pauleskridge

Six stars. And the only reason it's that high is Sean Connery. That man could play anything, and do it with style. As long as you can work with a Scottish accent. And the writers did decide to give us a scene explaining how this obvious Scot was an Army lieutenant colonel. That said, this is a generic crime thriller, although with the twist that it involves both the SFPD and the Presidio MPs. The basic plot is fine, but the number two actor -- a Pierce Brosnan looking guy named Mark Harmon, that I've never heard of before -- is lousy. And I'm a fan of Meg Ryan, but her role (obligatory love interest for Harmon's character) is useless padding. I get the impression the suits demanded a love interest with a hot babe, and who cares if it's irrelevant. At least the writers had the taste to make her Connery's daughter instead of his love interest. Someone really should have told her about that animal she had living on her head though. We have to get down to fourth billing to hit another winner. Jack Warden was one of the great character actors in cinema history. Throughout his 50-year long career, he always made anything he was in better. This is a splendid example. His scenes with both Connery and Ryan are the real heart of the film. This isn't a great movie. It isn't even a very good one. But the scenery is cool, Ryan is very good looking, and both Connery and Warden deliver. Take a look if you're a fan of either of them. 4 March 2021.

Five stars. I'm being generous. But that's all I can muster for a film in which the only thing I can find that's praise-worthy is the acting of a white guy in black-face. Because, other than Wilfred Lucas's performance, this is just ghastly. The rest of the "acting" is rubbish, even for silent-era acting. The story is dreadful, from any sort of ethical standpoint. It doesn't even have the cool pyrotechnics that His Trust did. It's just a tale of a man who sacrifices everything he has for the daughter of his former owners. Who doesn't understand this, and who views him as something like a family pet.

Something I've noticed, while watching this collection of Griffith's Civil War shorts, is that they were made before he had figured out that it's better not to break the line. These films are full of scenes in which someone approaches the door of a house, coming from (say, the left), and is then seen entering the house on the right. I've seen enough of Griffith's work that I can see the patterns of the evolution of film-making craft. This is one it looks like he didn't figure out until after 1911. But, unless you are really interested in watching that sort of technical evolution take place, you can take a pass on this one. 7 February 2025.

Eight stars. I saw some Combat episodes in rerun, back when I was a kid. And I know my older brothers watched it. I rented this particular disc (season 1, campaign 2, disc 1) to see the two episodes directed by Robert Altman. I've been an Altman fan for years, and I knew he cut his teeth on TV work for many years before he started directing films. I thought I should take a look at some of that work. This episode plays up Altman's strength at making stories into tapestry. The various threads pull together to tell a compelling story of human nature that is both complex and simple. That sort of tapestry building is what I love about Altman's work. Something I noticed from this set, that I never picked up on when I was a kid, is that these really aren't about action. They are all little morality plays, with turns designed to examine the range of human nature and response to warfare. Seeing past the rah-rah boosterism (that is appropriate for WW2 stories), that makes the show a fascinating precursor to the social reaction to Vietnam that was waiting just around the corner. This is some interesting stuff. I'll probably queue up some more. 17 March 2021.