As you will have gathered I watch quite a lot of films and am not shy of giving an opinion on them. Most recently I was giving forth on the qualities of John Ford. Today's trio of movies come from very different bands of the filmic spectrum - one Ealing comedy, one rip-roaring swashbuckler, and one seminal Spaghetti Western. Variety is the spice of life.
Ealing comedy. I've reviewed this one before (Christmas 2016 to be precise) but Passport to Pimlico merits revisiting. I watched it with my mater a couple of weeks ago after we had enjoyed a very fine (Tyburn chippy) fish and chip luncheon - out of the paper you understand, OG's mama has standards even if he does not. Mum reckoned she hadn't seen this film since its cinematic run. It proved worth the wait. Funny, acute, and altogether charming with its repertory company of British comedic talent, it may perhaps be the very peak of Ealing's output. I repeat my 2016 rating - 80/100.
Next, a film of even greater vintage, 1938 to be precise. Rarely, if at all, has a swash been so thoroughly buckled as in The Adventures of Robin Hood. The history is, of course, entirely dodgy. No matter. There is no grey area between goodies and baddies. No matter. Sherwood Forest (reimagined on the Hollywood back-lot) is impossibly luminous. The stunts (and remember no CGI) are breathtaking and the whole thing speeds along at all times. Not an edge of cynicism to be found anywhere in this the first Warner Brothers picture to be filmed in Technicolor. If this can't raise a smile then you have no soul. 80/100.
Finally we jump forward to 1964 and Fistful of Dollars. A very different kettle of fish. Cynicism drips from every pore of this movie. Eastwood is brilliantly sombre. Morricone's music is arresting. The violence is so stylised as to be worryingly amusing. This is clever and exploitative film-making. When this timbre falls into the wrong hands it can produce worthless pap. Sergio Leone is, though, a masterful director. Clever stuff. 78/100.
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