The Deer Hunter (1978): "This Is This" (video)

 

This is this! This is this! This is this this this!

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

The Deer Hunter (1978): "This Is This" (video)

MIDNIGHT COWBOY -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/20/21

 

Currently rewatching: MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969). The only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture (it was later reduced to an R).

The two great lead performances consist of Dustin Hoffman as skid row denizen "Ratso" Rizzo and Jon Voight as a naive Texas stud named Joe Buck who thinks he can make money hustling rich New York matrons who are "just beggin' for it."

Rarely has this sort of life been portrayed in such a bleak and desolate manner as the two unlikely friends struggle to scrape up a meager buck while living in a condemned building. 

 

Joe's prospects grow dimmer every day, forcing him to engage in the lowest forms of prostitution, while Ratso's physical deterioration mirrors that of their increasingly hopeless living conditions.

John Schlesinger's creative direction and the sometimes free-form editing are amazingly, deliriously experimental.
 
Flashbacks, fantasies, and delusions often combine to turn the narrative into a fever dream that's alternately humorous (Ratso's fantasies of a sunbaked life in Florida) and frightening (Joe's garbled memories of childhood sexual and emotional confusion and warped romantic encounters).

Yet the funny, perversely sentimental, and at times achingly tragic story always remains grounded and strong, leading to a heartrending and overwhelmingly sad ending that is rendered for maximum effect with the skill of a virtuoso by director Schlesinger.

 

The supporting cast includes Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, John McGiver, Sylvia Miles, and Bob Balaban. A dizzying party sequence features some familiar names associated with Andy Warhol and the New York avant garde scene.

I hadn't seen MIDNIGHT COWBOY for quite some time before revisiting it just now, and what I vaguely remembered as a "sad" ending hit me full force this time and I cried pretty much all the way through the closing credits. Some of the most innovative and creatively self-assured films ever made came out of the late 60s, and this is one of the best.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY -- Movie Review by Porfle

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/28/13

 

Like so many soldiers throughout the ages, returning World War II veterans were faced with a special dilemma--they were back in the homefront they'd yearned for, yet surrounded by people who had no idea what they'd just been through and what they were going through now. 

The problems these men had fitting back into peacetime society--including becoming members of their own families again--are skillfully and sympathetically explored in director William Wyler's Oscar-winning masterwork THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), now available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.

Three ex-servicemen--Army sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March,  DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE), Air Force captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews, CURSE OF THE DEMON),  and Navy swabbie Homer Parrish (Harold Russell)--hitch a long ride on a military transport to their hometown and become bosom buddies along the way. 

We begin to feel their tension at seeing family and friends again as they liken it to "storming the beaches", with Homer especially dreading the impending reunion due to the loss of his hands during his ship's sinking.  He fears not only how his folks will react but mostly whether or not his prospective bride, girl-next-door Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell, BEN HUR), will now reject him.

Fred has a different problem--his blond bombshell wife, Marie (a drop-dead gorgeous Virginia Mayo), to whom he had been married a mere twenty days before going overseas, is a party animal whose recent job in a nightclub has made her accustomed to a fast lifestyle which her unemployed husband can't provide. 

The young Andrews is ideally cast as a once-proud soldier who now must return to his old job as a drugstore soda jerk, biting his lip as a former underling orders him around while an uncaring boss, as did many at the time, regards him and other returning vets as a nuisance to society.  With Marie constantly berating him for not being successful or ambitious enough, and openly flaunting her intentions to "step out" on him, we can hardly blame Fred when he falls for Marie's exact opposite, the lovely and understanding Peggy (a vibrant Teresa Wright).

Trouble is,  Peggy is Al's daughter, and he's having his own problems without having to worry about her hooking up with a married man.  Unlike his two pals, former banker Al returns to a luxurious apartment but feels just as out-of-place among his wife and two kids.  Their reunion is tense and uncomfortable--empathetic viewers, in fact, may feel this way for much of the film--with Al first glimpsing his wife Milly (Myrna Loy) across the expanse of a long hallway that symbolizes the gulf still lying between them.  (He'll later describe the feeling of crossing that hallway as "like going overseas again.")

In  the film's opening scenes, it's heartrending to see the near-desperation with which the three main characters cling to each other's sympathetic company rather than face the prospect of returning to the families who now seem almost like strangers to them.  Later,  we fear that they'll never reassimilate back into normal life. 

This is especially true when restless Al urges Milly and Peggy to join him for a night out on the town.  March, seemingly slipping  into his celebrated Mr. Hyde persona at times,  portrays Al as a manic, nearly out-of-control drunk on his first night back--it's almost as though he's decompressing, or trying to put on the brakes like a speeding jet landing on a runway.  

It makes us glad that Milly is such a strong, sensible, supportive wife, with a rock-solid Myrna Loy (THE THIN MAN) lending her the stature of a woman any man would fight to come back home to and be glad to have on his side.  With her help, Al will eventually "mature" into a self-assured, no-nonsense personality whose unshakable principles threaten to get him into hot water back at the bank when he starts granting loans to other veterans with little or no collateral.  His drinking is another concern, as is the growing rift between him and Fred over daughter Peggy.

Even though we know Fred's marriage to Marie hasn't much of a future, his impulsiveness worries us when he steals a kiss from Peggy after an innocent lunch date.  Her growing attraction to him draws her into a terrible quandary which puts her at odds with her parents, and the scene of their most emotional confrontation is powerfully done. 

Meanwhile,  Fred's feelings of worthlessness are dramatically illustrated when he visits a "graveyard" for derelict bomber planes that are to be junked.  Sitting in the nose of a rusty, engineless plane and reliving his experiences as a bombadier, he realizes that he, too, is a wartime relic to be either recycled or tossed on the junk heap.  Director Wyler renders the sequence with exquisite skill, while Andrews gives it his all and musical composer Hugo Friedhofer pulls out all the stops--it's a gripping scene. 

Still, this is nothing compared to the emotional rollercoaster in store for the viewer regarding the unfortunate sailor, Homer.  Portrayed by real-life amputee Harold Russell, himself a former serviceman who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his debut role, Homer endures excruciating emotional torment which we can't help but share as he feels isolated amidst his own family and impotent as a man. 

During a scene in which he silently allows his father to remove his "arms" and dress him in his pajamas--in what was certainly a reflection of his own real-life experiences-- Russell's face and demeanor tell us everything we need to know about the thoughts and emotions roiling inside him.  When he angrily thrusts his hooks through a windowpane in response to the curious looks of his little sister and her friends, it's a shocking and disturbing moment in cinema. 

Russell gives an earnest, painfully uninhibited performance that lends added dimension to what is already a devastatingly effective and multi-faceted story.  Andrews has probably never been better, nor has Teresa Wright, with their final scene together delivering a substantial payoff for the film as a whole.

March and Loy, the two old pros, come through like gangbusters as a couple whose problems only seem to make them stronger as long if they face them together.  And in a role that displayed her dramatic talent at a time when she was known mostly for comedy, Virginia Mayo proves that she's not only a knockout but can deliver a raucous, punchy performance (her "mirror" scene with Wright dazzles, as do her frenetic exchanges with Andrews.)  Also in the cast are stalwarts such as Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Collins, Steve Cochran (as Marie's oily-haired new beau), Don Beddoe, and Gladys George.

The single-disc Blu-ray from Warner Home Video is in 1.77:1 widescreen and English 1.0 sound.  Subtitles are in English, French,  and Spanish.  Bonus features consist of a brief introduction by Virginia Mayo, interview footage with Mayo and Teresa Wright, and the theatrical trailer. 

After THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES has already put us through the wringer with its other stories of desperation and redemption,  it saves its deepest felt and most lasting impact for the final scenes between Harold Russell's "Homer" and girl-next-door Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell is sweetness incarnate in the role) finally resolving the long-running uncertainty that has lingered between them since his return.  It's one of the most heartrendingly emotional sequences I've ever seen, and if you can get through it without blubbering like a baby, then, as Kipling once said, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/31/16

 

With 1991's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Anthony Hopkins burst onto the horror film scene with a Hannibal Lecter whose rich theatricality and giddy delight in his own unfathomable evil captured the imaginations of filmgoers, including many in the mainstream, like few such characters before or since.

Approaching his dark, Gothic lair in the bowels of a castle-like hospital for the criminally insane where he lurks like some medieval gargoyle, we share the trepidation of the young FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) who has been sent to consult with Lecter regarding another serial killer on the loose (known as "Buffalo Bill" due to his penchant for skinning his victims).

Hopkins plays Lecter to the hilt, relishing each perverse aspect of the character just as Lecter enjoyed feasting upon the organs of those he killed--sometimes with "fava beans and a nice Chianti...fthfthfthfth!"

His version of the silken-voiced psycho, unlike that of MANHUNTER's equally fine Brian Cox, is a creation that would fit comfortably in any rogue's gallery of horror film icons.

One of the pleasures of this film is watching him toy with the callow Starling (excellently portrayed by Foster) on a purely emotional and intellectual level in which she has no defense, then growing to admire her courage, convictions, and strength of will.

Also unlike the Lecter of MANHUNTER, we get to see this monster at his full power once he's broken free in a terrifying sequence that is beautifully-directed by Jonathan Demme. When Lecter's brilliant escape plan goes into motion, it's a thrill to watch Hopkins turn into one of the most cunning and terrifying killers the screen has ever known.

Compared to his mad-dog antics, the film's wrap-up of the Buffalo Bill story is almost anti-climactic, although Demme does stage a nailbiting finale with Starling taking on the killer by herself in his pitch-dark cellar of death.

Still, Bill delivers a line to one of his captives that has since become one of the most oft-heard quotes in recent film history: "It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again." And his naked dance will become seared in your memory whether you like it or not.

With a level of excellence that garnered it Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Director, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS remains one of the finest and most popular horror films ever made.


Read our review of MANHUNTER
Read our review of HANNIBAL

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS -- Movie Review by Porfle

Bong Joon Ho's Academy-Award Winning "PARASITE", "MEMORIES OF MURDER" To Join The Criterion Collection

BONG JOON HO'S ACADEMY-AWARD WINNING "PARASITE", "MEMORIES OF MURDER" TO JOIN THE CRITERION COLLECTION

JOINS PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED "PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE"
 

New York, NY (February 13, 2020) – NEON and the Criterion Collection are excited to announce that Criterion will issue special editions of two Bong Joon Ho masterpieces, the four-time Academy Award-winning Parasite and the breathtaking crime drama Memories of Murder. Parasite just made history as the first foreign language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the first Korean film to win Best Director, Best International Film, and Best Original Screenplay. Parasite was also Nominated for Best Production Design and Best Editing, and previously won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Bong Joon Ho brings his singular mastery home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale. The film is set amidst the two families, the Parks, the picture of aspirational wealth, and the Kims, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks. By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, Parasite showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Memories of Murder was released in 2003 and marked the first of Bong Joon Ho and Song Kang Ho's collaborations, and has gone on to be considered one of the most thrilling and haunting crime dramas released this century. NEON recently acquired the rights to the film and will be re-releasing the film in theaters before its home video release.

Parasite debuted at Cannes where it became the first Korean film to win the coveted Palme d'Or and has since gone one to play at festivals across the country, including Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festival. Parasite is being hailed by critics as the best film to emerge this past fall, earning 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. NEON released the film in theaters on October 6, 2019 where it has gone on to gross over $35 million, becoming one of the Top 10 highest grossing foreign language films ever released in the US.

Parasite was written and directed by Bong Joon Ho and features a SAG Ensemble Award-winning cast including his long time collaborator Song Kang Ho, Choi Woo Shik, Park So Dam and Jang Hye Jin.

ABOUT NEON
A little less than 3 years since inception, NEON has garnered 10 Oscar nominations and already grossed over $150M at the Box Office. It continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history winning four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture. The film, which also unanimously won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, has amassed over $38M at the domestic box office and broke multiple records including highest per screen average of the year and highest per screen average for a foreign language film of all time. Other noteworthy NEON releases include: Double Oscar nominee Honeyland; Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, 2019's highest grossing documentary with a worldwide gross of $16M; Tim Wardle's Three Identical Strangers, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling which surpassed $13M at the box office; and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya, which garnered multiple Academy Award® nominations, one win for Allison Janney and amassed over $30M in domestic box office.

The company continues to be an impressive force at festivals, with recent Sundance acquisitions such as Max Barbakow’s sought after Palm Springs starring Andy Samberg, which NEON acquired with Hulu, and Josephine Decker’s Shirley starring Elisabeth Moss. Recent releases include: the critically acclaimed Cannes hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes® and Independent Spirit Awards; Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s award-winning and record-breaking Honeyland, which is the first non-fiction feature to land Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film in the same year; Alejandro Landes’ cinematic thrillerMonos (the Colombian selection for the Academy Awards®); Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz‘s horror film The Lodge starring Riley Keough; Julius Onah’s Luce starring Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer; Tom Harper’s Wild Rose starring Jessie Buckley; John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm; Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency starring Academy Award® Nominee Alfre Woodard; and the electrifying documentary about Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace.

After their successful collaboration on I, Tonya in January 2018, 30WEST (Dan Friedkin's and Micah Green's strategic venture) partnered with NEON's Tom Quinn (Founder & CEO) and Tim League (Co-Founder) to become majority investors in the company.

ABOUT THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium-from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming on the Criterion Channel-Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Bong Joon Ho's Academy-Award Winning "PARASITE", "MEMORIES OF MURDER" To Join The Criterion Collection

Porfle's Trivia Quiz: "THE GODFATHER" (1972) (video)

Many consider "The Godfather" to be Francis Ford Coppola's best film...

...and one of the greatest gangster movies of all time.

It won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor (Marlon Brando).

But how much do you remember about it?


Question: What is Don Corleone holding in the opening scene?

A. Dog
B. Cat
C. Grandchild
D. Orange
E. Gun

Question: In the restaurant, Sollozzo tells McCluskey to try the...what?

A. Gnocchi
B. Rigatoni
C. Veal
D. Pesto
E. Lasagne

Question: Who betrays Michael in Sicily?

A. Vitelli
B. Calo
C. Don Tommasino
D. Fabrizio
E. Fredo

Question: Don Corleone laments, "Look how they ______ my boy."

A. Executed
B. Massacred
C. Annihilated
D. Murdered
E. Brutalized

Question: Moe Green tells Michael, "I made my bones when you were going out with..." What?

A. Beach bunnies
B. Cheerleaders
C. Homecoming Queen
D. Suzy Homemaker
E. Debutantes

Question: Carlo tells Michael that he was approached by...who?

A. Tattaglia
B. Barzini
C. Cuneo
D. Stracci
E. Zaluchi

I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Porfle's Trivia Quiz: "THE GODFATHER" (1972) (video)

"THE SHAPE OF WATER" Wins 4 Academy Awards! Available on Digital, Coming To 4K, Blu, and DVD March 13

"THE SHAPE OF WATER"

AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL AND COMING TO 4K ULTRA HDTM, BLU-RAYTM AND DVD ON MARCH 13

Winner of 4 Academy Awards
Best Picture
Best Director, Guillermo del Toro
Best Original Music Score
Best Production Design

WINNER OF FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PICTURE

WINNER OF TWO GOLDEN GLOBES
BEST DIRECTOR ~ BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

DIRECTED BY GUILLERMO DEL TORO

From master storyteller, Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER, an otherworldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America circa 1962.

In the hidden, high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.

Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones.

Add THE SHAPE OF WATER to your digital collection on Movies Anywhere beginning February 27 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 13.

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:
A Fairy Tale for Troubled Times
Anatomy of a Scene: Prologue
Anatomy of a Scene: The Dance
Shaping the Waves: A Conversation with James Jean
Guillermo del Toro’s Master Class
Theatrical Trailers

4K Ultra HD™ Disc Specification
Street Date:                       March 13, 2018
Screen Format:                 Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio:                                English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles:                           English SDH, French, Spanish
Total Run Time:                123 minutes

Blu-ray™ Disc Specification
Street Date:                       March 13, 2018
Screen Format:                 1080p High Definition/Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio:                                English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                           English SDH, French, Spanish
Total Run Time:                123 minutes

DVD Disc Specification
Street Date:                       March 13, 2018
Screen Format:                 Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio:                                English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:                           English SDH, French, Spanish
Total Run Time:                123 minutes

"THE SHAPE OF WATER" Wins 4 Academy Awards! Available on Digital, Coming To 4K, Blu, and DVD March 13