Skip to main content

Longest Hours of my Life


Number 37 on the AFI list is The Best Years of Our Lives. It tells the story of three men returning from war wondering what life will be like for them now. It reminds me of a number of books I've read lately, but I digress.

The cinematography in this movie was very good. In the opening scenes, there were quite a lot of camera shots from the point of view of the guys. This lets you see their hometown from their point of view, which reveals quite a bit about the characters themselves.

The central theme of this movie seems to be that you can't go home again because something always changes once you leave. Home is never the place you left. For once we have a movie that doesn't romanticize war. Though I'm not a big war movie fan, so maybe there are others out there. Please comment and let me know.

Myrna Loy is one of my favorite actresses, so she made the movie enjoyable. We watched this movie back in August and her performance is the only one I still remember. I know AFI really liked this movie, but we found it long and drawn out. It didn't hold my attention and I found it very hard not to multitask during this movie. Thus, I'm giving this one a thumbs down.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Dandy of a Movie

I'm referring, of course, to that wonderful movie Yankee Doodle Dandy directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney. The AFI placed it at number 100 on their list. In case you're not familiar with the plot, it's the life story of actor/producer/playwright George M. Cohan. The film pioneered the flashback method of telling a story and begins with Cohan's childhood stage acting. It tells the story of he and his family as they performed plays and shows across the country as "The Four Cohans. Like all entertainers, they have their ups and downs. At one point George's arrogance causes his family to be looked down on as performers. In a somewhat sneaky move, however, Cohan gets funding from a producer and makes his stage come-back. Finally the family is once again reunited as a family act. There is much more to the film, but I'll stop here because I don't want to spoil it for you. The message about family loyalty is something you don't see much in...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Wish you a Merry Christmas

So, are you on the lookout for a good holiday movie? Well, me too. I ended up working an extra Saturday this month, which really cut into my movie watching time. I had all these plans to see the following movies: Polar Express National Treasure Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera I'm sure there were others I wanted to see, but I don't remember what those are now. Out of all the above movies Brian and I have seen National Treasure . I have to say, despite some doubts I had at the beginning it turned out to be a pretty good movie. If you are in to U.S, History, you'd probably find this a good movie. I mentioned some doubts I had at the beginning of the movie. For example, In one of the opening scenes of the movie a grandfather is explaining the history of the Masons organization to his grandson and, having just researched the masons for a library customer, I'm not sure the grandfather's ex...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finally, at Long Last!

Well, here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for. I'm finally reviewing Citizen Kane . I have to say, I loved, loved, loved this movie. I think it's one of my favorites so far and I can completely see why it made number 1 on AFI's top 100 list. Okay, here's what I loved about it: The dark and mysterious opening. I can see why it is one of the most famous cinematic moments in film history. Great camera work and transitions between the present and the past. I think one of my favorites scenes as far as camera work goes is the one toward the end of the film when Susan is leaving Kane. The camera angles and all the other cinema magic that goes into a scene like that were very effective in making Kane look like his imposing, over bearing self when entering the room and small and weak after Susan walks out of the room. The sets - awesomely designed and again very effective for setting the mood of the movie, particularly in the later years of his time with Susan wh...
Post a Comment
Read more