On this day in 1929, the great film director Sergio Leone was born. It’s rare that a filmmaker like Leone comes along. I wouldn’t call him a complete filmmaker like Akira Kurosawa — from whom Leone learned a great deal. Leone was a highly idiosyncratic filmmaker. There are a lot of fetishistic elements to his films — and I’m not just talking about his vaguely creepy sexual interests. There is something extremely sensual about the way he told stories. His films have a fascination with point of view. I think that is where his interest in extreme close-ups and long takes comes from.

There is one thing that I think we really need to clarify, however. I’m very fond of A Fistful of Dollars. But it is nowhere near as good a film as Yojimbo. There simply isn’t a single thing that Leone did better in remaking the film. And mostly, he did worse. But given that Yojimbo is both a great and a perfect film, that maybe doesn’t say much. But if you have never seen Yojimbo, you really should.

The Leone film that I like best is A Fistful of Dynamite. Most of Leone’s films are more about style than about substance. But this one is about something. Set during the Mexican Revolution, it turns a very cynical eye toward revolution as a means of progress. War means death — whatever the cause. And usually, the cause is just an excuse. Of course, personally, I have mixed feelings about the Mexican Revolution. I certainly admire a lot of the people involved in it, but in the end it didn’t come to much. And even today when Mexico is nominally a democracy, look who leads the country.

Here is the whole movie online. Watch it while it is available:

Happy birthday Sergio Leone!

The great actor Ben Kingsley is 71 today. He is probably best known for his Academy Award winning role in Gandhi. But that just shows what a crock the Academy awards are. They just love giving out awards to films that are about “important” subject. Leave it to Hollywood to make an important movie not just decades after Gandhi’s death, but also after Martin Luther King’s death. Kingsley was great in the film, but then he always is.

Most recently, he was absolutely great in Iron Man 3 — a film that literally had nothing else to recommend it. In it, he plays the Mandarin — a supposed terrorist who is, in fact, just a down on his luck actor with a weakness for drugs and women. You know: my hero! But don’t watch the film. It’s tiring. But Kingsley is great.

There are so many films where Kingsley shines that it is hard to list them all. I will just mention a few that you really must see. Obviously, Schindler’s List should be seen for a number of reasons, but his role as Itzhak Stern is the heart of the film. Another is Sexy Beast. And for a sweet one, there is Hugo.

One film that I love but bombed (probably because it is great) is War, Inc. Here is a scene, but John Cusack gets the best line, “I signed up to kill the bad ones! Health clinics, trade unionists, journalists, agricultural co-ops, Catholic liberation theologians, impoverished Colombian coffee farmers, these are the barbarians that are brave opponents of civilization. We turned Central America into a f**king graveyard. Whoever momentarily interrupts the accumulation of our wealth, we pulverize. I’m just not feeling good about that anymore, sir.”

But for a limited time only, two of my favorite Ben Kingsley films are complete and on YouTube. The first is Turtle Diary with Glenda Jackson. It’s one of those little gems that the studio can’t even be bothered to release on DVD. (It is available on VHS.) So you can be sure that that before too long, the studio will notice that it’s online and say, “We don’t care enough to sell this title, but we’ll be damned if we’ll let anyone watch it for free!” While it lasts my friends:

The second film is available on DVD (sadly not letterboxed), Without a Clue — I own it and watch it quite a lot. It is a reversal where it is really Watson who is brilliant and he’s hired an actor to play the part of Holmes. It isn’t great, but it’s sweet and very funny. Sadly, I can’t embed it, but you can watch it over on YouTube (but at least it is letterboxed).

Happy birthday Ben Kingsley!

Today, the great character actor Jon Polito is 64 years old. I featured him last year for the birthday post, but there really is no one else I feel that I ought to talk about. It isn’t just that I admire his work. It is also that I’m extremely jealous of him. He has the kind of career that every actor ever wanted to have when they started out. Even though he’s still pretty young, he has over 200 entries on IMDb — and that doesn’t include multiple appearances on a single television show. He also has the sweet spot of fame: famous enough for it to be flattering, but not so famous that he can’t have a regular life.

Primarily, I think his is a great actor. There is depth in his performance that you just don’t find in a lot of established actors. I think it is interesting that in his scene with Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, he dominates. And I say that even as I think Bridges is an okay actor. Anyway, someone put together this nice comedy reel of Polito’s work. Check it out:

My favorite role of his is Johnny Caspar in Miller’s Crossing. He’s the heart of the film, because as much of a psychopath as he is, he’s the only one who has a sense of justice and right and wrong. Sadly, his opening speech about ethics is not online. But here is a little bit from the very end of it:

Happy birthday Jon Polito!

On this day in 1888, the great German filmmaker F W Murnau was born. He started in film right around the time when it had come into its all as an artistic medium. And his films are always quite beautiful to look at. He had a great eye. But he is best known for the mood of his work — he is one of major figures in German Expressionistic cinema. And like others in that movement, he was very interested in horror. This first film was based upon The Picture of Dorian Gray. He later did adaptations of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Faust.

He is best know, however, for his horror classic, Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror — one of the first true horror films. Of course, like all of his films, he never got the rights to make the film. And in this case, it brought legal action from Bram Stoker’s widow. As a result, the film never had the chance to be commercially successful. But it is considered a classic today. All prints of the film were supposed to be destroyed. Luckily, one was saved.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of many of Murnau’s films. His first six films have been lost except for some minor fragments. And three of his later films are lost. This includes one he made in Hollywood, 4 Devils — which is thought by film historians to have been one of his best works. In all, he directed 21 films and nine of them are lost — almost half! That’s shocking for a major filmmaker of such a late date. And these are all feature films — 50 minutes and longer.

Still, you can find many of his films on the internet: Nosferatu, Faust, Tabu. And that’s a lot more than you can say for a lot of people. There are many whose films exist but no one cares enough to release them or put them online. I especially recommend checking out Tabu, because it shows a different side of Murnau than we normally see and you get a good feel for his keen visual sense.

Happy birthday F W Murnau!

On this day in 1924, the great writer and television producer Rod Serling was born. He served in the Pacific during World War II and after returning home, he went to Antioch College where he received his bachelor’s degree in literature. During his time there, he became involved in radio and so he began working in it. Soon, he moved to into television. Probably most notable during this career was the production of his teleplay, Requiem for a Heavyweight.

In 1959, Serling got to produce the series that he was best known for, The Twilight Zone. As great as Serling was as a writer, just important to the success of the show was his decision to work with Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson. All three of them are among the best television writers ever — regardless of genre. And the shows hold up remarkably well even today.

Since it is Christmas, I have to mention what is by far the best Christmas show ever made, “Night of the Meek.” It was the ninth episode of the second season of The Twilight Zone. And it does a better job than anything else in summing up what I think Christmas is all about. Of course, I feel an extremely strong kinship with Henry Corwin (played by Art Carney). It’s beautiful.

I used to embed it, but the embed got taken down. Search Google for “Night of the Meek” and you will almost certainly find it.

After The Twilight Zone, Serling created Night Gallery. I still think it was a fine show — in many ways as good as The Twilight Zone. But Serling didn’t stay in charge of the series for very long and it rather quickly got terrible. But at first, it was great. And it was quite good for a while.

Before, I embedded the pilot, but of course, it always gets taken down. You can usually find it somewhere online. Also, I recommend checking out my page about the show on Psychotronic Review: Night Gallery.

Serling had heart trouble when he was only 50 years old. It quickly led to his death. I’m sure if he had lived at a later time, things would have gone better for him — and for us. Still, it is amazing how much great work he produced in his short lifetime. He really was a kind of Christmas present for our culture 90 years ago.

Happy birthday Rod Serling!

The great film writer and director Nicholas Meyer is 69 years old today. You probably know him because he wrote and directed the two best Star Trek movies: The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country. They are probably the best ones because Meyer was not a Star Trek fan. Of the former film, he got to the heart of what’s wrong with the series (and even more so the later versions), “I didn’t insist that Captain Kirk go to the bathroom, but did Star Trek have to be so sanctified?” Clearly not.

Meyer hasn’t worked as a director in a long time. I think he’s always seen himself as a writer. He did recently write that four-hour History Channel series Houdini. I didn’t see it, but my father really enjoyed it. It’s interesting that he should have come to prominence because of the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle were friends — at least until all the mystical stuff ripped them apart.

What I’m most interested in is Meyer’s made-for-television film, The Day After. That was the one that was about nuclear war and how horrible it would be. I never saw it. I didn’t feel the need. Didn’t we already know? Plus, Threads provided more than enough information. (My understanding is that The Day After is rosy compared to Threads.) After the film, I guess they had a discussion with Carl Sagan on the anti-nuke side, and William F Buckley, always on the wrong side of history, pushing for the importance of nukes.

Normally, these kinds of issue films are totally worthless — preaching to the choir. But in this case, the film had a very special viewer: President of the United States Ronald Reagan. Apparently, it is not true that Reagan sent a message regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to Meyer saying, “Don’t think your movie didn’t have any part of this, because it did.” But Reagan (along with much of his staff) was apparently greatly affected by the film. He wrote in his journal that it was “very effective and left me greatly depressed.”

Let’s revisit Khan’s great Melville death:

Happy birthday Nicholas Meyer!

On this day in 1921, the great American film director George Roy Hill was born. I always associate him with William Goldman’s book Adventures in the Screen Trade. The entire chapter on directors consists of the following sentence, “Some of my best friends are directors.” This sentence did have a footnote where Goldman explained that directing was a hard job — not like a theoretical physicist’s job is hard, but like a coal miner’s job is hard. And he noted that directors help everyone involved in the production. His point was that we have mythologized directors and that given all the other creative minds on a film, the director is not that important. He has a vision of the film director that is more like that of a theater director: the person who manages all the creative activity. I agree with this vision to a large extent. And this is the kind of director that George Roy Hill was.

To a large extent, the film directors who are considered “auteurs” are generally the ones who talk a certain way. There is no doubt that someone like Jon Jost absolutely is the author of his own films. But it is hard to make that claim even for David Cronenberg, much less Martin Scorsese. This doesn’t say anything about the quality of the films these three men make — they all produce films that are without exception worth making and are sometimes great. But $100 million budgets are collaborations. Regardless, I don’t think that Scorsese has a more distinctive visual style than Hill does.

Of course, the thing is that Hill does have a distinctive style. Or rather: his films have a distinctive visual style. It is just that no one fetishizes that style. But as a result of that, Hill’s films tend to age better. I know for a lot of people, Goodfellas is a favorite film. To me, it is almost un-watchable; it is filled with tricks that Scorsese would (gratefully) eventually get over or refine. (I think Scorsese is at his best in films like The Age of Innocence and Bringing Out the Dead and Kundun.) Hill doesn’t have that problem.

So let’s look at a few of his classic films — and I will be ignoring a number of others! First is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — one of the greatest westerns ever made. (I want to say “the greatest” but that’s hard.) In a sense, that is William Goldman’s film, because it is drenched in his sensibility. Just the same, it looks and feels like a Hill film. It was a collaboration of a lot of great people, including Burt Bacharach. But Hill brought it all together in a film I still love watching.

Do I need to mention The Sting? Maybe we should just move on to The Great Waldo Pepper. When I was a kid, I didn’t much like it. But it ages well. Also: it helps to be an adult. This trailer makes it seem like it’s a comedy, but it really isn’t. It’s an interesting film about a man trying to find meaning in life. But it is done in a very Hollywood (false) way:

Other films that are well worth watching include: Slap Shot, A Little Romance, and The Little Drummer Girl. I will say nothing about the Chevy Chase film, because I haven’t seen it. But let’s take a look at The World According to Garp, which is still a joy to watch:

Happy birthday George Roy Hill!