“First Viewing Experiences” Archive
Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
In 2008, the Library of Congress chose to preserve A Face In The Crowd in the U.S. National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Well, that could be the understatement of the 21st century. I couldn’t escape the feeling while watching controversial director Elia Kazan’s production— about a media sensation that goes haywire—for the first time, that the film was not only incredibly prophetic, but is still oddly relevant to this day, especially considering the current state of quasi-celebrity status in America and the overwhelming power of our media-driven culture. Who ever would have guessed that a 1957 Andy Griffith, in his film debut, as the lead would provide the ultimate cautionary tale about believing too fervently in one’s own hype? But maybe I’m once again getting a little ahead of myself.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
OK, so this could be considered part two of my tribute to director Sidney Lumet. After skimming the late, great auteur’s filmography for my last piece, I realized that 1960’s The Fugitive Kind was one of his early films that I somehow missed. Being that it also featured the powerhouse performer known as Marlon Brando, I immediately decided that this was a problem that needed to be remedied. It’s an adaptation of yet another Tennessee Williams play, Orpheus Descending, which is actually a reworking of his previous failed stage production called Battle of Angels that was based on the Orpheus of Greek mythology. It just goes to show that all art stems from something else. Anyway, I know very little about the original play, but supposedly Lumet’s film version is incredibly different in a variety of ways (even though Williams also adapted the screenplay with Meade Roberts), and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is unknown to me. Nevertheless, the movie is certainly worth examining for several reasons, including the various stories surrounding the production and how Lumet felt about his end product, in addition to the material itself.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Believe it or not, yours truly actually had this planned well before the unfortunate passing of Ms. Elizabeth Taylor. A co-worker strongly recommended the film to me a while back, and it sounded like something right up my alley, so after some time I finally got around to giving it a shot just a few days before Taylor passed. Better late than never, I suppose. It’s strange how coincidences like that occur sometimes. Anyway, as a young man, my only awareness of Taylor was that of the odd old lady who married a laughable amount of times and palled around with Michael Jackson. It wasn’t until later that I discovered and appreciated that she was a serious dramatic actress with an immense amount of talent. Additionally, any old film that was considered controversial for its day always intrigues me, and 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer surely raised eyebrows, as subjects such as mental illness and taboo sexual practices were certainly areas where people just didn’t go back then. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s sufficient to state that it’s about time I give the film its due.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Alright, it’s with the fear that I’ll automatically be dismissed as a cynic that I admit to this, but honesty is the best policy, after all: Yours truly is NOT a big fan of celebrating the holidays in any imaginable aspect that the season lends itself to… However, I’m certainly not looking to bum anyone out. I don’t consider myself to be a complete curmudgeon (though, some may disagree), and the concept of holiday cheer isn’t totally lost on me. It’s often one of the few times during the year when family and friends can actually make time for one another, so I suppose that’s a good thing (most of the time). My only argument would be that folks maybe shouldn’t need a holiday as an excuse to get together and celebrate, but maybe that’s a musing for another time.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
The late master filmmaker Orson Welles once stated in an interview that The Trial was the best film he ever made. That’s highly unlikely since the American Film Institute voted Citizen Kane to be the greatest American film of all-time, but some argue that his adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel of the same name published in 1925 was his most ambitious. That could be true, especially considering many people believed Kafka’s bureaucratic nightmare to be “unfilmable.” That belief was additionally reinforced by the fact that The Trial was technically an unfinished work from Kafka that was only released after Kafka’s friend and literary executor, Max Brod, found a chapter that brought the story to a conclusion and edited the text for publication, which ultimately leaves the story open to much speculation and interpretation. It’s interesting to wonder how Kafka would have felt about any of this, since it’s believed that he actually wanted all of his unfinished work destroyed after his death in 1924. Regardless, Welles decided to give it the old college try by putting his own stamp on a film version of the novel. I had never seen the film, but was always interested in the material, so I recently took some time to review it for a fresh perspective on an effort that has polarized critics of Welles over the years.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
In a previous post, yours truly made the admission of being pretty unfamiliar with the work of legendary director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. Well, guess who’s starting to become a really big fan? I made a pledge to get more acquainted with Wilder’s films, and I’m certainly glad I did. After first getting my feet wet with the classic Double Indemnity (discussed in the aforementioned previous installment of this column), I decided to take what seemed like a natural next step and give The Lost Weekend a look. This film piqued my interest because while learning about DI, I became aware that the relationship between Wilder and his co-scripter Raymond Chandler was a tumultuous one. Supposedly, Chandler was a recovering alcoholic, and working on DI with Wilder caused him to fall off the wagon. This was part of the reason why Wilder decided to make The Lost Weekend. It was his attempt to try to explain Chandler to himself. One can only imagine what Chandler’s reaction to this production must have been, but regardless, TLW remains a film that was well ahead of its time in its stark portrayal of alcoholism, with strong performances from all players (especially lead Ray Milland as the drunk), and holds up relatively well, therefore making its four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Actor (which Wilder correctly prophesized), Director and Screenplay most likely well-deserved. However, after viewing the movie for the first time in 2010, it’s apparent that the effort does have some flaws even when taking the period of the 1940s into consideration.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Broads… They say that you can’t live with them and you can’t kill them… or can you? Anyway, so goes Billy Wilder’s supremely taut tale of murder and insurance fraud that has tritely (though, very appropriately) been called one of the earliest classic examples of film noir, with its dark style of filmmaking and even darker story tone. Yes, I must admit that I had never seen the film, until recently. There are always going to be “classics” that are missed with all the thousands of films available for consumption, and being a “slightly younger” gentleman, there was a time that getting my hands on—let alone making time for—movies from the ‘40s was a bit tough for me. So, that’s the excuse (as lame as it may be) that I’m going to go with for never viewing the moody thriller, Double Indemnity, until now. Furthermore, I’m not all that familiar with the work of Mr. Wilder (though, I love The Apartment), but that’s something soon to be remedied since I tend to gravitate towards films dealing with grim and controversial subject matter (even when they’re comedies), and Wilder thankfully didn’t seem to shy away from such topics. After all, James M. Cain’s novella of the same name from which the film is based is certainly rife with nasty business, making the project incredibly tough to greenlight due to the rigidity of the era. Wilder was definitely a brave man who deserves credit for thumbing his nose at authority and venturing to make one of the most daring films of the ‘40s (and possibly the best of its kind?) even in spite of stern and conservative opposition.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Alright, in the interest of full disclosure, yours truly has seen bits and pieces of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance before. It was a film that “we” often used to run on the overhead screens behind us at the Movies Unlimited video store back in the day. However, I never saw the ending and since I was always working at the time (at least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), I was never able to fully grasp what was going on, though, it “sounded” (remember, my back was to the screen) like a good movie. So, I figured that in tying up some loose ends and finally sitting down to watch the film in its entirety, that it would also be fair fodder for this particular feature. Anyway, I’m sure glad I did because TMWSLV is a rare thinking-man’s entry in the western genre by my estimation, therefore probably making it one of the finest westerns ever made.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
People often say, “Beware of false prophets.” It’s an important life lesson, and Charles Laughton’s The Night Of The Hunter (his only credited directorial effort) perfectly exemplifies this warning. Another invaluable rule for folks to heed is, “Beware of false advertising.” That’s right film fans, yours truly is having a really difficult time with this one. Over fifty years after its release, the nightmarish tale of Robert Mitchum’s preacher assailing young children is lauded by critics across the board as one of the finest films ever made. Even Roger Ebert (one of my heroes who, even when I disagree with him, often gives me pause) has exclaimed, “It is one of the most frightening of movies, with one of the most unforgettable of villains, and on both of those scores it holds up…” Well, sometimes part of maintaining one’s integrity is having the heart to disagree with popular opinions and standing defiant against individuals with a much more esteemed reputation than oneself. It’s with this in mind that I have to state that I “pretty much” disagree with The Night of the Hunter’s widely regarded superior reputation.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
While I pride myself on not betting over my head and NEVER risk more than I can afford to lose, I wound up parting with more cash than I was really happy about during a recent trip to Atlantic City. Now, I won’t harangue everyone with all the details of my poker debacle, but suffice it to state that the big hand involved another player hitting trip 8’s over my pair of aces. It was unfortunate, but not a huge deal (no pun intended). That’s poker, as they say. Anyway, it was upon reflecting on the day’s events that I again remembered that for some reason, what many folks consider the quintessential poker film, The Cincinnati Kid has always escaped my attention. Being the amateur poker player that I am, this stunning realization wasn’t sitting well with me even more than my financial loss. So, I decided that I would rectify this oversight as soon as possible.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
All I can say is, “Wow.” Unlike my previous installment of this series where I took a look at Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion, I have found that many critics have leaned towards actually downplaying Otto Preminger's classic with the passage of time and it’s completely undeserved. Maybe it’s the subject matter that makes some folks uneasy. After all, The Man With The Golden Arm is a far cry from the ephemeral Reefer Madness (which attained a popular cult status for its outdated silliness) that many people seem to love, albeit for different reasons. Now, I’m not trying to say that Reefer Madness is anywhere near the same kind of film as Golden Arm in quality or tone, nor am I trying to make it seem like critics universally pan the movie, because that’s not the case. I just find it odd that when it comes to these old titles that deal with drug addiction, it’s seems that some individuals are almost more forgiving when it comes to the fun marijuana-menacing Reefer Madness than the stark Golden Arm. Anyway, I’ve always been a fan of films that deal with the darker side of humanity, and it occurred to me that I’ve never viewed the groundbreaking 1955 tale starring Frank Sinatra that tackles heroin addiction, so I recently sat down to do so.
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Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Throughout the entire span of one’s own movie-watching career (for lack of a better word), there are always going to be films that get missed by individuals. Some of these celluloid efforts that escape a person’s experience are even considered “classics.” It’s just the nature of the beast. Considering all the releases that have been produced throughout history, it’s impossible to see everything, especially when one’s age is taken into consideration. Of course, I’m referring specifically to myself. I was born well after what would be considered Hollywood’s Golden Age, so it’s only natural that I’m a touch behind the viewing curve when it comes to the entire breadth of classic cinema (though, in my defense, I feel I’m way ahead of many folks my age). However, in researching a piece for “anti-Valentine’s Day films,” it dawned on me that I have never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion. So, I recently set aside some time to view this supposed masterpiece. Here are my thoughts:
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