The Sting

Data
Title: The Sting
Year: 1973
Length: 129 minutes
Director: George Roy Hill
Writer: David S. Ward
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Music: Scott Joplin, adapted by Marvin Hamlisch
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material, Best Song Score and/or Adaptation, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Editing; currently #98 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: con men vs. the mob
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. Enough twists to keep the movie from being tedious. Although, the whole con-man story type doesn’t really work well when it’s an army of professionals with seemingly unlimited resources against more or less one guy.
Characters: Bad. I don’t feel I know anything about the personalities of either of the leads.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Bad. I can’t believe this was only two hours long. It felt more like a mini series than a movie.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Indifferent. If this is supposed to be the 1930’s, then why do all of these 1930’s buildings look 50 years old?
Acting: Good. Redford and Newman are both kind of dull, especially Redford, but the supporting cast is nice.
Music: Good. I don’t understand why they used distinctly period music for a film set in a different period, but it sets a tone and it’s good music.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). It made me restless, and it’s very flawed, but it’s not a bad movie. It has its moments.
Objective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).

Doctor Who #70: The Time Warrior

Title: Doctor Who: “The Time Warrior“
Year: 1973-1974
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Alan Bromly
Writer: Robert Holmes
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the 1st story (of 5) from season 11
Synopsis: a shipwrecked alien kidnaps scientists into medieval England
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), April 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and music)

One of the better stories, but not a particular favorite of mine. It’s the first appearance of the Sontarans, which look completely absurd but are one of the more cleverly thought out creatures in the show.

The French Chef: Volume One

Title: The French Chef: Volume One
Year: 1963-1973
Network: PBS
Starring: Julia Child
Episodes: 18 (selected from throughout the show’s run), at 28 minutes
Synopsis: Child teaches us how to cook for 1960’s/70’s dinner parties
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 6/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story (n/a), cinematography, special effects/design and acting (n/a))

My wife got a kick out of these, but I don’t really see the fun in cooking shows. And apparently traditional French cooking makes me nauseous (“If you don’t leave the [fish] heads on, you won’t be able to tell what it is!”). Child is charismatic, though (much to my surprise). And the show’s never boring.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Title: Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Year: 1973
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Writers: John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington; story by Paul Dehn; characters by Pierre Boulle
Starring: Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden
Music: Leonard Rosenman
Length: 93 minutes
Synopsis: There’s been a world-obliterating war since the last movie, and now the ape survivors and human survivors must…. Battle! For the planet! Of the apes!
How I saw it: online (streaming from Netflix), November 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, cinematography, special effects/design and music)

Meh. You’ve got to give it some props for being ripped of as The Road Warrior, but otherwise there’s not much here. This is the fifth Apes movie, and each installment of the franchise is progressively worse. By this point, they just don’t seem to care anymore. Most of the apes’ mouths don’t even move when they talk.  I give it as high a score as I do because I’m biased toward bad, campy sci-fi.

The Exorcist

Title: The Exorcist
Year: 1973
Director: William Friedkin
Writer: William Peter Blatty, based on his novel
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Linda Blair
Music: Steve Boeddeker
Distinctions: Oscars for best screenplay (non-original) and sound; currently #209 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a girl is possessed by a demon
Length: 122 minutes
How I saw it: in the theater (“restored” version), 2000; on video a few times, most recently September 2008
Subjective Rating: 8/10
Objective Rating: 10/10

After seeing it three or four times, it hasn’t lost any of its intensity. I’m not a fan of horror films in general, but with this one you just have to admit it is damn effective film-making.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Title: Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Year: 1969-1970, 1972-1974
Creators: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writers: Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, Palin
Starring: Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, Palin
Synopsis: absurd sketch comedy
Episodes: 45; three series of 13, one of 6
Network: BBC
How I saw it: most recently, on PBS, 2006 (with missed episodes rented from Netflix); also various episodes on video or online a number of times
Subjective Rating: 9/10
Objective Rating: 6/10 (points off for story, cinematography, special effects/design and music)

The third series probably only gets a 7 or 6 out of 10, and a 5 or 4 for the terrible fourth series. But the first two series are good enough to pull the average up higher than should be mathematically possible.