kezop_male

This movie reminded me "Field of Dreams" or "The Rookie," more than anything else. A seemingly well adjusted man with a family and family obligations; chasing an impossible, crazy dream; potentially putting his devoted family into peril. Charles Farmer (Thorton) has the requisite supporting wife and admiring kids supporting his dream. And while he should probably be the laughing stock of the community, in general, no one openly ridicules them. No one believes he'll end up in outer space, of course, but they accept him as a harmless crackpot.

Of course, Charles Farmer isn't "really" crazy, right? Of course, he really can get into space, right? Just like Kevin Coaster can communicate with the dead or Dennis Quaid can be a rookie (except, of course, that's a story based on fact).

This is a feel good movie about the power of having dreams, of being motivated by dreams at the expense of all else, and it feeds the propaganda machine of "we can be and do anything... no, really! We can!" Just like Rocky Balboa.

I wouldn't have ranked the movie 9 out of 10 if it didn't make me cheer, if it didn't challenge me to think a bit more about the dreams I might have lost along the way, and perhaps even more importantly, the dreams I may have. You won't get a lecture in this movie, well, not a big one. And you won't get hit over the head with a message. You probably won't feel overly motivated to chase a dream, either. But you just might feel like believing a bit more in the power of dreams at the end of the movie than you did at the beginning, and for me, that was worth it.

The tone of the movie established in the beginning is entertaining, though it doesn't seem to motivate the character's choice of actions. Growing up in the violence of Hell's Kitchen, he decides to becomes an illegal gun salesman for the local thugs. Hoping to expand his business, he and his brother work to enter the world stage.

Selling guns illegally is akin to selling any illegal product, from drugs to being a mobster like in "The Sopranos." But there's no sense of Cage's character being a mobster. His disconnect from what his product is used for and his responsibility of that use is interesting but probably a very foreign concept to 99.9% of the population.

He is so calculating and cavalier through-out the movie, it's difficult to develop a sense of empathy towards him. However, his character is presented in such an entertaining fashion, it's difficult to despise him for what he does. There are efforts made to suggest that he had a sense of morals, but truthfully, it comes across more as him just being a spineless worm.

The film takes a very dark turn in its final reel as his world begins to fall apart. When that happens, its light hearted tone is lost and the viewer is left not caring about the character. It recovers slightly at the end.

For a brief moment in the mid '70's, before herpes, AIDS; at the beginning of the disco revolution and the absolute beginnings of the VCR, American society had grown up enough to allow genuine adult entertainment on the mainstream big screen as entertainment and not disguised as a morality play like "Reefer Madness." Unlike its predecessors, "Deep Throat" and "The Devil in Miss Jones," "The Opening of Misty Beethoven" features rich production values and exotic locations. The production values of this film are on par with most Hollywood productions at the time and huge cut above "B" movies of the era.

Explicit sex fills this film, even when the main characters are not engaging in it, the background extras on screen are. It's an interesting mix, leading to explicit sex being both glorified and trivialized. More than any other single film, this movie celebrates the promises of the 1960's Sexual Revolution with candid portrayals of sexual behavior from solo sex to heterosexual to both forms of homosexual-ism, namely gay and lesbian (though the references to gay sex are not presented as direct man on man contact).

While the sex is explicit and at times shown in the kind of close-ups that makes one feel as if they are a gynecologist, few of the sex scenes follow the pattern of modern pornography where the partners are filmed in close-up and changing positions every three to five minutes. On one hand, little of the sex between the main characters is gratuitous, yet, since this IS a sex film, it can be argued it is ALL gratuitous. The story is clearly a twist on the classic "My Fair Lady" theme. Can a lowly, "civil servant" class sex worker be elevated to the pinnacles of being a sexual legend? The dialog can be very witty at times and the movie doesn't mind stopping the "action" for a few good lines. The acting is above average for the period. The hip, very vogue fashions of the day are a wonderful flashback to another time and may be worth witnessing for their own value.

By 1978's "Debbie Does Dallas," the moment was over. Production values had fallen along with the caliber of the story lines and quality of the actors ability to act. Theater owners were under political pressure about showing such explicit movies. Mainstream Hollywood never took the bait to make their own adult productions, marginalizing the industry. And most importantly, there was a new technology entering the homes of Americans that would allow people to view such explicit content in the privacy of their homes, the VCR (first introduced to consumers as the Sony Betamax in 1975).