The Philadelphia Story

I generally like Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Cary Grant but I found them all grating in this story. Stewart relies a bit too much on his jovial, street smart persona and his mannerisms which might have been appropriate for the stage are excessive on screen. Hepburn lacks empathy and is not relate-able (even for a rich girl); I simply don't understand how all three male leads would fall in love with her. Cary Grant just seem smug. I find it odd that instead of having Hepburn's Samantha Lord chose the rich man over the self made man or the poor(ish) writer; the rich girl choosing the rich boy doesn't show particular depth on either of their parts and my guess is a return to alcoholism and philandering on both their parts within a few months of remarriage.

Apocalypse Now: Redux

This movie had moments of greatness, but none of the tightness of exposition that The Godfather had. The rediting in of the French plantation scene in particular, which glancingly related to the themes of colonization and what constitutes a native/homeland, dragged when juxtaposed between the high action and tension scenes of Lawrence Fishbourne's death and the fight at Do Lung bridge. I'm not sure if I liked Marlon Brando's interpretation of Kurtz, but Martin Sheen was good and Robert Duvall was outstanding.

Midnight Cowboy

Mixed feelings about this one. I do in general tend to like New Hollywood films from that period such as Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown but the collage-like scenes and inter-cutting for the rave and flashbacks felt too disjointed. The Jon Voight character came across as a bit of a caricature to me; I don't know how believable the idea of an army dischargee who dresses like a dude ranch worker coming to New York to be a gigolo is. On the other hand I think Dustin Hoffman did a great job as Rizzo, the wise-cracking, smarmy con-man--in fact it's the thing that convinced me to give this three stars. The MacGuffin of Hoffman's unexplained could have been better thought out (was he supposed to have AIDS?) but the tuberculosis-like illness was better for dramatic physicality than something more believable like cancer.