Gooper

The problem with reviewing a film like 'Wilson' is that audiences today often concentrate on how the film should've been rather more than what it actually is. 21st-century preferences can be OK with accepting a Marvel opus as 'plausible', yet frustrations occur because a biopic from the '40s lacks incisive accuracy or revisionist aspects.

The term 'solid' used to crop up in reviews a lot if the film deserved it. Most everything about 'Wilson' is certainly solid. The production values are a triumph of the studio technique. The creative team at 20th needs no introduction here, but Zanuck ensured everyone was in peak performance mode. Shamroy's camerawork is solid to say the least, as if he's shooting in Todd-AO. Lamar Trotti's (original) screenplay is steady, credible, stately-paced, and most of all, intelligent. Trotti was Zanuck's most trusted screenwriter, and for good reason. Henry King's direction - talk about solid! One of the most reliable, capable, and admirable of the great directors, King didn't need a 'style' to tell the story. Yet he always delivers the goods. Speaking of competent, Barb McLean is certainly among the star women editors of the era.

Almost needless to say, Alfred Newman's score does much of the heavy lifting throughout the picture. One of Zanuck's strong points was, once he had great creative talent under contract, he let them do their thing. His own thing was mostly the script, so he never had to worry about what his head of the Music Department (the best in Hollywood) was going to come up with.

Especially during the war, the studios wanted to engage audiences with the familiar old songs and flag-wavers. 'Wilson's got 'em, but the Newman treatment comes on strong, with freshness, confidence and purpose.

I'm sure Alfred would've preferred to avoid the cliches, but in this and all his other scores, he (and orchestrator Ed Powell) always enhance the familiarity, so that they sound like variations instead of dutiful renditions. His original themes are interwoven, and one wishes they could have been allowed more screen time. His theme for Wilson himself is epic and inspiring, but wisely understated.

For such an unconventional film, it's also highly entertaining. It draws you right in, from the dignified credits and right into the football game onwards (the coverage is spare, but epic), the drama is engaging and intriguing. Of course it's not for everybody, and it certainly doesn't have to be. At the time, Hollywood aimed for as broad an audience they could get. Still, a few years later, O'Neill's 'Mourning Becomes Electra' would be tackled over at RKO, with a young Kirk Douglas. Running time: 173 minutes,

All the players in 'Wilson' put in solid performances. It's all Good Acting, and to my mind, unnecessary to pick apart.

Taken for what it really is instead of what it isn't, 'Wilson' is an excellent drama and a top-notch production. Besides, like other 'presidential' biopics, just because the last name is used for the title doesn't mean it's the last word on the subject.

'Nie Er' is an amazing discovery. It is a soulful and credible biopic of the composer who wrote 'March of the Volunteers', which became the PRC's national anthem. His very real travails are presented in straightforward manner, showing how a passionate and very talented man was nevertheless sidelined. Heavy propaganda is quite deftly avoided, because it is unnecessary.

The scoring is both poignant and powerful. I was reminded of Alfred Newman. The acting is excellent, the art direction has that wonderful murky quality found in most Chinese studio productions of that era, and the 'Peoples'Color' is muted and quite faded, but somehow effective. (Based on the DVD available from Beauty).

I watched it without subtitles, and the print obtained for the DVD was scratched and aged, but it only added to the film's mystique. The sound was excellent.

The sincerity of the film is quite moving. Chinese cinema of this genre was to reach its peak with Ping Wang's 'Dongfang Hong' ('The East Is Red') in 1965, and 'Nie Er' is an outstanding member of this remarkable group.

As a longtime Ford fan, I only recently saw 'Tobacco Road', and it more than exceeded expectations. It's instantly one of my favorite comedies. It's actually very edgy and adventurous, sort of a wry antidote to the virtuous 'Grapes of Wrath' that Ford was obliged to be so respectful with.

I howled with pleasure, as I would with any fringe film with a comedic angle. In this film experience, you don't need to be tuned in to 'revisionist film theory' when you're watching it.

Dennis Hopper would have fit perfectly in it. Or Billy Bob Thornton. Or Jack Nance. As it is, the cast is perfect, from Slim Summerville on down. William Tracy's manic goofball performance, which some viewers think is 'over the top', is just plain crazy brilliant and is even ahead of its time (think early Jerry Lewis, Jim Carrey...).

Everything automotive in this picture is particularly hilarious, forecasting 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World'. The frenzied car chaos is inspired, from start to finish.

I know this picture has been either trashed or quickly written off in every John Ford biography, but I find it to be a genuine treasure because I'm taking it just for what it is - not as a book, not as a play, but as an excellent production by the masterful Ford, whose touch is apparent in every shot and speech.

Naturally, it is a companion piece to that other Caldwell examination of Southern oddballs, 'God's Little Acre', which is its own sort of gem due to Anthony Mann's care and attention. Then there's Kazan's 'Baby Doll', which is about as bizarre as they come. Not to mention the Coen Brothers' much lauded 'O Brother Where Art Thou'. How come that film wasn't so derided for 'making fun of poor white Southerners' like 'Tobacco Road' has been? Part of the American Experience has been to point out our oddballs, and show that they are 'possible' here. 'Tobacco Road' is all about such an examination, and Ford pulls it off with just as much aplomb as he does with families in Wales or migrants from Oklahoma. It is what it is: a great and perceptive comedy. Sort of like Balzac. Or for that matter, like Don Knotts' series of Americana comedies.

There is a dandy 'written in sand' title sequence (another counter to 'Grapes' and its rough-sketch titles), and Arthur Miller's lithographic camera-work is typically outstanding, almost like the works of Thomas Hart Benton. David Buttolph's cheerful and (Alfred) Newman-like score is perfectly appropriate without being a parody.

I'm powerful sorry that Erskine Caldwell and Nunnally Johnson were disappointed in the picture, but I think Zanuck and Ford really knew what they were doing.

'Tobacco' is one of the more delightful film discoveries I've had. I only wish Gene Tierney was in it more.