Reviews
Regarding Henry (1991)
A man's reclamation of himself
The comments I've read on this motion picture, which I think is Harrison Ford's best, indicate that many viewers are expecting the swashbuckling character Ford initiated in "Star Wars" and built through successive roles. He's good at that.
But this role is different. Some reviewers have suggested that the story treatment of the the character's lawyer Henry Turner recovery from a head gunshot wound is trivialized because the character (Turner) doesn't spend a lot of time bewailing the pain and inability to return immediately to his normal pastimes.
These points that he doesn't cry and curse his injury are exactly what give the film its realism and impact. He doesn't know it as it happens, but he is experiencing a new birth through his recovery. Both my wife and I have to some extent she to greater extent than I because her trauma was far worse have gone through some sort recovery from brain injuries. If you spend a lot of time weeping and wailing (oh woe is me, is me, is me) you will never recover and will be tucked into the earth still weeping.
Henry is injured and doesn't realize the extent of his hurts because he cannot know what went on before his traumatic memory loss. Does he change somehow? Sure, all life is change. Does he recover? All I can really suggest is to some extent very great extent this film rings true. For what it's worth, my wife and I watch it every year on the approximate anniversary of her injury.
Eagle Squadron (1942)
American flier learns what World War II is about
Robert Stack makes a pretty good typically brash young American who joins the Eagle Squadron (a unit of American fliers within the British RAF) for all the typically wrong reasons. He meets a beautiful WAAF officer played by Diana Barrymore, who has a different, more adult view of the war against Nazi Germany. At the time of the film it was basically an air war. Britain was being heavily bombed and the Eagle Squadron fliers (and of course the rest of the RAF) were fighting back.
The motion picture is typically campy mostly deliberate "high" camp. Stack's character would probably have called some of it "corny."
But it is an important picture for the same reason that many of World War II films, many of them not much above the B movie level many in it are because it can teach the viewer something about the people who watched the film(s) at or near the times of issue. A very large percentage of the population of this country watched motion pictures of this type and most realized that some at least were pretty campy and most, if they involved Americans in important roles, reflected a somewhat higher standard than most of us, who although professing it, could attain.
Many in the 1940s believed that World War II was a fight the fight for freedom; a fight, in the language the day, to make the world safe for democracy. Surprisingly, when viewed from this distance, many people believed that and some in fact still do.
Our hero a very young Robert Stack eventually figures all all out. No comment here on just how he does it.
The Long Shot (2004)
Too good to miss
I initially watched "The Long Shot" because it features Marsha Mason, one of my favorite actresses, but quickly became involved. Central to the story dominating it is a woman and her daughter and a horse abandoned by the woman's shiftless, perhaps vicious husband, who, mostly offstage, remains an important contributer to the plot. There is little that can be said about the movie without risking a spoiler, except that Mason remains as entertaining as she ever was. It is, despite the focus on horses, very much a "people" movie and the result is so exciting especially emotionally and satisfying that I think it's enough to say simply don't miss it. I grew up around horses and horse people and am normally suspicious of "horse movies." I wasn't even aware that this was one. And it turned out delightfully.
Nuff said.
A Little Princess (1986)
Fine old story compellingly and attractively told; Where' the DVD?
I first encountered this version of A Little Princess, by far the best, on a PBS station in the Pacific Northwest. It must have been new then.
It was shown during a holiday season station fund-raiser and promoted by ghastly comments by an attractive physically woman who made the sorts of comments I would expect a rather silly grandmother to make to someone else's grandchild.
I was somewhat insulted, but when the film began settled for enchantment which was sufficiently strong to keep me around when the second installment (I think there were only two, but this was 20-odd years ago) came along next night, when I also learned that the picture would be replayed throughout the promo which allowed me to make a tape of it.
Although the script does not slavishly repeat every bit of the Burnett novel, it completely mirrors it, changing some situations and condensing in some areas. Most of the minor deviations from the plot I assumed still do were because Sara had to be shown growing up and the story had to fit within length restrictions. Amelia Shankley was superb as was her nemesis, played by Maureen Lippman. Seldom mentioned is her companion, scullery maid Becky, or many other fine characterizations.
Parts of the film are sad and, because we (viewers) have become fond of Sara, a little frightening at times. We wish, sometimes, that Sara in her times of trial would be more defiant but realize, too, that she must submit to survive and also to protect her friends.
As intended, Sara comes across this mood is set even before the situations are defined as a true heroine, when adversity befalls her. She remains compassionate toward and grateful to those who are her friends, including Melchizedek (you have to know the story) toward whom she is also a benefactor.
Shankley, the costumers and makeup artists, surmount the challenges of a growing and changing girl who eventually displays some signs of illness (scurvy perhaps?).
Sara and her story remain compelling and attractive after a lapse of more than 100 years and this filmed version remains so after 20 years, but can we not find so compelling a version of what is perhaps Francs Hodgson Burnett's finest tale childhood?
Jane Eyre (1983)
Superb; should be released in DVD
I have seen most screen versions of Jane Eyre and believe that the BBC version with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton pretty much stands alone at the top of the heap. Jane (Clarke) is small, especially when seen beside Rochester (Dalton), which is the way it should be. Because of her "passionate" nature, Jane has learned generally to project a somewhat stoic impression which breaks down sometimes under extreme stress, as after the failed or prevented marriage. Clarke presents these contrasts extremely well, better than any I have seen. The script, although somewhat compressed as any story must be when lifted from a novel of this length, presents all the important components. I am enough of a Jane fan to wish that the series lasted at least another hour to two to show some other favorite parts and to include some more dialog, but nonetheless I am delighted anew every time I review this marvelous offering. My only negative, if it is a negative, is that Orson Welles, to my mind physically resembled Rochester far more than any other actor I have seen portray him. But Timothy Dalton, like Zelah Clarke as Jane, simply becomes Rochester. And a lament: When or when will there be a DVD version?
Griffin and Phoenix (1976)
A singularly well-titled story of deathless love
When I first saw this film on TV I was going through a bad time because of an expanding personal catastrophe. Although in no way really similar to the situation in "Griffin and Phoenix," my own problems -- and my somewhat romantic nature -- made me sympathetic to the situation realistically and lovingly created by Peter Falk and Jill Clayburgh.
It has become one of my favorite films of the kind. If it is in some respects not always happy, it is thus more true to life. Love is in some aspect always tragic, even when it ends happily in marriage; but love, if it is truly that, is unending and undying. I feel this motion picture should share that fate.