Movies, Comedy

McLintock!

No Comments 17 July 2006

Drawing on the plot of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Mclintock shows you what the fourth of July was like in the Wild West. They did not have fireworks but plenty of fun. The Wild West in this film is a comedy land. The place is Arizona and it is dry. My historical knowledge is inadequate to understand why the West was so romanticized in American culture. The land from from Utah to California is not particularly lushes. Why would I want to move there if I am on lushes green land on the East Coast?  Perhaps it was the availability of free land that gave a lot of people the opportunity to become economically self-sufficient, which was not possible in Europe.  How little I new about the historical Wild West became clear after I read the article on the subject in the Wikipedia.

Movies, Drama

Fitzcarraldo

No Comments 13 June 2006

Growing older has its pleasures. I was bit nervous about renting Fitzcarraldo (1982) with Klaus Kinski in the lead role. I remember seeing Kinski as a teenager in a film depicting a strange riverboat trip.  At the time I thought the film was boring and Kinski crazy. In my memory the action took place on the Nile, but after searching for any evidence of the film on the Internet this morning, I am forced to conclude: It was Fitzcarraldo that the teenage me rejected as boring and crazy. The adult me, by contrast, enjoyed every single one of the 158 minutes in which a lovable crazy Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) tries to bring opera to the backwaters of Peru. This film,  set at the turn of the 20th century, is not for everyone, especially not teenagers who will find the pace too slow.  If you like opera, nature, and people who are a bit crazy in their quest to experience life in its fullest, you will not be disappointed.

Movies, Comedy

Go for Zucker

No Comments 21 May 2006