Mutiny on the Bounty

Last fall I decided (for whatever reason) that I was going to watch all of the movies that won an oscar. I also decided to go in chronological order – as much as possible, figuring it’d be like the history of film making happening right before me. Surely the effects in the most recent films will be more stunning then the older ones. That’s being said some of the older ones did amazing things, especially considering they didn’t have all the advances we have now. The only bummer thing is the sound quality. I usually have to watch them on 60 (my volume usually hovers around 15) so when I do flip from watching the DVD to TV I usually give myself a mini heart attack.

Sadly for going at it since early November I’ve only made it through 6 (if you count in order. I have seen others but I’m planning on watching/re-watching them all in order (if possible)). I’ll have to be slightly more diligent in this task if I ever want to make it through. However I do sometimes think that to be even nominated for an Oscar the movie has to be forever long with lots of quite moments and if it’s a drama and will make the viewer perhaps sad double bonus. One side note, the lovely thing about Netflix is there queue system. I only had to go through the adding of the movies once, but they don’t have them all, as you will notice in my list.

Wings – haven’t seen yet (not on Netflix)
The Broadway Melody – I don’t know what I was expecting but I found this movie fairly annoying. It begins in some sort of office building, more likely a studio though, when Eddie blazes in to introduce his hot new song ‘Broadway Melody’ (how convenient). Of course everyone there loves it and these two girls want to sing or dance to it for him. He turns them down because he already has his act picked out. His fiance, Hank, and her sister Queenie have just arrived in New York to make it big. Hank is a bossy penny pincher while Queenie is a bit of a worthless princess. Anyway Eddie goes to their hotel to meet them and sees Queenie for the first time since she was young. How he didn’t see her when he and Hank were courting I have no clue. The sisters only seem a couple years different in age – but what do I know. (Nothing in regards to this movie). Oh, I should add Eddie isn’t able to take his eyes off Queenie and thus the seeds for a love triangle are sown. Anyway lots of stuff happens and eventually Hank rolls over and lets Eddie leave her for her sister. It’s quite painful because their ‘love’ just blooms out of no where, but hey, that’s how they roll on Broadway apparently (back in the day).
All Quiet on the Western Front – Wasn’t really a fan of this movie either. It was awhile ago so I can’t quite remember the specifics of why, but I’m not going to watch it again to refresh my memory. I remember for awhile in the movie though that a pair of boots were being past around and anyone who wore them ended up dying. I don’t care how comfortable those boots are, if several someones have died wearing them perhaps its best to pass on them.
Cimarron – I rather hated this movie. It’s about this guy who has a bit of a wanderlust. He uproots his family to go to a developing town in Oklahoma (I think). The wife goes with him (of course) and doesn’t really like it. Somehow though everyone knows her husband, probably because he travels so much. She makes the best of the situation and eventually learns to love the town. It seems like the more comfortable she gets with the place the more the husband wants to leave. After a few years he decides to take off leaving her and the two kids behind. Then, years later, he returns and everyone is just so happy he is back. He essentially comes in, screws up what the wife has done over the past X years and then takes off again. This happens a few more times. I think I hate it so because the wife was seemingly a strong character to be able to move on after her husband left, but she wasn’t really. She was a huge doormat who never fought for what she really wanted. She just took up the mantle of what her husband had started once he decided to leave.
Grand Hotel – I rather missed the point of this movie. It was fine enough, I believe I worked on a project while watching it, but like I said I missed the point. As I look back on it though it kind of reminds me of Love Actually, in that there were so many storylines going on and only some were then linked to one another. I don’t know if that happened a lot in the movies back then. Certainly it was the first Oscar winner to do that, so that’s neat I suppose. That being said though, I do remember bits of it being super random, and not necessarily in a good way.
Cavalcade – haven’t seen yet (on Netflix technically, but under the ‘save’ tab so who knows when)
It Happened One Night – I enjoyed this one very much. It was just a cute romantic comedy and I thoroughly enjoyed Clark Gable’s character. Claudette Cobert’s too, for that matter. I remember watching this one and thinking it was the best I’d seen so far. Both in my ability to enjoy the story line, but also in cinematic quality. I would watch this one again, might go re-add it to my queue once I’m done with this post. Anyway, I liked the chemistry between the two leads and how natural the progression of their opinion for one another was throughout the movie.
Mutiny on the Bounty – Absolutely hated this movie. It went on forever and grrr, I just hated the captain. So in that case it was good, that actor did a great job of making me hate him. But my dislike for the character combined with how long the movie drug on made it quite insufferable. I think the movie could have been half as long and still made its point, but perhaps I’m wrong. Not even my desire to see Gable in such a different role as he had played in It Happened One Night could get me to watch this movie in one sitting.
The Great Ziegfeld – Although I may never watch this movie again, it did make me quite interested in looking into the work of Ziegfeld. In college I helped out with some of the student productions, and in general I’m quite interested in the performing arts. This movie makes me want to see all the things Ziegfeld envisioned. There was this one scene that lasted forever in which there was a, seemingly, unending spiral staircase. I’m seriously impressed be the ingenuity and engineering that would be required to pull of such a feat. Sometimes I feel like modern cinema/plays have limited themselves too much. They need to take a look at the past and pull out some of what has come before.
The Life of Emile Zola –I was so confused as to the point of this movie. So by extension I didn’t enjoy it all that much, however I will say the second half seemed to have more of a plot or a line of thoughts and actions I could follow. This movie did make me want to learn more about Emile Zola, if only so I could understand the movie. I feel like the movie didn’t really have a point except that Zola wrote the truth and then saved a guy from continued imprisonment. But I can’t even know if that is true because there was a notice at the begging of the movie saying some of the events were only based on fact but that some of it had been changed. Perhaps I will read one of his books this autumn (since I’ve already completed my summer reading list).
You Can’t Take it With You –Super cute. I just finished this one and really enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed Jimmy Stewart and he does an excellent job in this movie. Of course the antics of the family are amusing. The Grandpa character is endearing as well. Just overall I liked it very much. AP and his wife did a good job of being disagreeable without making me want to not watch the movie (like in Mutiny on the Bounty). And in the end everyone learned their lesson. Although I do wonder what happened with the mergers.
Gone with the Wind – haven’t seen yet
Rebecca – haven’t seen yet
How Green was my valley – haven’t seen yet
Mrs. Miniver – haven’t seen yet
Casablanca – haven’t seen yet and I’m really excited for it. It’s a classic and even if you haven’t seen it you know “Here’s looking at you kid”
Going my way – haven’t seen yet
The Lost Weekend – haven’t seen yet
The Best Years of Our Lives – haven’t seen yet
Gentleman’s Agreement – haven’t seen yet
Hamlet – haven’t seen yet
All the King’s Men – haven’t seen yet
All about Eve – haven’t seen yet
An American in Paris – haven’t seen yet
The Greatest Show on Earth – haven’t seen yet
From Here to Eternity – haven’t seen yet
On the Waterfront – haven’t seen yet
Marty – haven’t seen yet
Around the World in 80 days – haven’t seen yet
The bridge on the river Kwai – haven’t seen yet
Gigi – haven’t seen yet
Ben-Hur – haven’t seen yet
The Apartment – My dad and I watched this one together. Something he requested for Christmas was that we each (his children) carve out time to watch an old movie with him. He knew I was doing this Oscar thing so he picked out a couple he liked. I decided you couldn’t go wrong with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine so I picked this.
West Side Story – I’ve seen the actual musical (just this past Februrary) but not the movie. I’m anxious to see what changes there might be. During the musical there was a lot of Spanish spoken (obviously) but for some reason it threw me off, I wasn’t expecting it for some reason. Since Spanish is much more common today than it was in 1962 (I’m guessing) will there still be that? Can’t wait to see!
Lawrence of Arabia – haven’t seen yet
Tom Jones – haven’t seen yet
My Fair Lady – haven’t seen yet
The Sound of Music – I don’t know of any child who hasn’t seen this, or perhaps it was just part of my upbringing. I still remember that it’d break right when they were doing the puppet show, causing you to switch from tape 1 to tape 2. I wonder what happens on the DVD.
A man for all Seasons – haven’t seen yet
In the Heat of the Night – haven’t seen yet
Oliver! – haven’t seen yet
Midnight Cowboy – haven’t seen yet
Patton – haven’t seen yet
The French Connection – haven’t seen yet
The Godfather – haven’t seen yet
The Sting – I really enjoy this movie and will watch it again when it comes up between the Godfathers
The Godfather Part II – haven’t seen yet and can hardly wait
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – haven’t seen yet
Rocky – We watched this in my senior comp class. I can’t quite recall the justification for it. Adrian!!
Annie Hall – haven’t seen yet
The Deer Hunter – haven’t seen yet
Kramer vs. Kramer – haven’t seen yet
Ordinary People – haven’t seen yet
Chariots of Fire – haven’t seen yet
Gandhi – haven’t seen yet
Terms of Endearment – haven’t seen yet
Amadeus – haven’t seen yet
Out of Africa – haven’t seen yet
Platoon – haven’t seen yet
The Last Emperor – haven’t seen yet
Rain Man – I don’t know if it’s because despite being a good actor I haven’t seen him in a lot of movies but I love Dustin Hoffman in this. He did an amazing job (I think)
Driving Miss Daisy – haven’t seen yet
Dances with Wolves – I vaguely remember Kevin Costner in a wolf costume. However I think that may be a false memory so I’ll have to see it again to confirm.
The Silence of the Lambs – Hello Clarice. I don’t know if I’ve seen this one or not but I don’t think so. I think I’ve only seen Hannibal. Can’t wait
Unforgiven – haven’t seen yet
Schindler’s List – haven’t seen yet
Forrest Gump – Tom Hanks has played a LOT of different characters.
Braveheart – haven’t seen yet
The English Patient – haven’t seen yet
Titanic – I was obsessed with this movie when it first came out (when I was in 6th grade). So much so that my sisters hardcore mocked me. Haven’t watched it since.
Shakespeare in Love – I love Gwyneth Paltrow but am a touch confused by the ending. Did the boat really sink or is that just how he imagines it?
American Beauty – haven’t seen yet
Gladiator – I think I watched this for the first time with my family, an amusing tale at that. It was my parent’s anniversary and my sisters and I decided to get them a DVD player. When my mom opened up the present her first response, “but we don’t even have any DVDs.” Gladiator was I think the only movie we decided to get them, you know, because nothing celebrates another year of marriage quite like carnage.
A Beautiful Mind – haven’t seen yet
Chicago – I’ve seen both the musical and the movie (but not in awhile). It was good, it’s always fun to see some actors try new things. Who knew Richard Gere could sing? Also, one difference I recall between the live version and the movie is that the song Mr. Cellophane was ommited from the movie. I rather like musical Otis, he seems much more tragic.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Of course I’ve seen it. I loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which just goes to show some things don’t run in the family. I tried to get my sister to watch with me. I only have the extended editions of the movies and she made it through the first 5 (of 6). We were in the middle of a battle and she couldn’t finish. Her explanation “I’m good.” What the what? I do know that these things do happen in reverse though too. “Wanna go to the batting cages.” “No, I’m good.”
Million Dollar Baby – haven’t seen yet
Crash – haven’t seen yet
The Departed – haven’t seen yet
No Country for Old Men – haven’t seen yet
Slumdog Millionaire – haven’t seen yet
The Hurt Locker – haven’t seen yet
The King’s Speech – haven’t seen yet
The Artist – haven’t seen yet