My Left Foot

Directed by: Jim Sheridan

Written by: Shane Connaughton, Jim Sheridan (screenplay); Christy Brown (book)








"My Left Foot" tells the story of Christy Brown, a young man from Ireland born with cerebral paulsy. His left foot, from which the title is derived, is the only part of his body which he can control. He is smart and creative, but is often written off because he is trapped within his body's limitations.

Daniel Day-Lewis once again brings his "A game" and brings Christy to life for the film. It's well worth watching the film for his performance.

Beyond him, though, it's a really compelling and interesting story.

Field of Dreams

Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson

Written by: W.P. Kinsella (book); Phil Alden Robinson (screenplay)










"Field of Dreams" is a film about baseball and yet not about baseball. It is, instead, about the things that tie one generation of Americans to the previous and the next. Baseball is merely the medium the film uses to discuss this theme.

Kevin Costner shines in this film (which, I hate to say, he rarely does). He brings the confusion and anguish of Ray Kinsella to life. His supporting cast does a great job, too. James Earl Jones as Terrence Mann steals every scene he is in and plays well off Costner. (And, as a brief side note, the Mann character was modeled after J.D. Salinger, but he threatened to sue, and so the character was altered enough to avoid litigation.) Burt Lancaster plays one of the most memorable characters and manages to navigate the emotional climax of the film.

Baseball serves as the backdrop to the story, but runs like a red seam through the entire film. I wouldn't categorize this as a sports film, though. It's a story, more, about family. It's about the search for history and the resolution of dreams left unfulfilled.

This is, by far, one of my favorite movies, and the end nearly brings me to tears every time I see it.

Batman

Directed by: Tim Burton

Written by: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren

Long before he became a Johnny-Depp obsessed caricature of himself, Tim Burton established a modernized vision of Batman which broke from the classic but cartoonish Batman of the Adam West era.

In the beginning of the film, Batman (Keaton) is a mysterious vigilante who is feared despite the fact that most people think he is merely an urban legend. The caped crusader's rise to fame coincides with the Joker's (Nicholson) rise to power in Gotham City's criminal element. The two tussle it out for a while, and the good guy wins. (There's also a sub-plot in there about Bruce Wayne falling in love with Vicky Vale [Basinger], a photo-journalist on Batman's trail, which eventually overlaps with the main plot.)

It's hard, in the shadow of Heath Ledger's later acclaimed performance, to put some perspective on Jack Nicholson's take on the Joker. But Nicholson's performance in this film was totally earth-shaking. He managed to tie his work to the Jokers of the Adam West era (especially with his terrifying cackle) while also forging new ground with the character's deadly charisma. It's unfortunate that he never had an opportunity to reprise the role and develop his Joker any further.

Beyond Jack Nicholson, the entire cast should be credited for filling out their roles well, regardless of the number of lines and scenes they had. Jack Palance dazzles, as always. Michael Gough establishes the gold standard for Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler (sorry Michael Caine). It's too bad that Billy Dee Williams didn't get enough of a chance to flesh out his part as up-and-coming DA Harvey Dent, but his handful of scenes revealed a lot of potential that never was harnessed.

To be honest, the special effects and sets did not hold up since the film's original release. (This problem was magnified because I saw it on the big screen as part of a local theater's classic film series.) There's a low-budget sense to the movie, despite the fact that it was a big-budget movie at the time. For example, the different settings are relatively blank and ill-defined. There is no sense of scope or scale for Gotham City - locales seemed to be created as mere background spaces for the characters to interact, with nothing to differentiate one street corner from another. Considering that Gotham is supposed to be an extremely large city, most of the scenes are noticeably devoid of people, or any feeling of hustle-and-bustle.

Earlier, I mentioned Tim Burton's deterioration as a filmmaker. "Batman" stands as a testament to the potential he had as a director. It's a dark and weird film (and the series got darker and weirder with his sequel, "Batman Returns"), and stands out as a classic of the superhero genre. He took the Batman concept and gave it his own flavor, re-envisioning the archetype and leaving this film as a touchstone by which other superhero films were measured for a long time. I hope Tim Burton can eventually come back to the creative muse that inspired him to make "Batman," rather than resting on his laurels and his name and pumping out lame unimaginative rehashes of previously brilliant films which are mostly popular because they have the name Johnny Depp attached to them, as he has of late.