Patton/The Last Days of Patton

Patton

Sent to command the undisciplined and outmatched American outfit in 1943 North Africa, General George Patton leads his troops to victory over Rommel and on into Italy where his great success was challenged by his own ego, stubbornness, and pride. George C. Scott towers over Franklin J. Schaffner's epic WWII biopic in a commanding, larger than life, and even sensitive performance, one of the greatest ever committed to celluloid. Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar winning screenplay is intelligent, humorous, and highly watchable, and Karl Malden contributes excellent support as General Omar Bradley. 

**** out of ****

The Last Days of Patton

Sixteen years following the release of Patton, Scott returned to the role for the made for TV movie which details the great General's difficulties in overseeing the reconstruction of postwar Bavaria, his relegation to a toothless, bureaucratic position, and his impending death following a road accident. The Last Days of Patton marks a continuation of Scott's iconic, still remarkable performance in a mildly engaging, overlong movie which suffers from flashback structure which details Patton's years as a young soldier.

*** out of ****

The Conversation

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is the preeminent West Coast wiretapper bar none, with not a San Francisco verbal exchange privileged thanks to his state of the art gadgetry and brilliant methods. His personal life, however, is a lonely, unguarded, and vulnerable state of paranoia. When he is hired to surveil a young couple by the chairman of a powerful corporation, he finds himself entwined in an obscure murder plot and his private life begins to unravel as his conscience gradually gets the better of him. A somewhat diminished thread in an unprecedented string of classic films of the 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation is a tense, intelligent thriller that takes its time while functioning as a character study, all leading to a haunting resounding payoff, with Hackman unforgettable in a career defining performance.  

**** out of ****

New York Stories

New York Stories is a compendium of three short films from directors whose oeuvre has been largely defined by the megalopolis. Leading off is Martin Scorsese with Life Lessons which details an artist's attempts to lure his ex-girlfriend/muse to stay with him in his studio apartment, allotting him both the opportunity to finish his gallery painting and torment her psychologically. It is a well realized film, written by Richard Price and based on a Dostoevsky short story, and features two nice performances from Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette. Up next is Francis Ford Coppola serving up pointless tripe with Life without Zoe which he concocted with his daughter Sofia. It tells a cloying Eloise like story about a young girl living on her own in a ritzy Manhattan hotel. Woody Allen wraps things up with Oedipus Wrecks, a hilarious tale (and my personal favorite of the lot) of an attorney being literally haunted by his overbearing mother following a mishap at a magic show.

The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton's novella detailing the lives of impoverished, small-town Oklahoma "greasers" and their struggles with the sadistic, overprivileged "socs" is a perennial favorite among young readers. When I learned that the movie had been made after an 8th grade class wrote a letter to Francis Ford Coppola urging him to do so, I decided to give the book a whirl, and kind of regretted doing so. Fortunately, however, this is one of those rare occasions where a film is better than the book, thanks largely to Coppola's visual stylings. The film is still hurt by the book's trappings and the acting is pretty atrocious, although I did enjoy Matt Dillon's performance in a cast of budding actors which includes Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Ralph Macchio, and Rob Lowe.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is a nightmarish fever dream that details one man's descent into madness in a chaotic, irrational environment and in many ways so was the making of the film. In Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr, in collaboration with Coppola's wife Eleanor (who provides narration from her on-set diary and secretly recorded video footage) document the tumultuous shoot on location in Philippines. From its massive delays and overages (which its director covered out of pocket), constant on-set headaches, a problematic cast (with issues ranging from rampant drug use to uncooperative stars--the outtakes with Marlon Brando are hilarious--the firing of Harvey Keitel after a few weeks, and a couple heart attacks for his replacement Martin Sheen) and coupled by the fact that Coppola seems to be apparently losing his mind. What makes this intimate, fascinating documentary all the more intriguing is that amid all this chaos, Coppola was able to fashion only one of the greatest war films of all time.

Apocalypse Now

While beginning to come apart at the seems in his hotel room in Saigon, an Army Captain (Martin Sheen) receives specific and top secret orders: travel up the Nung River into Cambodia and assassinate a respected Colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone off the reservation and established himself as an idol of the local people. Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's nightmarish vision of the Vietnam War, is a vivid and brooding look at a descent into madness. Working from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Coppola along with screenwriter John Milius concoct a haunting episodic film featuring unprecedented photography from Vittorio Storaro, indelible performances from Sheen, Brando, and Robert Duvall (plus an outrageous one from Dennis Hopper as a drugged out photojournalist), and that is perhaps as grabbing and particular as any other ever made. On a side note, I watched the Redux version released in 2001 which features mostly unnecessary footage, including an interlude on a downed helicopter with several Playboy models and an extended scene at a French plantation. These additions make the film drag and I think you'd be better off viewing the film in its initial format.

The Godfather Trilogy

The saga of the Corleone crime family and their struggle to hold on from power and their fall from grace, as the sins of the father are passed on to his favorite son and the latter loses his soul. What more can be said about The Godfather films that hasn't already been said? Francis Ford Coppola's first two installments, made in collaboration with the source author Mario Puzo, are some of the finest examples of modern storytelling and moviemaking that we have. From the plot subtleties to the iconic performances (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro) to Gordon Willis' breathtaking photography and Nino Rota's unforgettable score and even the somewhat unsung supporting performances (John Cazale, Richard Castellano, John Marley, Michael Gazzo, Lee Strasberg). Then there is the dreadful Part III, a film I was ready to defend, until realizing how poorly realized it is upon a recent viewing. Here Coppola does everything he seemed to be trying to avoid doing in the earlier films, and presents a horrible screenplay with godawful acting, which is abetted somewhat by good direction, yet is still a black eye on an otherwise exceptional and unsurpassable series.

The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway takes up a modest residence in Long Island next door to a mysterious millionaire of newly acquired and likely ill-gotten means. Gatsby, the endearing new friend, hopes to stoke the flames of a love that once burned between himself and Daisy, Nick's cousin who is married to an old money man. Gatsby's dream eventually manifests itself in tragedy against the backdrop of the aimless opulence of the Roaring Twenties. F. Scott Fitzgerald's monumental novel is given a faithful rendering in this adaption written for the screen by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Jack Clayton. While all the plot points are mostly hit, symbols such as the the green light on Daisy's dock and the glowing eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleburg are nicely realized, and Gatsby's parties are gloriously recreated, the spirit of a classic that probably does not need a film rendering is never rightly instilled. The film is well cast, with Robert Redford making a near ideal Gatsby, Bruce Dern excellent as the cruel, philandering Tom Buchanan, and Sam Waterston as the naive and reticent Nick (I felt Mia Farrow was wrong as Daisy, playing her as too broad and wooden). Despite this inspired casting, the film fails to delve deeply into the hearts of these, which Fitzgerald does so well in the novel. "The Great Gatsby" is a film that may defy cinematization due to its narrative structure and beautifully poetic and descriptive prose. This version gives it a good, perhaps overly faithful but ultimately hollow crack at it, and I hold deep reservations for the upcoming 3D(?) Baz Luhrmann version featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan due out later this year.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

So the DVD for this movie offers an introduction from its director Francis Ford Coppola, which I watched before starting the movie. Yet instead of redirecting to the title screen, after the intro was through the film started automatically with Coppola's commentary playing over it. The point of this story is that I wish I would have watched the film this way instead of restarting and playing it the originally intended way. The legendary director's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is a glorious looking adaptation that shows a supreme command of the medium. Casting is another story. Aside from Gary Oldman in the lead, who is excellent but not doing anything revelatory, the acting is truly abysmal and hampers the flawless film to a point of near disdain. Keanu Reeves, who God only knows how he broke into the industry let alone has gotten steady work for the last 20 plus years, is horrendous as the real estate agent whom Dracula imprisons. Winona Ryder leaves not the slightest impression in a forgettable role as Reeves' fiance who the Count lusts after. The most disappointing performance is that of Anthony Hopkins who hams it up absurdly playing the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing. "Bram Stoker's Dracula" may be an example of a director so concerned with the look of his film that he forgot to pay any attention to the characters who were inhabiting it. 

The Cotton Club

A stick of dynamite is thrown at the feet of Dutch Schultz in a 1928 Harlem nightclub, and a dashing young horn player (Richard Gere) saves the gangster's life. Becoming his errand boy, he chauffeurs his beautiful flapper mistress (Diane Lane) and is introduced to the owner of The Cotton Club, the hoppin' whites only venue that houses Duke Ellington and where an up-and-coming hoofer (Gregory Hines) is romancing the star attraction (Lonette McKee) and slowly learning the ropes of the business. Francis Ford Coppola's "The Cotton Club" is a delightfully stylish homage to the Roaring 20s, juxtaposing a brutal gangster story with two rags to riches/romances and interspersing it all with old fashioned montages and wonderful jazz musical numbers and dance routines. The film also has a bemused, laid back attitude which I found appealing and probably appropriate for the material. There are also some fine supporting performances including Bob Hoskins as the owner of the club, Lawrence Fishburne as a Bumpy Johnson type Harlem gangster, and Nicolas Cage (Coppola's nephew) in an early, high wired early role as Gere's mad dog brother. "The Cotton Club" is a wildly entertaining film and curiously one that time has forgotten. I read that this production was marred with all sorts of problems (including a producer's contract murder on an investor!) and the thinking is that they overshadowed the film which failed to find an audience. Regardless, "The Cotton Club" is a great film that plays so many cards correctly that it should hold an appeal to most potential viewers.