sraweber369

Ben Hur must have been a spectacle for 1959 and the film is not aging well. The look, direction, and acting style all scream 1950's epic. The director's style of long scenes with few cut aways gets boring really quickly if you are more use to modern day style. The acting is overly dramatic with a score that while good plays up the emotion like a soap opera, and the special effects particularly the fleet shot using miniatures does not look good at all (it might look better on a big screen theater than my laptop) but Star Wars did a much better job with models. The chariot scene though is really good and this is most of the action of the film.

Grade B=

One of the better WWII flicks, Twelve O'Clock High is high drama in a bomber group based in England. The movie is more about the psychology of war then actual fighting only in the 3rd act do we really see any true combat action, but what's happening on the ground is enough to keep you in your seat.

The movie starts with the former base adjunct officer Major Stovall(Dean Jagger) buying an old mug in a London shop, then you see him visiting the site of the old base at Archball where nature is reclaiming the land where the base was located during the war. You get the impression that given enough time nature will totally reclaim the site and what happened there will be just fading memories. The movie then shifts back in time during the war a bomber group has just returned from a bombing run where they took heavy casualties, one of the bombers crash lands symbolic of what is wrong with the unit. We are then taken to debriefing and the pilot of the plane is particularly shaken. We see many morale problems with the unit mostly stemming from the lead commander Colonel Davenport(Gary Merrill) who's main fault is that he is to emotionally attached to his men thus not looking after the mission first. The next seen we see Major General Pat Pritchard (Millard Mitchell) placing General Frank Savage(Gregory Peck) in charge to kick butt and be a real hard nose to whip the unit into shape. The question is will Savage also get caught up in the men and lose his objectivity. The real antagonist of the story is your inner self and how do you stay focused on a mission without losing yourself.

The Good: Great acting by the lead and the supporting cast, Great story line by Writers: Sy Bartlett and, Beirne Lay Jr. and good direction by Henry King

The Bad: Needed more combat scenes a rather minor flaw.

Grade B+

The General is one of Buster Keatons greatest films. The cinematography is really great coupled with outdoor shots from Oregon and really good direction and some of the best stunt work I'be seen makes this an action pack fast paced nonstop film. There is little setup the civil war stars Keaton tries to enlist but is refused and his girl won't talk till him until he is in uniform. The union steels his train and off we go for a fast paced ride. This movie moves fast with little let up in the action. The Battle scene is really well done and before you know it the film is over.

Grade A