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Hatchetman
Reviews
The Well (1951)
Good Movie
I remember first seeing this movie in the 50's on TV as a kid and I enjoyed it then as a social commentary and just a reasonably good story. Yeah, some of it is outdated now but the movie held up as I recall when I've seen it in subsequent years. I haven't seen it in at least 15 years though. I thought the way everything escalated from just the innocent bump by an excited father to the race riot was presented well. As the situation develops, you get involved with the two sides. The telling moment comes when black and white mobs are about to slug it out with boards and guns and whatever, a child runs up to the leader of the white mob and says, "They found the kid", and he says, "What kid?" And then you realize you too are caught up in the action of mob violence. The mobs existed, not to right some perceived wrong, but were the people's justifications for their lives at that moment.
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Excellent Movie -- Funny and Meaningful
Ever since I saw this movie as a teen in the 60's on TV, it remains one of my favourites. I try to catch it every time it's on. I think that one of the most impressive scenes in any movie, certainly in this movie, is the sequence of the chaingang marching through the swamp into the church to watch a movie while the congregation sings "Let My People Go." It's devastating. This sequence is framed by the comments of the preacher reminding his congregation to respect the convicts as individuals (his comments supplement the ending thought of Sullivan that laughter is needed in life) and the Mickey Mouse cartoon that everyone enjoys after they all settle in. Sturges' genius is clearly at work there.
A Town Like Alice (1981)
Saw the Original TV Series
I first saw the series on Msterpiece Theater on PBS in weekly hourly installments tgat went for about 14 or 15 weeks in the 70's. If there was a movie from that, that's too bad because the entire series had to be viewed in its entirety with the detail that 14 or 15 hors of plot give. The theatrical movie version that was done in the 50's with Peter Finch doesn't do justice to the story. The plot divided into two parts...1)the World War II agony of the trek through the jungle and stay in a prisoner of war camp and 2) the relationship that develops in the Outback of Australia. One of the most vibrant scenes I recall was the character Paget being elated that Harmon was, in fact alive, skipping and jumping for joy down the beach after having thought he died years previously. Wonderfully filmed throughout the series.