Different Slants

By your cinema slave, Robert M. Katzman

Well, a different week and some other movies for you (and me) to think about.

1) Years ago, I saw this delightfully imaginative Czech animated film, more oriented toward adults than children, but quite surreal in its imagery called Fantastic Planet.  I read that within it are subtle political references to the Czech desire to be free from Russian domination.  I am no authority on that subject, but since the film was made in 1973, five years after the Soviet Union’s bloody and brutal suppression of a Czech independence movement in August 1968, that wouldn’t be so surprising. 

By coincidence, that is also same month and year of the infamous Chicago Police Department’s equally bloody and brutal suppression of thousands of young,  politically liberal and/or independent student voices protesting Mayor Richard J. Daley’s Chicago Machine and the Democratic National Convention across the street from the Downtown Conrad Hilton Hotel  in what was then called Grant Park.  

My co-writer of this DifferentSlants.com blog, Rick Munden, was there with other friends of ours and told me he was caught in the Police and National Guard round-up and enveloped in a cloud of tear gas.  No one was killed, and Rick and his friends escaped the net, but the violence was horrifying to the city and nation, and terrifying to all its victims. 

Now, that first Mayor Daley’s son is the current Chicago Mayor and that internationally known battleground site in Grant Park is now called “Millennium Park” very neatly obliterating any unpleasant historical references to the Daley family, who have run the City of Chicago political world for a total of about 40 years, and counting.  Now, that’s a ‘political dynasty’, man!

In any event, rent or buy the animated film.  It’s wonderful and not impossible to find, with a little effort.

2) A relatively current Western from a few years back, Open Range, fits my Western film addiction perfectly.  Kevin Costner, who should only make Westerns from this point on, and Robert Duvall as his much older friend and trail boss, are a perfect on-screen relationship, both effectively displaying decades of hard won experience and competence carving out a physically demanding existence in an un-romanticized  harsh Western landscape.          

The range equipment, cattle herding and gun battles convey a sense of you-are-there authenticity, and the friendships among the four principal actors are very warm.  The small Plaines town looks like it was thrown together not just for the movie, but more like that was the way things were actually done, 125 years ago.   The rough-sawn timbers of the newest buildings and the prickly personalities of all the dozens of main and minor characters in this terrific movie are not sanded smooth.  You get time to know these people and when I see it again, it’s like visiting still quite tough old friends.

Costner’s love interest, an older (and still sexy enough for me) Annette Bening, is just great in her role as a yearning spinster, who quite plainly offers the lonely and emotionally traumatized Costner (because of his numbing experience as a deadly accurate Union sniper in the recent U.S.Civil War) a chance for a different life with warmth and tenderness. 

His scenes in her parlor which filled with too many breakable examples of a civilized life are charming and moving, partly because of Costner’s awkwardness with the items and partly because he is unsure about how to express his feelings for this new woman he desires.  This is a great movie.

3) Cousins, a 1989 American remake of the 1975 French film Cousin, Cousin.  I love it, with its series of weddings and a funeral that you might possibly think resemble that popular English movie where Hugh Grant, and not some ordinary British girl, is the principal sex object.  But this version is unique to itself.  I’m a great fan of the vulnerability and fragile beauty of Isabella Rossellini, whom even David Lynch’s gross efforts in Blue Velvet (1986) couldn’t diminish her delicate luminescence.

Ted Danson is a dance teacher with a teenaged son from a former marriage now married to the looney and ambitious Sean Young, who gradually falls for Isabella’s character as they meet repeatedly at their large extended family gatherings.  Danson has a gentleness and nuanced way with his dialogue and also in scenes where he doesn’t speak at all.  

This movie is a hint of the career he might have had, participating in long-remembered movies, except for the success of the TV show, Cheers.  I don’t begrudge anyone seizing the opportunity to make a killing financially when an opportunity to do that presents itself, but Danson’s career choice was a still a cultural loss to the very different world of the movies, to me anyway. 

Shelly Long, his longtime TV co-star is a good-looking chick…except if you stand her next to Isabella, in which case Long evaporates right before your eyes.   

William Petersen, very handsome and very aware of it, as Rossellini’s serially unfaithful husband and Danson’s competitor for her hand and Lloyd Bridges as Danson’s randy old dad round out the major actor’s in this romantic movie that my wife Joy and I watched for a series of New Year’s Eves, prior to Midnight.

 The movie has a series of scenes that are each little gems.  I think it’s a treasure. 

 4) Friendly Persuasion, a 1956 sort of Western (I guess) set in what I believe is 1863 or so Pennsylvania and portrays a Quaker family trying to remain uninvolved in the Civil War raging all around them, but still far away. 

The mother, a strong willed Quaker Pastor (Dorothy McGuire) is married to tall, rangy, good-humored and a somewhat less observant Quaker (Gary Cooper), a farmer.

They stick to the soothing routines of their compact and well-ordered little world until the Civil War creeps ever closer to their remote hamlet.  Some of Cooper’s neighbors, non-Quakers with whom Cooper’s family has friendly connections, start volunteering to join the Union. 

Anthony Perkins, who was pretty good in several Westerns (The Tin Star, 1957) before he became famous for being creepy (Psycho, 1960) plays Cooper’s rebellious son, who wants to join the fight like his young friends.  His strict mother forbids him to violate their anti-war beliefs, but Perkins runs off anyway to fight with the Union (and his life-long neighbors) against the Confederates in a bloody battle. 

The movie is serious, fairly portrays the Quaker beliefs without mocking them, and vividly shows the terrible cost of war, whether you are part of it, or not.  I find it to be a convincing recreation of the mid-nineteen century.  A warm, wonderful story about tolerance, friendship, long marriages and respect.

That’s all for this week.  If you like my new column and particular point of view, please tell other people you know, who  also find movies to be biologically essential to a well-balanced life, to come visit my blog and read this column. 

See you, under the flickering light…

Bob Katzman

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Note from the Author:

 

Robert M. Katzman, owner of Fighting Words Publishing Company, with four different titles currently in print and over 4,000 books sold to date, is seeking more retail outlets for his vivid and non-fiction inspirational books: 

 

Independent bookstores, Jewish and other religious organizations, Chicago historical societies or groups, English teachers who want a new voice in their class who was a witness to history, book clubs, high schools or museum gift shops.  I will support anyone who supports me by giving readings in the Chicago Metro area.  I have done this over 40 times, and I always sign my books, when asked.  Everyone, positively everyone, asks.  I was amazed, at first, by that.

 

Individuals who wish to order my books can view the four book covers and see reviews of them at www.FightingWordsPubco.com 

 

There are links to YouTube and podcasts, as well.  Or, anyone can call me directly at (847) 274-1474.  Googling my name will also produce all kinds of unusual results.  That other Robert M. Katzman, now deceased, whose name will also appear and who also published, was a doctor.  He actually bought one of my books!  Such a nice man.  Rest in peace, Dr. Katzman.

 

There will be short poems, stories and essays published in this space every two weeks by either myself or my co-blogist Richard G. Munden, or both.  If you find our postings thought provoking, moving or even amusing, please tell others to come view this site.  We will find our strength in your numbers.

 

 Next year, I will publish my fifth book, a collection of my best poetry and essays, called,

                                         

        I Seek the Praise of Ordinary Men

 

Individuals who know of independent bookstores that might be interested in a rough-hewn guy like me, who ran a chain of newsstands for 20 years in Chicago, please tell them about my books, will you?  I am partial to independent bookstores, having owned two, myself, until my last one was killed by the giant chains, in 1994. I still miss it. 

 

I’m also looking to find someone who would want to make a play out of some of my stories in the Chicago area, so I could go there and do some readings sometimes.  I think there’s enough honest sex, drugs and rock n’ roll to hold anyone’s interest, as well as a lot of authentic dialogue from ordinary people in extraordinary situations.  I think the plays would work anywhere, frankly, in some intimate theater with talented actors.