Filmically Perfect

Our first attempt at a call-in show was wildly successful, at least as far as we were concerned! Thanks so much to all who called, especially those who were not able to get on the show! We are now planning to do more of these and some other outlets to let our friends be heard!!

One of the most reverential and human films about the subject of religion, Robert Duvall’s The Apostle has rightfully earned its place on the List of Perfect Movies. This is a film about real people, told by an actor with a keen eye. A film that can be enjoyed equally by the religious as well as the secular.

A powerful film from one of the hot new directors of the late 1960’s, Arthur Penn. One of the few films that successfully manages to tweak “the old west” while at the same time being highly reverent to the ways of the American Indians. A truly great film, to be watched again and again, if only for the wonderful scenes between Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George.

What can we say? This is it--the original article. The one and only real, genuine, except-no-substitutes KING KONG, in glorious, luminous Black & White. Not someone else’s idea of what the story should be but the REAL DEAL. A film that has survived the ravages of time and will be long remembered after the fourteen different edits of the recent “remake” have faded away in a digital haze. Do we love this film? Why, yes, how can you tell?

Richard Donner’s magnificent, half-finished epic has become the iconic embodiment of The Man of Steel, regardless of the machinations of the suits at Warner Bros. and DC Comics. Christopher Reeve’s portrayal is up there with Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera and Sean Connery as James Bond: Often imitated, never equaled. Ironically, Donner has been allowed to “finish” his version as best he could and it is now available as “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.”

Lewis Milestone’s ground-breaking sound film epic treats WWI not as an allegory, as many of its predecessors had, but as a painfully human story, showing the hopes and fears of a group of young men being thrust into battle. While in no way an obscure film, it had been cut to ribbons by a variety of editors over the years until it was merely a shell of its former self. Enter The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center, which worked diligently for more than five years to restore this magnificent film as close as possible to its original form.

It is thought that these shorts were made so that the executives at Paramount could see just how good or bad W.C. Fields was on the talking screen. I guess he must have impressed them as he was immediately pressed into feature films! Of the four shorts he made for “King of Comedy” and golfing buddy Mack Sennett, these two are the most unusual and, ironically, are also both public domain, allowing you to view or even download the complete films for yourself!

Gordon Parks’ breakthrough detective film resonates with as much or more power than it did when it exploded on the scene back in 1971. Richard Roundtree leads the cast as John Shaft, the hero of Ernest Tidyman’s series of novels. The fact that Tidyman was a white novelist makes this film’s resonance all the more amazing. Below left is one of Gordon Parks’ best known photographs, taken in 1942. Parks became a highly respected photographer, doing much of his best work for LIFE magazine. Rather than retiring, he became a filmmaker in the 1960’s, as well as writing books of poetry and even music for the sequel to Shaft--Shaft’s Big Score!

Henry Hampton’s fourteen hour journey through the American Civil Rights Movement should be required viewing for all, especially those groups today who feel they are getting a bad break. Here is the story of a people, born and raised in the USA, citizens all, expected to follow the laws and pay their taxes, yet still treated like property in many parts of the South. A powerful tribute to truly brave Americans.

“Are you a mod or a rocker?” “I’m a mocker.” Ringo’s exchange sets the tone for Richard Lester’s wild, free and groundbreaking little film. In the pantheon of musical performance films, everything is either before HDN or after HDN. This movie, release just about a half year after The Nutty Professor shows the world of teens as it was becoming: not the staid, old big bands and stodgy dances of the past, but fast paced, casual and terribly, terribly hip.

Jerry Lewis’ first film with a strong storyline is also one of his best. A film full of flash and color and fun! Jerry takes R.L. Stevenson’s classic tale, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and turns it on it’s head, giving it his own wacky flavor. Regardless of how many times others try to remake it (and with 2007 there will be three!), this version will arguably be the first and best, at least to those of us here at Filmically Perfect.

Whom better to make a film about the American South than British director John Boorman? Well, he was arguably the right choice as the longevity of this simple yet harrowing film attests. Shot under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, with a tiny budget of $2,000,000 and no insurance underwriting, this film, based on James Dickey’s popular first novel has become, in a rather disturbing way, one of the prime films that people connect with the South. And way too much has been devoted to the “squeal like a pig” scene which, although pivotal to the plot, is not the main subject of the story and has actual begun to detract from the film, in my humble opinion. (Geo.) Nevertheless, the film has remained extremely popular in the thirty years since it’s a debut and, if nothing else, introduced us to one of our finest character actors, Ned Beatty.

Arguably one of Bruce Dern’s finest moments on the screen, Douglas Trumbull’s enviro-cautionary fable still resonates today, more powerfully than more ham-fisted attempts such as The Day After Tomorrow. A simple film, where not much seems to happen, but it gets inside your head and travels around with you. In this heated episode of Filmically Perfect, host Niki Dakota declares her dislike for Silent Running, but learns the hard way as The Film Guys verbally pummel her into realizing what they have known all along: that this is a Perfect Movie. But we love her and we are there for her, even when she is mistaken. Like now.

They said we were mad! They said we were crazy! Crazy? Yes, crazy like a fox! To include this seventeen-minute Three Stooges short with the likes of to Kill A Mockingbird and Sunrise? You got it, Bunky! In our proud personal pantheon of perfect productions, this one fills a special place--and in our hearts as well. Jerome “Curly” Howard so shamelessly steals this film from everyone, including his older brother Moe, that we couldn’t not choose it. You don’t agree? That’s fine, but this is our game and we choose the players!

Frank Capra’s first film after WWII was of the utmost importance to him--would audiences still accept what so many critics had labeled “Capra-corn?” In 1946, the answer was “no.” But then, a strange thing happened--television. Slowly, the film began to gain momentum. Then, in the seventies, when it fell into Public Domain, the sudden abundance of viewings, plus the availability on the new home video systems helped turn it into the American equivalent of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Ties? A new bathrobe? Socks?? Fuggedahboudit! What every red-blooded cinema fan wants for Christmas (or Hanukkah or whatever celebration you’re into this season) is movies on DVD. Let me qualify that: GOOD movies on WELL PRODUCED DVDs! In this Extra Special episode of Filmically Perfect, J.Todd and Geo., the Film Guys, and Niki Dakota, our most wonderful host, take a look at some of the best sets of DVDs Hollywood has to offer this season and even manage to squeeze in a little history.

Does it amaze anyone else that one of America's favorite Christmas movies comes from Canada? Or that its director had previously made Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Black Christmas, and Porky’s? Yes truly, Bob Clark “paid his dues” before reaching what might well be the zenith of his career with this wonderful romp through Jean Shepherd’s mind. Unless there’s something about Baby Geniuses that we all missed...

“Chicken Every Sunday?” Do you remember that movie? No? Well, in order to get Miracle on 34th Street made, director George Seaton had to sign on to direct the other film, a project near and dear to Darryl F. Zanuck, the boss of 20th Century-Fox. Seaton did make the film and it was released in 1949, where it garnered no awards and no nominations. Even today, it is not available in any video format and rarely shows up on television. In the meantime, Miracle ran in the theaters for six months, won three Academy Awards and two Golden Globes and will be watched by millions every Christmas from now until the end of time on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, satellite, cable, HDTV, etc.

From George Miller, the creator of Mad Max and The Road Warrior comes Babe, a film without a single truck chase or sharp-edged boomerang (although it does have at least one feral child)! Arguably the best talking pig movie ever, it was one of the first to successfully mix traditional puppetry, animatronics, computer animation AND actual live animals to tell this heart-warming but not mushy or cloying story of a young pig’s adventures on the Hogget’s farm. Top it off with a score built around Camille Saint-Säens’ beautiful Third Symphony and you have a perfect film the whole family can treasure!

Brad Bird, now best known for his film The Incredibles, created this beautiful, poignant, and emotionally charged animated film in 1999, where it got totally lost in the flurry of summer movies, grossing less than half of its $48,000,000 budget. This is sad in that it was just the kind of movie people had been crying out for; a family film with stuff for both kids and adults. A film with a lesson, but not the tripe the studios had been dishing out. But slowly, as with so many of the enduring cinema classics, The Iron Giant has begun to find its audience: people who are taking this film to heart and give it the place it deserves in the pantheon of Perfect Movies.