Bonnie and Clyde

This 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the famed gangsters was one of the most popular movies of it's time and is considered one of the most influential movies of it's time. Shot at a time when Hollywood was changing to a more modern approach to movie making the film showed a mix of sensuality and violence that had never been seen in a successful wide screen release.

The Bonnie and Clyde story is a complicated one and the movie certainly simplifies the story. That said the movie is a stunning success. The first thing I noticed in this movie was Faye Dunaway. As the movie begins she is laying in bed, naked, having an internal fight with herself about getting out of bed for another day at her hated waitress job. Looking out the window she sees a young man attempting to steal her Momma's car. She talks to him and on a dare comes out to talk a man who introduces himself as Clyde Barrow. As to the nudity we do not see anything, save a bare back, and the realization when she dresses quickly she puts on no undergarments but Dunaway oozes sensuality in this role that I have never seen in any movie previously. This part of her character fades as the criminals life on the run becomes tiresome, but at the beginning of this movie it can barely fit on the screen, when Clyde takes her for a Coke and the camera pays special attention to her drinking and then talking over the top of the bottle as kids will sometimes do she is a movie star. A presence like few you will see.

After bragging of his exploits to Bonnie she dares him to show her and he goes and steals a little money from a small store in town. They flee and Bonnie is so excited by the act, she had been desperate in her boredom, that she wants to have sex with Clyde in the car, she can barely contain herself. Clyde lets her know that " he ain't no loverboy" , he is impotent, and one sees how outrageous this relationship is right from the beginning.

The movie goes from there, they add members to their gang as they go. Gene Hackman plays Buck Barrow, Clyde's brother who is paroled and looking to make good decisions. His wife is played by Estelle Parsons, a preachers daughter who immediately comes in conflict with Bonnie. They could not be more different. Buck soon gets sucked into the crime wave.

Denver Pyle of Dukes of Hazzard fame appears a a bounty seeking Texas Ranger, Gene Wilder has his first movie role, and Dub Taylor also appears.

A funny note, Estelle Parsons, who looked familiar, but honestly looked like a man in drag I struggled to identify. Then I realized she played Roseanne's mother on the famous sitcom. Parson for her part won an Oscar for this role, it was the most unlikable character in the whole movie, annoying times ten, I am on Bonnie's side on that score.

This was a very good movie. The death scene itself changed movie history and in general the movie broke many rules and set many new precedents. Beatty was strong, but at least for this reviewer this movie was all about Faye Dunaway. One of the most stunningly sensual roles you will ever see in a movie.

The Conversation

When one thinks of the great movies of the seventies and there were many The Conversation does not often come to mind. In fact this was not even a movie I was aware of until recently when it appeared in reference to a few other movies that I have watched.

The Conversation was the baby of Francis Ford Coppola. Fresh off his Godfather success Coppola wrote, produced, and directed this psychological thriller starring Gene Hackman.

Hackman plays Harry Caul a surveillance expert who according to one of his peers is " the best bugger on the West Coast." Through the movie we learn that a recording that Caul did years ago led the deaths of a rat in the Teamsters union as well as that mans family. He lives with that guilt. Most of what he does in his career are of the typical insurance scam, cheating spouses sort of thing but as the movie begins we see Caul and his crew performing a unique surveillance.

Two people Bernie Moran, played by Frederic Forest and a woman known only as Ann, played by Cindy Williams, yes that Cindy Williams of Laverne and Shirley fame, are walking around a public square having a conversation. The Conversation is about that conversation and it's effects on all the people. John Cazale plays Caul's assistant. Cazale soon on his way to dieing of cancer and fresh off his role as Frodo in The Godfather was, even in a small role, magnificent.

Hackman again plays an everyman. This is not some suave, debonair, spy. This is a rumpled, balding, eyeglass wearing, everyman who lives in a small nondescript apartment, obsessed with privacy and security and who when he gets home the first thing he does is take off his pants and spend his evening in his boxers. No Harry Caul will never be confused with James Bond.


When preparing the tapes for his buyer Caul becomes concerned that these tapes may lead to someone's murder. Hearing Bernie say to Laurie as they walk around the square that " he would kill us if he could" he becomes sure that his client might do just that. With his past experience this sends Harry into a state of controlled panic. What we learn as the movie progresses is that what you think you hear is often not what you hear and the results of misinterpretation are sometimes much more severe than one might think.

Also starring in this movie are a young Terri Carr and an even younger Harrison Ford along with an uncredited performance by Robert Duvall. Still the movie is Hackman's from beginning to end, a tour de force performance, with Hackman a little more out there than his normal role.


Not quite the movie I expected but certainly one that I would reccomend.

The French Connection Two

With the success of the 1971 Oscar best picture it was inevitable that a return to the story would take place. Unfortunately the first movie had been based on true events where the villain Charnier escaped. With profits beckoning however the producers of this movie took the original character and created a fictionalized account of Popeye Doyle's New York Police Detective continued chase of Charnair on the drug dealers home turf of Marseilles.

I gave the first movie a good rating, the elevated train chase scene is one of the best pursuit scenes you will ever see but the movie had flaws. This second movie also is good but it is not great.

Doyle, played again by Hackman, struggles with the language and it is clear that he is not welcomed by the French police. Perhaps it is to make an illustration of how isolated Popeye is but with most of the characters speaking in untranslated French one as a viewer can find that frustrating. Still the meaning is clear, the French detective Henri,played in an understated, rumpled way by Bernard Fresson, has read Doyle's file and finds his Wild West approach to police work unappealing.

Eventually Popeye finds his way to the beach and unbeknownst to him he is noticed by Charnier himself as he is having dinner in a restaurant adjacent to the beach. Popeye being trailed, by two French detectives to as much keep and eye on him as keep him safe, ditches his shadows at, what becomes a very poor time, as soon he is grabbed off the street by Charnier's man. Taken to a hotel he meets face to face with the Frenchman who wants to know what he knows about his operation. When Doyle refuses to cooperate he is injected with heroin which becomes his lifeline the next three weeks. As the police saturate the city however looks for Doyle, the Frenchman is feeling pinched in his activities. After a final interrogation of Doyle which merits nothing new in the way of information they give him one last injection of heroin and dump in a street.

Knowing that he will never be trusted as a policeman before if known as an ex junkie Herni puts him in isolation in one of the cells and we are witness to the cold turkey approach of getting off heroin. It is not pretty and Doyle suffers greatly, begging for a fix.

Eventually after a harrowing experience Doyle is off the junk and back on the job. He and Henri' have made an uneasy peace and from this point on work together to try to find the French drug lord.

An interesting correlation in the movie was that while the first movie had a high speed chase scene that is revered the second movie as it nears its conclusion has a low speed chase scene which if anything is more suspenseful that the first movie.

John Frankenheimer did a fine job with a movie that was going to be held up to a nearly impossible standard, writing a fictional end to a true story was always going to have its share of critics. The movie is strong and the scenes of drug withdrawal in a sympathetic character were very strong.

Worthy of the original. Hackman as always is wonderful.

The French Connection

The French Connection was a 1971 police drama that won the Oscar for Best Picture and for it's star, Gene Hackman, the Oscar for Best Picture. This movie could serve as Example One of Hackman as the most underrated actor of his generation. Yes he won the Oscar here and received multiple awards but still when the list of greats is named Gene Hackman is never on the list.

In this movie Hackman plays Popeye Doyle, a Detective in New York City. He and his partner Buddy Russo, Roy Schneider, through a chance discovery in a bar, become suspicious of a big time heroin shipment coming into the city.

The movie begins with Alain Charnair, A Frenchman in Marseilles who is a major drug smuggler. With an ingenious plan to bring in over one hundred pounds of heroin he has made contact with Sal Boca, a small time hood who now is looking to make a big score. Acting as a go between between the Frenchman and Sal Weinstock a wealthy financier suspected of being linked to previous drug deals.

It takes awhile for the movie to come together, for the various plot points to all make sense. It does come together however. Schneider is very good in his role, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor, and Hackman easily deserved his Oscar.

A brilliant car chase in this movie, a race between Doyle in his commandeered sports car and a sniper taking refuge on a elevated train is one of the best I have seen.

As good as the movie was, and it was very good, I am not sure it is Oscar worthy. As it was based on a true story the ending could not be one in which we had a nice neat package. In real life that did not happen and it did not here. The movie, however was very influential, one of the first procedurals to have this level of grit and be rewarded. In fact it was the first R rated movie to ever win the Oscar.

I have now ordered French Connection Two and look forward to seeing how the story culminates.

A very good movie.

The Poseidon Adventure

I remember watching this movie at some time in my youth and enjoying it. The 1972 feature appeared near the beginning of the run of all star cast disaster flicks that included The Towering Inferno, Airport and Earthquake. This might well have been the best of the lot.

The SS Poseidon is making it's last voyage. As we have come to expect in these types of movies there is always someone urging the Captain to cut corners, to fail to take precautions. These failures inevitably lead to disaster. Clearly these characters never watch the movies.

In this case the ship has been sold to a company in Greece and the when the Captain, played by Leslie Nielsen in serious mode, after hearing of an undersea earthquake wishes to take evasive action from a feared killer wave the " management type" representing the owners of the ship insists that they take a straight line route, time is money etc.

This leads to the ship being hit by a ball of water that turns the ship upside down. As this is happening the ship's passengers are celebrating New Years Eve. Over the first half hour of the movie we are introduced to the cast. We have a teenage girl and her little brother, a minister, too modern for his church being sent to save souls in Greece, an older Jewish couple on their way to see grandchildren in Israel, as well as a retired police detective and his new wife, who just happens to be an ex prostitute that he has married.

When the ship is hit the passengers in the ballroom are tossed and turned, some injured, a few killed but for the most part they are alive. A disagreement occurs over what to do. The ship's purser insists that they should stay put. Minister Scott played by Gene Hackman insists that they need to go up to reach the bottom of the ship as that is where any rescue efforts will necessarily come from. Eventually few of the passengers agree to move, fortunately for us most of those who do agree to go with the Minister are those characters that we have met in the movie's beginnings.

As much as I joke about the convenient set up I should stress this is a very very good movie. It was a very popular movie at the time, becoming the box office leader in 1973 and at one point being among the six highest grossing movies of all time. The level of adventure in the movie is high, as our characters progress higher and higher, or conversely lower and lower in the upside down ship each level offers a new challenge. In that way perhaps this movie fits well with the video game culture now in place.

In any case this is a movie still well worth watching. The cast was superb. Gene Hackman was very strong in his role. This was not an understated role, Hackman can act in anything. He actually was very underrated, a review of some of the movies he starred in makes that very clear.

Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell, Carol Lynley, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens and the unforgettable Ernest Borgnine make up the very strong cast of survivors we follow through the movie. Borgnine is another underrated actor. Still alive today in his nineties Borgnine was an everyman. Not handsome in the traditional way. In this movie he plays the gruff opposite of Hackman's preacher and inevitably is underrated as the anti hero. Someday, if you are a film buff look through Mr. Borgnine's career. It was a strong and fruitful one.

This is a very good movie.

Hoosiers

My son had mentioned to me several times that he had heard much about the movie Hoosiers but had never seen it. So last night we, all of us which is even rarer, sat down and watched Hoosiers.

It is a great sports movie. Gene Hackman is one of the great underrated actors and Dennis Hopper in his memorable Shooter role has us all wanting to run one around the picket fence.

They still won. The interim coach is still very unlikeable and I can still watch the movie with a smile next year again.