Kick-Back Friday: June 2008 Archives
Ripe for a decent remake, 1973's The Day of the Jackal is still excellent entertainment. Based on Frederick Forsyth's popular novel, the cinematic hunt for the would-be assassin of Charles de Gaulle is directed by one of the great, versatile directors of old (or older) Hollywood, Fred Zinnemann (Oklahoma!, High Noon). The English actor Edward Fox, probably best known for his role as the Jackal, shows the right amount of slickness, sinew, and detachment as the one-minded hitman.
P.S. See if you can spot a young Derek Jacobi (hey, he doesn't stutter!) in a supporting role.
From 1975, Antonioni's The Passenger. Few actors, other than Nicholson, could sustain such a spare, disjointed filmic exercise. But as a documentary reporter who, inexplicably, wants to be somebody else, Nicholson does.
There are viewers who will find the existential tone of the movie pretentious, but I had to rewatch it as soon as it was over.
Need breakneck-speed dialogue and funny-looking women's hats? Here's your movie: Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday, a sexed-up remake of the journalistic screwball comedy, The Front Page.
Hawks evidently encouraged (or simply tolerated) ad libbing and private jokes on the set by his two stars, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. For example, see if you can spot Cary Grant reference his real name.*
Closed captioning is highly recommended, if not urged.
*...which is?
Poster image from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair use law.
In Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot) shows his dark side by examining the phenomenon of the media circus.
An ambitious, East-coast reporter, Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) becomes trapped in Alburquerque, New Mexico—a consequence of his own personal failings. But as an inveterate opportunist, Tatum eventually comes to exploit the story of a nearby mountain cave-in, which half-buries a local treasure hunter. And Tatum isn't the only one who intends to profit from the man's misfortune.
Tatum critiquing the local paper: "Even for Albuquerque, this is pretty Albuquerque."
