STALAG 17

(July 1953, U.S.)

Billy Wilder's STALAG 17 is one of those rare classic films which I'm never quite sure how I feel about in the end. I struggle to find redeeming qualities about it as I'm watching it, and when it's over, I think I'm successful in doing so. The problem is I feel I have to patiently sit through elements of it that don't necessarily agree with me. The film is labeled as a war drama, when it's really anything but. While it attempts to push the serious side of a group of American prisoners of war inside a German World War II camp, the truth is that it's more or less a precursor to what would eventually become HOGAN'S HEROES on CBS. While it's likely not the intention of the film, it is the sad reality.

The members of Stalag 17 are a ragtag group of misfits who have come to experience life inside the prison camp as on ongoing joke. It's most "important" member is J.J. Sefton (played by William Holden) who has, through influence and bribery, come to make a very comfortable and privileged life for himself within the barracks among his fellow prison mates who seem to be suffering their own demons on a daily basis. However, even these "demons" are not meant to be taken seriously as they live a life of prison misery. One goofy man's obsession with Betty Grable back home and the fact that she's just married another man is hardly worth feeling any true sympathy for. To be perfectly honest, there's not a single character in STALAG 17 that we're ever meant to take seriously, not even the Nazi commandants (the leader in charge played by director Otto Preminger). Even Sefton, who I suppose is meant to represent a character of reason and stability, is viewed (at least by me, anyway) as a fool because the man simply doesn't know when to keep a low profile and his big mouth shut among his mates. He's perfectly comfortable flaunting the fact that he's privileged to eat an egg for breakfast (an item he obtained through bribery) while the rest of the men horrible eat potato soup, as well as his victory in claiming all of their precious cigarettes as a result of a gambling wager in which the lives of two men were lost while trying to escape. Honestly, the man ought to realize when that he's going to get his ass kicked to the curb if he doesn't learn to keep a lid on it!

So, while I speak all of this negativity and cynicism toward the film, you may very well ask why I'm bothering to write about it. The answer lies in my opening description of the redeeming qualities I'm ultimately able to find within its content, despite the ongoing silliness that surrounds it (I mean, really, how many times can you possibly listen to that guy with the high-pitched voice continuously shout, "At ease!"). At the heart of STALAG 17 is an intriguing mystery of the informant and traitor that lies within the group. All fingers point to Sefton who clearly has the goods in his foot locker to indicate that they've been awarded to him somehow, some way. The men's suspicions toward him are kept at bay through much of the film until the moment they conclude he must be the traitor and really lay into him and finally confiscate his stuff. His claim all along is that he's innocent and we somehow choose to believe him. For the life of us, we cannot imagine who the really informant is, and it's ultimately surprising to learn that it's not only a man we didn't suspect (spoiler alert - it's Peter Graves!), but that it's also a German pretending to be an American; a mole placed inside the barracks to learn their secrets and inform his superiors of all their diabolical schemes, including escape. It's actually quite interesting and ironic how the mole meets his doom in the end when the men literally throw him out into the night, only to be shot and killed by his own German comrades. It's these moments of mystery and intrigue that make STALAG 17 not only tolerable through its silliness and goofiness, but also a worthwhile black and white classic that represent a small piece of history that was World War II. It's also one of the earlier prison camp films to come along before more glorified future classics like THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (also with William Holden) and THE GREAT ESCAPE. Anyway, I suppose if you were ever a fan of HOGAN'S HEROES (I never watched it), then STALAG 17 is an important film for you to know where the original inspiration very likely came from.

Favorite line or dialogue:

J.J. Sefton (questioning Price): "When was Pearl Harbor, Price, or don't you know that?"
Price: "December 7th, '41."
Sefton: "What time?"
Price: "Six o'clock. I was having dinner."
Sefton: "Six o'clock in Berlin. They were having lunch in Cleveland. Am I boring you boys?"
Hoffy: "Go on."
Sefton: He's a Nazi, Price is! For all I know his name is Preissinger or Preishoffer! Oh, sure, he lived in Cleveland! But when the war broke out, he came back to the Fatherland like a good little Bundist! He spoke our lingo, so they sent him to spy school and fixed him up with phony dog tags!"

STAKEOUT

(August 1987, U.S.)

I honestly don't know whatever became of director John Badham, but back in his day, the man was certainly one of the most versatile filmmakers around, from the musical sensation of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, to the terror of DRACULA (1979), to the high speed thrills of BLUE THUNDER, to the wise-cracking comedy and crime of STAKEOUT. If nothing else, his films often possessed a smooth style of dialogue and character chemistry. At first thought, one would think the pairing of Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez would be too much like father and son to have them play a believable pair of detective partners. But surprise, surprise - the two do work well together and manage to feed off of each other very well. This is what makes the buddy comedy, whether on the road together or fighting crime, highly effective.

As detectives Chris Lecce (Dreyfuss) and Bill Reimers (Estevez), they are assigned to a night shift stakeout of Latina Maria McGuire (played by Medeleine Stowe) because her former dangerous boyfriend Richard (played by Aidan Quinn) has just broken out of prison and is very likely coming straight for her because there is a large sum of money that he hid in her house before he went away, though she has no idea. While they watch her through binoculars and camera lenses to wait and see what happens and with who, the pair are like a couple of frat house boys having fun, while playing pranks on their relief detectives, and enjoying every minute of invading Maria's privacy, unbeknownst to her. They even find reason for Chris to enter her home when she's away, only to have her return while he's still there, hiding under her bed watching her get undressed. This is actually one of the most pleasurable moments of the film because we not only get to enjoy a quick shot of Madeleine Stowe's gorgeous ass just out of the shower...

(Sorry. Again, couldn't resist!)

...but there's also a quick moment when Chris, while trying to decide whether to escape her home unnoticed or indulge in his insatiable curiosities, takes a moment to shake and move his own ass along with Miami Sound Machine's "Conga" playing on her stereo. It's one of those times when you remember that Richard Dreyfuss is funny, as well as dramatic. Of course, movie cliché dictates that not only will Chris and Bill be found out, but that Chris will inevitably fall in love with Maria and have to give her the old bullshit explanation that even though it started out as just another police assignment, it eventually turned into something personal as soon as he got to know her. Yeah, from the comedy to the action, we've likely seen it all before, but like I said, dialogue and chemistry, when done right, go a long way to offer us something new and original each time. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover had it in LETHAL WEAPON, Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines hand it in RUNNING SCARED, and now Dreyfuss and Estevez manage to continue the good streak of the 1980s, despite the big age difference between them (though their 1993 sequel with Rosie O'Donnell was easily forgettable). Hell, anything with Rosie O'Donnell is easily forgettable!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Bill Reimers: "Okay, okay, what movie? "Well, this was not a boating accident!"
Chris Lecce "I don't know."
Bill: "Oh, you're hopeless!"

(Did you catch the JAWS/Dreyfuss reference there??)

ST. ELMO'S FIRE

(June 1985, U.S.)

ST. ELMO'S FIRE was released in the summer of 1985, the summer before I was due to leave for my freshman year of college at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In effect, I saw the film as a prerequisite that would prepare me for the social pleasures and anxieties I might come to expect during and after my post high school education. Because of that presumption, I love ST. ELMO'S FIRE and everything it tried to teach me. I also damn ST. ELMO'S FIRE for all of the delusions it provided me. Yes, I said delusions! For all of its insight and wisdom into the lives and loves of these post-college group of friends, it also gave me false expectations which ultimately lead to great disappointment. Let me attempt to explain - because of Joel Schumacher's perfectly-timed "Brat Pack" film, these are the fantasies that I developed in my naive, little head before going to college...

- Like Kevin and Kirby (Andrew McCarthy and Emilio Estevez) & Leslie and Jules (Alley Sheedy and Demi Moore), I thought that my college roommate and I would be best friends forever.
- Like Kirby and Dale Biberman (played by Andie MacDowell), I thought that I'd enjoy rewarding infatuations and sexual encounters with older female students (perhaps even my resident assistant, presuming she was a girl, of course).
- Like Leslie and Alec (played by Judd Nelson), I thought that I'd meet the love of my life at college and eventually marry her.

Here's what the reality of it turned out to be...

- My freshman year roommate was an absolute dick and I wished nothing more than for him to die a horrible, painful death! Things got so bad between us, that I eventually moved to another dorm after just one semester.
- I did develop a rather unnatural crush on my resident assistant who was two years older than me. Sadly, I don't think she saw me as anything more than a goofy kid in her eyes. Still, she was very nice to me and we managed to stay friends for a few years (thank you, Ingrid!).
- I didn't meet the woman who would eventually become my wife and the mother of my son for another thirteen years. So much for the power of college love! Perhaps Kevin's repeated cynicism toward love was right on ("Love sucks!")!

So what does all this say about me and who I was back then? Did I rely too much on the power of the movies to guide me through life's experiences or was I just simply an unrealistic twit who didn't have both feet on Earth's reality? Regardless of the answer, there was no doubt I'd developed some sort of meaningful connection to the group of seven young adults in ST. ELMO'S FIRE. I marveled at the possibility of close friends managing to stay close friends through all of life's pains and difficulties that followed the hell that was known as high school (so well depicted in front of my eyes on the screen in John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB just a few months before). From the moment the film opened and we watched them walk hand-in-hand in graduation cap and gown, we knew somehow that these people were the real deal. Unfortunately, being the "real deal" means that you deal with all the shit that comes with being such close friends, including confusions about love, sex, relationships, commitment and even the act of betrayal. To watch Billy Hicks and Wendy Beamish (played by Rob Lowe and Mare Winningham) is an exercise in confusion in itself, though I can't decide if my confusion lies in the fact that an otherwise popular and good looking stud of the '80s like Billy is even attracted to an otherwise bland, inexperienced virgin like Wendy or if it lies in the fact that a girl with sense and brains like Wendy continues to keep herself attached to a dope like Billy. Perhaps she says it best when she tells Leslie, "It's like smoking. I try to quit, but every once in a while, I need a hit."

But even as life as seen through the eyes of others is confusing, there's always someone like Jules. Demi Moore, whom I'd known only as a regular on ABC-TV's GENERAL HOSPITAL for a while, perfectly represented every fantasy I ever had about college girls, or rather the wild party girl you could always look forward to seeing at the local frat house who just might provide you with more than a kiss if she had enough to drink. And yet, while Jules is wild, crazy, irresponsible, and the cause of her friend's constant worrying (she's never naked, unfortunately. If you want to see Demi like that, you need to watch ABOUT LAST NIGHT and STRIPTEASE)...

(Sorry. I couldn't resist!).

...she's ultimately always the one who will come to their aid the moment she's needed, even if it's something as simple and comforting as a supportive arm around their shoulder when they've been hurt. She's the one who can stay up all night talking if you want to and the one who'll tell you the truth to your face (even when she thinks that Kevin is gay) because that's the person she is. Yet, though all of her outward strength and sheer "fabulousness", she's the one by the end of the film we discover is the most flawed and hurts the most. That may be predictable and even cliché, but there's also something irresistibly human about it, particularly when it's the film's persistent screw-up, Billy, who comes to her rescue at her most desperate and painful moment. Ultimately, the message of friendship and loyalty (no matter what) is clear throughout the film, and when it's over, we're left with a sense of calm and reassurance in the knowledge (whether fantasy or reality) that if we're lucky, we'll go through life with the kind of friends you keep close by, the friends that matter (in a THE BIG CHILL meets THE BREAKFAST CLUB sort of way), even when it's time to finally stop acting like kids at our favorite bar and finally grow up.

That in mind, I dedicate this post to my friends from college; in real life, on social media or whatever shape or form they may exist today. Thank you all for still being in my life, one way or another. It means something.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Wendy Beamish: "Jules, it sounds like you have your boss wrapped around your little finger."
Jules Van Patten: "Did I ever tell you what he like me to do with my little finger?"

(Sorry. I couldn't resist that, either!)