1992 was a year of cinematic returns. Eddie Murphy reclaimed his rightful place atop the heap of comedic actors, Denzel Washington turned in another masterful performance of a slain civil rights leader, Tom Cruise reenlisted in the Navy, and Clint Eastwood went back to the West, directing and starring in his most highly-acclaimed film about gunslingers.
7. Bram Stoker's Dracula
The conventional wisdom is that film adaptations are never as good as the books on which they're based. Many times, this is indeed the case. This, however, is one of the rare exceptions. Director Francis Ford Coppola's vision of the father of all vampires is not merely on par with its source material, however, it surpasses it.
6. My Cousin Vinny
5. A Few Good Men
The story focuses on first-year Harvard-educated naval Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, whose assigned to defend a pair of Marines accused of killing a fellow leatherneck during a hazing incident while the three were posted at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
A Few Good Men represented headliner Tom Cruise's as his second time portraying a U.S. naval officer (after Top Gun) but it was his first time portraying an attorney -- as well as screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's first time writing a courtroom drama (the film was adapted from his play of the same name). Co-star Demi Moore would go back to the navy in G.I. Jane's title role and John M. Jackson would do the same as Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden on television's long-running JAG (and NCIS: Los Angeles). Cuba Gooding, Jr., who has a small role here, would strike Oscar gold four years later co-starring with Cruise in Jerry Maguire.
Six years after Cruise starred in the veritable cinematic recruitment tool for the military that was Top Gun, he returned to theaters to cast a more critical eye on the armed forces in A Few Good Men. The film was a hit, both financially and critically, going on to become the seventh highest-grossing movie of 1992 and scoring four nominations at the 65th Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture.
4. Deep Cover
3. Boomerang
2. Unforgiven
Unforgiven is unique in that it suggests that while the good don't necessarily die young, neither do all gunfighters. The film provides a glimpse into what happens after the gunslinger rides off into the sunset.
It's not the story, but one of the stories of retired gunman William Munny. As the movie makes clear, he has quite a few. He's not alone either. Many of the assorted triggermen who gravitate to Big Whiskey (the setting of most of the film's bloodshed) have led violent lives. One, English Bob, even travels with his own personal biographer eager to record stories of duels and shootouts. The town's sheriff, Little Bill Daggett, himself a former gunman, had seen so much killing that he's decreed that no firearms or criminals be allowed to enter the municipality. Freeman's Ned Logan is a rarity in Western fare, but one quarter of American cowboys -- such as Nat Love -- were African-Americans.
These men, all past middle-age, have moved on from criminal pasts. Logan is happily married; Daggett's biggest source of pride is the house he's building with his own hands; Munny is a pig-farmer and widowed father of two; and Bob is writing his memoirs. But habits are hard to break and they all re-embrace the savage inside to some degree -- and all voluntarily.
You can't help but to consider Unforgiven in the context of Eastwood's previous Westerns and to conclude that Munny's life is a potential future for characters such as Josey Wales and Blondie from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
1. Malcolm X
Based on the ferociously intelligent civil rights leader's legendary autobiography, published in 1965 -- the same year that its subject was assassinated -- Malcolm X is a film that was begging to be made. Though the man was murdered nearly three decades earlier, the years that preceded the movie's release were marked by an intense resurgence in interest in his life, in part fueled by the use of X's speeches in the works of hip hop acts such as Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy. The charismatic speaker's renewed popularity was also partly spurred by the omnipresent "X" emblazoned on t-shirts, jackets, hoodies -- and especially -- hats. Sales of his autobiography rose by 300% from 1988 to 1991.
The film would be the second of four collaborations between pro-Black director Spike Lee and star Denzel Washington, who inhabits the title role so perfectly that the differences in appearance between the actor and the activist are rendered completely irrelevant by Washington's performance -- the best of his career. The Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences, the organization responsible for deciding who wins Academy Awards, even saw fit to nominate him for a Best Actor Oscar in 1993.
The movie begins in Malcolm Little's childhood, a point in his life when his father, a minister, was murdered by members of the Black Legion -- an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan -- and his mother was committed to a mental institution. From there we get a glimpse of his criminal career, when he was known by the street name Detroit Red in the Harlem underworld. Following a stint as a porter, "Red" makes a living running numbers for his mentor, West Indian Archie. After Archie makes an attempt on his life, Red flees to Boston, where he establishes a robbery ring and that includes his married white girlfriend.
After his Massachusetts licks land him a 10-year prison sentence, Red meets a member of the Nation of Islam behind the wall who inspires him to abandon criminality and to educate himself. His new mentor, Baines, facilitates an introduction to the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad, upon his release. After joining the Nation, the newly named Malcolm X (the "X" symbolizes the unknown African name that was taken from his ancestors during slavery) quickly rises to be the organization's most well known speaker. He preaches self-sufficency, Black Pride and aggressive rejection of white society and institutional racism, the latter of which contrasts sharply with Dr. Martin Luther King's message of peaceful protest. During an appearance at a Harlem rally, X delivers one of his most famous speeches, in which he warns: "I say and I say it again, Ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok! This is what he does..." He also utters the following line (paraphrased for the film) from his "Ballot or the Bullet" speech, delivered in 1964: "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!" X also befriends and mentors boxing legend turned civil rights activist Muhammad Ali.
During an obligatory pilgrimage to the ancient city of Mecca (birthplace of Islamic prophet, Muhammad) , X has an epiphany that transforms his rejection of whites to a more inclusive philosophy. However, his new views conflict with those of Elijah Muhammad, leading to X's departure from the group that he made famous. On February 21, 1965, X is assassinated while giving a speech at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom.
The film ends with a montage of U.S. and African children saying the simple phrase, "I am Malcolm X." After repeating the phrase himself, anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela recites a quote from one of X's speeches: "We declare our right on this earth, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."
In 1990, the year prior to the movie's production, Mandela was released from prison after serving a 27-year sentence for activities against the South African government for its practice of segregation and racial oppression against Black people. In 1994, he was elected the first Black president of the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment