From My Collection: Network Movie Review (Special 300th Review Classic)

I sat simply stunned at how good a screenplay Network has. The opening titles read “Network – by Paddy Chayefsky,” as if it’s a novel. Rarely has there been a more apt use of a byline in movies than with this film that has one of the most literate screenplays ever produced in the history of the movies. Chayefsky was not afraid to use words that some audience members might not understand. More impressive than that is that a major Hollywood studio was willing to take a chance on it. Network didn’t break the bank at the domestic box office, but for its budget it was stupendous.

Handicapping the Oscar In Memoriam Montage 2012

I believe the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses the end of January as the cutoff date for fallen celebrities to be included in their annual montage. This rules out the possibility of Whitney Houston's inclusion unless they make a decision that she's too big not to include. She was never nominated for an Oscar, although some songs she performed in The Bodyguard were nominated, and she only starred in three Hollywood movies. I think it's possible we'll see her included, but not surprised if she's left out.

Frances Bay is an actress whose face you probably recognize for all the bit parts she's had over the years. I don't think we'll see her, but she died last September at age 92.

Classic Movie Review: Long Day's Journey Into Night

After Sidney Lumet's recent passing, I present a fresh look at one of his early films.

It’s not an easy thing to adapt a stage play for the screen, especially most 20^th century American drama that centers on family conflicts. Dramatists like Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill present intimate portraits of a handful of characters, usually bound by time and place. The drama is designed specifically to play out on a stage where there are far more limitations than in cinema.

Director Sidney Lumet, who recently passed away after a long and distinguished cinematic career, got his start in television presenting teleplays and his early cinematic efforts were often adapted stage plays. His Twelve Angry Men was a film adapted from a teleplay that was later adapted for the stage. Of course the film was almost perfectly tailored to be done on stage, although he made it cinematic.

His 1962 adaptation of O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night feels much more constrained by the conventions of theater and a bit hamstrung by what appears to be an attempt to take the drama off the ‘stage’ and into the camera.

RIP Sidney Lumet 1924 - 2011

I will, as usual, leave the aggrandizement to writers and publications with the time and money to do it proper justice.

I have long been an admirer of Lumet's films since before I even really had any idea or cared about who directed them. I saw Network, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, and Twelve Angry Men when I was in college and devouring as many cinema classics as I could get my hands on. I've seen them all at least a second time since and they all hold up remarkably well on both a second viewing and considering the years that have passed since their openings. You can read my review of his feature film debut, Twelve Angry Men, here.

Classic Movie Review: 12 Angry Men

When you consider Sidney Lumet’s body of work as a feature film director (Serpico; Dog Day Afternoon; The Verdict; Network), so much of it can be traced back to his debut film 12 Angry Men. This simple little courtroom drama (which has only one scene take place in an actual courtroom), in which a single jury member bent on voting not guilty slowly convinces the other eleven to change their votes, paved the way for his career directing films about justice.

The film is based on a teleplay by Reginald Rose, who also wrote the screenplay. It is certainly idealistic in its moralizing and tub-thumping for the American Way. It’s a film that is in love with itself for representing the idealized version of our justice system. And although some of the scenes feel very stagy, it’s Lumet’s direction that makes the film rise above it all to achieve genuine greatness.