Childhood Favorites

Recently I've been watching kids' films that I used to love but hadn't seen in a while.   I'd like to share my thoughts on them.   First up, The King and I.

This is one of those films that just about everyone watches at school, and then we all have to sing the songs from it.   I hadn't seen it since then.   It's the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which was based on the Margaret Landon novel, Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn was based on Anna Leonowens' memoirs.   The film stars Deborrah Kerr, as Anna Leonowens, the school teacher to the children of the King of Siam, and Yul Brynner as the King.   It's a good musical, the story is interesting and the portrait of the Siamese court is rich but what really made the film for me was Yul Brynner's performance.   His Oscar-winning portrayal of the King is so appealing.   I did find the ending a bit weak though.   Anna is mean to the King so he gets ill and dies, the end.   But a good film, all in all.

Next, Return to Oz.   Weird 80s kids' films are my favorites!   So I was always going to love this.   Rather than being a sequel to the 1939 film, it looks completely different.   It's based on an amalgamation of the later Oz books by L. Frank Baum, of which I was a fan when I was younger.  It sees Dorothy return to the land of Oz but everything has changed.   The Nome king has stolen the ruby slippers, taken over Oz and turned everyone to stone.   Dorothy has to defeat him and the evil witch Mombi and save the day, while making lots of new friends on the way.   It's a very imaginative and well-made film, with some genuinely scary characters and moments.   Love it!

And finally, Honey I Shrunk the Kids.    Is it just me, or were films far more imaginative back in the 80s?   It's about an eccentric inventor whose machine accidently shrinks his children to tiny sizes.   They get swept up and thrown away, and have to make their way back across the garden, dodging all sorts of obstacles that would have presented no problem at all if they were their normal size, such as ants, bees, the lawnmower and very small puddles or water.   The film is very well done and enjoyable and brings back fond memories of playing in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground at the MGM studios in Florida when I was little.  

    

Films!

Just thought I'd write a quick review of some of the films I've been watching.   Firstly, Planet of the Apes.  The original one.   Just another one of those films that I really should have seen, but never quite got round to watching.   So I thought it was about time I filled the gap in my education.   And I have to say I really enjoyed it.   It was very compelling.   I'm not quite sure why, but the style reminded quite a lot of 2001 Space Odyssey.   Of course, I knew the story already, it being rather a famous film, so the twist at the end came as no surpirse.   I imagine to a naive audience it would have been gripping stuff.   I enjoyed the harsh landscapes and Charlton Heston's cynical, world-weary performance.   And all the topless men, of course.   Although it has mostly aged very well, with the make-up and special effects still being pretty impressive, there are bits of it that are pretty dated.   The attitude to the women in the film is a prime example.   At one point one of the apes remarks: I didn't know man could be monogamous.   Charlton Heston casually replies: On this planet, it's easy.    Good old-fashioned casual sexism!

     



Next up, Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2.   Not being a Tarantino fan, I didn't really expect to enjoy these.   Just another gap in my education to be filled.   But I have to say, they were great!   Unusual and interesting.   The storyline wasn't really that original, being a fairly typical tale of revenge, but the way it was done made these pretty unique films!   There is probably an awful lot that can be said about the filmography by clever people who know about that sort of thing.   There's the way the heroine's name is beeped out right up until the end, and the random switches into black and white at certain points, the lady with the eye patch, the bright yellow outfit, the way a lot of the important conversations in the film are in Japanese with no subtitles so that we don't understand what's going on, the very unrealistic and old fashioned way of showing bleeding, and the unrealistic portrayal of Japan as being all sushi and katanas and kimonos and getta...   I have to say that I don't really understand the reasons behind most of those things, but i loved it all the same!   It interested me.   Being a Tarantino film there was obviously a lot of gratuitous gore and blood, but somehow it wasn't as offensive as I usually find it.   No picking bits of skull off the backseat of a car in this.   I very much enjoyed the soundtrack as well, and the performances.   I especially liked David Carradine as Bill.   The other little touch that I liked was how these hard, deadly women could instantly be tamed by the appearance of a child.   I'd like to believe that's the truth.

 

And Finally, A Nightmare on Elm Street.   Not really a fan of this, but I can definitely understand why it's so famous.   It doesn't hold back, and it's pretty damn scary for a horror film of its age.   There's some pretty iconic imagery in it, like Freddy Krueger's red and green jumper and metal claws.   I can see why these memorable images turned the film into a franchise.     I did enjoy the way the boundary between dreams and reality were blurred and I would have liked to see a little bit more of this to be honest.   I also enjoyed watching an early performance of Johnny Depp's as well.   It's always interesting to go back and watch really big stars when they were just starting out.