Whatever happened to movies? There was a time in my life that going to the movies was almost a weekly event. Now I go to the movies maybe once or twice a year. Sure some of that has to do with DVD's and Netflix and On Demand and the like.
But a lot of it has to do with the premise of this entry: Movies suck now!
Of course this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that somewhere along the way the vast majority of movies stopped being anything that you could take seriously and became mere marketing opportunities or special effects smorgasbords or demographic exercises.
It seems to me that it goes something like this: If we make this movie about robots who turn evil and take over the world, we can get this many teenage males and this many 20-somethings and this many Europeans which will equal a ticket sale of whatever.
Sorry, but I'm just not interested. Instead of a special effect, I'd rather see a special performance, something that touches me in a real, human way. Those are quite rare these days and are very hard to discover because they are buried under too many explosions, squealing tires, and absurdly huge firearms.
Certainly there are exceptions. I think the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was the perfect blend of special effects, acting, and storytelling. But that was ten years ago. That's a long time between boxes of popcorn.
Living in the Boston area gave me an unfair advantage when it came to movies. There were so many "art houses," in the Boston-Cambridge area, that it was always possible to see some of those little, independent films that are usually about performance and not just eye candy. Down here on the panhandle, there are no intimate one or two screen theaters; just those gigantic mega-theater-sound system-arcade-mall-multi-screened behemoths which only play the latest, loudest, studio nonsense. I miss the days of the Nickelodeon, the Orson Welles, the Harvard Square, even the little Dedham Cinema with the art gallery downstairs. I didn't love every movie I saw at these and other small theaters. Sometimes I thought there was a lot of hype or buzz over an independent movie that I thought was just average or worse. ("Sideways" comes to mind) But at least these movies had integrity, a vision, a reason for being beyond ticket sales.
Of course not every "big" Hollywood movie is terrible. The first two "Godfathers" come to mind. "The Natural" and "Field of Dreams" would be called mainstream movies that I think are both filled with great performances and beautiful stories. There are many others I could mention. The point here is that I think movies like the ones above are being made much less often than they used to be.
So not for nuthin', in no particular order, here's a list of 10 of my all-time "small" favorites:
10. Bang the Drum Slowly, 1973. With De Niro, Michael Moriarty, and Vincent Gardenia. A great "baseball" movie about all sorts of things other than baseball.
9. Big Night, 1996. With Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub. The perfect little movie in my opinion. Great performances up and down the line.
8. Sling Blade, 1996. With Billy Bob Thornton and, especially, Lucas Black as the kid. Completely original and weirdly believable.
7. Tender Mercies, 1983. With Robert Duvall and Tess Harper. I guess I could do nothing but list Robert Duvall films here. I've chosen two for this list. He always does something unexpected or interesting. What a lovely, quiet, redemptive film.
6. Scarecrow, 1973. With Al Pacino and Gene Hackman. Wonderfully acted, beautifully sad movie.
5. Broadway Danny Rose, 1984. With Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. To me, this is Woody Allen at his best as a director, a storyteller, and a performer. Funny and sad at the same time.
4. 'Round Midnight, 1986. All time great tenor player Dexter Gordon playing a version of himself. This little movie had musical integrity and a lovely, heartwarming story as well.
3. Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992. What an ensemble and what a delight listening to David Mamet's peculiar patois. The brief Alec Baldwin bit is still one of the best five minute segments of any movie ever.
2. The Apostle, 1997. Another Duvall performance that mesmerized me. I actually think I would have contributed to his church.
1. Cinema Paradiso, 1988. Still the champion as far as I am concerned. A movie that loves movies in the same nostalgic, wistful way that I once did. Whenever I need a jolt or a taste of how magical movies once were in my life, I kick back with some chianti (hold the fava beans, please) and cry my way through this wonderful film. The Ennio Morricone score alone would be enough to qualify this incredibly humane film.
So there you have it. Some of my all time favorite "little" movies. I'm sure there are others I've neglected to mention, but each of these resonated in some meaningful way with me.
I doubt any of them were made with any thought about what kinds of action figures they would spawn.
I'll have a medium popcorn, no butter.
Weren't movies once grand?
J
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