The King and I

The King and I (1956) starring Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson. Musical in which Kerr plays Anna Leonowens, a woman who in 1862 journeys from England to Siam (now Thailand) to be the schoolmistress to the king's (Brynner) hundred or so children. The conflict in the movie arises out of the fact that Anna and the king are both strong-willed individuals, and they clash from the start. The beauty of the film derives from the music and words by the talented duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Songs include "Hello Young Lovers," "Getting to Know You" and "Something Wonderful." Brynner won a well-deserved Oscar for his portrayal of the king of Siam. Kerr's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon. I found this to be an entertaining movie, although the subplot about the love of Tuptim and Lun Tha could have been trimmed considerably. Also, some of the songs were quite lame. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave (2013) starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch,  Brad Pitt. Directed by Steve McQueen. In 1841, a free black man named Solomon Northrup (Ejiofor) is tricked,  drugged and shanghaied into a life of slavery. The evils of slavery are shown in all their vileness. The movie is a powerful denunciation of slavery, especially as practiced in 1800s America, but one has to wonder whether it is really necessary to go to these lengths to denounce an institution which has been dead for 150 years. The movie won the Oscar for Best Picture, and also for Best Supporting Actress (Nyong'o). Bad as Solomon Northrup's experience was, the ending of this film seems anticlimactic. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and a cast too large to enumerate. Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, a fictional White House butler of 34 years' service. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, the film spans history from the administration of Eisenhower to the advent of Obama. Gaines actually served Eisenhower through Reagan, but the film continues after he retires. Some of the portrayals of presidents by familiar actors are jarring, but in general the film works. The main  problem is that it tries to do too much, and ends up short-changing many of the eras in history which it limns. I wanted to see more of Gaines work in the White House, but we catch only occasional glimpses of what goes on there. The film spends a lot of time on the civil rights movement, which was proceeding at the same time as Gaines' service in the White House. Gaines' son, Louis, becomes a civil rights activist, much to Gaines' displeasure, but they later reconcile. Overall, this is a good movie and Whitaker delivers an excellent performance as the title character. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

Amadeus

Amadeus (1984) starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones. Directed by Milos Forman. Abraham won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri, the unfortunate 18th-century composer who lived and worked at the same time and place as Mozart. Salieri was a mediocre talent at best, and he was undone by his jealousy of Mozart's effortless genius. Hulce, as Mozart, makes the composer seem convincingly obnoxious, and the script is beautifully written to illustrate Salieri's mixed feelings about Mozart. He recognizes Mozart's talent -- perhaps he is the only one in Vienna who does -- yet he resents Mozart's person. The movie also won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and I think they were well deserved. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as are closed captions.) Grade: A   

Allegheny Uprising

Allegheny Uprising (1939) starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, George Sanders, Brian Donlevy. In 1759, a few years before the War for Independence, a valley of Pennsylvania colonists rises up against British rule, led by Jim Smith (Wayne). Trevor plays Wayne's romantic interest, and she's one scrappy frontierswoman. This is quite the colonial tale, though obviously shot on a low budget. It succeeds in entertaining, and is said to be based on a true story. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) starring Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento. From Irving Stone's book, which covered Michelangelo's entire life, comes this adequate movie depicting the battle between Pope Julius II (Harrison) and Michelangelo (Heston) over the  painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The depictions of Michelangelo's works are inspiring, without a doubt, but the plot of this movie is lacking in inspiration. It's only a so-so entertainment, and not one of Heston's greatest performances. Harrison is lacking in gravitas in the role of the pope. I was a bit disappointed in the film. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

Judgment at Nuremberg

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner. Directed by Stanley Kramer. A judge, played by Tracy, journeys to Nuremberg, Germany in 1948 to preside over a tribunal passing judgment on several German judges. The judges presided over trials in Nazi Germany in which innocent people were sentenced to be sterilized or put to death, or were sent to concentration camps. The movie has a powerful impact, although perhaps its power has been reduced somewhat with time. The performances of all the principles are good, and the script is top-notch. The film won two Academy Awards. (Subtitles in English are available, as are closed captions.) Grade: A- 

Lincoln

Lincoln (2012) starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Day-Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in this movie, which is mostly about the passage in the House of Representatives of the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery. Sometimes the subject matter of a movie elevates it to greatness, and I think that is what happened here. Though it is mostly about parliamentary maneuvering and the procurement of votes, this film shows Lincoln's greatness and highlights a moment in out history which will always stand out as a proud one. A thoroughly enjoyable movie. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A

Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy (2000) starring Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Lesley Manville, Eleanor David, Ron Cook, Timothy Spall. In 1884, famed composers Gilbert and Sullivan (Broadbent and Corduner) come to a creative impasse. The logjam is broken when the idea for The Mikado comes to Gilbert. This movie is a delight to watch, with many fine small touches that make the Victorian setting come alive. It brings to life two men who were great celebrities in their time, and whose work is still performed. It shows us a very thin slice of Victorian life and times, and what it might have been like to live during that time and perhaps go to the theater. (The English subtitles are good, although they are hard to find and at times hard to read.) Grade: A-

To Live

To Live (1994) starring Ge You, Gong Li. Spanning three decades -- the '40s, '50s and '60s -- this movie tells the story on one family in China and how they cope with continuous historic changes. First comes the Communist revolution in 1949, then the Great Leap Forward in 1958, then the Cultural Revolution in 1969. Always in the background is Mao Zedong, their beloved leader. I found the film quite moving, especially Gong Li's performance, although it was Ge You who won the Best Actor laurels at Cannes. (In Chinese, with English subtitles.) Grade: A-

Meek's Cutoff

Meek's Cutoff (2010) starring Michelle Williams, Shirley Henderson, Zoe Kazan, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton. A small group of pioneers travels the Oregon Trail in 1845; but their guide, Stephen Meek, seems to have led them astray, and they are starting to run short of water. The movie starts to get interesting when they somehow manage to capture a Native American who crosses their path. Can he -- will he -- lead them to water? The answer is ... we'll never know. The film abruptly ends with no resolution, which is a high price to pay for a movie experience that has been so slow-paced, tedious and boring. I was really disappointed with this film, which was supposedly based on a true story. If it's based on a true story, where's the story? It does have subtitles for the hearing-impaired, but does not have closed captions, which are generally easier to read. Grade: C

Queen Margot (DVD)

Queen Margot (1994) starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil. This film is set in 1572 in France, a time when Protestants and Catholics were warring with one another, both between nations and within nations. The plot is set in motion by the wedding of Margot de Valois (Adjani) and Henri de Navarre (Auteuil), a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant that it is hoped will bring peace. The result, however, is the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which thousands of prominent Protestants were assassinated by the Catholics. Queen Margot helps her Protestant lover escape, resulting in boiling palace intrigue. To put it in historical perspective, ponder the fact that the Protestants were also known as Huguenots, and many of the Huguenots ended up fleeing the persecution and emigrating to America. Henri de Navarre eventually became King Henry IV of France. Although the movie is rather hard to follow at first, it eventually becomes an involving and dramatic, suspenseful and romantic epic. It doesn't have a happy ending. In French, with English subtitles. Grade: B+

Queen Christina (DVD)

Queen Christina (1933) starring Greta Garbo, John Gilbert. Garbo stars as Queen Christina of Sweden, who ascends to the throne in 1632 as a girl. After she has grown up, she falls in love with the ambassador from Spain (Gilbert) -- but they meet at a country inn, and he doesn't know that she is the queen. Christina faces the classic conflict of wanting to seek her personal happiness vs. the need to do her duty as a sovereign. Specifically, her people do not want her to marry a Spaniard, because Sweden is a Protestant country and Spain is Catholic. Garbo is splendid in this movie, but the plot is a timeworn story that is familiar and predictable. The disc offers English subtitles, as well as closed captions. Grade: B

Girl with a Pearl Earring (DVD)

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) starring Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy. In 1665 in Delft, Holland, a girl named Griet (Johansson) is hired as a maid in the household of master painter Johannes Vermeer (Firth). She's a good maid, but she catches Vermeer's eye and he wants more from her. He wants her to help him mix his paints; and to pose for a painting -- a painting which will become the classic "Girl with a Pearl Earring," now considered a masterpiece. But her seemingly improved status comes at a cost. Vermeer's wife is insanely jealous of Griet, and one of his daughters takes a special disliking to her. Meanwhile, Vermeer's patron (Wilkinson) has taken a leering fancy to Griet, and makes trouble of a different kind for her. One feels at all times that her virtue is in peril; as a mere maid, there is little she can do to protect herself and still keep her job. Johansson is perfect as Griet, conveying a wide range of emotions with few words. The filmmakers have done an excellent job of creating a world -- Holland in the 17th century, as we can easily imagine it to have been. All the details are spot on. The movie's subtitles are useful and unobtrusive. Grade: A-

Vincere (DVD)

Vincere (2009) starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Fillipo Timi. Vincere means "win" or "to win" in Italian. This movie tells the story of Ida Dalser (Mezzogiorno), an attractive woman who falls in love with the young Benito Mussolini (Timi). In 1914, they meet and get married, but World War I separates them, and Mussolini (gasp!) marries another woman. Ida begs him to acknowledge her as his wife, and her son as his son, but Mussolini and the Fascists have other ideas. When she insists that she is Mussolini's wife, mother to his first-born son, they shut her away in a mental hospital. What's worse, they take her son away from her. Even though there was a language barrier (this movie is in Italian, with English subtitles), I felt that this was a powerful film which told a tragic story. It must have had strong resonance in Italy, since it dealt with a shameful chapter of Italian history, and was made there. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: A-

Little Big Man (DVD)

Little Big Man (1970) starring Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Richard Mulligan, Chief Dan George. Jack Crabb (Hoffman), a 121-year-old man, and the "only white survivor of Custer's Last Stand," reminisces about his long life on the American frontier. At 10 years old, his family (except his sister) is wiped out by Pawnee raiders, and he is adopted by the Cheyenne, who refer to themselves as the Human Beings. He stays with them five years. After returning to live with white people, Crabb tries various avenues in life, including religion, quackery, gunfighting and store keeping -- all to no avail. Known as Little Big Man to the Cheyenne, he keeps running into them on the frontier. Among other things, Little Big Man is witness to the wanton slaughter of a Cheyenne tribe by soldiers under Custer. The movie is both funny and tragic, which, combined with the fact that it's a good movie, makes it great. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A

Cradle Will Rock (DVD)

Cradle Will Rock (1999) starring Hank Azaria, Ruben Blades, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, Emily Watson. Written and directed by Tim Robbins. Portrait of the 1930s as seen through the eyes of theater people of the time. A theater troupe is trying to put on a play titled "The Cradle Will Rock," but they run into government opposition because the theme of the play is too "radical." Meanwhile, a WPA clerk (Joan Cusack) goes in front of Congress to testify against Communists and others. Ambitious effort at social commentary doesn't quite make the grade. Good subtitles, though. Grade: B