Week 17: Lightning Round

Things have been hectic at OP, and updates have suffered. The rational solution is to have another lightning round and to fire movie updates at you from a firehose:

To Kill a Mockingbird (Nominated 1962) - This is probably the Gregory Peck performance that is most lauded, although I do not agree that it's his best. It faithfully follows the book, from what I can remember of the book. Director Robert Mulligan does well to elevate Scout (a role casted brilliantly for Mary Badham, who at age 10 would become the youngest person ever nominated for Best Supporting Actress) to the main character and protagonist, and to tell the story from her perspective. A young Robert Duvall appears as Boo Radley at the end. Score: 7.4.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Nominated 1969), All the President's Men (Nominated 1976) and Out of Africa (Won 1985) - I will discuss these movies in tandem because they all involve Robert Redford.

Butch Cassidy is the movie with this scene:

It's funny and displays an air of nihilism that is somewhat common from movies in the late 60's/early 70's (see, e.g. MASH, The French Connection, A Clockwork Orange). The movie is 100% founded in the on-screen chemistry between Redford and Paul Newman, who would shortly thereafter capitalize on their relationship in 1973's winner The Sting. Score for Butch Cassidy: 7.0.

All the President's Men is the movie about Watergate, where Redford plays Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman is Carl Bernstein, both reporters at the Washington Post whose work led directly to the invention of the phrase "investigative journalism." The dialogue and directing is sharp, thanks to Alan Pakula, who oddly had very little future success replicating what he did on this film. Having never read the novel that the screenplay is based on, I learned more about Watergate from watching this movie than from anything else in my life. Because of that, and because of Redford and Hoffman's perfect performances, Score: 8.5.

Robert Redford is great at pretending to have a phone conversation.

Finally, Out of Africa. This is Sydney Pollack's opus as a director (Tootsie is arguably that, too, but I would not be one to make that argument). It's a beautiful, sweeping period drama drawing from a the style of David Lean. Meryl Streep plays the protagonist, a Danish aristocrat who moves to British East Africa to start a farm. Streep's performance is brilliant, although I struggled with her Danish accent. Redford is her flighty (literally) romantic interest. Ultimately, it is a love story with beautiful scenery. 1985's other nominees include the ridiculous Witness and The Color Purple. Not the greatest of Academy years. Score: 6.9.

OP also recently watched She Done Him Wrong (Nominated 1933). This is a short movie starring Mae West and a very young Cary Grant. The plot, etc., not important. It's a vehicle for Mae West, whose history in the entertainment industry is incredibly fascinating and is worth reading on its own. We all know who Mae West is. We all have seen cartoon depictions of her. Very, very interesting. The movie is just okay. Score: 5.5.