Death Line (1972)

Entrapment (1999)

Dr. Minx (1975)

The Fury (1978)

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

 

In his first film (fourth over all) after making the movie that made his name, 'Mean Streets', Martin Scorsese left a dirty, night time New York, for the sunny daylight stretches of the desert south west in 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'. This dark comic character study, became the unexpected source material for a much more light hearted situation comedy called 'Alice', which ran on CBS for 9 seasons and 202 episodes.  

Our Alice here is an excellent as usual Ellen Burstyn. Alice Hyatt (nee Graham) grow up near Monterey, California with aspirations of becoming a professional singer, she got as far as performing regularly at a local club, where she meet Donald Hyatt (Billy Green Bush) who charmed her into marriage and relocated her to his home town in New Mexico. More then a decade later she is a housewife in a somewhat abusive marriage with an 11 year old son called Tommy (Alfred Lutter), who while generally not mean spirited is more then a little bit of a trial, bratty, short sighted and selfish as kids that age often are.

Alice's husband works as a delivery driver for Coca Cola, and is killed in a rather bloody traffic accident. Not well off to begin with, after the expenses of the funeral Alice and her son head off to California with their meager belongings. They decide to stay for a time in Phoenix and try to raise some money. Alice is able to talk her way into a singing job at a bar and becomes an unexpected success, though the job doesn't pay much she attracts the attention of a younger man (Harvey Keitel) who seduces her into a relationship, but turns out to be an already married psycho. Alice and son flee the city, then the car breaks down near Tuscon.

Alice gets a job as a waitress at a dinner populated by colorful characters such as Vic Tayback (who would return for the series), Valerie Curtin and an especially memorable Diane Ladd. Tommy falls under the bad influence of a very young Jodie Foster and Alice is - at first reluctantly - romanced by a divorced rancher played by Kris Kristofferson.

Wry, grounded and bittersweet 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' is  solid, affective and endearingly rambling, with flawed characters who very much don't know what they're doing, and who we root for in no small part because of this. Scorsese shows early on a willingness to try new things and is a natural at a story which might seem out of his wheelhouse. I was impressed. ****

Rolling Thunder (1977)

Spoilers

'Rolling Thunder' is another movie that Tarantino talks about at length in his Cinema Speculation book. It's 1973 and William Devane is Air Force Major Charles Rane, he is returning to his home in San Antonio after seven years as a POW in North Vietnam. One of Rane's best friends from the POW camp, Army Master Sargent Johnny Vohden (Tommy Lee Jones) is returning on the same plane as him, he lives in El Paso and they promise to visit each other. 

While Vohden returns to an enthusiastic family, Rane returns to a son (Jordan Gerler) who was only a baby when he left and thus doesn't remember him, and a wife (Lisa Blake Richards) who in his absence has become romantically involved with a friend of Rane's, local Deputy Cliff Nichols (Lawrason Driscoll). Lisa wants a divorce, and Charles, who is seemingly almost disinterested in his wife aggress, though he insists on regular contact with his son. The couple decide to wait a respectable amount of time before announcing their separation.

In the weeks after Major Rane's return he discovers that he has become something of a local celebrity, and while he is not entirely comfortable with this he decides to act gracefully. He is presented with a brand new Cadillac convertible from a local dealership, as well as 2,555 silver dollars, one for each day of his captivity. Rane is presented with his silver dollars by local beauty Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes, who gives arguably the best performance in a film full of strong performances). Linda considers herself something of a Major Rane groupie, a term she has to explain to him because it developed while he was in captivity. Linda makes sure to arrange bumping into the Major, and while not exactly encouraging this, he doesn't discourage it either. 

Major Rane attends one of his son's little league games, but leaves before it is over and returns home. Upon entering the house he is captured by a gang of four men who insists he hand over the silver dollars he has hidden. Rane refuses, and the robbers grind off one of his hands in the garbage disposal. His wife and son return, and his son knows where he hid the silver dollars so retrieves them and hands them over to the crooks. The bad guys then kill the Major's wife and son in retaliation for the mans stubbornness.  

Rane misses his wife and son's funeral as he is still in the hospital recovering. There he is fitted with a  hook to replace his lost hand, and is visited by Linda, Master Sargent Vohden, his air force psychologist (Dabney Coleman) and Deputy Nichols, who thinks that Rane is holding back information about the killers. 

After Rane is released form the hospital he convinces Linda to accompany him on a trip to Mexico. Linda thinks that Rane just needs to get away for a bit owing to all the trauma, but in reality Rane plans to use snippets he remembers from the killers conversations to track them down and avenge the death of his son (and notably not the death of his wife). Linda is not happy when Rane uses her as bait to get information, but aggress to stay with him. Meanwhile Deputy Nichols has figured out what Rane is doing, puts out an APB on the Cadillac and mounts a pursuit, not to stop him, but to join him. 

After killing or wounding some of the men, Rane is able to figure out where their leader is staying. He recruits Vohden (who feels disconnected from his family and their trivial concerns (I want to point out here that Vohden doesn't have any kids, just an often oblivious wife, in-laws and an elderly father)) to go with him to Mexico to kill. Rane drops Linda off, who immediately calls the police, but it's too late and they don't arrive until after Rane and Vohden's final bloody standoff at a seedy hotel in Ciudad Juarez.  

'Rolling Thunder' is a powerful, reflective, and despite its violence, understated rumination on the legacy of the Vietnam War. Over its 100 minute run time it becomes several different types of movies, and handles its transitions remarkably well. It is the story of broken men trying to hang onto their dignity. Rarely has such extreme violence in a film felt so well woven with its emotional texture. It's something of a masterpiece and sadly a largely forgotten one. I can see why Tarantino likes it so much. ****

Flaming Star (1960)

 In his book 'Cinema Speculation' Quinton Tarantino commented that this is the movie that convinced him that Elvis could have been a really good actor, if he hadn't gotten stuck making the cheese that Colonel Parker liked, because it was cheap and made easy money. 'Flaming Star' is not an "Elvis movie" in the Parker sense, rather it is a movie with Elvis in it. It's a decent, though in no way remarkable film; Elvis sings two songs in the first 10 minutes or so (a concession to Parker) but its a straight pulp western story after that.

Set in 1870's Texas, Elvis plays Pacer Burton, the son of one of the earliest ranchers in the area Sam 'Pa' Burton (John McIntire) and an Indian princess who he calls Neddy (Dolores del Rio). Packer has an older half brother named Cliff (Steve Forrest) from Sam's previous marriage, Cliff's mother had died and Sam married Neddy shortly after moving to the area in the 1850's. Accordingly the Burtons social circles bridge the native Americans and the newer white settlers. Things in the area were mostly peaceful for a very long time, but with increasing white settlement and the subsequent loss of land the local Indians start to attack unwanted settlers. Elvis is torn between two worlds, with the Burtons trying to keep natural as long as possible, but that proves to be untenable.

It's a good movie, well paced, interesting enough story, Elvis is understated outside, but inside he gets to seething. A young Barbara Edan is a local girl both brothers like, but Elvis's "half cast" status means her pa is not keen on him. Again, this is a satisfactory pulp western tale, with interesting interpersonal character dynamics for the genre. Elvis show promise here, that was never realized. ***