A movie I can watch over and over. Some painful truths set in a beautiful place and time.
Tropical Tantrums
I have always enjoyed this movie. Set in glorious Hawaii, Charlton Heston is his usual best with a great support cast. This movie lived up to my memory of first seeing it years ago. It mixes the underlying tension in Hawaii at that time, with the explosive forbidden love tangle. A very pleasant film in many ways with exquisite scenery, good acting, set in a great era and has nice closure. A must for Heston fans.
Have a slice of pineapple, and enjoy.
Hawaii plantation soaper. Dated themes (Oh my God--sis is dating a...a *native*?) but Heston is marvelous as big daddy of the tropics.
George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) directed this adaptation of James Michener's novel about the history of the 50th state. Max von Sydow plays a zealous missionary with a Calvinist bent, intent on enlightening the natives even as his wife (Julie Andrews) is romanced by the dashing Richard Harris. The film is both a glossy vision of Hawaii in the early 19th century and a sometimes-brutal drama full of death, a rough childbirth, stormy weather, etc. Hill's blunt editing, meant to emphasize the more terrifying aspects of the natural order of life, makes the film look particularly dated and mannered today. This is best appreciated for its cast, all of whom were making inroads in Hollywood at the time. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julie Andrews - Max von Sydow - Richard Harris Director(s): George Roy Hill DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's never been as revered as The African Queen, but Elephant Walk is a similarly prestigious entry in the exotic adventure movie trend of the 1950s. This is one of those glossy Technicolor melodramas that inevitably climaxed in a scene of tragic destruction, typically intended to teach men a humbling lesson about the forces of nature. In this case, a seemingly delicate newlywed (Elizabeth Taylor) joins her husband (Peter Finch) on his tea plantation in Ceylon, only to uncover mysteries about the plantation and her husband's long-dead father, whose ghostly presence looms over the stately estate where elephants once roamed freely. Dana Andrews is the plantation foreman who catches Liz's attention when Finch is injured during one of many drunken interludes with a band of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Elizabeth Taylor - Dana Andrews - Peter Finch Director(s): William Dieterle DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The poster (B. Graham etc.) who keeps asserting that this film was filmed in fullscreen ratio is all wet. I saw the original release and it was definitely widescreen. (Maybe not Cinemascope, but it impressed me by its size and color at the time.) And, no, it was not fullscreen cropped or matted to appear wide.
Paramount is out of its mind to do this supercolorful film in full screen only. (As the studios are for only issuing Sharky's Machine, Fearless, The Great Santini in fullscreen. But doing it to The Naked Jungle is the worst because of the gorgeous cinematography.) More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Eleanor Parker - Charlton Heston Director(s): Byron Haskin DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Carol Reed (The Third Man) directed this 1965 portrait of the relationship between Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison), who commissioned the artist to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Based on a novel by Irving Stone, the script plods along, juggling the dynamics between the two men along with a somewhat perfunctory love story and distracting battle sequences. Reed seems more attuned to the nuances and great pains of the artistic process, as seen in sequences of Michelangelo working. But the overall focus of the film is unfortunately fuzzy. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Rex Harrison Director(s): Carol Reed DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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