Movie Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Brian Wright

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The REAL James Bond or Jason Bourne__9/10

Alec Leamas: What the hell do you think spies are?! Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They’re not! They’re just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?

Novel by John le Carré
Screenplay by Paul Dehn
Directed by Martin Ritt

Richard Burton … Alec Leamas
Claire Bloom … Nan Perry
Oskar Werner … Fiedler
Sam Wanamaker … Peters
Rupert Davies … George Smiley
Cyril Cusack … Control
Peter van Eyck … Hans-Dieter Mundt Continue reading →

Movie Review: Dances with Wolves (1990)

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Brian Wright

Epic Western dances with magic __10/10

Ten Bears: Let us smoke a while.
John Dunbar: [voiceover] With Ten Bears, it was always more than a while. There was purpose in everything he did, and I knew he wanted me to stay. But I was sure of myself. I would be an excuse, and that’s all the Army would need to find this place. I pushed him as far as I could to move the camp. But in the end, he only smiled and talked of simple pleasures. He reminded me that at his age, a good fire was better than anything. Ten Bears was an extraordinary man.

One for the books

Sometimes we forget how great some movies are. Dances with Wolves feels as if it were flickering on the big screens of America yesterday, not 25 years ago. It’s been sitting on my DVD rack for a long time, and I figured would make a fitting viewing for a Labor Day evening. Captivating is a word that’s been overused, as is magic, but the scale, natural beauty, and plot of this film transcend the extraordinary. It also received seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director (Kevin Costner). That’s big potatoes in anybody’s book. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Clueless (1995)

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Brian Wright

Entertaining teen parody is ode to penetrating,
clever use of American language __ 8/10

Cher: So like, right now for example. The Haitians need to come to America. But some people are all, “What about the strain on our resources?” Well it’s like when I had this garden party for my father’s birthday, right? I put RSVP ’cause it was a sit-down dinner. But some people came that like did not RSVP I was like totally buggin’. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, and squish in extra place settings. But by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier. And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may I please remind you it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much. Continue reading →

Movie Review: High Noon (1952)

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Brian Wright

Quintessential (and timely) story of moral courage __ 10/10

Helen (to Harvey): You’re a good-looking
boy: you have big, broad shoulders. But he’s a man. And it takes more than big, broad shoulders to make a man.

Helen: I don’t understand you. No matter what you say. If Kane was my man, I’d never leave him like this. I’d get a gun. I’d fight.
Amy: Why don’t you?
Helen: He is not my man. He’s yours.

Helen: Kane will be a dead man in half an hour and nobody’s going to do anything about it. And when he dies, this town dies too. I can feel it. I am all alone in the world. I have to make a living. So I’m going someplace else. That’s all. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Brian Wright

Light sci-fi yarn with fine actors all around
but parsecs away from quality of the original _ 5/10

Professor Barnhardt: There must be alternatives. You must have some technology that could solve our problem.
Klaatu: Your problem is not technology. The problem is you. You lack the will to change.
Professor Barnhardt: Then help us change.
Klaatu: I cannot change your nature. You treat the world as you treat each other.
Professor Barnhardt: But every civilization reaches a crisis point eventually.
Klaatu: Most of them don’t make it.
Professor Barnhardt: Yours did. How?
Klaatu: Our sun was dying. We had to evolve in order to survive.
Professor Barnhardt: So it was only when your world was threatened with destruction that you became what you are now.
Klaatu: Yes.
Professor Barnhardt: Well that’s where we are. You say we’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don’t take it from us, we are close to an answer. Continue reading →

Movie Review: They Shoot Horses Don’t They (1970)

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Brian Wright

Sickly Americana of Depression Era ___ 8/10

Gloria Beatty: Maybe it’s just the whole world is like central casting. They got it all rigged before you ever show up.

Funny the movies one doesn’t see when they’re primetime, and perhaps when you’re primetime. Why I never made a point of watching They Shoot Horses Don’t They I don’t know. But in 1969 I was in my Randian era and I suspected this one did not have a happy ending—Ayn Rand was a stickler for happy endings… notwithstanding the fate of Kira in her novel, We the Living. Anyway, I placed it in the Netflix queue and watched it the other night. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Harold and Maude

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Brian Wright

An unconventional lesson in joyful life ___ 10/10

Harold: What were you fighting for?
Maude: Oh, big issues. Liberty. Rights. Justice. Kings died, kingdoms fell. I don’t regret the kingdoms – what sense in borders and nations and patriotism? But I miss the kings.

This one-of-a-kind creation was one I did see back in the day, back when movies like Harold and Maude were mostly only seen at “art” theaters—in the burbs around Kansas City and, later, Detroit, where I was hanging out in my late teens, early 20s. The film was an interesting juxtaposition for my early Objectivism[1], because it did represent a side channel of the hippie experience, where love is the answer… in all its varieties. Continue reading →