Reviews

"Body of Evidence" is famous mostly as being the poor man's "Basic Instinct," and it probably wouldn't have made $10 except for the fascination people have with Madonna. The problem is, the wrong actress is starring as Rebecca Carlson.

Yes, plenty of people were obsessed with Ms. Ciccone in 1993, but she isn't even close to being the sexiest actress in the film, let alone the most proficient. In fact, she's in a close battle for second sexiest.

The year 1993 marked the breakthrough to stardom for the lovely Julianne Moore, who appeared in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" as an artist who played a long scene naked from the waist down.

Moore was 32 when "Body of Evidence" was released. Not only does she look incredible, she has the sexiest single scene in the film. Madonna looks like a teenage boy compared with the lovely Ms. Moore.

Anne Archer is plenty sexy too.

I saw this movie on HBO in 1985, taped it and watched it again and again over the years. It's a wonderful screwball comedy, and Michael O'Keefe is great as the con man character who's trying to pass himself off as a soldier taking his dead buddy's casket home for burial.

I would have thought it would have found its way to DVD long before this, even if only because it was Jim Carrey's first real movie role. His part is small -- only a couple of scenes -- but it was easy to see he was going to be a big comic star.

Other great actors in it were Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr, Ed Lauter and Brian Dennehy. And who could ever forget Dennehy's great line when he says the mother of the dead soldier is "prostate with grief?" It's also the only movie I can remember that used Don McLean's "American Pie" over the closing credits.

Please, let's get this out on DVD.

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of this movie until last week, when I finally read Danny Peary's terrific book, "Alternate Oscars." I was stunned to see that for 1954, Peary picked a movie I had never heard of ahead of the winner, "On the Waterfront." I ordered a copy from Amazon and finally was able to sit down and watch it tonight. I had read many of the comments posted here, and of course some of them talked about the "communist" propaganda in this movie.

It may have been radical for the '50s to stand up for the rights of laborers, Chicanos and women, but if it was anything, it was a little ahead of its time. All this movie is about is Mexican-American working men asking to be treated the same as Anglos, and women asking to have a voice in their families' lives.

When you realize this movie was made on a shoestring, almost completely with blacklisted people, the accomplishment is truly stunning.

As much as anything that made this movie ahead of its time, it's the feminist subplot that made this movie radical.

I'm not surprised it was banned during the McCarthy era. Its banning says far more about what was wrong with America at that time than anything about the movie itself.

Rosuara Revueltas gives an amazing performance as the miner's wife. She was deported to Mexico for starring in this film and not only did she never make another movie in the U.S., she didn't act again in Mexico until 1976.

I'm prejudiced here, because this is my favorite movie of all time. Maybe it's just that I was in a fraternity in college, although there was never a fraternity to compare to Delta Tau Chi. "Animal House" was the first of the great "slob comedies," and without it, movies like "Caddyshack" and most of the other imitations of the last 27 years could never have happened. Imagine all the things they did that couldn't be done in a movie now -- "I'm only 13," casual drug use and "the Negroes took our dates." But of course, the movie comes down to the one great philosophical line -- "You f***ed up, you trusted us." I have probably watched this movie 50 times and I hope to watch it 50 more. The funniest movie I ever saw.

I saw this movie when it first came out, and I hadn't seen it for more than 30 years. Imagine my delight to pick it up for $8 at the DVD store and watch it again. Of course Diane Keaton was lovely in her first film, but I'll bet more people were surprised to remember how beautiful Bonnie Bedelia was at age 22. Some of the 1970 stuff wears a little thin, and of course it's sad to remember what happened to Gig Young, but all in all, this was a wonderful time capsule of a movie. And yes, "For All We Know" was part of the music the first time I got married -- in 1975. I wish I could find more movies from this time period in DVD. Of course, they are all starting to come out slowly. Too bad the DVD didn't have any extras, even the trailer.

I was 20 years old when I saw "Joe," and it was one of the really important movies of that time in at least one respect. It scared the crap out of anyone who saw it who wasn't a clean-cut, Nixon-son-in-law type. For the rest of us -- the "I Ain't No Fortunate Son" types -- it was really scary when we saw there were people out there who hated us so much they would gladly kill us.

Peter Boyle is an amazing actor, but I admit I'm glad his proposed sequel to the movie never got made. Movies really were better before everything got sequelized. He WAS Joe, and finding out later that he wasn't made his portrayal all the more amazing.

Susan Sarandon, ah, one of the truly great ladies of our generation, and still lights-out gorgeous at 58. Some of the comments I've read said they didn't know she would be a star, but they couldn't take their eyes off her. Hey, that's how you know someone IS a star.

A soap opera, sure, but a really great soap opera. Claudette Colbert is tremendous as an American "Mrs. Miniver," and Jennifer Jones is equally strong in the Teresa Wright role. It's a long movie, and very dated. It's tough to imagine a modern audience understanding the horrified reaction when the immigrant woman tells Colbert that her daughter is a nurse on Corregidor. In fact, it's tough to imagine modern-day audiences enjoying this movie much. There's almost no action -- certainly no car chases -- it's entirely a character study about how people held up in a time when so much of what you needed to know was what you couldn't know. World War II America was an amazing place. I am thrilled that this movie is coming out on DVD in October.

Sure, it's probably true that this is a highly idealized version of America, but calling it "blatantly patriotic" ignores the fact that all American towns were blatantly patriotic when we fought the Last Good War. The idea that a Homer McCauley had every bit as much chance as a rich kid to make his mark might be uniquely American; he might never live in the big house on the hill, but he could become every bit as beloved in his world as a George Bailey might in Bedford Falls. One thing that makes "Human Comedy" rather unique for its time was that it was set in small-town central California back in the day when that was a long way off for most Americans. A wonderful movie; wish it was avilable on DVD.