Great Moments From Cinema - 36

Gonna Fly Now

Movie: Rocky (UA-USA; 1976)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone
Major Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith and Carl Weathers

Film Synopsis: Stallone plays a “has-been” boxer who gets a second chance at glory when he is picked by the champ as a novelty world championship opponent.

My Favorite Moment: Stallone preparing for the fight with a run through the streets of Philadelphia at dawn.

Why I Like It: This is one of the most uplifting and feel-good movies of all time. It has been called one of the best sports films but it is really much more than that. The movie is not about a man’s passion towards boxing and a burning desire to be the best, but rather a look at someone who fights so as to earn a living. Even when he gets his shot at the title, all ‘Rocky’ wants to do is “go the distance”.

This scene is a clichéd one which has been seen in hundreds of other sports films. A person getting up at dawn and then training to the point of exhaustion is something, which never fails to inspire the audience. But very seldom do we actually get involved, for in most cases, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. However this time we are not cheering for ‘Rocky’ the sportsman, but ‘Rocky’ the person whom we have grown to care about. ‘Rocky’ starts his pre-dawn run through his modest neighborhood, and then builds up speed as he passes through the docks and finally culminates into a triumphant wave as he sprints up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum. All of this happens to the background tune of “Gonna fly now”. As he gets pumped and jumps up and down, we share his joy. He is happy because he finally has a definite goal in life, a chance to change his routine life. The fact that it is a world championship fight is beside the point. He is really just a guy who wants to spend his time with an ordinary girl, whom he loves. He always has had a big heart. All that was needed was a nudge to get him going. The sight of ‘Rocky’ with his arms raised on top of the steps is not just an iconic moment in cinema, but one of the iconic moments in the history of Philadelphia.

Stallone gives an incredible performance and all those who have grown up watching some of his mediocre films should revisit this one to see what a great actor he might have been. Talia Shire excellently underplays her role of the extremely shy girlfriend. This movie doesn’t tell a story of a person realizing his dream, just a person who wants to be recognized. It won the Academy award for the best film and although Stallone followed this with 4 forgettable sequels, the original remains one of the best human films of our time.

Great Moments From Cinema - 35

Mirage In The Sun
Movie: Lawrence Of Arabia (Horizon Pictures II; 1962)
Director: David Lean
Screenplay: T.E. Lawrence (writings) and Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson
Major Cast: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif

Film Synopsis: An epic biography of T. E. Lawrence who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during WWI

My Favorite Moment: The scorching desert and a tiny figure appearing in the distance

Why I Like It: For anybody who has ever loved cinema, it would almost classify as a crime to watch this movie on a small screen. One feels that even a 10 storey high projection cannot contain the films magnificence. Only when you immerse yourself into the vast expanse of the desert will you appreciate what it means to experience this masterpiece.

‘Lawrence’, played by O’Toole, was a rebellious soldier and who might even have been considered crazy by his peers. He gets sent to Arabia on an innocuous mission, to contact a prince played by Guinness. Once there, he decides to champion the cause of the various tribes who are at war with the Turks, but are being torn apart due to their personal feuds. ‘Lawrence’ unites them and becomes their leader on several missions, some of them almost suicidal. One such mission is crossing an unforgiving desert which, nobody else has ever managed. After several grueling days, all the men are exhausted and desperately hoping to reach a nearby oasis, when ‘Lawrence’ notices that one of the parties is missing. He ignores warning from his comrades and goes back to look for him. His young servant goes back part of the way and waits for his master to return. The scene following this is something which makes movies larger than life itself. The entire screen is engulfed with heat haze from the desert. As the young boy waits for ‘Lawrence’, you can see him being affected by the harsh sun. As he strains his eyes for a sign, Lean points the camera at the horizon and holds it there for several seconds. And then we see him. A small white speck appears in the distance and which slowly takes the form of ‘Lawrence’ riding on the camel, with the rescued person. The boy screams in delight and gallops towards the oncoming hero and as they race towards each other, the music reaches a crescendo. This is virtuoso film-making and a celebration of an inspired directorial vision. This rescue act by ‘Lawrence’ earns him the elusive respect of ‘Ali’: an Arabian warrior, a role made legendary by Omar Sharif, whose entrance in the movie is also an appearance through the desert mirage. In fact, the film which runs almost four hours is full of many such breath-taking images.

Later on, as he becomes like a messiah to the desert people, ‘Lawrence’ transforms into a blood-thirsty warrior who during one of the raids, leads his people with a battle-cry of, “No prisoners! No prisoners!” By the end he has become nothing but a political pawn as British and the Arabian royalty share the spoils. But even though the movie is his biography, it is more than about him or the Arabs. It is about finding beauty in a ruthless environment. If any film deserved its Academy award for grandeur, then this was the one. It can be summed up in two words with which ‘Lawrence’ answers the question about what attracted him towards the desert. He simply says, “It's clean.”

Great Moments From Cinema - 34

Sour Grapes
Movie: The Grapes Of Wrath (20th Century Fox; 1940)
Director: John Ford
Screenplay: John Steinbeck (novel) and Nunnally Johnson
Major Cast: Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell

Film Synopsis: Henry Fonda as ‘Tom Joad’ returns home from serving a manslaughter sentence, to find that his farm in Oklahoma has been foreclosed. The place is nothing more than a dust-bowl and his family is ready to move to California wine country in search of a better life. On reaching there, the ‘Joads’ find that poverty and unemployment are still facts from which they can’t escape.

My Favorite Moment: Fonda saying farewell to his ‘Ma’

Why I Like It: This may well be one of the greatest films ever made. Based on a Pullitzer prize winning book, the movie is a horrifying look at the great depression and the best social commentary on poverty in the 30’s. During the course of the film you can actually feel the people’s courage being crushed each day. The ‘Joads’ are a big family and they have packed all their belongings in a truck which just about makes it to California. On the way, they lose the grandparents and have to bury them by the roadside. In California, jobs are scarce and people like the ‘Joads’ are exploited for minimum wages. But for the sake of survival, they have to bear it and live each day in the hope of a better tomorrow, which sadly never comes.

In this scene, Fonda has accidentally killed a man, again, in self-defense and has to leave his family. He tries to sneak out in the night when his mother stops him. She can understand his decision and though it tears her apart, she has to agree to let him go. Fonda who has been completely disillusioned then says the following words which have become a part of cultural folklore: “I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be there in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be there in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they built - I'll be there, too.” Fonda says this not in anger but in sorrow and the look in his eyes is of a person baring his soul because that is all he has left to give. This is plain and simply acting of the highest order and only his best friend Jimmy Stewart in 'The Philadelphia Story' prevented Fonda from winning the academy award.

Jane Darwell won an academy award for her portrayal of ‘Ma Joad’. She is heartbreakingly brilliant in the role of a person who has to maintain a brave face to keep the family together. She is distraught when she has just about enough food to give her family and has to watch other hungry children look expectantly. She just can’t help them because the reality of life is that each one has to look out for themselves and their own first. They say that human sprit can endure any calamity; however it is hard for these people to believe that. But perhaps not ‘Ma Joad’, who, at the end, with tears of resolution in her eyes, says to her husband: “Rich folk come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a coming, Pa, cus' we're the people that live.”