What I’ve Caught Up With, November 2024 Part 1:
Film: A Night to Remember (1958)
There are plenty of films about Titanic, not the least of which is the Oscar-winning film from 1997. A Night to Remember does away with things like characters and plot for the most part and sets us up for the thing we’re here to watch—the sinking of the great ship. Seen in large part through the eyes of second officer Charles Lightroller (Kenneth More), we get the launch, an introduction to a few characters, and then the sinking. About 90 minutes of the two-hour movie is the ship going to the bottom, and while the effects aren’t those from 1997, it’s pretty great. On a related note, the real Charles Lightroller is the reason for a lot of the safety improvements on ships—he was a genuine hero.
Film: Coherence (2013)
A group of eight friends meet for dinner on the night that a comet is passing close to the Earth. What follows are a series of strange events and occurrences. Looking for answers, a few of them wander out of the house and discover an identical house set up for eight people down the road. As the night continues, more and more anomalies crop up and it becomes evident that the passing comet has caused a sort of meeting of multiple realities, and leaving one house brings about the possibility of arriving in a completely different version of the same house with different versions of the same people. It’s a clever film; it’s a time travel paradox without the time travel, but the camerawork is nausea-inducing.
When We Were Kings (1996)
When I was a kid, boxing was still a major sport. Today, I don’t really know anyone who pays attention to boxing, but in the early ‘70s, it was a sport everyone knew, and everyone knew the major fighters. In 1974, Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman in Zaire in a fight dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle.” When We Were Kings is a memoir about that fight and everything leading up to it. It’s a fascinating slice of history. Ali was very much distrusted in the U.S. still at this time but his stand against the Vietnam War made him a folk hero in much of Africa. I vaguely remember the fight, and I certainly didn’t know about the huge music festival that accompanied the Rumble. This is also the fight that gave us the rope-a-dope technique.
Film: Black Dynamite (2009)
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka is a self-aware blaxploitation parody. If it were a little less self-aware on its surface (but as self-aware in reality) and was designed to look like it was from the ‘70s, you’d get Black Dynamite. It’s a movie that feels like it could have been made in 1972 by an incompetent director and team; it’s just earnest enough-seeming that you can almost believe it. Fortunately, there are enough winks to the camera for us to remember this really isn’t serious—likes like “I used to be an orphan!” or “Donuts don’t wear alligator shoes” are just stupid enough to not be real but seem like they could be and just dumb enough to be really funny. If Shaft in Africa is in your wheelhouse, this is one you should watch.
Film: Rocky II (1979)
Sylvester Stallone made a couple of lackluster choices (F.I.S.T. and Paradise Alley) after the massive success of Rocky, and he needed another hit. Rocky II was a risk, but it’s a risk that paid off, mainly because it follows the path of the previous film. Rocky Balboa (Stallone) wins a moral victory in the first film but can’t make life work outside the ring. Meanwhile, heavyweight champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) can’t shake the fact that he only won in a split decision against Balboa, who was perceived to be a punch-drunk bum. Eventually, they’re going to have to get back in the ring, but we deal with Rocky’s marriage to Adrian (Talia Shire), the relationship with her brother Paulie (Burt Young), and the strained dealings with Rocky’s trainer Mick (Burgess Meredith). This is long before the series spirals into stupidity, and while it’s not the original film, it builds on the story about as well as could be expected.
Film: Journey’s End (1930)
There are plenty of American movies about World War II, but not a ton about the Great War, probably because we were involved in it for such a short time, relatively speaking. Other countries are much more prone to making films about World War I, and Journey’s End is a clear example of this. A man three years at the front (Colin Clive) has become addicted to whiskey to survive the conflict. A young man (David Manners) joins his outfit in 1918. As it happens, our newcomer once hero-worshipped the veteran at school, and our veteran is betrothed to the new guy’s sister and is terribly distressed that his alcoholism will be revealed. It’s an odd moral quandary we’re presented with in the middle of a terrible conflict. It feels a bit amateur, and neither Clive nor Manners can pass for the young 20-something men they’re supposed to be.
Film: The Lusty Men (1952)
I’m not a huge fan of the concept of rodeo, but I have to admit that it makes for a compelling topic for a movie. The Lusty Men concerns competitor Jeff McCloud (a perfectly-cast Robert Mitchum) who has taken one knock too many. Looking for something new, he hooks up with Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Louise (Susan Hayward). The Merritts want to buy a ranch, but on Wes’s salary, it’s going to take years. Seeing a potential shortcut, Wes quits ranch handing to go on the rodeo circuit, and while he has a lot of success, he also gets used to the big life and spending the big money. Arthur Kennedy feels a bit miscast, but both Mitchum and Hayward are pitch-perfect and make the whole thing work. An added bonus is Arthur Hunnicutt as a washed-up rider in a role that seems like it could have been made for Walter Brennan.
Film: Rocky III (1982)
My descent into the Rocky-verse continues with Rocky III, the first significant drop in quality in the Rocky films. While nowhere near the bottom of the barrel, Rocky III is a step down because it subverts the things that the franchise did best. The first film went against expectations with the ending and the second might have been more expected, but it continued to focus on the drama of the lives of the characters. With the third film, the franchise moves into focusing on the boxing, and the boxing in these films was never that good. The problem is that this dipped heavily into formula, and the first two films in the franchise went out of their way to challenge formula. It’s disappointing, but at least still watchable. Seriously, does no one know how to put their gloves up?