The Window (1949) August 19, 2006
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Entertaining noir produced by RKO. Bobby Driscoll borrowed from Walt Disney plays a boy who is always making up stories to the extent that when he witnesses a murder nobody the police, his parents will believe him. His mother even tells him to apologise to the couple he witnessed committing the murder alerting them to the fact that the boy knows something. Stupid woman and she’s not the only thick adult here. It can be slightly irritating that Bobby is only one who is right and there is no build up to believing him. It does keep the film very suspenseful and a tense finale when the boy is creeping gingerly along a beam which could fall at any time. The parents are played by Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale. The murderers are played by Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Taxi Driver (1976) August 3, 2006
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I generally like Scorsese’s work but I’m not a big fan of Taxi Driver (1976). It is a very well made movie with an excellent score and great mounting tension. The acting is also excellent particularly De Niro but my main problem with it is that there is little positive to hold onto here, it is unremittingly grim and depressing. The character of Travis Bickle is certainly very interesting but he also to me has no redeeming features. A lot of Scorsese movies feature environments/ characters we’d rather sweep under the carpet but I find myself drawn into their world, I can feel for the gangsters in Goodfellas (1990), I don’t feel any kinship with Travis Bickle. The cinematography too in the main pales next to Raging Bull (1980) though the shot of the blood soaked room near the end is great. I’m not squeamish about the violence, to the film’s credit it really makes it pretty obvious Travis is a psychopath, he’s an anti-hero, a guy on the edge he could be pushed over at any time. The other characters are also not heroes in any shape or form but I baulked a little at the end which seemed to glorify Travis’ killing spree that it had freed Jodie Foster from a life of vice, on the documentary on the DVD they say its a comment on the media, fair enough but I felt Travis deserved something to happen to him. It could be that this is real life, that this is the point, it is movie which defies convention with no real heroes or villains, the morals of it are very ambiguous, it certainly makes it interesting and exploration of people like this who do exist shouldn’t be censored but it is on the edge of glorifying violence though of course many worse films went far further. If you can take quite graphic violence one film you definitely have to see, it can be found very cheaply on DVD in the UK too, the documentary on the making of the film is worth it alone. So a very good film but not to me at least a great one.
Still worth (3 1/2 stars out of 5)
They Live by Night (1948) July 31, 2006
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Fascinating film noir here directed by Nicholas Ray who later did Rebel Without A Cause (1955). It stars Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell as a Bonnie and Clyde like couple though nowhere near as violent. In fact she isn’t involved in any of the rough stuff and he is coerced by two heavies one with one eye ! They believe he owes them for springing him from jail. Ironically Granger’s character is labelled the head of the group by the cops. It is the theme really new then of the young people who should have a great future in front them who can’t escape their past. You just know there will be no happy ending to this one. It is well done and really hooked me from the moment Granger and O’Donnell get together though the romance is rather muted perhaps in keeping with the atmsphere of doom. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)