'Sophie's Choice' (Alan J. Pakula, 1982)

Title: 'Sophie's Choice'

Release Year: 1982

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol.

Plot: The aspiring writer Stingo arrives at a family guesthouse to write his first novel but he's disturbed by the presence of a young couple conformed by Nathan Landau, a troubled unstable man and Sophie Zawistowski, a polish woman who can't scape her past.

Review: After she was overacted in 'The Hours' (one of my favourite movies) and somehow spoiled its quiet pace, I've had never trusted Streep's skills anymore. After 'The Iron Lady' I regained some of the trust but it's with 'Sophie's Choice' that I have seen what Meryl Sreep is capable of.

Mostly led by her, Pakula's film focuses on the three friends. One is the observer who falls in love with Sophie. The other is Sohpie's mentally ill boyfriend, who lies about his job and his faculties everyday. The final one is a complex, tortured woman who lives terrifyed for the decision that she had to make years before.

Meryl Streep gives a mesmerizing performance as Sophie Zawistowski

Streep's performance is out of this world; from the concentration camp when she's skinny and bald, to the days she suffers from high fevers and anemia and the present day. Imitating the accent of a real Polish to perfection, Streep transforms Sophie into a vehicle to show everything she has to give. And the level she achieves is so remarkable that it leads the movie by herself.

Tortured by her past, Streep's character can't forget the decision she had to make in order to save one of the children; condemning the other

Together with the complicated trio that she has with her psychotic boyfriend and the sweet yet nervous Stingo, she tries to live a normal life, but she can't forget the day that, in the camp, she had to decide (to choose) which of his children was going to live and which one was going to be cremated (the first day they arrive). The fact that then the other is also killed while staying in the camp may take away some importance to this decision for the spectator, but as a mother she had to be responsible for ending with the life of one of her kids. How she escapes is left unsaid (she had a deal to save his son that fails but nothing is said of a deal for her), maybe because her soul is still kept in there, never forgetting the final screams of her daughter.

Sophie's choice. Meryl Streep shot the scene only once and didn't want to do it again. Already a mother at that time, she later said that the scene had been exhausting and psychologically demanding to make

'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (Steven Spielberg, 1982)

Title: 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'

Release Year: 1982

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton.

Plot: After being abandoned in Planet Earth, a little outer space creature, 10-year-old Elliott finds him and together with his brothers tries to find a way to find it a way to return before police and scientists can find them.

Review: Another Spielberg movie, this time it's an unquestionable success. There's nothing about the endearing extra-terrestrial story that I would like to change. Add to this that the film is a remarkable technological achievement and that it is based on the imaginary friend that Spielberg created after his parents' divorce and it's difficult not to praise him

The friendly E.T. quickly establishes a beautiful relationship with the children of the family, especially connecting with Elliott, who considers him a friend instead of just a weird creature and wants to protect him from the greedy hands of scientists or press. As many times, only children understand the real meaning of a friendship, far beyond the economic and scientific interests that the particular situation may involve.

The iconic image of Elliott and E.T. flying with a bycicle

But drama reaches the story when the extra-terrestrial gets sick, and nearly dies. It's quite tough to see Elliott shouting at the doctors and claiming that they are killing E.T. So when it eventually recovers and they escape to the forest, you wish nothing but their mission will triumph.

In the end, E.T. says goodbye to his human friends, while in tears the children let their curious companion go. At this point I was already crying; the story is so beautifully made... It's evident that Spielberg made it carefully as it was also part of his childhood, a world that adults don't understand, as they don't understand the friendship between an outer-space creature and a 10-year-old human being (usually understood as a tale of tolerance and mutual understanding in which even the most different creatures can help each other).

"E.T. Phone Home" The remembered sentence met with the extra-terrestial's farewell for an emotional and moving ending

'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (Steven Spielberg, 1981)

Title: 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Release Year: 1981

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronal Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott.

Plot: Archeologist Indiana Jones is entrusted with a dangerous mission: finding the Lost Ark that contains the fragments of the Ten Commandments before the Nazis do it, as it's thought that they grant an enormous power those who possesses them.

Review: As it was the first installment of a very successful franschise and had Spielberg directing it, I was waiting for an entertaining action movie with a complex, well-structured story. No, no and no.

'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (which I chose over 'Blade Runner' in what it was a clear bad decision) is a weak blockbuster that lacks the strength of other franchises. It's usually not as funny as it should and contains many plot forgetable topics. First of all, it is a film really based on the idea that Nazis would risk their lives to find the Ten Commandments believing that they would achieve an incredible power? Really? It has little credibility. Moreover, although Ford's Indiana is well acted and has enough human weaknesses (like his fear of snakes) to connect with the audience, his love story with Marion is quite predictable, not offering much new challenges (which doesn't exactly mean that I dislike it).

A Harrison Ford at the top of his career was chosen to star as Indianda Jones in Spielberg's film. It was critically and economically successful, although for me it has been a major disappointment

This way, the first Indiana Jones' film unfolds as a quite dull and unrealistic adventure with a limited success as it sometimes even fails to entertain younger audiences.

'Raging Bull' (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

Title: 'Raging Bull'

Release Year: 1980

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci.

Plot: The film tells the rise and fall of Jake la Motta, a successful boxer whose insecurities endanger both his personal and professional life.

Review: Martin Scorsese is one of my favourite directors and usually I adore his movies. 'Raging Bull' has been the underwhelming exception to the general rule.

That doesn't mean it was a bad movie. Generally it is listed as one of the best films of all time and Robert De Niro's performance is nothing but spectacular.

The problems is that the typical atmosphere of violence in which Scorsese usually floods his characters (that almost always delivers wonderful  and raw results) seems strangely out of place. I can understand that la Motta was a very complex person; he was strong and powerful in the ring, but once he was outside, his insecurities made him a weak man. But somehow, you always expect some kind of redemption, an evolution that justifies the whole run that the character has made. On the contrary, as time goes by, De Niro's character only becomes worse, maybe influenced by the also questionable conduct of his brother.

Jake la Motta: a story of violence and insecurities sunk by its own weight

All this contributes to a certain detachment of the audience with the film and ultimately leads to an incomplete cinematographic experience. In the end, when an overweight la Motta recites one of Marlon Brando's most memorable speeches in 'On the Waterfront', you feel that they've left something behind, that something is missing; la Motta starts as a fragile-minded persona and this characteristic drives his entire life until his disppointing ending, with no evolution in the meantime. When he finally decides to take the stage one more time, you ask yourself if the journey had any sense to begin with, other than showing the extreme transformation De Niro had to go through to embody his troubled character.

'The Shining' (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Title: 'The Shining' 

Release Year: 1980

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers.

Plot: Jack Torrance moves in the Overlook hotel with his family to take care of it while it remains closed in the winter season. But although his initial intention is finding peace to write his novel, as different paranormal events occur, he starts to lose his mind and eventually tries to kill his wife and son.

Review: 'The Shining' didn't have easy beginnings. When it was released in 1980, it wasn't met with critical acclaim and Stanley Kubrick received a Razzie nomination for Worst Director. Through the years it gained a cult following as the film was reassessed as a horror classic.

I truly can understand why it didn't meet expectations when it was released; it was long, complex and some of the supernatural events did not have an explanation and people didn't understand the film well. I did also struggle with the difficult plot twists and time impossibilities and ended asking myself: does the story even have sense? And it's at that moment when I think that the film suceeds; while making the audience suffer to understand the hows and the why the film catches it, in the same way that the Overlook hotel trapped a Jack Torrance that 'had always lived there'.

  
Hello, Danny. Come play with us. Come play with us, Danny; Forever, and ever... and ever. The unforgettable scene featuring 'The Shining twins'

Anyway, even if they had problems with the plot, I don't understand why they couldn't praise Jack Nicholson's performance. It's the best work that I've seen of him and obviously deserved more than a Saturn Award nomination. His wonderfully acted and marvelously portrayed Jack Torrance leads a film that creates a universe where you can lose yourself, in the same way as Jack lost himself in the haunted hotel maze... and never escaped. Was he there from the very beginning? Why was there a photo of him at the principal hallway dated 1921? Are he and Grady the same person? Is the dead woman in the bathroom Grady's dead wife? And the twins... are they his daughters? Why does the elevator open to reveal a blood cascade? Why is Danny able to perceive the hotel's 'Shining' and why does he start whispering 'REDRUM' (Murder written backwards)? Those are enigmas yet to be solved.

'Here's... Johnny!', the line that is now a part of film history