Alright gang, I've got another AFI update for you! I'm really on a roll with these now...So, since my last update, I've watched Spartacus, The Apartment, All The President's Men, and Modern Times -whew! Well, let's get crackin!
Spartacus: This film starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis is about a rebellious slave who is made into a gladiator by the Romans and ultimately forms an army to take them down. If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. It's basically the plot of the Russell Crowe film Gladiator. I probably would have liked this film more if I hadn't seen Gladiator, but since I did, this 3-hour film did start to wear on me after awhile. Though, there's a cool battle scene involving giant, flaming rolling logs! And no, I'm not kidding! Sadly, that was the highlight for me...but then again, I'm a sucker for creative carnage in films!
The Apartment: This great little gem of a film staring Jack Lemmon and a very cute Shirley McLain had Lemmon playing a shnook of a guy called C.C. Baxter, trying any way he can to work his way up the ladder in his company. Unfortunately, the only way he's found to do that is to allow his bosses and their mistresses to use his apartment whenever they want for their affairs. The set design for Lemmon's apartment was brillantly designed and really becomes the hub of the entire movie. Lemmon is great as always and McLain is pretty darn charming, plus the writing is really sharp and snappy: "Ya know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe. I mean shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were."
All The President's Men: You may not think a film about two reporters investigating a break-in would be interesting, but when it's the famed Washington Post duo of Woodward and Bernstein and the break-in happens to be the start of the Watergate scandal, then you've got one of the best political thrillers ever done. No, there are no bullets flying or car chases, but the tension that slowly builds makes it riveting. As these two reporters realize how far up this scandal goes and what's at stake for the country and for their lives, the weight of it starts to bear down on them. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are great together, and its actually kind of interesting to see how these newstories were done before the advent of emails and cell phones!
Modern Times: Famously known as Charlie Chaplin's last "silent" film, this 1936 movie has him taking on technology, unemployment, burglars, demanding customers, and more. There are some great scenes in this, including a well-known one of Chaplin getting caught in these huge gears, a department store roller-skating scene, and an encounter with an automatic feeding machine that turns some corn on the cob into a weapon (brilliant). Not many people know, but this film was not only written and directed by Chaplin, he also composed the music for it as well. Also, Modern Times markes the first and last time you actually hear Chaplin's voice on film.
Next in my queue: Silence of the Lambs, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Shawshank Redemption
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