Editor’s Note: Freeline Media has a new movie critic, so welcome to our online family Mike Fried, who has some thoughts today on his favorite films — and why we fall so deeply in love with our absolute faves!
A friend recently asked me, after checking out my Letterboxd account what was going to be the subject of my 1,500th review on the site. And I was immediately taken aback by this question because, quite frankly, I had zero idea I was even near that amount of reviews.
And then the pressure built up. Which movie should I discuss for my 1,500th review. I thought about this for over a week and couldn’t figure out what to do. Then it came to me — I’d do an appreciation of my four favorite films, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather Trilogy (ok, it’s a cheat but Godfathers I and II are really one movie), Duck Soup and the original 1954 Godzilla and post the entire appreciation as my 1,497th, 1,498th, 1,499th and 1,500th reviews – Pressure relieved.
So here we go
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
★★★★★
I am not going to bury the lede on this one. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is in my opinion the best movie ever made.
The plot is merely a maguffin in this film. Sure it’s a strong script with drama and humor but the film is so much more. It is an extraordinarily staged experience in the desert where many of us have not been, the movie is an epic in every way.
From incredible cinematography and editing (which includes “the greatest edit of all” wherein Lawrence blows out a match and the scene cuts to the sun rising over the desert-truly a spectacle) to Maurice Jarre’s spellbinding score, this movie is an experience of sight and sound. And all three disciplines won well-deserved Oscars.
Among the supporting players the movie belongs to Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali. He is disconcerted by Lawrence’s cavalier attitude to organizing the Arab tribes to defeat the Turks and is amused by Lawrence’s discomfiture at being out of place. But he learns to love Lawrence, as a brother or otherwise. The movie hints at the relationship but does not come out and say it. I chose to think it’s brotherly love.
But the movie belongs to the actor listed in the credits as “introducing Peter O’Toole” even though it was not his first movie role, but, rather, his first leading role. O’Toole’s Lawrence is a sight to behold. A warrior in his own right among the Arabs he is a bit of fey person around other British troops. He is much more comfortable among the Arabs than his own kind. While the Arabs don’t even enjoy being in the desert, Lawrence loves it. He is brash to his hospitable hosts but cares about their plight. But his personality changes after an unfortunate event. O’Toole delivers a nuanced performance, the absolutely best one of his career and to the chagrin of many I am gonna get up on my soapbox and say that it was O’Toole who deserved the Best Actor Oscar over Gregory Peck for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ( no need to disagree with me- I know you’re out there)
And finally there is David Lean who tied it all together. The people who worked on this film hit career highs and it was all because of Lean. There are many scenes that deserve attention. The siege of Aqaba, the scene with the Turkish Bey, the several attacks on the Turks, the scene at the Suez Canal and many more. But, to me, the scene that makes the movie is Lawrence saving Gasim from the hottest part of the desert, The Devil’s Anvil. It is an extraordinary piece of work and even in an air conditioned theater you can feel the heat.
The movie assuredly deserved its BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR Oscars
Remember, Nothing is Written except WATCH IT !
THE GODFATHER I & II (1972, 1974)
★★★★★
What can I say about THE GODFATHER TRILOGY that has not been said before? Probably not much. The genius in the first two movies was Coppola taking a pulpy, not so good novel and taking out the crap and leaving in the brilliant stuff. Coppola even acknowledge this at the 2017 Tribeca closing ceremony that showed the first two movies. The films – especially the first one – have become larger than themselves.
A director who had won an Oscar for his screenplay in Patton, Coppola owned the 1970s, from the Godfather to Godfather 2, in the same year (!) as The Conversation and the decade-ending psychedelic War movie, Apocalypse Now, Coppola showed that his visions were extraordinary – and he took a cast of virtual unknowns and made them shine, despite constant interference from the studio. As Al Pacino said at the Tribeca event, the cast did not know if they would be working when they should up to shoot.
And yet, it all came together. Iconic, legendary – and those are only the debates as to which movie is better (answer: they both are) – all of the superlatives that one can heap upon a movie, they are all warranted. And yet, despite being a box office smash it is quite a small picture compared to the worst of Hollywood excesses that preceded it (can you say Hello Dolly) and all of the tentpoles that came afterwards.
And therein lies its beauty, they are strictly family dramas, mob dramas to be sure, but most of the films deal with family and what drives a family to coalesce and what can drive a family to blow apart.
That is the genius of the first two movies
The Godfather: Part III (1990)
★★★★
SPOILER ALERT !
I had the pleasure of watching The Godfather, coda: The Death of Michael Corleone this evening.
I’m not going to bury the lede. I have always liked Godfather Part III. I have always thought that it was a marvelous film even if it was the lesser cousin to the first two films. Too many people have castigated the film simply because it was lesser, which is wrong. I don’t think any film could have stood up to the first two; on that basis it was doomed to be a failure. But it ain’t so.
And Coppola’s new cut is nice- it doesn’t make it any better or worse but it trims about ten minutes off the film which helps the pacing. As Coppola says in the preface to the film, this was supposed to be the final leg of the triptych, an epilogue that tied up the loose ends. And that it does.
If you don’t know the story STOP READING NOW.
Michael Corleone is in the final stages of being legitimate, of casting off all the remnants of his organized crime family. He is honored by the Vatican and he has started to acquire the shares of an international real estate firm, Imobilliare, to complete his move into being totally legitimate.
But things are never easy for Michael Corleone. Michael survives an assassination and a diabetic stroke to travel to Sicily to see his estranged son, Tony, make his operatic debut. It is during this opera that Coppola brings the story threads to a close in a very operatic fashion.
The weakest link in this film is Sofia Coppola – she has acknowledged that she wasn’t ready to do the role and was a victim of being in Italy when Winona Ryder got sick and had to leave the production. So she was drafted. Knowing that they were considering Julia Roberts as a replacement, Sofia was the wiser choice.
But the thing is, she doesn’t kill the film. Not by a long shot. But she weakens it. And neither does the horrible first-cousin incestuous relationship story line with her Mary and Andy Garcia’s Vincent. Although it was icky.
But they do detract from the total greatness of the film.
The opera finale is one of the finest things that Coppola has ever put on screen. While it certainly does not rise to the level of the baptism sequence of the first movie, the contrapuntal nature of the revenge sequence with the beautiful music of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana is some of the best work that Coppola has ever put on screen.
And that cast is just as terrific.
Before I get to the acting I want to make an observation- most people pan the film because Robert Duvall wasn’t in it but that’s a lot of coulda woulda shoulda. I have no doubt that Duvall might have changed the film but there was nothing wrong with George Hamilton’s corporate lawyer. In fact, I think Hamilton probably carried the corporate lawyer role better than Duvall might have. Tom Hagen was a street smart guy. He was a wartime consigliere. Michael doesn’t need that- he needed a BJ Hunnicutt.
The entire cast is terrific but, to me, the movie is owned by Talia Shire as Connie. This is her strongest outing in the role and she presents herself as a Lucrezia Borgia, the power behind the throne.
And I will always get a kick out of Richard Bright as Al Neri, who is the only guy who can call Don Corleone “Mikey” to his face.
In this newly recut version Coppola has trimmed some of the fat. The ceremony of papal honors at the beginning of the film is discarded and opens with the scene where Michael is negotiating with Archbishop Gilday. Because after all, the hypocrisy is that the Corleone family has never been about honor, they have always been about the fcuking money.
And the scenes with Vincent and Mary have been trimmed and other scenes have been moved around to increase the narrative flow.
And finally BIGLY SPOILER ALERT
Michael does not die in this recut version. Instead of falling sideways off his chair (again, another much spoofed moment) we close with Michael, as an old man, having lost everything. His “death” is to live alone for a long life, having lost everything dear to him. It’s his curse.
It’s Francis Ford Coppola’s curse that this movie wasn’t the same as the first two. On a 5 point scale, the first two movies, go to 6. The curse of Godfather 3 and Godfather, Coda is that it’s a solid 4.
And that ain’t so bad.
WATCH IT!
DUCK SOUP (1933)
★★★★★
Duck soup to me is quite frankly, the funniest movie ever made.
It’s one of those movies that gives me belly laughs every single time I’ve watched it and that has been plenty of times. Admittedly, while there are a couple of gags in the movie that are cringe even for me and would not pass muster in today’s environment, the rest of the movie is just a visual and auditory feast of silly jokes and gags that just never get old.
What other movie would have Groucho get into a sidecar on a motorcycle manned by his driver Harpo not once, not twice but three times to deliver a punchline with absolute hysterical laughter.
And let’s not forget the fact that we’re dealing with the Marxt brothers, who, in a particular scene, when Chico and Harpo attempt to impersonate Rufus T. Firefly, played by Groucho, they actually look like identical brothers.
Two of the greatest achievements in this movie are the “to war” and dance number and the mirror gag, which has been replicated many times.
But that oversimplifies.
However; there are so many gags in this movie. I could write for hours about all of the jokes, both visual and spoken in the movie but I could not do them justice.
If you haven’t seen this movie, you need to see it because it truly is absolutely hysterical and it packs more laughs into its 68 minutes then most comedies do in their full two hours.
The Marx brothers are at the top of the game in this movie and they are firing on all eight cylinders.
Godzilla (1954)
★★★★★
Fishing boats explode in the middle of the sea. High radiation is detected. The people of Odo Island suffer death and damage during a tropical rainstorm. Some believe it is the legend of Godzilla. During a government investigation, Godzilla shows itself, unearthed by nuclear testing. When Godzilla comes ashore in Tokyo it is up to Professor Yamane and Dr. Serizawa to figure out a way to defeat Godzilla. Serizawa has a horrible way to get rid of Godzilla but doesn’t want to use it. In the meantime it is up to the Japanese Army to try and defeat the monster. But they are mostly helpless, allowing Godzilla to trample through Tokyo.
Not only is this the best Godzilla movie ever made, it is one of the best Japanese movies ever made. It takes its subject seriously (H-Bomb testing and radiation, not monsters) and the addition of acclaimed actor Takeshi Shimura adds a strong level of gravitas to the film. It is a serious movie, aside from one small moment of comic relief provided by Shimura himself.
We have director Ishiro Honda to thank for this. He directs with a steady hand and keeps the movie serious when it could have devolved into camp, something they saved for later films.
Sure it’s a guy in a rubber suit but the story is compelling and there is something comforting in the notion that all of the effects are practical and there are very few special effects. The model makers went into overtime on this one. George Lucas has cited the miniature work on this film as an inspiration for his similar work in STAR WARS.
The score by Akira Ikufube is riveting and pulse pounding.
I can’t help watching this movie several times a year because it is just that good. It was a favorite of Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese and it is a favorite of mine.
WATCH IT!
STEER CLEAR OF THE 1956 GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS which is the American version of the film, cutting several scenes to add in scenes featuring Raymond Burr as an American reporter in Japan relaying the situation. It is an affront to the original. I guess Americans weren’t ready for a cast of made up completely of non-Americans speaking their native language.
Like today.
Meet the Author:
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
