"HEAD" (1968)
WRITTEN BY BOB RAFELSON & JACK NICHOLSON
DIRECTED BY BOB RAFELSON
The Monkees were the very first band I was ever obsessed with and from the first moments that I watched their television series in reruns at perhaps the age of five or six, I was instantaneously hooked with the music, their distinct personalities and the wild abandon that existed and carried through each and every joyously filled episode.
And then...there was "Head."
I had heard of The Monkees' one and only feature film for many years but had no avenue of any sort to see this film that seemed to be spoken of in hushes and barely referenced anytime I happened to see any archived information about the group. All I could gather was that the film was nothing like the television show. By the time I first saw the film in the middle of Der Rathskeller in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Memorial Union during my Senior year of college (and just before graduation at that), those perceptions were more than confirmed. This was defiantly NOT your kid sister's Monkees.
Presented in a style that can only be referred to as dream logic, "Head" is a surreal, satirical experience during which you can almost enter it at any conceivable point during its 90 minute running time and watch it for 90 minutes and the overall effect would possibly be the same. "Bizarre" doesn't even begin to fully describe the film but it was indeed one that I was completely entranced by at it was a kaleidoscopic clash of styles and genres with Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and the late Davy Jones enthusiastically demolishing their image--or more truthfully, the prefabricated nature of the perceptions concerning their image and the futility of "The Monkees" existing in a dark world of mindless consumerism, the suffocation of television for viewers and performers and the horrors of the Vietnam War. In doing so, essentially, this film could have been titled "The Death Of The Monkees."
Now..don't get me wrong. "Head" is not (necessarily) an angry film or an embittered one. It is an experience that turns everything we know about The Monkees inside out with a vibrant, dark psychedelia that feels like looking through a telescope at the wrong end. All four Monkees remain enormously engaging performers, comedians and musicians (yes, musicians) delivering a gold standard set of songs that accentuate this dreamscape.
Swimming through a lava lamp colored ocean after a collective suicide jump to set to the outstanding, gorgeous, organ drenched farewell of "Porpoise Song." The live in concert sounds and lights frenzy of "Circle Sky." The downright BRILLIANTLY edited Davy Jones solo dance sequence, which alternated from Black to White and back again in "Daddy's Song." The hazy harem sequence of "Can You Dig It?" And even more...
For a group that was fabricated, who knew that they would ultimately devise of this surrealistic pillow of a motion picture. Trust me, you haven't seen anything quite like "Head."
"SOMETHING WILD" (1986)
WRITTEN BY E. MAX FRYE
DIRECTED BY JONATHAN DEMME
I will never for get the Monday morning in my Senior year Math class with Ms. Hynes. We were all getting ourselves ready for another day when Ms. Hynes began and then stopped herself from beginning the class to just say to all of us, "You know...I saw this really great movie over the weekend..."
And the movie in question was Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild."
Siskel & Ebert had already raved about the film but my Math teacher?! Hmmm...By the time I finally saw the film, I couldn't believe it...and not just because I could not get over the fact that Ms. Hynes actually saw it and loved it so much.
What Demme created was a film that exceeded the expectations set out by the film's title. The film, starring Melanie Griffith in what I still feel to be her most natural and very best performance as the free spirit Lulu who hijacks "closet rebel" Jeff Daniels from his humdrum life as a New York City banker into a...ahem...wild cross country adventure that involves kinky motel sex, crashing cars, stealing from liquor stores and restaurants, travelling with all manner of passengers and even attending Lulu's (soon to be revealed as Audrey) high school reunion, all culminating in a violent confrontation with Lulu's ex-husband Ray (a dynamic and terrifying Ray Liotta).
The film is as playful as it is entirely unpredictable in terms of the performances, characters, set design, editing, costumes, the outstanding genre defying soundtrack and most importantly, the cinematic storytelling, in which Demme incorporates one surprise and tonal shift after another, making for an undeniably ORIGINAL experience that made for one of the finest films of the 1980's.
And no, I still can't believe that Ms. Hynes saw it!
"RISKY BUSINESS" (1983)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY PAUL BRICKMAN
Just because there are teenagers driving the story, does not necessarily mean that we are watching a "teen film."
Case in point is this film, which despite the high school setting,
teenaged characters and all manner of teen hijinks from driving around
in Dad's prized Porsche and one overly sexualized moment after another,
Paul Brickman's "Risky Business" is in actuality a searing social satire
that truly defined what it meant to exist in the 1980's before the
whole "Greed Is Good" aesthetic fully took hold and drove the decade. In
fact, perhaps this film was a bit of a warning.
This sharp comedy, beautifully filmed in Chicago and its suburbs, starred a 21 year old Tom Cruise in his breakthrough role as Joel Goodson (love the last name), a dutiful high school Senior with goals of being admitted to Princeton who is entrusted with being the "man of the house" while his parents are away on vacation for one week but ultimately transforms his home into a brothel after his encounter with the enigmatic prostitute Lana (a wonderful Rebecca De Mornay), Guido the "killer pimp" (the great Joe Pantoliano), and an escalating series of precarious events including the disappearance of his Mother's prized glass egg and the submergence of Dad's aforementioned Porsche into Lake Michigan.
What separated this film from all other films about teenagers, both good and bad, from the 1980's era, where its strict attention to themes of lost innocence, materialism, Capitalism, sexism, and the nature of how we are all prostitutes within our American society and how much of our souls do we compromise and even sell in order to get ahead and achieve a certain social/political status. In addition, Brickman shot his film as if it were a European art film and combined with a pulsating, iconic film score by Tangerine Dream, it was a film that looked and sounded like no other film of its ilk.
At the center was Tom Cruise, whose performance still marvels with its commitment and fullness, characteristics that we have seen throughout the entirety of his career ever since. But even so...let's not allow any short shrift to flow in the direction of Rebecca De Mornay, whose own electric performance STILL provides mystery and conflict of what her true intentions really are towards Joel, as well as how she views her own life.
And, I also still think the 'L trains never looked or felt the same after seeing this film.
DAY 14
"JERRY MAGUIRE" (1996)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CAMERON CROWE
For so many of you, it may feel like that there has never been a time when the catchphrases of "Show Me The Money!!!!" and "You complete me," have not existed within our pop culture lexicon but trust me, there was and to hear those pieces of dialogue and to see the entire film for the very first time, was for me, a film of spiritual deliverance. Yes...it touched me that deeply and it still does.
I saw "Jerry Maguire" on opening day at the age of 27, as I was then working within a children's bookstore which had been taken over by a larger corporation and I already saw the writing upon the wall and was pondering a life change...and struggling to determine what to do next. While I was already a fan of Cameron Crowe, I was not prepared for what he delivered to me with this film, an enormously prevalent story about the titular character, a 35 year old sports agent, who undergoes a massive crisis of conscience with the ruthlessness of his chosen industry and writes a mission statement that essentially gets him exiled from his own kingdom, forcing him to start all over again with one client, the bombastic football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr. in his finest and Oscar winning performance) and with one person (Renee Zellweger in her beautifully rich and luminous breakthrough performance) who truly believes in him...and through her belief, slowly, deliberately pushes him to becoming the man he wishes to be...the man he routinely runs away from despite his better nature.
Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire" is exquisitely layered, a work that continues and fulfills Crowe's consistent themes of discovering and maintaining one's integrity within a world that has no use for it and the nature of true success, especially when it arrives through miserable, crushing, punishing failure.
Tom Cruise elicited what I feel to be his most soulful performance as he portrayed a character that surprisingly functioned AGAINST the nature of what audiences perceive of his screen persona. This is the film where Cruise as Jerry Maguire, loses...over and over and over and over again, emerging on the other side powerfully informed, possibly better but Crowe wisely suggests that his evolution--like all of ours--is ongoing. In fact, as I regarded Jerry Maguire hiding behind his sunglasses so often, it made me think of Cruise's Joel Goodson from "Risky Business" and what may have become of him by the time he reached the age of 35, making both characters and even both films work as a call and response to each other.
But entirely, "Jerry Maguire" moved me tremendously. I remember vividly how my own heartbeat slowed as I watched. How I spontaneously felt tears flowing and so unexpectedly. How I just wanted nothing but the best for all of these characters who were all just trying to live honest lives in an unpredictable world. And furthermore, I deeply appreciated Crowe's willingness to create African-American characters (which included the great Regina King) who were three dimensional, filled with dignity and foibles and completely integral to the narrative, for this film is easily as much about them as it is about Jerry.
"Jerry Maguire" is a Hollywood film that functioned like a small, independent with its wealthy collective of characters, extended sequences and luxurious dialogue and direction--in fact, I wonder if it could even get made today.. Even so, it did get made. We have it and for me, this was the movie where Cameron Crowe became a filmmaker.
DAY 15
"THE BLUES BROTHERS" (1980)
WRITTEN BY DAN AYKROYD & JOHN LANDIS
DIRECTED BY JOHN LANDIS
This one goes out to Matt "Guitar" Murphy who passed away June 15, 2018.
Released 38 years ago this very month, John Landis' "The Blues Brothers" was a cultural EVENT on a level similar to "Star Wars"...at least for me, and I can firmly believe, the entire city of Chicago.
With thanks to then Chicago Mayor, the late Jane Byrne, who lifted the first Mayor Richard J. Daley's decades long ban on filming ANYTHING in Chicago due to its gangster reputation, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd brought their enthusiastic Saturday Night Live creation to the silver screen in grand, bombastic, euphoric and gently anarchistic style in this extraordinary musical comedy/demolition derby hybrid.
The now iconic and surprisingly innocent story of blues musician brothers and ex-cons "Joliet" Jake Blues (Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) who fully embark upon their "mission from God"
by re-forming their band to save their childhood orphanage...while also being relentless pursued by the Chicago police, the Illinois Nazi party, an enraged Country & Western band, a vengeful ex-fiancee (the late, great Carrie Fisher) and the Illinois state police, National Guardsmen, SWAT teams, and military police, was dynamic to say the least with breathtaking, utterly improbable and hilarious car chases fueled by sensational musical performances by soul music GIANTS was the film that brought Chicago together without question.
I was in the 4th grade when "The Blues Brothers" began filming throughout Chicago and the idea of a real major motion picture being made where we lived provided incredible fascination for me, my friends, family and the city. News reports would pop up on television and the local papers. When the first trailer arrived, it was aired on the local news (and I also remember the trailer playing in a loop on a small television inside of a downtown department store). And when it was finally released, and to rave reviews from Siskel & Ebert to boot, it was as if the entire city came out to see what had been made.
Remember, back in 1980, there were exceedingly less theater screens and my family and I attempted, on no less than THREE occasions, to see the film at the River Oaks theater, finding it sold out every time. FINALLY, on attempt #4, we got in and when the entire film was over, it was as if I had an out of body experience. I walked out of the theater into the massive awaiting crowd and this one guy looked at me, with my mouth fully agape, and said, "Hey young brotha! How was it???" Snapped out of my reverie, I croaked out, "THAT...was GREAT!!!!"
And how could it not be? JAMES BROWN and the high flying church sequence. Ray Charles playing that electric piano as the city outside, from older to young kids, bonded in song and dance. Aretha Franklin testifying the command to THINK!" All the while as Jake and Elwood, in those dark suits, hats and sunglasses, roared through my city, from its funky neighborhoods and dilapidated shopping malls all the way down Wacker drive to the Daley Plaza in deadpanned glee...sensational and unforgettable.
With all due respect to my beloved John Hughes, John Landis' "The Blues Brothers," for me, is the greatest Chicago movie ever made. SWEET HOME CHICAGO!!!!!!
DAY 16
"THE BIG CHILL" (1983)
WRITTEN BY LAWRENCE KASDAN & BARBARA BENEDEK
DIRECTED BY LAWRENCE KASDAN
Now I would not be surprised if many of you are wondering just what sort of an appeal a film about a group of White baby boomers and graduates of the University of Michigan who reunite near the end of their 30's for the funeral of a friend who committed suicide would have for a teenage African-American kid in Chicago.
This sharp comedy, beautifully filmed in Chicago and its suburbs, starred a 21 year old Tom Cruise in his breakthrough role as Joel Goodson (love the last name), a dutiful high school Senior with goals of being admitted to Princeton who is entrusted with being the "man of the house" while his parents are away on vacation for one week but ultimately transforms his home into a brothel after his encounter with the enigmatic prostitute Lana (a wonderful Rebecca De Mornay), Guido the "killer pimp" (the great Joe Pantoliano), and an escalating series of precarious events including the disappearance of his Mother's prized glass egg and the submergence of Dad's aforementioned Porsche into Lake Michigan.
What separated this film from all other films about teenagers, both good and bad, from the 1980's era, where its strict attention to themes of lost innocence, materialism, Capitalism, sexism, and the nature of how we are all prostitutes within our American society and how much of our souls do we compromise and even sell in order to get ahead and achieve a certain social/political status. In addition, Brickman shot his film as if it were a European art film and combined with a pulsating, iconic film score by Tangerine Dream, it was a film that looked and sounded like no other film of its ilk.
At the center was Tom Cruise, whose performance still marvels with its commitment and fullness, characteristics that we have seen throughout the entirety of his career ever since. But even so...let's not allow any short shrift to flow in the direction of Rebecca De Mornay, whose own electric performance STILL provides mystery and conflict of what her true intentions really are towards Joel, as well as how she views her own life.
And, I also still think the 'L trains never looked or felt the same after seeing this film.
"JERRY MAGUIRE" (1996)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CAMERON CROWE
For so many of you, it may feel like that there has never been a time when the catchphrases of "Show Me The Money!!!!" and "You complete me," have not existed within our pop culture lexicon but trust me, there was and to hear those pieces of dialogue and to see the entire film for the very first time, was for me, a film of spiritual deliverance. Yes...it touched me that deeply and it still does.
I saw "Jerry Maguire" on opening day at the age of 27, as I was then working within a children's bookstore which had been taken over by a larger corporation and I already saw the writing upon the wall and was pondering a life change...and struggling to determine what to do next. While I was already a fan of Cameron Crowe, I was not prepared for what he delivered to me with this film, an enormously prevalent story about the titular character, a 35 year old sports agent, who undergoes a massive crisis of conscience with the ruthlessness of his chosen industry and writes a mission statement that essentially gets him exiled from his own kingdom, forcing him to start all over again with one client, the bombastic football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr. in his finest and Oscar winning performance) and with one person (Renee Zellweger in her beautifully rich and luminous breakthrough performance) who truly believes in him...and through her belief, slowly, deliberately pushes him to becoming the man he wishes to be...the man he routinely runs away from despite his better nature.
Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire" is exquisitely layered, a work that continues and fulfills Crowe's consistent themes of discovering and maintaining one's integrity within a world that has no use for it and the nature of true success, especially when it arrives through miserable, crushing, punishing failure.
Tom Cruise elicited what I feel to be his most soulful performance as he portrayed a character that surprisingly functioned AGAINST the nature of what audiences perceive of his screen persona. This is the film where Cruise as Jerry Maguire, loses...over and over and over and over again, emerging on the other side powerfully informed, possibly better but Crowe wisely suggests that his evolution--like all of ours--is ongoing. In fact, as I regarded Jerry Maguire hiding behind his sunglasses so often, it made me think of Cruise's Joel Goodson from "Risky Business" and what may have become of him by the time he reached the age of 35, making both characters and even both films work as a call and response to each other.
But entirely, "Jerry Maguire" moved me tremendously. I remember vividly how my own heartbeat slowed as I watched. How I spontaneously felt tears flowing and so unexpectedly. How I just wanted nothing but the best for all of these characters who were all just trying to live honest lives in an unpredictable world. And furthermore, I deeply appreciated Crowe's willingness to create African-American characters (which included the great Regina King) who were three dimensional, filled with dignity and foibles and completely integral to the narrative, for this film is easily as much about them as it is about Jerry.
"Jerry Maguire" is a Hollywood film that functioned like a small, independent with its wealthy collective of characters, extended sequences and luxurious dialogue and direction--in fact, I wonder if it could even get made today.. Even so, it did get made. We have it and for me, this was the movie where Cameron Crowe became a filmmaker.
"THE BLUES BROTHERS" (1980)
WRITTEN BY DAN AYKROYD & JOHN LANDIS
DIRECTED BY JOHN LANDIS
This one goes out to Matt "Guitar" Murphy who passed away June 15, 2018.
Released 38 years ago this very month, John Landis' "The Blues Brothers" was a cultural EVENT on a level similar to "Star Wars"...at least for me, and I can firmly believe, the entire city of Chicago.
With thanks to then Chicago Mayor, the late Jane Byrne, who lifted the first Mayor Richard J. Daley's decades long ban on filming ANYTHING in Chicago due to its gangster reputation, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd brought their enthusiastic Saturday Night Live creation to the silver screen in grand, bombastic, euphoric and gently anarchistic style in this extraordinary musical comedy/demolition derby hybrid.
The now iconic and surprisingly innocent story of blues musician brothers and ex-cons "Joliet" Jake Blues (Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) who fully embark upon their "mission from God"
by re-forming their band to save their childhood orphanage...while also being relentless pursued by the Chicago police, the Illinois Nazi party, an enraged Country & Western band, a vengeful ex-fiancee (the late, great Carrie Fisher) and the Illinois state police, National Guardsmen, SWAT teams, and military police, was dynamic to say the least with breathtaking, utterly improbable and hilarious car chases fueled by sensational musical performances by soul music GIANTS was the film that brought Chicago together without question.
I was in the 4th grade when "The Blues Brothers" began filming throughout Chicago and the idea of a real major motion picture being made where we lived provided incredible fascination for me, my friends, family and the city. News reports would pop up on television and the local papers. When the first trailer arrived, it was aired on the local news (and I also remember the trailer playing in a loop on a small television inside of a downtown department store). And when it was finally released, and to rave reviews from Siskel & Ebert to boot, it was as if the entire city came out to see what had been made.
Remember, back in 1980, there were exceedingly less theater screens and my family and I attempted, on no less than THREE occasions, to see the film at the River Oaks theater, finding it sold out every time. FINALLY, on attempt #4, we got in and when the entire film was over, it was as if I had an out of body experience. I walked out of the theater into the massive awaiting crowd and this one guy looked at me, with my mouth fully agape, and said, "Hey young brotha! How was it???" Snapped out of my reverie, I croaked out, "THAT...was GREAT!!!!"
And how could it not be? JAMES BROWN and the high flying church sequence. Ray Charles playing that electric piano as the city outside, from older to young kids, bonded in song and dance. Aretha Franklin testifying the command to THINK!" All the while as Jake and Elwood, in those dark suits, hats and sunglasses, roared through my city, from its funky neighborhoods and dilapidated shopping malls all the way down Wacker drive to the Daley Plaza in deadpanned glee...sensational and unforgettable.
With all due respect to my beloved John Hughes, John Landis' "The Blues Brothers," for me, is the greatest Chicago movie ever made. SWEET HOME CHICAGO!!!!!!
"THE BIG CHILL" (1983)
WRITTEN BY LAWRENCE KASDAN & BARBARA BENEDEK
DIRECTED BY LAWRENCE KASDAN
Now I would not be surprised if many of you are wondering just what sort of an appeal a film about a group of White baby boomers and graduates of the University of Michigan who reunite near the end of their 30's for the funeral of a friend who committed suicide would have for a teenage African-American kid in Chicago.
Well, first and foremost, that is due to the magic of the movies,
especially when one begins to follow the careers of the creative forces
at work. In this case, that creative force was Lawrence Kasdan, who had
worked with both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas on two "Star Wars"
films and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" as a screenwriter and was then
branching outwards as a director. But, to tell you the truth, when it
came to my first thoughts about actual writing for myself, John Hughes
was indeed that lightning in a bottle for me but Lawrence Kasdan is
where that seed was truly planted.
"The Big Chill" was the film where the action was dialogue and characters--the first of its kind that I had really seen and somehow connected with. It was the first film that made me think to myself, "I want to write something like that...but about people my age and where I am from." But I didn't know how to do it. So, I watched the film over and over. In fact, it became my "Sunday movie" for nearly two months, something I would watch after returning home from church every week. The comfort of the film sustained me as I fell deeper into the lives of these people, their connection to each other, the memories of their pasts, the quandaries set in their presents and the fears of their futures as represented by the grim reality of their friend who took his own life.
And this is where Kasdan, who was truly at his best when making more personal films like "Grand Canyon" (1991) and "Mumford" (1999), made his finest existential statement--something that made "The Big Chill" about so much more than White people dancing to Motown songs in a kitchen.
It was a film that challenged its characters, and the audience watching, to reconcile the people they have all been with the people they wished to become and the realities of who they actually are. THAT is a fact of the human experience that transcends race and that quality, as fueled by Kasdan's rich, intelligent and artful writing and direction, plus the beautiful performances from the terrific ensemble cast, is what continues to make me love this film.
DAY 17
"HAIR" (1979)
Based upon the play by Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL WELLER
DIRECTED BY MILOS FORMAN
I like to think of "Hair" as being my first film for adults.
First of all, it was the film to demonstrate that not all PG rated films were the same, so to speak, as not only did PG 13 not exist in 1979, "Hair" contained a plethora of sexual, racial and drug references that flew way over my head when I was 10 years old, and furthermore, it was the film where I saw my first nude scene (much to my Mother's shock)!.Yet, most importantly, "Hair" was a rock musical unlike any I had seen and to date, it remains an extraordinary piece of stellar cinema presented beautifully by the late, great Milos Forman.
"Hair" spoke directly to my inexplicable fascination with the social/political/cultural struggles of the late 1960's and all of the elements of the counter-culture and the conflicts against the status quo of the conservative establishment. Hippies, protests, civil rights, rock and roll and fighting a way into a future that seemed ready to be extinguished by the Vietnam war and our national inability to try and communicate and understand each other. And to do so much of it in glorious song and dance just blew my mind.
Dancing horses in Central Park. The astonishing Treat Williams as the hippie tribe leader George Berger defiantly dancing atop a table top at a posh high society garden party singing "I Got Life." John Savage as Claude the farm boy headed towards Vietnam yet befriended by the hippies flying high in his first LSD trip, with visions of Shelia (Beverly D'Angelo), the girl of his dreams, literally flying while grandly pregnant during the "Hare Krishna" dreamscape. The toe tapping, doo wop singing Army officers playing footsie during "Black Boys/White Boys." The psychedelic anguish of "Walking In Space." Milos Forman unveiled one dazzling moment after another, fueled by the great songs and Choreographer Twyla Tharp's timeless, innovative artistry.
And then...there was "Easy To Be Hard" as performed by Cheryl Barnes, the jilted lover, and Mother to the small child of the Black hippie Hud (Dorsey Wright), who cruelly admonishes her upon the wintry New York City streets.. That sequence was highly significant because of two reasons:
1. It was the one song that received a deafening round of applause both times I saw the film (one of which was with a double feature with Alan Parker's "Fame").
2. I will NEVER forget my Dad saying to me afterwards with regards to the treatment she receives from Hud when he said, "Black men do not treat women like that." That statement completely confused me at the time because I had just witnessed what my Dad said never happened so how could that statement be true? But as the years passed, I realized that what my Dad was doing was giving me an instruction as to what NOT EVER DO to women as I grew up to BECOME a Black man.
Yet, what made "Hair" my first adult movie was unquestionably the shattering conclusion, where Forman taught me that all movies do not have happy endings. "Hair" ends with an emotional double whammy that combined the triumph of the anthemic "Let The Sunshine In" with a crushing story driven tragedy that left me unsure as to what or how to feel once the end credits began to appear on screen.
Milos Forman's "Hair" was, and remains, unforgettable, breath taking, wondrously artful cinema to behold again and again and again.
DAY 18
"EXCALIBUR" (1981)
Based upon "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Thomas Malory
WRITTEN BY JOHN BOORMAN AND ROSPO PALLENBERG
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JOHN BOORMAN Being 12 years old is the absolute perfect age for a boy to fall into the rich, mythological worlds of sword and sorcery and for me, the release of John Boorman's "Excalibur" could not have been more perfectly timed.
My parents and I saw this film on opening night, and thanks to them, we waited as the showing we wished to see was sold out at the River Oaks theater. The wait was more than worth the time spent in anticipation as the dreamworld of King Arthur, his lady love Guinevere, the love triangle completed by best friend/mighty swordsman Lancelot, the rise and fall of the Knights of the Round Table, the witty and sinister presence of the wizard Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, the quest for the Holy Grail and the titular sword in the stone plus so much more was a veritable epic and then some (while also giving my love of "Star Wars" a greater historical and inspirational context).
I was absolutely enraptured by Boorman's uncompromising, muscular, glorious and feverishly brutal vision, which was rightfully (yet so surprisingly to my 12 year old eyes) and copiously seasoned with a level of graphic violence and graphic sexual content (again, my Mom shuddered with what I was seeing) that a gain felt to be truthful for the period and story the film was telling. I loved the mud, the filth, the grime and the grit and how it all juxtaposed with the glistening gleam of the armor, the castle, and Excalibur itself, making for a majestic, magical fantasy world that was occurring within a cauldron of mess.
But again...that graphic content...good night! I had not yet seen a film that really presented issues of dismemberment (you KNOW that was more than a "flesh wound") so vividly and as for the sex, which included moments of rape and incest, made me truly question if I was really seeing what I was seeing over and again.
It was also the first film in which I saw Helen Mirren, cast as the evil sorceress Morgana Le Fey, Arthur's half-sister. I'll just leave it right there...
DAY 19
"SCHOOL DAZE" (1988)
WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY SPIKE LEE
In the Spring of 1988, I was 19 years old and a Freshman in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While home in Chicago for Spring Break and as my Mom sat in the Yehia hair salon in Hyde Park, I ran around my old stomping grounds for a spell and soon purchased a ticket to see Spike Lee's second "Joint." I was more than aware of Lee through his firebrand media presence as well as the excellent notices he had received for his debut feature "She's Gotta Have It" (1986), which I had still not yet seen. But, upon seeing "School Daze," it was as if a firebomb was set off in the theater.
Lee's collegiate set "School Daze," based upon his experiences at Morehouse, is an incendiary social comedy depicting the clash between the students of a historically Black University during homecoming weekend. Lee audaciously confronts the inner workings of conflicts within the African-American community where differing social-political beliefs are blistering but still do not cut as deeply and as painfully as notions of skin tone and hair texture play into perceptions of racial superiority/inferiority and Black authenticity. And oh yes...the film is also a musical.
With an ensemble cast led by the mighty Laurence Fishburne as the socially conscious Vaughan "Dap" Dunlap and fueled by raucous comedy, scathing dialogue, outstanding musical sequences and an ocean of painful truth and cathartic soul, the experience of viewing "School Daze" was unlike ANY film that I had yet seen, signaling to me that Spike Lee was not only a born filmmaker but an uncommonly uncompromising and unrepentant creative artists willing to infuriate as well as educate and entertain. And believe me, portions of the Black community were enraged at this film.
Black talk radio in Chicago had a field day as detractors were beside themselves that Spike Lee had the gall to "air our dirty laundry" in full view of the nation's movie going public (i.e. potential White audiences and critics) but that was precisely WHY I thought the film was ingenious. Spike Lee made a film about us that spoke directly to us and decidedly NOT to the imaginary White audience, controversy be damned and truth be uplifted. He spoke of what I already knew and was stunned that he possessed the ferocious will and skill to display so very much about ourselves that was as beautiful as it was damaging.
But there was that ending, a surreal climax where the storylines abruptly cease and with Dap screaming, bellowing, and howling for all of us to "WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!" At the time, I didn't care for the sequence as it felt the film stopped for a public service announcement that was so on the nose and was a subtle as a sledgehammer to the head. But over time, the sequence has only grown in power for me as "WAKE UP!!!!" has remained not only Spike Lee's rallying cry for the entirety of his career as well as a description of his aesthetic, but a statement for a culture and a nation that is still trapped within a certain dark, deep slumber.
When so many proclaim to be "Woke," these days, "School Daze," even now upon its 30th anniversary, still has the power to truly awaken.
DAY 20
"RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" (1981)
STORY BY GEORGE LUCAS AND PHILIP KAUFMAN
SCREENPLAY BY LAWRENCE KASDAN
DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG I am old enough to remember a time when "Star Wars" did not exist. Or "Ghostbusters." And especially, the famed archaeologist Indiana Jones. And when they all entered the world, it was AWESOME!!!!
"The Big Chill" was the film where the action was dialogue and characters--the first of its kind that I had really seen and somehow connected with. It was the first film that made me think to myself, "I want to write something like that...but about people my age and where I am from." But I didn't know how to do it. So, I watched the film over and over. In fact, it became my "Sunday movie" for nearly two months, something I would watch after returning home from church every week. The comfort of the film sustained me as I fell deeper into the lives of these people, their connection to each other, the memories of their pasts, the quandaries set in their presents and the fears of their futures as represented by the grim reality of their friend who took his own life.
And this is where Kasdan, who was truly at his best when making more personal films like "Grand Canyon" (1991) and "Mumford" (1999), made his finest existential statement--something that made "The Big Chill" about so much more than White people dancing to Motown songs in a kitchen.
It was a film that challenged its characters, and the audience watching, to reconcile the people they have all been with the people they wished to become and the realities of who they actually are. THAT is a fact of the human experience that transcends race and that quality, as fueled by Kasdan's rich, intelligent and artful writing and direction, plus the beautiful performances from the terrific ensemble cast, is what continues to make me love this film.
"HAIR" (1979)
Based upon the play by Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL WELLER
DIRECTED BY MILOS FORMAN
I like to think of "Hair" as being my first film for adults.
First of all, it was the film to demonstrate that not all PG rated films were the same, so to speak, as not only did PG 13 not exist in 1979, "Hair" contained a plethora of sexual, racial and drug references that flew way over my head when I was 10 years old, and furthermore, it was the film where I saw my first nude scene (much to my Mother's shock)!.Yet, most importantly, "Hair" was a rock musical unlike any I had seen and to date, it remains an extraordinary piece of stellar cinema presented beautifully by the late, great Milos Forman.
"Hair" spoke directly to my inexplicable fascination with the social/political/cultural struggles of the late 1960's and all of the elements of the counter-culture and the conflicts against the status quo of the conservative establishment. Hippies, protests, civil rights, rock and roll and fighting a way into a future that seemed ready to be extinguished by the Vietnam war and our national inability to try and communicate and understand each other. And to do so much of it in glorious song and dance just blew my mind.
Dancing horses in Central Park. The astonishing Treat Williams as the hippie tribe leader George Berger defiantly dancing atop a table top at a posh high society garden party singing "I Got Life." John Savage as Claude the farm boy headed towards Vietnam yet befriended by the hippies flying high in his first LSD trip, with visions of Shelia (Beverly D'Angelo), the girl of his dreams, literally flying while grandly pregnant during the "Hare Krishna" dreamscape. The toe tapping, doo wop singing Army officers playing footsie during "Black Boys/White Boys." The psychedelic anguish of "Walking In Space." Milos Forman unveiled one dazzling moment after another, fueled by the great songs and Choreographer Twyla Tharp's timeless, innovative artistry.
And then...there was "Easy To Be Hard" as performed by Cheryl Barnes, the jilted lover, and Mother to the small child of the Black hippie Hud (Dorsey Wright), who cruelly admonishes her upon the wintry New York City streets.. That sequence was highly significant because of two reasons:
1. It was the one song that received a deafening round of applause both times I saw the film (one of which was with a double feature with Alan Parker's "Fame").
2. I will NEVER forget my Dad saying to me afterwards with regards to the treatment she receives from Hud when he said, "Black men do not treat women like that." That statement completely confused me at the time because I had just witnessed what my Dad said never happened so how could that statement be true? But as the years passed, I realized that what my Dad was doing was giving me an instruction as to what NOT EVER DO to women as I grew up to BECOME a Black man.
Yet, what made "Hair" my first adult movie was unquestionably the shattering conclusion, where Forman taught me that all movies do not have happy endings. "Hair" ends with an emotional double whammy that combined the triumph of the anthemic "Let The Sunshine In" with a crushing story driven tragedy that left me unsure as to what or how to feel once the end credits began to appear on screen.
Milos Forman's "Hair" was, and remains, unforgettable, breath taking, wondrously artful cinema to behold again and again and again.
"EXCALIBUR" (1981)
Based upon "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Thomas Malory
WRITTEN BY JOHN BOORMAN AND ROSPO PALLENBERG
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JOHN BOORMAN Being 12 years old is the absolute perfect age for a boy to fall into the rich, mythological worlds of sword and sorcery and for me, the release of John Boorman's "Excalibur" could not have been more perfectly timed.
My parents and I saw this film on opening night, and thanks to them, we waited as the showing we wished to see was sold out at the River Oaks theater. The wait was more than worth the time spent in anticipation as the dreamworld of King Arthur, his lady love Guinevere, the love triangle completed by best friend/mighty swordsman Lancelot, the rise and fall of the Knights of the Round Table, the witty and sinister presence of the wizard Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, the quest for the Holy Grail and the titular sword in the stone plus so much more was a veritable epic and then some (while also giving my love of "Star Wars" a greater historical and inspirational context).
I was absolutely enraptured by Boorman's uncompromising, muscular, glorious and feverishly brutal vision, which was rightfully (yet so surprisingly to my 12 year old eyes) and copiously seasoned with a level of graphic violence and graphic sexual content (again, my Mom shuddered with what I was seeing) that a gain felt to be truthful for the period and story the film was telling. I loved the mud, the filth, the grime and the grit and how it all juxtaposed with the glistening gleam of the armor, the castle, and Excalibur itself, making for a majestic, magical fantasy world that was occurring within a cauldron of mess.
But again...that graphic content...good night! I had not yet seen a film that really presented issues of dismemberment (you KNOW that was more than a "flesh wound") so vividly and as for the sex, which included moments of rape and incest, made me truly question if I was really seeing what I was seeing over and again.
It was also the first film in which I saw Helen Mirren, cast as the evil sorceress Morgana Le Fey, Arthur's half-sister. I'll just leave it right there...
"SCHOOL DAZE" (1988)
WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY SPIKE LEE
In the Spring of 1988, I was 19 years old and a Freshman in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While home in Chicago for Spring Break and as my Mom sat in the Yehia hair salon in Hyde Park, I ran around my old stomping grounds for a spell and soon purchased a ticket to see Spike Lee's second "Joint." I was more than aware of Lee through his firebrand media presence as well as the excellent notices he had received for his debut feature "She's Gotta Have It" (1986), which I had still not yet seen. But, upon seeing "School Daze," it was as if a firebomb was set off in the theater.
Lee's collegiate set "School Daze," based upon his experiences at Morehouse, is an incendiary social comedy depicting the clash between the students of a historically Black University during homecoming weekend. Lee audaciously confronts the inner workings of conflicts within the African-American community where differing social-political beliefs are blistering but still do not cut as deeply and as painfully as notions of skin tone and hair texture play into perceptions of racial superiority/inferiority and Black authenticity. And oh yes...the film is also a musical.
With an ensemble cast led by the mighty Laurence Fishburne as the socially conscious Vaughan "Dap" Dunlap and fueled by raucous comedy, scathing dialogue, outstanding musical sequences and an ocean of painful truth and cathartic soul, the experience of viewing "School Daze" was unlike ANY film that I had yet seen, signaling to me that Spike Lee was not only a born filmmaker but an uncommonly uncompromising and unrepentant creative artists willing to infuriate as well as educate and entertain. And believe me, portions of the Black community were enraged at this film.
Black talk radio in Chicago had a field day as detractors were beside themselves that Spike Lee had the gall to "air our dirty laundry" in full view of the nation's movie going public (i.e. potential White audiences and critics) but that was precisely WHY I thought the film was ingenious. Spike Lee made a film about us that spoke directly to us and decidedly NOT to the imaginary White audience, controversy be damned and truth be uplifted. He spoke of what I already knew and was stunned that he possessed the ferocious will and skill to display so very much about ourselves that was as beautiful as it was damaging.
But there was that ending, a surreal climax where the storylines abruptly cease and with Dap screaming, bellowing, and howling for all of us to "WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!" At the time, I didn't care for the sequence as it felt the film stopped for a public service announcement that was so on the nose and was a subtle as a sledgehammer to the head. But over time, the sequence has only grown in power for me as "WAKE UP!!!!" has remained not only Spike Lee's rallying cry for the entirety of his career as well as a description of his aesthetic, but a statement for a culture and a nation that is still trapped within a certain dark, deep slumber.
When so many proclaim to be "Woke," these days, "School Daze," even now upon its 30th anniversary, still has the power to truly awaken.
"RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" (1981)
STORY BY GEORGE LUCAS AND PHILIP KAUFMAN
SCREENPLAY BY LAWRENCE KASDAN
DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG I am old enough to remember a time when "Star Wars" did not exist. Or "Ghostbusters." And especially, the famed archaeologist Indiana Jones. And when they all entered the world, it was AWESOME!!!!
Leave it to Spielberg and Lucas to blow my mind all over again with
this first, and (still) best, entry in the on-going adventures of
Indiana Jones, which at the time, was a character and film experience
shrouded in mystery leaving the audience with no idea of what to expect.
My parents and I saw the film opening weekend at the now long defunct Evergreen Plaza movie theater and I have to say that the film put me through the wringer in the first 10-12 minutes. Never had I jumped from shock and surprise so often and so quickly as Spielberg blazed through one perilous predicament after another, from rolling boulders, deep chasms to barely leap across, booby traps, huge spiders, a giant snake and treacherous companions...and all of that was before the film's main plot--the search for the Ark of the Covenant--even kicked in!
Harrison Ford, already THE MAN as he was Han Solo, only increased his white hot screen wattage as the fedora wearing, whip cracking Indiana Jones and with the spunky moxie of Karen Allen as his lady love Marion Ravenwood, they were a team that could not be beaten as they attempted to outrace the Nazis. But, for me, the star of this experience was Steven Spielberg himself as he directed this epic with a two fisted command and breathless authority and imagination as he, (with Lucas) updated the serials of the 1930's with superior invention and sequences that are now iconic and still absolutely, rapturously exhausting in their rich ferocity.
Just think, to go from being trapped in a snakepit to being surrounded by a tomb of skeletons to a brutal punchout at a revolving airplane ready to explode from spilled gasoline to the astonishing truck chase...I held on for dear life and just like "Star Wars" and even "The Blues Brothers," the film fully transcended something to watch...it was an out of body experience.
And then...the opening of the Ark. My word, I felt that I was seeing something too horrifying to be watched as the faces melted and heads exploded from being ravaged by the wrath of God. How Spielberg had the audacity to top himself again and again within his own movie still amazes me tremendously and to date, this remains one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
If I could only see this film for the first time all over again.
Stay tuned for part three of this series!
My parents and I saw the film opening weekend at the now long defunct Evergreen Plaza movie theater and I have to say that the film put me through the wringer in the first 10-12 minutes. Never had I jumped from shock and surprise so often and so quickly as Spielberg blazed through one perilous predicament after another, from rolling boulders, deep chasms to barely leap across, booby traps, huge spiders, a giant snake and treacherous companions...and all of that was before the film's main plot--the search for the Ark of the Covenant--even kicked in!
Harrison Ford, already THE MAN as he was Han Solo, only increased his white hot screen wattage as the fedora wearing, whip cracking Indiana Jones and with the spunky moxie of Karen Allen as his lady love Marion Ravenwood, they were a team that could not be beaten as they attempted to outrace the Nazis. But, for me, the star of this experience was Steven Spielberg himself as he directed this epic with a two fisted command and breathless authority and imagination as he, (with Lucas) updated the serials of the 1930's with superior invention and sequences that are now iconic and still absolutely, rapturously exhausting in their rich ferocity.
Just think, to go from being trapped in a snakepit to being surrounded by a tomb of skeletons to a brutal punchout at a revolving airplane ready to explode from spilled gasoline to the astonishing truck chase...I held on for dear life and just like "Star Wars" and even "The Blues Brothers," the film fully transcended something to watch...it was an out of body experience.
And then...the opening of the Ark. My word, I felt that I was seeing something too horrifying to be watched as the faces melted and heads exploded from being ravaged by the wrath of God. How Spielberg had the audacity to top himself again and again within his own movie still amazes me tremendously and to date, this remains one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
If I could only see this film for the first time all over again.
Stay tuned for part three of this series!
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