Back in college, I remember stumbling upon a list of the “best movies of all time” in one of my media intro courses. I was surprised to discover that I hadn’t watched very many of them at all (I fell asleep watching Gone with the Wind as a child). I was temporarily ashamed at my apparent lack of culture, but the discovery sparked a film rampage that lasted until I graduated. Remembering the profound impact some of those films had on me, I decided to put together a list of must-see movies for college students containing some of these, interspersed with a few rite-of-passage flicks, college cult classics and movies to make you think.
1.) The Godfather. As a woman, I thought this was merely a dude movie, and I admit the only reason I watched it was to finally understand the references to it in one of my favorite romantic comedies, You’ve Got Mail. But when watching this Academy Award-winning film, I got wrapped up in the complex plot, the family dynamics, the considerations on good and evil, and the inevitability of Michael’s rise to power in the mob world. In this vein, I also recommend cult classic Boondock Saints, another supposedly stereotypical dude movie that actually transcends gender. I remember posters for both of these movies plastered all over dorm room walls. [Read more…]
Gaily, Gaily: Disappointing, Disappointing
I caught Gaily Gaily on late night cable. Why would I devote two hours of my life to this particular 1969 release? Well, in theory, Gaily Gaily should be a meaningful, insightful, socially significant movie. Consider:
- It co-stars Melina Mercouri, the anti-Junta Greek actress who later became a member of the Pan-Hellenic Parliament and Greece’s minister of culture after spending years as an outspoken critic (and target) of anti-democratic forces.
- Abram S. Ginnes wrote the screenplay. Ginnes was a lifelong radical, a labor organizer and a victim of anti-communist blacklisting during the 1950s.
- The movie is an adaptation of Ben Hecht’s undoubtedly embellished autobiographical works. Hecht, a prolific Oscar-winning screenwriter, spent time on an English blacklist due to his strong support of the Zionist movement in Palestine.
- United Artists released Gaily Gaily in 1969, in the thick of a movement toward more overtly political film making.
- Norman Jewison, who has tackled a variety of social and political issues in his movies, directed Gaily Gaily.
In reality, Gaily Gaily is anything but a politically charged movie. It’s really nothing more than a sepia-toned dramedy with an impressive cast, nice period costuming and a glass smooth Henry Mancini score.
Beau Bridges is Ben Hecht. Actually, he’s Ben Harvey. That’s right, they somehow managed to turn Ben Hecht, the very namesake of the SS Ben Hecht that braved the British blockade of Palestine, into a WASP-y blond kid. Anyway, young Bridges is a sexually frustrated teen from Galena who has a thing for cleavage. With the support of his dear grandmother, he heads off to Chicago in hopes of a slightly more exciting and cleavage-rich lifestyle than Galena can provide.
He’s robbed on the train. Bordello boss Queen Lil takes care of him. He becomes a cub newspaper reporter. There are minor twists and turns as comedic reporters and politicians drink, drink and drink some more. People chase one another as bouncy Mancini music plays in the background.
Old school newspaper reporters are loveable rascals. Irish guys are drunks. Prostitutes have hearts of gold. Politicians are corrupt, but not necessarily evil. Melina Mercouri is beautiful. Margot Kidder makes her film debut. Bridges has that vaguely confused look on his face that dominates most of his early performances. Every scene features an instantly recognizable character actor (Brian Keith, Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy, etc.).
Gaily Gaily is pretty like a gilded old photograph. It snagged three Oscar nominations (costumes, art/set decoration and music).
Unfortunately, it’s boring. And, to be honest, it’s pretty damn stupid. It’s certainly disappointing.
It’s also strange. Gaily Gaily is a throwback movie made and released during a period of innovation and boundary testing. Hollywood’s output was commenting on larger issues in a grittier way than ever before. Yet Gaily Gaily’s collection of politically aware and talented artists made a movie that, at its very best, is nothing more than a quaint source of vanilla half-chuckles.
Sequels We Want to See: Forrest Gump 2
Forrest Gump 2 – Forrest Does Fatherhood
Synopsis: After the death of his dear Jenny, Forrest is forced to adapt to life as a single dad in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
Memorable Scene: Little Forrest questions his dad about death, in particular his mother’s. His father responds, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”. Then little Forrest asks, “What does that mean? That doesn’t explain anything”. His father asks, “You wanna go play ping pong or somethin’?”
Plot: Forrest starts out teaching little Forrest the alphabet, but when his son brings home an F on his report card, Forrest scolds him “Remember what I told you, Forrest. A is for almond shrimp, B is for Barbeque Shrimp, C is for Coconut Shrimp, D is for Dumplings and Shrimp, E is for…”
Forrest and his son visit Lt. Dan Taylor for a lesson in discipline, but find out he’s back to his old ways. [Read more…]
Jeepers Creepers: The Credits are the Scary Part
Here’s my plan:
- Pick out a fistful of horror movies I haven’t seen.
- Watch them.
- Write a review of one every other day until Halloween.
It’s simple with a relevant holiday theme.
Jeepers Creepers was first up on my list. It doesn’t lend itself to a simple review.
Here’s what I knew about Jeepers Creepers before sitting down to watch it:
- It was something of a surprise mini-hit during its theater run.
- It was popular enough to spawn at least one sequel, with another one lurking in the future.
- Someone deemed the movie important enough to release a “special edition” DVD.
Here’s what I didn’t know:
Victor Salva wrote and directed it.
This was a complication. I knew that I’d filter every frame of Jeepers Creepers through my understanding and opinions of the writer/director.
Just in case you didn’t know it, Victor Salva is a child rapist.
Victor Salva’s first feature, Clownhouse, was in the can. The movie told the story of a little boy who was victimized by a crew of sadistic felons in stolen clown garb.
The cops were more interested in another Salva movie–a little homemade video he kept in his house. It featured Salva, the former daycare worker, and the twelve year-old star of Clownhouse engaged in sexual activity. Salva used his longstanding relationship as a trusted adult with the child and his position as a director to create an opportunity for abuse far more horrific than anything his creepy clowns did to the child’s character.
Salva pleaded down eleven felony counts to five and got what he wanted–a relatively light prison sentence. He did less than two years of a three-year stint before getting out and resuming his career in movies.
His first post-prison movie was Powder. He wrote and directed the story of a supernatural albino high school boy who found himself the target of derision and bullying. I thought its scenes of actors portraying high school kids tussling in the rain and a magnet force prying away the buttons on a pair of Levis were more than slightly unsettling, considering Salva’s history as a pederast.
The Disney-produced Powder caught the attention of protesters who couldn’t believe that the family-friendly conglomerate would allow a child rapist to make features. Somehow, despite the protests and the lukewarm reviews, Victor Salva managed to hang around Hollywood and to make Jeepers Creepers.
Once upon a time, Salva was a kid who loved movies. He particularly loved Jaws and saw it over five dozen times. Later, he discussed his childhood fascination with the movie. He didn’t relate to the human characters in the movie; he was focused on the shark.
He related to the monster because people thought it was ugly and frightening. Salva saw himself as a reviled outsider–a fat, gay kid in a world of less-than-tolerant people. He said:
When someone in the movie pointed and screamed, ‘Arrrrgh, he’s so hideous! He’s so ugly!’ I thought, ‘No, the monster is the most interesting thing about the movie. I wonder what he’s thinking and feeling.
I think those comments may shine a light on the way he makes movies.
If he finds a sense of kinship with the villains, Clownhouse makes sense and is even consistent with the unspeakable behavior in which he engaged. He took something children are at least theoretically believed to love and trust, clowns, and turned them into predatory monsters.
Powder becomes weak apologia in which Salva the outsider tries to show us just how hard it is to be a misfit. He begs for sympathy or makes excuses with the lead character–a freakish albino with strange powers who stands in for the fat kid trying to figure out how to survive in a world that doesn’t understand him.
What about Jeepers Creepers?
The Creeper comes out of hiding every twenty-three years to feast for twenty-three days. He chooses young people, high school/college students, as his victims. That’s all we really know about the villain. He’s a strong, unexplained evil force hellbent on maiming killing kids without justification or developed backstory. You never grow to hate the creeper or to understand his motivations. They defy explanation. The Creeper is a teen-seeking monster who can only keep to himself for so long before he must feed again.
Is this Salva’s way of addressing the twisted, sick parts of his brain that led him to rape a kid who trusted him? Is he telling us that the evil inside of him “just is”? Or, even more frighteningly, is he warning us that the destructive compulsions that put him into prison can only lie dormant for so long before they’ll override his sensibilities?
Maybe this is a case of a “cigar just being a cigar”. Perhaps it’s just an almost-decent B-grade horror movie and the Creeper story is shallow because Salva didn’t write a great script. Maybe the victims are kids solely because kids are the target audience for these horror movies and Salva needed to pitch something marketable.
I suppose Salva’s movies and his crimes could be unrelated. A horror movie that takes the idea of kid-friendly clowns and sets them loose as terrorists targeting a boy might not have anything whatsoever to do with the fact that a friendly Salva was simultaneously abusing his position of trust to sexually violate the kid who played the Clownhouse boy. Powder could just a be a vaguely shitty movie about a powerful outcast. Jeepers Creepers could be one of millions of semi-forgettable fright flicks. In Jeepers Creepers II (which I won’t be reviewing), Salva’s camera’s attention to the detail of tanning shirtless guys may be nothing more than acceptable eye candy.
I have my doubts.
And that’s what makes Jeepers Creepers scary.
If I could divorce myself from the knowledge of the writer and director being a child rapist, I wouldn’t have much to say about Jeepers Creepers.
The opening portion, in which an unknown pscyho in a truck that looks like ‘Mater from Cars engaging in Duel-like activity with a brother/sister teen duo is relatively good. Then, like most throwaway horror flicks, the whole thing begins to fall apart, circling the drain faster and faster until it reaches a lame conclusion.
Jeepers Creepers has a posse. Some people absolutely love it and consider it one of their favorite movies. I don’t understand these people. Sure, the movie has a few “BOO!” moments that might make one shudder in his or her seat, but there’s nothing that new, great, interesting, creative or impressive. The Creeper’s scariness shrinks the more we see him and the teenage stars are really nothing more than speaking props.
The production values are decent. The movie isn’t horrible relative to its genre. Then again, horror is littered with extremely bad movies and very few great ones. Perhaps it shines a little only because the options surrounding it are so very dull.
If you’re looking for a way to scare yourself before Halloween, don’t bother watching Jeepers Creepers. The scariest part of this movie is a name in the credits.
Most Successful Movies
Lately we have been reviewing another kind of movies here and focused less on your typical box office stuff because… well every does that already and we like to be different. But everyone also seems to be in need of a credit loan in recent years. Unless your name is Quentin Tarantino of course but you would probably prefer to be Zemeckis, Cameron or Spielberg because these are the guys raking in the real money. And Jerry Bruckheimer.
The team of Infographiclabs created this most successful movies infographic for us and ForeverGeek.
Click the image for larger view.