Quick takes on 5 CLASSIC films

I just read the book less than a year ago, and since the film version of In Cold Blood follows it pretty faithfully, there isn’t much else to say. The film adaptation was done well. To make it feel more real, director Richard Brooks did it in black and white, and used mostly unheralded actors, with the exception of Robert Blake in one of the leads. It has a documentary kind of feel to it, especially towards the end as the killers’ execution by hanging nears. A very dark and enthralling movie, made very real when you know it all really happened, much like it is portrayed on film.

The original 1963 Lord of the Flies film adaptation is just ok as far as I’m concerned. Based on the book that many have read in school, it tells the tale of a group of young boys stranded on an island together with no adults, and how they revert to cruel and violent natures. From the beginning, Ralph and his “second,” Piggy, attempt to enforce some kind of order, but they are usurped by Jack, who only wants to hunt and have fun. Jack’s group siphons off all of the boys and they turn violent. Directed by Peter Brook, this film was done on a shoestring budget with amateur actors, and you can tell it. Ralph is good, the rest are hit or miss, and the jarring music is more of a distraction than anything else. Better to reread the book again that sit through this one.

While not very well regarded when it first came out, Hitchock’s Vertigo is now considered one of his best, some even calling it the greatest film ever made. From 1958, it stars James Stewart as Scotty Ferguson, a former detective hired by rich man Gavin to follow his mentally ill wife, Madeleine (an enthralling Kim Novak). Madeleine seems to be haunted by a dead ancestor, and while tracking her, Scotty begins to fall in love with her. Definitely a Hitchcock-ian suspenseful thriller, it becomes more of a mystery, and even a tragic love story, by the end. This film has a lot more warmth than what you might expect from this director’s other films, with a brilliant and touching story. Definitely one of cinema’s finest of all time.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre is the 1948 classic movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Walter Huston. Dobbs and Curtain are a couple down-on-their-luck Americans struggling for work in Mexico. They stumble upon an old prospector, Howard, and the three team up to look for gold in the mountains of Mexico. They find their treasure quickly, but Dobbs’ sinister side is shown almost immediately, as his greed makes him jealous and guarded towards his former friends. When they run afoul of a local tribe of bandits, they decide to finally break camp as rich men and return to America. But Dobbs’ inner turmoil bubbles over and he turns on Curtain. A fantastic movie that is part western, part dark comedy, and wholly arresting, this one is a must-see for classic film lovers. Bogart as a menacing bad guy is worthy all by himself, and the foreshadowed and later, realized scenes are well crafted.

In Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Alex is a true sociopath. Set in a dystopian near-future, he and his like-minded thugs spend their days ditching school and getting in to fights, and their nights performing even more violent acts, including rape. When one crime ends in murder, Alex is abandoned by his crew to face justice alone. After a couple years in jail, he hears of and then signs up for a new psycho-therapy in which prisoners are rehabilitated, and then let free from jail. The process doesn’t take away his aggressive tendencies, but does leave him violently ill if he begins to act on them. Now free, all of his past transgressions catch up to him. He is assaulted by a homeless man who he himself once attacked, and then he is tortured by his former gang. Alex ends up at the house of his rape victim, and again is abused. After all this, is it still hard to feel any sympathy for him, for all of his previous acts. The movie ends quite differently from the book from what I hear (not having read it myself yet). It is my son’s favorite novel, and he didn’t life the film version, but I really did like this one. It is a very violent movie with extremely graphic scenes (it is often pointed to as one of the films that started to lessen American sensors), but it is undeniably Kubrick.