A GOOD YEAR: Ridley Scott Lightens Up

RETRO REVIEW

Today is Ridley Scott's 74th birthday. In his 34-year-long film career, he has been elevated to the status of living legend. And why not? He's the man behind such classics as Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. But I think that there's one of his films that is underrated among most. Why? It is Ridley Scott's *only* out-and-out comedy, A Good Year.


Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott have had a long and industrious relationship as actor/director. Starting with Gladiator, Crowe became an international superstar with his famous line, "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife – and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next". After A Good Year, Crowe and Scott made three films together in a row: American Gangster, Body of Lies and Robin Hood (with only American Gangster being the clear box office success). In fact, Scott's next film, the eagerly-awaited Prometheus (his first in 3D), will be his first film without Crowe in 5 years. Crowe has also worked alongside notable director Ron Howard in A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man. Crowe's newest film, Man of Steel, features him taking up the mantel of Superman's father Jor-El (previously played by Marlon Brando). But going back to A Good Year...


Young Max Skinner (Freddie Highmore) grew up during the summers living with his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney) and his vineyard in Southern France. Henry teaches the boy how to treasure the finer things in life, especially fine wine. As he gets older Max (Russell Crowe) has forgotten the lessons his uncle taught him and has become a greedy stock trader, mistreats his staff and Gemma (Archie Panjabi), his personal assistant. One night, Max comes home to find that Henry has passed away and left him his lavish estate and vineyards. Planning to make a quick turnaround on the property, Max heads down to Provence to take a look around. After falling into the dilapidated swimming pool, Max meets Fanny Chanel (Marion Cotillard), a local woman he falls in love with. The more time he spends at his Uncle Henry's home, the more the past starts catching up with him. As the lessons his Uncle Henry taught him return, Max is shown a life more peaceful than he ever imagined.


In some ways, the film plays out as a European romantic comedy version of A Christmas Carol (but smarter than Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). I applaud Ridley Scott for wanting to play in a genre he hadn't before (as Martin Scorsese just did with Hugo). But the audience just didn't show up. In America, the film only made $7 million - $40 million less than Scott's previous film, Kingdom of Heaven. Even so, I quite enjoy this film for being a turn of pace for Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott.

NOTE: Happy Birthday, Ridley Scott! Thanks for reading - Zack

THE AVIATOR: A Sky Without Limits

RETRO REVIEW

The Aviator, from director Martin Scorsese, is a thrilling and intriguing portrayal of one of the richest men in the world, Howard Hughes. Scorsese masterfully recreates the more positive eras of Hughes' life from the 1920s to the 1940s. Leonardo DiCaprio brings Hughes to life as a true American visionary driven by genius, and later enveloped by madness.


The film presents Hughes as a man of many talents besides being an aviator - film producer, airline owner and bachelor. He balanced multiple relationships with Hollywood starlets like the vivacious Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and the temperamental Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). However, he most dearly loved aviation. Flying gave him complete control of the world around him. He gave the world a new adventure every time he flew around the globe, every time he invented a new plane, broke world speed records and won the hearts of Americans everywhere by doing what was considered impossible - flying the largest plane ever built, the Hercules. When called to testify to Congress after being accused of being a war profiteer, Hughes publicly defended himself and Hughes exposed the corruption of a Senator under bribes from one of Hughes' enemies. Through his life, he also suffered from a disturbing case of undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder; making him hallucinate over minor details like touching doorknobs, clean water and germs. A man with genius like Hughes can be rendered helpless by the inability to touch a doorknob and walk out of a room.

Director Scorsese is at his best in this film, replicating the early 20th century in minute ways including using period music, era-correct costumes, even decolorizing the film so it would match films that were made at around the same time. He took care to make sure that audiences were as swept up by Hughes’ aviation adventures as the world was in 1935 when he broke the speed record for planes in the H-1 Racer. The music by Howard Shore is also an integral part of the film. It is heroic and triumphant when Hughes takes the Hercules into the air and it is dark and moody when Hughes is locked in the screening room. Other films like A Beautiful Mind portray mental illness as something that can be overcome. Hughes was not able to control his mental disorder and eventually succumbed to it.

I believe that The Aviator is a fascinating film because it is a character study. It is not just a story about a man who liked to fly airplanes. It is a story about a man who stopped at nothing and would not let the limitations of his time slow him down. He was an innovator, giving the world modern air travel. One does not have to be a pilot, or an engineer, or a filmmaker, or a millionaire to understand that this film tells to story of a man whose genius was balanced by a dark enigma that eventually consumed him. The film is important to me because of its message of perseverance through times of crisis. The adult Hughes’ first two lines in the film are, “Don’t tell me I can’t do it. Don’t tell me it can’t be done.” Later, when Hughes is told that he can’t get any more cameras for Hell’s Angels, he tells his press agent Johnny Meyer, “What I have isn’t enough, John, not for how I see it.”

Howard Hughes was one of the world’s greatest enigmatic figures. Together, DiCaprio and Scorsese showcase Hughes as a man who loved the sky and was willing to fight for it.

NOTE: This was a review I had written last year in Introduction to Film at the University of Memphis. It got an A. Happy Birthday, Martin Scorsese! Thanks for reading - Zack