It’s past midnight and therefore technically Sunday. My bad.
In my defense, I did watch both
movies before the deadline. But today was
Christmas-deocration-take-down-and-general-winter-clean-up day at our humble
abode. And tonight we had a fun evening with friends, eating some delicious
soup and looking at photo highlights from 2015.
In short, I
don’t regret my marginal lateness, and I hope you don’t fault me for it,
either.
Bringing Up Baby
(1938)
Like many
of the films on this list, I had already seen this one—but more than a decade
ago. It’s actually much funnier than I remember, despite a slow start with
stiff acting and clunky writing. I feel like several movies from this era sort
of feel more like stage productions, at least early on. Movements are
exaggerated and dialogue is expositional. But once Hepburn shows up, the film
hits its stride. Which is interesting, because I guess Hawks wasn’t pleased
with her comedic acting when filming began (but with the help of an acting
coach, she figured out an appropriate persona for her character—one more
natural than the one she tried at first).
The
coincidences and escalating misunderstandings are, of course, absurd. But
they’re supposed to be. If you acquiesce to its screwball nature and just go
along for the ride, you’ll decide Baby
works. It actually sort of reminds me of a Shakespearean comedy that deftly
walks the line between funny and tragic.
I’m impressed, too, by the animal
training (or at least by the movie magic that created such memorable scenes
without any humans getting mauled). It’s almost enough to make me want to get a
pet leopard. Almost.
My only
misgiving about the film—and I suspect this might be a misgiving about a few
films on this list—is the gender politics. Hepburn’s character is the comic foil—I
get it—but the degree to which she is depicted as selfish and foolish
occasionally feels excessive. However, as off-putting as that might be for
some, it’s not a movie-breaker. Because not every female character in the film
is presented this way. And I think it has more to do with her character being a
foil than her character being a woman. She’s the Laurel to Grant’s Hardy, the
Costello to his Abbott.
In short, I
enjoyed Bringing Up Baby. It won’t be
my favorite comedy on this list, but it won’t be my least favorite, either. Grant
and Hepburn are a good duo. The plot is silly fun. And the jaguar is
impressive.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
This is one
of the films on the list that I hadn’t seen yet—at least not in its entirety.
It’s not what I was expecting, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. First
off, the pacing and structure are interesting (even odd?), I think, for a war
film (or any film). The first hour covers just over a day—the last day, in
fact, before three young men from a Western Pennsylvania town head off to war.
There’s a wedding and a hunting trip. Then we’re abruptly thrust into Vietnam
for the second hour, where the young men spend much of the time as POWs. In the
final hour, we get the aftermath of the war, as its lingering physical and
psychological effects take their toll on the three.
Second, the
film is immersive and natural. It’s got a lived-in feel. From the ample time we
spend with the central characters in that first hour—just hanging out with
them, listening to their banter, watching them hunt, observing their drunken
shenanigans at the wedding—to the brief, uncomfortable interactions with
grateful townsfolk we witness when they return, Cimino does a good job making
us feel like we know these guys, like we know the town, like we’ve been there
and lived it. For better and for worse.
And finally,
the film is pretty quiet and contemplative—filled with long takes and beautiful
photography (especially during the hunting scenes)—occasionally punctuated by
moments of extreme and graphic violence.
The overall
tone and pacing makes the film feel familiar, yet uncomfortable, like we
know—or at least understand—this place, these people, this situation. But we’d
rather not. It’s a bad dream we’ve had before but we can’t wake ourselves from.
The film is occasionally
heavy-handed, like during the unapologetically political “God Bless America”
sing-along in the final scene. And the Russian Roulette sequences, which figure
prominently into the story, are intensely thrilling and metaphorically rich,
but their length and frequency are brutal.
But that’s the point, right? In a
film that is otherwise so familiar and comfortable, we need these nightmarish
elements to taint even the “good” that we witnessed early on. Everything’s
different. Unlike Bringing Up Baby, Deer Hunter relies very little on
exposition to tell a story. Cimino,
instead, shows us this story. And for
three hours, we live it.
What are your thoughts on these films?
