Sometimes a Great Notion
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VHS Movie Reviews of Sometimes a Great Notion
Movie Review: Criterion, What Are You Waiting For?
Summary: 5 Stars
This epic, powerfully acted, and visually breathtaking movie beg for the Criterion DVD treatment. What can they be waiting for? The characters in this film, bigger than life, seem to be acted by the only actors who could possibly do justice to the roles. The cinematography is lush and beautifully composed on location in the Pacific Northwest, and the dialogue keeps the film moving effortlessly, as though one were a member of the family of loggers portrayed in the film. Sign me up to purchase the DVD as soon as it is released, hopefully by Criterion. Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Saw this movie 20 years ago. I can still remember it.Movie Review: Raw, Real Powerful
Summary: 4 Stars
I've read the reviews written by people who have no real experience in logging, and apparently in real life! No, it doesn't follow the book that closely, but what movie does? I have worked in and around logging and outdoor people most of my adult life. I have also worked with more liberal "soccer family" types, both for the government and within private forest industry. I've worked in southeast Alaska and in the humid southeastern U.S. This is a real movie representing real people and the real ideas of those people. Paul Newman has a gift for finding parts that fit him and represent the actions of real people. I've known many just like him, some born into the logging or construction industry, and some that found themselves there, even one philosophy graduate that found "real" life much more inviting than an artificial liberalism pushed upon him at the university. This is a movie about life, the good and the bad, and about the real people that live it.Movie Review: Sometimes a Cinematic Notion
Summary: 4 Stars
OK, in fairness; I came to this film on the strength of my long, enduring affection for the work of Ken Kesey. Sometimes a Great Notion, the novel, is as dense and intense a read as one can find out there by any (and I mean ANY -- Faulkner, Hemingway, the works) American author. I've read this superb novel many times, and savored every word with every reading....then I saw the film.
Again, in fairness; I had doubts that ANY film under 2 hours would begin to do justice to the novel. I was right. I had suspicions that perhaps Paul Newman and Henry Fonda weren't quite, well, BIG AND TOUGH ENOUGH to do due justice to the Henry and Hank Stamper father/son team. I was almost right -- physically, they weren't the looming figures that roared across Kesey's pages. But Newman and Fonda ain't bad either, not by a long shot. Their abilities almost obscure the fact that they don't fully seem like lifelong lumberjacks from the wild coast of Oregon in the middle 20th century. They seem like superb Hollywood actors who are acting like lumberjacks. But that's OK, too. Fonda and Newman break even in my book, in terms of how they portray the fictional characters. I can't fault actors for scenes that aren't there, and my biggest problem with the film was a lack of depth -- the novel has several parallel, ongoing story lines that all weave together with magic and drama. By nature, cinema is a more linear story-telling device in that regard. Kesey's magnificent command of language, and voice, and perspective, and verb tenses helps to define this sprawling masterpiece -- that's a tough sell on the big (or little) screen.
I wish the cutting room had eaten a little less footage. The romance between Lee and Viv is, essentially, missing in action. And with it, the dramatic narrative that powers much of the core of the novel.
On the positive side, Richard Jaekel was excellent as Joby -- to the extent that he was on-screen. I found myself looking for his Christian aphorisms and life's-only-gettin'-better outlook, and finding less than I'd hoped for. Sure, he seems jolly enough half the time -- but I found myself wondering if that was because I KNEW he was supposed to be happy and full of Biblical jibberish. Again, the novel vs. the cinema -- and again, cinema fails where 600+ pages of copy succeed. The drowning scene, in fairness, is unforgettable. Of course, it was that way in Kesey's novel, too.
I'm glad to know Ken worked with Paul, as the film evolved. That Ken found the final product more successful than One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest-The Movie is a mixed blessing. I agreed with Ken about Cuckoo's Nest and Jack Nicholson (although I love Jack's work, too). I wish Ken were alive today, and perhaps he could shed some light on what he felt worked best in this film.
The Union sub-plot was touched on, but not fully explored. Same with the 'suicide'/death of Willard the theater owner (we never even learn he has a laundromat or a wife or any of the rich details that make him unforgettable in the book). Same with the love triangle. Same with the Stamper family history. The film was good, unquestionably, but not nearly as profound nor as deep as the novel.
With that said; go out and read the novel, and THEN sit down and watch the film. My vote goes for a RESTORED DVD RELEASE with whatever worthy footage was sacrificed for the Faux God of Running Time! This is an admittedly complex and far-reaching tale, and one that's hard put to do justice to itself in 112 minutes, give or take.
As is often the case, a great movie doesn't do justice to a great novel. In this case, it was almost impossible to succeed along those lines (Hey, does anybody PREFER the cinematic Moby Dick to the Melville novel? Case closed!).
On balance, Paul Newman and Henry Fonda and Lee Remick and Richard Jaekel in a Ken Kesey story...!? Does it GET better than that? Only Ken Kesey could have authored a novel that surpassed this film, talent and all. And he did! Check them both out -- book and film.
You'll be glad you did.
Movie Review: Trapped
Summary: 2 Stars
I only want to tell you of one scene in this film. Richard Jaeckel, playing Newman's brother, get's trapped under a log under water and Newman has to keep breathing air into him. An unforgetable scene. If you don't mind seeing a film, just for the pleasure of one unbreakable moment, then see this one. A 5 star, and very powerful, Newman-style scene. I do respect those that like this movie, because Paul Newman is always great in whatever he does.