The Gaucho (released in 1927) - Starring Douglas Fairbanks and Lupe Velez

The Gaucho is a Argentine anti-hero who is the ultimate savior; inspite of his initial wild behavior. This movie is a Douglas Fairbanks vehicle which is in-fact written and produced by him. It is said that Fairbanks was influenced by the miracles at the St. Lourdes Shrine and the religious overtones in the movie is ultimately derived from this. The Gaucho showcases the amazing good looks and athleticism of Fairbanks who swings from trees, rides bare back and dance with heavenly abandon.
El Gaucho is the ultimate bandit who can single handedly control a town with his small company of bandits coming in later to complete the task. He is willful, playful and a perfect Casanova. Gaucho sets his sights on a small town with a healing shrine. The flashback tells us that a girl who fell from a cliff was miraculously saved by the Virgin Mary who in-turn gives her the healing powers. So the shrine of Our Lady flourishes and the coffers are overflowing with gold.
The usurper, Ruiz is the villain who wants to loot the town and the shrine for the gold. But Gaucho and his banditos put a perfect spanner to his works and ends up saving the shrine. Gaucho is hailed as a hero and his roving eye makes him more appealing. His eye rests on the Mountain Girl, Maria, who is fiery and hotter than the hottest of jalapeños. She matches Gaucho's temper and his dancing steps. A heavenly scene is the two of them doing the tango and nothing can yet has been devised to beat the chemistry these two share. Soon Maria and Gaucho are sharing an apple and the romance flourishes.



But the mountain girl has a fiery temper and a jealous mind. She cannot stand her man showing attention to others. Gaucho is attentive and responsive, playful and watchful with the young girl. But his livery is short-lived as he is afflicted with the black doom. The movie does not present the medical condition and many critics dub it as leprosy. But the black doom slowly sucks out the life off his body and his arm turn black.
Gaucho meets the saintly lady in the Shrine whose prayers heal him. He is attracted by her serenity and holiness and falls in love with her. But this earns him the wrath of Maria. Soon all hell breaks loose with Ruiz and gang capturing him. He is tortured along with the others and this scenes can be labeled a little sadistic. But it is a Fairbanks movie who can be compared to the ultimate superhero. He prevails all the tempests with the able assistance and blessing of the Virgin Mary. Then Maria also is tamed and turned in to a perfect catholic and wedded.
This movie belongs to the silent era and this does not diminish the entertainment value. In fact the touchy feely feeling in the movie is more due the absence of sound. Douglas Fairbanks is the most apt choice as the swashbuckling, smoking Casanova bandit with a devil may care attitude. But the revelation is the mountain girl Maria, a girl who is ahead of time and no real man can match or resist this red hot pepper girl.
Just watch it for pure entertainment.

The Wrong man (released in 1956) staring Henry Fonda, struggling to prove themselves innocent

This movie was adapted from a book by Maxwell Anderson, “The True story of Christopher, Emmanuel Balestrero” and is based on a true life incident.
It deals with a couple who fight for justice when the husband is convicted as a result of a mistaken identity. Manny Balestrero, a musician in a night club and his wife Rose live a hand and mouth existence. He tries to borrow money against Rose's insurance for some dental work which needs to be done. While he is at he insurance office, the clerk notices that he resembles the armed robber who had robbed the office. He calls in the police and soon the witnesses are marched in who swear to have seen him robing the office. Manny tries to prove his innocence, but fails. Even in his handwriting sample, in his nervousness, he misspells the same words that the robber himself had mis-spelt. Soon Manny is taken in to custody and the trial begins.
The couple hire Frank O'Connor as the defense attorney who builds up the case in their favor. He argues that Manny and Rose were on a vacation during the first robbery. But the 3 witnesses who had seen them during the vacation had died and this alibi also fails to impress. During the second robbery Manny had a swollen jaw which would have been easily noticeable by the insurance agency employee.



Rose is unable to bear the strain of this ordeal and soon buckles under pressure. She is confined to the sanitarium and is treated for depression. During the trial a bored Juror passes a remark which makes the judge to declare a mistrial. Manny is forced to await another trial in prison. As luck could have it the real robber is arrested and Manny is set free. He reaches Rose with the happy news but finds her apathetic. Soon Rose is cured and the family moves to Florida.
This movie was based on a true life story and is the last movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock for Warner bros. After this he made pictures only for Paramount. This movie is said to have been the only true story in Hitchcock's entire body of work. He is said to have hated the police and this sentiment is amply reflected in this movie. Hitchcock even did a cameo as the story teller in the movie and this is the only time he has appeared in any one of his pictures. He even cast the real Balesstrero witnesses in small parts for the movie. The real life Frank O'Connor is a New York Senator who rises to a appellate Judge.
The wrong man failed to impress at the box office, but is considered a classic. This movie has significant influence on many directors, and was influenced in making of the 2006 movie Lucky Number Slevin.

Rob Roy (1995)

Far more people would have seen the story of the Scot legend, William of Wallace (as depicted by Mel Gibson. Braveheart was a hugely successful film, detailing the efforts of an exceptional man to win the freedom of his country (Scotland) from the oppressive rule of the English royalty. Incidentally, there was a movie released just a month and a half before Braveheart, this one also dealing with the efforts of a Scottish hero who seeks to prove his honesty and bravery while facing incredible odds.
This was the movie Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson in the title role of the Scottish Chieftain Rob Roy MacGregor, battling intrigue spun by feudal landowners, and how he manages to clear his name. The movie was nominated for a single Oscar (Best Supporting Actor) for the portrayal of the villain Archibald Cunningham (a psychopathic character) - played by Tim Roth.



MacGregor is a chieftain who wants to get into the business of trading Highland cattle, and hence borrows 1,000 pounds from the Marquess of Montrose (John Hurt). He entrusts the money to his sub-chieftain, but is however devastated when the Marquesses' factor (person tending to his grounds and collecting rents) Killearn (Brian Cox) and his sociopathic protégé Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) murder the sub-chieftain for the money. No one knows that they have done this, but the net result is that MacGregor is now in debt to the Marquess for 1,000 pounds (a sizeable amount).
When he wants to try to make a settlement with the Marquess, the Marquess agrees, but wants MacGregor to falsely testify that the Duke of Argyll (Andrew Keir) is involved with a Jacobite plot (an attempt to bring back the Catholic King James to the throne of England and evict the Protestant kings from the throne). MacGregor is not comfortable with perjuring himself and refuses. With this, hopes of clemency from the Marquess vanish and the Marquess orders Cunnigham to take MacGregor to debtors prison. MacGregor runs away, and his house and wife bear the brunt. His house is destroyed, livestock killed, and his wife Mary raped by the psychopathic Cunnigham. This is discovered by MacGregor's brother Alasdair, but he is sworn to secrecy by Mary.
MacGregor and Mary find out the truth about the stealing of the money from Betty, who is a chambermaid at the residence of Montrose, and who had been having an affair with Cunningham and who is dismissed from service when she becomes pregnant. She however kills herself before she can testify. And so goes a constant battle by MacGregor to prove the complicity of Killearn and Cunningham in the killing and theft, with constant struggles. In the end, a duel is arranged between MacGregor and Cunningham, where MacGregor is on the edge of defeat, but just when he is going to face the final blow, he counter-attacks and kills Cunningham.

Memento (2000) - A great movie

You might find this movie confusing in the beginning. After all, the movie, about a person with a medical condition in which his brain can store no new memories, runs in 2 alternating sequences. One of these sequences is in color, and the other in black and white. The color sequences, in reverse chronological order, depict his investigation into how he came to be into this condition that he is in as well as who killed his wife during a burglary; while the black and white sequence records his speaking with an anonymous phone caller in a hotel room. These 2 alternating sequences converge near the end of the movie into a color sequence.
Now, such a movie might sound confusing; but it is actually a great movie. It requires a great amount of thought and courage to make such a movie, and if done well, it can seem like a breath of fresh air from all the normal thrillers and romances that one sees. However, this same aspect of trying to tell the tale of the movie in the form of these 2 separate narratives can seem strange as well, and there are questions about whether the intention of the director was to actually propound the sequence method and be praised for this new effort, or did he actually feel that this method of telling the tale would actually be the best way ?



Making such a movie means that the background of the story creation is also a bit different, and so it was in this case. The movie was directed by Christopher Nolan, and the story arose during a cross-country trip in July 1996 by the brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan narrated the story idea, and Christopher liked the idea; pretty soon (in a few months) they were discussing a draft and although the actual movie was different from the story by Jonathan in some aspects, key elements were maintained.
The movie was shot at a very fast clip, from the period of September 7 to October 8, 1999 (a 25 day shooting schedule). After hunting for actors from Brad Pitt onwards, they settled for a non-celebrity Guy Pierce for the main role. The other 2 actors were taken from the just-hit Matrix, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano, and they were set to go.
There were some complications in filming since the script called for some of the scenes to flow in a reverse direction, and doing so for scenes where bullets and shell casings (that move at high speeds) were involved was tricky, doable, but more tricky.
The word "memento" means "remember" in Latin, and that is the crux of the movie. Here is this guy Leonard, who was injured on the head during a burglary, and now suffers from a condition known as 'anterograde amnesia', a condition that prevents his brain from forming new memories after the burglary. His wife was raped and killed during the burglary, and he wants his revenge on the killers (he killed one of them during the burglary, but was attacked by the second one and he now wants to hunt for the second one). But how do you do that if you can't remember anything for more than a few minutes, if you can't remember whether the person you met was a person you met earlier in the day or yesterday ?
How Leonard attempts to solve this problem is through a system of notes, a Polaroid 690 camera and the most important information to be tattooed on his body. In scenes, you will see his slight frame covered with tattoos (information), and that is a chilling reminder of the condition he is in.
How does the chronology of the movie work ? Well, there are alternating black and white, and color scenes showing different parts, and so:
When numbering the scenes chronologically, then sorting them how they appear in the film, the pattern becomes more clear. The letters A-V will represent the color scenes (with A happening chronologically first, and V chronologically last), and the numbers 1-22 represent the black and white scenes chronologically. The scenes appear in the film like this:
1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, 5, R, 6, Q...20, C, 21, B, 22/A
So the two types of scenes alternate. The black and white scenes (numbers) start from the very beginning soon after the injury, and work forward to the climax at 22/A, while the color scenes (letters) work backward from the climax at 22/A. The climax scene (22/A) changes to color halfway through, showing the convergence of the two interlain storylines. The order of the scenes creates confusion in the viewer, just as Leonard is confused, and the climax being in the middle of the chronological story causes a sense of intersection, one forward from the beginning, and one from the end backward.
Overall, this is a movie that grips you, forces you to remain hooked, and if you feel the need to watch a movie different from the others, then this is the movie for you.

Bruce Willis: Die Hard

What an action movie. This is an adrenaline packed movie, of the single fighter kind of profile. The movie, released in 1988, did wonders for the career of Bruce Willis and sparked off 2 more re-runs (which were also adrenaline packed). The other good point of this movie is that it really does not try to deliver too many messages, and concentrates on giving its viewers the action that they desire.
Storyline again is simple. Bruce Willis is a New York cop John McClane, who goes to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his family (and estranged wife). She is an executive with the Nakatomi group, and is in the Nakatomi high-rise towers for an official Christmas party. His reunion does not go too well, and they have another tiff.
At this time, when he is sitting in a separate room, terrorists led by Alan Rickman invade the building and take it over. They take over communications, the front lobby and herd all the hostages to a common point. They are actually thieves on a grand scale, attempting to rob the bearer bonds kept in the building's security vaults.
He escapes their hostage taking, and starts to fight back. This includes attempting to call the police, who don't exactly take him seriously. To get the attention of the lone officer who responds, he drops the body of one of the terrorists onto the officer's car, and this brings the whole police force into the area.
In the meantime, the terrorists have killed hostages who have not cooperated with them, and are slowly bypassing the security procedures of the large vault in the building. John, injured, is still fighting the terrorists where he can. Due to a local reporter, the terrorists realize that they have John's wife as one of the hostages and take her with them.
There are some major battle scenes where the terrorists are so well prepared that they can beat whatever force the local police can throw against them. Towards the end, John realizes that they are going to blow up the roof with the hostages on them, and tries to scare them off the roof. The police helicopter thinks he is a bad guy and fire on him, forcing him off the roof. When faced with his wife as a hostage, he tricks and shoots the gang members. The movie ends with him, being a beaten and bloodied person, but victorious, having thrown Alan Rickman off the building.
This is a great movie, for pure, well-directed action. If you are looking for a great story line, or a lot of emotion, this movie is not for you.