Thus, the creation of my latest project, a project that will take me a very long time if I actually see it to completion. I will attempt to watch five movies - action, animated, horror, foreign, and romance - in a given year, starting in 1967 and ideally continuing for the next 50 years. I will grant I may run out of steam well before that though.
Why 50 years? It's a nice, satisfying number. Why not start in 1972 and continue to the present day? Well, by the time I finish this project, it will not be 2022 anyway and I'd be leaving at least one year on the table. But more importantly, that's essentially the beginning of action movies in its modern day form. The action movies of the past were Westerns or war movies. It's an arguable starting date of course. I was motivated to start this because of the excellent History of Violence column by Tom Behran over at AV Club. He actually began his column with 1968's Bullit, but argued you could start with Point Blank. So I started with Point Blank.
And if you're wondering why I picked these five categories. The answer is simple: to address movie viewing blind spots. I am not what you would call a horror movie fan. I don't really understand the appeal of watching a movie to get scared. However, I haven't really given them much of a chance for that very reason. I changed my tune - or at least am willing to give them a fair shot - after I watched The Exorcist last year, which I now consider one of the greatest movies of all time. How many great movies could I miss out on by ignoring horror? That's why I'm doing this.
Animated is the one I'm most ambivalent about - there are definitely a few classics missing in this 50 year period that I haven't seen, but I've also seen a decent number of the obvious ones and I'm not sure I have anywhere close to a movie per year of animated movies to watch here. I am willing to watch movies I've seen before if I haven't seen them for a very long time and barely remember it. Or if I wonder if my opinion on a movie has changed. Even still, I'm hoping I don't regret having animated movies as one of my categories.
Foreign and romance categories are easy enough to justify. I would be shocked if I can't find at least one movie worth watching that fits under romance. This category is broad for a reason. It could be a serious drama or a romcom. It could be experimental or mainstream. The only requirement is the movie actually has to be about the romance. And as for foreign, I mean foreign language. And this is about the safest category possible. There is absolutely at least one foreign language movie per year I haven't seen that is considered a classic. Or could be considered a classic by me. This would be true even if I gave all five categories to foreign language movies.
Introduction over, let's get started.
Action
Point Blank (3/4 stars)
This is a strong start. While I maybe didn't love this movie, it is absolutely worth watching. I can see why Tom didn't start with Point Blank for his action movie column. For one thing, it is absolutely nothing like current action movies. The story is not told in a strictly linear fashion, but what one would call "time-fractured." It was a very confusing first five minutes for me, but you figure it out. And no need for exposition with this editing, because you learn A LOT in those first five minutes. You get the entire backstory, motivation, and what his goal in those first five minutes.
The appeal of this movie is mostly the editing, if you're into that. The plot is very straightforward. Man is shot, robbed, and presumed dead. He lives and wants his money back. That's it. The movie is him trying to find someone to pay him back. Lee Marvin is good, but there's not really anything to his character. He really is as simple as he seems. Just wants his money back. I don't even think he wants revenge. He probably does want revenge on the man who shot him, but I truly don't think he does for anyone else.
This is one of those movies that you totally understand its classic status, and you know if you watched it at the time, you would be singing its praises, but 50+ years of movies have happened since, and dulled its impact on you. Steven Soderbergh is on the commentary track of this and pretty much copied its style for The Limey. Lee Marvin's action hero blank slate has certainly been done to death in action movies.
There is a popular theory about this movie that I won't share because it could be considered a spoiler, but it certainly makes sense. It got me thinking longer than your average action movie. That said, I think my issue is just that Lee Marvin is a nothing character. He's an empty vessel, a blank slate. In the present day, he never smiles and talks as little as possible. I think I need something. But I admire the style and editing of this movie.
Animated
The Jungle Book (1/4 stars)
I am fairly certain I have seen The Jungle Book before, but it had to be when I was in the single digit age of my life. So I was interested in revisiting it because I had no opinion on the movie. The only thing I remember is "Bare Necessities."
I... didn't like it. I am more worried for the animated section of this than ever. I don't know if my problems with this movie are specific to this movie or are just going to be a problem pre-Pixar. This isn't really much of a movie. There's not really any stakes. I don't really like most of the songs. I didn't like the voice actors, which just seemed really out of place to me. I didn't like this movie!
It's also just plain boring. It's amazing how much more boring the movie was with narration than if they had simply let what happened on the screen tell us. I could not figure out why we were getting told the step-by-step process of the panther's thoughts when the animation was doing a perfectly good job. We can see him walking away, see his eyes when he turns around, and know exactly what his thought process is when he's considering leaving the baby. But for some reason, the movie feels the need to share this all with us anyway.
I don't really get it. I get why it was popular at the time. Walt Disney had just died. There is no way they were going to bash this movie. I don't get how it stayed a classic all these years though.
I'll be covering my horror, foreign, and romance sections for part two.
