LOOK! UP IN THE SKY!

LOOK!  UP ON THE SCREEN!  IT’S A MOVIE!  IT’S MORE THAN A MOVIE!  IT’S AN AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY AND IT’S A REAL FILM!

It rains.  It snows.  There is NO voice over.

The Last Truck
Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar
2009 (HBO)

It rains.  It snows.  The sun sets.  Unfinished vehicles  —  works in progress  —  pass slowly along the assembly line as the metal inspector, spot welder, painter play their parts.  Painting this.  Polishing that.

It is American technology, and it is beautiful to watch.  But why is it so special?

There is NO voice over.

The reels form a real film.  The pictures tell their story.  There is meaningful commentary by employees suffering the heartbreaking notification of the closing of the GM Moraine (Ohio) Assembly Plant.  Most of the commentary is spoken directly into the camera.  There are occasional titles.

GM Technology

But there is no droning narrative with the pictures only adjuncts to the ongoing lecture, the nonstop lecture  —  the style, for as long as anyone can remember  —  of the typical American documentary, especially almost every documentary made for current television.

Applause and cheers for this HBO exception.

Do not miss it.  This is a MUST-SEE.

Filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar are also the creators of AMERICAN FACTORY which was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award.

Readers interested in pursuing the matter of over-narration in American documentary might want to look at Rick’s Flicks for 10/31/11;  12/21/11;  and 3/16/12  —  with comments from reader/follower BEC.

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ADDENDUM:  From Lawrence Block’s novel Small Town:

(Eddie Ragan is tending bar on a quiet afternoon with only three customers)  “The Mets were playing a day game in Chicago, and the set was on with the sound off, so you could watch Mo Vaughn take the big swing without some announcer telling you what you were seeing.”  HEAR!  HEAR!    ( Small Town by Lawrence Block.  William Morrow, 2003)

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RETROSPECTIVE READING

“Superheroes Vs. Movie Stars” by Wesley Morris

I recommend this perceptive, gut-wrenching article to everyone interested in films and film history (and movies and Hollywood history).

TWO TEASERS    Morris writes:  “The comic-book franchise is where traditional  movie stardom is going to die.”

And:  “When the character is more famous than the actor playing it, how does anyone develop the trademarks of a star?”

DON”T MISS Morris’ provocative article.    And let me hear from you.

Morris, Wesley.  “Superheroes Vs. Movie Stars.”  New York Times, 5/22/16.

NEXT FRIDAY POST June 5

Until then,
WATCH A MOVIE!
Rick

 

PANICS AND PANDEMICS — CONCLUDED

Final installment of PANICS AND PANDEMICS

LES ORGUEILLEUX (title for American release The Proud and the Beautiful, also known as The Proud Ones)

MICHELE MORGAN

A French couple are stranded in a dreary black and white Mexican village struck by a typhus epidemic.  Directed by  Marc Allégret (from a novel by Jean-Paul Sartre), the picture stars the beautiful Michèle Morgan, who at one time divided her professional time between Hollywood and Paris, and giant French superstar Gérard Philip who, in a few years, would die of a heart attack at age 37.  Carlos López Moctezuma plays the heroic doctor.

 

LES ORGUEILLEUX

GERARD PHILIPE

Marc Allégrett

1953

(imdb cites Rafael E. Portas as co-director)

 

 

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A DIFFERENT KIND OF PLAGUE, another sort of panic

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is the Hollywood classic about those pods left about everywhere, destined to burst into aliens who are look-alikes of the terrestrials nearby.  This film holds up extraordinarily well and is a MUST if you have not seen it.  (This was one time I was genuinely scared watching a movie.)

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The Grapes of Wrath
John Ford
1940
with Henry Fonda as Tom

Behold another type of crisis, its own kind of panic and epidemic.  Victims of the Dust Bowl pack up and join the thousands on the road to California.  Like most of the memorable Hollywood films, this is not an original work.  It is an adaptation.  But Ford turns Steinbeck’s novel into a visual feast.  And what an unforgettable one it is, filled with heartbreakingly real sentiment.  The great Hank, as Tom, was never better.

(I am indebted to collaborator BKG for addition of this title to the PANDEMICS list.)

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RECOMMENDED READING

“The Making of ‘The Mission'” by Jim McDermott in America 12/23/19.  This enlightening, entertaining article focuses on 1) the editing necessary to unify Robert De Niro’s performance; 2) the significance to the film’s success of the musical score by Ennio Marconi; and 3) the surprising psychological and spiritual effect of the making of the film on its creators.  The Mission directed by Roland Joffé, 1986.

NEXT FRIDAY POST May 22

Until then, WATCH A MOVIE

Rick