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Reviews
Providence (1977)
A blazing masterpiece
Don't be put off by what people (including lovers of the film) say about its initially being confusing. Even the first time through, it is madly enjoyable second by second, and it needn't take long to figure out what is going on. In fact, once you know that we are into a dying man's dreams/fantasies/wishes regarding his own family, you have all you need to make sense of virtually everything straight off. By the end, everything has locked into place in a most satisfying way. The contrast between the man's dreams about his family and what you see when they appear in person near the end is one of the most delicious things in the whole of art.
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Charming but unoriginal
This over-rated film owes most of its good ideas to the novel "No Bed for Bacon" by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon. The politics and economics of running the Globe Theater, the role of Shakespeare as "the hack", the young woman who pretends to be a boy so as to play female roles at the theater, the emotional relations between her and Shaikespeare, even the little joke-scene in which he practises different spellings for his surname - all this is a straight lift from Brahms and Simon. With that removed, there remains the running joke about John Fletcher, the soft-porn sex, and the clumsy sub-plot about Marlowe.
The Cider House Rules (1999)
A soft unfocussed film
This movie is pleasant enough to sit through, but it leaves in the memory - or on the memory's palate - the unpleasant sense of an overdose of candy floss. I agree with those who accuse the film of not having a controlled focus and direction; at every moment something well-meaning is projected, but the moments do not add up to anything satisfying to an adult sensibility.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
This film needs a story.
Beautifully filmed and mostly well acted, this film is nevertheless pretty hard to sit through. Some of the main characters are visually hard to separate from one another; voice-overs by some of them are difficult to pin-point; there is nothing like an over-all story with a beginning, middle and end; and there is a serious lack of sub-stories where they are needed. Especially: a unit is told to capture the summit of a hill; this is so dangerous an enterprise that their commander refuses to order them to do it; someone else takes over and they do succeed in carrying out the assignment; but we are not given any clear account of how they did it, what made the difference - more skill? more courage? unexpected luck? There is here a contempt for normal human expectations, and even Malick's great reputation does not entitle him to that.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
A fine story, impeccably told
THe main thing to be said about this film can be said simply and briefly:- It starts with a superb story, and tells it. No frills, no sermons, no trickery, nothing calling attention to the brilliance of the director or the actors. Just a superb teling of a story.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
A fine story, impeccably told
THe main thing to be said about this film can be said simply and briefly:- It starts with a superb story, and tells it. No frills, no sermons, no trickery, nothing calling attention to the brilliance of the director or the actors. Just a superb teling of a story.