The Chris Moeller Archives

The 50 Great American Movies 42-45

The next four films in the CM Top 50, alphabetically, from S to T...


STAR WARS directed by George Lucas (1977)

My brother and I own more than 50 Star Wars "Action Figures." In storage in Iowa City, there are also various fighter planes, a Millenium Falcon (that has seen better days,) a Jabba the Hut figure and platform, and an Ewok village. If you also have Star Wars collectibles, here's a tip. You can re-create the scene in Chapter 5 ("The Empire Strikes Back") in which Luke Skywalker has his energy replenished (or whatever) after being rescued on the frozen planet of Hoth. All you need to do is fill a glass of water and plop in your Luke figure. He's going to want to float, but you can overcome the deficit in water density if you use a small enough glass.
If you have a dining room table, it makes a killer Death Star. It's elevated and has the commanding presence over your home/galaxy that a Death Star should have. You'll probably want to combine the Empire figures with Jabba the Hut's crazy bounty hunter colleagues. The Rebel forces need to be outnumbered to make the story realistic, and unless you've got, like, dozens of stormtroopers, that's not going to be the case. You're not going to want to detonate your dining room table, put you can simulate destruction by taking out the leaves. The Rebels can set up camp in the Ewok village. Put it next to some potted plants to give it that "forest-y" feel. And for God's sake, put the Rebels in a different room than the Death Star. What's the point of having starships if you're not going to use them?


STRANGERS ON A TRAIN directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1951)

Hitchcock loved the idea of a person being falsely accused of murder. It's a thread that runs through his films. The best hook he ever worked with was from the novel "Strangers On a Train," by Patricia Highsmith. Creepy "Bruno," played by Robert Walker, has an idea to help him get away with murder. Find a stranger and swap killings, eliminating the motive in both cases. This plan only pre-supposes that the other person wants somebody dead. The other person in Bruno's case is tennis star Guy (specifically named), angry with his cheating wife, but more bemused than appalled when Bruno offers to "crisscross" murders. Soon, however, his wife is found strangled, and Bruno shows up looking to collect on the debt he feels he's owed-- he wants "Daddy" dead.
Seven years ago, Anthony Minghella made a brilliant movie called "The Talented Mr. Ripley" that owes much to the sinister plot and homoerotic underpinnings of "Strangers On a Train." Hitchcock films all have the rich layers, suspense, and ingenuity that make today's directors want to test their mettle, one going so far as to re-create one shot-for-shot.
The money scene in "Strangers" is at the tennis match. In the grandstand, all eyes are on the ball- back and forth across the court... back and forth, except for the beady eyes of one man focused on his obsession.


SUNSET BOULEVARD directed by Billy Wilder (1951)

Billy Wilder was the greatest writer and director of black comedy. In "Sunset Boulevard," he and co-writer Charles Brackett torched their own industry by revealing unto all the way it swallows its elders. On opening night- the legend goes- MGM head Louis B. Mayer screamed at Wilder in the lobby of the theater, "You bastard! You've disgraced the industry that has clothed and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!" By alternate accounts, Wilder chimed back with either, "Fuck you," or "Go shit in your hat."
The leading role of Norma Desmond, a washed-up former star of silent pictures, was coveted by almost every actress over 40 at the time. It wound up going to Gloria Swanson, who was, herself, such a washed-up star. Her former director in the silent "Queen Kelly," Erich von Stroheim, was cast as a butler who was once, indeed, her former director. In one scene, former silent actors, including Buster Keaton, caricature themselves as the members of Norma's bridge club.
Perhaps evidence that "Sunset Boulevard" is the darkest of Wilder's dark pictures, it begins with a low angle shot of a dead man floating in a swimming pool and a voice-over by the corpse. It ends with a psychotic woman being taken into police custody for murder, mistaking her "scene" before the newsreel cameras for her big screen comeback.
Moviegoers, "all those wonderful people out there in the dark," loved the picture. What might have been a cruel mirror for the industry was a biting and clever microscope for audiences. "Sunset" was rewarded with 11 Oscar nominations, and three wins, including one for what could now be judged fairly as the greatest script in movie history, i.e.:

Joe Gillis (William Holden): You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures- you used to be big.
Norma: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Joe: Uh-huh. I knew there was something wrong with them.


TAXI DRIVER directed by Martin Scorsese (1976)

Travis Bickle tells us more about America than we wish he did. Scorcese's New York City cab driver, portrayed by Robert DeNiro, is violent, lonely, depressed, disaffected, and increasingly detached. He can crystallize in his mind what's wrong with the world, but has an overinflated sense of himself in it. He's repulsed by the defiled culture surrounding him, but equally fascinated by it. He's easily infatuated, but has too little understanding of his fellow human beings to forge a relationship.
DeNiro's reputation for his work in "Taxi Driver" is well-deserved and must be seen to be believed. He builds the portrayal at a calculated pace to its inevitable nightmare climax. Scorsese's work, as always, is impulsive and vibrant. He has made a pure "horror" film that teaches us the dangers of the conservatives' pledge to clean up the country's morality. The ending suggests, not that "cowboy" heroes are out there waiting to rescue us from corruption, but that our disaffected have been too casually tossed aside. The most frightening monster still lurks in the rear-view mirror.


Previous CM Top 50 Film reviews were posted on Dec. 18, 23, 30, Jan. 9, 16, 23, Feb. 1, 5, and 12.

posted by CM @ 10:24 PM