They Shot the Piano Player (2024)
Spanish director Fernando Truaba is one of those [...]
Archive for April, 1981
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
There are a lot of things that haunt Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, but I don’t think there’s anything that gobs at it more than its running time. After nearly-legendary accounts of problems during production, the film was presented to the New York press in November of 1980 at a running time of 3 hours and […]
Take This Job and Shove It (1981)
I more or less thought I knew the kind of movie that Take This Job and Shove It was promising; a slack jawed, halfwit good old boy comedy with lots of rustic denim mixed with southern accents, pick-up trucks, country music and trips to the local watering hole. The one with the mechanical bull occupying the corner. […]
Lion of the Desert (1981)
Given the difficult history of the Middle East through Western eyes it is difficult to approach a film like Lion of the Desert and not be clouded by the hostage crisis, terrorist threats, the tragedy at Munich or any measure of terrible events. The film wants us to see Libya’s plight under the threat of […]
Caveman (1981)
I laughed about four times during Caveman and given that the movie averages about a joke every minute and a half in a 91-minute running time, that’s a really bad batting average. Going in I learn that the film has been directed by Carl Gottlieb and Rudy de Luca. This is particularly upsetting since Gottlieb’s […]
Nighthawks (1981)
Nighthawks finds itself seated between two very interesting periods of Hollywood commercial filmmaking, between the last lingering days of the down-to-Earth urban thrillers started by The French Connection and the more satisfying yet bloated revenge-on-the-headlines thrillers begun with films like Death Wish. Sadly, the latter wins and we end up with one of those cop […]
City of Women (1981)
If there is one thing that I don’t want from the great Federico Fellini, it is a plate of reheated leftovers. Here is one of the world’s great and original voices, a visual storyteller of such personal vision that watching him retrace his steps is not only disappointing, it’s abominable. In City of Women Fellini […]
This is Elvis (1981)
If the death of Elvis Presley proved anything it might be that the cottage industry that came up around him did not die with him. Since his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1977, Elvis’ name has only become more profitable as interest in his life and death have gained more legend in […]
Hardly Working (1981)
Mother of Mercy! What happened to the great Jerry Lewis? What happened to that delightful whimsical nut from 25 years ago, the goofy guy who sat in an empty board room in The Errand Boy pantomiming a business executive smoking a stogey and issue orders while his shouts were provided only by Count Basie’s band. […]
