Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 276th Edition

Welcome to the 276th Edition to my long-running series. This is the last February post so therefore the last week for Black History Month so I have some selections this week to end the month. Next month I am making my own month called National Rock Music Month where I will note rock songs that are in soundtracks and intend to put a concert film or rock documentary in all four weeks of March so we'll see how that goes. This week I pay tribute to Jerry "The King" Lawler whose mother recently died and were reminded of that last Monday night on Raw by Michael Cole.

Taking Chance (2009): This is the 17th link on The Chain and is my HBO movie for the week. Kevin Bacon stars as Lt. Col. Mike Strobl who has a proposal to reduce casualties in Iraq but is rejected because of his lack of recent combat experience. He then volunteers to escort the body of Chance Phelps who was killed in combat. In his journey he learns a lot about the things that Chance did while learning a lot about himself. This film is based on a true story and on an article written by Strobl on his journey during the escort. There is not a whole lot on plot but that is made up by the performance for Bacon and the inspiration it can provide. This movie is a tribute to the military and makes quite a statement and a positive one at that. As Bacon said in an interview, it is a simple story of a man returning a body to their hometown to get the proper respects paid and showing what the process is like. The Chain continues next week with another from Kevin Bacon.

The Tenants (2005): This is based on a novel by Bernard Malamud who also wrote the novel for THE NATURAL. THE PRACTICE alum Dylan McDermott stars as struggling writer Harry Lesser who refuses to give into the landlord about moving out and tries finishing his book. He is glad to be the only person there but is soon joined by another up and coming writer named Willie Spearmint, played by the legendary rapper Snoop Dogg. They form a rather uneasy friendship but their cultural differences put a lot of tension between them. This independent film went onto some very mixed opinions but I thought it was quite interesting and a different role for Snoop Dogg where is playing more serious and while not great gets the job done as well as McDermott in his everyday struggle to get the book perfected but just always finds little things. I'm sure many novelists can relate some to that character. This by no means matched THE NATURAL but an interesting film showing the totally different minds of two writers.

Born to Fight (1956): This is my short film for the week which I found on TCM On-Demand. This is a documentary short which focuses on bullfighting in Portugal and how it differs from Spain and Latin America. This was pretty informative and had some pretty good footage of some of the real-life Matadors who were billed as some of the best in the industry.

Lying Lips (1939): This is one of my Black History Month selections and I chose director Oscar Micheaux who was the most successful black filmmakers of that era. I found this on my Pub-D-Hub app which is a public domain program on my Roku player which also gets me my instant Netflix so this Roku player has been a great investment. I know I just made a plug but I have the right to do that since this is my blog. However, now I'll get to the movie and I have done quite a few weeks of using 1939 which was the big year for film but this one does not really rank up high in the list of films for that year. Edna Mae Harris plays a nightclub singer who was framed for murder and convicted. Her friend who is a cop does not believe she is guilty and looks to prove her innocence. This is mostly a selection for historical purposes with people like the filmmaker and that there were actual black people in the film rather than a bunch of whites in blackface. It was good for what it was and the low budget that Micheaux had at the time. It was worth a watch if you can find it through public domain.

The Hospital (1971): I found this one on TCM and it sounded interesting so I thought I'd try it. Paddy Chayefsky wrote this satire which stars George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Block who is the head of the hospital but he is also suicidal. In this hospital, patients are dying because of things like wrong medicines and such. THE AVENGERS alum Diana Rigg plays Barbara who decides to take her dad back to a Sioux reservation and has some rather unusual treatment towards patients. Together, form quite a relationship where Herbert starts to reevaluate his life. This is a very dark type of humor and this movie seems to have gone under the radar but was great to watch. Chayefsky also wrote the great 1976 satire NETWORK which focused on the News industry.

Good Fences (2003): This is another one of my Black History Month selections which focuses on a very successful black family in the '70s in Greenwich, Connecticut. Danny Glover stars as black attorney Tom Spader who is very successful and becomes obsessed with "ending the colored man's losing streak" and overwhelms his teenage kids with his beliefs. Whoopi Goldberg plays his wife likes her life but still wants to be able to focus on their heritage. They live in a suburban neighborhood where things change when another black lady named Ruth Crisp moves into the neighborhood because of winning the lottery. Tom sees her as the type of person they wanted to get away from. This is another satire on racism and even a bit of racism from the race. This movie was originally shown on Showtime and I thought was worth a watch. Lots of good pop culture references from that era like from ROOTS.

The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA (2006): This is my tribute to Jerry Lawler who recently lost his mother and his part focuses on the last days in AWA where he won the championship from AWA. This was a promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota which ran from 1960 to 1991 and produced some of the top stars we know today. It was founded by Verne Gagne and much of it obviously focuses on his life. It focuses on its rise and its later fall but it remains a very important promotion. Many people got their start here or were trained by Verne Gagne. Ric Flair was trained by Gagne and went onto become one of the best of all time. Hulk Hogan also got his start and is really where Hulkamania started by Gagne never saw the potential and Vince McMahon Jr. capitalized which is what McMahon is known for doing which is not saying anything bad about him. There is discussion on Vince McMahon Jr.'s expansion and how it made it difficult for other promotions but even some of the loyal AWA wrestlers acknowledging that it really was not McMahon who put them out of business. It focused up to the point where Gagne was inducted into the WWE hall of fame and him talking about how surprised he was when being named into it. This is a great documentary for wrestling fans and a good history lesson for the younger wrestling fans as this is a promotion that earned its respect and will always have its place in history. There are interviews with many AWA alums like Verne and his son Greg Gagne who had a pretty successful career. It was also interesting to see footage of a young Eric Bischoff who worked as an interviewer there. Other interviewers include Blackjack Lanza, Nick Bockwinkel, Jim Brunzell, and many others.

The Westerner (1940): This is my western for the week which I found on TCM. William Wyler directed this western which stars Gary Cooper as a cowboy named Cole Hardin and runs into some difficulty in a Texas town where he is accused of a crime and sentenced to hang by the self-appointed Judge Roy Bean. He then professes that he knows Lily Langtree whose picture Roy has hanging in his saloon and delays the hanging for two weeks where they form an uneasy friendship. Walter Brennan plays Roy Bean who was a real person but in real-life was only known to sentence a couple people to hang even though Hollywood calls him the "hanging judge". Cooper and Brennan were very good in their roles and was a pretty good western.

The Subject was Roses (1968): This is something I also found on TCM which is based on a play by Frank Gilroy. A young Martin Sheen stars as Tim Cleary who is returning home from WWII and must deal with the difficult relationship his parents are having getting caught in the middle. Jack Albertson and Patricia Neal play his parents John and Nettie. It's a pretty simple story with a very small cast where they must all try to work out all their differences they have had through the years and what they have now. It is a drama which is driven by the characters and performances and was very compelling and has gone down as an underrated drama. Sheen and Albertson played these characters on the stage version before the movies. Albertson is most known as Grandpa Joe in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and is much different in this film.

Seven Pounds (2008): I end with this Black History Month selection which mainly applies to the former Fresh Prince Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. I was not sure what to really think of this but ended up actually liking it as well as Will Smith. Smith stars as Ben, an IRS agent who has quite a secret. For redemption, he is looking for seven strangers to help in big ways. Rosario Dawson plays Emily, who is in debt large to the IRS and has a lot of heart problems where she could die at anytime. They end up falling in love and making him rethink his future. Woody Harrelson co-stars as one of the people he tries to help and plays a character I can relate to, a call center employee. It was a part where Will Smith has pretty limited comedy and I thought the movie was rather moving with quite an ending. Gabriele Muccino who directed Will Smith in THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS also directed this film and these two are my favorite Will Smith films.

Well, that is it for this week so tell me what you like and dislike. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes more Kevin Bacon, Henry Fonda, Louis Malle, Vanessa Redgrave, William Holden, Mo'Nique, and many others.