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Reviews
National Treasure (2004)
A Roller-Coaster Ride Through History (Real and Imagined)
"National Treasure" is the kind of movie that made movie-goers (at least this one) think of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and it presaged "The Da Vinci Code" by a year. If you haven't seen this before, here's the story; it's not easy, and it's convoluted (with a potential for spoilers, so be prepared). The last living signer of the Declaration of Independence is dying, and he tries to get to Washington to see the President, but it's raining, it's late, Andrew Jackson is out somewhere, and Thomas Carroll tells his coach-tiger, a boy named Thomas Gates, a secret about the Templars' treasure that the Masons hid in the New World. For nearly 200 years, descendants of Gates have tried to find the mythical, disbelieved treasure, and failed in their attempts.
Fast forward to now, and Benjamin Franklin Gates (played by Nicolas Cage, who looks *much* better than Bill Gates) is on the trail of the ship Charlotte, in the frozen wastes of the Arctic somewhere, with a shifty 'philanthropist' named Ian Howe (played by Sean Bean). They find the Charlotte frozen in the ice, then Ian double-crosses Ben and his geek assistant, Riley.
After that, it's a roller-coaster ride to Washington, D.C., in a futile attempt to convince authorities that the Declaration of Independence is at risk. Ben decides to steal the Declaration to keep Ian from stealing and destroying it in his desire for treasure. It highlights the differences between "hunters" (Ian and his thugs) and "gatherers" (Ben and Riley, later with Abigail): Ian goes in with chains, explosives, drills, saws, tasers, guns--he has no respect for property, life, or history and context. Ben and Riley use their brains: plans, fake i.d., wireless communications, an understanding of the historic value of the Declaration, sleight of hand (a copy of the Declaration), heroic values (Ben rescues Abigail from Ian and thugs after they kidnap her).
From Washington, after Ben and Abigail discover a significant clue on the back of the Declaration (and bring Ben's father into this mess), the action moves to Philadelphia; our heroes are chased by the FBI, Ben is caught, Abigail and Riley make a deal with Ian; we end with all the major players in New York City. Ian doesn't play fair and drags Ben's dad into the mix--and now for something completely different!--we fall into an 'Indiana Jones' movie, which is not a bad thing in this case, actually. And to learn if they find anything, and what they find if they do, you'll just have to rent this little gem and find out.
Did the Templars and FreeMasons have an ancient treasure they hid in the New World? Probably not, but dang, you'll want it to be true after watching this movie! Diane Kruger is feisty and elegant as Abigail Chase, the director of the National Archives. I'd be happy if Nicolas Cage cranked out a goofily romantic comedy every year, because he does it (goofy and romantic) so well (even in "Ghost Rider"). Diane and Nick reminded me a bit of Kate Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story" (hmmm...); but she doesn't have the forcefulness or dramatic 'weight' Katherine Hepburn had, so maybe they're channeling Grace Kelly and Cary Grant from "To Catch a Thief" (that's good, Cary Grant was in "Philadelphia Story" too).
Everyone complains about sequels, but this is the kind of movie I'd like to see a sequel to--adventure with no gratuitous violence, a hint of romance with no obvious sex, and 'positive' values (respect for history--heck, just plain respect). Throw in historic locations and stirring 'national monument' theme music (think John Williams when he was at the Boston Pops), and you get a fun, surprising, and thoughtful adventure movie.
A Performance of Macbeth (1979)
This Version of "Macbeth" Miles Above and Beyond All Others
Truthfully, I am a witch (a beginner, but learning) because of "Macbeth." Against a backdrop of personal tragedy, I heard a recording of and read the play when I was 10, and dragged my mother to the Roman Polanski movie (in 1971). Mom wasn't prepared for naked witches.
The reason I wanted to be a witch then was personal power; it took me about 25 years to grow up and realize that power isn't the essence of witchcraft--wisdom is. From power comes only the abuse of power and the obliteration of the self. From wisdom comes power and the discernment to recognize that 9 of 10 instances are not worth using that power on. Okay, that's the end of the witchcraft testimonial.
This is the most minimalist, claustrophobic, monochrome, and noir-lit production of "Macbeth" I've seen, and I mean that in a good way. All the action takes place within a large circle on a dark stage, with the actors sitting on cubes around the circumference. The costumes are dark and minimalistic--they're of any (historic) period and all periods.
This filmed production's advantage over a live performance in a theatre is that the camera focuses on the actors, with master shots of two or more persons and tight head-and-shoulder closeups for soliloquies. The viewer can see the characters' emotional turmoil in the actors' eyes; and we know that the eyes are the windows into the soul. Trevor Nunn's design and direction moves this play from the realm of 'tragedy' to the heights of 'possession by the gods of drama'.
Ancient Greek actors often wore masks while acting their tragedies, and I have a theory why. To project the emotional turmoil, to subsume one's own personality to larger-than-life characters, to make the playwright's words live and breathe, in essence, to make the play an offering to the gods and Muses, the actors had to do an early form of 'method' acting. If they *had* performed without masks, I think the audience would have been taken aback by the sheer power of some of those performances--or, I may be reading too much into ancient drama.
Without prosthetics, makeup, or lighting effects, the three actresses who play the Witches bar no holds and set no limits to what they do to become their characters, startling the audience and making them cringe and squirm. It's as if their faces 'morph' and they physically *change* because they're unrecognizable in the minor roles they also play.
The same is also true of Ian McKellen and Judi Dench; from the end of Act I, Macbeth and his Lady start a slow slide from sanity to insanity, as their consciences render punishment. Ian McKellen as Macbeth is happy but cautious when he's reunited with his wife (Act I, Scene 5), he has no plans to take action until he examines his options; Lady Macbeth instigates Duncan's murder precipitously, with dire consequences. In the medieval world, not only was it a crime to kill a person, but to kill a God-anointed sovereign was a crime and a sin against God. (Elizabeth I was outraged when her Privy Council carried out Mary Queen of Scot's execution; it wasn't that Mary was Liz's cousin, but that she was a God-anointed sovereign that bothered her so much.)
In reading about witchcraft around the world, something interesting stuck that comes to mind when I watch this "Macbeth." In Haitian voudoun, congregants communicate with the loa (sing. & pl.), the gods, during a drum-propelled rite of frenzied dancing and other, ordinarily dangerous, acts; these men and women are protected from harm because the loa inhabit and control of their bodies temporarily. In "Macbeth," the actresses playing the Witches, Ian, and Judi appear at times to be "ridden by the loa," possessed by pagan gods--or the Muses, notably in A.I, Ss. 1, 3, 5, 7; A.II, S. 2; A.III, S. 4; A.IV, S. 1; A.V, Ss. 1 & 5. In A.III, S. 4, the Banquet scene, you aren't seeing Ian McKellen, the guy who played Gandalf, Magneto, and James Whale--you're seeing a man whose guilty conscience is causing a complete psychological breakdown, followed by Judi in A.V, S. 1, the sleepwalking scene; the minds of these characters are falling apart from trying to hide their knowing crime and sin.
This production has turned Shakespeare's "Macbeth" into a weapon that stabs one's eyes, ears, and mind with horrific actions and images. Don't watch it in a dark room, and don't watch it alone. I give it 10 of 10 stars.
Independence Day (1996)
This is Not the Movie You're Looking For...
My husband and I have a 4th of July tradition--after watching the local parade and having a cookout, we go home to watch "Independence Day" so it ends just in time to watch the Boston Pops on the Esplanade and fireworks on TV. Like Galadriel's prologue in "The Fellowship of the Ring," I've probably memorized President Whitmore's "We will not go quietly" speech--yet another iteration of Shakespeare's "This day is called the feast of Crispian" soliloquy/speech.
And now for something completely different...possibility of spoilers ahead for "ID4" and other movies.
If you're looking for an alien-invasion movie with rigorous internal logic, this isn't it; try "Contact" or "The War of the Worlds."
If you're looking for a serious science-fiction movie with inactive humor circuitry, try "The Andromeda Strain."
If you're looking for a science-fiction movie with great character development, try Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange"--but don't tell me about your nightmares or PTSD symptoms. I warned you.
If you're looking for a science-fiction movie with an evenly-balanced political world-view, this isn't it. Hmm, which science fiction does? Try "1984" (either production), or "The Matrix," or "A Clockwork Orange," or "Gattaca," or "Equilibrium"--oh, I'm sorry! They're all dystopias; my bad!
If you are looking for a funny, poignant, feel-good science-fiction movie to watch right before "The 1812 Overture" and fireworks--this is the movie. My essay's title is a riff on Obi-Wan's subtle Force-filled comment to the storm-trooper: "These are not the droids you're looking for."
I read nearly 70 comments posted for "ID4," and I have the feeling that a large number movie watchers and commentators, have either missed the point, didn't catch the details, or just plain Don't Get It.
Firstly, something about David: his father makes a casual remark as they're driving to D.C.: "eight years at M.I.T. and you're just a cable guy?" It seems that both Julius and most people have missed the clue-- David's not just a run-of-the-mill cable guy; that should have been evident when he popped the micro-mini directional antenna on the car's roof. I don't know if that's real or just a good prop idea, but I'm sure that, if it weren't a global crisis, the men in black from the NSA and CIA would be visiting David for his antenna after the brouhaha died down.
Also in the You Just Don't Get It department: Did *anyone* notice that David's name is David? Hello?! Small guy outwits a huge, unstoppable force that no one else can beat--does that remind you of anything, like, maybe, Goliath? Or, Sauron gives everyone of importance 'special rings' but forgets the little Hobbits, two of whom are unnoticeable enough to slip into Mordor and destroy the One Ring. Do any of you know what allegory or metaphor means? David's virus is the rock he uses to take down the alien Goliath-- Steve and the alien craft are the slingshot, but they're important.
For the people who complained about a 'human computer virus' infecting an 'alien computer system.' I'm no math or computer whiz, but I do know that to measure and calculate, one has to have numbers, and in prehistoric times, most humans used their digits. And one has to have something that can hold a tool to make things, therefore, hands (and feet, or analogous appendages). If you measure stuff, you need a system to record measurement, and here we go--we use Base 10; if we had 3 fingers and a thumb, we'd use Base 8.
In electronics, there's 0 and 1, two conditions, ON or OFF. Many programming languages exist, but all that code devolves back, is ultimately translated into electronic commands. David's specialty was signal clarity, strength, and the antenna dishes' configuration to receive signals from communications satellites--in abstract terms, encryption-decryption. That's how he discovered the countdown embedded in satellite transmissions--not literally decrypting their code, but finding the *pattern.* For someone to solve a puzzle like that, all one needs is to figure out the base system of the alien computer system; if Congress pays $30,000 for a hammer, then Area 51 probably has a Cray or two for David to run cracking algorithms on, between getting the idea of 'catching a cold' to the officer shooting the soda can off the wing of the alien craft. *We* didn't see the process, and in reality, it'd probably take more time than those people had, but it's a *movie,* and everything gets simplified and compressed; if you want realism, watch a war documentary on the History Channel.
This movie is less about the whole plot and more about scenes setting up events, more about parts than the whole; some people take dominoes or tiles and set them up to fall into complex and pretty patterns, and that's what this movie does. Each scene may be weak, but each falls into the next to create a pretty (or in this case, an explosive) whole. Yes, there *are* clichés--but each scene uses the *right* cliché for the desired emotional effect.
Summer blockbusters aren't meant to make people think, they're meant to get butts into seats and bucks into studio bank accounts. Huge explosions do that; scary aliens, energetic dogfights, last-minute rescues, tear-wringing deaths, and coincidences piled like thick frosting do bring people to the cinemas.
About the dog's stereotypical leap-to-safety: Do you know how many people would have raised a ruckus if the kid's dog was fried in an explosion?! Of course the plucky unmarried mom with a can-do attitude has to have a heroic dog! Of course the dog has to find the First Lady! Of course they're clichés, but they're the *right*cliches for an action-adventure summer blockbuster movie!! For all the weaknesses in plot and characterization, I give "Independence Day" 6 of 10 stars; but for the overall whole look, design, and feel (props, miniatures, alien design, casting), I give it 8 of 10 stars.
Elizabeth R (1971)
The First Elizabethan 'Costume' Film I Saw
I'm not rating it so low because it was bad; I just can't remember all the details. "Elizabeth R" was one of the first miniseries on WGBH-TV's "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1971 (the other was, if I remember right, "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"--appropriate that, really). I was 10 years old, watching on an incredibly small black-and-white portable TV, but I knew what I wanted--those costumes. I wanted those incredibly lush, ornamented, heavy, hot, corseted gowns that Elizabeth wore as queen. Since then, I have always been attracted to 'period' films, historical re-enactments, and Shakespeare (but that's a whole 'nother topic).
The costume designer on "Elizabeth R" was Janet Arnold, one of the first well-known clothing historians and researchers. Her research and publications changed the way historical costumes have been treated in movies since then. If you have any question about the truth of my statement, rent "Shakespeare in Love" and pay attention to the garb. It holds for fantasy movies as well--Peter Jackson knew very well that "The Lord of the Rings" would succeed or fail based on how real he could make Middle-Earth.
About Elizabeth I: There are many movies about her, and many great actresses have played her--from Bette Davis, to Glenda Jackson (here), to Dame Judi Dench (SiL), to Helen Mirren, in 2006's Showtime entry, "Elizabeth." Depending on the era in which the movie was made, some events are highlighted, others downplayed. Just watching any of these films is a treat.
I don't know if there are added features about the costumes in the DVD package of "Elizabeth R;" it's on my short list of films to get. I hope it holds up to scrutiny after all these years; it made a lasting impression on me when I first saw it.
Metropolis (1927)
One of the Classics of Silent Cinema
"Metropolis," directed by the great German director Fritz Lang, is one of the classics of the silent-era, and one of the entries on any science fiction movie fan's must-see list. Sadly, there's no one definitive 'version' of the movie, as the original was heavily edited, cut parts being destroyed; 'reconstructed' versions exist (including a colorized one with a rock soundtrack!).
This is a silent, black-and-white, allegory-laden tale about the future in the city of Metropolis, where the wealthy live in soaring skyscrapers, and workers live in dark, dismal, underground housing. Maria, a young working-class woman, is a nursery-school teacher who seeks to reconcile the workers (hand) with the wealthy elite (head) by trying to become the mediator (heart)--whence comes the film's classic thematic statement: "The heart is the mediator between the head and and the hand." Freder, son of the most powerful business owner (?) (one doesn't know exactly what those wealthy types are--business owners, politicians, robber barons?) Thea Von Harbou (the scriptwriter and Lang's wife) didn't specify), sees Maria by accident one day, and he's in love at first sight. His father is trying to stop workers from meeting in secret after their shifts--he fears a workers' revolt--by going to Rotwang, the inventor who created most of the machines in Metropolis.
Of course, it's not German cinema without a jealousy-filled back-story between Fredersen and Rotwang, unbelievable similarities between Maria and a dead character, plots that endanger all of Metropolis--who said the course of true love runs smooth? The story unfolds slowly because film was a new story-telling medium in the 1920s; the sets are stunning for their time, the acting is a bit heavy-handed--but that was the style in silents; the camera moves are well-designed, and--this is the only spoiler you'll get from me: this is the first appearance of everyone's favorite--a robot or android that looks exactly like a person, and is programmed to behave completely unlike that person. Great art deco design for the nightclub and the, um, character. You'll know it when you see it.
If you ever see in your local papers that "Metropolis" is playing at a local art-house cinema and you haven't seen it before, go. Just take my word; even if you don't like silent movies or science fiction movies, go see this--it's one of the first milestones in movie-making.