Enter the Dragon (1973)

Directed by Michael Clouse

Starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon, and Jim Kelly 

I watched Enter the Dragon last night. And as it opened, I realized that I’d never seen it before. It is such a classic film, referred to so often, that I assumed I’d seen it. But the images I had in my head were from other Bruce Lee films.

I wasn’t sure I was going to get through it, and I was working on my laptop at the same time. But after five minutes, I put that down and had a very pleasant 99 minutes, which – for those with a sense of camp or an interest in film history – I can readily recommend.

It was much better than I expected. For one thing, it has a clever plot.

Bruce Lee, as Hong Kong Shaolin monk/marital artist, is recruited as a secret British spy to track down Han, a Hong Kong crime lord and renegade Shaolin monk who sponsors a martial arts competition on his private island in order to recruit talent for his underground drug operations.

Once in Hong Kong, Lee meets Roper, a martial artist and gambling addict (played by John Saxon and modeled on James Bond), and Williams, an African-American martial artist (played by Jim Kelly in his first film appearance). They are invited, along with others, to participate in Han’s competition. Shortly before they leave for the island, Lee learns that the man responsible for his sister’s death is working as Han’s bodyguard.

On the island, facing seemingly insurmountable odds (before, during, and after the actual competition), Lee, Roper, and Kelly battle their way to various forms of victory through the rest of the movie.

Although this is usually classified as a martial arts film, it is just as much a spy thriller and a spoof of spy thrillers. Han is Doctor Evil, with his lethal troops, his henchman, his training academy, and his drug factory. And like the Bond movies, there are plenty of beautiful and available women and action galore.

There is also an element of the Black/White Buddy genre here, as Roper and Williams turn out to be fellow Vietnam vets, working together much like Robert Culp and Bill Cosby did in the I Spy TV series. (Williams’s character, as expected, does not live till the final act.)

All in all, a terrifically enjoyable film.

 Critical Reviews

* Sascha Matuszak of Vice noted that Enter the Dragon “is referenced in all manner of media, the plot line and characters continue to influence storytellers today, and the impact was particularly felt in the revolutionizing way the film portrayed African-Americans, Asians, and traditional martial arts.”

* Joel Stice of Uproxx called it “arguably the most influential Kung Fu movie of all time.”

* In The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Reader,  Kuan-Hsing Chen and Beng Huat Chua cited its fight scenes as being influential for the way they pitched “an elemental story of good against evil in such a spectacle-saturated way.”

 Interesting Facts

* Enter the Dragon was Bruce Lee’s final completed film appearance before his death on July 20, 1973 at age 32.

* The film was shot on location in Hong Kong. All the scenes were filmed without sound. Dialogue and sound effects were dubbed in during post-production.

* It went on to gross an estimated $350 million worldwide (equivalent to more than $1 billion today, adjusted for inflation), against a budget of $850,000. Having earned more than 400 times its budget, it is one of the most profitable films of all time, as well as being the most profitable martial arts film.

* In 2004, Enter the Dragon was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry (NFR) – a list of films deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)

Directed by Martin Ritt

Starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, and Oskar Werner 

More often than not, movies made from books make lots of changes. Characters are eliminated. Dialog is deleted and/or simplified, and often the denouements are altered to appeal to the movie crowd. That is not the case with the movie version of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. The plot is nearly identical. The characters are the same. And the dialog, as near as I could tell, is word-for-word.

With all that good stuff preserved from the book, I had positive expectations. And, indeed, there are lots of cinematic elements to admire. The cinematography is brilliant – the images, the angles – the lighting (B&W) is evocative, and the settings were designed perfectly for the action.

But I was disappointed. The plot of the book was tense, fast-paced, and emotionally gripping. In the movie, it is not. There were moments when I couldn’t understand why certain characters did what they did or said what they said. I didn’t have that feeling reading the book. And the acting ranged from adequate to opaque. This was especially evident with the lead, the great Richard Burton, whose character and motivations were obscured by an over-reliance on scowling. There was none of the charm in Burton’s performance that was evident in the book. I blame all that on the director. Everything the director is responsible for, including the acting, was a bit overdone.

It is not a bad movie. It is certainly better than many. I would recommend it. But don’t expect to be awestruck.

You can watch the trailer here.

From Slant Magazine: “A fabulous, distinctive movie that revels in the precision and density of conversation as warfare.”

From The New York Times, Bosley Crowther: “The film makes you believe it could have happened. And that’s the remarkable thing.”

Iris (2001)

Directed by Richard Eyre from a screenplay he co-wrote with Charles Wood

Starring Judi Dench, Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent, and Hugh Bonneville

Based on John Bailey’s 1999 memoir, Elegy for Iris, the film looks back on his relationship with his wife, Iris Murdoch. It takes us from their early days, when Murdoch was an outgoing, freethinking intellectual and Bailey was a shy young professor, to their final days together, when Murdoch was virtually helpless, suffering from Alzheimer’s.

I watched the movie because I’ve always wanted to read Murdoch, ever since DK, a former colleague of mine at the University of Chad, recommended her to me. I read a few short stories and a couple of essays, but nothing more over the years. I felt vaguely guilty about that. And so when I saw the movie listed on Netflix, I thought I should watch it. And so I did.

It’s not a great movie, but it’s quite a good one. The story of the relationship is irresistible and heart wrenching. And the portrait of Murdoch, so capably played by both Dench and Winslet (as the young Iris), was so fascinating that I decided to read more about her and read one of her novels.

She wrote about two dozen novels. I chose The Sea, The Sea, which won the Booker Prize in 1987. (See below.)

Interesting Fact: For his role as John Bayley, Jim Broadbent won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at that year’s Academy Awards. The film also picked up nominations for Judi Dench (Best Actress) and Kate Winslet (Best Supporting Actress)

From Washington Post: “Not just a fitting document of a life brilliantly lived but a vibrant, almost palpitating piece of cinema.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “[A] solidly constructed drama, Iris is greatly elevated by the strength of its four lead performances.”

The Queen’s Gambit and Searching for Bobby Fischer 

The Queen’s Gambit is a 7-part Netflix series about a young girl (Beth Harmon) that becomes a chess prodigy, a grandmaster, and eventually a world champion, beating the invincible Russian master. Led by a riveting performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, whose acting is as uniquely powerful as her face is uniquely beautiful, the series was an easy binge that only rarely failed to keep me engrossed in Beth’s story. It was so good, in fact, that I found myself wanting to believe it was based on a true story, although I couldn’t remember any female winning the world chess championship.

In Searching for Bobby Fischer, a couple discovers that their seven-year-old son has a rare talent for chess, a discovery that transforms the father from a man that wanted a happy child to an obsessive booster and, at times, a martinet.

Both movies introduce those who, like me, have only a passing knowledge of chess to the highly demanding and sometimes brutal culture of world-class chess competition. And both give some insight into what it takes to play at such a level.

Of the two, I preferred The Queen’s Gambit for several reasons: It did a better job of providing an idea of what it must be like to have a rare level of genius. And it did a better job of depicting the inevitable emotional downside of trying to find fulfillment in life after one loses one’s perch as a world champion.

My one disappointment with The Queen’s Gambit was the discovery (after doing a bit of research) that I was right. There never has been a female chess champion of the US, let alone the world. In fact, of the top 100 grandmasters in the US, only one is a woman. (Two if you include Hungarian-American dual-citizen Susan Polgar.) In a game that is purely intellectual, where men have no apparent natural advantages, where women are allowed to play against men… it makes you wonder why that is so.

Interesting Facts: Unlike Anya Taylor-Joy, who didn’t know how to play chess before taking the lead role in The Queen’s Gambit, Max Pomeranc (the lead in Searching for Bobby Fischer) was already an avid player. Producers of the film wanted someone who would look convincing and comfortable playing the game on camera.

According to The NPD Group, sales of chess sets jumped 87% in the US and sales of chess books jumped 603% after the release of The Queen’s Gambit. Additionally, eBay reported a 215% increase in sales of chess sets and accessories.

The Queen’s Gambit

Released October 23, 2020

Series Director & Creator: Scott Frank

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, and Bill Camp

From Entertainment Weekly: “Taylor-Joy excels in the quiet moments, her eyelids narrowing as she decimates an opponent, her whole body physicalizing angry desperation when the game turns against her.”

From Time Magazine: “Just as you feel a familiar dynamic forming, in which a talented woman ends up intimidating her suitors, The Queen’s Gambit swerves; it’s probably no coincidence that a story about chess thrives on confounding audience expectations.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Its moves aren’t always perfect, but between Anya Taylor-Joy’s magnetic performance, incredibly realized period details, and emotionally intelligent writing, The Queen’s Gambit is an absolute win.”

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Released August 11, 1993

Directed by Steven Zaillian

Starring Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna, and Ben Kingsley

From Los Angeles Times: “Zaillian proves as much of a prodigy as his chess-playing subject, turning out a film that is a beautifully calibrated model of honestly sentimental filmmaking, made with delicacy, restraint and unmistakable emotional power.”

From Entertainment Weekly: “Based on a true story, Searching for Bobby Fischer is a wonderful movie, a delicate and touching drama that takes us deep inside the eccentric competitive mystique of grandmaster chess.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “As sensitive as the young man at its center, Searching for Bobby Fischer uses a prodigy’s struggle to find personal balance as the background for a powerfully moving drama.”

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Directed by John Ford

Starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara

If you are in the mood for something nostalgically uplifting, I’d recommend How Green Was My Valley.

I saw it last week for the second time in more than 40 years. I remembered it as sentimental. It is. But a sentimental pleasure from beginning to end.

Based on the1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, the film tells the story of the Morgans, a hardworking mining family in Victorian Wales.

Directed by the great John Ford, it stars Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara. Also on the marquee: Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall.

How Green Was My Valley is, at one level, a social critique of the English mining industry at the height of the Industrial Age. That didn’t work for me. The direction and execution of the story was too romanticized to stir up any serious sympathy for the working class. And yet, on some cheesy, corny, emotional level it was fun to watch.

Interesting Fact: The film won 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture (over Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, and Sergeant York). It still gets a high (89%) approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

From Empire: “This John Ford film is typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn’s famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O’Hara, although McDowall as the young lead gives a particularly memorable performance, while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.”

From Variety: “Performances are impressive all the way: fine yet forceful, punchy yet almost underplayed in their deeper meanings, gay and bitter, romantic and frustrated in properly arresting shades and moods, colors and contrasts. All the way it’s an exposition of the cinematic art that pars the best.”

Blow-Up (1966)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, and Jane Birkin

From Roger Ebert: “A hypnotic conjuring act, in which a character is awakened briefly from a deep sleep of bored alienation and then drifts away again. This is the arc of the film. Not ‘Swinging London.’ Not existential mystery. Not the parallels between what Hemmings does with his photos and what Antonioni does with Hemmings. But simply the observations that we are happy when we are doing what we do well, and unhappy seeking pleasure elsewhere. I imagine Antonioni was happy when he was making this film.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Exquisitely shot and simmering with unease, Michelangelo Antonio’s Blow-Up is an enigma that invites audiences to luxuriate in the sensual atmosphere of 1960s London chic.”

The Conversation (1974)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Harrison Ford

From Emanuel Levy: “This is one of Coppola’s masterpieces, a prophetic film about paranoia, the growing role of technology in our daily lives, and the impossibility of privacy even in public spaces.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “This tense, paranoid thriller presents Francis Ford Coppola at his finest – and makes some remarkably advanced arguments about technology’s role in society that still resonate today.”

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Directed by John Huston

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Peter Lorre

Produced 12 years after the book, The Maltese Falcon, directed by the great John Huston and starring the equally great Humphrey Bogart, does not disappoint. It was nominated for three Academy Awards and is considered by many critics to be one of the 100 best films of all time.

It begins, as so many film noirs do, in a private detective’s office. A beautiful woman enters. She has a problem. She wants Sam Spade, the protagonist, to help her. He agrees, reluctantly. And things get complicated after that.

There are many things to like about this movie. Like the book, it gets an A or A+ in all the major elements of drama: plot, characterization, dialog, and theme. In addition, Arthur Edeson, the director of photography, does a magnificent job of bringing the theme of doubt and duplicity to life with his use of soft lenses, low-key lighting, and odd camera angles.

The Maltese Falcon  was produced with a budget of $375,000, and grossed $1.8 million at the box office.

Interesting Fact: In the film, Sidney Greenstreet’s character, Kasper Gutman, is referred to as “Fat Man” – and this inspired the code name for one of the  bombs that ended World War II. “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It destroyed 3 square miles of the city and caused approximately 140,000 deaths.

 From Variety Magazine (September 1941): “One of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Suspenseful, labyrinthine, and brilliantly cast, The Maltese Falcon is one of the most influential noirs – as well as a showcase for Humphrey Bogart at his finest.”

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Directed by John Hughes

Starring Steve Martin and John Candy

From Tubi: “John Hughes’ mismatched-pair, road-trip comedy with Steve Martin and John Candy is full of broad humor, but all of it is pitched just right. When the characters get home for Thanksgiving, the movie reveals its genuine kind heart.”

From Variety: “Man versus technology has been one of the staples of screen comedy since the earliest silent days, and Hughes makes the most of the format here, packing as many of the frustrations of modern life as he can into this calamitous travelog of roadside America.”

There are several such videos available, but I think this one presents the most believable story.

I thought I knew the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving, 1621, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

But this video is eye opening on several points. It’s only 11 minutes. Watch it with your family.

See you tomorrow…

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Fargo (1996)

Written and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Starring William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, and Frances McDormand

On an impulse last week, I watched Fargo again – the 1996 movie, not the TV series. It was as good as I remembered.

Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out why I felt it was so good. Was it the plot? The acting? The direction? The photography?

All of that was great, but it was held together by the characterization.

The protagonist, the person that solves the crime, is played by the always superb Frances McDormand. Her character, Marge Gunderson, is a hugely pregnant local cop called to investigate three roadside murders in the snow. She’s a very ordinary woman, whose only superhero ability is an average intelligence (which sets her apart from her male colleagues) and a sort of “Gee-honey” personality that makes you wonder how she ever became a police officer. At night, safe at home with her balding, chubby husband Norm, she prefers to talk about her husband’s excruciatingly mundane hobby of painting Mallards than her own dangerous and challenging job.

The antagonist, Jerry, is an ingenuous car salesman and family man that desperately hopes to solve his financial problems by having his wife kidnapped and ransomed. Unintentionally, he is the true the precipitator of all the mayhem that follows. He is played brilliantly by William H Macy.

The kidnappers – two intensely comical criminal morons played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stomare – provide both the comedy and the grizzle that make this film so unique.

And last but not least, there are two things that make everything else deliciously surreal: the “Minnesota nice” accent” enunciated wonderfully by McDormand and Macy, and Fargo itself – a snow-covered, small-town wilderness that provides the perfectly ironic background for this gruesome and increasingly horrifying game of dominoes. (I had forgotten, but the movie was written and directed by the Coen brothers, who gave us the equally great, genre-defying comical caper Raising Arizona.)

Interesting Fact: Not surprisingly, Fargo won numerous prestigious awards and was named by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films in history. What is surprising is that it cost only $9 million to make. That’s actually hard to believe. It grossed over $60 million at the box office and has probably generated another $40 million in residuals and rights. Not bad.

From Entertainment Weekly: “An illuminating amalgam of emotion and thought.”

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Violent, quirky, and darkly funny, Fargo delivers an original crime story and a wonderful performance by McDormand.”

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