Come and See

Elim Klimov, 1985, Russia (8.4*)
This is one of the more harrowing WW2 films, as it takes place in rural Belorussia as the Nazis invade, turning idyllic, pastoral farmland into a living hell. We see life through the eyes of a teenage boy, named Florya, brilliantly played by Alexei Kravencho, who begins the film digging in the sand for discarded weapons, which he and his friends use for playing war. Soon after, the Nazi invasion comes, and he flees with some armed partisans into the woods. Gradually through the film, his face becomes etched by horror, and his his eyes mirror his internal shock at the atrocities he witnesses.

This has some of the more memorable war scenes in memory. Director Klimov has made the film more immediate and realistic by using high contrast, grainy film and hand-held cameras. You often feel the trees whipping past you as you hike through the forest with partisans to escape the invading army, which is leaving a path of destruction. There’s a particularly frightening one of machine gun fire in the dark on a moonlit night, tracers skimming by just over the head of a prone Florya in the grass.

A warning that this depicts war brutality at its worst, and is not a family film nor one for the squeamish, but for everyone else, a must-see war film that brings the ultimate reality of mankind’s atrocities back to our consciousness once again. One of the best Russian films, #559 on our top ranked films on the net survey.

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Witness

Dir: Peter Weir, 1985 (8.6*)

This is a tight, well-made thriller from Australian Peter Weir, almost a film noir. A young Amish boy visiting the city is accidently the only witness to a murder, so detective Harrison Ford goes undercover in Amish country to help protect the boy, and while there grows attracted to the simple lifestyle and anadorned country beauty of the boys widowed mother, Oscar-nominated Kelly McGillis. We get to sample the simple way of life along with Ford’s character, but eventually, of course, the criminals of the big city have to intrude or we’d have no real good vs. evil story. In a way, this is like a classic western, and seems to perhaps even be based on High Noon, but Weir always makes films more intelligent than even that classic. If you like Weir, check out my favorite of his: Fearless, The Mosquito Coast, Picnic at Hanging Rock, or even The Truman Show, with Jim Carrey. 8 nominations, 2 Oscars (Editing and Screenplay)

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Out of Africa

Sydney Pollack, 1985 (8.5*)
Best Picture (AA, GG)
Meryl Streep plays author Karen Blixen (who wrote as Isaak Dineson) in this true story, during the part of her life lived in Kenya, Africa, trying to run a coffee plantation. Her less than satisfactory husband, Oscar® nominee Klaus Maria Brandauer, is usually off hunting or fighting in the Boer War.

Basically out of loneliness and mutual respect, she eventually becomes close friends with hunter and pilot Robert Redford, who shows her the real Africa from the air, a wild and natural Africa as yet unspoiled by imperialists foreigners. This is a beautiful adventure and romance both, and Pollack never allows it to get sentimental. Pollack's best and most ambitious film, a true epic romance, worthy of its 7 Oscars®

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Back to the Future Trilogy

Dir: Robert Zemeckis, 1985 (8.8*)
Can you have any more fun in a sf film? The first film stood alone, but then the sequel was so long they split it into two parts, the 2nd now nothing more than an unfinished bridge to the third. Michael J. Fox is a high school kid in the 80’s who has a science professor friend, Christopher Lloyd in his best movie role, always experimenting with mind-blowing machinery. He luck out on one invention however and turns an old Delorian into a time traveling coupe, runnin on garbage or beer using his "flux capacitor". Very funny adventures ensue when Fox is hurtled back to 1955, crashes and meets his mom, Lea Thompson, who takes care of him and develops an immediate crush, jeopardizing her chances with his nerdy dad, Crispin Glover! What are the odds? In this trilogy, pretty good as Fox goes back and forth in the Delorian until he’s in the wild west in part 3… Thomas F. Wilson is perfect as arch-enemy Biff and all his relatives.
Quote: Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here. (Biff)

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A Room With a View

Dir: James Ivory, 1985 (9.9*)

Best Picture (BAA)

Excellent filming of the E.M. Forster romantic comedy novel. This deservedly made Helena Bonham Carter a star, the only mystery was the lack of an Oscar nomination (she later got one for Wings of the Dove). Lush, lyrical, funny, yet not stuffy at all for a classic novel, thanks to the Ivory direction and terrific cast: young Daniel-Day Lewis, hilarious as stuffshirt fiance Cecil back in England, and especially Maggie Smith as the doting aunt chaperone, and Denholm Elliott as the free spirited father of the romantic son, Julian Sands. Both were nominated along with Ivory as director; and it won 3 Oscars (art direction, costume design, screenplay for Ruth Jhabvala, author of the novel and film Heat and Dust). One of the best romances on film. 3 Oscars for 8 nominations

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Brazil

Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1985 (9.0*)

This outrageous and scary SF-fantasy will forever be debated: critics loved it, some moviegoers did not. Personally, I think it's Terry Gilliam's (Time Bandits, The Fisher King) best: daring, inventive, ambitious, and unique. It's a dystopean future society, controlled by a fascist intelligence system, one in which lead character Jonathan Pryce escapes his dreary reality into fantasies where he sees his "angel of love" (Kim Griest), and constantly hears the song "Brazil". Katherine Helmond ("Soap") is perfect as his ditzy mother, contantly getting facelifts and boyfriends.

Robert De Niro has a rare comedic part as a rogue repairman, who fixes appliances without proper paperwork and authority, which makes him a "seditious terrorist" wanted by authorities. Bob Hoskins is also a repairman, the antithesis of De Niro, who is a stickler for bureaucracy. Ian Holm is a paranoid, spineless manager, who depends on employee Pryce to solve his mistakes; and fellow Monty Pythoner (along with Gilliam) Michael Palin is a friend of the family's who happens to be a government torturer. Not for all tastes, but very rewarding if you give it a chance. Won numerious critics awards as film of the year.

Quote: I 'members 'im every day at work: "ere I am, J.H."

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