What Classics did you see last week? (Aug 29-31/ Sept 1-2)

First viewings:

Summerland (2022):
A moving WWII British drama about grief and lost love. Jessica Swale’s screenplay and direction are beautiful, and she elicits wonderful performances from all the cast, especially Gemma Arterton. Highly recommended, despite what the critics say.



Arsenal (1929):
A Ukranian soldier returns home from World War I to participate in the Kiev Arsenal January uprising. It employs powerful poetic and metaphorical imagery to convey its anti-war message, but after a while it becomes a bit repetitive and seems too long. Still, it’s worth a look for fans of director Aleksandr Dovzhenko and those interested in early Soviet cinema. Available on Tubi TV.





80 for Brady (2023):
Wonderful actors doing their best with an abysmal script. It was an embarrassingly mediocre film. I watched it only for the cast, all of whom should be making better films, but they can’t, because good scripts for women their age are not getting made. A real waste of talent.



A Night to Remember (1942):
A comic murder mystery played for laughs, it’s full of witty banter, smart pacing, and lots of fun. Loretta Young and Brian Ahern are a great team. Strongly recommended.




A Green Journey (aka The Love She Sought) (1990 TV movie):
Angela Lansbury and Denhelm Elliot in a poignant love story set in Ireland. Very much worth a look for the cast, the sensitive script, and the excellent direction by Joseph Sargent.



Re-watches:

To Have and Have Not (1944):
My favorite of the Bogart/Bacall films (and her film debut). A wonderful script based upon a Hemingway story with great direction by Howard Hawks. Highly recommended.



The Unfaithful (1947):
An absorbing domestic melodrama involving a suspicious murder, with excellent performances by all the cast -- Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, and especially Ann Sheridan. Strongly recommended.

Bad Boys (1983)
A teenage thug is sentenced to a juvenile facility after participating in a drug deal gone horribly wrong.

This an excellent crime drama that is a social commentary on teenage street gangs and prison life. Many topics are examined or at least touched-upon such as the failure of rehabilitation, the failure of the education system, prison rape, the problem of prison overcrowding, to name but a few.

Sean Penn gives what is arguably one of his best performances as Mick O'Brien, a troubled youth who is sentenced to a juvenile prison and must use his wits to survive the harsh realities of jailhouse life. But he is matched all the way by the entire supporting cast who all deliver equally powerful and believable performances. There's Rene Santoni as the tough yet compassionate prison social worker, the always reliable Clancy Brown as Lofgren, and Esai Morales as O'Brien's arch nemesis, Paco Moreno. But my favorite is the scene-stealing Eric Gurry as Horowitz, the highly intelligent but complete sociopath who befriends O'Brien.

Bad Boys does not sugar-coat anything and pulls no punches. It is extremely violent, brutal, gritty, and very profane. But yet has to be all this to drive its point home and portray a realistic view on troubled street youth, and it is handled in a non-exploitive manner. The insightful screenplay is very well-written by Richard Di Lello and contains many memorable lines. One of my favorite lines is by Jim Moody as one of the jail facilitators lecturing O'Brien and another new inmate, when he tells them, "Your fellow inmates are rapists, murderers, armed robbers, and mental defectives; just like yourselves, they graduated top of the class."

Unfortunately, Bad Boys went largely unnoticed at the theaters back in 1983. However, home video and pay television helped keep it alive throughout the years. Anchor Bay Entertainment released the complete 123 minute version on DVD a while back. Avoid the hacked up 104 minute version.

10/10