Gettysburg

Ronald F. Maxwell, 1993 (8.1*)
Memorial Day WAR-a-thon film #14
Based on Michael Shaara's excellent novel The Killer Angels, about the leaders of the armies that met at Gettysburg. Actually filmed as a tv miniseries, this gives the three-day battle it's proper cinematic homage at nearly four hours. Even though made for tv, and it looks it at times, it's still probably the finest film treatment of Gettysburg to date.

In spite of some well-known actors in pivotal roles, which usually means "all-star ineffective cast", some manage to turn in remarkable performances, especially Jeff Daniels as Col. Joshua Chamberlain, the ex-teacher from Maine, who held Little Big Top in the battle's early fighting, thus saving the high ground for the Union cannons, and who was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and later served in Congress.

Martin Sheen turns in a credible performance as Gen. Robert E. Lee, with the proper accent, but without any of Lee's charisma. Some of the beards don't look quite real enough, like the one on Tom Berenger, but his performance is a good one so it's a trifling issue, just one of the many tipoffs of lower-budget, tv-level source of the production. Sam Elliott shines as Gen John Buford, the cavalry commander who initiates the battle, as does Richard Jordan (in one of his last roles) as Gen. Lewis Armistead, facing his best friend from earlier days in this battle. Stephen Lang perhaps chews the scenery a bit as Gen. George Pickett, forced by Lee to send his troops across exposed ground in the face of Union cannons.

It was perhaps a war deciding moment in just one huge battle, one that killed over 53,000 men, more than all of Vietnam. The film does a good job attempting this scale, using the help of a historical war re-enactment group. A war-weary Lee is shown saying "I leave this up to God now", which is often a big mistake, one that sacrifices your own war experience and rationale judgment, which had been used to Lee's advantage up to this point, offsetting the greater numbers and better equipment of the Union.

Gods and Generals
Michael Shaara's son Jeff finished his unfinished sequel novel "Gods and Generals" after Michael's death. It was also filmed, with Robert Duvall as Lee, a better choice than Sheen, and is about all the civil war years leading up to Gettysburg.

Bring the Jubilee
For those interested in Gettysburg, read Ward Moore's excellent alternate-history novel called "Bring the Jubilee", about a scholar who agrees to test a time travel machine if they'll send him back to the beginning of the famous battle, so he can see how the South won the battle, and thus the war, keeping the north and south as two separate nations and thus both second-level world powers, still dominated by European empires.

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The Last Seduction

John Dahl, 1993 (8.5*)
Excellent crime story, a modern noir in which a wife from hell steals a lot of drug money from her husband and leaves him a cryptic note (she can write backwards and upside-down both!) that basically says 'adios' and she leaves town. When she stops driving, she immediately hooks up with a new lover who's just hanging out in a bar she visits, and sweeps him into her web of deceit and intrigue. Meanwhile, the husband is not only angry, but is not giving up easily, hiring detectives and joining the chase for his money.

Linda Fiorintino became an overnight sensation for her sly, subtle, seductive performance as the wife, in a performance that pre-dates Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. In spite of her lack of ethics, you have to admire her gutsy, sophisticated manner. In many ways she's reminiscent of young Lauren Becall in To Have and Have Not. Definitely R rated for some pretty adventurous sex scenes, especially one outside on a chain-link fence. This film is a throwback to the great film noir of the 40's.

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Farewell, My Concubine

aka Ba Wang Bie Ji
Chen Kaige, 1993, China (8.2*)
A lengthy Chinese epic of three hours that covers 50 years in the lives of two Chinese opera singing stage brothers, and their romantic entanglement with the same woman. This ambitious epic weaves these stories around the history of China and its tumultuous changes over the entire 20th century. Perhaps a bit slow overall, this is nevertheless a huge scale accomplishment with a traditional epic look that is well worth seeing, featuring some classic scenes of war with thousands of extras.

Another epic of Kaige's worth seeing is The Emperor and the Assassin (1998), which won a technical jury prize at Cannes for production design. A royal courtroom where visitors approach the king by nearly walking on water is unlike anything else in cinema.

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Grumpy Old Men

Donald Petrie, 1993 (7.5*)
I didn’t remember liking this so much until I saw it again recently in widescreen (Odd Couple didn’t fare so well, like one long bad marriage argument). Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau play two neighbors who have basically grown into a couple of bickering curmudgeons, without their kids or wives around to keep them civil. Much of the action here centers around new neighbor Ann-Margret, who reminds the two antagonists and their friend Chucky, played by Ossie Davis, what it’s like to be a “young pup”, as 88-yr old Burgess Meredith calls his son Lemmon when he sees Ann-Margret. There are some hilarious scenes here, especially one at the local frozen lake in winter where everyone gathers to ice fish in their shanties. The outtakes at the end are just as funny, but here Burgess steals the show, coming up with about half a dozen euphemisms for ‘romance’ as he and Jack watch Chucky going inside to visit Ann-Margret. Jack and Walter’s kids are played by Darryl Hannah and Kevin Pollack. No one expected a film with "all old people" would be a box office hit, but it was, thanks to the superb cast. The sequel with Sophia Loren, Grumpier Old Men, wasn’t nearly as successful nor as popular.
Quote: Looks like Chucky is taking old one-eye to the optomitrist!
Quote 2: Looks like Chucky is gonna ride the old baloney pony!

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Searching for Bobby Fisher

Steve Zallian, 1993 (8.5*)
Engrossing story of a kid, Josh Waitzkin, played by Max Pomeranc, who loves to play chess, and who is enthralled by playing speed chess in a local park, where his talent is spotted and he is befriended by Larry Fishburne, who tutors him and provides comraderie. His father, in another excellent performance by Joseph Mantegna, wants to help his son achieve his goals, and hires conservative chess master F. Murray Abraham to take his son to the next level, serious tournament competition. The film's title alludes to U.S. chess sensation (and eccentric) Bobby Fisher, who broke the Russian's hold on the world chess championship in the late 60's (and then became a recluse), but has yet to see a successor emerge from the U.S. This is an excellent story about learning about something you love and showing determination toward your goals, even if you're only 7 years old. Based on a book by Josh's father Fred Waitzkin.

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Much Ado About Nothing

Dir: Kenneth Branagh, 1993 (9.1*)

This is my favorite Shakespearean play transcribed to film, Kenneth Branagh did a terrific job on this one. Basically a romance, the story involves some soldiers who return home from a war, in a thrilling opening sequence where all the women on the estate are running for the baths, trying to beat the soldiers arriving on horseback; when they all come together, the romance begins. There are several courting couples, led by Branah and offscreen wife Emma Thompson, as two embittered and battling “never to be” lovers, who trade insults and barbs like sword thrusts (elements of Taming of the Shrew here). Another couple, played by Kate Beckinsale and Robert Sean Leonard, is engaged to be wed, while some schemers plot to break up that marriage with deceit and subterfuge, hence the play’s title. There’s a lot of good-natured comedy and romantic play here, with sparkling dialogue, played by a large ensemble cast led by Denzel Washington, an eclectic group (that includes Keanu Reeves and Micheal Keaton!) that somehow works well together. This is about as enjoyable as the bard gets, now if they'd only film The Merry Wives of Windsor, who stayed merry by swapping husbands.

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Fearless

Peter Weir, 1993 (9.0*)
After walking away from a passenger jet crash unharmed, Jeff Bridges becomes fearless of death. Thus psychologically transformed, his wife Isabella Rossellini no longer interests him as much as fellow crash survivor Rosie Perez, as a mother who blames herself for losing her baby in the crash. Rosie turned in her best acting performance which garnered her an Oscar® nomination for supporting actress.

This is my favorite film of Australian director Peter Weir, who always makes intelligent, thought-provoking films (Witness, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Truman Show, Mosquito Coast), and this strong parable of survival and immortality is no exception.

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Schindler’s List

Steven Spielberg, 1993 (9.6*)
Best Picture (AA, BAA, GG)

AFI and Time Mag Top 100

Spielberg once said that he made films like Jaws, so he could then afford to make films like Schindler’s List.

This is a true story of factory owner Oscar Schindler, a formerly failed capitalist who now sees a chance to benefit from free labor. He personally hired Jews to make munitions, kept their families together and provided a list of his workers who were to be protected, thereby sparing them the camps.

Liam Neeson gives his best performance as Schindler, a man torn between making weapons of destruction to aid the Nazi cause, yet who also wants to save his Jewish workers from their fate. Also turning in a career best performance is Ralph Fiennes as a sadistic Nazi camp officer, who will occasionally pick up a rifle and shoot a prisoner at random just to relieve his boredom.

Shot in black and white, with one color highlight as a visual indicator (no spoilers!) 7 Oscars, Schindler

Now No. 7 on the IMDB 250 and No. 27 on our compendium of top ranked 1000 on the net

Quote: I need the little kids because their tiny hands can reach inside artillery shells. (Schindler)

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Groundhog Day

Dir: Harold Ramis, 1993 (9.2*)
From the routine often comes the magical. Self-centered and jaded weatherman Bill Murray, aka Phil, is bored to be reporting yet another Groundhog Day from Poughkeepsie, PA, with Phil the groundhog ("weather reports from rodents"). After the day is over, one major problem for Phil: he awakens to Groundhog Day again, and becomes trapped in the same day, over and over. Not even suicide can keep the day from recurring from the beginning radio alarm, which is always the same dj's line about Groundhog Day and the same Sonny and Cher song.

What could have been boring becomes a terrific "what if" fantasy exercise, as he falls for his tv producer Andie McDowell, and keeps changing his courtship pitch on each successive day, as only he can remember the previous day, with hilarious and heartwarming results. In one funny sequence he always races to a tree at the same time daily to catch a falling kid. They took the theme of "what if I just had one more chance" to the extreme.

In a funny anecdote about making the film, McDowell said that scenes would be over, and Ramis and Murray would be staring at her and she'd have to say "Cut" or "isn't that a cut?" herself.

Quote: Well, then you must be God. (McDowell) - A god, yes – but not THE God. (Murray)

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