Snapshots From a Dream

What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away from us ....

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Great Moments From Cinema - 29


As Time Goes By

Movie: Casablanca (Warner Bros.; 1942)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Murray Burnett and Joan Alison (play) & Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch
Major Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains

Film Synopsis: During WWII, ‘Rick Blaine’ (Bogart) runs a café in occupied Casablanca. One day his old love, Bergman, walks in with her husband (Henreid) who also happens to be the résistance leader and a wanted man. Now ‘Rick’ faces a dilemma.

My Favorite Moment: Bogart to Bergman, “Here's looking at you kid”

Why I Like It: This movie has perhaps got the most quotable lines in cinema. In fact 6 of the dialogues made it to AFI’s list of 100 greatest film quotes . Plus in Humphrey Bogart, it has the perfect man to deliver these lines. No wonder then, that when people think of this movie, it is Bogart and Bergman rather than the story which comes to everybody’s mind. The movie is by no means perfect, but it is nevertheless a part of cinematic history. Yes, there are plenty of other good movies involving star-crossed lovers but most of them have stories where the heart rules over the head. What makes ‘Casablanca’ a classic is the opposite. Each character in this film is extremely practical. Everyone does exactly what their head says. With any other actor that would have been difficult but with Bogart, it seems natural.

Bergman and Bogart had a brief affair in Paris before the war but she never told him of her marriage to Henreid. On the day everyone is fleeing France, she leaves Bogart waiting at the station since she feels that her husband, who is a freedom fighter, needs her support at that time. Bogart has never forgiven her and thus is hurt and angered to see her walk into his café and which leads to the classic line, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” When he understands why she left him, he forgets his animosity and even she admits that her feelings for him have not diminished. She is ready to leave her husband but Bogart knows that her husband needs her the most and more importantly, France needs her husband to be strong. Nowhere is this emphasized more than the Henreid led rousing singing of La Marseillaise in ‘Rick’s Café when the Germans march in. Bogart is arranging for Henreid to escape and Bergman thinks that she would stay behind. Henreid knows of this and leaves the decision to her. But Bogart has other ideas, which leads to the famous scene at the airstrip where Bogart persuades her to leave with her husband. The speech which he makes is filled with quotes which have been immortalized and both of them know that what he is saying is the right thing to do. Thus when he says the following, we can’t help but agree, “I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.” As Bergman looks at him with tearful eyes, Bogart lifts her chin up and says the quote mentioned as my favorite moment. ‘Best picture’ of 1943, over the years, this movie is still remembered for this and other scenes where Bogart shows us why he is the greatest actor of all time . So everytime we hear Bergman say to the piano player, “Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake”, we along with her, remember the time gone by.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Great Moments From Cinema - 28


For Liberty And Freedom

Movie: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (Columbia Pictures; 1939)
Director: Frank Capra
Screenplay: Lewis R. Foster and Sidney Buchman
Major Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur Claude Rains and Edward Arnold

Film Synopsis: Stewart is ‘Jefferson Smith’, an idealistic patriot who is appointed on the senate by the corrupt Rains and Arnold. They think that he can be used as a puppet in their dirty politics. When Stewart refuses to cooperate, they try to tarnish his reputation.

My Favorite Moment: Stewart delivering the filibuster in the senate

Why I Like It: If only all the politicians were like ‘Jefferson Smith’, the world would be a paradise. He is a man in immense love with his country and on his first visit to Washington, is like a small kid in a candy store. The monuments of the city are sacred places for him and he genuinely believes that he can make a difference in the system. Arthur is his secretary ‘Saunders’, who at first is amused by his naivety but falls in love with him after seeing his passion. When Stewart refuses to bend in order to favor the corrupt senator Rains, whom he had idolized since childhood, Rains and the media magnet Arnold, run a false smear campaign to ruin Stewart.

Stewart has only one chance to clear his name, only one way to get everyone to listen, and that is by delivering a marathon filibuster where he refuses to yield the senate floor. Initially the members ridicule him and no one stays to listen to his rants. But as the hours go by and Stewart keeps fighting for his rights, the senate fills up to see this man, on the verge on collapse, argue passionately to prove his innocence. Even Arthur can’t bear to watch as Stewart, exhausted and hoarse refuses to give up despite receiving hundreds of false telegrams denouncing him as a cheat. Finally, as he faints, Rains conscience awakens and he admits defeat in front of this brave nationalist.

Stewart and Capra were born to make this movie. Its script can be printed as a textbook and distributed in schools. Filled with great moments and dialogues, there is another classic scene when Stewart describes to Arthur his native town. You can see the love for his home in his eyes, just as you can see Arthur beginning to fall in love with him at that exact moment Men like ‘Jefferson Smith’ need to be enshrined and no matter which country you come from, the way in which Stewart says the following words to Arthur, will bring tears to your eyes and will make you want to get up and applaud: “You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.”

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Great Moments From Cinema - 27


The One Constant Through Time

Movie: Field Of Dreams (Gordon Company-USA; 1989)
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Screenplay: Phil Alden Robinson and W. P. Kinsella (Book)
Major Cast: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster and James Earl Jones

Film Synopsis: Kevin Costner is an Iowa farmer who hears a voice, which directs him to mow down much of his farm and build a baseball diamond. What follows is magic.

My Favorite Moment: James Earl Jones giving a speech about baseball.

Why I Like It: “If you build it, he will come”, says the voice. Well, Costner, who plays ‘Ray Kinsella’, does build it and ‘he’ does come. The movie is not a process concerning finding the identity of the mystery person, but rather about rediscovering something in life that is so pure and simple that people can lose sight of it.

The scene is towards the end where James Earl Jones, who as ‘Mufasa’ and ‘Darth Vader’ is no exception to classic quotes, gives a speech about baseball. It is so genuine and moving that it breaks your heart. Costner and his wife are trying to figure out how to meet the mortgage on their farm when their daughter suggests that they can sell their field as a tourist attraction. This is when Jones says, “Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

Amy Madigan plays Costner’s wife who supports her husband’s crazy notion because she believes in him as a person. Burt Lancaster and Ray Liotta have unforgettable performances and they inhabit their characters with sincerity, which the role deserves. Baseball is known to perhaps 10% of world’s population, but one doesn’t have to like the sport or even have heard of it to realize its importance as an American dream. In this speech, baseball is just a name for all those intangibles in our life whose value we can never measure. It is about all the things that we hold dear but take for granted. It is a cry out for us to regain our ability to feel and see the good in this world. Nominated for best picture of 1989, this is one of the most emotionally satisfying film experiences, which one can ever have. We all have the ability to build it and if we do, then he most certainly will come.