Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 277th Edition

Welcome to the 277th Edition of my series. As I said last week, I want to pay tribute to rock music and started with a concert film and will mention rock songs that are part of the soundtrack so I will do this throughout March. Not all movies will have a rock song mentioned, especially the older ones.

Bacon Brothers: No Food Jokes Tour (2003): This is the 17th link on The Chain and Kevin Bacon is the link for this one. This is a concert video and maybe in technical terms it is not a movie but I have final say on this blog so I say it can be on here. Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael perform a 90 minute set in front of a crowd where Kevin shows off his music talent as well as Michael being a good musician in his own right. They play a lot of original music that they wrote as well as their own version of FOOTLOOSE which is the film that put Bacon into stardom. This is available on Instant Netflix and is a pretty fun concert film with a pretty talented Bacon as a singer.

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939): This is one of many greats from this year which is John Ford and Henry Fonda's entry into the year that had such films as THE WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND, and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Henry Fonda stars as the title character most have probably guessed is about Abraham Lincoln, soon to have a film which chronicles his life as a vampire hunter. This is a fictional account to his career as a self-educated attorney who takes a murder case of two brothers which proves to be a very difficult case. Fonda plays this part with such ease and perfection and shows his early meetings with Stephen Douglas who would then go onto have some of the most famous political debates of all time. He also meets his future wife Mary. There is no encounter with Booth but apparently Ford at one time had a scene that he did not want used of him and a very young Booth that he had the film footage burned so it could not be used.

Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987): This is my French film for the week that was written and directed by Louis Malle. This takes place at a French boarding school during WW2. This centers around a Jewish boy named Jean Bonnet who is being hidden from the Nazis. He has a hard time adjusting to the new school and being away from his mother at first. He then meets a boy in his class named Julien who also has a rough life. They are rivals at first but then become friends. This is based on incidents in Malle's life. There is not much to explain without really giving it away but it is a good look at life at a boarding school and the difficulty of living in the Nazi era. When Quentin Tarantino worked at a video store he called this movie "The Reservoir Film" because he could not pronounce the title. Years later, he would take the word and the dogs part of STRAW DOGS for the title RESERVOIR DOGS which will always remain my favorite with Tarantino.

Little Brown Jug (1948): This is my animated short for the week which I found on my Pub-D-Hub app on the Roku Player. This is produced by Paramount and focuses on woodland animals milling and drinking apple cider. It then becomes a sing-along to the title song. This is a fun animated short and I'm sure people loved singing along in theaters.

Blow-Up (1966): Michelangelo Antonioni directed this film which stars David Hemmings as a London photographer named Thomas. Vanessa Redgrave stars as Jane, a mysterious woman that he photographs. When looking at the negatives of his photographs he looks to piece together what he believes is a murder. This takes a good look into the mind of an eccentric photographer who will take pictures of anything he finds to be interesting. While the main character is a fashion photographer, this should not be looked at upon as a film on the industry. It really takes a look at the individual mind which is Thomas in this situation. This is one that you must stick with but has a very good conclusion to piece everything together and might require multiple viewings. This is Antonioni's first British film and first movie in the English language. It is reported to be the first British film to show full frontal female nudity. The band performing is the Yardbirds which features a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

Zero Day (2003): This movie includes the alternative band Sonic Youth whose song ELIMINATOR JR. is featured. Also, one of the kids was wearing a Pearl Jam shirt which was quite interesting as their song JEREMY was about a school shooting. This is Travis' Co-Op film series selection that he shows on a weekly basis at Ball State University at the Bracken library and makes selections for film that many do not look into on their own and I was blown away by this selection. Ben Coccio directed and co-wrote this film with his brother Christopher Coccio. This takes a look at two high school students who are planning a school shooting. The movie has the students filming themselves planning what they are doing with the intention of the footage being found after the job is done. The camera that was used appears to just be a home camera making the feel of the movie quite authentic so the shaky cam method really works for this film. It is a very independent film that had a very low budget and one I feel deserves more attention. It was very interesting with these kids doing their planning and acknowledging what they believe were mistakes others used in school shootings. It was also interesting in where they acknowledged that it was not their parents fault and even talked about the blaming of media which they felt was very stupid. They also go onto talk about how they were made fun of at school. This movie could raise a lot of awareness in schools and I really would not see a problem in showing this movie at a high school class so that a discussion can be had within the class about the things that happen at school. Many can in some ways relate to this film. I know in school I got made fun of a lot and even remember someone joking that I was going to do a school shooting which was obviously said because I got put through a lot in school. In school, it is hard to think about how there is life after high school but I just thought of life day by day and always tried to fit in. I admit one of the things I did to try to fit in was make fun other others myself thinking that would bring me into the "cool" crowd. It is interesting to think of this now and I hold no grudges against those that I felt mistreated me at school as long as now we can be adults. To the ones I made fun of I apologize and realize now how wrong that was that I was trying to fit in. This movie was actually shot in 1999 shortly after the Columbine shootings and did not finish until 2001. However, the filmmakers delayed the release on account of the 9/11 attacks and even did some re-editing putting out the finished product in 2003. Though this is not for everyone, it does not glorify school shootings and something that groups should watch and discuss because these are very serious issues as we probably have not witnessed our last school shooting.

21 Hours at Munich (1976): This is my tv movie for the week which is a dramatization of the horrible situation in the 1972 Olympics where Arab terrorists took hostage and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. William Holden stars as the head investigator who is trying to end it without the hostages getting hurt. There is nothing upbeat about this film but the incident was a very horrible one where this is kind of shot like a documentary which works for some and not for others. If looking for things like character development, this will not be for you. It is a pretty good retelling in my opinion. This is available on Instant Netflix. Many years later in 2005, Steven Spielberg would direct the movie MUNICH which is really more the aftermath of what happened in this film.

If I Leap (2009): This is one of those very rare weeks where I have two short films on one edition as the last one was a lot older and as you see this is much newer. I found this on HBO On-Demand. This takes place in a convent where one nun takes a liking to a man and must evaluate her life decisions. The performances were pretty good and worth about 20 minutes.

The Wages of Fear (1953): This is my second French film for the week and this one was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and stars Yves Montand. This is a pretty suspenseful film where a South American jungle needs supplies of nitroglycerine and four men are hired for this dangerous job and try to work as a team but form a dangerous rivalry in these efforts that are life-threatening. Montand and the other actors were very good in their performances but saying anything else will give this away. This is available on Instant Netflix.

Rugrats: Tales from the Crib: Three Jacks and a Beanstalk (2003): I end this week with this feature length episode of RUGRATS which was part of this Tales from the Crib series and I believe this is the last episode. Believe it or not, this is part five of a Mo'Nique series which probably ends this week and she voices the motherly cow in this. The very resourceful child Tommy Pickles, Phil, and Chucky are all three Jacks among the girls being there for the ride and the mean cousin Anjelica is the giant who the Rugrats must defeat. I remember watching this as a kid and was a great cartoon. Even my mom always really liked this show so it was good to revisit this series. There are a few obvious moments of cartoon violence but there is also a good message about friendship and working together. This even has a few musical numbers.

Well, that is it for this week. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes more Kevin Bacon, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Connelly, Sandra Bullock, F.W. Murnau, the late Jane Russell, and many others. I guess I don't have much that feature rock music but stay tuned for next week which features music from John Lennon and Sting.