Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

I hadn’t got around to watching this before now because I had the idea that it wasn’t very good. Plus I also thought (based on the title) that it was a mere dramatization of the “Munich Massacre” at the 1972 Olympic Games, in which eleven Israeli athletes died, which didn’t appeal to me. Wrong on both counts! It’s a very good (albeit highly fictionalised) account of “Operation Wrath of God” in which a team of Mossad agents track down and try to assassinate various Arabs implicated in the 1972 kidnapping. It’s an atypical Spielberg film, both in style and content -  so much so that I would never have guessed the director.  It has a low-key, almost documentary, feel to it, which is emphasised by the absence of any big-name Hollywood stars. Instead the film is underpinned by a quiet but commanding performance by Eric Bana, as the leader of the Mossad team, who gradually becomes disillusioned and paranoid. Spielberg also skilfully weaves in sequences showing what did happen during...

This is a high-quality political thriller from 1964. The basic set-up is that General Scott, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the ever-watchable Burt Lancaster) is planning a military coup because he disagrees with the peace treaty US President Lyman (Fredric March) has signed with Russia. The seven days of the film cover the period from the Monday when Colonel Casey (Kirk Douglas) begins to uncover the plot to the Sunday when the coup is due to take place. Everything in this film is top notch but highlights for me were the intelligent dialogue (courtesy of Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame, adapting the source novel) and March's performance as a US President of integrity.  There are several stand-out scenes, such as the climactic confrontation between President Lyman and Scott, and pretty much all those involving Edmond O'Brien as a Senator who is a close friend of the President but who likes his drink a little too much. But probably my favourite scene is one between Cas...

Do I know who killed JFK? No. Do I care who killed JFK? Not really. Did this 3-hour potential snooze fest hold my attention?  Hell, yeah! Specifically I was intrigued by the extraordinary story of Jim Garrison. He was just a DA, in New Orleans, but he took it upon himself and his team to try to get to the bottom of what really happened in Dallas on 22 November 1963. On the way we meet an array of curious characters brought to life by the likes of Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci (crazy guy, crazy hairpiece), Kevin Bacon, Donald Sutherland, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. Holding it all together is Kevin Costner in a towering performance as Garrison.  I'm not sure how he didn’t get an Oscar nomination whilst Tommy Lee Jones (sporting the most ridiculous hair) did. His lengthy summing up to the jury at the conclusion of the film is a tour-de-force which I would like to believe is close to the actual summing-up. Which does raise the nagging question t...

I’m totally in agreement with the critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes which describes this John Grisham adaptation as ‘overlong and superficial’. 149 minutes! Where to begin on what to cut? A whole load of the KKK stuff to start with. We don’t need the attack on the husband of Matthew McConaughey’s assistant, or the ludicrous scene where Kiefer Sutherland becomes a sniper. And the kidnapping of Sandra Bullock makes for some very uncomfortable viewing. She does of course bring her usual perkiness and charm to the role but she’s clearly been shoehorned into the film for commercial reasons.  I found her character totally unbelievable, especially in her early scenes with McConaughey which wouldn’t have been out of place in a romcom. Apparently Grisham vetoed the director’s first choice of Woody Harrelson for the lead role, which is a shame since I didn't much enjoy McConaughey’s performance.  The film deals with some weighty issues regarding race and justice, but it does all see...

This is a superior John Ford Western, part of his cavalry trilogy. But I do have some minor gripes.  Firstly, given the title, I was disappointed by the lacklustre nature of the obligatory romance, which Joanne Dru is unable to bring to life. Secondly, despite the constant threat from Native Americans alluded to throughout, the action is rather thin on the ground and, especially towards the end of the film, confusingly presented. At one point Brittles (John Wayne) leaves part of his troop to carry out a rear-guard action which seems certain to result in high casualties. Yet later we learn that these men have been rescued with no loss of life. More seriously, the military climax of the film is a bit of a let-down, being the capture of the amassed Native American tribes (again without any casualties!) through the simple tactic of stampeding their horses. Really! Thirdly, I felt that the elegiac tone that had been developed was thrown away somewhat by the feel-good ending that comes o...

This is the final film in John Ford’s ‘cavalry trilogy’, but I prefer to think of it as the second, if they are ordered chronologically by the stage John Wayne has reached in his cavalry career in each one. In this film Wayne plays Kirby Yorke, a world-weary soldier whose lonely existence is shaken up by the arrival of both his son and his estranged wife, neither of whom he has seen for many years. John Ford only made this film because the studio ordered him to do so and maybe that explains why the action scenes, such as they are, are routine bordering on desultory. The climactic rescue of a group of children from a Native American camp should be way more exciting than it is. In the absence of thrills we have to fall back on the unusual interrelationships within the Yorke family. Whilst I struggled to care much about the father-son relationship, John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara can always be relied upon to deliver, and together they pretty much carry this sub-standard Ford Western. RATING...

This is a cross between a Western and a political drama, with rather more talking than action. The bulk of the story relates how an idealistic lawyer, Rance Stoddart (played by James Stewart) defeats Liberty Valance (a rather cartoonish character who Lee Marvin does his best to make menacing) who terrorises the town of Shinbone at the behest of local ranchers, and somewhat for his own perverted entertainment. It is told in flashback by Stoddart, now a Senator, who is visiting Shinbone to pay his respects upon the death of Tom Doniphon (played by John Wayne). In some ways Stewart’s role here has echoes of two roles from films released in  1939:  ‘Mr. Smith Goes To Washington’, in which he plays a naïve Senator, and ‘Destry Rides Again’, in which he plays a pacifist lawman. The central conflict presented is between the idea that justice should be delivered through the rule of law (espoused by Stoddart) and the idea that it can only be achieved through violence (Doniphon’s view)....