Glory (1989) - Production and towering performances drive Zwick's captivating Civil War epic

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A picturesque, dramatic, beautifully colored dramatization of a US Civil War scene makes up this fine poster for Edward Zwick's Glory

In 1862 during the American Civil War, Colonel Shaw of the Northern Union army is tasked with forming its first unit made up of African-American soldiers; the men's engagement is finally honored in battle.

Glory is written by Kevin Jarre (Rambo - First Blood Part 2 (1985, story)), based on the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and novels Lay This Laurel (1973) by Lincoln Kirstein (Paul Cadmus (1984)) and One Gallant Rush (1965) by Peter Burchard (Jed (1960, short story)), and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker Edward Zwick (About Last Night (1986)).

The film is an enormously handsome production, and James Horner's (Vibes (1988)) score is deeply affecting. Zwick gets masterful performances from especially Denzel Washington (A Soldier's Story (1984)), who shines up against Morgan Freeman (Nurse Betty (2000)), Matthew Broderick (Marie and Bruce (2004)) and Cary Elwes (Walk the Talk (2007)).

Glory also has a truly captivating story with real presence of history to it. It therefore disappoints some to note that the film apparently has several factual errors in it.

Still this is arguably Zwick's finest film, a nearly masterful work.

 

Related posts:
 

Edward Zwick: The Great Wall/长城/Cháng Chéng (2016) - Damon appears foolish in unexciting, major US-Chinese monster turkey (co-writer)

Pawn Sacrifice (2014) - Zwick, Knight and Maguire's mediocre chess genius movie 

Blood Diamond (2006) - Fundamentally flawed, unsuccessful Africa-venture with important issues at its core

Watch a short 30th anniversary teaser for the film from TCM here

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: 26.9 mil. $ - North America only

= Uncertain

[Glory was released 15 December (USA) and runs 122 minutes. Shooting took place from February - April 1989 in Georgia and Massachusetts, including Boston. The film contains several factual errors/fictional inventions: No soldiers marched in cold mud without boots at the time; flogging had been abolished; and the majority of the unit's soldiers were not former slaves, - among other things. The film opened #17 to a 63k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #8 and in 811 theaters, grossing 26.8 mil. $. It is impossible to ascertain the film's box office status without international gross numbers. The North-American gross alone only gives the film status as 'big flop', but the world gross could be high enough to alter this - or perhaps it wasn't. The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 3: It won for Best Supporting Actor (Washington), Cinematography (Freddie Francis (Our Virgin Island (1958))) and Sound. It lost Best Art/Set Decoration to Batman and Editing to Born on the Fourth of July. It also won 1/5 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a BAFTA, won a Grammy and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Zwick returned with Thirtysomething (1987-90) and theatrically with Leaving Normal (1992). Broderick returned in The Freshman (1990); Washington in Heart Condition (1990); Elwes in Days of Thunder (1990); and Freeman in The Earth Day Special (1990, TV special), The Civil War (1990, TV documentary miniseries) and theatrically in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Glory is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Glory?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - Hughes' perfect movie of youth

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Matthew Broderick sports his boyish charms on this simple poster for John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller is a high school senior rebel who is about to take a wild day off in Chicago. He takes his introverted, anxious friend Cameron and attractive girlfriend Sloane into joining him on an adventure in Cameron's father's prized 1961 Ferrari.

For thousands upon thousands of people the world over, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a sweetly nostalgic treasure that won't ever lose its magic. It is the perfect movie about youth, made by the great auteur of teenage portrayals, 1980s champion, Michigander master filmmaker John Hughes (Curly Sue (1991)), who wrote and directed the film.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off strikes a rare balance between being funny and serious, but in the first place it is hugely entertaining throughout.
Matthew Broderick (The Last Shot (2004)) is Ferris, and the supporting parts are also all brilliantly cast. Among the most memorable are Alan Ruck (Hot in Cleveland (2013), TV-series) as Cameron, who undergoes the great change in the film, effectively getting saved by Ferris into seeing the life and promises of the world all around him; Jeffrey Jones (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) as the sadistic principal and Charlie Sheen (Postmortem (1998)) in a prophetic role as a junkie. Although carpe diem is closely associated with Peter Weir's Dead Poets' Society (1989), - also a good film, - the film that truly earns the title as the seize-the-day movie of all time is Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off. - Simply a blast of a film.

Related post:

John Hughes: The Breakfast Club (1985) - John Hughes' detention classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.8 mil. $
Box office: 70.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit
[Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released 11 June (USA) and runs 103 minutes. Hughes wrote the script in less than a week and shot his first draft. He intended the film to be more about characters than plot. The first cut was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Broderick and Ruck were friends and had acted together before in Biloxi Blues on Broadway. Shooting took place from September - November 1985 in Illinois, including in Chicago, and in California, including in Los Angeles. Hughes made a point of getting as much of his beloved Chicago in the film as he could. The '61 Ferrari (today one of the most expensive cars ever sold) in the film was the real deal in insert shots and reproductions in wide shots SPOILER and for the destruction scene in the end. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Back to School, to a 6.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and scored a triumphant 70.1 mil. $, becoming the year's 10th highest-grossing title in North America. Unfortunately, its world gross is not listed. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches harder than this review. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe (for Broderick). Hughes returned with Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). Broderick returned in Project X (1987). An NBC Ferris Bueller TV-series (without Hughes or Broderick - but with Jennifer Aniston) ran a single season in 1986. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

Election (1999) - Payne's high school politics dramedy

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Nebraska Movie of the Year 

 

Matthew Broderick looks disgruntled, caught inside the excited mouth of Reese Witherspoon on this poster for Alexander Payne's Election

High school teacher Jim McAllister has a beef with his over-achiever student Tracy Flick, who is running for student president, so he engages an opposing candidate.

Election is an MTV-produced, fast-edited and funny movie, the third feature from Nebraskan master co-writer-director Alexander Payne (The Descendants (2011)).
Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line (2005)) glows as comedienne as young Flick, while Matthew Broderick (The Night We Never Met (1993)) accepts the role of McAllister, which, according to your temperament, serves as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his legendary turn as rebellious high school student in John Hughes' masterpiece Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), or as a part that throws sly vitriol on this glorious past. - For me, seeing one of the heroes of my youth tackle this bitter, grownup high school teacher did take some of the joy out of Election from me.
It is still a clever tragicomic movie with a gender-focused sting of societal criticism. Payne co-wrote the script with Jim Taylor (Sideways (2004)), based on Tom Perrotta's (Little Children (2004)) same-titled 1998 novel.

Related posts:
 

Alexander Payne: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Nebraska (2013) or, Father and Son
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family 
About Schmidt (2002) or, Dear Ndugu ...

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 14.9 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain - but looks like a big to huge flop
[Election was released April 23 and runs 102 minutes. Filming took place from July 1998 - February 1999 in Nebraska, Ohio and New York. The film was released theatrically in 16 countries in total, but only the North American gross is made public. It opened #37 in 6 theaters to 119k $ and peaked at #5 in 827 theaters. The film was Oscar-nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay, lost to John Irving's screenplay for The Cider House Rules. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won a National Board of Review award "for excellence in filmmaking" and 3 Independent Spirit Awards, out of 5 nominations. Election is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of Election?

Tower Heist (2011) - Ratner's so-so financial crisis comedy

♥♥♥

The two comedy stars of Brett Ratner's Tower Heist

QUICK REVIEW:

The staff of one of New York's most exclusive penthouse buildings, The Tower, are deprived of their pensions, when it turns out that the owner is a swindler. But their leader Kovacs (Ben Stiller (While We're Young (2014))) has a plan!

Tower Heist brings together an impressive cast in a handsome, enthusiastic movie with a spectacular heist, (during the Thanksgiving parade, with a gold car out of the building (...!)), a well made score by Christophe Beck (Frozen (2013)) and fine photography by Dante Spinotti (Heat (1995)).
And yet this heist comedy, which puts Stiller and Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls (2006)) in the same frame for the first time, never results in any raucous laughter. It also contains some pretty weak characters and just enough disingenuous plot points that it stays too grounded to really succeed.
It is written by Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven (2001)) and Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour 2 (2001)), with story contributions from a handful of others, and directed by Brett Ratner (Money Talks (1997)). The film is based on an idea of Murphy's, presented in 2005, which was to be an all-black ensemble comedy called Trump Heist. - Ironically, this sounds potentially more promising than the Tower Heist that eventually came to be.

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 75 mil. $ (after 10 mil. $ in tax rebates)
Box office: 152.9 mil. $
= Minor flop
[Tower Heist unsurprisingly sparked some diva behavior, as Stiller and Murphy were brought together with Stiller getting 15 mil. $ to play the lead in the film devised and co-produced by Murphy, who got 'just' 7.5 mil. $: Murphy, whose career was nowhere near Stiller's at the time, (granted), would only film an alternate ending if he was paid an additional 500k $. Universal had a plan to release the film on VoD just three weeks after its theatrical release as a test, but had to abandon the plan after cinema chains threatened to dump the film if they did. Tower Heist opened #2 with a 24 mil. $ first weekend in North America, (behind Puss in Boots), and grossed 78 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross) domestically.]

What do you think of Tower Heist?

The Cable Guy (1996) - Stiller's dark comedy is a riot

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Comedy of the Year

The iconic poster for Ben Stiller's The Cable Guy

QUICK REVIEW:

You're waiting all day for the cable guy, as he finally arrives, and by some miracle, he gives you all the good channels, because, it seems, you're just such a nice guy. - But no: He expects something in return!

Ben Stiller's (Zoolander (2001)) best directorial effort to date is this 90's romcom satire pearl with an absolutely keyed up Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)), well-paired with Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)) and Leslie Mann (Knocked Up (2007)), with bountiful other stars in bit parts, (Owen Wilson, George Segal, Diane Baker, Eric Roberts, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, Stiller, Jack Black, David Cross etc.)
The Cable Guy was Judd Apatow's (Knocked Up) first producing gig, and he also did uncredited work on the script (by Lou Holtz Jr., whose only credit this is.)
The movie contains numerous hilarious scenes, especially SPOILER the basketball scene, the Medieval restaurant scene and the karaoke night scene. The Cable Guy is a legendary comedy.

Related review:

Ben Stiller: Blades of Glory (2007) - Copycat comedy about ice figure skating (as producer)

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 47 mil. $
Box office: 102.8 mil. $
= Minor flop
[The film made 60.2 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross) in the States. It made a lot of dough, but due to its high budget, didn't turn an initial profit. Carrey received an at the time unheard of 20 mil. $ for his work in Cable Guy, which also earned him two MTV Movie Awards and a Kid's Choice Award. - Pretty good.]

What do you think of The Cable Guy?
And Ben Stiller's other movies that he's directed?

Biloxi Blues (1988) or, '45 Army Camp Confidential

♥♥♥♥♥

Young, charming Matthew Broderick send out to sell, sell, sell! - Mike Nichols' Biloxi Blues

QUICK REVIEW:

Jerome's weeks as a private trainee in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1945, until the war ends, is a time with discoveries, exhaustion and drama.
Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)) is tremendous, and Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter (1978)) as the eccentric and semi-loony Sergeant is just as good.

Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken in the fine film by Mike Nichols, Biloxi Blues

Many of playwright/screenwriter Neil Simon's (The Odd Couple (1968)) lines are hilarious, and the structure of the film is impeccable.
Biloxi Blues is moving and universally relevant with a few minor problems in the supporting cast.
Its German-born director Mike Nichols (The Graduate (1967)) finished his formidable career recently with Charlie Wilson's War (2007).

Related review:

Mike Nichols: Angels in America (TV mini-series, 2003) or, Dying in the 80s, of AIDS, at L-E-N-G-T-H

Watch the film's short, funny trailer here

Budget: 20 mil. $
Box office: 51.6 mil. $
= Box office success and # 1 in the US

What do you think of Biloxi Blues?
Other army comedies that simply tickle your ribs?