Spike Lee's Malcolm X

Spike Lee sometimes gets a bad rep for pushing hard for his projects and for his opinions on race relations in America, but there is no questioning the fact that he reached a masterstroke with his film Malcolm X. the film went a long way to establishing the revered activist as one of the most intelligent, if crude, human beings that ever lived.

Denzel Washington’s performance is sublime, as we witness the transformation Malcolm X went through, via Mr. Washington’s smart and poignant decisions about his character. His rendition of Malcolm X is much more than your average caricature of a famous person. His talent allowed the audience to forget Denzel as a man and witness the birth and rebirth of Malcolm X on screen. This is another must watch for acting students and future directors alike.

Lilies of the field

It is often said that you don’t win the Academy Award necessarily for your best performance. Sometimes they give it to you because they know you deserve it at some point. Lilies of the field, wasn’t Sidney Poitier’s best performance, but it is his most simple performance. He definitely should have gotten an Oscar for some of his other roles, most notably, Guess who’s coming to Dinner and a Raisin in the Sun. But in this little field, Poitier showed what the best actors out there are able to do. He kept everything simple. His character was a simple guy with somewhere to go, and he didn’t try to complicate it by contemplating the depth of the character.

The screenplay for this film must also get some notice, because it was well written and did almost all the work for the actors. The film was well shot and poignant on its topic. It’s a must see for any Poitier fans out there, and for directors with little budgets and a desire to keep their film authentic and human, this is a perfect example of what simplicity can give you.

Last Tango In Paris

If you are a film fanatic then you know a Bernardo Bertolucci picture is worth every penny in your bank. When you mix this amazing director with an actor with the magnetism of Marlon Brando you get one of the best films ever made in history.

Last Tango In Paris is the film in which you got to see Brando get rid of some of his cookie cutter clean behavior to really delve into the trauma and reaction that his character goes through. Brando plays the traumatized husband with an eerie calm and enchanting sexuality that you cannot help being glued in front of the screen as the story goes by.

Brando’s performance in this film is so good that you will at times wonder why the actor did not work more and why he did not pick more films like this to work on.

There isn’t much I can say about Bertolucci that hasn’t already been said about him. The Italian director is just awesome. Very few directors can put together a picture as good as Bertolucci and very few of them can get a good performance out of the moody Brando.

Five Easy Pieces

As far as classics come, Five Easy Pieces is one movie that will last for as long as people are alive. The Bob Rafelson directed picture is a study on the loner who prefers his solitary lifestyle to mixing it with the regular everyday person.

The tone of the film may seem somber at times, but as the story moves along, you get a chance to see the main character deal with his underachievement and the disappointment he sees in his family’s eyes. He even goes as far as trying to assimilate into regular circles, only to realize that he could not fit into other people’s world.

This is one of those movies in which the actor is so beside himself that you can truly see the character come to life. Jack Nicholson is known for certain aspects of his characteristics and mannerisms, but in Five Easy Pieces we get to see Nicholson at his absolute best. The man inhabits the character so much that sometimes you get to forget that it is Nicholson you are watching.

Credit must be given to Adrien Joyce and Rafelson for coming up with this absolutely brilliant story for a guy like Nicholson to inhabit. Rafelson’s direction is right on point, which must have been easier because he was involved in the initial conception of the story.

Five Easy Pieces is the rare type of film that leaves me thinking a lot about loneliness and what is behind one person’s unfulfilled greatness and the disappointment their loved ones feel when they are faced with the reality of an unchanged man.