jlboland Reviews

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958–1960)

An all-time favorite of mine!

[10/10 · 4 August 2007]

I happened to see this when it first appeared on TV, and I was never able to forget it. The scene when Bendix falls asleep again, and finally dies in 1941, and the scene fades fades to a highly disturbed psychiatrist sitting next to an empty couch still gives me goosebumps, even as I write this.

What an incredible work.

The Patriot (2000)

Maudlin to the extreme!

[3 July 2000]

The Patriot is a mere shadow of "Braveheart", to me one of the best Mel G. films. Even in as serious a film as Braveheart, Mel simply could not leave the film totally serious, but had to insert, happily only a few, "Mel Gibsonisms" -- funny little asides that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. Patriot was FULL of Gibsonisms, totally maudlin, and replete with many Hollywood cliches such as the evil English colonel leaping up from the dead (on his face, by the way) to kill Gibson's oldest son. Give me a break!! The only cliche missing was the slowly turning background fan casting shadows into a smoke filled room. The probable reason that didn't make it in the film was that it was slightly anachronistic.

"Patriot" was sort of historically correct, warm, fuzzy, sad, showed the historical harshness of the Brits (see N. Ireland), and a nice intro to the 4th of July season. Great? Far from it.

Listen to Me (1989)

Controversial!

[22 January 2000]

Though it has been years since I saw "Listen", I remember it not for the quality of the acting, which I thought was fine, but for delivering the most eloquent argument against abortion I had ever seen, even to this day. Any movie that gets the range of comments that have been posted, from rave to rage, is certainly has to be called controversial. So the debate scenes did not match up to the life experiences of some, it is a STORY. Its message is very, very strong, and delivered quite effectively. Isn't that what movies, books, plays, photography, et al are about? I just saw "Cider House Rules", the flip side of the abortion discussion from "Listen". Try watching "Listen" and "Cider House" back to back for what should be quite an emotional and intellectual experience. I rate both films at least 9 out of 10.

PS: I am 64, male, anti-abortion, and pro-choice.