#97 - Bringing Up Baby

Bringing Up Baby, made in 1938 staring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, was the most extreme comedy of errors i've seen since, well, The Comedy of Errors! I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it took me a while to grow accustomed to Hepburn's role; I am so fond of her cool and collected screen presence, that seeing her as an eccentric heiress (slap-stick in stow) was initially disarming, but inevitably charming! She and Grant make a great combination, forming just the right amount of insanity and sense. I laughed often, and for good reason. This movie did not earn it's laughs through crude humor, or prejudiced generalizations, but was very intentional and winning.

Grant plays a timid paleontologist who is harried by a demanding finance, an expectant boss, and the public who have been waiting to see the dinosaur he has been assembling for several years, and has now almost completed. His adventure begins as he is playing golf with a man who may be able to convince a wealthy widow to donate one million dollars to the museum. His flattery is interrupted when a rather illogical young lady accidently steals his golf ball, then car. He then repeatedly runs into her at different occasions, seemingly only when he is trying to resolve a problem she had created the last time he saw her. When he has grown to, reasonably enough, dread her, is when she decides she needs him. After she is gifted a leopard named "Baby" she decides to keep it at her country home, and, mistaking a paleontologist for a zoologist, she implores Grant to assist her until he agrees.

Their misadventure continues, with Hepburn deciding she loves Grant, and attempting to keep him from returning home to be married. There is a leopard hunt, a German psychologist, repetitive singing, and one excellent gangster accent employed by Hepburn in a tight spot. At times it got predictable, but only in a way that you would expect a Shakespeare comedy to be predictable. You know, where everything is so topsy-turvy that you are just waiting for that final character to come stumbling through the door.

Altogether, it was enjoyable. There is nothing like watching Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn inch along the wall of a restaurant, attempting to hide the giant rip down the back of her dress, all the time them reprimanding each other for "crowding". The only unfortunate part was that, at times, they spoke too fast to be easily discernible (I admit, I happily employed the subtitles button. Hey! Good for foreign films, and good for the golden age of Hollywood!)

#98 - Unforgiven

Unforgiven, starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Morgan Freeman, was nominated for nine 1992 Academy Awards, and won five. It was pretty much the whatever-you-could-possibly-want-in-a-western western. I was part bored, part horrified by it, but I do have to admit, the cinematography was awesome, the acting great, and the historical accuracy SPOT ON, other than a 12-years-off gun reference (but no one really cares, so it's ok.)

Now I've never been a big fan of westerns to start; Bonanza was fun at times, Gunsmoke bored me, and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman was slightly ridiculous (Sorry Dr. Quinn fans, but you gotta admit...) So when I actually watched this movie, I was sick at home with nothing to do, which I'm sure is what got me to finish it.

The plot is far too long and complex for me even to attempt to relay to you, so let's just leave it to this: A once notorious bandit, who is now an old, destitute pig farmer, decides to try and make it rich to save his family from ruin. So he joins with an up-and-coming bandit (who's character I am very suspicious was based off of Billy the Kid) and his old partner, and they set out to claim a $1000 reward for two men who cut up a prostitute. As I'm sure you can imagine, there is all the rough ridin', gun slingin', whiskey drinkin', body beatin', pretty lady kissin' you could ever hope for in a western. Though, keep in mind, it is a lot darker and truer to life then a lot of the more classic westerns, so to the light hearted: Don't watch it! I want you to stay that way!

I really appreciated how it didn't glamorize the old west, and showed it as the corrupt wilderness it was, really the illustrating the saying "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere." Mostly the characters had that expression; you know the one I'm talking about, the If-you-smile-at-me-I-will-kick-your-puppy expression. But even the rough and tough Sheriff had his funny moments, and bless the man for having a sense of humor with that face. Heh heh...sorry Sheriff.

#99 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, staring Spencer Tracey, Sidney Poitier, and Katherine Hepburn, was nominated for ten 1967 Academy Awards. It won Best Actress (Katherine Hepburn) and Best Original Screen Play, and rightly so. This movie exceeded expectations in every category: It was humorous, realistic, beautifully shot, with exceptional acting, and had a substantial plot that really addressed racial prejudice.

The story follows one pivotal day in the life of Joey Drayton (Katherine Houghton), an honest, genuine girl of 23, who has fallen in love with and become engaged to the internationally renowned African American physician John Prentice. All her life Joey was raised by her parents to believe that there is no difference between white folk and colored folk, and she took it to head, more then her parents had anticipated.

Her father, Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy), was a liberal newspaper publisher, and a good man. Her Mother Cristina Drayton (Katherine Hepburn) was a glamorous art collector and distributor. On discovering their daughter’s intentions to marry a colored man, Cristina is Dumbfounded, but on seeing how incredibly happy her daughter is, she grows more and more happy for her. Joey’s father, on the other hand, is torn. He wants his daughter to be happily in love, and sees the intelligence and worth of her fiancé, but he also knows what terrible persecution they and their children will face, as well as having to fight the social beliefs he and his generation were raised on. The young doctor informs Joey’s father that he will only go through with marrying her if they receive his and his wife’s blessing, without any reservations. He is too good a man to be willing to split up such a close family as theirs because of his race, no matter how much he loves her.

This movie is an incredible social commentary that, on its release, forced America to wake up and admit that these racial prejudices were a problem that needed to be rectified. This was the first time a colored man and white girl ever kissed on screen, and the protests are embarrassing to recall. Because of this movie, a lot of positive changes were made for the African Americans; Before this film, and still some time after, it was illegal for there to be inter-racial marriages in certain states, but a few threw out this law because of the social awareness this film created.

I really enjoyed this film, not just because it had a purpose that it stuck to, but because you can see how passionate the director really was about the desegregation of society. The whole film was a very moving argument, with the two sets of parents of the couple asking every question in the book, and each time the questions were given the same perfect answer: Love will sustain you through any trial. If you have real love, it can take on the world, and all the ignorant people in it.

#100 - Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy, made in 1942 and staring James Cagney, was surprising to see on the list, it not being the best musical I've seen. Based off of the life of the famous patriotic play-write and composer George M. Cohan, this movie is acted with feeling and dripping with song and dance numbers (some great, and some... well, let's just say I resisted the fast forward button with difficulty.)

In the very first scene you are introduced to Mr. Cohan and his wife, who are in their late 70's. My immediate reaction is that they are young people wearing semi-convincing stage make up. This implicated that the movie was going to be one long flash back... and it was. As an audience you follow the life of George M. Cohan, a vaudeville baby who was a part of his family's 4 person acting troupe since before he could walk. As much as he loved the theater, that love paled in comparison to his love for America.

I myself am a particularly patriotic person (that's right, I tear up when I hear the National anthem), so I really enjoyed the patriotic numbers, but, at one point, even I began to get a little uncomfortable. No wonder his songs are still sung at every patriotic event today; He loved his country more than his own mother!

Though some of the acting techniques would be more appropriate for stage then film, and the dance sequences ran longer than my attention span, overall it is a funny, touching movie. The singing was nice, not spectacular, but very inviting to sing along to. Though I liked the film, and the ending nearly moved me to tears of joy, I still am not sure if it was good enough to make the top 100. Maybe if it had been shorter then 2 hours, or just had had less musical numbers (I suspect the fault lies with the editor...) then I would have been more impressed.

Editing possibilities aside, if you're in a nostalgic or patriotic mood, I would definitely recommend it to you. Great or no, its conclusion does move me one closer to my goal, which is worth celebrating!

To start.

Honestly, I'm not sure where the idea for this was extracted, but in all likeliness it was the combination of my reading A Short History of Film and of watching Sunset Boulevard. I was struck by how much affect film has had on the course of history, and of how greatly it occupies our time and money. After seeing Sunset Boulevard, I did some research on it, and, long/boring story short, I discovered AFI's list of the 100 Best American Films. On discovering this, I got very excited and spent ten minutes printing of a pretty list of the movie titles. I will now attempt to watch every movie on the list, starting with 100 and working down, after which I will write a short response. Upon reading the list, I saw some movies that I love and have watched again and again, others that I've never heard of, and a few that I have never want to see (not being a fan of horror films...eep!)

That said, all I have left to say is: Unto the breach!

Here is a link to AFI's 1998 list: http://www.afi.com/100years/movies.aspx