The Yakuza

Sydney Pollack, 1974 (8.8*)
Though a little slow-moving at times, this is one of the best films in the long careers of Robert Mitchum and director Sydney Pollack. Mitchum plays a former U.S. soldier Harry Kilmer, once stationed in Japan, who returns to help an old friend rescue his kidnapped daughter from Japanese mobsters, known there as the Yakuza, or the Japanese 'mafia'. Veteran actor Ken Takakura turns in a credible performance as his longtime friend Eiko.

Mitchum, at 58, is perfectly cast as a world-weary retired detective, yet not insensitive or jaded enough yet to ignore a friend in need; his sense of personal loyalty overrides his cynicism. Co-written by Paul Schrader (his first, he later wrote Taxi Driver, Light Sleeper, Raging Bull) and Robert Towne (an Oscar winner for Polanski's Chinatown, released the same year), this is a believable crime story without the pretensions of so many western films, which normally mindlessly inject crowd-pleasing action sequences like car chases, designed more to attract fans than to provide essential narrative exposition.

Adding to the plot complexity is the fact that Mitchum had fallen in love with Eiko's sister when he was in Japan earlier, so we get a sense of his own personal motivation. We also learn a lot about the Japanese crime underworld, a subject rarely tackled in western films. The film also stars Brian Keith, Herb Edelman, and Richard Jordan (his first film) in the supporting cast.

Along with Kurosawa's 49 classic Stray Dog, this ranks as among the finest films about the Japanese crime underworld. Some accurately call this "the most Japanese of non-Japanese films". All in all, one of the neglected crime classics of all time. It's puzzling that it has only a 7.2 rating at IMDB - the fans there are usually sharper than this, hence it's status as an overlooked classic.

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They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Sydney Pollack, 1969 (7.8*)
This is a gut-wrenching indictment of the exploitation of everyday people during the Depression, in the name of entertainment. Does this sound familiar? Using the lure of a contest prize of $1,000 or more, venues were able to get average folks to dance non-stop (except for short restroom breaks) for days, with the last couple standing getting the prize, the rest go home empty. In this movie, emcee Gig Young, in an Oscar®-winning supporting role, shows the limits the emcees went to in order to attract fans and make the contest more interesting.

Jane Fonda burst through with her first important dramatic role here, gaining an Oscar®-nomination as the jaded dance partner to Michael Sarrazin, who is new to marathons and Fonda’s despair. Red Buttons and Bonnie Bedelia (Oscar®-nominated) are another persevering dance couple, Buttons playing a marathon vet who gives his fatherly advice to keep others going. This is a bleak but honest look at hopeless people living in desperation, grasping for the last brass ring before leaving the circus.

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Jeremiah Johnson

Sydney Pollack, 1972 (8.1*)
Just a simple story about "a man called Jeremiah Johnson who wanted to be a mountain man". He was told to "go west of the sunset, turn left at the Rockies", and from sparkling dialogue like this, we thankfully have a quiet film about a pioneer played by Robert Redford who attempts to survive alone in the western wilderness. This is a very well-made and unique western, definitely not the standard good vs evil plot; it's more about survival, cooperation, coexistence, independence. The film introduced Redford to the Wasatch Mountains of Utah (not far from Salt Lake City), where he later built Sundance after falling in love with the incredible scenery there. This is the kind of western that you can watch over and over, and it even casts Native Americans in a positive light. Sydney Pollack would later win a directing Oscar for Out of Africa, also with Redford.
Quote: I know who you are - I've been hearing you for 20 days and smelling you for three!

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Tootsie

Dir: Sydney Pollack, 1982 (8.6*)

Best Picture (GG)

AFI Top 100

Out of work actor Dustin Hoffman decides to start looking for parts as a woman, by going in drag, there’s a great scene where he fools his agent, Sydney Pollack, who only took the part because Dustin said he wouldn’t get into drag unless Pollack played his agent. His roommate is the hilarious Bill Murray, who reputedly ad-libbed his part. He gets a job on a hospital soap opera, where older doctor, former soap actor Dan O’Herlihey in a riotous spoof, insists on "giving all actresses the tongue" during filming, so they can’t react. Only two problems: Hoffman as "Tootsie" falls in love with soap co-star Jessica Lange (Supp Actress Oscar winner), who thinks he's a woman, while her dad, Charles Durning, falls in love with "her". Great gender spoof, and a classic screwball comedy. Lange's was the film's One Oscar
Quote: Man, that is one wacky hospital! (Murray)

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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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