1982. In March, 1982, the 54th Academy Awards honored films released in 1981. The nominees for Best Picture were “Atlantic City” (Paramount, Louis Malle, director), “Chariots of Fire” (20th Century Fox, Hugh Hudson, producer), “On Golden Pond” (Universal, Bruce Gilbert, producer), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Paramount, George Lucas, executive producer), and “Reds” (Paramount, Warren Beatty, producer/director). “Atlantic City” was script by John Guare. It stars Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon (who earlier starred in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”), Kate Reid, Robert Joy, Hollis McLaren, Michel Piccoli, and Al Waxman. The story is a crim/romance. Lancaster plays an older gangster in the named city and Sarandon plays a server in a casino. Lancaster is interested in the young lady for more than friendship. Her estranged husband returns with stolen cocaine he plans to sell to make a bundle. He enlists Lancaster’s character to help sell the cocaine, which he partially does. The guys from whom the husband stole the cocaine catch up to him and kill him. Lancaster’s character then continues the sales and he impresses the young woman, who makes love with him. Saradon’s character is beaten by the people who killed her husband in an attempt to find the remaining cocaine. She goes to the older guy and they are ultimately caught by the killers, but the older guy kills them, and the two escape Atlantic City. As they are in a motel for the night, the young woman herself steals the money and sneaks off. The old guy sees this and just lets her get away, as he returns to Atlantic City. “Chariots of Fire” is based on a true story of the 1924 Olympics. It stars Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Lindsay Anderson, Dennis Christopher (who was in “Breaking Away” earlier), Nigel Davenport, Peter Egan, John Gielgud, Ian Holm, and Patrick Magee. The story starts at a funeral in 1981, where two old men meet and reminisce about the days that they were young. The man who died is a friend of the British Jew who also is a rather successful athlete. The story is then told in flashback. The two men are an urban Jewish runner and a religious Scottish runner. Both are promising runners who could win gold at the Olympics. At the time, to be an amateur, one must not pay for a coach, and the urban fellow has one who is kept hidden. In Paris, the US team is expected to win many of the races. The Scottish runner refuses to run on Sunday. The other runner is beaten in a 200 meter race, but wins in the 100 meter race. The Scottish runner gets to run in the 400, because his teammate switches with him. Hang in there with me as I explain this roundabout connection. The person on whose death the story was based was David George Brownlow Cecil, 6th Marquis of Exeter, who died in 1981. While not explicitly named in the movie, it is likely his death that spurred the idea for this movie, for he was an athlete who won several Olympic medals in the 1920s, and would be the model for the character, Lord Andrew Lindsay. The Cecil family was influential in British politics for many years. William Cecil was a long-time advisor to Elizabeth I, for example. Many of the Cecil family became noted for service in the Royal Navy. On a trip to Britain in 1983, Mary and I ended up in Stamford, England, and as we left we noted a sign for Burghley House, the ancestral home of the Cecil family. We turned down a road to see this manor house (and it looked exactly like you might think). We paid a small amount and wandered through the magnificent museum. In a back hallway was a small display of two Olympic medals won by David Cecil, but there was not a mention of the movie “Chariots of Fire”. After we were back in the US, I considered the name. The adjacent county in Maryland is Cecil County, obviously named for the Cecil family. However, I had the following thought. My father was a sailor on a troop transport in World War II named the USS Cecil, from which my parents took my first name. It is likely that the ship [which has unfortunately now been scuttled) was named either after the family or the county in Maryland. In either way, I have a connection to the character in the movie and to the Cecil family in general by virtue of may name. The movie is really a great movie and a joy to watch. In addition, it has wonderful digital music by Vangelis. “On Golden Pond” is adapted from a play by Ernest Thompson. It stars Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Douglas McKeon, Dabney Coleman, and William Lanteau. The story is about an elderly couple who spend summers at a lake. The husband (Henry Fonda) is becoming senile and is helped by his wife. Their daughter (played by Jane Fonda), who has long been estranged from her father comes and asks to have her son stay with the elderly couple so she can go on a vacation with her fiancé. They do so, and the grandparents and grandchild get to know each other. Upon return, the daughter and father reconcile and the daughter, son, and fiancé leave. As the elderly couple leave at the end of the film, there is intimation that the father is going to die relatively soon as he suffers something like a heart attack. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is based on a story by George Lucas. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Alle, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, and Denholm Elliott. John Williams (who by this time had become the favorite composer for work with Steven Spielberg, the director) wrote the music. The film starts with a pre-story, in which Indiana Jones (Ford) is in some (probably South American) jungle seeking a golden idol. After he escapes from various dangers (including a double-crossing helper played by Alfred Molina) and meets his archnemesis Belocq (Freeman), the story begins with Jones as an archaeology professor at a university being swooned over by coeds and cajoled by government agents to investigate something going on in North Africa, where Nazi scientists are on a major dig. He agrees and heads off to do so. Meanwhile, his former love and daughter of his major professor, Marion (played by Allen) is running a bar in Nepal, where she drinks men under the table. The Nazis want some sort of medallion from her and intend to get it, until Jones shows up. Her pub burned down, she joins Jones as they head to Africa. In Africa, he meets an Egyptian friend (Rhys-Davies) and they all begin the adventure. They spy on th e Nazis, at which point Jones realizes that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place to find what they want, the Ark of the Covenant. He traces it to the correct position and discovers it, only again to be undone by Belocq. There ensues a chase, and Belocq wants to use the relic for its mystic powers, but does not know what they are. In an intense scene that would scare youngster, his opening of the Ark revels terror and death. Jones and his girlfriend keep their eyes closed and are safe. He returns the Ark to the government. In the final scene, one sees that it has simply been crated and stored in some secret government storehouse. A film with great fun which I thoroughly enjoye (and still enjoy), but – in my view – hardly a story of sufficient substance to warrant a nomination for Best Picture. “Reds” is based on the career of John Reed as detailed in his book “Ten Days that Shook the World”, about the Russian Revolution. It stars Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, and Maureen Stapleton (Edith of “All in the Family”). The story is of Reed (played by Beatty) and Louise Bryant (Keaton) and their actions during the Russian Revolution. Reed, an American, is a radical who happens to be a journalist. Bryant is a society lady who becomes enamored of Reed and his romantic revolutionary ideas. They travel to Europe and participate in the Russian Revolution. The movie is, in my view, long, overblown, and an ego trip for Beatty. Beatty was a great actor (witness “Splendor in the Grass” or “Bonnie and Clyde”), but this movie would have been probably better if it were not made. And the Academy chose “Chariots of Fire”, which is my choice. Here are some other 1981 movies one might wish to see: “Absence of Malice”, “An American Werewolf in London”, “Arthur” (which probably should have been nominated), “Body Heat” (Lawrence Kasdan’s first film and great performances by Kathleen Turner and William Hurt, two great actors of the period), “Cannonball Run” (Burt Reynolds in a cross-country race, a great chase film), “The Chosen” (from a story by Chaim Potok), “Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratton Story” (You always wanted to know what really goes on at the Playboy Mansion, right?), “Escape from New York” (a John Carpenter film, starring Kurt Russell and an eyepatch), “Mommie Dearest” (from the tell-all book by Joan Crawford’s daughter), “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (a remake with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange), “Prince of the City”, and “Ragtime” (from the novel by E. L. Doctorow),
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:20:55 +0000
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