Walk the Line: A Review

WALK THE LINE

"We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout". So begins Jackson, the duet by the country music legends Johnny and June Carter Cash. That song, along with others like Ring of Fire and Walk the Line, is a good chronicle of their at-times tempestuous lives, careers and marriage. Walk the Line, the biopic of this legendary musical figure and his better half, is a long film. However, it is also highly effective, with strong performances and a committed story.

Starting and almost ending with his 1968 concert at Folsom Prison, Walk the Line covers the life and times of John R. Cash (Joaquin Phoenix). As his band, the Tennessee Three, are playing his introductory music, Johnny seems lost in thought as he looks on a saw. That saw sparks memories of his early years in rural Arkansas. He has an abusive father, Ray (Robert Patrick), a faith-centered mother, Carrie (Shelby Lynne) and a beloved brother, Jack (Lucas Till). Times are tough and the Cash family struggles. Things get harder when Jack dies in a sawmill accident. Johnny or J.R. is guilt-stricken as he goes off to Germany to serve in the Air Force. Here, Johnny sneaks in a little songwriting, working on songs like Folsom Prison Blues. 

Upon returning from his tour of duty, Johnny marries Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin) and has four daughters. He also continues pursuing his music dreams. Vivian endures his efforts, barely hiding her irritation that Johnny isn't successful in door-to-door sales. Johnny finally, albeit shyly, goes to Sun Records to audition for its owner, Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts). His efforts at singing gospel flop, but when he breaks out Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny and his-then Tennessee Two players get a record contract. 

It also gets him touring with a group of other Sun Records singers. There's wild man Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne). There's the quieter Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton). One person not on Sun Records who is part of the tour is country music royalty June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). She is one of the members of the Carter Family, whom Johnny and Jack would listen to on the radio. June is more comedienne than singer, though she does sing. June, like Johnny, is married. He is clearly attracted to June. For her part, she is pleasant but, to use modern parlance, puts him in the friend zone.

Johnny's continuing success and touring strain his marriage. His growing fixation for the now-divorced June do not help. She agrees to keep performing and touring with Cash despite his on-stage antics. He for example humiliated her (though I think unintentionally) when he pressured her into performing Time's A-Wastin' with him. That song had been a duet between her and her first husband. Johnny's growing pill-popping did not help.

Despite common sense, June does once succumb to the temptations of the flesh. She is also irritated by the behavior of not just Johnny but of the other tourmates. June works out her feelings by writing Ring of Fire. Johnny works out his feelings by getting arrested for bringing prescription drugs from Mexico and ultimately divorcing Vivian. He buys a secluded home and attempts to break generational curses. Mother Maybelle Carter (Sandra Ellis Lafferty) gets June to see that Johnny and June need each other. Will Johnny reconcile himself to God and his own past?

Walk the Line is more than a biographical film about one of America's greatest musical artists. It is also a love story. It is a very troubled love story in some ways. Johnny Cash was sometimes very inconsiderate of June. He more than once put her in uncomfortable and difficult situations. He pursued her relentlessly. It is a credit to director/cowriter James Mangold and his cowriter Gill Dennis that Cash did not come across as almost a stalker. I think it is because they adapted Cash's autobiographies Man in Black and Cash: The Autobiography, which I figure did not spare Cash from sometimes ruthless self-examination. 

Nevertheless, Walk the Line is a love story. For as awful as Johnny Cash was to others and to himself, we see in Joaquin Phoenix's performance a man driven by his own doubts and talent. In some ways, Phoenix's Cash is very tender, sweet, and deeply hurt. In other ways, he is petulant, arrogant, and self-absorbed. Phoenix plays Cash with no mimicry or impersonation. Instead, his performance is more evocative of the man.

This goes into whenever Phoenix sings. Johnny Cash had a distinct voice, his bass-baritone rumbling through the very core of him. Phoenix was not able to sing as low as Johnny Cash could. His voice is slightly higher than Cash's. That being said, Phoenix sounds similar to Cash. That lends a strong sense of authenticity whenever he performs either with June or by himself. Physically, Phoenix does an exceptional job. He gets Cash's distinct movements and guitar playing pretty much perfectly.

As a figure, Joaquin Phoenix shows Johnny Cash as troubled but also searching, be it for redemption, forgiveness or June Carter. He has wonderful moments when showing Cash's hesitancy and nervousness when first performing before a paying audience. Phoenix also does well when auditioning for Sam Phillips. I am dubious that Cash improvised Folsom Prison Blues after his gospel number failed to impress. That might be a little dramatic license. However, Cash's mix of frustration, fear and arrogance all came through quite well.

Joaquin Phoenix received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance. His costar, Reese Witherspoon, won Best Actress for her turn as June Carter. I cannot say whether or not Witherspoon should have won. I can say that, based on the performance, the nomination itself was correct. June Carter first appears about thirty minutes into Walk the Line.  Given that the film runs about two hours and fifteen minutes, her appearance is held back for some time. Despite that, Reese Witherspoon is excellent in the role. 

She brings June's insecurity and struggles over her relationship with Cash. There are many positive moments in Walk the Line for Witherspoon. She can handle the comedy parts that June would perform on stage. She can also handle the musical parts just as well as Phoenix can. Witherspoon shows equal vocal dexterity when dueting with Phoenix's Cash on such songs as It Ain't Me Babe or Jackson. When she performs solo, such as with Wildwood Flower or working out Ring of Fire, Witherspoon is just as capable of holding the audience.

I should say that I am not as familiar with June Carter Cash's voice as I am with Johnny Cash's. However, I trust that Witherspoon did a strong approximation of it. 

What makes Witherspoon's performance great is that she makes June Carter a woman in full. She does this with small moments, such as when she apologizes to a shopper for her divorce. June did make a full effort to live out a Christian life but, like all of us, stumbled. The hurt and embarrassment that she shows is gentle. June Carter, however, is no shrinking violet. She comes from a performing family with decades of experience. As such, June is incensed when she sees Johnny, Jerry Lee Lewis and others boozed up before a matinee. Staring them down like an irate mother, she lets them know clearly that they are not professional. She culminates this by launching the empty beer bottles at the startled men. 

Reese Witherspoon makes June Carter that blend of strong and vulnerable. She is, to quote another country song, a good-hearted woman in love with a good timing man.  

Overall, I think all the performances were good. Robert Patrick's Ray is cruel and hard, but he also sees his son disappearing into failure. I am of a mixed mind when it comes to Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Cash. She was good in the role and played the role as directed. However, I wonder if perhaps Walk the Line leaned too far into trying to make her something of a villain. More than once, she came across as almost shrewish and pretty much non-supportive of her husband. 

James Mangold does wonderful work in directing his cast. He also does well with some of the visuals. He films Johnny Cash's on-stage meltdown in a frenetic, chaotic way, reflecting the tumult in his life. In a film about two musicians, it is not surprising to have many musical numbers. Part of me thinks that these numbers lengthen Walk the Line. Part of me, however, asks what songs or performances I would cut. 

Perhaps some of the tour artists' offstage antics. I might also have cut out Shooter Jennings' cameo as his father Waylon Jennings.

Those are minor points. I do not know if Johnny and June Carter Cash were ever called or thought of as Country Music Royalty. It would not surprise me if they were considered as such. Walk the Line is a moving, well-acted and well-sung tale of this great love story. The Man in Black and the Wildwood Flower made for a great duo. Walk the Line makes for a great film.

Johnny Cash: 1932-2003
June Carter Cash: 1929-2003

DECISION: B+

Birdman of Alcatraz: A Review

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ

The Beatles never formally reunited. Despite that, they released Free as a Bird fifteen years after John Lennon's murder. Blending his home demo with new tracks by the surviving Beatles, Free as a Bird became a Grammy-winning hit. Free as a Bird came often to my mind while watching Birdman of Alcatraz. Misnamed, curiously laudatory of its subject, and longer than necessary, the celebration of Birdman of Alcatraz puzzles me. 

Thomas Gaddis (Edmond O'Brien) narrates our story. He is in San Francisco to get a glimpse of Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster). Stroud is leaving Alcatraz after seventeen years there. As Gaddis waits, standing by the dock of the bay, we hear Stroud's story. Stroud is on his way to Leavenworth Prison for murdering a man in Alaska. He is a bit of a noble rebel, smashing a train window to let some air in for his suffering fellow inmates. "Even a convict's got a right to breathe", he tells Leavenworth warden Harvey Shoemaker (Karl Malden). They grow to become bitter rivals. Stroud is very touchy about anyone so much as commenting or even touching his photograph of his mother Elizabeth (Thelma Ritter).

An innocuous comment about Mrs. Stroud has him attack a fellow prisoner, which leads to the first of many solitary confinements. Him not being able to see her because she came on the wrong day ends with Stroud murdering a guard. Elizabeth goes all the way to the White House to plead for her son to be spared the death penalty. Her audience with First Lady Edith Wilson (Adrienne Marden) saves Robert's life. Unfortunately, the technical reading of his sentencing means that he will have to stay in solitary for the rest of his life.

Robert reluctantly settles into his life without anyone. One stormy day while taking recreation, he spots an injured sparrow. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he takes and nurtures the bird back to health. Stroud soon finds himself surrounded by other fine feathered friends but aviary and human. There is prison guard Bull Ransom, who becomes something of a frenemy. There is Feto Gomez (Telly Savalas), his next-door cellmate. Stroud soon becomes an expert on birds with a particular emphasis on septic fever. He begins experimenting with various treatments, much to Shoemaker's displeasure. 

Eventually, he finds a cure. That, along with his writings, brings Stella Johnson (Betty Field) into his life. She offers to sell Stroud's bird cures after he won second place in a bird magazine. From there, a romance blossoms. Elizabeth Stroud is extremely displeased by this, calling Stella "a common adventuress". Mother and son have a falling out, to where Elizabeth openly opposes parole for her Bobby.

Without notice, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz, the most notorious and strict prison in the United States. Alcatraz will not allow him to keep birds. Shoemaker, now warden of Alcatraz, endures his thorn at his side. He does not despise Stroud. He also does not like him. As time goes on, Stroud reunites with Gomez, discourages Stella from following him to San Francisco and stays out of a prison uprising. Now back at the beginning, Gaddis finally sees Robert Stroud emerge from the Rock.

One can start looking at Birdman of Alcatraz by pointing out that technically the title is incorrect. Stroud kept no birds at Alcatraz, so I wonder if he could be the "Birdman of Alcatraz". I suppose that Birdman of Leavenworth does not have the same romantic feel to it. One should give credit to Guy Trosper's adaptation of Thomas Gaddis' book that this was not changed. Birdman of Alcatraz was very sympathetic to Stroud, portraying him in a light verging on divinity. His murders, his arrogance, his hostility to authority were either downplayed or made almost into virtues. 

This is helped by Burt Lancaster's Oscar-nominated performance. Lancaster was a blend of square-jawed rectitude and soft-spoken as Robert Stroud. His performance was not exactly one-note. For me, Lancaster was forever noble and gentle. Sometimes Lancaster's acting came close to almost silly. At one point, he lets his various birds out of their cages. Posing like a Greek statue, his face almost immoveable, Lancaster and director John Frankenheimer seem dead set on making Stroud almost heroic. I won't say that Burt Lancaster gave a terrible performance in Birdman of Alcatraz. I will say that Lancaster and Frankenheimer were so determined to make Stroud so good that they sapped whatever humanity there was in him. This version of Stroud had almost no flaws. He was portrayed more like either a gentle man or almost a victim of circumstances. When we see him arrive in San Francisco, it is treated almost as if he were Captain Alfred Dreyfus returning from Devil's Island. 

Curiously, I thought that Telly Savalas might have been better as Robert Stroud. Like Lancaster, Savalas earned an Oscar nomination for Birdman of Alcatraz in the Supporting Actor category. It is nowadays hard to overlook how the Greek Savalas was cast as "Feto Gomez". I grant a little leeway since the half-Mexican Anthony Quinn has become the embodiment of the larger-than-life Greek as Zorba the Greek. Unlike Lancaster's more noble and serious Stroud, Savalas' Gomez had greater emotions. He could be cheerful or angry depending on the situation. I cannot say that you miss him when he is not on screen. However, when he is on screen, you do notice and enjoy his presence. 

Birdman of Alcatraz was the sixth and final of Thelma Ritter's failed Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations. She was good as Mother Elizabeth Stroud. She had few scenes, all but two with Lancaster if memory serves right. Ritter made Mrs. Stroud into a loyal and loving mother. It is a bit unclear if her objections to her Bobby marrying were due to jealousy or concern that Stella would bring him trouble. Her final scene where she is supposed to be brokenhearted about now opposing parole for her son fell a bit off the mark for me. Overall, though, Thelma Ritter acquitted herself well in the role.

Also doing good work was Karl Malden as Harvey Shoemaker. He was solid as someone who did initially want to help Stroud, but who ended up one of his bitterest foes due to Stroud's stubbornness and arrogance. Betty Field's Stella was pretty strong as well. She made the transformation from Stella's initial reluctance to be with Stroud to being the loyal spouse believable. Unlike Ritter, Field's final scene with Stroud was moving. 

Birdman of Alcatraz may have laid the metaphor of being free like a bird a bit too think. That is especially true with Elmer Bernstein's score, which was excessively gentle. I get that it was attempting to match the film's mood. It might have been a bit overboard in that department, having like Lancaster's performance the subtlety of a sledgehammer. 

Birdman of Alcatraz is not a bad film. However, I think the almost two-and-a-half-hour runtime is unnecessary. It takes close to two hours to move Stroud to Alcatraz. The prison riot known as the Battle of Alcatraz takes place two hours and ten minutes into the film. Granted, it is part of Stroud's life story (him dying a year after the film's release). However, it almost felt as if this was included to give the film any type of action. Even that was not done well, with the riot coming across as slightly boring.

While watching Birdman of Alcatraz, I had a very curious sense that the film was whitewashing to downright lionizing Robert Stroud. In real life, Robert Stroud was not the gentle, soft figure Burt Lancaster portrayed. He was a dangerous criminal who just happened to learn a lot about birds. Something about making Robert Stroud into this quasi-gentle soul simply did not sit well with me. It came close to being as if someone made a Charles Manson biopic and focused on his songwriting. A little longer than necessary, with a main performance more focused on being noble than delving into the complicated nature of the man, Birdman of Alcatraz was a slight disappointment. 

1890-1963

DECISION: C-

Oppenheimer (2023): A Review

OPPENHEIMER (2023)

"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds". These words from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita came to J. Robert Oppenheimer upon seeing the successful nuclear bomb test. Oppenheimer, the biopic of the "father of the atomic bomb" is a brilliantly acted and directed film. It is filled with remarkable images and insight into this complex figure. 

Oppenheimer flows back and forth between the past and what would be current-day events in the film. American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is being questioned by a small board over whether or not to renew his security clearance. That clearance was already hard to get when Oppenheimer headed up the Los Alamos section of the Manhattan Project during World War II. This project involved building a nuclear bomb both safely and before the Nazis could.

Oppenheimer's personal life is fraught with personal and political troubles. He has had a liaison with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). He also keeps a friendship with their mutual friend, Berkeley professor Haakon Chevalier (Jefferson Hall). Both Chevalier and Tatlock are openly committed Communists, as is Oppenheimer's brother Frank (Dylan Arnold). While Robert is sympathetic to Leftist causes, he never joined the Communist Party and oftentimes urged caution about political activism/agitation. 

One person that Oppenheimer did not have caution with was with Kitty (Emilie Blunt). She may have been married when she met Oppie. However, that did not him from knocking Kitty up. He and Kitty do marry, and he stays mostly loyal to her. It is not, however, his marital fidelity that bothers high-ranking military officials now that the Second World War has begun. It is his fidelity to the United States.

Despite misgivings, Manhattan Project head General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) ultimately recruits him. Oppenheimer gathers a hand-selected group of scientists to come to his remote New Mexico ranch at Los Alamos to begin work. He gets everyone he wants except for Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), despite Einstein being the impetus for the creation of the Manhattan Project. Now, Oppenheimer must navigate the scientific, professional and personal among all his men (and women). 

Not that there are not people who distrust Oppie. There are Major General Kenneth Nichols (Dane Dehaan) and Colonel Boris Pash (Casey Affleck). They believe that Oppenheimer would give nuclear secrets to the Soviets. There is a spy among the scientists, but it is not Oppenheimer. Post-war, one of Oppenheimer's fiercest enemies is Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.). Despite his curious pronouncing of his surname as "Straws", Strauss tries to build up rapport with Oppenheimer through their shared Jewish ancestry. Oppie won't bite. Now that the war is over though, Strauss becomes convinced that Oppenheimer is a security risk. He also holds a grudge when Oppenheimer publicly humiliated him at a congressional hearing. Finally, Strauss and Oppenheimer are at fierce odds about the development of a hydrogen bomb.

Strauss is the mastermind of the hearing that Oppenheimer is facing. Strauss is also up for Commerce Secretary. Will Strauss manage to outflank Oppie and achieve his great ambition? Will Oppenheimer continue living with guilt over his successes?

Oppenheimer runs three hours long. Upon rewatching the film, however, I wondered exactly what if anything could have been cut out. Perhaps a bit of the extramarital liaison between Oppenheimer and Tatlock could have been trimmed. Tatlock's suicide could also have been trimmed. Overall, though, I was surprised at how well Oppenheimer held together. This is especially true given two elements that distinguish it from other films.

The first is that the film is not structured linearly. Oppenheimer goes back and forth from the board hearing to his work pre-and-post Los Alamos and to Strauss' Cabinet hearings. The second is that in almost all the sections that center around Strauss, Oppenheimer is in black-and-white. There are a few moments when Strauss is featured in color. There are a few moments when Oppenheimer is featured in black-and-white. For the most part though, we have color for the title character, black-and-white for his antagonist. 

That the balance never comes across as gimmicky or jarring is a credit to the production team. Jennifer Lame's editing never felt confusing or out of place. Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography made the separate sections look incredible. Both would rightly win Academy Awards in their respective fields, two of the seven Oscars that Oppenheimer would receive. 

Van Hoytema's cinematography was used effectively and brilliantly in the film. Sections were downright beautiful visually. The film shows various scientific visions that on screen look exceptionally breathtaking. Curiously, Oppenheimer was not nominated for Best Visual Effects and lost Best Sound to The Zone of Interest. I can see a case for why and how that happened. However, the Trinity test sequence is a brilliant use of visual effects and sound (or lack thereof). While watching, I heard in my mind Marvin the Martian. "Where's the kaboom?! There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!". Oppenheimer uses that silence to build up anticipation for a brilliant and terrifying sequence.

Oppenheimer also won for Best Director. Christopher Nolan, in terms of directing actors, more than merited the recognition. He directed three actors to nominations, with two wins. Robert Downey, Jr. is brilliant as Lewis Strauss. He makes him into a confident figure, cool under pressure, yet burning with quiet rage. Downey's Strauss is not a man to trifle with. We see someone who, despite his success, is still fearful that he will not measure up. I did not hate Lewis Strauss. I did not pity him either. Instead, I saw him as an effective man, driven by a curious mix of sincere belief and petty vindictiveness. He does have one moment of rage. That makes what has come before almost jarring.

Cillian Murphy is brilliant as J. Robert Oppenheimer. He maintains the calm demeanor, in keeping with how the real Oppenheimer was in public. This is a man who never rages or grows belligerent. Instead, Oppenheimer is calm and rational. His soft voice adds to the overall manner of making Oppenheimer into a deliberate man.

One scene sticks out. Oppenheimer is giving a short speech after the war is declared over. We see him say what he thinks his hardworking Los Alamos group wants to hear. The words are upbeat and even a touch jingoistic. What we see both in terms of Murphy's performance and Nolan's directing is that his heart is not in his statements. They are performative. In fact, we see Oppenheimer very alarmed and guilt-ridden by what he has brought about.

Oppenheimer's third acting nomination and only acting loss was for Emily Blunt as the fiercely loyal but equally sharp Kitty Oppenheimer. She is no shrinking violet, able to stand up against her and her husband's accusers when she testifies. However, she is also aghast and angry at Oppie for continuously not appearing to fight. Kitty endures Robert's tryst with his former mistress. She also stays besides him despite whatever doubts that she might have.

Oppenheimer is filled with top notch performances from the entire cast. This film embodies the adage of "there are no small parts, only small actors". We get small roles for a wide variety of established actors and young talents. This film features Josh Hartnett and Josh Peck as Oppenheimer's colleague Ernest Lawrence and Kenneth Bainbridge, the man who literally pushed the button at the Trinity test site. There are cameo roles from other Best Actor Oscar winners (Cillian Murphy winning for this performance). Gary Oldman appears as President Harry Truman. In his small role, we see Truman as one thoroughly unimpressed with what he sees as Oppenheimer's self-flagellation and self-righteousness. Dismissively waving his handkerchief at Oppenheimer, he tells the sad scientist that those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not care who built the bomb, just who dropped it. 

There are other cameo appearances in the film, each leaving a strong impression.  Among them are Kenneth Branagh as Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Casey Affleck as the cold Colonel Pash and Ramy Malek as David Hill, another physicist who dares stand up against Strauss in his confirmation hearings. Tom Conti appears briefly as Einstein, making him a serious figure versus the common idea of Einstein as brilliant but a bit wacky. 

While they are not cameo roles, actors as varied as David Krumholtz, Jason Clarke and Alden Ehrenreich work well in their roles of fellow Manhattan Project scientist Isidor Rabi, de facto prosecutor Roger Robb and Strauss' Senate confirmation aide.  

Matt Damon is probably the weakest as General Leslie Groves. He seemed to be one note, almost always raging. It was not a bad performance, but I was not enthusiastic about it.  I could also question how Alex Wolff could play fellow Berkeley scientist Luis Alvarez. Granted, Alvarez was of Spanish descent. However, it is doubtful that such casting would not raise eyebrows if done now.

A lot of Oppenheimer's power comes from Ludwig Gorasson's Oscar-winning score. It has a tense and gripping manner that also blends genuine mourning for his emotional plight. The film is almost totally filled with Gorasson's score. There are very few moments when we do not hear music. However, the score is so strong that it is not a flaw.

Every element in Oppenheimer works brilliantly (no pun intended). On every level, Oppenheimer meets its goal of being an intelligent and entertaining film. "It's paradoxical, but it works", J. Robert Oppenheimer observes to a colleague in the film. That could be a good description of the American Prometheus. 

1904-1967

DECISION: A-

2024 Best Picture Winner: Anora

Unsung Hero: A Review

UNSUNG HERO

Family bonds stretch and strain but do not break in Unsung Hero. The true-life story of a foreign family that brought not one but two of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)'s biggest names will ultimately move the viewer regardless of the viewer's background. 

David Smallbone (codirector and cowriter Joel Smallbone) has a highly successful music promoting career in his native Australia. He also has a very large family. He and his wife Helen (Daisy Betts) have six in total (a seventh comes in later). David and Helen are Christian, with David specializing in bringing Christian music acts Down Under. However, his efforts to bring in Christian music superstar Amy Grant bomb big time. Ticket sales are lukewarm at best. While he was able to sell out Stryper at the Sydney Opera House, Grant couldn't even muster a fifth of the opera house's capacity.

That, along with a major national economic downturn, brings the Smallbone family to financial ruin. David thinks that he has a potential deal with Carman, another Christian music superstar. However, that requires him to move to Nashville, Tennessee. Helen will not stay behind, so the entire family leaves all they know to go to the States. They go to the land of opportunity with little in terms of opportunity or money. Worse, they come dangerously close to being deported when one of the kids says that they plan to stay two years instead of the six months their visas say that they will stay. 

Fortunately, they do make it to Nashville. Unfortunately, the hoped-for deal falls through. Now strangers in a strange land, the Smallbones now have to adjust. David continues working to build up and provide for his family. He accidentally creates a lawncare business. He is quietly irritated to depend on the kindness of church members. Church choir director Jed Albright (Lucas Black) and his wife Kay (Candace Cameron Bure) are kind. However, David quietly chafes at their repeated benevolence. David's father James (Terry O'Quinn) does his best to remind his son that family is not in the way. It is the way. 

James, however, cannot help David and Helen overcome other issues. There is David's very fraught relationship with Christian music performer Eddie DeGarmo (Jonathan Jackson). DeGarmo still holds a bit of a grudge over when David rejected his group DeGarmo and Key for an Australian tour in favor of Grant. Now, David has to do DeGarmo's yardwork while his oldest daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger) cleans his toilet.   

Rebecca, however, has natural singing talent. While shy, she can rally enough to perform. She and the other Smallbones put their faith in God. David puts his in himself. When Rebecca finds that DeGarmo has created his own music label, she and the others think this could be a sign. Will David swallow his pride enough to let Rebecca's natural talent outweigh his growing depression? Will Joel be forever condemned to sing alongside his brother Luke?

One of Unsung Hero's greatest flaws is that the audience is expected to know everything about everyone in the film. The film has an early scene of Stryper taking the stage. In quick succession, there is mention of Stryper, DeGarmo & Key and Amy Grant. At the end of the film, there is something of an inside joke about how Joel has to sing with Luke. The inside joke is that Joel and Luke Smallbone make up the CCM group For King & Country. People familiar with both For King & Country and Rebecca St. James (Rebecca Smallbone's stage name in tribute to her grandfather) might find the quip amusing. Those unfamiliar with For King & Country might be downright puzzled by this seemingly offhand remark. 

As a result, some of Unsung Hero is a bit too much "inside baseball". It is almost as if Joel Smallbone (cowriting and directing with Richard L. Ramsey) did not fully trust their potential audiences. They could trust the Christian audience (or at least most of them, as I would not recognize a For King & Country song off the bat). They could not trust a more secular audience. There are other curious elements in Unsung Hero that I found a bit off.

The film starts with the Smallbones awaiting possible deportation to Australia, then we go back 15 years earlier only to come back to where we started about 21 minutes into the film. Once there, Unsung Hero goes in a straightforward manner. I was puzzled over why Smallbone and Ramsey did not opt for a totally straightforward story. It also has some drama when Helen suffers complications when giving birth to their last child. The film comes dangerously close to suggesting that she will not make it. Spoiler alert: she does and so does baby Libby (who cameos as the nurse who brings baby Libby to her parents). We also get a cameo from St. James herself as a Quantas airline stewardess.

No cameo from Joel Smallbone, who plays his own father in Unsung Hero. Joel Smallbone is working hard to build up an acting career to go along with his music career. He had a role in Journey to Bethlehem and will appear in the upcoming George Washington biopic Young Washington. I will say that Joel Smallbone did a very good job playing his father. Granted, no one outside the Smallbone circle knows how close or far the younger Smallbone was in accurately portraying the Smallbone family patriarch. Still, one does feel for this proud man brought low, but who eventually pulls through. 

A nice touch is how David never fully integrated into American culture. He would keep to his "G'day" to greet people. He would refer to having a family large enough to field a cricket team. These two things would be mostly a mystery to the Southerners that he dealt with. 

Unsung Hero is supposed to be about the matriarch, Helen. However, in a curious turn, it seemed that the film focused more on David than on Helen. That is not to say that Daisy Betts gave a bad performance or that Helen Smallbone was shunted off to the side. It is just that I think Unsung Hero looks upon David's problems more than on Helen's. 

In other roles, I think that Joel Smallbone still harbors a bit of resentment towards Eddie DeGarmo. Why else portray him as a bit whacked-out and wigged out? DeGarmo looks odd to where one might think he was on substances. He did not look good and seemed surprisingly bitter about being ditched in favor of Amy Grant all these years later. That is how Jonathan Jackson played Eddie DeGarmo. 

Lucas Black and Candace Cameron Bure were underused as the Smallbone family friends. However, they did well enough in their small roles.

Terry O'Quinn and Kirrilee Berger for their parts were the unsung heroes of Unsung Hero. The former kept a solid Australian accent. He also kept to the more spiritual, hopeful aspect of Unsung Hero, working to remind his son of how important family is. Berger's Rebecca Smallbone/St. James was equally moving. Her rendition of You Make Everything Beautiful at her second audition will move the viewer. That scene includes footage that the Smallbones had shot throughout their lives. That was a very nice and well-crafted touch. 

Curiously, for a film that is geared as "faith-based", I would argue that Unsung Hero has little to do with Christ. It takes over half an hour for the family to so much as sing a hymn. There is little in terms of church attendance. I did not have to have them shout "JESUS MAN!" all over the place. I was, however, a bit surprised that Christ was not as big in Unsung Hero as I thought He would be. 

Unsung Hero takes its time to work its way to the viewer. A bit of a rocky start does not take away from the overall effect of the film. A tribute to parents who sacrifice for their children, Unsung Hero is a love letter to a mother and father from their children. It is true: too often our parents are our unsung heroes and heroines. Unsung Hero does well in reminding us of the power of love, mixed with faith. 

David and Helen Smallbone

DECISION: B+

Catherine the Great: The 2019 Miniseries

CATHERINE THE GREAT

In truth, the Russian sovereign Catherine II was not Russian but German. History, however, has intertwined this minor German princess as Catherine the Great, Czarina and Autocrat of All the Russias. She has been the subject of many films and television projects. In 2019, Dame Helen Mirren returned to her own Russian roots to portray this legendary historic figure. Catherine the Great has a lot of sex and appears to want to shock with its four-letter words. It is not bad but far from what it could have been.

Two years after the coup that brought her to power, Empress Catherine II (Mirren) still has to contend with forces that could bring her down. There is the mysterious "Prisoner Number One", who may have a legitimate claim to the Russian throne. There is the mysterious soldier, Mirovich (Lucas Englander), loyal to Prisoner Number One. 

Then there is Count Grigory Orlov (Richard Roxburgh). He is one of the men who helped her overthrow her loutish husband, Peter III. He is also Catherine's current lover. Grigory and his brother Alexei (Kevin R. McNally) always remind her that they put her on the throne. The suggestion is that they can pull her off. The Orlov Brothers scheme and scheme away, making snide remarks about everyone out of earshot. That includes the newest member of Court. It is another Grigory: Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke). Brash, daring and belligerent, Potemkin is quickly besotted by our Autocrat. 

That does not stop him from schtupping her BFF, Countess Bruce (Gina McKee). Eventually, Potemkin bends the royal ear. He also bends other things for both Mother Russias. One person who cannot bend is the frustrated heir, Prince Paul (Joseph Quinn). He still hero worships his late father. He also detests his mother and is the only man in Russia who does not see that his wife, Natalia (Georgina Beedle) is screwing Paul's best friend, Count Razumovsky (Phil Dunster). 

Orlov soon becomes indispensable to Her Majesty inside and outside the royal bedchamber. He leads her armies to triumphs in Crimea and against the Turks. He also is imperious, haughty and prone to anger against all his enemies. The Orlovs are bitter foes. He is able to outmaneuver them. The Czarevitch is another enemy, though to be fair Paul is a very bitter boy, trashing about hither and yon. As Catherine continues her struggle to stay in power over Russia and the various men in her life, she fails to see how her need for power has made her abandon her early liberalism. The woman who once corresponded with Voltaire now burns his books. Personal tragedy hits this great love story of Catherine and Grigory, but will she get the heir that she wants or the one who manages to stay?

I think Catherine the Great thinks itself daring with all the sex scenes and f-bombs going off all over the place. I figure that Catherine and her Court were not immune from letting out a torrent of vulgarities and bed-hopping back in the day. However, Catherine the Great seemed oddly fixated on the sex and swearing and less on the political machinations within the Winter Palace.

Screenwriter Nigel Williams and director Philip Martin have a very surface level look at this debauched world. Episode One of the four-episode miniseries ends with a drag ball. The sight of the Orlov Brothers in dresses and wigs while Catherine and Potemkin are cutting a little rug to Russian music is a sight to behold. It is a curious sight though, not helped by an effort at a Barry Lyndon-like cinematography.

It is curious that Catherine the Great is dominated by a lot of voiceovers of Mirren's Catherine and Clarke's Potemkin reading their letters to each other. We get many such scenes and the added scenes of riders passing those letters to and from our lovers. 

Somehow, Catherine the Great does not seem all that interested in things outside the nocturnal. Events like Pugachev's Rebellion or the killing of the unfortunate Prisoner Number One (Czar Ivan VI) do not seem to register. They happen almost because they have to. The miniseries just does not spend much if any time on them.

Take Pugachev (Paul Kaye). He pops in for a bit in Episode One, then a bit more in Episode Two. In what I figure Catherine the Great intended as a great moment Her Majesty appears before Pugachev's followers while he rants in a cage. Here, the peasants suddenly began to kowtow to the Czarina. Why? It does not matter. 

Catherine the Great is worth only what Dame Helen Mirren brings to the role. She brings a great mix of haughtiness and vulnerability to our Mother Russia. She is coy and playful when Matushka (Grigory's pet name for the Empress) is with her Grishenka (her nickname for Potemkin). She can also be ruthless with him when needed. "I own you. Don't forget that", she reminds her paramour, enraged at having been essentially scolded before her council. Mirren shifts so well into the Czarina's mercurial nature. She makes her efforts to build a rapport with Paul and her grandson Alexander believable, even as she plots against the former. 

The rest of the cast is not terrible. They are just hampered by their one-note roles. Jason Clarke is an interesting choice as the brash, arrogant Potemkin. I thought all he did was shout and bluster. Granted, that is how the character was. After a while, though, that grows boring. The same goes for Kevin McNally and Richard Roxburgh as Alexie and Grigory Orlov. Almost all their scenes consisted of Alexie telling Grigory not to f-it up. Whether it was Grigory's stud status or a political negotiation, it was pretty much the same. Joseph Quinn's Czarevitch Paul was better, but he too did nothing but skulk about and whine. 

Again, I get that is how the role was written and directed. Again, it gets rote.

Catherine the Great does have some beautiful moments. The battle of Ushakov is a standout. The costumes and sets are nice. 

Ultimately though, Catherine the Great failed to live up to its title. It was more Catherine the OK. 

5/10

CATHERINE II FEATURE FILMS & SPECIALS

The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

A Royal Scandal (1945)

Young Catherine (1991)

Catherine the Great (1995)

The Great (2020-2023)

Michael (2026): A Review (Review #2153)

MICHAEL (2026)

How much do you require in your biopic? Do you require that it explore the artist's life and person struggles as they achieve their artistic triumphs? Do you prefer instead to have a montage of that artist's greatest hits, recreated with as much accuracy as possible? If you prefer the former, you can skip Michael, the biopic of the late Michael Jackson. If you prefer the latter, you should rush to Michael, the jukebox musical of the late Michael Jackson. Michael does well when we see and hear Jackson's music. Michael does nothing when it comes to everything else. 

Covering the years 1966 to 1988, Michael chronicles the rise and rise of Michael Jackson (played as an adult by Jackson's nephew, Jafaar Jackson). As a child in Gary, Indiana, Michael (Juliano Valdi) is the youngest of the musical group that Jackson patriarch Joseph (Coleman Domingo) is shaping and pushing to his will. He is determined that his five boys will succeed as The Jackson Five. Jackson matriarch Katherine (Nia Long) mostly looks on, though as Michael grows up, they do enjoy watching classic movies together.

The Jackson Five soon attract the attention of Motown Records. They eventually work with Motown's legendary founder, Barry Gordy (Larenz Tate). Gordy, unlike Joseph (the children always call their father by his first name) actually takes time to show Michael kindness. Eventually, Michael wants to make his first solo album, Off the Wall. Joseph agrees, so long as Michael does it on his off time and not when he's with the Jackson Five. Michael also gets a nose job and his beloved pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. 

He also gets a new lawyer. John Branca (Miles Teller) is able to do just about everything for Michael. Branca's top task? Fire Joseph. It came at the most opportune time, as Joseph was conspiring with none other than boxing promoter Don King (Deon Cole) to get the Jackson Five on a Pepsi-sponsored tour. Negotiations finally get Michael to join his brothers on this tour and to promote Pepsi. A botched commercial does cause massive injury to Michael's head when his hair catches on fire. Despite this and the surgeries required to repair the damage, Michael goes on to make the Thriller video and perform Bad for his own solo tour. At the end of Michael, we see His Story Continues.

I cannot say whether the on-screen text of "His Story Continues" is a message that there will be a sequel or a more metaphorical suggestion. I cannot say whether or not "His Story Continues" is or was intended to be a pun on Jackson's HIStory double album. I can say this: Michael, as a movie, offers the viewer no insight into what kind of person Michael Jackson was. I think the most daring or revelatory moment in Michael about Michael Jackson was when we see him go to Studio 54. John Logan's screenplay, however, does not clarify if Jackson's foray into the disco club is for himself or to hear Rock with You playing at the club. 

Michael does not, contrary to what I have heard others say, "play it safe" when it comes to Jackson. Michael does not play it anything. Michael, as we have it now, is just a series of musical montages interrupted by occasional moments of drama. More often than not, the non-musical moments are very positive towards Jackson. He happily signs autographs both at meet-and-greet events and when casually shopping at toy stores. He insists that Branca donate every penny from the settlement over the Pepsi commercial accident to the burn center. Jackson has previously visited children in hospitals.

It is a case of "think of the children!".

While watching, one frankly is unsure whether to stare in astonishment or laugh as Michael Jackson reads Peter Pan to Bubbles the chimp. It is almost verging on parody to have young Michael read Peter Pan voraciously. Logan's screenplay is not subtle in its symbolism. 

Where Michael goes well is when it recreates Jackson's various musical moments. This is not just relegated to the adult Jackson. Director Antoine Fuqua does a wonderful job when we see the Jackson Five sections. Major credit to that goes to young Juliano Valdi. He is sweet and charming as young Michael. He is also able to recreate the young Michael Jackson's movements as he does his best James Brown and Fred Astaire dancing. Presuming that it is Valdi doing the singing, he does an exceptional job singing the early Jackson Five hits like ABC and I'll Be There.  

Once Jackson becomes a young adult, the musical performances continue to be Michael's highlights. Jafaar Jackson is the son of Michael's brother Jermaine. Jafaar was only twelve when his Uncle Michael died. Now at 29, Jafaar does an excellent job as his legendary relative. The musical moments are when Jafaar Jackson excels. The dancing, particularly when recreating Thriller or the Motown 25th Anniversary special, is fun to watch. It would be difficult to not move when the various hits are playing. It is also a credit to Jafaar Jackson on how well he captured his late uncle's musical skills.

The few times that Michael bothers to try for something other than adoring glances Jafaar Jackson does rise to the occasion. It is thanks to his performance that the aforementioned "Michael reads Bubbles a bedtime story" does not slip into total farce.

That dishonor goes to Coleman Domingo as Joseph Jackson. Domingo looks more like Little Richard to where one briefly thinks that the Tutti Frutti singer is taking his belt to Michael. Other actors are pretty much wasted in their roles. Nia Long spent all her time merely looking on or watching a movie with Michael as his mother Katherine. Her one big and, granted, good moment was when she told Joseph that he was not going to beat Michael anymore. Miles Teller is an actor that I think has never reached his full potential. His role as John Branca felt like nothing. Even worse is Laurenz Tate as Barry Gordy. Michael tries to have some drama here, but Tate was given little to do. It is a terrible waste and a terrible shame for Tate and Michael. 

The shallowness of Michael when it comes to finding who Jackson was is best shown when the film recreates the Thriller video. There were stabs at trying to showcase the artist. Jackson asks that Thriller director John Landis capture the whole body during the dancing because that was what Fred Astaire often said about film dancing. The recreation of Thriller is top-notch. 

However, there was no mention of how Jackson asked that a disclaimer be placed at the beginning of the video. Jackson at the time was a Jehovah's Witness. The video's supernatural elements were so distasteful to the group that he was threatened with excommunication. To keep the video from being destroyed, Branca managed to add a disclaimer stating, "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult". 

Michael could have explored this conflict. Michael could have shown Jackson shocked at his religious group's reaction. Michael could have shown how this conflict could have destroyed one of if not the greatest music video ever made. Michael never touched on any of this. 

If you like Michael Jackson's music and want to see a de facto Michael Jackson cosplay, go see Michael. If you want to know who Michael Jackson was or what drove him as a person or artist, don't go see Michael. 

Ultimately, I think it would be easier and cheaper to rewatch either or both the television miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream or the musical documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It if you wanted to see the real Michael Jackson as both a performer and person. 

1958-2009

DECISION: C-

The Miracle Worker: A Review

THE MIRACLE WORKER

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". This passage from the Gospel of John (John 1:5) might be the theme of The Miracle Worker. This film adaptation of the Broadway play is still a bit stagebound. However, it also has both almost universally excellent performances and a moving true-life story that impacts the viewer.

A sudden but brief childhood illness has robbed little Helen Keller of sight and sound. She cannot see, hear nor speak. Her parents, Confederate Captain Arthur Keller (Victor Jory) and his second wife Kate (Inga Swenson) are doing their best with their daughter. Helen (Patty Duke), however, is a menace. She is a bit of a wild animal, picking food out of their plates and running free. In a mix of desperation and frustration, Captain Keller agrees to contact the Perkins School in Boston for a teacher who might help.

That teacher is Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft). She is a feisty Irish lass who is herself a former Perkins student. That Annie is close to blindness herself only adds to Captain Keller's fury and immense dislike for her. He was bound to dislike any Yankee, still being bitter about losing the war. However, his rages are somewhat tempered by both Kate and James (Andrew Prine), his son from an earlier marriage.

Annie senses that there is a mind buried in Helen's dark world. She is also enraged at how Helen is treated by her family. Helen is not abused. Instead, she is coddled, kept almost like an injured pet than a person. It is time for a lot of tough love. That means a fierce battle between the willful, spoiled Helen and the no-nonsense Annie at the breakfast table. Helen will learn to eat at the table, with a spoon, and fold her napkin. 

In all that time, Annie continues to teach Helen American Sign Language by spelling out various objects with her hands. Annie grows frustrated at how Helen cannot or perhaps will not make the connection between the words and the objects. She insists on having two weeks alone with her in a secluded home to teach her. The Kellers reluctantly agree to Annie's request. Will Annie break through Helen's darkness? Will Helen find that words have meanings?

The Miracle Worker brought two of its original Broadway actors to recreate their roles for the film adaptation. Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke were not originally considered for the roles despite their Broadway success. Bancroft had a brief film career before The Miracle Worker, making her debut in Don't Bother to Knock with Marilyn Monroe. However, she had left Hollywood and had not made a film in five years. Patty Duke for her part was at sixteen technically too old to play Helen Keller. Despite those circumstances, both of them eventually won the parts. 

Both are brilliant in their roles. Each received an Academy Award for their intense performances. Anne Bancroft's Annie is loving but also firm in her ideas. We get to see through William Gibson's adaptation of his own play how Annie is a haunted woman. There are shadowy flashbacks that reveal Annie Sullivan's past. There is the loss of her beloved younger brother Jimmy. There is her own struggle with vision impairment. There are her own fears of failure with Helen.

Some of her best scenes, curiously, are not with Duke's Helen. Rather, they are whenever she argues with Helen's parents. Bancroft shows the steely woman behind the dark glasses. Annie knows that Helen has been getting away with murder. Helen is spoiled, spiteful, and used to getting her way. Annie will not let her. Annie, however, also knows that the Kellers' ideas of compassion have done great damage to Helen. She has to fight them as well as fight Helen.

Patty Duke became the youngest competitive acting Oscar winner at the time. Her Best Supporting Actress win came when she was 16. While both Tatum O'Neil and Anna Paquin later won in this category at a younger age, that record is secondary to Duke's performance. Duke has to act with her body and face. Technically, she does have one word of dialogue when she makes a sound that is meant to say "water". Apart from that, Duke relies on her physicality to express Helen Keller's moods and thoughts. We see Helen's immense frustration at wanting to be seen and heard while being physically unable to see, hear and speak. She is willful, stubborn but also deeply pained.

The rest of the cast with one exception is able to match Bancroft and Duke under Arthur Penn's direction. Victor Jory was loud and proud as Captain Keller. He made Captain Keller a man used to being obeyed until he met his match with the stubborn Annie. Andrew Prine had a small role as Helen's half-brother James. However, he left a positive impression as a sarcastic but aware young man. He could dismiss Annie's plans while also challenging Captain Keller to let her finish them.

The one performer whom I think failed was Inga Swenson as Katie Keller. I found her overdramatic to the point of parody. Swenson, to me, looked as if she thought that she was on a stage instead of film production. In her first scene, her hysterics were hysterical. 

The Miracle Worker also played a bit like it was a filmed play. To be fair, the film opened up more with outdoor scenes. However, a lot of the film still holds to its theatrical roots. The film more than makes up for its somewhat stagey manner with almost universally strong performances and Laurence Rosenthal's score.

The Miracle Worker is a showcase for Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. This story of tough love par excellence will hold the viewers' attention. It is a moving and powerful portrait of two profiles in courage.

Helen Keller (Left): 1880-1968
Annie Sullivan (Right): 1866-1936

 

DECISION: A- 

Florence Nightingale: The Television Movie

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Florence Nightingale seems like a ready-made subject for a biographical film or television production. She was a pioneer in nursing. She is held as a model for womanhood. Florence Nightingale, the television movie, is proper and respectable. While it has a curious choice for the lead, Florence Nightingale treats the subject with the proper respect and respectability. 

Florence Nightingale (Jaclyn Smith) is the belle of the ball in Victorian high society. She has many male admirers. One of them is Richard Milnes (Timothy Dalton), a dashing man about town and country. He serves as voiceover to our tale. Florence's parents Fanny (Claire Bloom) and William (Jeremy Brett) are mostly pleased with how well Flo is getting on in high society. Fanny is less pleased that Flo seems set on an independent life. Mr. Nightingale sees that his daughter is too bright to be nothing but a society doyenne.

Florence is set on changing nursing. She is appalled at how nurses and hospitals are very unkempt. She pushes on, despite endless opposition. This opposition continues after reading of the horrid conditions of British troops during the Crimean War. Determined to help the cause, Nightingale gathers her nurses and goes to Scutari (present-day Uskudar, Turkey). 

Here, the haughty British military leadership is askance at any woman, even the now-legendary Nightingale, would tell them how to do things. Her chief nemesis is the haughty Dr. Hall (Jeremy Child). He is dead set against letting Nightingale's trained women enter the makeshift hospitals. He goes so far as to forbid the men from receiving any anesthetic treatment, believing pain is the best medicine for British glory. Nevertheless, she persisted. Slowly pushing where she can, Nightingale gets things done. She also has friends in high places and the press on her side. However, will she have to sacrifice personal happiness for the greater good? Will she have to sacrifice her own health too?

Perhaps the oddest thing in Florence Nightingale is the casting of Jaclyn Smith as our heroine. It is not that Smith gives a bad performance. On the contrary, she is effective in the role. We see Florence as a very caring and wise figure. She tends to all regardless of rank or status. I would go so far as to say that she has a greater fondness for the lower classes. Smith shows her quiet but firm resolve whenever facing off against her opponents. It could be Nurse Davis (Carol Gillies), who is of the old school and who is sometimes helpful, sometimes not. She could also show the woman within whether with Dalton's Milnes or Dr. Lawrence Sutherland (Stephan Chase), an unofficial suitor in the Crimea. 

The problem is the fact that she is clearly American. I think that Smith made as good a go on a British accent, particularly an upper-class one, as she could. However, she sounded more American than British. Again, she was not bad in the role. She just never got the patrician tones all down. 

Timothy Dalton was our narrator in Florence Nightingale. Ivan Moffat and Rose Leiman Goldemberg's screenplay does not make a case as to why Flo's thwarted suitor Richard Milnes has to be the one to tell us her story. Her parents are still alive. Florence learns though a letter that he has grown tired of waiting and decided to marry someone else. Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale could easily have done the voiceover work. In fact, it might have been better if only to have Jeremy Brett's voice tell us of his daughter's exploits.

Still, Dalton and Smith worked well together, their scenes having at times a moving impact on this ill-fated romance. The aforementioned Brett was grand and elegant as Mr. Nightingale. Claire Bloom was delightful as the sometimes-scandalized Mrs. Nightingale. She shifted from shocked to supportive to ultimately proud of her headstrong but loving daughter. 

Another standout is Child as the haughty Hall. He is thoroughly despicable and arrogant doctor. Child pops up late in Florence Nightingale. Each time one sees him, however, one is filled with such anger at his coldness, indifference and brutality. He is vainglorious and uncaring except for a wildly idiotic sense of courage. In Hall's mind, it is better for the wounded soldiers to endure pain than to receive treatment because it will make them stronger and more noble. 

Director Daryl Duke gets strong performances out of his cast. He keeps things moving well. He also has some wonderful moments, such as a montage of potential nurses interviewed by Nightingale culminating in the reappearance of Nurse Davis. 

Florence Nightingale is a respectable biographical telefilm, complete with its elegant score. The one drawback is Jaclyn Smith's struggle to have a British accent. One does fight the temptation to call the project Charlie's Nurses. On the whole, however, Florence Nightingale will serve as a good primer to this exceptional and legendary figure.

1820-1910

7/10

Cesar Chavez: A Review (Review #2141)

CESAR CHAVEZ

Today was Cesar Chavez Day. March 31, 1927, was when the United Farm Workers cofounder was born. His memory would have been celebrated. More than likely, his centennial next year would have been a major production. Now, his name is verboten after allegations of sexual assault, grooming and rape were made against him 33 years after his death. Literally days after the accusations were made, various Cesar Chavez murals and statues were removed. Chavez had been "cancelled" faster than Robert E. Lee. What the future holds for Chavez's legacy remains to be seen. The same fate of expunging from history might not befall Chavez's biopic. Cesar Chavez, however, would have faded on its own. Now, it will serve as a time capsule of sorts, recalling when Chavez was seen as heroic versus demonic. 

Cesar Chavez (Michael Peña), in his words, went from owing the land to working the land. This change in status, however, allows Cesar to move away from the union office to the fields. Here, he can get up close and personal with the migrant farmworkers. Their lot is especially hard. They get low pay for long, backbreaking work. They get no bathrooms (the wealthy white landowners suggesting that as Mexicans and Filipinos, the farmworkers would not know how to use them).

Into this comes Cesar, his wife Helen (America Ferrera) and their eight children. The oldest, Fernando (Eli Vargas) loves baseball more than anything. His first question when told that they are moving to Delano, California is what team plays for them. Fernando, however, resents how much time and energy Cesar gives to "La Causa" (The Cause). Fernando is bullied and beaten for being both Mexican and the scion of the union organizer.

Chavez's biggest opponent is landowner John Bogdanovich, Sr. (John Malkovich). He, unlike the other landowners, both speaks Spanish and is an immigrant from Croatia. Like his fellow growers, however, Bogdanovich is leery of these Commies. Cesar Chavez now must fight them with both labor and hunger strikes. He gets an unexpected ally in Senator Robert F. Kennedy (Jack Holmes). He gets an unexpected antagonist in Fernando Chavez, forever angry at being neglected. Will Cesar balance out the Huelga with being a good father?

Now that more than a decade has passed since Cesar Chavez was released, parts of it can be oddly comical. Fernando tells his dad that the kids called him a "beaner". "I've been called worse", Cesar comforts him with. I thought, "I bet you and Fernando were never called "rapists"". That is looking at Cesar Chavez through the current denouncing of his memory. Had I seen Cesar Chavez prior to the maelstrom of controversy, I would probably have still laughed at what are meant to be serious moments.

Take for example the very lengthy sequence of his hunger strike. I put aside how there did not seem to be much thought into it. His various dreams and struggles looked a bit exaggerated. Cesar, all but emaciated, is supposed to be helped to a Catholic mass where he will finally break his fast. Michael Peña did not look worse for wear. In fact, he looked downright silly attempting to play someone on the brink of starvation. His performance, his mannerisms, all looked too theatrical. In short, it looked fake.

Add to that how director Diego Luna did not build up what could have and should have been a very serious, somber moment. This man is finally about to break his long fast with the bread of Christ. It does not have any effect. Luna opted not to make this a major moment. No stirring music. No focus on the significance. Nothing.

Perhaps Luna and screenwriters Timothy J. Sexton and Keir Pearson (story by Pearson) expected us to be in awe of Chavez the same way that everyone in Cesar Chavez was. This Cesar Chavez had basically no flaws. The closest that he came to one was when he balked at having Helen arrested for violating court orders to not mention the word "huelga" (strike in Spanish). "You can't get arrested!" he tells her. "Why not?", she replies. "Who'll take care of the kids?" is his curt reply. 

This little display of machismo is the only suggestion that Cesar Chavez is less than ideal. 

For most of Cesar Chavez though, the main character is pretty much a great man. Cesar Chavez falls into an unfortunate trap that capture many biopics. We are presented with a symbol and not a person. The film attempts to give us domestic drama with Fernando. It just never goes anywhere. Oddly, Cesar Chavez does not even give us big speeches from the now-disgraced union leader. He is just...there.  

Cesar Chavez is also both poorly cast and acted. Michael Peña did not do a bad job. He just never had any charisma to make people believe that he could lead a conga line, let alone a picket line. Rosario Dawson was completely miscast as Dolores Huerta. She looks nothing like the real-life person. Dawson, it should be pointed out, is of Cuban, Puerto Rican and African roots. Huerta is none of those. It is worse given that she was pretty much a shadow, having nothing to do in Cesar Chavez. It is so rare that Dawson' character is referred to as "Dolores Huerta". Most of the time, she was just "Dolores" and could have been any random Dolores.

America Ferrera would have been a better choice as Dolores Huerta than she was as Helen Chavez. Granted, Ferrera is not of Mexican descent either. However, she is closer in appearance to Huerta than the taller, thinner Dawson. Cesar Chavez wastes Ferrera in a nothing role. She is there to provide domestic drama. Ferrera has nothing to work with. Wes Bentley as UFW lawyer Jerry Cohen just popped in there. Jack Holmes' RFK was just bad. It is hard to sound like Robert F. Kennedy. It is harder to sound like Robert F. Kennedy. Holmes failed on both counts. 

John Malkovich is pretty good as the not-so-harsh antagonist. Hearing him speak Spanish, however, is oddly hilarious. You have Malkovich's distinct cadence and voice coupled with his efforts at a foreign language. That ought to make for interesting watching.

Speaking of languages, Cesar Chavez has a lot of Spanish dialogue. That is correct but it also was to where I initially thought that I had hit the dubbed button by mistake. 

Cesar Chavez will, I figure, no longer be screened on this or any other day. It was already bad on its own. Now, it is forever tainted with association to someone damned to be hated on all sides. No one could have foreseen that a mere twelve years after Cesar Chavez was released, and over a quarter-century after his death, this biopic's subject would be tossed out like rotten grapes. 

1927-1993

DECISION: D+