Take 575: Watching the National Film Registry

  Adam's Rib : Summary and initial thoughts Oh, I always enjoy this movie. A classic Hepburn/Tracy collaboration, this film is smart, sexy, and forward-thinking. But does it actually answer the battle of the sexes? Well... The film follows married couple Adam and Amanda Bonner, respectively an assistant DA and a defense attorney. Their life together is presumably reasonably equitable and peaceful...that is until Adam is assigned to a case prosecuting a woman, Doris, who, enraged by her husband's affair, tracks down him and his paramour and begins chaotically shooting around the room in every direction, ultimately wounding her husband in the shoulder. Amanda, who feels there is a double standard for women when it comes to adultery (true), sees her husband's involvement in the prosecution as on opportunity. She finds Doris and offers her services for the defense, hoping to both help the accused woman and prove a higher point: that men and women, despite being naturally equal,...

  The Adventures of Robin Hood : Summary and initial thoughts Ah, Errol Flynn. One of Old Hollywood's kings of cool is at the top of his form in this classic swashbuckling adventure film. At least, he is after he changes out of his first costume. I'm not sure why, but Errol Flynn spends the first part of this film clad in lime green and shiny gold medallions. Like a Peter Pan pimp. After he trades that carnival costume for Robin Hood's standard dark green, he's good to go. The story is familiar, and all the classic characters are there: Much the Miller's Son, John the Little, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian—the whole kit and caboodle. Robin Hood recruits and leads a merry band of outlaws and rebels to protect the Saxons from the Normans, to save the peasants from burdensome taxation by Prince John, the evil brother of the missing King Richard. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Hood makes a lot of enemies for himself in this endeavor, and he finds himself in and out of troub...

  13 Lakes : Summary and initial thoughts 13 Lakes comes to us from filmmaker James Benning, whose other works include Ten Skies and The United States of America . This experimental film is exactly what it states: thirteen lakes, each shown with the skyline, each shown for ten minutes. The film is absent of actors or story, narration or overt purpose, instead focusing on long shots of each lake. It is silent except for ambient and animal noises. It is an exercise in patience, to say the least. The lakes featured in this film are all in the United States:  Wyoming's Jackson Lake Maine's Moosehead Lake California's Salton Sea Minnesota's Lake Superior Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago Florida's Lake Okeechobee Minnesota's Red Lake Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Utah's Great Salt Lake Alaska's Lake Iliamna Utah and Arizona's Lake Powell Oregon's Crater Lake New York's Oneida Lake The ambience is stunning, as are the lakes themselves. I admit th...

  All About Eve : Summary and initial thoughts What would you do if you realized someone was trying to replace you, not just at your job, but in your whole life? Would you fight it? Give into it? Seek revenge? These are the questions posed to aging Broadway actress Margo Channing (played by the iconic Bette Davis in one of her most recognizable film roles) when she realizes that the sweet young ingenue actress she has taken under her wing is actually a conniving, devious manipulator who will stop at nothing to take over Margo's life. The film opens at the reception for an award ceremony, at which rising theatre star Eve Harrington is being honored. Through the memories of other characters, we learn how we got here. At first, Eve (played completely on point by Anne Baxter) seems innocent enough, even cute, when she is introduced to Margot as her most ardent fan. She spins a harrowing story for the benefit of Margo, her boyfriend Bill, and their friends, playwright Lloyd Richards and...

  Alien : Summary and initial thoughts So let's just get this settled right up front: The cat lives, okay? I repeat: The cat makes it out alright. Take a deep breath—no cats are harmed in this story. We cool? Okay, let's move on. For a fairly visually disgusting movie (see, e.g., the chestburster scene, which we'll get to in a bit), I really enjoyed Alien . There's a lot to love in this sci-fi/horror classic, even if blood and guts aren't your thing (they're certainly not mine). Alien follows the seven crewmembers of the Nostromo , in addition to Jones the cat, who have been hired for a space mining company's operations (the cat is not expected to do any mining, he is there for moral support). The crew is in stasis (just go with it) when the Nostromo 's computer, Mother, receives what it thinks is a distress call from a nearby planet. The crew get out to explore, finding an abandoned ship and a desiccated alien corpse. One of the crew, Kane, traipses int...

  42nd Street : Summary and initial thoughts This is a fun one. Telling the story of a theatre production during the Great Depression, 42nd Street  at times feels like a cross between Applause  and All About Eve  (minus the melancholy and treachery, respectively). The story follows an ensemble production directed by demanding hitmaker Julian Marsh, whose hardcore dedication to his stressful career has wreaked havoc with this health. Ruined by the stock market crash, he is determined to make this show, Pretty Lady , a financial success upon which he can retire, even if he has to jeopardize his life in the process. Former vaudevillian Dorothy Brock is signed to play the lead and tasked with keeping the major backer of the show, a gullible and artless man named Abner Dillon, happy with her flirtations. This second demand becomes a problem when it is discovered that she is still liaising (and in love) with an old flame from her vaudeville days, Pat Denning. Enter fresh, ...