#65 The African Queen (1951)

#65 The African Queen (1951)

Charlie Allnut: I don't blame you for being scared, Miss, not one little bit.  Ain't no person in their right mind ain't scared of white water.
Rose Sayer: I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!
Charlie Allnut: How's that, Miss?
Rose Sayer: I've only known such excitement a few times before -a few times in my dear brother's sermons when the spirit was really upon him.
Charlie Allnut: You mean you want to go on?
Rose Sayer: Naturally.
Charlie Allnut: Miss, you're crazy.
Rose Sayer: I beg your pardon.
Charlie Allnut: You know what would have happened if we would have come up against one of them rocks?
Rose Sayer: But we didn't.  I must say I'm filled with admiration for your skill, Mr. Allnut.  Do you suppose, after I've practised, that someday I might try?  I can hardly wait.  Now that I've had a taste of it.  I don't wonder you love boating, Mr. Allnut.

Charlie Allnut: What a time we had Rosie, what a time we had.

Initially, I wasn't sure what to think of this movie.  I started watching it once, and stopped after about 20 minutes, not feeling gripped.

The second time I watched the whole thing and really liked it.



It's actually a charming story.

Katharine Hepburn is Rose, a pious, austere woman serving as a missionary with her brother in Africa.  As WWI breaks out, the Germans destroy their church and the village it's in, and her brother dies of disease.  She is picked up by boat captain Charlie (Humphrey Bogart), who intends to take his boat, the African Queen, and try to hide out from the Germans.

Rose has other ideas.  She wants them to embark on a dangerous mission to navigate treacherous waters, evade a well-armed German fort, and attempt to destroy a German ship.  Charlie thinks she's nuts, but tries to appease her when she refuses to relent, though he believes it's certain death:

Charlie: We can't do that!
Rose: How do you know?  You never tried it.
Charlie: Well, yeah, but I never tried shooting myself in the head neither.

Things become cute when love blossoms between Rose and Charlie.  Where before Rose was stubbornly courageous, but a bit stodgy and uptight, she transforms into an exhilerated woman -brightened by the thrill she is getting from the entire experience of the adventure and her newfound love.  It's like she's really living for the first time.  Charlie also lightens up, and embraces her lunatic plan.  He still harbors doubt that her plan will succeed, but he's enjoying the journey anyway and is happy, and the two doggedly work towards their goal:

Charlie: Pinch me, Rosie.  Here we are, going down the river like Anthony and Cleopatra on that barge!  I'll never forget the way you looked going over the falls -head up, chin out, hair blowing in the wind.  The living picture of a hero-eyne!
Rose: Fancy me a heroine.  Oh, Charlie.  You've lost your mind.
Charlie: Lost my heart, too.

Bogart and Hepburn were excellent.  Bogart in particular was so different from how I'm used to seeing him that I kept forgetting it was him.  He won a well-deserved Oscar for the role (Hepburn was nominated, but lost to Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire, and while I normally like Vivien Leigh better, I think Hepburn should have won -but I'm not a fan of Streetcar).  The two had great on-screen chemistry, and that's what made the movie really work.

#66 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

#66 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones: Snakes.  Why'd it have to be snakes?

Raiders is, of course, a classic.  The first in the Indiana Jones series.  Indy (Harrison Ford) is an awesome character, a professor of archeology/treasure hunter, and there are so many iconic things and moments in the movie: The boulder, the snakes, the whip, the fedora...the list goes on and on.





I feel particularly ill-equipped to discuss this movie, because the guys I know have seen it more times than me and know much more about it.

I do have to say that this is not my favorite in the series, which I think is considered sacreligious, but I really liked Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade best.  They're all good, though, really, with the exception of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (The woman in Raiders always annoyed me, and I wasn't happy to see her reappear, and it was an all around ridiculous movie).

#67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

#67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Nick: I'm tired, I've been drinking since nine o'clock, my wife is vomiting, there's been a lot of screaming going on around here!

George: You're a monster.  You are.
Martha: I'm loud and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to, but I am not a monster.  I'm not.
George: You're a spoiled, self-indulgent, willful, dirty-minded, liquor-ridden -
Martha: SNAP!  It went SNAP!  I'm not gonna try to get through to you any more.  There was a second back there, yeah, there was a second, just a second when I could have gotten through to you, when maybe we could have cut through all this, this CRAP.  But it's past, and I'm not gonna try.



I didn't like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at all.  It felt like watching a play (a pretentious one).  Since it's based on a play, that shouldn't be surprising, but I don't think it was adapted for the screen well at all.  Some big changes would have been needed to make it work as a movie.

It takes place during one night and centers on two couples, Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis), and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and George (Richard Burton).  They're all messed up human beings.  They screw around, drink, shriek, hurt each other, and spout dysfunctional nonsense:

George: You can sit around with the gin running out of your mouth; you can humiliate me; you can tear me to pieces all night, that's perfectly okay, that's all right.
Martha: You can stand it!
George: I cannot stand it!
Martha: You can stand it, you married me for it!

I'm not sure why it has garnered so much acclaim.  I thought the acting was over the top and far more suited for the stage (though all four main actors were nominated for Oscars, and Taylor and Dennis won, so what do I know?).

The most interesting component is that of the fictional son that Martha and George have created, but this is never fully explored or explained.

And I still don't get the title: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  What does that mean?

I suppose I just didn't get it.

It actually makes me think of something a character from Tootsie (Jeff, a screenwriter played by Bill Murray) said: "I don't like it when people come up to me after my plays and say, "I really dug your message, man."  Or, "I really dug your play, man, I cried."  You know.  I like it when people come up to me the next day, or a week later, and they say, "I saw your play.  What happened?""

If that's what they were going for in this case, mission accomplished.

What happened?

#68 Unforgiven (1992)

#68 Unforgiven (1992)



Already reviewed:

http://kaleenasmith.blogspot.com/2012/11/1992-unforgiven.html

#69 Tootsie (1982)

#69 Tootsie (1982)



Ron Carlisle: Take, Tootsie.
Dorothy Michaels: Ron?  I have a name it's Dorothy.  It's not Tootsie or Toots or Sweetie or Honey or Doll.
Ron Carlisle: Oh, Christ.
Dorothy Michaels: No, just Dorothy.  Alan's always Alan, Tom's always Tom and John's always John.  I have a name too.  It's Dorothy, capital D-O-R-O-T-H-Y.

Michael Dorsey: I was a better man with you, as a woman, than I ever was with a woman, as a man.  You know what I mean?  I just gotta learn to do it without the dress.



Tyler really didn't want to watch Tootsie with me, but agreed to give it half an hour and got hooked.

It had been a long time since I'd seen it, and it is really great.  Funny, wonderful acting by Dustin Hoffman, and of course that great song, It Must be Love.

Dustin Hoffman plays a talented actor, Michael Dorsey, who can't get a job because he is too difficult to work with:

Michael: Are you saying that nobody in New York will work with me?
George: No, no, that's too limited.  Nobody in Hollywood wants to work with you either.  I can't even set you up for a commercial.  You played a tomato for 30 seconds.  They went a half a day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down.
Michael: Of course.  It was illogical.
George: YOU WERE A TOMATO!

He decides to prove to his agent that he is employable by auditioning for a woman's part on a popular soap dressed as a woman, Dorothy Michaels.  Convincing everybody that he is a woman, he earns the part, and "Dorothy" becomes a star, known for her ballsy (forgive the pun) and spirited portrayal of hospital worker Emily Kimberly, often going off script and ad-libbing lines:

Dorothy Michaels: Dr Brewster tried to seduce several nurses in this unit, claiming to be the throes of an uncontrollable impulse.  Do you know what?  I'm going to give every nurse on this floor an electric cattle prod and instruct them to just zap them in his badubies!

Tyler and I both loved that there was no Mrs. Doubtfire-esque montage of Hoffman transforming into a woman.  He just appears as Dorothy.



Hijinks occur as Dorothy befriends fellow soap-star Julie (Jessica Lange won an Oscar for the part), and Michael begins to fall for her, while simultaneously trying to juggle a sort-of relationship with another girl, Sandy (Teri Garr).  Dorothy/Michael also unintentionally woos several men, much to his own chagrin and that of his roommate George (Bill Murray):

Michael: You should have seen the look on her face when she thought I was a lesbian.
George: "Lesbian"?  You just said gay.
Michael: No, no, no -SANDY thinks I'm gay, JULIE thinks I'm a lesbian.
George: I thought Dorothy was supposed to be straight?
Michael: Dorothy IS straight.  Tonight Les, the sweetest, nicest man in the world asked me to marry him.
George: A guy named Les wants YOU to marry him?
Michael: No, no, no -he wants to marry Dorothy.
George: Does he know she's a lesbian?
Michael: Dorothy's NOT a lesbian.
George: I know that, does HE know that?
Michael: Know WHAT?
George: That, er, I...I don't know.

Living and working as a woman, Michael also gains perspective.  His own flakiness with friend/lover Sandy is mirrored by Julie's poor treatment by her lover/director.  As Dolores, he can appreciate the the difficulties women face in a new way:

Ron Carlisle: Why don't you like me?
Dorothy: I don't like the way you treat Julie.
Ron: Oh?
Dorothy: I don't like the way you patronize her, deceive her and lie to her.
Ron: What do you mean?
Dorothy: You want me to go on?
Ron: No, I know what you mean.  Look, I never promised Julie I'd be exclusive and not see other women.  But I know she doesn't want me to see them, so I lie to her to keep from hurting her.
Dorothy: That's very convenient.
Ron: No, wait a minute.  Look at it from my side.  See, if a woman wants me to seduce her, I usually do.  But then she pretends I promised her something. Then I pretend I did.  In the end, I'm the one that's exploited.
Dorothy: Bullshit, Ron!  You know what?  I understand you a lot better than you think I do.

It's really entertaining and fun.  Very enjoyable.

#71 Saving Private Ryan (1998)

#71 Saving Private Ryan (1998)



Already reviewed:

http://kaleenasmith.blogspot.com/2012/12/1998-shakespeare-in-love-vs-saving.html

#72 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

#72 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)



Already reviewed:

http://kaleenasmith.blogspot.com/2012/11/1994-forrest-gump-vs-shawshank.html