Midnight Oil:Movies and More

David Lynch gives us “The Straight Story” (1999) IMDb starring Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek. If you don’t mind the lawn tractor pace of the rhythm of this movie, it’s a wonderful ride. There’s lots to see about life when you’re obliged to stop and look from atop Alvin Straight’s John Deere lawnmower. Alvin gains perspective about his past and wisdom along the way as he engages in an amazing personal journey in order visit his estranged brother. Sissy Spacek also turns in a great performance as Alvin’s troubled daughter with a speech impediment. I’ve seen it twice now on SNAM. I wouldn’t mind going for a third time around. Sometimes I just need to slow down. (Don’t we all!)

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Catch the video trailer for "The Straight Story" (1999) here.

Shirley MacLaine is “Sweet Charity” (1969) IMDb. A Broadway musical converted into a film vehicle, the plotline follows the misadventures of the hopeless romantic, Charity Hope Valentine as she seeks to escape her sleazy lifestyle as a taxi dancer at the Fandango Ballroom. Ms. MacLaine is a bright light in this film in her performance as the ingenuous Charity. But let’s all be honest and admit that the whole thing is just a big excuse to watch the incredible dance numbers put together by Bob Fosse. At least, that’s the way it is for me.

“Sweet Charity”(1969) has been shown in the past on SNAM and was most recently screened on a Friday night.

Not to be missed is the dance sequence, “The Rich Man’s Frug” by Bob Fosse. Remember that toy with the crazy plastic boxers slugging each other? Take a gander at this little number on the dance floor with “The Heavyweight”.

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Catch the video trailer for “Sweet Charity” (1969) here.

Paul Newman is “Nobody’s Fool” (1994) IMDb . Robert Benton’s delicately drawn portrait of aging also stars Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis. Newman plays Sully, a rascally character living in small town America who decides that it’s never too late after all to join the human race. Sully’s worked hard all his life to avoid facing up to inevitable realities. We’d all like to  believe that people can get better and not just “older”, in spite of all the examples we see to the contrary. Newman is such a wonderful actor and Benton is such a masterful storyteller in this  film that we’ll just have to become believers.

See the “Never Too Late” video interview preview for Nobody’s Fool from SNAM here.

Read Thom Ernst’s blog entry on the ageless Paul Newman .

Don't miss the entire TVO SNAM interviews for the "Never Too Late" episode. Includes a discussion of  "Nobody's Fool" and "The Late Show" in the discussion of Hollywood films and the subject of aging.

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Catch the video trailer for Nobody’s Fool here.

“Shenandoah” (1965) IMDb with James Stewart playing the lead role provides a less than usual perspective on the American Civil War. The film tells the story of a well ensconced Virginian farming family caught up in the latter part of the Civil War. Stewart, as Charlie Anderson, vehiculates a pragmatic pacificism about a mean and dirty war that now encroaches on his land and his family. Anderson himself is not undergirded by a particularly robust morality about the war nor about his position on pacificism. He finds himself fighting a losing battle even though he technically remains “out of the war”.

The Uncivil War episode offered by Saturday Night at the Movies pairs “Ride with the Devil” (1995) IMDb with this movie classic from 1965. SNAM’s interviewed guests bring out the relationship of “Shenandoah” with American sentiments of the day concerning young American men snatched up into the war in Vietnam and the accompanying anger, confusion and sense of helplessness on the part of those at home.

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See the SNAM preview for The Uncivil War here. Dig in to the background for the films through the Interviews on The Uncivil War with experts on the period.

Catch the video trailer for “Shenandoah” (1965) here.

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“Days of Wine and Roses” (1962) IMDb looks inside the private world of an alcoholic as Jack Lemmon plays Joe Clay. Lemmon convincingly portrays the struggles of the charming and talented addict who quickly draws his young wife (played by Lee Remick) into the predictable downward spiral with him. Although some might be tempted to write the film off as a mere modern-day morality tale, I tend to see it as a laudable attempt to deal honestly  with the subject of alcoholism. The flavour is definitely bittersweet. It’s a film that points toward the intensely human capacity for courage, hope and redemption as well as for degradation.

This film was paired with “Clean and Sober” (1988) IMDb with Michael Keaton, another very powerful film about addiction. See the Saturday Night at the Movies preview for both films in the “Hooked” episode here.

View this retrospective on the acting career of the late Jack Lemmon set to Henry Mancini's Oscar winning song for the movie, "Days of Wine and Roses".

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Catch the video trailer for “Days of Wine and Roses” here.