Saving Mr. Disney

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney

Emma Thompson seems to be getting all the attention for her performance as P. L. Travers, the persnickety author of Mary Poppins, in Saving Mr. Banks, about Walt Disney's decades-long attempt to adapt her book to the screen. Thompson has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance and will probably get an Oscar nod, and rightly so. Pretty much anything she does is Oscar-worthy. However, I was excited to see the movie mostly because of the idea of Tom Hanks portraying Walt Disney. The casting seemed so natural. Hanks is almost the same age Disney was in 1961 and looks a little like the filmmaker. But it's more than that. Both men have a level of intelligence and whimsy that transcends their immense popularity.

Hanks has received no nominations for his performance as Walt Disney and probably won't. He gave a bravura performance as the title character in Captain Phillips, and that movie will generate most of the accolades he will receive for 2013. However, I love watching Tom Hanks bring Walt Disney to life. If you're a fan of Disney movies and Disney theme parks, like me, Walt is bigger than life. Seeing him as a real man, troubled by a difficult woman who unlike everyone else around him won't give in to his overwhelming desire to have his way, provides a clearer image of the master storyteller.

I'm also glad to see the very brief scene where Travers (excuse me, Mrs. Travers) catches him putting out a cigarette. Hanks fought to keep the scene in the picture. The Disney company has a general ban on showing smoking in its pictures, so instead we see Walt stubbing out an apparently unlit cigarette. It made me wince when I saw it, knowing that Disney died from complications associated with lung cancer. Walt himself avoided letting the public, especially children, see him smoking so it seems appropriate that the scene would only briefly allude to it, but it adds another level of verisimilitude to the portrayal. 

Hanks' Disney feels authentic to me. Apparently, others agree. During a panel discussion about the movie at a Disney fan club meeting, former imagineers that worked with Walt said that the movie touched them with its portrayal of their boss. I think it will touch you, too. (3 fries)

Twist Endings and/or Bad Writing

I recently watched a movie called The Ward (2010), directed by John Carpenter of Halloween fame. The story focuses on a young woman who is committed to a psych ward after she burns down a house. The ward is populated by a bunch of young women, most of whom seem unlikely candidates for commitment to a mental institution, even in 1966. The ward is haunted by the "ghost" of a former inmate who seems determined to murder the rest of the young women. Not a bad idea for a film, but as I watched I kept thinking that the plot was stretching my usually pliable suspension of disbelief out of proportion. Thankfully, I made it to the end of the movie where I found out that [[SPOILER ALERT]] the whole thing was a psychotic episode. The main character suffered from dissociative identity disorder (what they used to call multiple personality) and that the other young women (including the ghostly figure haunting the place) were just other personalities she had created to deal with a traumatic experience. While this gimmick saved the movie from being a complete waste of time, I can only give it 2 out of 4 Fries. Even with this revelation, the movie still felt overly contrived and underwhelming.

I've found myself on at least two other occasions thinking that a movie was badly written, only to have that opinion overturned with the revelation of a twist ending. One was The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan's masterpiece (perhaps his only one) from 1999. As I watched this movie, I remember thinking that I could not believe that the wife presented to us in the first few minutes of this film would have such a total rejection of her husband Malcolm (Bruce Willis) after he experienced such a tragic attack by one of his former patients. I was ready to write off the whole thing as bad writing [[SPOILER ALERTS continue]] until the ring rolled across the floor and we all realized that Malcolm is a ghost and his wife is ignoring him because she can't see him. I then went back through the whole film and realized that everything I saw as a plot hole made perfect sense within that context. I think that's good writing. (4 out of 4 Fries)

I had the same experience a few years later watching the movie Identity (2003). A bunch of strangers end up stranded at a motel in the desert while an insane killer takes them out one by one. The characters are poorly sketched and two-dimensional, and I found myself again thinking, "What bad writing!" Then we discover [[Final SPOILER ALERT]] that as in The Ward, the characters are constructs of a dissociative mind. The whole story is taking place in the mind of the criminal as a way of dealing with his mental instability. While I did not find The Ward to be satisfying, Identity was quite pleasing, after the revelation. (3 out of 4 Fries)

I guess the moral of the story is that if you're watching a movie, and you think, "Boy, this is a poorly written screenplay," give it some time. Maybe a twist ending will save it in the end. Of course, there's always a chance you may have wasted a whole two hours of your life, rather than just 45 minutes.

Monsters are Alive and Well..

...and coming to a movie theater near you! Our Home Fry-ed Movie for August/September is The Killer Shrews, a silly, little creature feature from 1959. Monster movies were in abundance in the 1950s and 60s -- deadly creatures from outer space, atomic mutations, ancient monsters awakened from their graves. Monsters are still popular in the movies, only they are embedded in much more complex storylines than the movie monsters of the past.

Let's look at some of the "monster" movies from 2012:

There are monsters in Prometheus, although they're really just new species the scientists discover as they explore a distant planet. The movie works primarily as a sci fi action thriller, with some scares along the way. 

The main character in Chronicle eventually becomes a "monster," but not until the end of the movie. For most of the film, he's just an angst-ridden teenager with a crummy dad, a sick mom, low self-esteem and some special powers. (Okay, an angst-ridden teenager does sound scary, no matter what the circumstances are.) 

The Cabin in the Woods is chocked-full of monsters of all kinds, but its unique structure, starting out as a stereotypical slasher film, mixing in some Lovecraft and some science fiction, and ultimately becoming a parody of itself, makes the movie difficult to classify.

Perhaps the best monsters of this year weren't monsters at all, but the pack of wolves that chase Liam Neeson and his companions through the icy north in The Grey.

Monsters? They're everywhere, with no sign of disappearing. (Unless, of course, they're invisible, i.e., Predators.) 

Taking a Drive on the Film Noir Highway

January's Home Fry-ed Movie is Detour (1945), and even though it's a low budget film with some actors you've probably never heard of and some continuity problems, it's still considered one of the best examples of that style of Hollywood movies from the 1940s and 50s known as film noir. Film noir is distinguished by its use of low-key lighting, shadowy backgrounds, and distorted angles. The movies are dark in appearance (as implied by the word "noir," French for black), as are the stories. The characters are often morally compromised, with a male lead that's right on the edge of doing something wrong, and a female character (the "femme fatale") who's there to push him over the edge.

To understand what film noir is, you just need to watch a few. In addition to Detour, there's also D.O.A. (1950), another Home Fry-ed Movie. This one is about a man that's been poisoned. He has only a few hours to live and spends the time trying find out who his murderer is.

Here's some required viewing when it comes to film noirs (or is it films noir?):

Double Indemnity (1944) - Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) plans to murder the husband of his lover Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) and collect the insurance money, but can he really trust her?

Laura (1944) - A police detective investigating the murder of a beautiful actress falls in love with her portrait.

The Big Sleep (1946) - Detective Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into a complex scandal. At least Vivian (Lauren Bacall) is there to make it seem worthwhile.

Out of the Past (1947) - Unable to escape his past, a former private detective must face the rich man who hired him to find his runaway girl years earlier.

Sunset Blvd. (1950) - On the run from creditors, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter takes refuge in the mansion of a washed-up silent movie star, who wants him all to herself.

There are dozens more but those are just some of my favorites.

Heroes, Villains and Society

The Home Fry-ed Movie for July/August 2011 is Angel and the Badman starring John Wayne, rather unconventional western from 1947. The western is Hollywood's most venerable genre, and even though we don't see many of them being made today, the characters and themes developed in the Hollywood western show up in today's action, crime and science fiction films.

During the show I present a pared-down version of Will Wright's classical western plot from his book Six Guns and Society. I thought this might be a good place to give you the whole structure as Wright presented it. First of all, you need to know that classic westerns were all about the interaction between the hero, the villains and society.

(1) The hero enters a social group.
(2) The hero is unknown to the society.
(3) The hero is revealed to have an exceptional ability.
(4) The society recognizes a difference between themselves and the hero; the hero is given a special status.
(5) The society does not completely accept the hero.
(6) There is a conflict of interests between the villains and the society.
(7) The villains are stronger than the society; the society is weak.
(8) There is a strong friendship or respect between the hero and a villain.
(9) The villains threaten the society.
(10) The hero avoids involvement in the conflict.
(11) The villains endanger a friend of the hero.
(12) The hero fights the villains.
(13) The hero defeats the villains.
(14) The society is safe.
(15) The society accepts the hero.
(16) The hero loses or gives up his special status.

The movie that most closely follows Wright's classical plot is Shane, although Shane rides away in the end, bleeding and half-dead, rather than lose his special status.

Other plots described by Wright include these:

The vengeance variation -- The hero is a member of society, but he has harm done to him by the villains, so must go outside society to defeat the villains. (Stagecoach is an example.)

The professional plot -- A group of heroes work together as professionals to defeat the villains. (Rio Bravo)

The transition theme -- Society becomes the ultimate villain to the hero. (High Noon)

To demonstrate how these plots linger in modern movies, think about The Matrix in terms of the classical plot, in which Neo is the hero, Morpheus and his rebels are society and the Agents are the villains. For the vengeance variation, what about Spider-Man, and the professional plot, The X-Men?

Westerns endure!

No "Love" at the Oscars

The Academy Awards came and went this year, and one of my favorite films of 2010, True Grit, got no love at the Oscars, despite receiving 10 nominations! While The King's Speech won best picture, it tied with Inception for the most number of wins--four. (All of the wins for Inception were much deserved technical awards.) Otherwise, the winners were evenly distributed--The Social Network won three awards, while The Fighter, Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland each won two. Black Swan received one win, as did The Wolfman (for make-up, which was the only thing in that movie that was worth even mentioning). Despite all that sharing of Oscar gold, Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Arkansan Charles Portis' beloved novel didn't make the cut.

Our Home Fry-ed Movie for March also got no love on Oscar night, even though it received six nominations including best picture. Love Affair, directed by Leo McCarey and starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, didn't have a chance. It was bested in four of its nominated categories by Gone With the Wind, that went on to receive a record-setting ten Academy Awards. In the other two categories, it was beat out by Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Wizard of Oz. If you're going to get beaten, this is good company!

Like True Grit, 1939's Love Affair is a great movie and well worth seeing, even though both got the snub on Oscar night. The first showings of Love Affair are Friday, March 25 at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 26 at midnight and Sunday, March 27 at 11 a.m. on UALR University Television (Channel 61 on Little Rock Comcast and 99 on U-Verse). You can also catch it at various times in April.

And Then There Was... The Devil?

I recently watched the 2010 movie Devil, produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It's the first film in a trilogy he's producing based on some "Twilight Zone" type stories that he comes up with and then passes on to other writers and directors to complete. I was interested to find out that part of Night's inspiration for Devil came from Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which was adapted to the screen in 1945 and featured on Home Fry-ed Movies in February.

Devil is about five people that get trapped on an elevator in a high-rise office building. One by one, they get murdered, and we discover that one of them may be the devil in disguise. As we get to know each of the characters, we discover that they all have some guilt from their past.

And Then There Were None was about 10 people trapped on an island, who get killed off one by one. Like the characters in Devil, they all have committed some crime (or at least look like they have), and one of them is the murderer (although he or she is probably not the devil).

Hollywood is heavily into recycling, especially when it comes to stories.