So, may I just start out by saying that I loved this movie. The ending totally surprised me. I was waiting at the end for Travis to be dead and for it to be sad, but then, as the camera pans across the newspaper articles taped to the wall of his run down apartment, the news slaps me in the face that he is in fact not dead. He survived being shot multiple times, including once in the neck. Outrageous.
So... the plot. Let's see, we first meet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) applying for a job with a taxi company. He is a Vietnam war vet that can't sleep so he gets a job driving people around at night. Travis narrates for us in a voice over as he writes in a journal. We see him frequenting X-rated movie theaters, but the look on his face seems strictly (and oddly) innocent and inquisitive, as if he were just watching a movie with a very complicated plot. After a few weeks of driving the taxi, Travis sees Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) for the first time, walking into he job at a political campaign headquarters. He thinks she is beautiful, and seems to be alone, just like he feels. He sits outside her building watching her for a few days, freaking out Betsy's co-worker, who seems to have a bit of a thing for her too. One day, Travis gets up the nerve to walk straight up to Betsy at work and ask her out. He accepts, and they go for coffee. They have a strange chemistry, and she seems as taken with him as he is with her. They go out for a second date, and Travis takes her to a dirty movie. She is appalled by this and leave him promptly. She refuses to take his calls, and he gets kicked out of the campaign headquarters when he tries to come see her. Travis decides that Betsy is cold, just like everyone else in the world, and he goes on a downward spiral into mental instability. On another night, a very young girl (Jodie Foster) gets into Travis' cab, looking very distressed. She tells him to drive, but he gets caught up in writing in his ledger, and a burly man (Harvey Keitel) drags her out of the cab telling her to "Be cool" and throwing a twenty at Travis. That night sticks with Travis, and he holds on to the twenty the man gave him, never spending it. Travis sees the young girl a couple of weeks later, and he follows her, freaking her out. Travis has also begun to stalk Senator Palantine, the representative that Betsy is trying to get elected president. He also buys multiple guns, and learns how to shoot them. We quickly learn, through his shifty behavior, that he is plotting to assassinate Senator Palantine. In the meantime, Travis tracks down the young girl, buying some time with her with the twenty that her pimp had thrown at him, whose name is Iris, and befriends her, trying to convince her to go back to her parents (She's a prostitute at 12 years old!). She says she'll leave if he will, and he says he can't because he has "government things to do." The day finally arrives where Travis is going to carry out his plot on the Senator. he shows up at a rally with a mowhawk and sunglasses. He has his guns tucked away in his jacket. Just as he gets close enough to shoot the Senator, he is spotted by the secret service and is chased away. It is then that he decides that he wants to kill someone else, Iris' pimp. He walks right up to the pimp, called Sport, and shoots him. He then goes on to shoot another man that is a part of the prostitution ring and a man that has paid to have sex with Iris. Iris is there and she begins to cry as Travis is shot in the neck and shoulder by the bleeding, dying Sport. Travis unloads his entire gun before passing out from blood loss. We think he's dead, but as I stated earlier, he survives. He is the hero. Iris is returned to her parents and Travis goes back to work with a new found fame, which he is actually pretty humble about. Travis has one more run in with Betsy in his cab where she tries to ask him about the stories she reads about him in the paper. He is very short with her, but doesn't let her pay for her cab fare.
I've never seen Robert De Niro look so sweet before. He is supposed to be this rough vet that has come back from fighting in a war, but he is so gentile which is extremely surprising. Every time he meets someone new, he sticks out his hand and says "My name's Travis, what's yours?" He doesn't even give up when people are mean to him, he's still just trying to be nice and rational. That's why it is hard to watch as his plot against the Senator begins to unfold. It is obvious that he is unstable, and I wanted to scream at the screen for someone to help him. That's why the ending is so good. I wanted so bad for him to survive and be the hero, because he honestly was one, and he did. The movie ended exactly how I wanted it to, but it wasn't how I expected.
I was so annoyed with Betsy. Why did she have to be so stuck up about everything. I get that times were different then, but she allowed herself go into the dirty movie, and then gets mad at Travis when the content of the movie is offensive. Its female characters like that that make me so angry at all female characters. They think they're too good. However, at least this time, it moved the plot forward. Travis wanted Betsy to notice him in a big way, even if it ruined his life. Pretty intense.
Iris' character is probably the most entertaining. She brings the whole movie back to a more believable level. She is this true to life twelve year old (although she does look a older than twelve...) rebelling against her parents who got herself caught up with the wrong people. She's attracted to Sport who takes advantage of her. She calls Travis a square because he wants her to go home and wear dresses and stuff. Its all just so true and real. She also brings out the sensitive side of Travis just as he's getting out of control. She is the reason that he becomes the hero. And she's a female character that I didn't hate. Awesome.
How about the sound track of this movie. That was pretty ballin' as well. Jazzy, feel good, yet a little somber and sad as well, seems like something Travis would actually listen to.
Travis' friends are weird. They are very much like Travis, except a lot more shady. They play a good contrast to Travis' character. However, Peter Boyle plays a man named Wizard. There is a pretty touching moment between the two of them where Wizard tells Travis that you become your job. It is pretty sweet because Wizard is trying real hard not to get too emotional even though he wants to. He seems almost like a father figure to Travis who, through his narrative, tells us that he hasn't seem his parents in years, and shows us just how alone he really is.
I do have to say, that while Robert De Niro's body wasn't too bad at the time, he cannot pull off a mowhawk. It added to the character development, but it totally threw me off visually. He should have just stuck with the shorter haircut he had.
This movie was excellent. I would totally give it 5 out of 5 on whatever scale I was using. I'm going to have to watch more of Scorsese's stuff. The Departed is already on my top 5, and now this. Better hope next time for all of those people out there that want me to hate one of these movies. I'll come across one sooner or later, I know it.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
What was your husband's name? ... Eddie. All About Eve
I have to say that this movie was surprisingly good. I genuinely liked all of the characters, although each of them had their moments where they just got under my skin... Let's see if I can sum this one up for you. I forgot to do that for Rebel Without a Cause... I'll go back and edit later.
The movie starts out with Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), a famous play critic, narrating over an awards ceremony. He introduces all of our main characters and talks about the theatre world and how there are two types of people in it and so on. We then see Eve (Anne Baxter) receive a prestigious award at said awards ceremony. Then we jump back to where it all began. We see Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) the wife of a famous playwright, walking into a theatre where Miss Margo Channing (Bette Davis) has starred in a play. Karen runs into Eve, who at this point as not had her break in show business, and Eve tells Karen how she just adores Margo and all of her performances. Being Margo's best friend Karen introduces Eve to Margo. Eve tells Margo a very sad story about how her husband died in the war and how now she lives alone and the only thing she does in her life is come see Margo's show every night. With that, Margo hires Eve on as her assistant. Everything seems nice at first, but then things start to take a turn for the sinister. It seems like Eve, who is young with natural talent, is popping up everywhere, and leaving Margo in the dust. Margo becomes very jealous of this, but because Eve is so sweet, everyone things Margo has just gone a bit crazy. So time goes on and Eve gets more and more fame and Margo loses all of her friends and even her boyfriend. One night, after Eve's performance as Margo's understudy, Addison DeWitt catches Eve coming on to Margo's ex-boyfriend, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill). Bill turns Eve down, but that night, Addison begins to peel away at Eve's sweet facade to the lies underneath, and the two form an alliance. When Margo reads in Addison's column some of the terrible things that Eve has said about her, Margo's friends and Bill come running back to her side. Eve tries to gain back all of their trust, but its too late. Eve lands a starring role in a huge play, but no one is there to share it with her. Addison, Eve's only companion, finally uncovers the whole truth for the audience in one final scene. It turns out that Eve made everything up, from her name, to where she lived and grew up, to where she worked, and even made a up a fake husband who died in the war. She was just scheming to work her way into the limelight. So, at the end, when the story goes back to her receiving her award, she has crumbled to nothing. She thanks Karen and Margo and Bill and many others, but all of them just stare back at her with frowns. When Eve arrives at her apartment later that evening, she finds a young girl waiting there, claiming to be the president of one of the Eve Harrington fan clubs, and the cycle begins again.
Honestly, the thing that shocked me the most about this movie was how well the characters seemed to transition into their different character traits. Eve had to at first be this sweet, innocent angel who never did anything wrong. But midway through the movie, after she has said all of those awful things about Margo that got published in the newspaper, and she goes about trying to blackmail Karen for conspiring against Margo, we see a different, darker side of her. Her humble smile is replaced by a piercing stare that sent chills down my spine. She was literally a different person. And then, by the end, when the audience finds out that she was just fabricating stories and conning everyone, she really starts to seem a bit crazy. She is grasping at straws, and everyone knows it, and I definitely believed it.
Margo also goes through a transformation. She at first is this funny woman with a tough exterior but a good heart, who then starts to spiral down into jealousy and madness. Everyone, including the audience thinks that she's crazy. As the movie goes on, she made me tired listening to her go on and on about Eve and pushing everyone in her life away. But then, once she makes herself vulnerable, and breaks down in Bill's arms over the horrible newspaper article, we see a softer side of her. She and Bill get engaged soon after, and she really loosens up. By the end, she is the most likable character in the movie. That might partially be because we all (and by that I mean me and the rest of her friends and Bill) feel a little guilty for thinking that she was a nut and not believing her when she said that Eve was out to get her. But still, its a transformation nonetheless. Something about her relaxes, and allows the audience to relax.
I have to say, that the movie really had me going. I read the short synopsis that's off to the side of the movie title on Netflix, just to see what the movie was about, and it told me that Eve was a con artist, so it was spoiled for me from the start. However, midway through the movie, when Margo was on her downward spiral and eve was going up, I started to doubt myself. That's how much I believed Eve. I thought that maybe I had read the synopsis wrong or that maybe it was a different character, but no, Eve's character comes right back around, and its done beautifully.
I thought it was cute that Marilyn Monroe made a cameo appearance. She is only in the movie for a few minutes as a struggling actress who bats her eyelashes trying to get parts. It was cute.
When I saw how long this movie was (granted, its only two hours and ten minutes, but when you think about how most movies made today are about an hour and a half at most, anything over two hours can get a bit long) I was a little skeptical. However, I noticed that everything in this movie was necessary. Whenever I thought we were getting to a point where the movie should be winding down, there were still thirty minutes of movie to go. They packed story into those two hours. Everything was important and flowed well together. Today, writers are told to cut out the excess parts of their story, but back then they could add as much as they wanted in there. After the two hour mark, we are starting with a totally new plot point and what seems like a totally new story with the same characters. Sure, sometimes it gets boring, but I can't predict where the movie is going, which is nice, because in today's movies people can pretty much predict what is going to happen by just watching the previews.
I loved all of the little creepy touches that were added in about Eve. Like how she was creeping in on Bill, planning him a birthday party. And how she sneakily was able to get Karen to agree to land Eve the part as Eve's understudy. All of these things could be explained away as innocent, but behind the innocence is something dark and almost chilling.
I can't think of many things that I didn't like about this movie. Again, I really hope that maybe I'll get to one of these classic movies that I don't like and that I can just write a terrible review for, but for right now, I can't. All of the characters in this were great. Their clothing was great. Everything. Even in black and white it was beautiful, and I'd even argue that it was the black and white that made it beautiful.
If I had to give this a ranking? I'd say... Maybe like... 3/5 of an Academy Award. Maybe not best picture, but certainly a nomination with people rooting for it. I really need to think of a scale... If anyone has any ideas of a clever scale, leave me a comment and let me know.
I think I might watch Annie Hall next. That or maybe Duck Soup? A Clockwork Orange? To Kill a Mockingbird? ET? Whatever strikes me (and is on instant Netflix).
The movie starts out with Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), a famous play critic, narrating over an awards ceremony. He introduces all of our main characters and talks about the theatre world and how there are two types of people in it and so on. We then see Eve (Anne Baxter) receive a prestigious award at said awards ceremony. Then we jump back to where it all began. We see Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) the wife of a famous playwright, walking into a theatre where Miss Margo Channing (Bette Davis) has starred in a play. Karen runs into Eve, who at this point as not had her break in show business, and Eve tells Karen how she just adores Margo and all of her performances. Being Margo's best friend Karen introduces Eve to Margo. Eve tells Margo a very sad story about how her husband died in the war and how now she lives alone and the only thing she does in her life is come see Margo's show every night. With that, Margo hires Eve on as her assistant. Everything seems nice at first, but then things start to take a turn for the sinister. It seems like Eve, who is young with natural talent, is popping up everywhere, and leaving Margo in the dust. Margo becomes very jealous of this, but because Eve is so sweet, everyone things Margo has just gone a bit crazy. So time goes on and Eve gets more and more fame and Margo loses all of her friends and even her boyfriend. One night, after Eve's performance as Margo's understudy, Addison DeWitt catches Eve coming on to Margo's ex-boyfriend, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill). Bill turns Eve down, but that night, Addison begins to peel away at Eve's sweet facade to the lies underneath, and the two form an alliance. When Margo reads in Addison's column some of the terrible things that Eve has said about her, Margo's friends and Bill come running back to her side. Eve tries to gain back all of their trust, but its too late. Eve lands a starring role in a huge play, but no one is there to share it with her. Addison, Eve's only companion, finally uncovers the whole truth for the audience in one final scene. It turns out that Eve made everything up, from her name, to where she lived and grew up, to where she worked, and even made a up a fake husband who died in the war. She was just scheming to work her way into the limelight. So, at the end, when the story goes back to her receiving her award, she has crumbled to nothing. She thanks Karen and Margo and Bill and many others, but all of them just stare back at her with frowns. When Eve arrives at her apartment later that evening, she finds a young girl waiting there, claiming to be the president of one of the Eve Harrington fan clubs, and the cycle begins again.
Honestly, the thing that shocked me the most about this movie was how well the characters seemed to transition into their different character traits. Eve had to at first be this sweet, innocent angel who never did anything wrong. But midway through the movie, after she has said all of those awful things about Margo that got published in the newspaper, and she goes about trying to blackmail Karen for conspiring against Margo, we see a different, darker side of her. Her humble smile is replaced by a piercing stare that sent chills down my spine. She was literally a different person. And then, by the end, when the audience finds out that she was just fabricating stories and conning everyone, she really starts to seem a bit crazy. She is grasping at straws, and everyone knows it, and I definitely believed it.
Margo also goes through a transformation. She at first is this funny woman with a tough exterior but a good heart, who then starts to spiral down into jealousy and madness. Everyone, including the audience thinks that she's crazy. As the movie goes on, she made me tired listening to her go on and on about Eve and pushing everyone in her life away. But then, once she makes herself vulnerable, and breaks down in Bill's arms over the horrible newspaper article, we see a softer side of her. She and Bill get engaged soon after, and she really loosens up. By the end, she is the most likable character in the movie. That might partially be because we all (and by that I mean me and the rest of her friends and Bill) feel a little guilty for thinking that she was a nut and not believing her when she said that Eve was out to get her. But still, its a transformation nonetheless. Something about her relaxes, and allows the audience to relax.
I have to say, that the movie really had me going. I read the short synopsis that's off to the side of the movie title on Netflix, just to see what the movie was about, and it told me that Eve was a con artist, so it was spoiled for me from the start. However, midway through the movie, when Margo was on her downward spiral and eve was going up, I started to doubt myself. That's how much I believed Eve. I thought that maybe I had read the synopsis wrong or that maybe it was a different character, but no, Eve's character comes right back around, and its done beautifully.
I thought it was cute that Marilyn Monroe made a cameo appearance. She is only in the movie for a few minutes as a struggling actress who bats her eyelashes trying to get parts. It was cute.
When I saw how long this movie was (granted, its only two hours and ten minutes, but when you think about how most movies made today are about an hour and a half at most, anything over two hours can get a bit long) I was a little skeptical. However, I noticed that everything in this movie was necessary. Whenever I thought we were getting to a point where the movie should be winding down, there were still thirty minutes of movie to go. They packed story into those two hours. Everything was important and flowed well together. Today, writers are told to cut out the excess parts of their story, but back then they could add as much as they wanted in there. After the two hour mark, we are starting with a totally new plot point and what seems like a totally new story with the same characters. Sure, sometimes it gets boring, but I can't predict where the movie is going, which is nice, because in today's movies people can pretty much predict what is going to happen by just watching the previews.
I loved all of the little creepy touches that were added in about Eve. Like how she was creeping in on Bill, planning him a birthday party. And how she sneakily was able to get Karen to agree to land Eve the part as Eve's understudy. All of these things could be explained away as innocent, but behind the innocence is something dark and almost chilling.
I can't think of many things that I didn't like about this movie. Again, I really hope that maybe I'll get to one of these classic movies that I don't like and that I can just write a terrible review for, but for right now, I can't. All of the characters in this were great. Their clothing was great. Everything. Even in black and white it was beautiful, and I'd even argue that it was the black and white that made it beautiful.
If I had to give this a ranking? I'd say... Maybe like... 3/5 of an Academy Award. Maybe not best picture, but certainly a nomination with people rooting for it. I really need to think of a scale... If anyone has any ideas of a clever scale, leave me a comment and let me know.
I think I might watch Annie Hall next. That or maybe Duck Soup? A Clockwork Orange? To Kill a Mockingbird? ET? Whatever strikes me (and is on instant Netflix).
They called me chicken. You know... chicken. Rebel Without A Cause
"When the jester sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean..."
You know, I'll never really understand that song. However, I do understand why everyone thought James Dean was a knockout.
I'm not really sure where to begin with this movie. I really, really loved it, but that's not enough to say is it?
From the opening credits (which, by the way, I kind of like that older movies do all of the credits like that at the beginning. It makes people pay attention. In modern movies, I am always looking elsewhere when the opening credits are playing.) I immediately was drawn in. He just lies down on the ground next to one of those monkeys playing the cymbals. The big tough guy having a sensitive moment.
I really have to say that it seems like all of these actors and actresses that star in these classic movies seem to just be all around talented. I'm sure I'm idealizing them a bit... but I don't think James Dean had to get all buffed up for this movie that I a lot of actors do. I think he probably just was like that. Or at least he worked on it so that he could be like that on a daily basis. Actors back then had to have the total package: sing, dance, act, etc. Its kind of disappointing to see today's actors just kinda... not being lazy... but not exactly up to the same standards as they used to.
I noticed a lot in Rebel Without a Cause, as I do with a lot of these older movies, that a lot of the scenes seem hokey and fake. I get a little turned off towards them. But then, there are these moments, like when Jim is screaming at his father to stand up for him to his mother. Or when Jim overhears those guys from school saying they want to bring him down, it all just comes to life. What I love about those moments is that I'm even more engaged, even more amazed, than in a current movie that is just trying to shock me. I'm yanked out of my seat and pulled into the emotional realm of the picture. It is absolutely beautiful.
I totally did not see it coming when Buzz's car goes careening of the edge of the cliff during the chickie race (or whatever they called it). I was absolutely shocked when he gets his sleeve caught. I actually felt bad for him. Up until that point I didn't like him because he just seemed to pick out Jim to torment for no reason. Not very many of his friends seemed to be that upset about him dying though. There was one guy that got kind of emotional, but other than that, all of the other guys just didn't want to get caught. Even Judy, who I assume was his girlfriend, moves on to someone else in. the. same. night. You can blame it on the grieving process, but I was just wanting a little bit more of an emotional reaction.
"I wanna do something right!"
I was also surprised by how much this movie was about parents and their relationships with their kids. All of the main characters in this movie are either kids that were screwed up by their parents, or parents that don't know how to handle their kids. It was amazing how it all fit together. Judy was looking for a strong man that could be sensitive (like Jim) because her father abuses her. John was looking for some nice parents that would stick around (like Jim and Judy) because both of his parents left him. And Jim was trying to be the strong, sensitive, manly man that his father couldn't be. Jim coming to town seemed to momentarily solve everyone's problems, and for a moment, in the mansion, when Judy and Jim were acting like parents for John (what's with all the J names you ask? I have no idea...) everything was okay. But it wasn't really okay. Jim and Judy couldn't be John's parents. They both needed parents of their own. John needed more help that Jim could give him. When John dies, Jim is the one that needs the support, and his father finally stands up and is the man that Jim needs for him to be.
The whole final thirty minutes of the movie were so powerful. John is crying, holding a gun, and crying "help me!" because he thinks no one loves him. And then once the cops show up, Jim tries so hard to coax John out of the planetarium and into the custody of people that will take care of him, but only to have John freak out and get shot by the police. Then its Jim's turn to break down. He tries to laugh (like he always does, which I think is a nice choice for his character), but he just breaks down crying again. His father has to lift him up off the ground. It's so hard to see Jim, the guy that everyone sees as tough, being cradled by his father. Sublime.
They never resolved Judy's story though. I guess Jim was just going to be looking out for her now on.
I LOVED the camera angles in this movie. In the first few scenes in the police station when we can see Jim through the window when Judy and John are being interviewed for their individual petty crimes. Also, there was another shot when Jim's mother is coming down the stairs. Jim is lying on the couch, so he sees her upside down, but then the camera stays on her and rotates right side up. It almost made me sick to look at, but it was still fun to watch.
The usage of red in this movie is phenomenal. It seemed like whenever the story was changing hands, the new lead character would wear red, from Judy in her red coat with red lipstick in the beginning, to Jim in his red jacket, to finally John with his one red sock and Jim's red jacket. The red punches through the screen, makes you focus.
There were only a few tiny things that I really didn't like about this movie. Like... that John SHOT some PUPPIES? Yeah... the cop at the beginning of the movie asks him why he SHOT PUPPIES? Really? Who would or could shoot a puppy?
I also have a hard time believing that those guys could be so mean to him without even knowing him at all. They slash his tire and then ask him to get into a knife fight? What did Jim do? Its his first day of school. It just seemed a little bit outrageous to me...
Let's see... little things I did like...
I LOVED when Jim came in and was literally chugging the milk and then rubs the cool jug on his face.
I also like how Jim treats Judy. I didn't like Judy too much until about the last third of the movie, but after Buzz dies and Jim takes Judy home, and he grabs her by the scarf and says "You'll be alright?" and then he winks at her? I think writers should write more guys like that in movies. But then again, who would play them?
Buzz Gunderson. That was the bully's name. The guy that drives off a cliff. He totally sounds like the type of character that about 10 years after high school (you know... if he hadn't smashed his car into jagged rocks in the ocean) he would be bald and fat and divorced. That's how they would probably write his character if they remade this movie today. They also probably wouldn't have John die at the end. No teen movie, which is what this one felt like, could have the main character get shot at the end like that. Nope, not after the 1980s.
I didn't really buy that James Dean was supposed to be a high schooler. He looked just a tad too old. But I didn't really mind it after the movie really got going.
Jim Stark? Nice name. Tony would be proud.
Something I really like about this movies, and all of the other movies like it that I've been watching recently, is that they still seem to have their innocence. they are directed at an audience that will suspend their disbelief and just go where the movie takes them. The type of audience that this movie was made for doesn't need big explosions and the f-word being thrown around all over the place. They don't need to be shocked by a joke about crabs when the planetarium starts talking about a crab constellation. We see John crossing his fingers when Jim and Buzz start their chicken race. It just seems sweeter, nicer. They are easier to watch. They leave me wanting more.
Anyway, I feel a little rusty at this since its been a few months since my last entry. I hope things will get better as time goes on. I loved Rebel Without a Cause. I could and would watch it again and again.
Next up, All About Eve. Its a movie I'd never heard of before, but it was really good. Get ready.
You know, I'll never really understand that song. However, I do understand why everyone thought James Dean was a knockout.
I'm not really sure where to begin with this movie. I really, really loved it, but that's not enough to say is it?
From the opening credits (which, by the way, I kind of like that older movies do all of the credits like that at the beginning. It makes people pay attention. In modern movies, I am always looking elsewhere when the opening credits are playing.) I immediately was drawn in. He just lies down on the ground next to one of those monkeys playing the cymbals. The big tough guy having a sensitive moment.
I really have to say that it seems like all of these actors and actresses that star in these classic movies seem to just be all around talented. I'm sure I'm idealizing them a bit... but I don't think James Dean had to get all buffed up for this movie that I a lot of actors do. I think he probably just was like that. Or at least he worked on it so that he could be like that on a daily basis. Actors back then had to have the total package: sing, dance, act, etc. Its kind of disappointing to see today's actors just kinda... not being lazy... but not exactly up to the same standards as they used to.
I noticed a lot in Rebel Without a Cause, as I do with a lot of these older movies, that a lot of the scenes seem hokey and fake. I get a little turned off towards them. But then, there are these moments, like when Jim is screaming at his father to stand up for him to his mother. Or when Jim overhears those guys from school saying they want to bring him down, it all just comes to life. What I love about those moments is that I'm even more engaged, even more amazed, than in a current movie that is just trying to shock me. I'm yanked out of my seat and pulled into the emotional realm of the picture. It is absolutely beautiful.
I totally did not see it coming when Buzz's car goes careening of the edge of the cliff during the chickie race (or whatever they called it). I was absolutely shocked when he gets his sleeve caught. I actually felt bad for him. Up until that point I didn't like him because he just seemed to pick out Jim to torment for no reason. Not very many of his friends seemed to be that upset about him dying though. There was one guy that got kind of emotional, but other than that, all of the other guys just didn't want to get caught. Even Judy, who I assume was his girlfriend, moves on to someone else in. the. same. night. You can blame it on the grieving process, but I was just wanting a little bit more of an emotional reaction.
"I wanna do something right!"
I was also surprised by how much this movie was about parents and their relationships with their kids. All of the main characters in this movie are either kids that were screwed up by their parents, or parents that don't know how to handle their kids. It was amazing how it all fit together. Judy was looking for a strong man that could be sensitive (like Jim) because her father abuses her. John was looking for some nice parents that would stick around (like Jim and Judy) because both of his parents left him. And Jim was trying to be the strong, sensitive, manly man that his father couldn't be. Jim coming to town seemed to momentarily solve everyone's problems, and for a moment, in the mansion, when Judy and Jim were acting like parents for John (what's with all the J names you ask? I have no idea...) everything was okay. But it wasn't really okay. Jim and Judy couldn't be John's parents. They both needed parents of their own. John needed more help that Jim could give him. When John dies, Jim is the one that needs the support, and his father finally stands up and is the man that Jim needs for him to be.
The whole final thirty minutes of the movie were so powerful. John is crying, holding a gun, and crying "help me!" because he thinks no one loves him. And then once the cops show up, Jim tries so hard to coax John out of the planetarium and into the custody of people that will take care of him, but only to have John freak out and get shot by the police. Then its Jim's turn to break down. He tries to laugh (like he always does, which I think is a nice choice for his character), but he just breaks down crying again. His father has to lift him up off the ground. It's so hard to see Jim, the guy that everyone sees as tough, being cradled by his father. Sublime.
They never resolved Judy's story though. I guess Jim was just going to be looking out for her now on.
I LOVED the camera angles in this movie. In the first few scenes in the police station when we can see Jim through the window when Judy and John are being interviewed for their individual petty crimes. Also, there was another shot when Jim's mother is coming down the stairs. Jim is lying on the couch, so he sees her upside down, but then the camera stays on her and rotates right side up. It almost made me sick to look at, but it was still fun to watch.
The usage of red in this movie is phenomenal. It seemed like whenever the story was changing hands, the new lead character would wear red, from Judy in her red coat with red lipstick in the beginning, to Jim in his red jacket, to finally John with his one red sock and Jim's red jacket. The red punches through the screen, makes you focus.
There were only a few tiny things that I really didn't like about this movie. Like... that John SHOT some PUPPIES? Yeah... the cop at the beginning of the movie asks him why he SHOT PUPPIES? Really? Who would or could shoot a puppy?
I also have a hard time believing that those guys could be so mean to him without even knowing him at all. They slash his tire and then ask him to get into a knife fight? What did Jim do? Its his first day of school. It just seemed a little bit outrageous to me...
Let's see... little things I did like...
I LOVED when Jim came in and was literally chugging the milk and then rubs the cool jug on his face.
I also like how Jim treats Judy. I didn't like Judy too much until about the last third of the movie, but after Buzz dies and Jim takes Judy home, and he grabs her by the scarf and says "You'll be alright?" and then he winks at her? I think writers should write more guys like that in movies. But then again, who would play them?
Buzz Gunderson. That was the bully's name. The guy that drives off a cliff. He totally sounds like the type of character that about 10 years after high school (you know... if he hadn't smashed his car into jagged rocks in the ocean) he would be bald and fat and divorced. That's how they would probably write his character if they remade this movie today. They also probably wouldn't have John die at the end. No teen movie, which is what this one felt like, could have the main character get shot at the end like that. Nope, not after the 1980s.
I didn't really buy that James Dean was supposed to be a high schooler. He looked just a tad too old. But I didn't really mind it after the movie really got going.
Jim Stark? Nice name. Tony would be proud.
Something I really like about this movies, and all of the other movies like it that I've been watching recently, is that they still seem to have their innocence. they are directed at an audience that will suspend their disbelief and just go where the movie takes them. The type of audience that this movie was made for doesn't need big explosions and the f-word being thrown around all over the place. They don't need to be shocked by a joke about crabs when the planetarium starts talking about a crab constellation. We see John crossing his fingers when Jim and Buzz start their chicken race. It just seems sweeter, nicer. They are easier to watch. They leave me wanting more.
Anyway, I feel a little rusty at this since its been a few months since my last entry. I hope things will get better as time goes on. I loved Rebel Without a Cause. I could and would watch it again and again.
Next up, All About Eve. Its a movie I'd never heard of before, but it was really good. Get ready.
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