This Weekend’s Film Festival – Five We Lost in 2009

This Weekend's Film Festival would like to take the first week of the new year to look back on the work of those that passed in 2009. While I've chosen five to showcase, there are others who deserve our remembrance as well. Dom DeLuise was a staple of 1980s comedies and showed a great talent for voice acting starting with THE SECRET OF NIMH. I will remember Ron Silver most of all for the legal compass he played as Alan Dershowitz in REVERSAL OF FORTUNE. Natasha Richardson was part of a legendary movie acting family and stood out in films such as PATTY HEARST, NELL and THE WHITE COUNTESS. Ricardo Montalban is best known for his TV work, but many film fans will remember him as Khaaaaaaaaan! Farrah Fawcett was also a TV icon, but she would often give surprising turns in smaller film such as THE APOSTLE and DR. T AND THE WOMEN. Another icon, Michael Jackson, made his mark on cinema through music and innovative videos, but as a kid I knew him early on as the Scarecrow in THE WIZ. Brittany Murphy's tragic death at the age of 32 robbed movies of an actress who showed such talent in overlooked gems like THE DEAD GIRL and big budgeted spectacles like HAPPY FEET. Most people will know James Whitmore as the kindly librarian Brooks in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, but he was also a two-time Oscar nominee for 1949's BATTLEGROUND and 1975's GIVE 'EM HELL, HARRY!

If you made a list of actors who defined the late-80s/early-90s I would be hard not to include Patrick Swayze. Starting with THE OUTSIDERS he showed screen presence. Moving from his success on TV with NORTH AND SOUTH, he launched into movie stardom with DIRTY DANCING. And many can't forget him in the guilty pleasures ROAD HOUSE or POINT BREAK. In the 2000s, he made a big impression as the smarmy self-help guru Jim Cunningham in DONNIE DARKO. But he did is best work in Jerry Zucker's GHOST. He played Sam Wheat, a man who worries that everything is going too perfectly for him. His concerns are founded when he is murdered in what seems to be a botched mugging. His ghost remains behind to discover who is behind his untimely death and to protect his one true love Molly (Demi Moore). Mixing romance with action and comedy, this sci-fi thriller has a bit of something for everyone. Swayze had a chance to play tough and sensitive within the same role. His rapport with Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg as the psychic Oda Mae Brown is like a comedic bickering brother and sister. As I said in my original review, "For Swayze, DIRTY DANCING made him a star, but GHOST solidified that status… He balances between tenderness, so wonderfully captured in the classic erotic pottery making scene, and his anger for revenge."

Few directors become household names. John Hughes is one of them, defining '80s teen cinema. Starting as a writer he penned such comedies as MR. MOM and NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION. He moved to the director's chair for SIXTEEN CANDLES, making Molly Ringwald a movie star. He would formalize his brand of teen coming of age stories with WEIRD SCIENCE and FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. He went in a different direction in 1987 for one of his best and funniest films PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. He would also produce such hits as SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL and HOME ALONE. But his crowning achievement is THE BREAKFAST CLUB. This character-based comedy puts five very different high school students together on one Saturday of detention. As I said in my original review, "Hughes’ dialogue sounds like teenagers spoke it… Even with lines like Neo-Maxi-Zoom-Dweebie, the film retains fresh because it understands." Hughes begins by clearly defining his characters as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal and then over the course of the film shows how they are a bit of each. Part of what brings them together is a common enemy — Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), who the writer/director allows to be more than a cartoon authority figure. With few locations and a simple style, he makes a captivating film where teens talk for two hours. In Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy, he had young performers who were rarely better. With this film Hughes made the defining coming of age film of the 1980s.

David Carradine is an iconic actor. Off screen he led a unique life and his bizarre death only added to the mystery. He made his mark as a cult superstar on the TV series KUNG FU. His first starring role came in Martin Scorsese's first feature BOXCAR BERTHA, where legend says his love scene with Barbara Hershey is the real thing. Cult cinema was his bread and butter with such films as DEATH RACE 2000 and THE LONG RIDERS. After languishing in C-grade flicks for years, Quentin Tarantino reminded us that he was always badass, casting him in the title role of KILL BILL. For his acting skills, the film he was most recognized for was the Woody Guthrie biopic, BOUND FOR GLORY. As I said in my original review, "Carradine makes Guthrie a simple ramblin’ man who sees the world clearly and stands for what is right. His success gives him opportunity, but he’s not as interested in the wealth." The versatile performer sung and played all of the songs in the film, giving soul to Guthrie's protest anthems. Hal Ashby's film is driven by two elements — stunning cinematography and Carradine's focused and subtle performance. He was awarded a Golden Globe nomination for his work, but Oscar overlooked him despite having nominated the film for six other awards including Best Picture. It was a perfect role for the actor, playing an artist who wanders the countryside getting into adventures.

When I told someone I was including Jennifer Jones in this retrospective, they said, "who is Jennifer Jones?" I include that here because it's a fitting statement about the fleeting nature of fame. From the mid to late 1940s she was one of the biggest, most respected young actresses in Hollywood. Starting with her star-making turn in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE in 1944, she was nominated for an Oscar the three following years for SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, LOVE LETTERS and DUEL IN THE SUN. In 1956, she would be nominated again playing a Chinese woman in LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING. It's Jones's subtle performance that makes the casting work. She starred in other respected movies such as PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, MADAME BOVARY, BEAT THE DEVIL, THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT and Henry King's adaptation of TENDER IS THE NIGHT. In her day, she was looked down upon in some Hollywood circle as the mistress of legendary producer David O. Selznick, who she left her husband and two children for. During the late '50s and '60s she faded from the screen because she stayed out of the spotlight, living a private life. But her work still remains. As I said in my review of BERNADETTE, "She makes Bernadette a pure innocent. The future saint represents a religious ideal. Her grace in the face of pressure to recant is inspiring. Jones brings no guile to the part, which makes her effortlessly believable." The film brought the story of the Miracle of Lourdes to the screen, serving as a commentary on belief. While it takes a believer's stance, the film isn't afraid to argue both sides. Jones found herself in these plum roles and delivered with class and passion.

I close the retrospective with a look at Oscar winner Karl Malden, a man remembered as the character actor with the bulbous nose. Before his Oscar-winning performance in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, he played smaller roles in KISS OF DEATH and THE GUNFIGHTER. He supported Jennifer Jones and Charlton Heston in 1952's RUBY GENTRY. Two years later, he received his second Oscar nomination for the classic ON THE WATERFRONT, playing the dedicated Father Barry. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he played character roles in such films as BABY DOLL, Marlon Brando's ONE-EYED JACKS, BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, PATTON and Dario Argento's THE CAT 'O NINE TAILS. Of his Oscar-winning performance, I said in my original review, "Malden gives a two-fold performance. His demeanor is one way when he sees Blanche as the girl to take home to mother and then is much different when the view changes. It’s a testament to his performance that the shift doesn’t feel melodramatic. The change in attitude feels natural even if it comes as unexpected at first." He held his own between the force of Brando's revolutionary performance as Stanley Kowalski and the flamboyance of Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois. He plays a momma's boy who is smitten by the prim and proper Southern belle and defends her honor in the face of Stanley's doubts to her purity. His Oscar joined those of fellow cast members Leigh and Kim Hunter, who subtly plays Stanley's put-upon wife and Blanche's supportive sister Stella. Director Elia Kazan simply stayed out of the way of his dynamic performers, allowing all of them to give some of the best work of their careers. In his role as Mitch, Malden was given one of his most complex characters and he shines.

To look back at these great film stars simply head to the videostore, update the Netflix queue, visit HelloMovies.com for streaming sites, check out Zap2It.com for TV listings, or support the site by purchasing the films on DVD or Blu-ray at the links below.