Gripping account of the last night of the Titanic's maiden voyage, reconstructed from official reports, news articles, and interviews with survivors. Lord's blow-by-blow account begins late on the night of April 14, 1912, just moments before the ship struck an iceberg in the freezing waters of the Atlantic, opening a gash in the hull. Lord can't put us on the bridge at the fateful moment (the captain, of course, didn't survive), but by utilizing the words and testimony of survivors, he is able to take us all over the rest of the ship (and, later, into the lifeboats), revealing the degree to which human nature is a strange and varied thing, a spectrum from the laudable to the contemptible -- with a bit of whimsy on the side. This is a short book, barely over a hundred pages, with an enormous "cast" that can make things confusing at times, but Lord does an admirable job of pulling it all together, mixing technical detail with human reaction to create an exciting and intensely dramatic story. All while leaving room for a few pages of social commentary and the intriguing story of J. Bruce Ismay, the Managing Director of the White Star Line, of which the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were the crown jewels, who, we learn, rarely spoke and became something of a recluse following his rescue. If you've never been particularly interested in the story of the Titanic, this book -- which is, in a way, the story of all of us -- might just change your mind. Made into a film in 1958.
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Gripping account of the last night of the Titanic's maiden voyage, reconstructed from official reports, news articles, and interviews with survivors. Lord's blow-by-blow account begins late on the night of April 14, 1912, just moments before the ship struck an iceberg in the freezing waters of the Atlantic, opening a gash in the hull. Lord can't put us on the bridge at the fateful moment (the captain, of course, didn't survive), but by utilizing the words and testimony of survivors, he is able to take us all over the rest of the ship (and, later, into the lifeboats), revealing the degree to which human nature is a strange and varied thing, a spectrum from the laudable to the contemptible -- with a bit of whimsy on the side. This is a short book, barely over a hundred pages, with an enormous "cast" that can make things confusing at times, but Lord does an admirable job of pulling it all together, mixing technical detail with human reaction to create an exciting and intensely dramatic story. All while leaving room for a few pages of social commentary and the intriguing story of J. Bruce Ismay, the Managing Director of the White Star Line, of which the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were the crown jewels, who, we learn, rarely spoke and became something of a recluse following his rescue. If you've never been particularly interested in the story of the Titanic, this book -- which is, in a way, the story of all of us -- might just change your mind. Made into a film in 1958.
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++ Reboot of 1983's The House on Sorority Row begins promisingly, with several sorority sisters involved in the accidental murder of one of their own. Falls off sharply thereafter as writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger sacrifice lucidity (and drama) in order to preserve counter-productive mystery of who is killing the sisters of Theta Pi with a "pimped out" tire iron. Carrie Fisher appears as their shotgun-toting house mother. ++ Thriller and courtroom drama about a whackjob who savagely kills five people and the prosecutor who, theoretically conflicted, argues in favor of the death penalty. Based on the book by William P. Wood and “inspired by” true events — the case of serial killer Richard Chase. Friedkin (who produced, wrote, and directed the film) provides no easy answers, yet fails to provide much in the way of food for thought, either, despite tackling both the death penalty and legal insanity. Alex McArthur handles the “innocence” of insanity quite well (he’s certainly a cheerful maniac) and Michael Biehn is good as the prosecutor; the script, however, never allows either of them to dig very deeply into their characters or the issues surrounding them. Which is just as well, as the ending undercuts their differing psychologies anyway. Originally released in Europe with a different ending; re-cut and modified for US release by Friedkin after studio bankruptcy left the movie stranded on the shelf for five years. Less violent than you might expect: the really horrible stuff occurs off-screen. ++++ Fourteen-year-old girl hires the toughest Federal Marshall she can find to help her track down and bring to justice the man who killed her father in cold blood. Somewhat to her consternation, their party is joined by a handsome Texas Ranger who has been after the killer for months for another murder. Young Mattie Ross is a force to be reckoned with -- self-possessed, strong-willed, and educated (by cowboy standards); she is, however, utterly humorless, and much of the charm of the novel, which is told by Mattie a quarter century after the fact, lies in the way she is perceived by others, and how those perceptions fly right over her head. The style is simple and formalized, giving the humor an understated quality that can creep up on you, but also making the book highly readable (it's a pleasure, for instance, not to have to slog through a lot of broken English and cowboy slang). The marshal is Rooster Cogburn, a fat man with only one good eye, who early on seems to recognize something of himself in Mattie's indomitability. Ultimately, it's all about Mattie, but Portis never wanders far from the plot, which makes this thoroughly enjoyable book exciting as well as funny, and even a little touching. Made into a film the following year starring Kim Darby and John Wayne. First Line People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. ++1/2 Very 70s remake of Jack Finney's novel transplants the action (to no real purpose) from a small California town to San Francisco, where much less appealing heroes -- a couple of would-be adulterers (more or less), a UFO nut, a psycho-babbling psychiatrist, and Jeff Goldblum -- battle alien spores that grow to duplicate and replace human beings. Very well thought of film that, according to Rotten Tomatoes' "Critics Consensus," "expands upon themes and ideas only lightly explored in the original" -- a true statement, provided, of course, that by "themes and ideas" they mean "special effects." Adds nothing of substance either to Finney's book or Don Siegel's original film. Good cast (including Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, and Leonard Nimoy) goes largely to waste. With, however, one hilarious line, sarcastically directed at Veronica Cartwright's ancient astronauts character. And a cameo appearance by Kevin McCarthy as a paranoid pedestrian. ++1/2 Two detectives investigate a series of murders linked to the seven deadly sins. (If you've forgotten the mnemonic, WASPLEG, these are Wrath, Avarice, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, and Gluttony. But, let's face it, it doesn't really matter; it's just a hook.) We are told that the killer remains so long at large because he is especially clever, leaving behind no clues to his identity. This, however, is a very dark film, figuratively but more importantly literally. The clues are probably there, the police just can't find them in the beams of their silly flashlights. On the other hand, only in the darkness could some of the film's bizarre observations on life appear to be profound. "I sympathize completely," Detective William Somerset tells his young partner, David Mills. "Apathy is the solution. I mean, it's easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It's easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It's easier to beat a child than it is to raise it." Is it? Somerset, supposedly cultured, well-read, and wise, comes off as jaded when in fact he is merely myopic. As Mills says, just having a library card doesn't make you Yoda. Fortunately the actors are all quite good. Morgan Freeman as Somerset, Brad Pitt as Mills, and Kevin Spacey as...well, Kevin Spacey. Morgan certainly sounds good spouting all his nonsense. And the film has a few genuinely funny moments sprinkled about, as when Mills tires of the source material for the seven deadly sins -- books like Dante's Inferno -- and gets the Cliff's Notes versions instead. But it's all in the service of a story that gets its weltanschauung wrong. Here, apathy leads to crime. The reality is far worse: it leads to not caring about crime. "[T]he crime scenes are rendered in sickening detail, and the whole film has a murky, madly pretentious tone. Visually, the effect is that of spending a long time looking at a bowl of oatmeal on a rainy day." - Janet Maslin, The New York Times, September 22, 1995 "[I]t is, like Silence Of The Lambs, a genuine original which, if it leaves a brackish taste in the mouth, nevertheless keeps you on the edge of your seat." - Derek Malcolm, Thursday 4 January 1996 +++++ Distinctly Victorian, pleasurably Gothic, and immeasurably influential novel about a centuries-old vampire who travels from Transylvania to England where he is opposed by six confederates. One of those allied against him is an old but constitutionally open-minded Dutch professor named Van Helsing; the vampire, of course, is Count Dracula. One of the finest and most engrossing horror novels of all time, written with a richness and depth that makes the whole thing not only believable but positively inevitable. Stoker scrimps on nothing (including, be warned, a rather roundabout manner of communication between characters that is replete with the sincerest flattery and concern you will ever read); otherwise, the books drips atmosphere when appropriate, it's spooky, it's horrifying, and it is exciting, as well, with plenty of action and a number of memorable scenes. And, of course, it's a treasure trove of vampire lore, including perhaps most notably for modern audiences the idea that vampires can move about during daylight, only without their un-dead powers. Dracula's Guest Stoker's book begins with Jonathan Harker's written words, "Left Munich at 8:35 p.m." He is on his way to meet with Count Dracula in Transylvania. What it doesn't tell us is what happened to Harker while he was in Munich. This story, "Dracula's Guest," is the tale of those events. First published in 1914, it was originally written as the first chapter of Dracula, from which it was excised as either superfluous or simply in order to shorten the manuscript. In any case, Stoker must have revised it before publication, for the style is different, Harker isn't specifically named, and, though written in the first person, it isn't framed as an entry in his diary (which, had it been included that way, would have been at odds with the epistolary format of the rest of the book). That said, it worked out for the best, and we can be thankful that Stoker never produced an "author's cut" of Dracula. The slow build of the novel toward Harker's meeting with the Count is exactly the right beginning, while, taken alone yet in context, "Dracula's Guest" is a terrific horror story, full of dread and weird happenings -- as well as something else. The Signet Classic edition of the book claims on its cover that Dracula is "the dread lord of the un-dead." With only the novel to go by, this isn't saying a whole lot; the only other vampires we see are the three "sisters" in his castle. Here, in the story, we finally see that there are more of them in the world and that Dracula does indeed hold some sway over them. ++1/2 The Russians launched Sputnik 1 in 1957. Not to be outdone, the Americans launched this movie the following year. "Everyone's seeing satellites these days," says the hapless husband of Nancy Archer, the woman doomed to outgrow everything but her dismal marriage. Yes, but not like the one Nancy sees. As exploitation films go, this is one of the most enjoyable; it's a comic nightmare of infidelity and selfish greed that could have been something truly special had it only been writ with a bit more wit. Still, it's a cut above the usual: its mix of humor and drama is never embarrassing, and it wisely holds the payoff to the very end, wrapping things up in a hurry so as not to overdo it. With William Hudson as the wandering husband, Yvette Vickers as the pretty chippie he taunts his wife with, and Allison Hayes as statuesque Nancy Archer. Remade as an HBO movie in 1993, starring Daryl Hannah in the title role. ++++ Powerful, intelligent, and darkly funny adaptation, by Tennessee Williams himself, of two of Williams' one-act plays, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and The Long Stay Cut Short. Carroll Baker is 19-year-old Baby Doll Meighan, coerced into marriage to the much older Archie Lee (Karl Malden), owner of a cotton gin that is put out of business by Sicilian Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach) and his modernized cotton company. Nothing, Archie Lee decides, that a touch of arson can't fix -- but he doesn't count on Silva figuring he did it and making a play for Baby Doll in revenge. With superb acting and substantive dialogue, and at best a moving target for our sympathies. Controversial when first released (it was "condemned" by the Catholic Legion of Decency and banned as obscene in Aurora, Illinois, for instance), the film is still today racy enough to make its "sex" scenes suspenseful and somewhat nerve-wracking, particularly one set on an outdoor swing. ++ High school English teacher Jake Epping travels to the past in order to stop the assassination of JFK. While biding his time in a small Texas town (his jaunts always begin on the same date in 1958), he falls in love with a school librarian. If that sounds as though it might be two entirely different books, it isn't without reason. In fact, the first third of this 842 page whopper is largely unnecessary and could have been a book in itself, it's certainly long enough. So, this is really three books: one (the best of the three) is set in Derry, Maine, the setting of the author's It (Jake even meets a couple of characters from that book), and establishes the rules of time travel; the second involves the assassination, in which King clearly has no interest (Jake knows next to nothing about it going in and learns nothing new along the way); and the third book is a "nostalgic" paean to mid-century romance (the quotation marks are deserved, for King's small-town characters exhibit awfully modern, big-city ideas). King claims to have read a stack of books taller than himself about the assassination, but you'd never know it; his real research was the period, and evidence of that fairly drips from every page. Still, with his treacly characters and his skill at emotional manipulation, many will no doubt love this book. |
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