At the All-Star break, it’s time for a baseball movie, so I recommend John Sayles’ 1988 Eight Men Out, which tells the true story of the Black Sox Scandal – the Chicago White Sox players who fixed the 1919 World Series. Sayles used actors, not baseball players, but the baseball scenes are totally authentic. The characters of star players Eddie Cicotte, Buck Weaver and Shoeless Joe Jackson and owner Charles Comiskey vividly come alive.
Also, because its sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire is opening in theaters, there’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, one of my Best Films of 2010. It’s a rock-em, sock-em feminist suspense thriller built around the very original character of damaged, angry, master hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). Lisbeth makes Dirty Harry look like Bishop Tutu. The Swedish title was Men Who Hate Woman, and there’s lots of violence against women in this film, satisfyingly avenged. This is a whodunit with layers of romance, suspense, and sex, with even some Nazis thrown in.
Mick LaSalle has a great insight on Toy Story 3 and the fates to be suffered by the toys:
“Thrown out is the equivalent of death.
“Being put in the attic is the equivalent of retirement.
“Relocating is the equivalent of changing jobs.”
Read his blog here. This post also links to his review.
My point here is that Toy Story 3 is BOTH a great children’s movie AND a great movie for adults, too. I regret that lots of childless adults won’t see it. Adults should see this movie – at times it is thoughtful, profound, moving and hilarious. Hey, take a date to this movie – it’ll make her/him laugh and admire your movie taste.
I haven’t found any other acceptable lists of patriotic movies. Other lists tend to be less patriotic and more jingoistic and nationalistic, less about celebrating the essential American values and triumphs (sometimes triumphs over ourselves) than about dominating some furriners in war or sport. That’s why Top Gun and Miracle show up on those lists, but not mine.
Throughout our history, American patriots have taken risks and made sacrifices for ideas and causes greater than themselves. Here are ten movies that celebrate that authentic patriotism.
1. Casablanca: Our greatest film also depicts the decision to make a painful personal sacrifice, abandoning the love of one’s life, to join the risky fight against fascism, racism and fundamental evil. “I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”Now that’s the essence of patriotism.
Rick is good at being noble, after all.
2. John Adams: There was a time when the English subjects in North America needed to be convinced to seek Independence. There was a time – a long time – when the outcome of the war for that Independence was uncertain. There was a time when the winners of that war needed to invent a new government. And then the new government needed to be led by people without experience in self-government. John Adams, the most overlooked giant of our Founding Fathers, was a central player in all of these dramatic events and is the subject of this brilliant mini-series.
Unique among the Founding Fathers, his day-to-day activities were frankly chronicled in hundreds of letters to and from his wife of fifty-four years, Abigail. These surviving letters comprise one of the most essential first-hand accounts of the founding of America, and, of course, also reveal much about the talented but prickly Adams and the Adams’ relationship.
3. Gettysburg: This is the best Civil War movie, shot on the actual battlefield with thousands of re-enactors. It makes this list because it highlights the character of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels), a professor of rhetoric and theology, who finds himself leading a few men to defend his army’s most vulnerable position; the screenplay uses Chamberlain to verbalize the rationale for his commitment to preserve the world’s flagship democracy.
4. To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch is compelled to pursue truth, justice and fair play, and he is committed to reaching those outcomes in the American justice system that he cherishes. In doing so, he rejects the expectations of his time and place, and he risks his community standing, his family’s comfort and security and his own personal safety.
5. Saving Private Ryan: A high school teacher is thrust onto history’s biggest stage: the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Normandy. He is assigned a dangerous mission that he understands has public relations value, but little military tactical importance. He appreciates how high are the risks and how little the impact that the mission will have on the outcome of the War, yet maintains his focus on the success of his mission and the safety of his men.
6. The Best Years of Our Lives: A war ends, and it’s time to total up the sacrifices made by both those who fought and their loved ones, and to recognize how they have been changed by their experiences. Check out this beautifully re-cut trailer.
7: Eyes on the Prize: American’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965: July 4, 1776, is the start, not the apex, of the American journey. Since then, we have been working to fashion a more ideal America – in both tiny increments and great strides, with missteps along the way. This series tells the story of a great stride – accomplished by underdogs.
8. Seven Days in May: Is patriotism about nationalism (us against outsiders), or is it a devotion to the American core principle of democracy? That’s the central question in this thriller about a plotted military coup in the United States.
9. In Harm’s Way: This is the closest to a conventional war movie on this list, but one about Americans facing a conflict with determination despite being uncertain of the outcome. It depicts even the most troubled American making the ultimate sacrifice for a greater good. Otto Preminger introduces his own trailer:
10. Baseball: This is the Ken Burns nine part history of baseball. There is some heroism here (Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey), but mostly this film makes the list to celebrate an essential thread in the American fabric. Like our culture, baseball has rules, history, customs, competition, winners and losers. Like our country, baseball has been shaped by immigration, urbanization and new technologies. Like our nation’s history, baseball’s history is replete with racists, greedy capitalists, cheaters, solid role models, eccentrics, innovators, visionaries and idealists. Baseball has its own language, food and iconography, and is generally one of the most consistently sweet things about America. For better or for worse, there is nothing more American than baseball, and what’s more patriotic than watching Baseball?
The “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is good, too. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
My DVD of the week is John Adams. For the trailer and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.
Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball
Movies on TV include The Firemen’s Ball, The Crying Gameand Before Sunrise.
John Adams: The most overlooked giant of our Founding Fathers is the subject of this brilliant mini-series. Adams was a major player in forming the political consensus to seek independence from England, an important (if unevenly successful) diplomat during the war, a key political ally of George Washington’s and our nation’s first Vice-President and second President. Unique among the Founding Fathers, his day to day activities were frankly chronicled in hundreds of letters to and from his wife of fifty-four years, Abigail. These surviving letters comprise one of the most essential first-hand accounts of the founding of America, and, of course, also reveal much about the talented but prickly Adams and the Adams’ relationship.
To seal the quality of this miniseries, the Adams are played by the generally brilliant Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Giamatti captures the short-tempered, brilliant political strategist who understands the limits of his own personal popularity. Linney is perfect as the perceptive Abigail, who often helps John by pointing out that he needs to get out of his own way.
The series also, seemingly alone amid contemporary filmmaking, captures the era. It was a time when travel and communication took weeks on horseback or months by sailing ship and when smallpox inoculation was by blade instead of by needle. Day-to-day life is portrayed without romanticism or iconography. In particular, no one who watches the tar-and-feathering scene will again view this practice as quaintly comical.
Best Supporting Actor: Christolph Walz completely deserves to win Best Supporting Actor – and he will. Me and Orson Welles’ studio made a huge mistake and pushed Christian MacKay for Best Actor instead of Supporting for his amazing performance as Orson Welles; MacKay belongs among the nominees here. And the funniest performance as a Supporting Actor – maybe in the decade – is Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman in A Serious Man; Melamed creates a hilariously pompous and blatantly manipulative character as the guy who seduces the protagonist’s wife and then expects the hero to bend over backwards to make everything convenient for them; I’ve never seen such an earnestly self-entitled character. Woody Harrelson is also great in The Messenger.
Best Documentary: The Cove is nominated for Best Documentary, and I’ve heard that it is very, very good. But it’s been a strong year for documentaries. My favorite, Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains, may actually be a 2008 release. But I think that Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 and Tyson are nomination-worthy. Other goods documentaries this year include Outrage, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, The September Issue, More Than a Game, The Way We Get By, It Might Get Loud, and Thrilla in Manilla.
Best Animated Feature: Just saw The Secret of Kells, and I have no idea why it has a high Metacritic score or why it is nominated for Best Animated Feature.
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nine, but her better performance was in Broken Embraces.
Best Foreign Language Film: And why wasn’t Broken Embraces nominated for Best Foreign Language Film? It was one of my top five films of the year, and the Academy loves Almodovar. I am rooting against The White Ribbon – a brilliantly made film that tells a disappointingly shallow story. The White Ribbon is a depiction of a village in which every father is emotionally, physically and/or sexually abusive, all of the kids are very creepy and a mysterious someone is doing some very, very bad things. That could all work toward a good film, if the message were something a little deeper than “Germany’s WWII generation had very mean parents”.
