12 ANGRY MEN

(April 1957, U.S.)

Despite my usually detailed memory, I honestly can't remember if I ever read the original play of 12 ANGRY MEN as required reading for middle school or high school English class. I usually never enjoyed any of the required reading in school, but based on the late Sidney Lumet's classic black and white debut feature film, I can't imagine that I would've balked at the idea of reading such a powerful courtroom drama.

On what seems to be the hottest day of the summer in 1950's New York City, Henry Fonda leads a group of twelve jury men deliberating the conviction or acquittal of a young boy accused of stabbing his father to death, and facing the electric chair if convicted. They've been instructed by the judge that if there's any reasonable doubt whatsoever, they're required to return a verdict of not guilty. In the end, their verdict (either way) must be unanimous. In the beginning, Fonda stands alone amidst a sea of convincing evidence to the boy's guilt. This evidence includes the testimony of a neighbor who claims to have witnessed from her window, the boy stab his father, and another neighbor claiming to have heard the defendant threaten to kill his father and then hearing the body hit the floor, and then witnessing the defendant run past his door. The boy's violent past serves to further convince the jury of his immediate guilt. Fonda as Juror #8 is the only one of twelve men who doesn't want to jump to any hasty conclusion and only asks to talk the matters out first before concluding a final verdict.

In a rather step-by-step process, Fonda questions the reliability of the witnesses and also casts doubt on the supposed unique nature of switch blade used as the murder weapon, as he happens to own the same sort of knife. He's just introduced reasonable doubt, and the decision of the remaining eleven jurors must now be examined. This is the point in the film where perhaps it's not impossible to compare the story to Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. No murder involved, of course, but one by one, each juror who was so previously set in their own ways of thinking is "picked off" as they now find reason to question their values and morals, thus reversing their conviction of a guilty verdict to that of not guilty.

By the time the day has progressed, and the weather outside has become as loud and stormy as the angry debates and string of arguments inside the deliberation room, each juror, including the most die hard angry Juror #3 (played by Lee J. Cobb) believing that the undesirable accused defendant must die to pay for his anger against his own ungrateful son, has succumb to the questionable evidence and all reasonable doubt until the entire team of jurors stands at the opposite side of the spectrum as compared to how they started out. The boy is found not guilty and the jurors leave the courthouse, perhaps wiser men with a better understanding of their own humanity.

There is traditional drama, and then there's the sort of absorbing drama that manages to create the sort of claustrophobic atmosphere that 12 ANGRY MEN does with its multi use of camera positions and close-ups. One can't help but feel spellbound as we watch these men locked in a small room with no air conditioning slowly begin to unravel at the thought of deliberating any longer than they have to against circumstantial evidence and their own personal prejudices against a minority slum kid they believe to be guilty from the start. Change is key here, as the hearts of twelve men becomes increasingly less angry until what appears to be justice is finally served. Sadly, we're given no hint whatsoever as to just who may have actually killed the boy's father and why. In the end, we may only be left with the prejudices of the time, in which many believed people of the slum to be so bad, that they'd just go around killing each other for no reason. I wonder if we're any wiser today?

Favorite line or dialogue:

Juror #8 (to Juror #3): "Ever since you walked into this room, you've been acting like a self-appointed public avenger! You want to see this boy die because you personally want it, not because of the facts! You're a sadist!"

TRUMAN SHOW, THE

(June 1998, U.S.)

Let me say something right off the bat - I hate reality TV. I mean, I loathe and detest its very existence right down to fiber of my very soul, and to be perfectly honest, I generally have low opinions of people who enjoy it. Who would have thought that back in 1998, two years before CBS's SURVIVOR went on the air, that the concept of following a person's life and activities on television would've ever been more than entertaining fiction on film. Oh, I know that reality entertainment existed long before Peter Weir's little sci-fi comedy-drama of Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carrey) who grows up living an ordinary life that unbeknownst to him, takes place on a gigantic set populated by actors for an international TV show about him, but in my opinion, you don't honestly come to grips with the possibilities of reality (past, present and future) until you've witnessed it on the big screen.

On screen, Truman suspects nothing as he lives his daily existence in the fictional seaside town of Seahaven Island, which in reality, is situated in Hollywood, equipped with state-of-the-art technology to simulate such things as day and night weather conditions, and features more than five thousand hidden cameras documenting Truman's every move (and even sleep). The town is psychologically programmed to condition Truman into never wanting to leave, despite his inner longings to break free and explore the country of Fiji. However, Truman's instilling by the show's producers of his fear of the water through the "death" of his TV father in a boating accident lead him to believe that he lacks the courage to face the water as well as the potential dangers of traveling, thus instilling the virtues of staying put at home. Every other resident of the town, including Truman's own beloved wife Meryl (played by Laura Linney) and best friend Marlon (played by Noah Emmerich) are actors playing a role. The show's creator Christof (played by Ed Harris) stands high in the makeshift moon above the town and seeks to capture Truman's real-life emotions and behavior, thus giving his audience a relatable everyday man (and extremely high TV ratings).

From the moment a spotlight falls mysteriously from the blue sky one morning, Truman suspects that something is not right about his life, and proceeds to take actions to try and figure out what's going on. Despite falling for the beautiful Sylvia during his college years, Truman was intended to fall in love with and marry Meryl. As a result of trying to tell Truman the truth, that his reality was a fake, Sylvia was kicked off the show and believed to be living in Fiji with her (fake) father, thus justifying Truman's longing to flee to that country. Now on the outside of the show, Sylvia is part of a campaign to free Truman from his fake life, thus accusing Christof of destroying Truman's life, which of course, Christof denies. As time and the show go on, mounting evidence including a radio frequency that follows his car and rain water that only falls on him, leads Truman closer to the truth. Even the return of Truman's deceased "fake" father in order to return him to a more controllable state cannot deter him from discovering who and what he really is.

As he begins to sleep in the basement after Meryl leaves him, the TV production crew realizes that Truman's sleeping body is out of their sight, and they begin to suspect something is wrong. They're right. Truman is gone and Christof orders the show's transmission cut while a citywide search for Truman begins, thus leaving TV audiences around the world on the edge of their seats wondering what will become of their ignorant TV hero. Truman is discovered sailing on the fake waters out of Seahaven, determined to conquer his fear of the water. Despite the fact that Truman may drown on live television, Christoff ignores all warnings. Truman persists and sails his boat smack into the wall of the great makeshift dome and finds an exit door. Christof, speaking directly to Truman through a giant speaker system, tries to persuade him to remain, stating that truth doesn't exist in the real world and that only be staying inside his own artificial world, would Truman be safe. Tempted by these words for only a moment, Truman takes a bow and exits, thus sending many audience members into a cheering frenzy on Truman's behalf. Show over. Turn the channel and see what else is on.

Like I previously stated, this is all wonderful motion picture entertainment from the director of DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) and also breaks Jim Carrey out of his insane comedy persona of the 1990s in order to try his hand at some emotional drama. But unfortunately, THE TRUMAN SHOW turned out to be a prelude to what would become an onslaught of reality TV that has plagued the entire 21st century with titles that include SURVIVOR and BIG BROTHER, just to name a couple. But honestly, think about it, and even you too may come to realize that in the real world, there's virtually nothing real about reality TV. Whereas Truman's reality is real to him in fiction, everything that's supposed to compose reality on TV is false - none of what you watch on TV is actually real because it all has the potential to have been scripted and rehearsed before its ever broadcasted. None of those idiots you watch on SURVIVOR are ever in any real danger, because there's a camera crew (and probably a staff doctor) is right there on the island with them (in real life, no one is there to save you if you get into trouble on a deserted island). Still, even as fiction, Truman's story illustrates the power and the hold the media has over the average moron who's willing to be controlled by all of the crap on TV.

And of course, I'm sure it's no accident that the name Christof is so close to Christ, thus giving Ed Harris's character a representative quality of Jesus Christ or even an Antichrist ("Christ-off") who seeks to control the minds of his many followers - in this case, the TV audience with an insatiable lust for the private details of the lives of (so-called) ordinary people in a world filled with celebrity culture.

Anyway you look at it, it's probably a lot easier to see why in the end, I prefer movies over television any day of the week. Thank goodness for that because this blog and my books might not exist otherwise.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Meryl Burbank (holding up a jar of cocoa): "Why don't you let me fix you some of this Mococoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners."
Truman Burbank (looking around): "What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to?"

TRUE LIES

(July 1994, U.S.)

I've loved all of James Cameron's theatrical motion pictures since THE TERMINATOR (1984), and I love TRUE LIES, too. It's action-packed, exciting, and funny, to boot. Yet somehow it's the most easily forgettable of all his work. Perhaps it's because it was sandwiched like a filler movie in between two of his biggest hits, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) and TITANIC (1997). Perhaps it's because of its overly-humorous tone premise among a body of work that's usually anything but funny. Who knows?


Arnold Schwarzenegger returns for the third time with Cameron to play Harry Tasker who's leading a double life as both a dull computer salesman to his wife Helen (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and his daughter Dana and a secret agent for a United States intelligence agency called Omega Sector. With his fellow agent and comic-relief sidekick Albert (played by Tom Arnold), they start off the movie by infiltrating a foreign party of suspected arms dealers and terrorists in Switzerland in a series of action sequence that practically pay homage to the James Bond film GOLDFINGER. The terrorist leader Salim Abu Aziz (played by Art Milik) heads the group known as "Crimson Jihad" intends to hold America hostage with his newly-acquired nuclear missiles. The action that opens the movie soon dissolves itself into the mundane life of Harry and Helen. When Harry shows up unexpectedly at Helen's office to take her to lunch, he overhears her talking on the phone to a mysterious man named Simon. Convinced Helen is having an affair with him, Harry used his Omega resources to discover that Simon is merely a used car salesman pretending to be a covert undercover agent in order to seduce women into bed, and it looks like Helen is his latest target. Disguised, Harry and his participating team kidnap Helen and Simon. Simon is easily scared off, but during interrogation, Helen confesses that due to Harry's absence, she desperately seeks some adventure in her life, thus hooking up with a fraud like Simon. Harry arranges for Helen to participate in a staged spy mission, where she's required to plan a listening device in the phone at a hotel suite, but not before she has to dance in her bra and underwear to seduce a mysterious figure (who is actually her husband himself). This sequence reveals what a sexy woman Jamie Lee Curtis truly is (or was back then)...

Just as the seduction reaches the point where Helen discovers it's actually Harry behind the entire facade, Aziz's men burst into the hotel room and kidnap them to an island in the Florida Keys, where Aziz reveals his smuggled nuclear warheads and threatens to destroy an American city each week unless the U.S. military withdraws from the Persian Gulf. As his first act, he plants one of the warheads on that deserted island to detonate it, showing his seriousness to the U.S. government. Of course, Harry breaks himself and Helen from from their captors and kicks major ass along the way to their freedom. After hanging from a helicopter and rescuing Helen from a speeding limo toward a gap in a destroyed bridge, the island warhead is observed in its detonation in an almost beautiful sight across the water. But back home, Aziz and his men have taken Dana and taken control of a Miami skyscraper under construction. Harry commandeers one of the U.S. fighter planes and arrives on the scene to rescue his daughter and destroy the bad guys once and for all. A year later, the Tasker family are happily reunited and Helen has joined the Omega Sector alongside Harry.

While TRUE LIES won't exactly be remembered as Cameron's or Schwarzenegger's greatest achievement, the film still entertains with enough action and humor to sustain itself. Arnold can be funny when he wants to, and I suppose we've also learned a thing or two about Curtis - not only with her amazing body, but her ability to adapt herself to humorous situation beyond what she did in TRADING PLACES (1983). Bill Paxton as Simon, is as obnoxious as he can be, reminding us of his panic-stricken persona in Cameron's ALIENS (1986). In the end, as I previously stated, TRUE LIES is fun, but doesn't nearly stand up against Cameron's the greater blockbusters of his impressive career.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Albert (about the fake Simon): "I'm startin' to like this guy. We still gotta kill him. That's a given, you know."

TROY

(May 2004, U.S.)

Let's face it - I'm more or less a product of whatever Hollywood chooses to show me on the big or small screen. I've never read Homer and I know nothing of Greek mythology. What little I know of Helen of Troy comes from the movies and the fact that Diane Kruger as Helen in Wolfgang Peterson's epic historical war drama is one of the most breathtakingly-beautiful woman I've ever seen on screen, though what she's doing with a boy like Orlando Bloom is beyond me. Condensed into just a few weeks in screen time, this is supposedly the entire story of the long Trojan War, in which the battle between the Greek armies of King Agamemnon of Mycenae and King Triopas of Thessaly is quickly averted when the great warrior Achilles (played by Brad Pitt), fighting for Agamemnon (played by Brian Cox), defeats Boagrius, Triopas' champion, in single combat after Achilles is initially absent from the battle. Prince Hector of Troy (played by Eric Bana) and his younger brother Paris (Bloom) negotiate a peace treaty with Menelaus, King of Sparta. However, Paris is sleeping with with Menelaus' wife, Queen Helen (Kruger), and smuggles her aboard their home-bound vessel (not a smart move, as it turns out). Menelaus meets with Agamemnon, his elder brother, and asks him to help take the city of Troy. Agamemnon agrees, as conquering Troy will give him control of the Aegean Sea.

In Troy, King Priam (played by Peter O'Toole in one of his final film roles) is dismayed when Hector and Paris introduce Helen, but welcomes her and decides to prepare for war.
The Greeks invade and take the Trojan beach, thanks largely to Achilles and his Myrmidons. They claim Briseis — a priestess and the cousin of Paris and Hector — as a prisoner afterwards. He is angered when Agamemnon spitefully takes her from him, and decides that he won't aid Agamemnon in the siege. That night in the temple of Troy, Priam discusses a strategy on how would they defend the city from the Greeks. Paris planned to duel Menelaus since he abducted Helen from Menelaus, which caused the war to occur. The Trojan and Greek armies meet outside the walls of Troy, and during a parley, Paris offers to duel Menelaus personally for Helen's hand in exchange for the city being spared. Agamemnon, intending to take the city regardless of the outcome, accepts. The fight is rather a pathetic one, in which Menelaus wounds Paris, causing him to cower behind Hector. When Menelaus attempts to kill Paris despite his victory, he himself is killed by Hector.

On Odysseus' insistence, Agamemnon gives the order to fall back. In the camp after Ajax and Menelaus were cremated, Agamemnon and Odysseus argue as to why they lost the battle. He gives Briseis to the Greek soldiers for their amusement, but Achilles saves her from them. Later that night, Briseis sneaks into Achilles' quarters to kill him; instead, she falls for him and they become lovers. Achilles then resolves to leave Troy, much to the dismay of Patroclus, his cousin and protégé.

Agamemnon finally declares that he will take Troy regardless of the cost. Odysseus concocts a plan to infiltrate the city. After seeing a carving of a horse by a Greek soldier, he has the Greeks build a gigantic wooden horse as a peace offering and abandon the Trojan beach, hiding their ships in a nearby cove. Despite objections from Paris who requests for it to be burned down, Priam orders the horse be brought into the city after Archeptolemus views it as a gift intended for calming the gods.

(at this point, if you're not thinking of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL as I do, then you simply have no sense of humor!).

A Trojan scout later finds the Greek ships hiding in the cove, but he's shot down as he tries to alert the city. Greeks hiding inside the horse emerge, attack the sleeping Trojans and open the city gates for the Greek army, commencing the Sack of Troy. While Andromache and Helen guide the Trojans to safety through the tunnel, Paris gives the Sword of Troy to Aeneas, instructing him to protect the Trojans and find them a new home. Agamemnon kills Priam and captures Briseis, who then kills Agamemnon using a concealed knife in her hand. Achilles fights his way through the city and reunites with Briseis. Paris, seeking to avenge his brother, shoots an arrow through Achilles' heel and then several into his body. Achilles removes all the arrows but the one in his heel (ah, so that's what the expression means), and then bids farewell to Briseis, and watches her flee with Paris before dying. In the aftermath, Troy is finally taken by the Greeks and a funeral is held for Achilles, where Odysseus personally cremates his body.

(Wow! This is a lot of Greek names to keep track of. Good thing I watched this film before writing about it).

Met with only mixed critical reviews, I can't deny that TROY epic has its own rightful place alongside others of the type as BEN-HUR (1959), SPARTACUS (1960), and GLADIATOR (2000), in my opinion. As much as anything like it, it's an entertaining spectacle with some solid acting, though it may lack any real emotional payoff, particularly of the love between Helen and Paris, which is what initially triggers the entire "temper tantrum" that occupies the story. Brad Pitt and Eric Bana are modern actors in ancient roles, thus bringing a certain level of complexity that may be necessary in a 21st century production. Orlando Bloom remains a boy, and Helen Kruger...well, all I can honestly say is...DAMN, SHE'S HOT!

As for director Wolfgang Peterson, I can only say it's too bad the only American film he's made since TROY was the pointless remake POSEIDON in 2006. I mean, this is the same man who gave us such exciting thrillers as DAS BOOT (1981), IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993) and AIR FORCE ONE (1997). But maybe he'll surprise us again someday...maybe.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Achilles: "Myrmidons! My brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are! We are lions! Do you know what's there, waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It's yours!"

TRON

(July 1982, U.S.)

Let me start with a personal story...

TRON was the first time I went anywhere near a Disney movie since THE BLACK HOLE in 1979. It was also a time when I committed an act of movie-selection stupidity. By July 1982, I was away at sleep away camp as a CIT (counselor-in-training), and one of the privileges of such a position was that once in a while, we were taken to the movies by members of the senior staff. I recall a quad theater somewhere in town near the camp. While I can’t recall all four movies playing at the time, I know one of them was TRON, and two others were Clint Eastwood’s FIREFOX and John Carpenter’s remake of THE THING. The group consisted of maybe twelve-to-fifteen boys and girls total, and a few counselors chaperoning us. Most of us were evenly split between FIREFOX and THE THING, while only a couple of us chose TRON. All three choices had awesome visual and special effects to offer, though TRON was considered the more childish of the lot simply because it was a Disney movie. Well, if it isn’t obvious to you by now, I chose to go with the minority and see TRON. While I don’t totally regret that decision, because it was a pretty awesome movie, I do regret blowing my opportunity to see a gory horror show like THE THING with not only the absence of my parents to try and stop me, but also perhaps seeing it with one of the girls sitting next to me in a frightful state.

Even before the movie began, I was confused because I’d previously heard of the TRON video game already in arcades. So like the egg and the chicken, which came first, TRON the movie or TRON the video game? Was the game based on the movie or vice-versa? Turns out both of them were created together; the movie concept developed first and the game adapted from it. The story proposes the idea of life inside the video game and the computer in general, as well as those in the real world who created these games. The opening scene is simple enough when a boy puts his quarter into the video game at Flynn’s arcade and then takes us inside the game to show what is the life-like situation behind the game. Back in '82, this was some of the most incredible animation and live action effects I’d ever seen on screen before; a different class of effects which defined alternate movie-making effects having little to do with the effects of movies like STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND or BLADE RUNNER.

In the part of the story that takes place in the real world, Flynn’s arcade was owned and operated by Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges). Flynn is like a big kid himself, just as good at the games as his customers are, especially a game called Space Paranoids. According to his claims, he's the true inventor of that particularly successful game, as well as a few others, but his ideas were stolen by another man at his company named Ed Dillinger (played by David Warner), who's also the big boss. No longer employed there, Flynn spends his free time trying to get into the company’s computer system to locate evidence that will prove Dillinger has stolen his video game ideas and passed them off as his own. As Flynn performs his extensive computer tricks, we watch what happens inside the system with Flynn’s alternate computerized counterpart (also played by Bridges who looks like a blue and white robotic version of himself). When Flynn hits a snag that crashes the computer, we watch the computer version of himself called Clu crash into a wall and disintegrate into oblivion.

The company called ENCOM is controlled by what's called a Master Control Program (MCP, for short). This program talks to its human users and can even control their lives and actions by blackmailing them with information they don't want leaked to the public, as is the case with Dillinger. One of ENCOM's designs is a laser that can take apart an object and put it back together again. With the help of two friends, Flynn gains access into the system again, but he's sitting in front of the laser, not knowing what it will do or what's about to happen to him. When the laser strikes his back, his body freezes and disappears. He doesn't die, but is rather transported into the world of the computer, though once inside, he's still Kevin Flynn the user and not the computerized version of himself. Once inside the computer, Flynn is a prisoner of the MCP who not only has to figure a way out, but also has to play an assortment of combat games in order to survive. Eventually, he encounters computer versions of his two friends from ENCOM, Alan and Lora, or Tron and Yori, as they're called inside the computer world. They form an alliance to not only escape the prison of the MCP and its guards, but to also free and liberate other computer programs held as slaves to the system.

As the virtual battles continue, Flynn and Tron get closer to their freedom. In a final battle between Tron and Dillinger’s computerized version called Sark, the two try to destroy each other with flying discs. Even by today's standards, this is still an awesome light show of color and visual effects as they not only hurl the discs at each other, but block them with those same discs, as well. In the end, Tron disables Sark and then throes his disc into a gap inside the machine, thus destroying the MCP’s rule over its computer slaves. As victory is at hand, all the computer programs communicate with their users in the real world and create a free society inside the computer. This not only sends Flynn back to the real world, but also reconstructs his body with the same laser that took it apart. Still seated where he was before disappearing, Flynn now has the printed evidence he’s been searching for to prove Dillinger’s guilt. As a result of this, Flynn becomes the boss of ENCOM and all is "happily ever after" in the real world.

Well, look how far we’ve come in the world of video games and computers since 1982. By that perspective, TRON may be considered one of the most dated movies to represent another era. It's for that reason above all, that makes the film such a treasure today, in my opinion. When we watch TRON, we're witnessing several things here - not just the bygone era of the 1980s, which signified the golden age of video games with classics like Space Invaders and Pac-Man, but also the quick rise of the personal computer and machines in our society, both in everyday functions and our popular culture. Months before the film opened, Steve Jobs of Apple Computers made the February 15, 1982 cover of Time Magazine as one of "America’s Risk Takers". Later, the January 3, 1983 issue of the same magazine declared the personal computer as "Machine of the Year". On February 11, 1983, rock band Styx released their single "Mr. Roboto" from their forthcoming album Kilroy Was Here, declaring these immortal words,

The problem's plain to see
Too much technology
Machines to save our lives
Machines dehumanize

My point is that years before James Cameron depicted the rise of the machines over mankind in THE TERMINATOR, TRON already suggested a consequential world in which human beings would think less and computers and machines would think more. Because the film was considered a disappointment at the box office, it's easy to overlook such an achievement in story concept and technical moviemaking over the years. By its own right, TRON represents a milestone in the world of filmmaking due to its use of animation featuring digital patterns of such vehicles as motorcycles, ships and tanks. The technology to combine computer animation and live action was still experimental in the early ‘80s, despite the rotoscoping effects in films like Ralph Bakshi's AMERICAN POP (1981) or even the dancing sequence between Gene Kelly and Jerry the mouse in the movie musical ANCHORS AWEIGH (1945). The computer used in TRON was limited in how it delivered background detail on film, thus such visual effects were created using a more traditional technique of the time called "backlit animation", incorporating black and white filming for the sequences inside the computer and then later colored with more sophisticated photographic methods to give the action on the screen a greater appearance of technology.

As a kid, I never would’ve understood what any of that stuff meant. Hell, I was still trying to understand just how stop motion animation, blue screens, and matte paintings really worked in films like STAR WARS. TRON is an example of what it means to create pure fantasy. The computer in our world of the 1980s was a simple, mundane tool that rested atop our desks. The film suggests a dramatic, glamorous and even romantic world inside the great machine, though we can’t be expected to take such a suggested world too seriously. We’re simply here to witness a dazzling technological show of light, sound, and fluorescent color, perhaps not too unlike watching a planetarium laser light show accompanied by the classic rock music of Pink Floyd or Led-Zeppelin.

Gifted actors like Jeff Bridges and David Warner who provide the equal sides of good and evil are a welcomed plus, even for a plot that's considered weak by some. Nonetheless, it reminds us all of just how much fun and exciting video games were for my generation at a time when they were still enjoying their rise to fame and glory. Those games brought about our spirit of the fun and adventure a few hard-earned quarters out of our weekly allowance money would bring us. Today, don’t even attempt to ask me about the modern video games of the world. I don't pretend to understand them and frankly, I don’t want to try. In a world where we have games requiring a rating for violence and gore, it’s time for me to get off the ride...permanently!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Dr. Walter Gibbs: "You've got to expect some static. After all, computers are just machines, they can't think."
Alan Bradley: "Some programs will be thinking soon."
Dr. Gibbs: "Won't that be grand? All the computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop."

(The people have stopped thinking!)

TRIAL, THE (1962)

(December 1962, U.S.)

Those of us who may worship CITIZEN KANE as not only one of the best films ever made, as well as the best of Orson Welles's distinguished career, may be surprised to learn that Welles himself declared his version of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL the best film he ever made. Film fans who don't follow Welles too closely may easily dismiss THE TRIAL as a less important example of his work. The film itself has fallen into the public domain over the years, so it's one of those films that could really stand a good digital remastering, as even the best copy available on DVD is still grainy (on the other, that may be part of the appeal that makes it so visually special).

The film begins with Welles narrating Kafka's own words of "Before the Law" to scenes of artistic pinscreen. The story's protaganist, Josef K., is played by Anthony Perkins in what's surely his most nervous role since Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Josef K. is an office bureaucrat who is awakened in his apartment bed one morning by a mysterious man in a suit, who accuses him of a crime that's never specified. Josef assumes the glib man is a police officer, but the intruder never clearly identifies himself and ignores Josef's demand to produce any proper identification. Additional detectives enter the room and inform Josef that he's under arrest; again, no specific charges are described. Three of Josef's co-workers are also discovered on the scene collecting evidence regarding the unstated crime. Despite his repeated please, Josef is not informed of or charged with any specific crime, nor is he formally taken into custody.

At his office, which is visually depicted as an endless and mindless factory of desks placed in perfect symmetry, Josef's supervisor suspects he has been having an improper affair with his teenage female cousin. At the opera that night, Josef is abducted by the police inspector and brought to a courtroom, where he continues to attempt (in vain) to confront the still-unspecified charges against him. He eventually consults with law advocate Albert Hastler (played by Orson Welles himself). The interview proves ineffective, and Josef is soon brought before a room filled with condemned men awaiting trial. All attempts at discovering what is happening to Josef and why prove useless. Seeking refuse in a cathedral, he learns from a priest that he's (Josef) been condemned to death (Hastler appears again to confirm the priest's news). Josef is apprehended by two executioners and brought to an abandoned quarry pit, where he's forced to remove his clothing. A knife is passed back and forth to decide who will execute Josef, before handing it to Josef himself, who refuses to take his own life. He's left alone in the quarry and is finally killed when dynamite is thrown into the pit. The final shot is an explosion heard from a distance as smoke fills the air.

Despite the age and available picture quality of THE TRIAL, it is nonetheless an important piece of work for its black and white cinematography and scenic design, often including disorienting camera angles and an unconventional use of camera focus and inventive lighting. While it may be regarded as an incomprehensible piece of work, it remains, in my opinion, a lasting effect to Welles's filmmaking genius, including his trademark use of overlapping dialogue and use of multiple perspectives with foreground and background elements. It's confusing, yes, and perhaps not for all cinematic tastes, but if cinema were always that simple, it wouldn't be interesting, and it wouldn't be fun (just goes to show you what I personally consider interesting and fun).

Favorite line or dialogue"

Albert Hastler: "It's true, you know. Accused men are attractive. Not that being accused makes any immediate change in a man's personal appearance. But if you've got the right eye for these things, you can pick out an accused man in the largest crowd. It's just something about them, something attractive."

TREE OF LIFE, THE

(May 2011, U.S.)

Look up the films of director Terrence Malick and the same word continuously pops up - experimental. Wikipedia describes the word as a style of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explored non-narrative forms and alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. The vast majority of these films have been produced on very low budgets and distributed through independent studios. The goal of these films is often to express the personal vision of the artist, or perhaps even to promote an interest in a new technology in lieu of traditional movie entertainment. Malick's DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978), THE THIN RED LINE (1998) and THE NEW WORLD (2005) are some of the best examples I've personally experienced.

As an experimental epic drama film, THE TREE OF LIFE chronicles the origins and the meaning of life as told through the existence of a present day middle-aged architect's (played by Sean Penn) painful childhood memories of his family living in Waco, Texas in the 1950s, while interspersed with colorful imagery of the origins of the known universe and inception of life on Earth. The film begins with a mysterious light resembling a flame, as it flickers in the darkness. Through ongoing narration of the thoughts of Mrs. O'Brien (played by Jessica Chastain), we're told of a lesson that people must choose to follow either the path of grace or the path of nature. Following that train of thought, she learns in the 1960s that her nineteen year-old son R.L. has died in the Vietnam War, throwing her and her family into turmoil.

Back in the present, Jack O'Brien (Penn) is adrift among the tall skyscrapers of the city he lives in. His life's reflections not only camera shots of the city, but of the vast desert, trees that stretch from the ground up to the sun, as well as continuing scenes from his 1950's childhood as they're somehow all linked together, ultimately leading back to the flickering flame that opened the film.

Then suddenly, things change symbolically that seemingly have little-to-nothing to do with the O'Brien family. From the darkness, the universe is born, the Milky Way and the solar system form while we listen to voice-overs ask experimental questions of life. On the newly-formed planet Earth, volcanoes erupt and microbes form and replicate. Life in the sea is born, plants grow on land, and dinosaurs come to life. One of these dinosaurs even teaches us about compassion as it chooses not to eat another injured dinosaur. And then finally, an asteroid strikes the earth, causing an extinction event.

Back to the O'Brien family - life thrives with the birth of new babies. Babies turn into rebellious teenagers, faced with conflict of accepting the way of grace or nature, as they're embodied by each of their parents. Mother O'Brien is gentle and nurturing, while Father O'Brien (played by Brad Pitt) is strict and authoritative, easily losing his temper over the little things while he struggles personally to reconcile his own life's failures, while maintaining a strong love for his sons to prepare them for a corrupt and cruel world. Oldest boy Jack becomes increasingly angry at his father's bullying nature, slowly tallying up the various misdeeds and hypocrisies of his father (I think I can personally relate to that; only with me, it was my mother).

The family faces their first real test of life's struggles when the plant Mr. O'Brien works at closes and he's given the choice of either losing his job or relocating to work in a more inferior position within the company. The family packs it up, as he laments the course his life has taken over the years, questioning whether or not he's been a good man, even asking his oldest boy Jack for forgiveness for his harsh treatment of him. As a grown man of the present day, Jack experiences visions of rocky terrains, a wooden door frame erected on those rocks to witness a view of the far distant future in which the sun expands into a red giant, engulfing the earth and then shrinking into a white dwarf. In this vision, he's also reunited with his younger self, as well as the rest of his family. His father is happy to be with him. He encounters his dead brother, and the proper goodbye is said, as Mrs. O'Brien looks to the sky and whispers, "I give him to you. I give you my son."

Nothing gives me greater joy than a film that's forced to challenge my mind (as opposed to mindless garbage). These films must be watched more than once, even if I think I may hate it the first time. THE TREE OF LIFE is one of the most ambitious motion pictures of the 20th century that's (unfortunately) been filled with way too much comic book hero crap. Terrence Malick's unique style of filmmaking is not for the impatient at heart. It's a truly emotional journey of human love and loss, as well as a visual journey, and these visual effects are deservedly attributed to the artistry of Douglas Trumbull, who like his legendary work on Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, stuck to the old school way of doing things instead of the modern CGI effects, which Malick didn't care for (even the late Roger Ebert himself compared the boldness of such visions to 2001). The film also explores humankind's place in the Earth's grand scheme of existence (whatever that might be) through the odyssey of a young boy's time and memories. This odyssey quite literally reaches for the stars through overwhelming visual beauty, and even suggests religious spiritual themes of good and evil, and the spoken conflicts between grace and nature (again, whatever they might be).

If you believe in God (I don't), then film surely suggests that God's up to something beautiful, thus possibly directing our outlook toward life. That outlook is of course, completely up to you and your belief in the power and beauty of film to reach us and teach us. For some, THE TREE OF LIFE may just be that perfect teacher.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Young Jack O'Brien: "Where were you? You let a little boy die."