100 MOVIES - Jim Colyer

1933 - King Kong - Greatest movie of all time. Robert Armstrong is making a movie and hires Fay Wray to be his star. They sail to Skull Island near Sumatra where evolution has gone awry. Dinosaurs roam, and a gigantic ape rules over all. The natives have built a wall to contain King Kong. They capture Fay Wray and offer her as a sacrifice. Armstrong and his crew rescue her and transport Kong to Manhattan's Great White Way as a headliner. Kong breaks loose and terrorizes yet another island. He ascends the Empire State Building with Wray with whom he is smitten and is riddled with bullets from airplanes. He falls to his death. King Kong is a film which touches modern consciousness. It shows man clashing with the nature of which he is a part. There are interracial overtones. Armstrong declares, "It was beauty killed the beast." Fay Wray had to live with this film and finally accepted it as a classic. She lived to be 96. 1935 - A Midsummer Night's Dream - The classic Hollywood version of William Shakepeare's most likable play stars James Cagney as Bottom and Mickey Rooney as Puck. Rooney played Puck. When I first saw the play staged, Puck was played by a female dressed in green. I liked that. Fairies, Athenian nobility and commoners cross wooded paths to provide an escapism that leaves us slightly hungover. The play within the play is tedious. My favorite scene is at the beginning where Theseus and Hippolyta are watching the moon. Hippolyta says, "And the moon, like to a silver bow new-bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities." Titania, the fairy queen, is erotic. 1939 - Gone with the Wind - Not only is the Old South gone with the wind but so is the era in which this movie reigned. Its reputation lives on. Its most lingering moment is when Clark Gable turns to Scarlett and blurts out, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" Bold dialogue in 1939. This story of the American Civil War comes from the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell. 1941 - Pride of the Yankees - Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was the New York Yankee great who played with Babe Ruth before succumbing to the degenerative disease which bears his name. 1951 - The Day the Earth Stood Still - A futuristic film in which Michael Rennie stars as Klaatu come to Earth to warn the human species against taking war beyond its own planet. Gort is the robot. There is poignancy in watching a World War II era army oppose advanced technology. 1951 - The Thing - James Arness plays an evolved vegetable come from outer space in a flying saucer. Its ship crashes and is frozen in ice. The Thing is retrieved and inadvertantly thawed. Hovac ensues before The Thing is killed by electric current. Even in 1951, we were thinking about the many directions in which life might evolve in the universe. 1952 - Carrie - Based on the Theodore Dreiser novel, Sister Carrie. Jennifer Jones plays Carrie Meeber, a young woman who moves to Chicago to find work and better herself. She learns the hard facts of life. The big city is filled with self-centered people. Carrie goes through two lovers, a young Eddie Albert, and an older man whom she ruins. Laurence Olivier plays Hurstwood, the man who gives his all in an effort to recapture his youth. It is pitiful. Carrie loves the attention. Hurstwood has his day. My favorite scene is where he gives her a new hat as a present. The relationship runs its course. Carrie becomes an actress as Hurstwood hits the skids. I read the book in college. Dreiser's prose appears more and more clumsy as the years pass. Jennifer Jones starred in Madame Bovary 3 years earlier. Emma Bovary was a dreamer not unlike Carrie. Carrie learns survival, however, whereas Emma never did. 1956 - War and Peace - A sprawling film from the even more sprawling Russian novel of Leo Tolstoy. It is the early 1800s, and Napoleon's army is moving from France into Russian and on to Moscow. Tolstoy depicts polite Russian society and how their world is ripped apart by Napoleon's ambitions. Henry Fonda plays the bumbling intellectual, Pierre. Audrey Hepburn is the naive Natasha. Swede Anita Ekberg, dripping with sex, is Helene. 1956 - Forbidden Planet - Shakespeare's "The Tempest" is a model for this exceptional science fiction film. We look for differences. Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, are stranded on a Mediterranean island. Morbius and Altaira are marooned on the 4th planet circling the star Altair. Ariel is a spirit. Robby the Robot is a man-made servant. Caliban's evil hardly approaches that of Monsters of the Id. Shakespeare spares Prospero. Morbius dies when Altair 4 blows up. We wonder if mankind must suffer the fate of the Krell in some future time. Anne Francis is Altaira. Jack Kelly is Lieutentant Farman. Kelly starred with James Garner in the comedy/western TV series, "Maverick." 1958 - Green Mansions - A beautiful film based on a 1904 novel by William Henry Hudson. It is set in South America. Our protagonist, Abel, is driven from Caraccas by political upheaval. He flees into the jungle where he encounters a nature girl named Rima. Rima is played by Audrey Hepburn. Romance, mysticism and raw reality entwine. My favorite movies are those that do well as novels and works of art. This green piece could be a painting hanging in a gallery. 1958 - King Creole - Elvis Presley's last movie before he was drafted. It is his best movie and offers the best soundtrack. Songs like "Dixieland Rock" capture the early essence of Elvis. "Crawfish," the duet with the black girl at the beginning, is a treat. Walter Matthau plays crime boss Maxie Fields. Liliane Montevecchi is showgirl Forty Nina, all decked out in bananas. King Creole is set in the French Quarter (Vieux Carre) of New Orleans. No one will be able to watch this movie again without thinking of hurricane Katrina and the destruction it unleashed on this legendary city. King Creole is based on the Harold Robbins novel, "A Stone for Danny Fisher." 1959 - Li'l Abner - Al Capp's characters translate to a Broadway musical and then to film. Capp's bitterness wraps itself in comedic satire. The music is forgettable. My interest in the movie is Julie Newmar as Stupefyin' Jones. In 1959 and 1960, Julie Newmar may have been the sexiest woman in the history of women. She was a statuesque 5'10 1/2" and weighed 145 pounds. She was from L.A. 1960 - The Marriage-Go-Round - The past meets the future. Julie Newmar plays a Swedish sex bomb who disrupts the marriage of a middle-aged couple. Julie was never what you would call an actress. She was cast in nonhuman roles. It was her body. Her overwhelming sexuality set new standards for women. Ultimately, Julie proved herself more than a body. Her son was born with Down Syndrome. She raised him by herself, calling him her teacher. The Marriage-Go-Round started as a Broadway play. James Mason and Susan Hayward star as the married couple. Mason is a college professor whose genes Newmar wants in order to create a superior baby. This is not so outlandish a premise at the dawn of the sexual revolution. 1960 - G.I. Blues - Elvis Presley's first movie after being discharged from the army. Elvis was stationed in Germany, and G.I. Blues is set in Germany. He was accepted now, mainstream. Germany was part of the "Elvis Presley trail" I envisioned myself going down. Juliet Prowse played a showgirl Elvis falls for. Prowse was known for her legs and did Las Vegas. 1960 - North to Alaska - John Wayne's best movie is about the gold rush in Nome, Alaska in 1898. John Wayne returns to Seattle for Stewart Granger's fiance after they strike gold only to find she has married someone else. He brings Capucine to Nome in her place. Much of the movie is about which man will end up with Capucine. It gets silly. We see the northern lights, and I wished we were shown more of the Aurora Borealis with some dialogue about it. There is an obligatory brawl and the Duke punching guys, hearing the fake sound of a fist hitting a jaw that was in all Wayne's movies and westerns from this period. The Duke gets the girl. Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959, so this movie hit the spot. The disappointment is that it was made in California, not Alaska. The "3 Lucky Swedes" found the first gold in Nome at Anvil Creek. 1960 - The Tempest - A TV production I include because Hollywood has never done justice to this Shakespearean play. Casting was good, Lee Remick as Miranda and Richard Burton as Caliban. Prospero and his daughter are marooned on an island where Ariel carries out his master's bidding. 1961 - West Side Story - Rival youth gangs clash in New York City, old immigrants with newly immigrating Puerto Ricans. Natalie Wood feels out of place as Hispanic Maria. Natalie was never a great actress but somehow endeared herself. Her real name was Natasha Gurdin. Her parents came from Russia. West Side Story is an American Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare's influence as a playwrite remains enormous. "Tonight" is the best song from the musical score. You feel the anticipation. Cousin Larry and I saw this in November, 1962. President John Kennedy was due in Louisville early that evening, and I suggested we stay to get a glimpse. Kennedy came riding down 4th Street perched atop the back of a Convertible. His accessibility cost him a year later when he was assassinated in Dallas, November 22, 1963. I will always link Kennedy and West Side Story. 1961 - King of Kings - King of Kings traces the events in the life of Jesus Christ from His birth in Bethlehem through his years as a carpenter in Nazareth to the Sermon on the Mount, Last Supper, betrayal by Judas, His Crucifixion and Resurrection. Jeffrey Hunter plays Jesus. You have to be tall and good-looking to play Jesus. They are all here: Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist and Barabbas. The rebel Barabbas is set free and becomes the first man for whose sins Jesus dies. Like other movies from this period, there is no blood in the battle scenes. It looks strange. There is no humor unless you count the perverse glee of Herodias when she gets the head of John the Baptist. Although somewhat stiff when compared to The Passion of the Christ 43 years later, King of Kings is a faithful telling of the story of the Gospels. Orson Wells is the narrator. 1962 - Rome Adventure - I was 16 when Rome Adventure was in the theaters. I did not see it at the time but had a movie magazine with a picture of Angie Dickinson on the back. In the article, she talked about how much fun she had in making the movie and riding around Rome on motorcycles. Rome Adventure typifies the innocence and naivete of the early 1960s. It is almost a travelogue. Suzanne Pleshette plays librairan Prudence Bell on her big trip to Rome. She is looking for love and finds it in Troy Donahue. Angie Dickinson is a third party and potential spoiler in the triangle. Finally, true love wins out. Al Di La is the theme song, one of the most romantic pieces of music ever written. Emilio Pericoli sings it. We float away, "beyond the beyond." The scenes of ancient Rome take us to another place and time. The Kennedy assassination and Vietnam were around the corner, so we had to enjoy this while we could. 1962 - The Days of Wine and Roses - Cousin Larry and I saw this movie in a theater in March, 1963. I was 17 and naive. I wonder if it affected me. It is a blueprint of how not to live. Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick become alcoholics and separate after having a child. Lemmon sobers up. Remick does not. I went on to have a drinking problem through my 20s. I should have given this movie more thought. Jack Lemmon was a great actor. He always played the average businessman struggling to make it in the city. He was funny and tragic at the same time. The movie's title was taken from a poem by a 19th century British poet named Ernest Dowson. The poem is Vitae Summa Brevis in which Dowson lamented the brevity of life. Lines 5-9 read, "They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for awhile, then closes within a dream." Dowson died at 33. 1962 - Gypsy - From the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, the Broadway musical became a film with Natalie Wood as Gypsy and Rosalind Russell as her domineering, show-business driven mother. I wanted more about stripping and less about a mother/daughter relationship. Rose was hard to take. Hey! I was 17. What do you expect? The film had a great soundtrack. I introduced "Let Me Entertain You" to the music director of my high school through my girl friend who played in the band. The band used it as their theme song during halftimes at football games. My LP was returned scratched up and with no thank you. Thank God The Beatles were coming! 1964 - A Hard Day's Night - The first Beatle song I heard was "From Me To You" in the summer of 1963. I thought they were black. By October, I knew something big was going on around this group in England. In January, 1964, I saw a clip on the Jack Paar show. It was unbelievable! The Beatles were going wild! Girls were screaming and throwing jelly beans! It was The Beatles' sound! It was the long hair! I started letting my hair grow that night. Beatle records flowed into America. The Beatles revived the rock & roll of the late 1950s, the fire. John Lennon sang Chuck Berry. Paul McCartney sang Little Richard. They took it to a new level. They had their own songs, incredible songs! They filled albums! Cousin Larry and I saw "A Hard Days Night" in August, 1964. The theater was packed with teenage girls. They screamed for 90 minutes! We could not hear one word of dialogue. It did not matter. This was Beatlemania, and there would never be anything like it again! "You Can't Do That" was cut from the film. It was my favorite. John Lennon's jealousy and possessiveness were too potent for the young audience. His primal scream at the start of the solo says it all. 1964 - Viva Las Vegas - Ann-Margret momentarily revived Elvis from his stupor. He feeds off her energy in this frolic through old Las Vegas. 1965 - Help! - Help! lacked the urgency of "A Hard Days Night." The James Bond parody was silly. That it was in color took away. The one constant was the quality of The Beatles' music. It held true through their final recordings of the 1960s. The Beatles made great records. Each album was a development. It was always John Lennon leading the way. He was the heart and soul of The Beatles. After the split, John found a cause in the peace movement. His solo work had purpose. John Lennon was gunned down in the streets of New York City in December, 1980 by a deranged fan name Mark David Chapman. He was finishing his first album in 5 years. That album showed Lennon's domestic side rather than his crusading spirit. With John's demise, the music of the 1960s and '70s waned. 1965 - Cat Ballou - Henry Fonda's daughter, Jane, came into her own. As Cat Ballou, she stars in one of the funniest movies ever made. Westerns were no longer in vogue, and this parody found its niche. Jane is beautiful, in the prime of innocence. Dwayne Hickman adds dialogue that is still quotable. "On the run, ma'am, hidin' out in the crowd." My roommate at college saw this movie so many times, he knew the script by heart. He recited it line for line one night lying on his bed. I was amazed! He had a picture of Jane Fonda taped on the ceiling above him. I can still hear "The Ballad of Cat Ballou." "It's a hangin' day in Wolf City, Wyomin'...Wolf City, Wyomin' 1894. Lee Marvin won a Best Actor Oscar for for his dual roles as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn. 1965 - Doctor Zhivago - A classic film about the Russian Revolution of 1917. Russia pulled out of World War I when it fell under Communist rule. Omar Sharif played Zhivago, an idealistic doctor torn between his wife and the lovely Julie Christie. It is the formula for historical fiction, made up characters living their lives against sweeping events. This lavish film has a great theme song, "Somewhere My Love." It leaves us aching. 1965 - The Greatest Story Ever Told - A ponderous retelling of the life of Christ with Swedish actor Max von Sydow in the role of Jesus. Swedish Jesus is a bit hard to accept. Even von Sydow admitted the difficulty of the role. 1966 - Hawaii - Max von Sydow popped up again in this story of the first missionaries to go to Hawaii in the 1820s. It is really the story of his wife Jerusha, played by Julie Andrews, who pines away in the island paradise. I did not watch this movie until 2003 when I decided to go to Hawaii. I had a hard time finding it in the stores. 1966 - Inside Daisy Clover - My roommate called it a Natalie Wood revival as my infatuation continued. I saw this movie 3 weekends in a row. Natalie played a child star from the 1930s disillusioned by fame and love. A young Robert Redford co-starred. Natalie drowned in 1981 when she fell off a boat. She always had a fear of water. 1967 - Planet of the Apes - We were headed for the moon, and astronauts were the thing. Charlton Heston plays an astronaut who comes back to Earth after a nuclear war. Humans are reduced to animal status. Apes rule. This was around the time Desmond Morris' book, "The Naked Ape," was published. Evolution was being accepted. We were beginning to see ourselves as members of the animal kingdom rather than a special creation. I saw social comment. The Civil Rights movement was afoot and the race riots that went with it. We are shown an inverted hierarchy. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was now a sick society. Linda Harrison as Nova did not have to speak. She was very shapely. 1968 - 2001 A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick's vision based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke. A scientific background is helpful in seeing the point. We are presented with the idea that human intelligence was jump-started by aliens. When man reaches into space, he is reaching back to his source. This is consistent with the Panspermia theory, that life did not evolve on Earth but grew from spores brought to our planet by comets. The film confuses more than clarifies at the end. It degenerates into a semblance of an LSD trip. No one knows what it means, if anything. 2001 proved to ne nothing like Kubrick's prophecy. It is remembered most for 9/11. 1968 - Romeo and Juliet - The ubiquitous Shakespeare! I saw this with Candy Heim at a drive-in on our first date, July 6, 1969. You can see Candy's picture in the photo galleries. I wonder whatever happened to her. She had the long straight hair parted in the middle like Olivia Hussy who plays Juliet. I was struggling with Shakespeare. He would not leave me alone and he had been dead for centuries. A young Michael York plays Tibalt. He would mellow by the time Logan's Run came along. Romeo and Juliet have their night together. The broad theme is that love growing in a context of hate will be snuffed out. The color is great in this movie. So is the theme song..."A rose will bloom, it then will fade, so does the youth, so does the fairest maid." The fight scene is too long. 1968 - Barbarella - Jane Fonda's transition from innocence to experience. Critics hated this movie. It is a must-see. It is a documentary of the anti-culture going its own way. It is Jane Fonda showing daddy and the Hollywood establishment that she is a big girl and will take pleasure where she finds it. As Queen of the Galaxy, she does just that. The guy playing Duran Duran is the same actor who plays Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet. I saw Barbarella at a drive-in when it was out. I was drunk. I had to watch it again years later. It was directed by Roger Vadim. Vadim and Jane Fonda married and had a daughter. 1970 - Elvis: That's the Way It Is - Elvis' concert film of his Las Vegas act. Elvis' movies made money but nearly killed his career. At the end of 1968, he did what was called "The Comeback Special" for television. At the show's end, he sang "If I Can Dream" in a white suit. It was his first relevant song in a long time. The third and final incarnation of Elvis emerged. He opened at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August, 1969. "Suspicious Minds" went number 1. He was back, giving The Beatles all they could handle. He performed at the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton) and did concerts around the country for the next 8 years. He was backed by legendary guitarist James Burton. 1971 - Walkabout - I had a crush on Jenny Agutter. I rented every movie I could find with her in it. Some were bad. Walkabout was a challenge. Two kids are lost in the Australian outback. They are led to safety by a young Aborigine on his walkabout, a desert journey he must make to achieve manhood. The movie reflects the racial equality coming into vogue after the Vietnam War. 1971 - Bananas - Woody Allen's comment on Vietnam. Playing a products tester named Fielding Mellish in his beloved New York, he gets involved with a political activist and becomes a revolutionary leader of a third world country. Woody is hilarious as he was in all his early films. It is funny seeing him dressed as a Castro figure. Howard Cossell plays his obnoxious and irresistible self. Louise Lasser is Woody's co-star, but it is Diane Keaton who would become his real counterpart. 1971 - The Emigrants - The Emigrants is a Swedish film based on the novels of Swedish author Wilhelm Moberg. It is about the emigrants who sailed from Sweden in the 1850s to come to the United States. Max von Sydow is patriarch Karl Oskar. Liv Ullmann is his faithful wife, Kristina. The film shows the unbearable conditions which existed in Sweden, the agony of the ocean voyage and the promise of a better life in Minnesota. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA turned the novels into a musical in the 1990s. The music is Swedish folk music. They are trying to get an English version to Broadway. The Emigrants and its sequel, The New Land, provide a wonderful learning experience. 1972 - The New Land - The story of the Swedish Emigrants continued with their life in Minnesota. 1972 - Elvis on Tour - We follow Elvis from city to city as we watch him don his white suit and put on pounds. We see his increasing boredom. Elvis disintegrated after his divorce from Priscilla. His lyrics became morbid. "Aloha From Hawaii" in 1973 was his last great hurrah. From there, he porked. "Burning Love" was the last major hit. His records remained good until the end, but there was little recording the last couple of years. 1973 - American Graffiti - This is a phenomenal movie with many spinoffs. California teenagers in the early rock and roll era cruise in a night of self-discovery. Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss and Suzanne Sommers rose from this movie. Suzanne is the blonde in the white Thunderbird whom Dreyfuss pursues all night. He is chasing his dream, not a woman. He finally flies off to college in place of Ron Howard. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he flies off with aliens. I wish the soundtrack included more real rock and roll and less doo-wop. Where are "Slow Down" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" by Larry Williams? These songs were later covered by The Beatles. 1973 - Jesus Christ Superstar - Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are responsible for this irreverent rock Gospel. It was the rage. Yvonne Elliman played Mary Magdalene. She later hit with The Bee Gees song, "If I Can't Have You." Agnetha of ABBA played Magdalene in the Swedish stage version. 1973 - Sleeper - Woody Allen is frozen for 200 years after entering the hospital for a routine operation. He awakens in a Brave New World. Allen's comedy derives from his willingness to poke fun at himself. Diane Keaton co-stars. 1973 - The Exorcist - Scariest movie ever made because its fear stems from The Bible. Max Von Sydow was the exorcist. This guy turned up everywhere! He frees a young girl possessed by a demon. I lived my own version. I was in with Jesus Freaks after the Army. We spoke in tongues and went to a Pentecostal Church. One night at church, we thought a 15-year-old girl was possessed by a demon. I threw her down in the corridor and tried to drive it out. We were nuts. 1975 - Jaws - I compared Peter Benchley's novel to "Moby Dick" and was reprimanded. "Jaws" may not be the world in microcosm but it did well at the box office. Richard Dreyfuss is a shark expert. Great whites can be up to 20 feet and are killing machines despite the claims of environmentalist. Australian waters have the most shark attacks. 1975 - Love and Death - Woody Allen's spoof of War and Peace is among the funniest movies ever. Woody was the Graucho Marx of his era. He defined comedy as "tragedy plus time." Comedy being relative, different generations laugh at different things. Woody explored comedy's tragic side. 1976 - Logan's Run - Jenny Agutter in that green outfit! In the 23rd centry, civilization is confined to living in a domed city. Jenny and Michael York get outside to find an imperfect but real world. Washington, D.C. in ruins is an idea not so far fetched in the days following Vietnam and Watergate. The scene with Peter Ustinov and his cats may have inspired the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Farrah Fawcett appears with the hairdo that made her famous. I like Box and the caves of ice and the color when Jenny and York reach outside and see the sun for the first time. We so take it for granted! I read the novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The movie took liberties. Logan's Run is a generational piece about the baby boomers' fear of turning 30. "Don't trust anyone over 30," we used to say. 1977 - Star Wars - Star Wars plots are inconsequential. Only nerds, dorks and geeks know them. It is the characters we remember: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca. 1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Hollywood movies run 10 years behind the times. My friends and I were watching for UFOs in 1966. Somehow, Richard Dreyfuss got into the 3 biggest movies of the 1970s. 1977 - Annie Hall - Woody Allen and Diane Keaton team up and get the Academy Award for best picture. All of Woody's films come together here. 1977 - ABBA The Movie - ABBA filmed parts of their Australia tour. It was released as ABBA The Movie. 1977 - Saturday Night Fever - John Travolta and The Bee Gees teamed up, and the result was the biggest selling soundtrack in history. Travolta's feverish dancing put a face on the Gibb Brothers' pounding disco beat. We still imitate him in his white suit with his finger reaching to the sky. 1978 - Grease - John Travolta & Olivia-Newton John starred in this '70s version of the 1950s. Olivia came from Australia and won the hearts of country music lovers with hits like Let Me Be There. 1978 - Animal House - Animal House is the comedy of a generation and the funniest movie of all-time. It is hilarious. It takes place at Faber College in the Kennedy era. The dreaded Delta House is the worst fraternity on campus. Its members are known for sex, drinking and bad grades. The assortment of misfits is recognizable. John Belushi is the class clown. "7 years of college down the drain!" Otter is the ladies' man who beds the dean's wife. Boone and Katy are the incompatible couple. Neidermeyer is the gung ho ROTC officer later killed by his own troops in Vietnam. "Drop and give me 20!" Donald Sutherland shows up as the English teacher having an affair with Katy, one of his students. Dean Wormer's attempts to crack down on Delta are in vain. They simply take their shenanigans to the next level, be it a road trip or a toga party. "Toga! Toga!" This is one quotable movie. The statue of the college founder even provides a laugh. "Knowledge is good!" 1978 - Thank God It's Friday - Disco rules! Donna Summer ruled with "Last Dance." I did Donna's "Hot Stuff" through my karaoke period. Jeff Goldblum resurfaced in Jurassic Park. 1978 - Superman - Christopher Reeve's Superman is stiffer than Al Gore. Valerie Perrine as Eve Teschmacher and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor are the interesting couple. Reeve fell from a horse and spent the last 9 years of his life paralyzed. I saw irony in the myth and perhaps a curse on the character. Others saw Reeve's heroism. A quote from Hackman stayed with me, "Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the indredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe." 1979 - Hair - Proves my theory that Hollywood runs 10 years behind. This anti-war piece was passe when it came out. It is still a great film with great music from the Age of Aquarius. 1979 - The Electric Horseman - Karen and I spent a month in Las Vegas that summer. This desert yarn about clashing subcultures was relevant. The Jane Fonda and Robert Redford reunion served as a cartharsis for Jane following Vietnam. She went to Vietnam in 1972 and had her picture taken with North Vietnamese. A few misguided veterans still hate her for it. Fact is, Vietnam was playing out when Jane got there. Johnson and Nixon sacrificed 59,000 men while sitting on the atomic bomb. To win in Vietnam would have meant nothing. There was no Pearl Harbor, no oil and no 9/11. How many billions and trillion of dollars would it have cost to stay there? Jane Fonda was the only hero of The Vietnam War. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees us the right of free speech. 1980 - Xanadu - Xanadu showed disco colliding with the Ronald Reagan, Urban Cowboy era. Critics loathed it. It will not go away. There is even a Xanadu Preservation Society. John Farrar, Olivia Newton-John's producer, adapted it to the stage. Broadway shows normally become movies. Xanadu would reverse the process. Broadway types love it and would welcome it. Jeff Lynne & ELO saved their best music for Xanadu. I'm Alive & Magic haunt. The Muses in the mural coming alive are delightful! The costumes! The dancing! Sandahl Bergman as Muse 1! Olivia as Kira! On roller skates! The quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem lingers, "In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea." A few tweaks might have made this movie more accepted. John Travolta opposite Olivia would have broadened its appeal. The garishness of certain scenes could have been toned down. Wierdos got a little too "in your face." The redeeming element will always be ELO's soundtrack. Olivia Newton-John was a major star for a decade. Her radio hit, Physical, topped the chart for 11 weeks. 1980 - Urban Cowboy - #3 in young Travolta's trilogy of blockbusters. He danced to disco, rock and roll and country. Travolta's presence eclipses plot. 1980 - Can't Stop the Music - Valerie Perrine and The Village People party to a disco beat. Disco records are among the greatest ever made. The incessant beat, bass runs, the positive attitude and the sex! There is no pain in disco! The Village People perform Y.M.C.A. This is Village as in Greenwich Village in New York. They are an unforgettable group composed of a construction worker, GI, leatherman, cop, cowboy and an Indian. Their soundtrack pulsates: "Samantha," "Milkshake," "I Love You To Death." The dance sequences were filmed at Studio 54. Valerie was a Las Vegas showgirl having a good time in the post-Vietnam/Watergate era. She had a great body. The freedom of the disco years is legendary. 1980 - The Empire Strikes Back - Yoda added his name to the list of Star Wars characters. 1981 - Raiders Of the Lost Ark - Harrison Ford plays archiologist Indiana Jones. Sequels get worse as they go on. 1981 - An American Werewolf in London - Another cult film with Jenny Agutter. She nurses a guy turning into a werewolf. This movie parodies itself. Moon songs are played all through it. The best is Bad Moon Rising from Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty of CCR wrote 20 rock classics. Among them are Proud Mary and Green River. 1981 - This Is Elvis - Ral Donner, an Elvis Presley clone, does his voice in this informative biography on the heels of Elvis' death, August 16, 1977. 1981 - Clash of the Titans - A retelling of the Greek myth of Perseus, Andromeda and the winged horse, Pegasus, the story depicted in the autumn constellations. This movie seemed old even when it was out. One critic called it "a mundane exercise in grade-school mythology." 1981 - Othello - Black Othello marries white Desdemona. A soldier, Othello combines the virtues of a Colin Powell with the evil of an O.J. Simpson. William Marshall plays Othello. Ron Moody is Iago, the devil incarnate. Iago deceives Othello into believing Desdemona is unfaithful. Othello kills his wife and himself. Jenny Agutter is Desdemona. Jenny was born on December 20, 1952 in Taunton, Somerset, England. She is a rare beauty. She had a son at 37. She is well-connected in the movie business and continues to find roles. I wrote a paper about Othello and the theme of jealousy in college. Beyond jealousy. Shakespeare's tragedy questions interracial relationships and how they affect people. 1983 - Return of the Jedi - Star Wars #6 rounded out the story. The second trilogy began 16 years later as a prequel. 1983 - Raskenstam - Agnetha Flatskog made one movie in Sweden after ABBA. Raskenstam is a comedy based on the life of Gustav Raskenstam, a Swedish womanizer and swindler, who ends up in jail. It is a silly movie, on this list because of ABBA. 1984 - Amadeus - A movie about Mozart. Mozart's middle name was Amadeus. Saul Zaentz produced it. Zaentz is the guy who clashed with John Fogerty over the rights to songs Fogerty wrote for Creedence Clearwater Revival. Zaentz was behind Fantasy Records in Berkley, California. 1987 - Roxanne - Steve Martin is C.D. Bales. He is the perfect catch for any young woman except for one drawback. He has a humongous nose. Everyone is hypnotized by it. No one can disregard it. The movie is a take-off on the play, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Frenchman Edmond Rostand. It varies in order to modernize. C.D. works for the fire department. He meets Roxanne and falls in love. Roxanne is a beautiful astronomy student played by Daryl Hannah. Because of his grotesque nose, C.D. courts her through a friend. Humor and romance intertwine. The tennis racket fight and the scene in which Martin enumerates insults about his nose are fabulous. Steve Martin is a great comedian with his own unique brand of humor. 1988 - Big - Funny movie about a boy in a man's body. After becoming a father, I tended toward kid movies. 1989 - Blaze - Paul Newman made his best movie after becoming an old man. In Blaze, he plays Governor Earl Long of Louisiana. Earl has a scandalous affair with stripper Blaze Starr. I remember this being in the news in 1959. Blaze is played by Lolita Davidovich. She is Yugoslavian, of Serbian/Croatian descent. Blaze makes her way from West Virginia to New Orleans to the governor's mansion in Baton Rouge. Obviously Earl is a liberal. He is a Democrat who supports Civil Rights. This is a comedy, and there are some funny scenes, Earl having sex with his boots on and shooting his lawn mower. Robert Wuhl's character is interesting but has a small part. Blaze exits through the bathroom window and leaves him, taking her mother's advice not to trust any man who tells her to trust him. Blaze's affair with the governor continued until his death in 1960. 1989 - Batman - I thought, "Why would anyone do Batman in 1989?" It turned out to be a strong, dark movie. Jack Nicholson is The Joker. Kim Basinger is Vicki Vale. Avoid sequels. 1990 - Hamlet - Produced by Franco Zeffirelli, the same guy behind Romeo and Juliet 22 years earlier. Mel Gibson won me over with this. Great color, grays and browns of the Middle Ages. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-the-Avon in 1564. Stratford is 100 miles northwest of London, England. Avon is the river. Shakespeare biographies are sketchy. He married Anne Hathaway and had 3 children. He moved to London and established himself in the theater. His plays were staged at The Globe. Hamlet is his greatest play. It was written in 1601. It deals with revenge, procrastination and insanity. Hamlet puts on an "antic disposition" as he delays avenging his father's murder. The big issue is death. Hamlet questions our existence. Why do we have to die? Why live at all if we must die? What is the meaning of life? Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52. His 36 plays are divided into tragedies, comedies, histories and problem plays. In his tragedies, the characters drop like flies. 1990 - Phoenix Rising - I took 30 of my songs and wrote a story around them with characters, creating the first jukebox musical. 1992 - Honey, I Blew Up The Kid - The only sequel that was better than the original. I related because the kid in the flick reminded me of my kid. 1992 - Showgirl - This was a 50 page short story I wrote about an older man getting in with a showgirl in Las Vegas. It was so pornographic, I threw it away for fear my mother would find it. 1993 - Jurassic Park - Dinosaur-mania peaked with the movie based on Michael Crichton's novel. Dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic Era between 65 and 220 million years ago. The Mesozic Era is divided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. Jurassic Park brings dinosaurs into the present by cloning them from DNA. They are kept in a park on an island off Costa Rica with plans of making them a public attraction. The dinosaurs get loose. T. Rex goes on a rampage. The velociraptors are especially fierce. I feel like there are not enough species represented. Where are Triceratops and Stegosaurs? Duckbills and ankylosaurs? The theme that man should not tamper with nature is rediculous because the whole point of science and technology is that man can better himself by understanding and harnessing natural forces. Movie-makers generally lean toward the negative. Both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas employ dark, confusing scenes. Watching their movies is like taking a beating. Still, we learn from them. 1994 - Forrest Gump - I hated this movie, especially the part about Vietnam. I had to go out in the lobby. The parts about Elvis and The Beatles were clever. I had returned from Sweden when I saw Gump and was having hard time. Seeing the quintessential baby boomer life unfold was painful. 1997 - Titanic - Michael and I saw this blockbuster. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York in 1912. About 700 people drowned. About 1500 survived. The Titanic was part of the White Star Line. It was believed to be unsinkable. Its passenger list was a microcosm of society, and the tragedy has fascinated each succeeding generation. Robert Ballard discovered it on the ocean floor in 1985 and recovered some of its contents. Ballard's effort inspired James Cameron to write and direct this film. Leonardo DiCarrio and Kate Winslet star as Jack and Rose. Movies do not get more romantic than this. Who can forget the image of Jack and Rose at the front of the ship? Or Jack supporting Rose in the icy water as his own life ebbs? Posters of Leonardo DiCaprio graced the walls of teenage girls. Titanic won 11 Academy Awards. It is the biggest box office success of all-time, pulling in over $600 million. 1997 - Contact - Carl Sagan's novel about contact with extraterrestrial intelligence was made into a movie starring Jodie Foster. Foster achieved notoriety when John Hinckley, the man who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981, said he did it to get her attention. Sagan got famous appearing on the Johnny Carson show. He did his Cosmos series for TV in 1980. From there, he got into dinosaurs and politics. 1998 - The Governess - Minnie Driver. A period piece about the early days of photography and a relationship between an older man and a younger woman, something I thought I wanted. 1999 - The Phantom Menace - Anakin Skywalker as a child. The character making an impression is Jar Jar Binks. Some saw racial overtones. I saw a duckbilled dinosaur making its way into Star Wars from Jurassic Park. 2000 - Beautiful - Minnie Driver again. She reaches her peak in this story about a beauty pageant. 2001 - Pearl Harbor - Michael and I saw it. We have a triangle of lovers set against the Japanese attack that drug America into World War II. The attack is drawn out and emotional. Ben Affleck's movie. 2001 - 61* - Comedian Billy Crystal produced and directed this movie about Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season. Maris finished with 61 but hit the final 2 in games that were added to an expanded schedule. The Commissioner of baseball placed an asterisk beside his record. The asterisk tainted his achievement. Maris never fit in New York and could not relate to the media. Whether the stress was such that his hair fell out, I can not say. Movies need drama. 61* is filled with Yankee memories. The actors who play Maris and Mantle look like them. Mark McGuire, who broke Maris' record in 1998 with 70 home runs, appears in the movie. Michael and I watched it as a prelude to going to Yankee Stadium. 2002 - Spider-Man - I saw it with Michael. Beware of sequels. 2002 - Attack of the Clones - Star Wars #2. The Clones should have worn backwards ball caps, short pants, back packs and flip-flops while holding cell phones to their ears. They should have attacked in Jeeps and black hearse-like SUVs. 2004 - The Passion of the Christ - It was a year for religion and politics. Mel Gibson made the first modern film about Jesus. He answered militant Islam in the wake of 9/11 with his faith in Jesus as the only means to eternal salvation. He sought realism in using Latin and ancient Hebrew with English subitles. He confronted accusations of extreme violence and anti-Semitism. In my astronomy paper, I prove unequivocally that God does not exist. Now, I will show that there is most definitely a God. I had religious experiences in 1972 at age 26. One night, I knelt beside my bed reading The Bible. I thumbed through the New Testament. Understanding poured into me. It was as if God pulled back a veil and allowed me to see the true nature of things. The Holy Spirit showed me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on a cross for all sins and rose from the grave. The room lit up in an unearthly white light as I read. It was a similar experience to the one Paul had on the road to Damascus. Jesus did not speak to me but He showed me the essence of the New Testament to be the essence of the universe. I will not forget it. The last word on my lips as I die will be, "Jesus!" 2004 - Troy - Michael and I watched this on TV from our hotel room in New York City. I tried to explain the story to him and to myself. It is from The Iliad written by the ancient Greek poet Homer. Ilium is another word for the city of Troy. Trojan Paris seduced the beautiful Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Greece. The Greeks sacked Troy, using a huge wooden horse to enter the city. Brad Pitt plays Achilles, the Greek warrior who kills Trojan hero Hector. Achilles dies when Paris shoots an arrow into his heel. Michael asked if the part about the Trojan horse was true. I said half the story is true and half is made up. Homer lived around 800 B.C. The war took place on the coast of Turkey around 1200 B.C. 2004 - The Notebook - James Garner starred in this tearjerker about a World War II couple who die together in old age. Based on the Nicholaus Sparks novel. 2004 - The Phantom of the Opera - The film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, a sumptuous, costumed opera fest. The title song is emotion-charged. Minnie Driver is Carlotta. Minnie is a sexy woman. 2004 - The Aviator - Leonardo DiCaprio portrays the life of Howard Hughes in this lavish, old-fashioned Hollywood movie. 2004 - Downfall - Downfall dramatizes the last 10 days of Adolf Hitler's life from his 56th birthday until he and his mistress, Eva Braun, commit suicide. The film comes from Germany and has English subtitles. It is the first ever to treat Hitler as a human being. He is portrayed as charming and charismatic as well as brutal. Bruno Ganz plays the Fuhrer. The fall of Berlin is seen through the eyes of Hitler's secretary. We get a sense of the chaos and madness that prevailed in those final days. There is mass suicide among Nazis and wild partying as the Russians surround the city. We sense the claustrophobia of Hitler's group in their underground bunker. They oscillate between hope and despair. The Swastika has been used by various cultures for 3,000 years. It is a chilling symbol. 2005 - Revenge of the Sith - Revenge of the Sith is the best of the Star Wars movies. Ewan McGregor rises up to do a strong Obi-Wan, and Hayden Christensen is quite sinister as he slowly sinks into Darth Vader. Episode 3 links the two trilogies. Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader by signing a pact with the devil in hell, a planet made of volcanoes. Anakin marries Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman). Their kids are Luke and Princess Leia. The younger Portman plays the mother of the older Carrie Fisher. Wookies appear in Revenge of the Sith. We see C3PO, R2D2, Yoda and Jar Jar Binks. Someone in the next generation will carry the franchise forward. 2005 - Shania: A Life in Eight Albums - Meredith Henderson, an Ottawa native, is in the role of Shania Twain. The film covers Shania's life from age 8 to age 27 and her meeting with Mutt Lange. Two other actresses are cast as young Shania. CBC debuted the fim in Canada. 2005 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. During World War II, four British children enter a fantasy land through a wardrobe. They fight the White Witch who has locked Narnia in perpetual winter. The worst part is that Christmas never comes. The lion is Aslan, a Christ symbol. He is killed by the Witch and resurrected. European quaintness oozes from the mind of Lewis as a jumble of centaurs and talking animals go to war against brutish creatures. The battle is too long, and we wonder if this icy adventure is worth 150 million dollars. Lewis died on November 22, l963, the same day President John Kennedy was assassinated. 2005 - King Kong - Set in the 1930s, Kong again climbs the Empire State Building. This remake is directed by Peter Jackson. Naomi Watts is Ann Darrow. Jack Black is Carl Denham. Adrien Brody is Jack Driscoll. This Kong suffers from an excess of nonstop mayhem once the band of adventurers descends on Skull Island. It would have been enough for Kong to vanquish two Tyrannosaurs instead of three. The bug scenes are nerve-wracking. One consolation is that Naomi Watts does not scream as much as Fay Wray. She develops a real affection for her beast. Watts is beautiful and slides into her roll naturally. The natives are more sinister than those in the original. King Kong is a thrilling ride if you can hang in for 3 hours and 7 minutes. 2006 - Superman Returns - Brandon Routh is Clark Kent. Kate Bosworth is Lois Lane. Keven Spacey is Lex Luthor. 2007 - Wonder Woman - Joss Whedon is directing and writing the script for the new Wonder Woman movie. He is still casting. The Wonder Woman character was created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston. She is an Amazon from Paradise Island and goes by the name of Diana Prince. She has a magic lasso and bracelets and flies around in an invisible jet. I was a fan of the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series starring Linda Carter so I have an interest here. Whedon has said there may be a role for Lynda Carter but that his movie will not be campy. Lots of names are being mentioned as the potential new Wonder Woman. I feel it should be an unknown, someone as fresh and seemingly innocent as Carter was when she assumed the role.
Contact: jim@jimcolyer.com