I have gone to countless movies over the years, some I loved, some were so-so, some a waste of time. I decided to make s short list of those that I think are great. Some have faded over time, or more properly, I grew up. For example, when quite young I loved Abbot and Costello in various films, as when they met Frankenstein or Dracula or the Mummy. But as an adult, it wasn't even that funny anymore. Some, like Laurel and Harvey, did, and I still enjoy their comedies.
As a youngster, I saw the western 1953 film "Shane." I was about 15, whereas the boy in the film was only 6, but I had thought it was terrific. Saw it recently on Pluto, or missed a little of the beginning. I did not so identify with the boy, as with a young man, a Southerner, and knew that strains of Dixie would be played somewhere in the film. The young man is a good guy, trying to farm like the other new arriving farmers. He knows that the cattle dealers object to farmers cutting into their territory, fencing off land where the cattle used to roam, reducing their grazing lands, trying to blockade their fast routes to the north. The cattlemen were cutting and destroying the fences of the farmers, and threatening them with gunfights.
The Southerner is a farmer, and helped a farmer to survive some of the threats. Cattlemen then hire a professional gun slinger to help persuade the farmers to depart. The Southener comes to town and confronts Jack Palance, the bad gunslinger. Dixie is played in the background. Then Palance seeks to provoke the rebel to draw his pistol first, insulting the young man as a Southerner, trash, and so are his Confederate generals. Reb draws, and is killed by the evil Yank, who will not be judged a murderer because the rev drew his weapon first. [And in these days of hatred and prejudice, and demands to destroy our own history, pulling down monuments not only to Lee, and Beauregard, but to Jefferson, Washington, AND Columbus, it is amazing Shane is shown anywhere.]
The boy's dad is now trying to prevent the farmers from running away, leaving all they have tried to build up. but many farmers or their wives are concluding it is too dangerous to stay with Palance in town. Time to go. The boy's dad plans to take a stand alone, but Alan Ladd, who recently had been working for that family, is a gunslinger himself, trying to get out of that business. Ladd decides he, not the dad, will ride to town to face Palance. A fist fight between Ladd, and the dad. Ladd goes to town, shoots Palance, and rides into the sunset. ignoring the shouts of the boy, "Come back, Shane."
The film includes debates about the role of cattlemen and ranchers, and indirectly provides a good argument in favor of colonialism. The cattlemen had their day, as they pushed off the more primitives who were there before them. Now the farmers are the new economy for the futures, and they will replace the cowboys on the cattle drives with plowed fields; replacing gunslingers with sheriffs.
A film made less than a year prior to Shane, is another great film - High Noon in 1952. The Sheriff of a small town in the west has just married an attractive Quakeress, and soon learns that a real bad criminal is to be released today, and should arrive in town on the train at noon, and he plans to get his revenge on the sheriff and the town that sent him to prison for so long. Sheriff knows he will have to get a posse to stop this tough gun-fighter. His new wife, a pacifist, is saying he should not do this, get others to handle it. Sge demands he leave town with her, and they can avoid the inevitable gun fight. He loves her, but duty demands that he stay and fight. The criminal was a top notch shooter, and word is he has rounded up his gang to come with him and assure he gets his revenge. Sheriff goes to round up men to help, and a number say they will meet him before noon. Goes to others and when they hear who is coming, they find excuses not to come. One after another declines. When he goes to meet those who said they would help, they askwhere are the rest? Sheriff tells them, it's just us (2 or 3). Then they back out. Noon. Train arrives. Bad guy there and he brought several bad guy buddies with him.. Shoot out? Wife plans to depart. Will the Sheriff get any help? The town falls to the criminals? See the film for the answers.
Another great film, Black Orpheus, the 1959 film made about a Brazilian Carnival ce;ebratopm pressed into a Greek mythological template. The music, color, actors, excitement, even the dread - it all ge;s to make a spectacular work of art. I had a boss who was quite intelligent, a black woman, who despised it because of some stereotypes in the film. Not everyone will agree with my assessment.
Another French film, made in 1960 made my list, Purple Noon. I had seen many American crime dramas, in movies and on tv, but this was really quite different. In sunny upper class southern Italy, there is some travelog aspect to this, but it is a murder, where you begin to identify with the clever murderer. Surely, he will be caught, but, no, the police are off the track again. He must be caught when this happens, but no again. Then the protagonist, Alain Delon, has just killed a man at least 50 pounds heavier than he. They are on perhaps the 3rd floor, and Delon must carry the man down a spiral staircase so they both appear drunk (and alive) so he can get the guy out and dispose of his body. A terrific scene. The American remake, decades later, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" should be seen so one can appreciate how much better the French film was.
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