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[ Line of Sight ]
DATE: September 18, 2003

Movies You Wouldn't Expect Me to Recommend, Part 1

You might assume from reading this website that I only watch science fiction movies. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. I love movies. I love acting and good direction. I love going to the theater and eating popcorn. Really, I love everything about movies. Good movies. Here are a few I really like, in no particular order and with no hope to be complete. (The links below take you to each movie's DVD page at Amazon, if you're interested in checking them out.)

Quiz Show
I love Quiz Show because it's a good movie, first and foremost. The direction and writing is superb, and the acting is amazing. Ralf Fiennes, Rob Morrow, John Turturro, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Mira Sorvino... this is a great cast.

I also love this movie because it showcases a point at which it seems that we as a culture began to devalue integrity and honesty in favor of greed and rationalization. There are surprisingly few movies produced lately that really show a character struggling with doing the right thing as opposed to the most expedient, successful, or profitable thing. We see heroes risking their lives, but not their integrity.

Glengarry Glen Ross
I'm a huge David Mamet fan. I'll watch anything he's written. Unlike Quiz Show, I don't like what Glengarry Glen Ross is about. I just love it for the dialogue and the acting. Again, it's a dream cast... Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, and Jonathan Pryce. Not a weak link to be found.

Forget everything about the movie and just listen to the way these actors deliver their lines. It's easy to forget you're watching a movie, because they talk like real people. They stammer, they don't finish sentence, they talk over each other. Their performances allow you to read so much of what's going on in the character's mind, even if it has little or nothing to do with what they're actually saying.

I think this move gets overlooked because it is so dark, and because it is so small. This isn't a movie about the world blowing up. It's a movie about salesmen. (Warning: It has really harsh language, and a lot of it.)

Fargo
I'm also a really big Coen Brothers fan. In fact, I struggled a bit whether or not to put The Big Lebowski or Raising Arizona on this list. I'll gladly watch any of them at the drop of a hat. I chose Fargo because, while its humor is much more subtle, its plotting is much tighter and the story overall more interesting.

Coen Brothers movies are pretty much guaranteed to have intelligent writing, great humor and, probably more than anything else, fabulous characters. Fargo is a crime movie (sort of) that examines what happens when a regular guy gets involved with shady elements and finds himself in way over his head.

And yes, coming from that part of the country, I can attest, some people really do talk that way.

Silverado
Do I like Westerns? It's a tough question. I love the idea of Westerns: Riding the range, gunfights, rustlers, lone heroes fighting for what's right, Indians, and so on. However, there's a lot of bad Westerns out there, as well as some really good ones. (For example, I like The Magnificent Seven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.)

Of the more recent Westerns, I think the one to pay attention to is Silverado. It's got a great plot and wonderful characters (it's one of the few movies where you'll see Kevin Costner play a part that isn't like every other movie he's been in). It's got the very underrated Scott Glen in a lead role, as well as the very appropriately highly rated Kevin Kline. (I'll watch almost anything Kevin Kline is in -- he has a great way of portraying someone surprisingly intelligent and thoughtful, as he does here, or someone over-the-top funny, as in A Fish Called Wanda). Plus it features Danny Glover, whom I also like.

In an interesting way, this movie feels like a Western about Westerns, and perhaps the end of Westerns. Not only does it cover all the archetypes, it's really about the end of the "lone rider on the range" kind of West and the birth of a more civilized society. At the same time, however, it's about the rebirth of the Western movie, symbolized by Kevin Kline's character at the beginning of the movie, bereft of his cowboy trappings and almost dead. As he regains the things stolen from him throughout the course of the movie, restoring himself, it's as though we're watching the whole concept of the Western being restored.

Okay, I'll quit boring you with more of my movie analysis now. But my list isn't done yet.

Next Week: Part 2

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