Day #83 - Gigi

IMDB Link-

Yesterday I watched Gigi - going in with no expectations I came out feeling fine about it...just fine. Not crazy one way or another. The story has been told so many times it's hard to be too moved by it - basically any story of a girl who is in love with an older man but doesn't catch his attention until she is all made over. Think My Fair Lady - in Paris.

Leslie Caron plays Gigi, a young French girl who is raised by her Grandmother and her Aunt, a high-mannered and elegant woman who never married but has plenty of lessons and knowledge to impart on Gigi, namely, how to properly walk, sit, talk and eat. Gigi of course is beautiful but sloppy - she runs everywhere, plops in her seat, and tells it like it is. Louis Jordan plays Gaston, a rich bachelor whose exploits land him in the daily news pretty consistently. Finding the rich life and its women and company a bore, Gaston finds company in Gigi and her Grandmother. After spending a weekend away with Gigi - Gaston and Gigi still see each other as just friends.....but at the same time, Gigi's Grandmother and Aunt see a huge opportunity to bring them together. When the idea is presented to Gaston, he at first is appalled - after all, Gigi is just a baby! After a bit though, he realizes that he is actually in love with her....and well, the rest you can fill in.

I didn't know that Gigi was going to be a musical - and it was a strange kind of musical to me. The songs were more talking than singing. It was the first Lerner/Loewe musical since My Fair Lady, so ....I must not be a big fan of them because most of you know how I feel about My Fair Lady...Audrey or not. Maurice Chevalier narrates the piece and has the same kind of talking/singing. He's very handsome though and I love his accent. I read that he actually acted with a stronger accent than what he had in real life and that he was a real penny pincher. Anyhoo, the thing about musicals is that I don't actually like them very much. It's strange though because The Sound of Music is arguably my favorite movie of all time - but yet when I see OTHER musicals I don't like them!! This one felt very Mary Poppins'y, just in the sense of it's color and feel. Why were movies so oversaturated?? So essentially, it was a cute movie but I would recommend others is this is the feel you are going for :)

Gigi won many Academy Awards in 1958 - Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Score, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Song. WHEW! 9 wins overall. That surprises me a bit.

Day #71 - Ben Hur

Ben Hur. I can't believe it's taken me so long to see it. I guess I thought I had magically watched it sometime without realizing it - but honestly none of it was familiar. I thought it was absolutely amazing - I loved the story and was moved by the set design and effects, especially in Rome. Ben Hur follows the story of Judah Ben Hur, a wealthy native of Jerusalem at the time when it was being taken over by the Roman Empire. When Judah turns against the Roman placed Governor - coincidentally his boyhood friend Masalla, and is wrongly accused of attempted murder on a Roman soldier, he is banished to the gallows and his mother and sister are placed in jail. He vows revenge on Masalla, his anger and hate fueling his will to live. After saving the life of a Roman General who commanded the ship he worked on, Ben Hur was adopted by him, living in Rome for a short period of time becoming a champion Charioteer. He leaves Rome to search for his family and find his revenge on Masalla, eventually defeating him a chariot race which leads to Masalla's death. I don't want to say much more about the plot as I don't like to give away too much - the movie continues as Judah reunites his family and finds his faith through the witness of Christ's crucifixion. I had a couple issues with the ending but overall really loved the movie.

There were a number of things that I loved about this movie - first of all, Charlton Heston. Throughout my challenge I have found a couple of people who I could cast in the story of my life - and for the role of my Grandpa Eckelman I am casting Charlton Heston. I can't quite put my finger on it but I believe it's something in how he moves his mouth. Mom and Melissa, any thoughts? I'll find a good pic for above. Anyhoo - Heston was really great in the role of Judah Ben Hur. I haven't seen him in a movie before and was surprised at how much I liked him. He had a good mix of strength and masculinity but at times he was also a bit feminine (for lack of a better word). Interesting. So another thing I loved was the story of Jesus - although not the primary story, I think that the question of faith and hope is really important in this movie and in the end plays a huge role. Throughout the movie you hear talk of the man from Nazareth - I just like that you never see the face of Jesus and the story only exists to strengthen that of Ben Hur and his family. Finally, wow - enough can't be said for the chariot scene. Apparently it took 5 months to film and of course that was before there were any computer effects so it was all straight camera work - amazing.

Ben Hur saved MGM from bankruptcy - a huge gamble, it really paid off by earning $75 million at the box office. It also won 11 Academy Awards - a feat only equalled by Titanic and Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. What I simply CANNOT understand is how it won 11 Oscars and lost only one for Best Screenplay - how on EARTH can you win Director, Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Set Decoration, Costume Design, Cinematography, Special Effects, Film Editing, Sound and Music and NOT Screenplay!? Are you kidding? Impossible.

Day #64 - From Here to Eternity

iMDB Link

From Here to Eternity was a HUGE Oscar favorite in 1953 - it won 8 Oscars out of 13 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Zinnemann), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra) and Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed). Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Deborah Kerr ("is it Karr or Kerr?" - great quote) were also nominated in the Lead Acting category but none of them won - strange.

The movie takes place before, during and after the attack on Pearl Harbor - mostly before. Lancaster plays Sgt. Warden, stationed at Scofield barraks in Hawaii. He is a tough leader, and for the most part, all business - except for, of course, the Captain's wife - Karen Holmes (Kerr). Knowing the Captain isn't in love with his wife and that she was certainly not faithful to him, Warden pursues her and they have a secret affair. In the meantime, a new guy shows up to report to Warden's unit - his name is Prewitt (Clift). Prewitt is an amazing bugler and boxer - the boxing team is excited for him to join the unit but find he is completely unwilling to box. They hound him throughout the movie and his refusal to box earns him double work and bad treatment - yet he still won't box. The best part of the movie, in my opinion, is Frank Sinatra. Sinatra plays Private Maggio, who takes an instant liking to Prewitt and they become good friends. Maggio is a bit of a jokester and drinks a lot. One night he takes Prewitt to a club where Prewitt meets Lorene (Reed), a prostitute, and they fall in love as the movie goes on. I don't want to write much more on the plot - it's definitely worth seeing the movie and I don't want to ruin anything - but basically, as the attack on Pearl Harbor gets closer and closer, the relationships between all of these characters grow and evolve, culminating in how they all wrap themselves up in the attack.

I actually did not care at all for the relationship between Warden and Karen Holmes. The scene on the beach where the waves crash over them kissing on the beach was, unfortunately to me, a HUGE disappointment. They had JUST met each other and so there was no real desire to see them together - I really didn't care about them yet. I think it should have been some kind of unrequited love or a real struggle for awhile in the movie and then perhaps this scene. That being said, Burt Lancaster is really a big guy, is he not? He competed a lot with Marlon Brando, which I can definitely see - they are both big guys with a pretty similar look. I wonder if, when this movie came out, this scene was very risque (sp?).

What I DID care for was the relationship between Prewitt and Maggio - and Prewitt and Warden. Prewitt and Warden's relationship changed a lot as the movie went on and really ended on this mutual respect between the men. Apparently Lancaster was really intimidated to work with "Monty" Clift as he found him to be "perfect". Back to Sinatra real quick - Chris and I just really loved him. He was such a TINY little man, I just wanted to put him in my pocket. His acting was great in this movie and he plays a drunk very well, haha. This was my first Sinatra, Kerr, Lancaster and Clift movie - the only actor I had seen before was Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life, and this was a very different role for her.

I read a bit on IMDB about Montgomery Clift and it seems like he had a very difficult life - plagued by alcohol, drugs and guilt over his homosexuality. He died very young of a heart attack.

I can't embed this video so I'll have to add the URL instead - this is a video of Frank Sinatra accepting his BEst Supporting Actor Oscar:)

Frank Sinatra Acceptance Speech

Day #40 - The French Connection

IMDB Link

Strikes and gutters - for as many good movies as I've been watching, I'm bound to run across one from time to time that I don't care for. I had high hopes for this movie because I, like every sane person in the world, love Gene Hackman. He has the voice, ya know - it lends itself perfectly to being raised, so I love it when he yells and gets mad. The French Connection came out in 1971 and won 5 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director (William Friedkin), Best Film Editing and Best Screenplay. Perhaps this was a movie that was really significant for its time and that's the risk you take in watching older movies - without the context sometimes you miss the point. ...which I did.

Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider play NYC cops who are assigned to a special investigation involving a group of drug dealers. Gene plays Jimmy Doyle, a man who seems to work off of impulses and gut feelings, which doesn't always instill confidence in his plans. He discovers that the men he is following are actually working a deal with a French group who is smuggling drugs overseas to help with the "drought" in NYC. Thus, the French connection. Beyond that, I don't really care to even get into the story. If I were to look at the screenplay for this movie, I imagine it's about 10 pages along. There was SO little dialogue and I felt like the movie was Gene Hackman following the bad guys around for a long time, then a few lines of dialogue, then more following, then a car chase scene, more following....it just go really old. I know, I know, the chase scene is one of the best in film history, no? I'm not a car chase kind of person so I was just glad when the movie was over. I know it's harsh, but it just wasn't my thing.

Day #39 - The Apartment

IMDB Link

I believe this is my 3rd Billy Wilder movie! The Apartment is a comedy written, directed and produced by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Young Jack Lemmon is so cute!! The Apartment won 5 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing and Best Screenplay. Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Krushen were nominated in the acting categories but did not win.

I watched the Special Feature, "Inside the Apartment" which was really good because they talked about the context of the movie which is always really helpful. Billy Wilder first conceived of this story in the mid 40's but felt like the subject matter would not be accepted - adultery was not really shown and spoke of outright and it was basically a "rule" in Hollywood that the sanctity of marriage always be upheld. By the time the late 50's rolled around, there was a scandal in the press about a woman who was cheating on her husband with another man, always going to a secret apartment to meet. It so happened that this guy was the superior at work to the apartment owner who was just looking to advance his career......well, voila! Not only did Billy have the rest of his story put together, he also felt like maybe now he could get away with it.

I should probably go ahead and say...The Apartment is about an insurance worker, CC Baxter (Lemmon) in the late 50's who rents an apartment a half block from Central Park - unfortunately he can't use the apartment in the evenings as much as he would like because the key to his place is passed around the office amongst men looking for a place to take their mistresses. CC agrees to it even though it's inconvenient because it has allowed him to move ahead in the company. Shirley MacLaine plays Fran, the elevator attendant - which I think is funny - I can't imagine having that kind of job. Anyhoo, CC really likes Fran and asks her out only to be stood up. Later he finds out that Fran has actually been seeing Mr. Sheldrake, his boss, who is married and using the key to his place! One night when Fran is at CC's with Mr. Sheldrake, she realizes that he really does not love her and is afraid she is just another woman to him...so after he leaves she takes sleeping pills and passes out. CC of course comes home and finds her, solicits the help of his doctor neighbor, and nurses her back to health.....in the end, even though Mr. Sheldrake leaves his wife, Fran realizes it's really CC that she loves - they have a fantastic When-Harry-Met-Sally-esque New Years eve ending :)

I loooooooooved Jack Lemmon so so much! He was super cute - I've never seen him in a movie where he was young. This is one of the reasons I am loving this challenge - I mean, I know who so many of the legends ARE but I don't know firsthand about their work and it's been really fun to learn. I should be getting Some Like it Hot soon....yay!

I'm not sure how to classify this movie...comedy? drama? romance? It's funny, but I wouldn't say all out comedy....let's go with Drama.

Day #21 - How Green Was My Valley

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033729/

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this movie!! So fantastic. What a wonderful, heartwarming, and yet tragic and sad movie. It follows the Morgan family in a small South Wales coal mining town, 6 sons and 1 daughter, their mother and father. The story is narrated by the youngest son, Huw, played by Roddy McDowall, so you see the whole movie through his eyes. All of his older brothers along with his father work in the coal mine and his sister Angharad, played by the beautiful Maureen O'Hara, helps with her mother at home. The movie follows the trials and tribulations of the family and they definitely have their fair share. When wages are cut at the coal mine, the Morgan sons want to form a union and strike - when their Dad stands against the strike, they leave home. In the meantime, Huw gets in an accident saving his mom from drowning and loses the use of his legs for months as he heals. The town is really centered around the chapel and there is definitely a strong current of faith that runs through the movie which is really inspiring. Once the Minister announces his favor of the union, the workers return to the mine and the sons come home - only to leave for America after losing their jobs to cheaper workers. The idea of family in this movie is so strong - here you have a husband and wife who truly care for each other and their family and yet they face so many struggles. I love Huw, who is so loyal to his family and although he earns honors in school, he decides to work in the mines like his father and brothers. I won't speak much more on the plot, but overall I was just so inspired by faith and family.

I also wanted to say that I am really enjoying watching older movies. I always thought, well, in the older movies, you know, I can't relate to what's going on. It was a different time and women aren't like that anymore, people don't behave the same, the country was at war/depression/etc. - now we have cell phones and the internet and ridiculous technology....how can I possibly relate? But what I am realizing is that we are all involved in the human experience. How Green Was My Valley could be made just as easily today as it was in 1941. The story is the same. Family. Hardship. Work. Love. Celebration. Those things don't change over time - and that's kinda cool :)

How Green Was My Valley won 5 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp who played the father), and Best Art Direction. It won Best Picture over Sargent York, Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon!

Day #16 - The Sting

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070735/awards

Wahooooo - this movie was so good! For being such a huge Paul Newman fan, I am ashamed to say that I have neither of his two potentially most famous movies - The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - my love came from Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, etc. So I was, of course, SO excited to see him in this and he was everything I hoped, haha :) I thought the story was done very well - it kept me guessing and I was definitely surprised by some of the unexpected turns. Robert Redford and Paul Newman, though? Come ON. It's just wrong. Two such men should not exist in movies together - it's just too much for us women to handle all at once :) The music was great of course and just the overall style was unique, unlike any other movie I've seen - for example, the title cards that told us the "chapters" in the movie, such as "The Players", "The Hook", and finally, "The Sting". Two thumbs up for me :)

The Sting won 7 out of 10 nominated Oscars in 1973 - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Costumes. Robert Redford was nominated for a Lead Actor Oscar but lost to Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger.....what is that?!

Day #15 - Amadeus

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/

Amadeus is quite simply one of the best movies I have ever seen. I have to spread the gospel because I think SO FEW people have seen it and it is truly worth every second. Amadeus is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - the movies begins with him as a young man and follows his career and life through to his death. It is told BRILLIANTLY by the narration of Antonio Salieri - Mozart's contemporary. Mozart is played by Tom Hulce - absolutely fantastic performance from a relative unknown. Salieri is played by the GENIUS F. Murray Abraham. The movie was released in 1984 and won 8 of its 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Lead Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Sound, Best Makeup, Best Writing (Peter Shaffer) and Best Art Direction. UM - why did Tom Hulce not win, you ask? He and F. Murray Abraham were both nominated for Best Actor, a very rare occurance.

The first time I saw this movie, I really liked it. A few months passed and I thought, you know, that movies was REALLY good, so I watched it again and then I was in love. For me, the story as presented by Salieri is just amazing. Salieri was a composer, like Mozart, but did not have the natural talent that Mozart did. All he ever wanted in life was to create beautiful music, and he asked God to allow him to serve Him in this way -even taking a vow of chastity. When Mozart came around, Salieri heard the music he always wanted to write but found Mozart to be immature, a perverted creature. Why, he wondered, would God grant THIS man, of ALL men, the talent he so desperately wanted? He tells God that he will destroy Mozart - and basically sets out to do so by being Mozart's friend to his face, yet manipulating every situation to continually contribute to Mozart's deteriorating sanity - especiallly after Mozart's father dies.

Here are some AMAZING quotes from the movie...

Salieri addressing a crucifix..."From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able."

Salieri describing Mozart's music..."On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God."

One of the final scenes in the movie is Salieri helping Mozart finish his requiem. Mozart is dicatating to him and Salieri is writing because Mozart is too sick. This is one of, if not the best, scenes in the movie. A bit of trivia - Tom Hulce skipped lines to confuse F. Murray Abraham so that it genuinely looked as though Salieri could not fully understand Mozart's music.

Day #13 - It Happened One Night

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/

It Happened One Night, a 1934 Frank Capra movie starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, was the first movie to ever sweep Oscars' "Big Five" - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Screenplay :) So naturally, it had to be on my list :)

It Happened One Night is about Ellie Andrews, a socialite who runs away from her life of people telling her "what to do and how to do it" and on her way to New York City meets Peter Warren, a newspaper man looking for a good story. Like any good romantic comedy, they can't stand each other at first - he's just in for the good story and she just doesn't want him to tell her Dad where she is. By the time the end rolls around, they discover they are in love! It Happened One Night was one of the first romantic "screwball" comedies ever filmed - paving the way for all the Sleepless in Seattles and When Harry Met Sallys of the world :) I love all the old sets and lighting, so classic. Clark Gable is witty and handsome, of course - and I was very curious about Claudette Colbert. She has a kind of manly (?) voice...or maybe just deeper, kind of sultry. I thought she was really cute (not pretty though, actually kind of odd looking haha) until I read that she demanded double her usual salary to do this movie for a guarantee that it would only last four weeks - AND, she hated the movie so much she didn't even attend the Oscars where she won Best Actress! Clark Gable himself walked on the set first day and said, "Let's get this over with." Hahaha! Back to the movie though....I really enjoyed watching it and am glad to be able to check it off my list :)

Turner Classic Movies named It Happened One Night as one of their top 15 most influential films of all time - see below for excerpt:
(http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/tcm-unveils-their-list-of-top-15-most-influential-films-of-all-time)

"The surprise success of It Happened One Night made Frank Capra one of the screen’s top directors and provided the prototype for a decade of screwball comedies. Romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally and The Sure Thing draw on the rapid banter, outrageous comic situations and sexy road trip of It Happened One Night. The movie even provided inspiration for one of the screen’s most enduring characters, Bugs Bunny."

I love learning about "old" Hollywood during the days of the studios contracting out and "owning" actors...here is a tidbit about it from IMDB....

"Columbia Pictures was considered a Poverty Row studio at the time of the film's release. Both MGM and Warner Brothers would loan out temperamental actors to Columbia as a 'humbling experience.' Studio boss 'Harry Cohn', who was loathe to pay for his own roster of contract stars during the early 30's, would invariably assign them to work on Frank Capra's films. Although the studio had received Oscar nominations prior to this picture, it's success virtually single-handedly lifted Columbia out of the ranks of poverty row."

Day #10 - The Deer Hunter

OK - change of plans again! Funny Face didn't come in the mail so it's on to The Deer Hunter :)

Let's see - The Deer Hunter came out in 1978 and won itself 5 Oscars out of 9 nominations. Wins were for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Christopher Walken. Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep were both nominated for Best Actor in Leading Role and Actress in a Supporting Role but lost to Jon Voigt in Coming Home and Maggie Smith in California State. I have to say I am really curious about watching Christopher Walken in a serious role - I've only ever seen him do comedy. By this time DeNiro had done Taxi Driver and The Godfather II but not yet Raging Bull

Going in, I had heard that this movie was about Vietnam and was one of the more accurate portrayals out there of the effects war had on soldiers. Wow - it was really intense. First of all, let me say that I thought the movie was too long and piecy, just meaning that I wish there had been more transition between the men being home vs. going to Vietnam vs. going home again, etc. That was the only problem I had with the movie because otherwise I thought it was fantastic, albeit depressing and dark.

As a quick synopsis without giving too much away, The Deer Hunter is about 3 friends from a small town in Pennsylvania who enlist in the army and head off to Vietnam. While they are there, they see many horrific things and get involved with a game of Russian Roulette when they are captured by the Vietcong. They become separated again and eventually - they each have to deal with their individual residual effects of the horrors of war. I was absolutely thrilled to see true, raw acting out of DeNiro and Walken and was impressed with John Savage, who played one of the friends, Stevie. The Russian Roulette scene especially was extremely intense. Having no first hand knowledge of war, I would imagine this movie hit pretty close to what men dealt with when returning from war - isolation especially, no one understanding them.

Here is the Russian Roulette scene - don't watch it if you don't want spoilers :) For a bit of trivia - DeNiro and Walken were actually slapped while filming this scene, which added to their agitation, culminating in one of the most intense scenes I've ever seen.



Finally...a few quotes from Roger Ebert:

"It is not an anti-war film. It is not a pro-war film. It is one of the most emotionally shattering films ever made."

"At the film's center comes one of the most horrifying sequences ever created in fiction, as the three are taken prisoner and forced to play Russian roulette while their captors gamble on who will, or will not, blow out his brains."

Day #8 - Lawrence of Arabia, Part 1

I decided that movies 4 HOURS long count for two days :) So tonight I'm going to start watching Lawrence of Arabia - this review is going to be more of an informational post and then tomorrow I'll give the full review. Cool? Cool.

IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia won 7 Oscars out of 10 nominations. Wins were for Best Picture, Best Director (David Lean), Best Sound, Best Music (Score), Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif both lost in their respective categories - Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role. My first thought is...who on EARTH did they lose to? Let's find out, shall we? Well, Sharif lost to Ed Begley in Sweet Bird of Youth, but O'Toole lost to...wait for it....wait for it...Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. If you're gonna lose to anyone, that's not so bad :)

David Lean is also responsible for directing such movies as Dr. Zhivago and Bridge on the River Kwai. He is known for epic, visually stunning films. I believe Peter O'Toole was a relative unknown when he was cast in the role of Lawrence - it seems strange that he was ever an unknown! He is now 77 years old and has been nominated for 8 Oscars but with 0 wins. He's Irish, which surely I should have known by his last name but never really thought about it.

OK so - a little over 2 hours into the movie, I am LOVING it. I thought it would take me awhile to get into it, but it really didn't. We turned on the subtitles which has actually been really helpful, especially when discussing peoples' names, the Arab tribes and the various cities. What I really wonder about, is to whom is Lawrence really loyal? He seems to want personal glory but yet seems loyal to the Arabs as well. When he returns to Cairo after taking Aqaba, I love how he takes his servant Fajjah with him and demands he be served lemonade and given a bed with sheets. He also won't take off his Arab garb - does he do this for theatrics or is he truly respecting the Arab men he'll return to? That's what I'm most curious to find out tomorrow night. The music is AMAZING and I'm more impressed with the acting than I anticipated - I love Peter O'Toole's piercing blue eyes and Omar Sharif? Hot. :) C'mon, you know it wouldn't a proper review without my standard comments!! :)

Day #5 - Unforgiven

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/

An Oscar doozie - 1992 Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman). Without even planning it, I started a 1992-Oscar-a-thon :) Clint Eastwood was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman - and now we have come full circle from my Glengarry Glen Ross post :)

AFI named Unforgiven the 4th best Western of all time - behind The Searchers, High Noon and Shane - I'm hoping to add a couple of those to my challenge list.

Wow - amazing movie. I LOVED it. I was genuinely interested in every minute of the movie, especially when Richard Harris was on screen. His part was small, but memorable. He is just so fantastic - so subtle and perfect. I'm not even gonna lie - I am SCARED of Clint Eastwood. I would not cross him for anything - he absolutely took OVER the end of this movie. What a force. Chris and I loved Morgan Freeman of course, he is always perfect. ...and for Gene Hackman, well, every time I see him I think it's Norman Dale from Hoosiers. It's like, OH look, Norman Dale is playing a Sherriff, haha. That aside though, he was really, really good.

There was some really great dialogue in this movie - one scene in particular was an exchange in which Little Bill (Gene Hackman) has arrested English Bob (Richard Harris), who is sitting in a jail cell. English Bob had come with a biographer, and Little Bill was telling the biographer the "true" stories of English Bob's exagerrations - this one in particular about a fight between English Bob and a man named Corky...

[Little Bill is telling Beauchamp the real story of English Bob's gunfight]
Little Bill Daggett: You see, the night that Corky walked into the Blue Bottle, and before he
knows what's happening, Bob here takes a shot at him! And he misses, 'cause he's so damn
drunk. Now that bullet whizzing by panicked old Corky, and he did the wrong thing. He
went for his gun in such a hurry that he shot his own damn toe off. Meantime Bob here, he's
aiming real good, and he squeezes off another, but he misses, because he's still so damn
drunk, and he hits this thousand-dollar mirror up over the bar. And now, the Duck of Death
is as good as dead. Because Corky does it right. He aims real careful, no hurry, and... BAM!
That Walker Colt blew up in his hand, which was a failing common to that model. You see,
if old Corky had had two guns instead of just a big dick, he'd would have been there right to
the end to defend himself.
W.W. Beauchamp: Wait a minute. You mean that, English Bob killed him when he didn't
even have...?
Little Bill Daggett: Well, old Bob wasn't goin' to wait for Corky to grow a new hand.

Another great moment - the end, when William Munny (Clint being BA) comes in to get his revenge...
(...am having trouble embedding this video...so for now, follow the link!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqdEhytKOk