Ben-Hur 1959

Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find 4 hours to sit down and watch this movie. But then is snowed any my plans changed and I had a whole night to watch it. At almost 3 and half hours it is the 4th longest movie to win best picture. But I will never understand why a movie that is long to begin with needs to have entrance music, and exit music. It starts with a long musical introduction then goes into a musical opening sequence. I can understand having an intermission but maybe if it didn't have such long musical introduction it wouldn't need the intermission.

Ben-Hur is about a prominent Jew in Judea in the time of Christ named Judah Ben-Hur played by Charlton Heston. He is falsely accused then betrayed by his friend and sentenced to a life of slavery in the Roman navy. He vows revenge for himself and family and manages to stay alive and win the the affection of a Roman commander and finally wins his freedom. When he returns home he seeks to find out what has happened to his family and the guy that betrayed him. Along the way he crosses path with Biblical characters including Jesus.

What is amazing about this movie is how well it stands up over time. The story of betrayal and revenge is not an original story but Charlton Heston really shows many levels of pain. As a peace loving man by nature the hate that he feels after being betrayed brings lots of inner conflict and you can see this in Heston's performance. Probably one of Heston's greatest performances. For a man who to me growing up was just the head of the NRA and active in politics it is kind of cool to see he was a great actor. I also like the integration of Biblical figures into the movie. Its an interesting perspective to see how people went about their normal lives around the time of Jesus. Its something that we don't think about much.  Along with the acting and story the movie also has some cool action scenes. The chariot race scene is probably the most known and before I had seen the movie for the first time that is all I knew about it. At 11 minutes long it is one of the coolest action scenes and doesn't feel old. I always figured that it would just be one of those scenes that was cool for its time but it does hold up and really keeps the suspense during the scene. The other action scene is a big sea battle which is also pretty cool.

The movie won 11 Oscars the most of all time. It still holds the record but is now tied with two other movies Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The only Oscar it lost was Best Screenplay which was won by Room at the Top. It also had a surprise win for  Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith for his role as Sheik Ilderim one of the more colorful supporting characters. The favorites to win were one of the supporting actors from Anatomy of a Murder either George C. Scott or Arthur O'Connell.  William Wyler won his third Oscar for his record 11th Best Director Nomination(he would go on and be nominated one more time for a record total of 12 nominations). He beat one of the other great directors of the time Billy Wilder who had a total of 8 Best Director nominations and only two wins. Wilder directed another classic movie Some Like it Hot which topped  AFI's List of 100 Greatest Comedies. Another classic movie that didn't get nominated for any of the top Oscars is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies North by Northwest.

Ben-Hur by the Numbers
At 3 hours and 20 minutes it is the 4th longest movie to win.
With 11 Academy Award wins tied for the most wins.
Ranked #72 on AFI list of Greatest Movies of All Time in 1997 and #100 in 2007
Currently ranked #156 on IMDB Greatest 250 Movies.
A remake of Ben-Hur from 1925 makes it is the only remake to win Best Picture.

Gigi

This is one of those years when you wish a movie from the previous year cam out this year. Apparently 1958 was not a good year for movies. After 1957 when so many good movies were nominated that lost like "12 Angry Men" this year there were not very many great movies nominated. Besides for "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" and "The Defiant Ones" I have not heard of the other movies nominated for Best Picture and I have not seen any of them. I would think one of them would be better then Gigi.

Gigi is a musical about a girl growing up in Paris in the early 1900's.  Her Grandmother and Aunt are raising her to be a mistress to a wealthy man figuring that's all she could hope for coming from a poor background. Meanwhile this rich man Gaston who hangs out at the poor family's home to be with some regular folk and get away from the banal lifestyle of his upper class existence takes a liking to little Gigi. Gigi's grandmother and aunt try to work out a deal where Gigi would become Gaston's lover and she will have a lovely existence but that is not what Gigi wants. She realizes that she is in love with Gaston and wants to be his wife not just his mistress.

One of the problems I have with the movie is not just the bad acting, the bad songs, the silly dancing it is the disturbing nature of the plot. From the first songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" the movie seem like a pedophiles dream. Here is this girl that they are grooming to be someones sex partner. They never say how old Gigi is but she is still in school and not yet old enough for boys. I guess my biggest issue is who they make it seem like everything is ok like it's fine for old men like Gaston's uncle to go around lusting after young girls and singing songs about it. Just a little disturbing to me. I am not sure how this movie won so many awards. I won all 9 of the awards it was nominated for. Making it at the time the most any movie had won(it would lose that record the following year when Ben-Hur would win 11) and also only the third movie at the time to win every award it was nominated for(Grand Hotel and It Happened One Night were the two previous films to get a clean sweep The Last Emperor and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are the only two that has done it since Gigi). Also Gigi has the honor of the shortest title to ever win best picture.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

I watched this right after I watched Around the World in 80 Days. TCM was nice of enough to show them both on TV and I got to DVR them both. It made for a long day since Around the World in 80 Days is 3 hours and The Bridge on the River Kwai is 2 hours and 45 minutes. It also showed the contrast between a great movie and an ok movie. While Around the World in 80 Days is considered one of the least deserving movies to win The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the best.

The movie is about British soldiers in a Japanese POW camp on a jungle island during WWII.  It starts out as a battle of wills between the British and Japanese Colonels. The British Colonel Nicholson played by Alec Guinness is brought to the camp with his men and instantly clashes with Colonel Saito the commander of the POW camp. Nicholson is very strong minded and by the book. He clashes with Saito over the Saito's plan to have his entire troops build a bridge. Nicholson refuses to have himself and his officers help in the manual labor saying it is against the Geneva Convention(he actually hands Saito his copy of the convention rules.) This leads Nicholson to be put in isolation for a while. When Saito realizes he can not finish the bridge on schedule he gives in to Nicholson and lets Nicholson take control over the bridge construction.  Nicholson sets out to prove how superior English workmanship is and plans to build the best bridge they can.  This becomes an obsession for Nicholson and he makes sure every little detail is perfect in his words "
One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people that use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it. Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers, British soldiers" But unbeknownst to him the allied have a plot to blow up the bridge with the help of an American who escaped the camp.

All the acting in this movie is great. The battle of wills in the beginning of the movie is some of my favorite parts. I love to see two great actors just play off each other like that. Its great watching each men slowly go mad, especially Alec Guinness' Nicholson. Slowly watching him become more and more obsessed with this bridge and how it will be a lasting testament to the British men and himself.  William Holden as the American who escapes is also great in the movie and brings some of the comic relief to the movie. Overall it is a great movie. David Lean directed his first of many great epic movies.

The movie won 7 Academy Awards, besides best picture it won Best Actor for Alec Guinness, Best Director for David Lean, Best Music, and Best Editing. The Best Screenplay Oscar had gone through some changes over time. For a while there were three categories Best Original Story, Best Screenplay Adapted, and Best Original Screenplay. In 1957 it merged into the modern day categories of just Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Bridge on the River Kwai won Best Adapted Screenplay that year but not without some controversy. While Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson helped Pierre Boulle write the screenplay only Pierre Boulle was given on screen credit and therefore the only one that got the award. This was due to Carl Foreman and Michael Wislon being black-listed for appearing in front of the House of Un-American Committee. Foreman and Wilson were both posthumously given the award in 1984. 

Losing to the The Bridge on the River Kwai was another great movie 12 Angry Men. Which if it had been nominated any other year hopefully would have won. Also not nominated but one of the only Stanley Kubrick movie I like was Paths of Glory.  Another good movie that was nominated for Best Picture was Witness for the Prosecution a twisty murder mystery.

Around the World in 80 Days 1956

Around the World in 80 Days is one of the movies that is considered one of the least deserving movies to win best picture. It is not a bad movie and not really the worst movie to to ever win best picture but definitely not a great movie. Arguments could be made for other movies that year that should have won.

The movie is an adaption of the great Jules Verne novel. I read the novel when I was in 5th grade and loved it. Needless to say I don't remember much from the book now but remember it was a fun action story.  It is about Phileas Fogg played by David Niven who makes a wager that he can go around the world in 80 days. Along with his man servant Passepartout they take off and travel by balloon, train, ship, elephant and whatever else they find to make the deadline. Along the way the encounter numerous obstacles including a detective that thinks Fogg is a bank thief and a rescue of a princess in India.
The movie sounds like great fun and the book was, but the problem the movie has is it's 3 hour run time. There are sequences in the movie that just seem to drag on. One sequence in particular is the bull fighting sequence. In which Passepartout has to fight a bull in order for them to use a yacht. The sequence goes on and on and gets really boring after a while. Also kind of annoying was the first 10 minutes of the movie which is some guy explaining the importance of the Jules Verne novel and giving a short history lesson on Verne. Entirely unnecessary. When you have a 3 hour movie it is best not to add extra stuff that is not needed. Not sure why they felt the need to explain that at the time Verne wrote the novel that it was unimaginable to go around the world that fast. Another part that just felt ridiculous was the Indian attack when they were traveling on the transcontinental railroad in the United States. People are getting hit with arrows but when Passepartout goes out on the train all the arrows just bounce right off of him. The scene is laughable and takes away from whatever cool action scene it could have been.

The movie wasn't all bad. A few things it had going for it was it use of scenery from exotic locations. When they are traveling you see long scenes of the location(possible lingering too long at some spots). While most of the movie was shot in sound stages it was nice to see some footage of the actual locations. Also, it had at least a dozen cameos from famous actors. Including Buster Keaton, Frank Sinatra, Cesar Romero and Peter Lorre. In fact it was this movie that made popular the term cameo. Other interesting facts about the movie is it had one of the largest number of extras of any movie and also the largest number of animals of any movie at that time. It also had the largest number of costumes used of any movie. That all made the movie one of the biggest movie productions of all time.

Having one of the largest productions off all time is probably why the movie won best picture.  It highlights one of the Academy's biggest issues do you reward movies that are ambitious and big or movies that may be smaller but better quality. This if a problem that they still have today, do you give it to movies like Titanic or Avatar(which surprisingly lost) which are large and make alot of money or smaller budget movies that are better and tell a great story. In my opinion this also the same reason that The Greatest Show on Earth won. When you look at the 50's and the advent of television the film industry thought they were going to lose alot of money. So to compete with television they highlighted these huge dramatic big budget movies. With the exception of Marty which was based on a television show alot of the movies in the 50's was trying to showcase bigger and better. So, a movie shot in widescreen in color  with exotic locations had what people couldn't see on television. 1956 was the first year that all the Best Picture nominees were in color. The 50's were a very interesting time for movies.

Other movies that were nominated for best picture that year were The Ten Commandments, The King and I, and Giant. Also released that year was the John Ford's  The Searchers considered one of the best Westerns but did not get any nominations. 1956 was also the year that the first competitive Foreign Language category. Up till then they had just been a special award given to the Best Foreign Language movie but this year there were 5 nominees and  La Strada became the first winner. Also that year James Dean got nominated for his second posthumous nominations for Giant(he was nominated the previous year for East of Eden). 

Marty 1955

Marty is a short sweet movie. It is one of those movies you dont hear about much anymore but still holds up over time. I bought the DVD at an outlet store for $5 about a year ago. I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought I had seen it before but couldn't remember what it was about.  The movie wasn't too bad. I very down to earth love story about two misfits who find each other.

The movie is about Marty played by Ernest Borgnine. Marty is a 34 year old single guy who still lives with his Italian mother. Everyone keeps asking him when he will get married like all of his siblings. When he finally meets a girl he likes everyone around him see her as a threat to what they have been use too. Marty's best friend feels like he is losing a friend, and after years of badgering him to find a girl when he finally does his mother fears what will happen to her when her last child leaves the house and she will be alone.

What I like about this movie is it takes place over one weekend and shows how a chance encounter can change someones life. The relationship between Marty and Clara feels real and not overly melodramatic. The supporting characters also feel very real and not one dimentional. Esther Minciotti as Marty's mom gives a good performance. In the begining we see her as she wants her son to find a wife but when she talks to her sister and begins to think about what life would be like alone she realizes she doesn't want Marty to get married.  The whole movie is very real and you can feel the pain, disapointment, joy, and despiration of all the characters.

Interesting fact about this movie is that it is the only movie to win best picute that was based on a TV program.
Also at 90 minutes it is the shortest movie ever to win Best Picture.

On the Waterfront 1954

Interesting that this is the movie for this week. The Elia Kazan Collection an 18 disc box set with 15 movies was just released. Included in the collection is On the Waterfront and The 1947 Best Picture winner A Gentleman's Agreement. Also included are other Elia Kazan classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, Splendor in the Grass, and East of Eden.

On the Waterfront is about a corrupt union of longshoresmen and a guy who is caught between his conscience and loyalty to the union. Marlon Brando ins an ex-boxer Terry who is now  a longshoresman and his brother is one of the union bosses.  His brother and the union boss use him as a mindless thug. He is a guy who just does as he is told, doesn't think to hard, and doesn't really care about anyone besides himself. But over time he learns that people are taking advantage of him and he slowly becomes aware of the needs of those around him. A big part of his change comes from Edie(Eva Marie Saint), who is looking for the murderer of her brother. This puts a big strain on Terry because he was used to help lure her brother to his death. For along time he plays the part of just a deaf and dumb (D and D) member. Going along with what his brother and the union bosses tell him to do. But he begins to see that neither one of them have been looking out for his best interests. This leads to one of the most famous scenes and lines  in the movie where he confronts his brother and tells him " I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it." He then goes in front of a jury and tells all of what he knows about the corruption and brings the people responsible for the murder to justice.

This is a great movie. Besides best picture the movie won 7 other awards. Both Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint won acting awards. They both gave amazing performances. It was pretty cool seeing a Marlon Brando in his prime. It is hard to believe he is the same guy in the Godfather 20 years later. The movie also won best writing for Budd Schulberg and best directing for Elia Kazan. Although it didn't win best music score I thought the music was great. It is the only non musical score written by Leonard Bernstein.

The interesting thing I found out about this movie is some of the meaning behind the movie.  Both Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan were called to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1952.  There they both named people who they were associated with during their time in the communist party. They both were able to keep their jobs in the movie industry because they cooperated but lost a lot of friends who felt they had done the wrong thing by ratting out their friends. One of the people that felt they were wrong was Arthur Miller who was once friends with Kazan. When Miller wrote the play "The Crucible" which compared the HUAC hearings to the the witch hunt in Salem, Ma. Kazan took it as an attack on him for speaking out. His response to "The Crucible" was On the Waterfront where the hero is the person that speaks out against injustice. The testimony that Kazan gave to HUAC caused him great pain. He did not want to lose his film career nor did he want to testify. He is quoted as saying "I hate the Communists and have for many years, and don’t feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this".  All of the people Kazan had named were already known and he did not out anyone.  But he was still considered a rat and even when he won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999 there were still some who would not applaud him. 

The movie is considered one of the best movies. It was voted number 9 by AFI in 1997 and 19 in 2007. The quote "I coulda been a contender" was on AFI's list of best quotes at number 3. It is on the IMDB TOP 250 movies, and it still stands up over time. No matter what the reasons for the making of the movie was the transformation of the character from bum to leader is classic and timeless.

From Here To Eternity 1953

The first time I saw From Here to Eternity I remember thinking it was a good movie. This time when I watched it I was a little underwhelmed. It is not a bad movie just didn’t do much for me this time. Could be just the frame of mind I was in when I watched it. I hadn’t been sleeping well and just wasn’t feeling all that good. Anyway, it is considered a great movie. It did make the American Film Institutes Greatest Movies of All Time at number 57 and AFI’s Greatest Love Stories of All Time at number 20.

From Here to Eternity is about an Army base during pre-WWII Hawaii . It stars Burt Lancaster as Sergeant Warden and Montgomery Clift as Private Prewitt. Prewitt is an ex boxer who is transferred into the company by the captain for his boxing skills. The captain wants him to box so he can have a winning team. Prewitt gave up boxing after an incident and refuses to join the team. The captain then allows for him to be hazed by the other members of the boxing team. Warden is a strict but fair Sergeant who keeps the company running while the Captain is off womanizing and tries to protect Prewitt as much as possible from the hazing. They both struggle with being in the Army and following all the proper procedures and protocols and living their own private lives. They both fall in love and begin ill fated relationships. Warden begins to have an affair with the Captains wife played by Deborah Kerr while Prewitt starts a relationship with a prostitute played by Donna Reed. Also in the movie is Frank Sinatra as a fun loving and heavy drinking soldier. He is Prewitt’s only friend on the base and brings a lot of the humor to the movie. While the movie is not completely a war movie it does end with the attack on Pearl Harbor .

The movie is based on a controversial book by James Jones of the same name. The movie pretty much sanitizes whatever controversy was in the book. Out of fear that the movie would make the US Army look bad they took a lot out they thought would be embarrassing, including changing the brothel and prostitutes from the book into a “private club” with “hostesses”. There is one scene that is considered provocative for its time and is probably the most memorable scene from the movie. The scene is where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kiss in the sand with the waves crashing over them. They made Deborah Kerr wear a skirt with her bathing suit because otherwise it would have seemed too risqué. The beach where they filmed that scene in Hawaii is still a tourist attraction and most tours around Oahu stop at what they call the “From Here to Eternity” beach, and when you go there it is amazing how small that beach really is. I think the movie would have been much better if they didn’t take out some of the controversial stuff from the book. And, while the acting is good (nominated for 6 acting awards and won 2) I think it is the whole love story that I had trouble with. This seems to be a recurring issue with me and movies from the 50’s. I don’t know if I am too jaded or the movies were written too blandly to not offend anyone but I find it hard to believe the love story and I had the same problem with An American in Paris and The Greatest Show on Earth.

There is an Interesting story in the casting of Frank Sinatra in the movie. He was considered a has-been by 1953 and his acting career was not going very well. The producers did not think he would be a good fit for the movie and did not want to cast him in it. Rumor has it that Sinatra’s connections to the mafia got him the role, and the mafia made the producers an “offer they couldn’t refuse”. That theory was later used in the famous scene from The Godfather. Sinatra not only ended up getting the role but winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. In other casting news, Joan Crawford was originally going to be cast in the Deborah Kerr role but when she found out she wouldn’t be wearing and designer dresses she turned down the role. Also in a small role is George Reeve’s from the TV show Superman who role was supposedly trimmed because people laughed when they saw him in a serious role.

Another interesting fact from the 1953 Academy Awards is that Walt Disney won 4 awards. The most for a single person at any Oscar ceremony. He won for Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Short Film, Best Documentary Feature film.

The "From Here to Eternity Beach" on Oahu