Film: Casablanca

Rick: If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. Uploaded by img272.imageshack.us.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.”

It’s the movie that made Humphrey Bogart (Great American Things, August 11, 2009) a major star. It won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And it’s one of the most romantic movies of all time. Not happy romantic, like Sleepless in Seattle, but unrequited romantic.

“We’ll always have Paris.”

Uploaded to Flickr by movies&movies.

Ingrid Bergman was at the height of her beauty in this film, and her inability to commit to Bogart broke our hearts. Casablanca was released just a few weeks after war broke out in North Africa, as Churchill and Roosevelt were meeting in the city, making the setting all the more relevant to its audiences.

“Round up the usual suspects.”

As with most great movies, Casablanca had a terrific cast. Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson as Sam. Although the movie didn’t do overwhelming business at the box office, it was quickly recognized as the classic film that it has become.

“The fundamental things apply as time goes by.”

Casablanca was named #1 in the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Passions category, and #2 in “100 Years…100 Movies.” “As Time Goes By” was #2 in “100 Years…100 Songs”. Also, the movie had more entries in the “100 Years…100 Movie Quotes” countdown than any other film, topped by #5:

“Here’s looking at you, kid.”

Film: The Verdict

In my opinion, Paul Newman's best performance. Uploaded by kartiksingh.wordpress.com.

Movie fans, and Paul Newman fans in particular, can debate his most outstanding role. For me, it’s his portrayal of recovering alcoholic Frank Galvin in The Verdict.

I’d watch anything directed by Sidney Lumet, written by David Mamet, and starring Paul Newman. In The Verdict, they created a film that’s compelling as both a legal drama and as a character study.

Paul Newman as lawyer Frank Galvin. Uploaded by videodetective.com.

Galvin, a shell of a lawyer and man, is given a medical malpractice case by a former associate (Jack Warden) so he can settle and have money to sustain himself. But Galvin realizes that if he settles the case, he’s lost – so he takes the case to court.

The film has great supporting performances by Warden, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason, and Milo O’Shea. Newman, Mason, Lumet, and Mamet all received Academy Award nominations, and the movie was nominated for Best Picture. The video is of Galvin’s summation, and you realize he’s not just talking about his case, but about his life. Notice how Lumet has every spectator remain completely still so all the focus is on Newman.

Actor: Humphrey Bogart

Bogart and Bacall together. Uploaded by doctormacro1.info.

Humphrey Bogart had a decade of acting in Hollywood before he got his statuette. No, I don’t mean Oscar – I’m talking about the Maltese Falcon. After performing mostly supporting parts in 40 films over 11 years, Bogart’s true breakthrough role came in1941 after George Raft turned down the role of Sam Spade.

Then the following year – Casablanca. Movie magic. Bogart was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to some guy named Paul Lukas for a movie called Watch on the Rhine. Yeah, whatever. Still, Bogart was established as an A-list star, and the roles offered by the studio improved significantly.

Doesn't he make you want to wear a hat? Uploaded to Photobucket by PandaPaw08.

And you can’t remember Bogart without discussing Lauren Bacall. They met during the production of To Have and Have Not in 1944 when she was just 19 and he was a married man of 45. Their relationship grew during the making of their second film together, The Big Sleep. After his divorce, the couple was married in 1945 and remained in love until Bogart’s premature death from cancer at age 57.

If you enjoy old movies, you’ll recognize this roster of excellent films Bogie made. The Big Sleep…The Treasure of the Sierra Madre…Key Largo…The African Queen (for which he finally won that Oscar)…and my favorite, The Caine Mutiny. Bogart’s portrayal of Captain Queeg as a paranoid, unstable and unsympathetic man is one of the wonderful performances of any era.

Today’s video highlights the climactic scene in The Caine Mutiny when Bogart displays Queeg’s madness with exquisite subtlety:

Actress: Meryl Streep

She sings! She dances! She needs a Brinks truck for her salary! Uploaded by moviewallpaper.net.

There’s no question that Meryl Streep belongs on a short list of the greatest film actors of all time. And yet, she’s someone that people seem to admire more than love. She gets respect, not adulation. But I suspect she may be just fine with that.

She’s been nominated for a record 15 Academy Awards. If she appears in a film, odds are good the Academy will recognize the excellence of her performance. She’s won two: for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie’s Choice. She’s also been nominated for more Golden Globe awards than anyone else, a remarkable 23 nominations. She’s won a record-tying six (the above two films plus The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Adaptation, Angels in America, and The Devil Wears Prada).

Meryl Streep, uploaded by reelmovienews.com.

In 2008 she surprised me by taking the lead in the fluff musical Mamma Mia, but only because I didn’t know her background. Meryl had voice lessons at an early age, and considered being an opera singer. She became interested in acting while a student at Vassar, and enrolled in the Yale School of Drama after graduation. One of her classmates at Yale was Sigourney Weaver. Yeah, that was a pretty impressive class.

It will be a remarkable thing if Meryl ever gives another performance as emotionally powerful as Sophie Zawistowska in Sophie’s Choice. She employed a flawless Polish accent in that film, a talent which has become one of her trademarks. That role was ranked in 2006 by Premiere Magazine as number three on its list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

Here’s a delicious bit, with Meryl playing the evil boss so very well in The Devil Wears Prada:

Americana: 1969

Neil Armstrong on the moon. Uploaded by theunexplainedmysteries.com.

"By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong." Uploaded by screenhead.com.

It’s a Great American Things first – a year is recognized. Three events propelled this selection onto the list: The first man walks on the moon, Woodstock is the high point of the youth revolution, and I graduated from high school and started college. Okay, maybe just the first two.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” were the famous words spoken by Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the surface of the moon. He and Buzz Aldrin had taken the Eagle landing module down while Apollo 11 crew member Michael Collins continued to orbit above. The date was July 20, 1969, just eight years after President John Kennedy issued the challenge for Americans to reach the moon “before this decade is out.”

Woodstock poster, uploaded by solarnavigator.net.

Then, less than a month later, and more than a world away, a crowd estimated at between 400,000 to 500,000 gathered at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in upstate New York for a long weekend that changed rock and roll history. The event was planned as a profit-making concert, but that plan didn’t exactly work out. Instead, the crowd heard 32 of the era’s best musicians (who invited Sha-Na-Na?), including The Who, Janis Joplin, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. The crowd struggled against inadequate food and sanitation, not to mention rain and mud. But it was a badge of honor for the generation that the festival was peaceful. (Altamont was to come later in the year and end that dream.)

Before we leave 1969, let’s look at some of the other mileposts of the year. Number one song: Sugar Sugar. Academy Award for Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy. Sesame Street debuted. But, then, so did Penthouse. Ted Kennedy proved he needed driving lessons – and a conscience.

Thanks to John (who posts as jmq on the Virgin-Islands-On-Line message board) for giving me the idea for the 100th post. John has helped before, by writing No. 23: Bruce Springsteen. He wins nothing except my gratitude, and that’s enough, isn’t it John? John?

The video: Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock performing “Purple Haze”:

Film: Fargo

Frances McDormand as Sheriff Marge Gunderson. Uploaded by destgulch.com

No one who’s seen this film will ever look at a wood chipper the same as before. You betcha.

It’s a movie that begins by claiming it’s “based on a true story,” then concludes by saying all persons and events are fictitious. It follows Brainerd, Minnesota sheriff Marge Gunderson as she unravels a kidnapping that evolves into a series of murders. Marge is very pregnant, and in one outdoor scene she thinks she’s going to be sick. She bends down, but then after a few moments straightens back up. “Well, that passed,” she said. “Now I’m hungry again.”

William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard. Uploaded on Flickr by hypostylin.

I think it would have been entirely appropriate to cite the upper Midwest Scndinavian accent as one of the film’s co-stars. The movie would  have been lame without the frequent “ya” and “you betcha” and “the heck do you mean” throughout.

Frances McDormand and William H. Macy were familiar faces as secondary characters before Fargo, but they were unbelievably good in this movie that turned around both their careers. Marge Gunderson and Jerry Lundegaard are two of the most memorable characters in recent movie history, and the Coen Brothers did a brilliant job putting those fabulous words in their mouths.

Fargo was nominated for seven Academy Awards, won two (Best Actress – McDormand and Best Original Screenplay), and Joel Coen won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.

If you’re squeamish, or want to avoid language problems, better watch this one on TV where it’s sanitized a bit. This video features the accent that made the film so much fun to watch.