I just love this film! Old Blue Eyes did real justice to one of the strangest and most effective Politicans to come out of the Old South.(Earl Long)I am willing to bet Bill Clinton has this film in his library.
"Blaze" flames out!
Ron Shelton's second directorial effort (after "Bull Durham") falls a little flat. You might be tempted to say that he should stick to sports films--which does seem to be his forte. But I suspect the real problem with this film was that it was based on a memoir and was not one of Shelton's original scripts. The memoir, of course, was that of legendary exotic dancer, Blaze Starr, and she not only provided the source material but served as consultant on the film and even had a cameo. Her influence may not have been all that felicitous, however.
The hurried exposition scenes (young Blaze, nee Belle, bidding her central casting hillbilly family goodbye as she boards a bus, being introduced to the world of exotic dancing by an unscrupulous promoter played by Robert Wuhl) just don't ring true. Belle/Blaze can't have been SO naive as to think that she was being hired to sing in a strip club. And the scene where she and Wuhl cook up her stage name is almost painful in its cuteness. The movie stumbles badly in its introductory scenes.
It is not the fault of Lolita Davidovich, who is quite fetching in the title role, and the film does get better once Paul Newman makes his entrance as the irascible, eccentric governor of Louisiana, Earl K. Long, brother of Huey and therefore heir to a colorful tradition of populist backwoods-backroom politicking. Newman delights in the role, and the chemistry beteen him and Davidovich is genuine. It ratchets the film up a notch or two.
But it still never quite catches fire. It may be that by 1989, we had already seen this type of cornpone politics on film a few too many times. Was the real Earl K. Long as much of a progressive on the integration and voting rights issue as the film implies. Well, this Yankee won't presume to know for sure, but within the context of the film, Long's progressivism comes off as a little cliched. He's clearly a rascal, but he's supposed to be redeemed somewhat in the audience's eyes since he's on the right side of the race issue. But frankly it would be a little more interesting, if he were just a little more conflicted about the racial politics of his home state.
As for the Blaze Starr character, well, as implied above, her character could be, uh, fleshed out more as well. She has been elsewhere described as a "stripper with a heart of gold," and that may well have been the case, but surely, the country gal who started out wanting to be a singer must have been more conflicted about her career path than this film ever suggests. The only sense we get of that inner conflict, however, is her reluctance to tell her backwoods mama what she really does for a living (of course, Mama's not quite as naive and isolated as Blaze thinks: she even keeps a scrapbook of her daughter's exploits). A more nuanced portrait might have upset the real-life Starr, however, and maybe she wouldn't have served as consultant to writer/director Shelton.
Hmmm. Maybe that would have been a good thing.
A very entertaining and underrated film
This movie stirred some controversy when it came out because it is based on the autobiography of Blaze Starr, and so as history it is somewhat unreliable. But the movie works very well on its own terms, and I believe is and was underappreciated. Among other things, it includes another fine performance by Paul Newman, which is worth the price of admission by itself. It is too bad that it is now out of print. Seen as a story told through Starr's eyes, the movie works very well. It is both poignant and funny, and tells this colorful episode of Louisiana history entertainingly (but it's not a documentary, so don't expect complete historical accuracy). Paul Newman gives a memorable performance as Goveror Earl Long, and Lolita Davidowich and the supporting cast are also great. The movie also has a superb soundtrack that includes Fats Domino, Hank Williams and Randy Newman.
"Worn to perfection" is the tag line promoting this crafted character study. It describes Paul Newman, the resourceful 70-year-old lead actor, but not his character, Sully, a North Bath, New York, loner who totally emulates the negative definition of the title. Newman gives a brilliant performance (Oscar-nominated and winner of two critics circle awards) relying on his well-honed subtleties. The dramatics are simple: the return of his son (Dylan Walsh) and grandson, offering a chance to reconcile; odd jobs for a construction company he's trying to sue for an injury; and a comedic grudge match against the owner (a reserved Bruce Willis). North Bath is the kind of place, wrapped in winter (beautifully shot by John Bailey), where enemies are friends, marriages are shaky, and Hawaii is only a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Newman - Jessica Tandy - Bruce Willis Director(s): Robert Benton DVD Release Date: Released the 09 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A remarkable blend of otherwise disparate philosophies about legendary men, this 1972 film was inspired in part by the epic dimensions of a John Milius (The Wind and the Lion) script, which was toned down by Paul Newman's charmingly eccentric approach to the title character, who in turn was deepened by director John Huston's sensitivity to the subject of fleeting dreams. The story concerns the famous outlaw-turned-lawmaker who rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town. The film follows the quirky Bean's episodic adventures as the years pass and a variety of colorful characters come and go, including the muse who captivated his soul, the actress Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner). Huston's textured approach has an almost... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Newman Director(s): John Huston DVD Release Date: Released the 03 June 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Despite the combined star power in front of and behind the camera, Fat Man and Little Boy is a largely tepid retelling of the history of the Manhattan Project, the atomic testing project that led to the U.S. bombing of Japan during World War II (said bombs were dubbed "Fat Man" and "Little Boy"). The Nevada-based project is headed by General Leslie R. Groves (a testy Paul Newman) and scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz of the TV series The A-Team), who later regretted his cooperation in the project. The problem with the film lies not with the acting, which includes solid performances by Bonnie Bedelia, Laura Dern, John Cusack, and future U.S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson, but with the script by director Roland Joffé and Bruce Robinson (Withnail and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Newman - Dwight Schultz - Bonnie Bedelia Director(s): Roland Joffé DVD Release Date: Released the 27 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If it hadn't been released in 1998 with a veteran cast of Hollywood's finest, you could swear that Twilight was a movie from the 1940s--the kind of intelligent mystery that would've made Humphrey Bogart feel right at home. To be sure, that was exactly the intention of director and co-writer Robert Benton (in collaboration with Nobody's Fool writer Richard Russo), but the film's blessing is also its curse. Benton and Russo are so enamored of vintage mystery plots and characters that their movie nearly succumbs to the burden of old-fashioned familiarity. As the title suggests, the movie's aging characters, led by Newman as a private eye who's almost literally on his last legs, are all on the downhill of life, their Hollywood glory days behind them. Newman's character lives in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Newman - Susan Sarandon - Gene Hackman Director(s): Robert Benton DVD Release Date: Released the 06 October 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Martin Scorsese handles directing duties in this 1986 sequel to the classic 1961 film The Hustler, which marks the return of Paul Newman to the role of pool shark Fast Eddie Felson. Anxious to break into the big time again, Eddie finds a talented protégé (Tom Cruise) to groom; but with the addition of the latter's manipulative girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and the wild streak in Cruise's character, the trio make for a fascinating portrait in group psychology. The cast is brilliant, the script by Richard Price (Clockers) is a paragon of tightly controlled character study and drama (at least in the film's first half), and Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus make an ornate show of the collision and flight of pool balls through space--something... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Newman - Tom Cruise Director(s): Martin Scorsese DVD Release Date: Released the 06 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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