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stormrider57
Reviews
Chattahoochee (1989)
Disturbing
Gary Oldman fan or not, the movie grabs you with its graphic portrayal of the horrors of such medieval institutions. The abuses were in no way exaggerated-- they were commonplace in that time, and if some viewers think Oldman's character was too intense, I say he was shaped that way, forced by an untenable situation to struggle to save himself and his fellow patients any way he could. The only part I found unrealistic was at the end when he was assured that things were about to change immediately and drastically after only a few questions from the investigating committee, especially while he was heavily medicated and not entirely cognizant of his surroundings. It couldn't be that easy, otherwise I'd have given it a 10. Think Cuckoo's Nest, minus the comedy, meets Deliverance. It gave me shivers.
The Ice Storm (1997)
Superb portrayal of a miserable time in America
Spoilers herein.
I was in my late teens in the early 70s, and this film took me right back there, not just in the details of the music, clothes, cars, etc., but especially the popularity of the "swinging" lifestyle with lots of drinking, drugs, and casual sex. Books such as The Sensuous Woman, The Hite Report, and Open Marriage were best sellers then, wife swapping parties were in vogue, and sex in general was touted as the road to happiness. I wouldn't go so far as to say that casual sex destroyed families, although in some cases it did, but I think there were many unhappy families broken up by divorce and infidelity who, in earlier decades, would have remained together in secret misery ("quiet desperation") behind the smiling traditional family facade. The early and mid 70s were a miserable time in America for many reasons-- the energy crisis, economic recession, horrible winter weather (in the northeast, anyway), and loss of faith in the government in the wake of the Vietnam war, Watergate, and the Nixon administration. The basement sex play scene between Ricci and Wood is the ultimate metaphor for that time-- sexual experimentation between young teenagers is a normal part of life, something most kids do, and they might even have had fun, but Ricci throws a bizarre twist into it when she puts on the Nixon mask. Note Wood's confused and almost frightened expression as he approaches her. The act itself becomes purely mechanical, lacking any warmth or joy because of the physical barrier preventing eye contact. The mask is the perfect symbol of people hiding behind facades, of society's distrust of the oppressive and duplicitous Presidency (you might even say Nixon screwed us), and of the lack of warmth and human intimacy that went along with casual sex at a time when people were trying to find any means possible to feel better or even just feel good. The ice storm itself symbolizes not only the unhappy, cold, and dangerously slippery lives these people were frozen inside, but also in a larger sense it is a metaphor of a very unsure and uncomfortable era.
School Ties (1992)
Preachiness
Yes, this is a film about prejudice, but more so about the choices we make that shape our lives and where such moral issues of judgement and honor come in. Quite honestly, I'm disgusted by some of the preachy, overly simplistic user comments about the good guys vs. the bad guys and how evil anti-semitism is and how we should just get along and follow Martin Luther King's dream and all that idealistic crap, because it isn't that simple, either in real life or in this film. The characters are more complex than just good guys or bad guys. Even Charlie Dillon, David Greene's foil and the supposed bad(dest) guy, is expected to measure up to his rich, entitled family's standards ("we do what they tell us and then they give us the good life") and he tells David that he envies him for not having to live under that kind of pressure. He cheats merely because he's too lazy to study. In cheating, and later in blaming it on David, he is doing what he thinks is necessary to survive, or at least maintain the status quo and not have his life ruined. He would have tried to pin the blame on someone else anyway, and anti-semitism merely provides him with a tool and a convenient scapegoat. Likewise, David is doing what HE needs to do for himself right from the beginning when he accepts the football scholarship. Remember the last thing he says to the headmaster before he leaves his office? "You used me for football-- I'll use you to get into Harvard." That's the kind of tradeoff involved in athletic scholarships and the deals we make throughout our lives. David wasn't just getting something for nothing because he had been the victim of prejudice. We all do what we think we need to, more or less, for ourselves, it's just that the upper class have been more successful at it. Where some cross the line is the willingness to step on other people on their way up, which is the complete opposite of their "cherished honor code." David grew up being taught to respect an honest living-- remember the story he tells Sally about the two guys at the dump in PA scavenging for tin cans? At the very end of this film, when David utters those words to the headmaster, it becomes clear that he really isn't all that different from the others at St. Mark's-- in fact, he realizes that he has crossed the line and become one of the people he despises, one of the users. If he truly wanted to keep his honor intact, he would leave the school, go home, and lead a poor but honest life. Instead, he chooses to stay with the other users on his way up the ladder to Harvard. Though it's not really cut and dried, in my opinion that's a lot closer to greed than honor.
As for the message about prejudice-- puh-leeze. We have ALL been victims of prejudice or discrimination at one time or another, not just the Jews or the blacks, etc., and I'm sick of the assumptions that people make and then judge us for those assumptions. For example, the Jewish woman who referred to me as Irish (I think she meant to say Aryan, neither of which I am) because I am not Jewish, or the black guy in the subway who was preaching at the top of his lungs about the evil white race while glaring at me. Or my homophobic cousins who have never let me meet their children because they think all gay people are child molesters. It works both ways, folks.
And by the way, it's not a Catholic school. The chapel is very much Protestant in nature, as was the upper class in the Fifties.