Continuing on from an earlier posting called Moments of Film Magic, I have decided to make a go at a second series of film moments that were magical or in some way connected deeply with me. Because there are so many great films out there, it would have been impossible to restrict this to one list. So, near the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of America’s greatest actors, Paul Newman, I will take another stab at cinematic moments that left me enthralled.
Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire. It is only fitting to begin with what is perhaps Paul Newman’s greatest film, Hud, which garnered him his third Oscar nomination in 1963. In this scene, the titular character, a rash, hard-drinking cowboy, is confronted by his angry father, Homer an old-school, honorable cattle rancher in the Texas Panhandle (a fabulous role that won an Oscar for Melvyn Douglas). Old family skeletons emerge from the closet in front of young Lonnie, Homer’s grandson and Hud’s nephew. Homer gives his progeny hard truths that underlie all generational divides. Based on Larry McMurtry’s debut novel Horseman, Pass By.
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The Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world. Since we began with Paul Newman, I want to highlight one of the best films starring Newman’s best friend, Robert Redford. Sydney Pollack directed this sparse, realistic 1972 Western based on the true-life story of the mountain man Jeremiah Johnson. In his quest to live alone and simply, Johnson undergoes a series of traumatic ordeals. As he begins to find peace, he re-encounters an old friend, Del Gue. They soon part ways again, but as he rides off alone, Gue shouts aloud a poetic description of the beautiful cathedral that is the Rocky Mountains. For a film with so little dialogue, Jeremiah Johnson is tremendously poignant.
Gue’s exact words: I says ‘the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world,’ and by God, I was right! I ain’t never seen ‘em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! These here is God’s finest sculpturings! And there ain’t no laws for the brave ones! And there ain’t no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain’t no churches, except for this right here! And there ain’t no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live ‘til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent Rocky Mountains!
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Homecoming in William Wyler’s 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives. Three veterans from the same hometown encounter one another on their long journey back from war. As they draw closer to home, they grow nervous thinking about the expectations of their loved ones after being away for so many years. This was the first film to take on the topics of PTSD, wartime infidelity, and the challenges veterans faced on their return home. In spite of the dark realism on display at times, the film came away with a sweep of all the major categories at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The sailor, Homer Parrish, was played by the disabled vet, Harold Russell, who had lost actually both his hands in the service. Russell became the first and only actor to be awarded two Oscars for the same role. The director Wyler called Russell’s work, “the finest performance I have ever seen on the screen.” A tremendous film in every respect. One of my all-time favorites.
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Where do we get such men? Actor Frederic March utters these words at the end of the 1954 Korean War film, The Bridges at Toko-Ri. One of the most powerful ending scenes of any film, punctuated by this simple question. Rear Admiral Tarrant (March), whose own son has died in the Second World War, learns of the death of a naval aviator, Harry Brubaker. After spending time together on leave in Japan with Brubaker and his young wife, Tarrant had taken the young pilot under his wing as a surrogate son, worrying about him on each mission and doting on him when he is shipboard. Brubaker is angry that he has been unfairly called into service again in Korea, seven years after having served honorably in WWII. He fights depression and bucks his superiors at every occasion. Based on the novella by James Michener, the film has an all-star cast, including William Holden (Lt. Brubaker), Grace Kelly (Mrs. Brubaker), and Mickey Rooney. This film has tremendous emotional depth for a war movie. Upon its release the film shocked audiences with its dark realism and dire ending.
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The Kiss in the Birch Forest from the 1962 film Ivan’s Childhood, by famed Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. In this scene the bold Captain Kholin aggressively courts the young physician’s assistant Masha in a birch forest just behind the battle lines of the Eastern Front in WWII. The camera work is audacious, especially as Masha dashes away from Kholin through the trees after he experiences pangs of moral regret. All through the scene the viewer hears the incessant pecking of a woodpecker in the trees and the report of one sniper’s rifle. The film itself is a tour de force of flashbacks and dreams between the violence of the front lines and the childhood innocence lost by the titular character, the twelve-year-old boy, Ivan, who has become a spy and a reliable scout under Kholin. We glimpse the contrast of Ivan’s Childhood between how it should have been and the grim reality of how it turned out. Perhaps the best and most realistic Soviet film about the Russian experience in the Second World War.
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The match cut scene from David Lean’s magnificent film Lawrence of Arabia from 1962. In what is widely considered the greatest feat of cinematography of any film, Lieutenant Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), having explained to the diplomat Dryden (Claude Rains) his desire to scout the Bedouin in the Arabian desert as allies against the Turkish Ottoman Empire, demonstrates his eccentricity with the lighting of a match. Lean then seamlessly transitions from the extinguished flame to a rising sun over the desert where Lawrence must undertake an arduous journey with a single guide.
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The First Strike Argument in Sidney Lumet’s powerful 1964 film Fail Safe. Walter Matthau, known for his comedic roles, delivers a bullish argument about the necessity of a first strike in a nuclear war only to be rebuffed by a more rationale Air Force general. The acting in this fine film is incredible, including roles for Henry Fonda as the president and Larry Hagman as his Russian interpreter.
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I’m suggesting, Mr. President, there’s a military plot to take over the government. A Marine colonel (played by Kirk Douglas) who is chief of staff to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs utters these words to the president (portrayed by Frederic March) in John Frankenheimer’s 1964 film Seven Days in May. This movie came out around the same time as Lumet’s Fail Safe. Both films illuminated to the American public the dangers of the growing arms race and its concomitant influence on domestic politics. The acting in this film is equally as powerful as in Lumet’s film, and includes Douglas, March, Burt Lancaster, and Eva Gardiner.
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Yuri’s last glimpse of Lara. David Lean is considered one the greatest directors of the twentieth century. I could fill up an entire post with clips from his films. One of the greatest cinematic love stories of all times is Lean’s 1965 film Dr. Zhivago, an epic based on the novel by Boris Pasternak, which takes place during the Russian Civil War around 1920. Zhivago has a love affair with a woman named Lara. When she becomes pregnant, Zhivago realizes that he must send her off to safety. He does not tell her that he will not be coming with her, but as she rides off into the distance, he rushes to the top floor of a house to catch a glimpse of her going over the horizon. Wonderful soundtrack by Maurice Jarré.
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Dersu the Trapper. Keeping on the Russia theme the 1975 film Dersu Uzala (from the acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, the first film from the Soviet Union to receive the award. The story is from an autobiographical account by the Russian surveyor Vladimir Arseniev, who befriends a local guide, Dersu, from the Nanai tribe while exploring the still untamed Russian Far East in the early 1900s. In this clip Dersu impresses skeptical Russian soldiers with his wizardly knowledge of nature and his remarkable hunting skills. The friendship that Arseniev and Dersu form is touching and beautiful.
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And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. The final scene from the 1980 Australian film Breaker Morant directed by Bruce Beresford. The film, based on a true story, shows the fate of three Australian soldiers unjustly accused of war crimes for political reasons during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa in 1900. The film is more a legal drama than a war film. Much of the action is through flashbacks during the court room proceedings. As two of the men are led to their sentence, Harry Morant, the Renaissance-figure titular character, recites some of his wonderful poetry.
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I am haunted by waters. Two brothers, who share a difficult and combative relationship between themselves and with their father, reach manhood in a fly-fishing family in the wilds of Montana during the 1920s. This is the setting for Robert Redford’s film, A River Runs Through It. Based on the novella by Norman Maclean, Redford chronicles the period between the wars when America was prosperous and growing. But the difficulties of familial relationships and child-rearing are ever-present. Redford, who serves as the film’s narrator, masterfully depicts these universal themes in Brad Pitt’s debut performance. The ending monologue brings most people to tears.
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I’m Shiva, the god of death! Shouts George Clooney in the role of the titular character of the excellent 2007 crime/legal drama Michael Clayton, directed by Tony Gilroy, about a fixer in a large NYC legal firm. When a partner in Clayton’s firm ends up dead, and after he himself narrowly escapes a car bomb, Clayton confronts the lead counsel of his firm’s client (an Oscar winning performance by Tilda Swinton), after he realizes that she had ordered the hits. The detective who meets Clayton after the confrontation is his brother. An under-appreciated, but excellent film. Clooney’s best work in my opinion.
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