Week 1: All About Donald Sutherland

(I am now retrospectively describing the first week of my work towards the completion of this project; but in the future I hope to do this in real time.)

In Week 1 I watched the following films:

• All About Eve (won 1950)
• Becket (nominated 1964)
• MASH (nominated 1970)
• Love Story (nominated 1970)
• The Conversation (nominated 1974)
• Ordinary People (won 1980)
• Witness (nominated 1985)
• A Room With a View (nominated 1986)

All of these movies are available to "watch instantly" on Netflix. Of these, the best was probably "Ordinary People"; fitting in that it was the only actual award winner. For someone of my age, it was interesting to see a younger, in-prime Donald Sutherland both as the "Ordinary People" dad and the original Hawkeye Pierce in "MASH." His performance in "Ordinary People" stood out even among the highly acclaimed Timothy Hutton and Mary Tyler Moore roles, and the movie itself was impressively real and touching. "MASH," meanwhile, was more or less what I expected.

Sitting through "Love Story" was very difficult. It's an overwrought movie with a ridiculous and borderline offensive premise. The wife randomly having a terminal disease is very cheap. I suppose it was a year of "men's movies" with "MASH" and "Patton" reigning. Ali MacGraw won "Best Actress." This was the first good example of why this project is so interesting. Never in a thousand years would "Love Story" be on any kind of list of the best movies of all time, and in fairness to the evolution of the Academy Award process, I'd like to think it would never be nominated today. And yet, in 1970, people were apparently enamored by it. 

It was good to finally see "The Conversation," which I knew before only as trivia. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released the same year as The Godfather Part II; it also is one of the six movies in which John Cazale appears. I found that it started out strong but then became boring. 

"Witness" is a truly ridiculous film. I was able to pay attention from start to finish, but I could never quite get past the premise. Harrison Ford plays a Philadelphia cop who must flee a corrupt department to Amish country. The "witness" is a young Amish boy who sees a guy murdered (by Danny Glover), and yet the movie isn't really about him, or about convincing him to testify, etc., it is just about Harrison Ford being Amish. There is a barn raising. One of the bad guys is killed by falling corn. I found myself laughing out loud at the supposed romance between Ford and the Amish Kelly McGillis character.

I found "All About Eve" to be very shallow. It's the first Bette Davis movie I have ever seen. It encapsulates how I think of Old Hollywood, as most of it appears to take place indoors and on sound stages. There is even a scene where two characters walk down a fake street. Like "Singin' in the Rain," it is also full of what I perceived to be inside-baseball discussion about entertainment and acting. "Becket" is another somewhat older film. Richard Burton, chanting monks, much use of the royal "we."

Finally, I watched "A Room With a View" on my iPad while lying awake in a hotel room. I later learned that this is based on an E.M. Forster novel and has been produced in several mediums, including television. I loved the cast: a young Helena Bonham Carter, a middle-aged Maggie Smith, and Daniel Day-Lewis in easily his most hilarious role as Cecil. Anyone skeptical of DDL's comedic chops needs to see this movie.

It was an eventful Week 1. Brief recap: Shrinks, monks, spooks; and "love" means never having to be martyred in a grain silo.