A Space Odyssey.  Up to this film, movies about the future looked bright and crisp, with a lot of glass and shiny chrome and everyone wearing jumpsuits. Blade Runner (The Director’s Cut) was gloomy and dark, a gritty, dystopian landscape, and touched on deeper themes of morality, memories and meaning of life.

BEST MOMENT

The genetically-engineered “replicant” Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has escaped from off world to find their creator and extend their lives, which have been engineered to last four years. Deckard (Harrison Ford) has been charged with killing (or “retiring”) Batty and his group. The most famous scene is when Batty, in his final moments of life, laments that the memories of what he has experienced will be lost, like “tears in the rain.” The more telling scene, though, is when Batty finds his creator, returning as a prodigal son. He finds out that he cannot have his life extended. Batty confesses his horrible acts and is given absolution from the creator, his father, his god. In a familiar theme, the creation kills its creator, becoming the new god.

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NO COUNTRY

FOR OLD MEN

2007

The Coens had produced an Oscar for Frances McDormand in her role in “Fargo,” but it wasn’t until “No Country for Old Men” that they reached the pinnacle themselves with a Best Picture Academy Award. Although had produced dramas earlier with “Blood Simple” and “Miller’s Crossing,” they had built their reputations on straightforward comedies or at least dramas with a dark comedy element within them. Javier Bardem is beyond chilling with his portrayal of the cold-blooded killer Anton Chigurh. Tommy Lee Jones is perfectly cast as sheriff Ed Tom Bell, and Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss who accidentally finds himself on the run, in the middle. Like 2016’s “Hell or High Water,” it’s not so much about the money or the chase. It’s about the three men, how they deal with people and situations, and the randomness of life. The random element is demonstrated in most basic form as the hair-impaired Chigurh’s callous flip of a coin decides who lives and who dies. Everyman Moss has moral struggle with running off with money as he randomly stumbles onto a drug deal gone bad. The lawful Bell maintains his stoic compassion which sounds uncaring, but which conveys a lifetime of seeing lives lost, seemingly at random, and his inability to save them. It's also three takes on morality, from the choices Moss wrestles with to Chigurh's coin flip seemingly removing his responsibility for his killings to the "fate" of the coin, and the moral Bell's futile fight against immorality. This is not “Fargo,” but there are similar themes. Yes, it is bloody, and at times darkly humorous. It is not wrapped up in a simple package. It certainly has the Coen’s smartly-written dialogue with pace and rhythm, the subtle and not-so-subtle symbolism, and it is beautifully shot by frequent Coen collaborator Roger Deakins. The movie plods along, like a low-speed “Terminator” as Chigurh always tracks down what he is looking for, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. The pace is intentional; it's meant to be relentless with the idea that you can never be comfortable or let down your guard. The random factor continues all the way through the finish, even catching up with the single-minded Chigurh.

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BEST MOMENT

There are several fabulous scenes, including a pair of encounters with Chigurh, one by Woody Harrelson, whose character is also chasing the money, and Moss's wife, Carla Jean. Both try in their own ways, to dissuade Chigurh from his murderous trail, only to fail. But a more telling moment occurs when Sherif Bell enters the Moss trailer just moments after Chigurh was there. He drinks form the same milk bottle. He sees his reflection in the television, just as Chigurh had earlier. The scene cement the connection between the two — two sides of the same coin, relentless in their particular pursuits.

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2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

1968

Since the earliest days of movies, filmmakers have been producing science fiction, including their takes on travel into space. Before the first rockets left the Earth, there was no frame of reference for those making the films, so it was left to the imagination what space travel would be like, including the equipment. Looking back, many look campy or silly. Even a serious attempt, such at “Forbidden Planet,” almost seem silly. It wasn’t until 1968, a full year before Man landed on the moon, and a decade before “Star Wars,” that Stanley Kubrick unveiled “2001: A Space Odyssey” did the genre take a quantum leap. Fifty years later, the film can still stand up in terms of its look and technology. The attention to detail and the level of realism drove the conspiracy theory that Kubrick was instrumental in faking the actual moon landing in 1969. But beyond the look ad feel, there’s more going on with the story in “2001,” based on the book by Arthur C. Clarke. Starting with the “Dawn of Man” sequence in which the first 20 minutes of the film has no spoken words, much is left to the interpretation of the viewer in terms of the meaning of time, human life, alien life, artificial intelligence, birth, death, humanity and afterlife. Even with the ability of computers to create other worlds and enhanced realism of space travel, it is the collaboration of Kubrick and Clarke on the storytelling that still separates “2001” from all the rest.

BEST MOMENT

In the early sequence, there is the scene where the early relatives of man realizes that a tool that can kill for food could also be used as a weapon of power, perhaps crossing the threshold from beast to man. There is the scene on the moon where astronauts who have discovered the black monolith gather around it in a similar fashion as the early ape-men. Then, of course, there is the final sequence of events in which astronaut Dave Bowman is pulled into an area of strange light and landscapes, eventually appearing in some kind of room where he sees himself at various ages. Again, interpretation is up to the viewer. But perhaps the most telling scene is where Bowman and fellow astronaut Frank Poole take to a soundproof pod to discuss a situation concerning the possible disconnection of the malfunctioning HAL computer that runs their ship. The astronauts think HAL cannot hear them, but we see that the computer has the ability to read lips. HAL, who has been programmed with human characteristics to be able to converse with astronauts in a human fashion, then shows its desire for self-preservation, a distinctly human trait, indicating that HAL may have cross its own threshold from machine to intelligent being.

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REAR WINDOW
1954
Played out in a single voyeuristic tapestry, Hitchcock again taps into a certain amount of viewer discomfort as Jimmy Stewart’s temporarily-disabled Jeff has only the windows of his neighbors for entertainment, and his imagination to create dysfunctional stories about each of them, from simple loneliness to a potential murder. Those are all played off against his own relationship with the Grace Kelly’s Lisa, a fashion-industry insider whose New York career clashes with the globe-trotting grind of Jeff’s photographer lifestyle. When Jeff’s fantasy stories about the neighbors becomes reality, he is physically unable to react, just as we the viewers are only able to sit and watch, unable to intervene. As a sidenote, this movie displays the incredible beauty of Grace Kelly. There may not be any more beautiful and elegant woman in any film than the way Kelly appears in this movie.

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BEST MOMENT
With the wheelchair-bound Jeff watching through his camera across the courtyard, he sees Lisa caught by Thorwald (Raymond Burr). The police arrive to save Jeff’s girlfriend, but at the same time, she is signaling Jeff that she has the evidence to prove Thorwald murdered his wife. Thorwald sees what she is doing, and slowly looks up and stared across at Jeff. He knows Thorwald will be coming for him. It’s a chilling look

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