The last day of August

I've already watched 15 episodes of Looney Toons as well as the Bridget Jones sequel (*shudder*), but I will write about that later. Tonight, I will talk about what I watched the last day of August.

I found CSI Season 6's second half to be vastly superior to the first half. Three of the last four episodes were practically perfect in every way. Watching this season made me feel silly for ever spending hours fretting over whether or not Sara and Grissom might be together. Watching it this time, tt was so bloody obvious from about the third episode on that they were.

Teeth was good, as I wrote yesterday. The film is icky and scary, and has a few interesting things to say about how and why young women (and perhaps women of all ages) view their bodies. It's always fun to watch horror movies that feature a female hero/villain. I can't until I watch Aliens. And, as a woman, there is a scene in this movie that I found particularly satisfying, a sort of revenge against male film directors who so callously feature rape in their films, particularly horror films - I'm looking at you Wes Craven. Oh, and the film is delightfully funny, something that you would think impossible due to the rather sensitive subject matter. But the writing, and especially the acting, had me laughing throughout. The young woman who starred in the film, Jess Weixler, was a true find. I had never seen her before, and I found out on imdb that this was only her third movie, and the first one in which she starred. She's only been in Hollywood for six years. If she can keep getting roles with good writing like this, I really think she can go far. I look forward to seeing her in more films.

This was the second time I watched Teeth, and it was just as scary the second time. I am pretty sure it's because of the subject matter. The first time, I didn't really know what the film was about.

Though CSI and Teeth were a combined 7 hours, it was another movie that I have been thinking about all day. Sergio Leone is famous for his spaghetti westerns, but his last film was an American one, Once Upon a Time in America. I think it qualifies as the greatest film of the 1980s.

Released in 1984, the film is a staggering 229 minutes long. This may turn some people off, but near the end I wished it were even longer. It covers nearly 50 of a man's life, and I was left wanting to know so much more. The entire film is shown out of chronological order, and you have to wait nearly the entire film to understand the first fifteen minutes. Oh, but it's worth the wait. After the confusing introduction, the film, set in New York city, goes back to the main character's childhood. Even from childhood, the main character is a thug, though one gets the sense that he never had a chance to be anything else. In his youth, he falls in love with a cold and beautiful girl. He also befriends four other thugs, including one boy who becomes his best friend. The movie then fast forwards more than a decade, and from then on out, it deals with the characters as adults, cutting back and forth between the early 1930s and 1968. Even though this movie is nearly four hours long, I want to watch it again. There was just so much going on in the film, and I am quite sure I wasn't able to appreciate all of it fully.

This film deals with the larger than life themes of friendship, love and betrayal, and does so in a fine manner. The score is absolutely beautiful, even the tidbit of the Beatles' "Yesterday" is used to great effect. No synthezer music in this one. The cinematography is befitting a Leone movie, ranging from the grandiose to the intimate. The acting is superlative. James Woods gives perhaps the greatest performance of his career; in the documentary of the film (filmed a decade ago), Woods says that Leone was the best director he's ever worked with. Robert Deniro is great as usual. Joe Pesci, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello are all in very short scenes, but left very strong impressions, especially Aiello.

One important note: the main character is an animalistic gangster. There is more than one rape scene, though compared to most movies, they are not very brutal. I have a very hard time with rape scenes, as I wrote about with Sleepers, but the ones in this movie did not overwhelm me at all. I think it's because the character is so very repressed. I wrote animalistic, but really he is a repressed man who does monstrous things. Even when he's raping, there is little visible emotion. He isn't trying to degrade the woman, he just doesn't know any other way to treat them.

I have to say that though watching all these DVDs sometimes feels like a job, I am so happy I've decided to do this. Up until Monday, the surprises have been that I think some of the movies I used to like are stinkers. It was nice to watch a movie I've never seen before and love it so much. I hope this continues over the next year.