AFI 100: #78 - Modern Times

I admit I was pretty trepidatious about watching Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times."  In my AFI 100 journey, I had yet to watch a old silent film.  The natural worries about 2013 attention spans and differences in humor were definitely creeping up.  I was concerned that the movie might appear boring and very alien to my tastes.

All those fears were allayed when I started the movie.  In my first viewing of Chaplin and his classic Little Tramp character, I was immediately entertained and charmed.  It turns out that Chaplin is a comedic genius whose work absolutely stands the test of time.  I found his brand of frenetic physical comedy hilarious.  The action and the jokes were enough to make up for the lack of dialogue.

This 1936 release is an interesting movie.  It's the last appearance of Chaplin's famous Little Tramp character and the last of his silent films.  By the time this film was made, "Talking" movies had been the norm for almost a decade starting with "The Jazz Singer."  So Chaplin was going against the grain by releasing a "mostly" silent film.  Although this movie contains songs, sound effects, and some sparse spoken dialogue, Chaplin was adamant that the Little Tramp did not speak.  He didn't want to destroy the mystique of the character by having him suddenly talk.  He only cheats a little when the Tramp sings a funny song of foreign worded gibberish toward the conclusion of the film.

The movie is also notable for its content.  Inspired by the setting of economic depression and struggle, Chaplin made a movie about the common man's plight during this time.  He showed how hard it was to find work, a decent home, and something to eat.  He showed a restless people who couldn't comprehend why they didn't have much while successful business people seemed unaffected.  In this regard, the film takes a very populist theme which borders on support of socialist/communist themes.  Later Chaplin himself would be targeted as a communist supporter just as his Little Tramp was mistaken as a communist labor leader in the film.

The other theme in the movie refers back to the title.  The tramp opens the movie working in a steel factory.  He works furiously on an assembly line which no doubt inspired the famous "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory episode.  He rides along and plays with artifacts of that accelerating industry age such as massive gears, switches, and levers.  A laughable moment occurs when the president of the company demonstrates an automated lunch feeder on the Tramp for efficiency sake.  Times are definitely changing, especially the advent of technology.  In a way, the film parallels the Tramp's decline with the arrival of "Talking" film technology.  There is a sad nostalgia for those glory days and an understanding that the old must ultimately give way to the new.

Ultimately, the charm, humor, and feeling carry this movie.  It's these core components that make it surprisingly fresh and timeless.  Chaplin would have been proud of his movie today because it showed those things he held very dear still matter, even in the face of the endless march of "modern" advances.


Rating: **** - Good

Highly recommended viewing.
Note: This movie is better than 2011's "The Artist", a throwback to the silent era.  "The Artist" was a good movie, but it can't capture the spirit of the originals.

AFI 100: #65 - The African Queen

Katherine Hepburn plays an English Missionary in the middle of Africa.  She is stationed there spreading the word of Christianity to a village of natives.  When her village is decimated by World War I German soldiers looking for conscripts and supplies, she joins up with Humphrey Bogart's disheveled steamboat captain, Mr. Allnut.  Bogart just wants to hide and stay out of sight until the war blows over.  The war is no concern of his and the smart money is on steering clear of trouble.  Hepburn has other ideas.  She clings to an improbable scheme meant to hit the Germans where it hurts for jolly England.  She drags a reluctant Bogart into a perilous river journey whose trials and tribulations neither could have imagined.

This movie is beautifully filmed.  Some of it was filmed on location in Africa.  The story moves along at a brisk pace.  I don't feel there are a lot of wasted scenes.  It's always nice to have a movie at or under the standard two hour running time.  Bogart and Katherine Hepburn are fantastic actors.  They have good chemistry in the adversarial relationship that later blossoms into love (think Han Solo and Princess Leia).  I also liked the pace at which their relationship developed.  I didn't feel like it was forced or rushed.

The bad thing about the movie is that it can be a bit dull at times.  It moves along like a play in one setting (the steamboat) just like Hitchcock's famous experiments with "Rear Window" and "Rope."  Also I am not sure I buy Bogart's motivation to take the river journey to blow up the German warship.  I understand that at first he just wants to humor Hepburn's character and show her how hard it will be to embark on the trip, but I am not sure his character would truly be convinced to carry on.

Overall, a good movie with two great acting legends and a good director in John Huston.  However, among the other greats in the AFI 100, I find it pretty ordinary.

Rating: *** - Average

AFI 100: #80 - The Apartment

Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a low level corporate shrill in NYC.  Baxter works as an insurance clerk for a large company headquartered in downtown.  He's just a young kid trying to climb the corporate ladder through long hours and dedication, or so we think.  We find out Baxter has a fairly nice apartment across the street from Central Park, but he often doesn't go directly home after work.  It's not because of his dedication, but because of a strange arrangement he has made with his office superiors.  Baxter has agreed to lend out his apartment on various weekday nights as a secret home base to four different executives in the company so they can have secret liaisons with their young mistresses.

We see how much trouble this causes Baxter.  In one scene, he gets sick from sleeping out in the winter air of NYC when one of the bosses is using the apartment a little later than usual.  Then the next day when Baxter just wants to go home and recover from sickness the rest of the night, he has to work like crazy to rearrange the bosses' scheduled visits.  We see that the bosses themselves don't seem to care that Baxter's health, but rather only about their own affairs.

Besides work, Baxter also has a crush on a cute and sharp tongued elevator girl within his building.  The girl, Miss Kubelik, is played by Shirley MacLaine.

Eventually Baxter's generosity to his bosses pays off with four great recommendations from them to the director of HR.  There, the HR director, Mr. Sheldrake, played by Fred MacMurray, promotes Baxter to an office position.  However, he clever deducts why Baxter is so popular and asks to borrow the apartment himself.  The rub comes when we ironically discover that Sheldrake is using Baxter's apartment to romance Miss Kubelik.

Hijinks ensue as we see the true nature of adulterous relationships and when Baxter is ambushed by a tough situation.  Eventually Baxter has to make a decision.  What does he want more? Advancing his career or the girl of his dreams.

"The Apartment" is a good movie.  It's an interesting look into 1950s/1960s life in NYC a la AMC's "Mad Men."  Jack Lemmon does a great job portraying Baxter who is a nice, enthusiastic guy trying to find his way in the world.  Unfortunately, Baxter is too eager to please and often finds people taking advantage of his generosity and convenience.  It's gratifying to watch the film as he realizes high company positions may not be worth the price of being a pushover and losing out on what he really wants.  The movie can sometimes be sad and serious with its subject matter.  One example of this is seeing Baxter as an isolated bachelor engrossed in his work.  However, I never felt the movie's lighter mood was ever compromised.

I think ultimately people are drawn to the movie because they relate to Jack Lemmon's character.  Most of us have been in his shoes as a young professional sometimes feeling lonely and bored.

Movie Rating: *** - Average

AFI 100: #93 - The French Connection

To be honest, I have wanted to view this film for a very long time.  I was always attracted to the mystery and the thrill it seemed to promise.  It's definitely a movie people such as my dad remember and note as a good movie.

The movie stars Gene Hackman (Hoosiers, numerous other movies) and Roy Scheider (most notably Jaws) as two cops in NYC working the narcotics beat in the 1970s.  Hackman is tough guy cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a reckless man who doesn't care much for doing things by the book and is relentless in his quest to bust more junkies.  Schneider plays his more reasonable partner Buddy "Cloudy" Russo.  Together they shake down low level junkies in bars hoping to get the glory of the big bust.

As the cops are cleaning up the city, they happen upon a low level criminal who seems to be involved in a large international drug deal with a French heroin magnate.  The rest of the movie chronicles the cat and mouse game as the cops shadow, stake out, wire tap the involved parties as the "bad guys" try to close the lucrative deal in NYC.

The movie shows 1970's NYC as a gritty, dirty place with subdued colors.  Along the course of the film, we begin to discover that the character of the cops matches that setting.  Doyle is relentless in his quest to bust more criminals through any means possible.  He is shown senselessly beating perpetrators during arrests and interrogations, pushing for wiretaps, shooting adversaries in the back, and being utterly destructive in the famous car chase scene.  The things he does makes civil liberties attorneys drool with anticipation.  Even his colleagues seem to think his results lack true impact and cause all kinds of collateral damage.  He is a despicable character to say the least.  In contrast, the French drug lord is suave, urbane, and sophisticated.  He is very well dressed, cultured, and surprisingly well behaved.  Therein lies the rub of the movie: Who are the good guys?  Who the bad guys? And more importantly who do you want to win in this battle of wits?

The question presented to us as viewers is that old Machiavellian one of "Do the ends justify the means?"  Can we do immoral things to punish and eliminate immoral people and activities (think US Patriot Act)?  Perhaps the most shocking question posed is "How do you feel when you pull out all the stops (thus comprising yourself), but you still come up short?"

The French Connection is a sometimes thrilling look at the world of cops and criminals.  The setting and characters are done well.  However, I was really disappointed overall with the movie.  The movie was sometimes very slow with all the stake outs and shadowing going on.  Also I was not pleased with the ending because I felt it was very abrupt and incomplete.  I don't think it's worthy of being on the AFI 100 list.

Movie Rating: ** -Bad