Movie Review: The Long Riders (1980)

Genre: Western  

Director: Walter Hill  

Starring: James Keach, Stacy Keach, David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Randy Quaid, Dennis Quaid, Pamela Reed  

Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: After the Civil War, the James-Younger gang is fueled by Confederate resentment and embarks on a crime spree in Missouri, holding up banks and trains. Jesse and Frank James (James and Stacy Keach) lead the gang, with support from Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger (David, Keith, and Robert Carradine). Clell Miller (Randy Quaid) stays with the gang even after his brother Ed (Dennis Quaid) is kicked out. In-between heists the men seek domesticity and the company of women, including Cole seeking comfort with prostitute Belle Starr (Pamela Reed). But as their list of victims grows, Pinkerton detectives descend onto the area to stop the gang's activities by any means.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this is a stylish, lyrical, and violent chronicle of the famous outlaw gang. Actual Hollywood brothers portray the Jameses, Youngers, Millers, and Fords (Christopher and Nicholas Guest), with Stacy Keach as Frank James and David Carradine as Cole Younger emerging as the most grounded and charismatic characters. In the quieter scenes the script excels at filling-in the men's personalities, allowing human emotions to surface but never resorting to heroic portrayals. With the botched Northfield, Minnesota bank raid a stunning highlight, director Walter Hill and cinematographer Ric Waite deliver exceptionally gripping action scenes infused with stuntwork, slow motion, and no shortage of blood. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The production quality deserved a longer running time to more fully define the era and round-out more characters.

Key Quote:

Cole Younger: When this is all over, I'm goin' to write a book; make myself more famous than I already am.

Frank James: I trust you'll give me a copy.

Cole Younger: Nope. You gotta pay, Frank; you gotta pay.

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Movie Review: The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz (1974)

Genre: Coming Of Age Dramedy  

Director: Ted Kotcheff  
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctôt, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Denholm Elliott  
Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a young Jewish man growing up in 1940s Montreal. Unlike his studious brother, Duddy wants to get rich quick, inspired by his father's (Jack Warden) stories about a childhood friend who became wealthy in weeks. While working as a summer camp waiter, Duddy falls in love with Yvette (Micheline Lanctôt) and decides to invest in lakefront property. His side hustles include producing movies by blacklisted Hollywood director Friar (Denholm Elliott), selling pin-ball machines and operating a trucking business with the epileptic Virgil (Randy Quaid), and even inadvertent drug trafficking. Just as Duddy appears unstoppable, a tragedy threatens to derail his ambitions.

What Works Well: The incident-packed adaptation of Mordecai Richler's book rides the momentum of an energized and tireless protagonist. Duddy Kravitz is on a mission to hustle and then hustle some more, with no discernable objective other than getting rich. He is able to charm but unable to care, and is driven by resentment at being the neglected child. Yvette, Friar, and Virgil fall into his orbit, but eventually experience his true colours. Richler's script includes matter-of-fact commentary about the societal otherness of being Jewish in 1940s Quebec.

What Does Not Work As Well: The narrative flow suffers from choppiness, and some key events appear to be entirely skipped. To his core Duddy is a selfish and unlikeable character quick to exploit others and unable to trace a learning arc, creating dissonance with Richard Dreyfuss' unerringly sunny and empathetic portrayal.

Key Quote:

Duddy: If I hustle, if I really really hustle, my son is going to have it all.



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Movie Review: The Paper (1994)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Ron Howard  

Starring: Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, Glenn Close, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards  
Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: In Manhattan, Henry (Michael Keaton) is the dedicated Metro editor at the scrappy Sun newspaper. He is embarrassed when his team fails to cover a late-night and seemingly racially-motivated double-murder. Nevertheless Henry is being interviewed for a role at the prestigious Sentinel paper, a career move encouraged by his pregnant wife Martha (Marisa Tomei), a former reporter. Meanwhile Henry spars with rival editor Alicia (Glenn Close), who is dealing with personal financial issues, and managing editor Bernie (Robert Duvall), who has health concerns. When two innocent black youths are arrested in the double murder case, Henry sacrifices everything to uncover the truth, but he only has a few hours before the next edition goes to press. 

What Works Well: Taking place over roughly 24 hours, this is a madcap, high-energy, multi-storyline, humour-infused celebration of newspaper office dynamics. A malfunctioning air conditioning system, complaints about office chairs, petty coverage of parking disputes, career decision points, personal and family pressures, debates about which stories to cover, and the scramble to obtain photographs, all get in the way - or provide fuel for - the business of uncovering the truth and reporting on the biggest stories of the day. Ron Howard maintains a remarkably firm grip on the barely organized chaos, and an excellent cast invests in the disparate characters inhabiting the newsroom.

What Does Not Work As Well: A few too many long tracking shots within the newsroom creep into the final cut, and some of the attempts at humour degenerate into unbecoming physical slapstick or just pure shouting.

Key Quote:

Henry: A clipboard and a confident wave will get you into any building in the world!



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Movie Review: National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

A road trip comedy, National Lampoon's Vacation concocts a hit-and-miss subversive mix of dark humour with seemingly innocent family fun.

The eternally optimistic Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) insists on taking his family on a long road trip from Chicago to the Walley World theme park in Los Angeles. His wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and kids Rusty and Audrey (Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron) are less enthusiastic but pack into the newly acquired garish green Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon to embark on the trip.

Along the way they stop in Kansas to visit Ellen's country bumpkin cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her husband Eddie (Randy Quaid) and their numerous children. Ellen and Eddie foist Phoenix-bound Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and her gnarly dog onto the Griswolds. The adventurous episodes continue, including an unscheduled sojourn into the desert and frequent encounters with a beautiful woman (Christie Brinkley) driving a red Ferrari.

Trendsetting for its time, National Lampoon's Vacation was written by John Hughes (based on his short story for National Lampoon magazine), and directed by Harold Ramis. The film features coarse language spouted in front of children, mild nudity, animal cruelty, sudden death, a theme of middle-aged lust, and unhinged behaviour that tips into armed threats. But it's all presented in the context of an uproariously fun family road trip with a cheerful father egging his brood to have a good time.

The film's dual personality is what gives it a sharp edge, because otherwise this is an episodic and fairly sparse comedy singularly lacking in narrative arcs or character depth. Beyond Clark's insistence that the family ought to have fun no matter how little fun they are having, the film trundles on from one set piece to another, fully dependent on abject stupidity to land the Griswolds in their next mess.

Clark's other journey is that of a middle aged man lusting after a mythical sexy girl driving a super sportscar. The reality is that no Christie Brinkley would ever cast a second glance at a doofus like Clark Griswold as he lugs his family around in a ridiculous station wagon, and this is part of Hughes' perverted take on comedy.

Chevy Chase's screen persona of the straight man with a much higher opinion of himself than merited is perfectly deployed to create Griswold, and he arrows through the film on a downward trajectory towards total humiliation. Other funny men appear in small roles, including Eugene Levy as a car salesman and John Candy as a security guard at Walley World.

National Lampoon's Vacation travels the bumpy road of comedy, delivering some laughs, some bewilderment and plenty of silliness.

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Movie Review: The Last Detail (1973)

A slice-of-life drama about fleeting friendships and the oppressive responsibilities of military life in a civilian context, The Last Detail is an unforgettable low-key road trip.

At the U.S. Naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, Signalman Billy "Badass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Gunner's Mate Richard "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) are given a new assignment: escort 18 year old prisoner Seaman Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid) by train and bus to Portsmouth Naval Prison. Meadows has been convicted of attempting to steal $40 from a charity jar, and sentenced to a ridiculous seven years because he targeted the favourite charity of the naval base commander's wife.

Badass and Mule hatch a plan to make the most of the trip to break the dull monotony of life on the base. They plot to deliver Meadows to Portsmouth as quickly as possible and then spend a week living it up. But Badass starts to feel sorry for the goofy, oversized kleptomaniac Meadows, and decides to give the kid a good time to make up for what he will lose while serving his sentence. Badass and Mule prolong their stay in New York and then Boston, and introduce Meadows to alcohol and women, while helping him build up his assertiveness.

Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Robert Towne, The Last Detail is an understated piece of quintessential 1970s film making. The story of a prison escort detail triggering a road trip cannot be any simpler. The layered theme of psychological confinement holding back all three men emerges slowly, and finally takes over the film with unusual potency.

Stylistically Ashby bathes the film in harsh tones, browns, yellows and whites dominating many of the scenes to represent the unmistakably bleak outlook for all three men. From nondescript cheap motel rooms to characterless diners, the film crawls along an uninspired America surviving through one day just to get to the next similarly joyless day.

And traversing this terrain is one man in handcuffs and two men just as confined in their careers. Meadows cannot help his kleptomania and will be paying the price behind bars for a long time. Badass and Mule are prisoners of their own making. Lifers in the Navy, now stuck inside a military machine but on land and away from any war, their prospects are more grim than anything Meadows faces: at least he gets variety in locale and a release to look forward to. They get nothing except more of the same.

The road trip is a brief escape for all three men, Meadows getting his first introduction to drinking, chanting with hippies, whoring and generally being purposelessly loose. Badass and Mule enjoy the freedom of breaking some rules away from the eyes of authority and doing good by being bad. The three men form a bond of friendship anchored by sailing outside the lines.

Jack Nicholson dominates the film as the anti-authoritarian man reluctantly resigned to a life under the thumb of authority, but seeking every opportunity to bend the rules. Otis Young allows Mule to be a counterbalance, a sailor more invested in the daily regulations of his career but gradually allowing his resistance to crumble. Randy Quaid delivers one of his finest career performances as the clueless Meadows, a man-sized boy with his fate already in the hands of others. Carol Kane, Nancy Allen and Gilda Radner appear in small early career supporting roles.

The Last Detail momentarily challenges all the small details in the inconsequential lives of three men, but the vast emptiness of soul confinement is an overpowering, if quiet, force.



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Movie Review: Midnight Express (1978)

A brutal prison drama, Midnight Express is a grim descent into the nightmare of foreign land captivity at its worst.

Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), a young American tourist in Istanbul, attempts to smuggle some hashish out of the country to sell to his friends back home. He is caught at the airport, and receives no help from mysterious American agent Tex (Bo Hopkins). The Turkish authorities are eager to make an example of him: he is tried and sentenced to spend years in a decrepit, overcrowded prison. The head prison guard is the brutal Hamidou (Paul L. Smith), and Billy survives by making friends with fellow foreign prisoners, including the excitable Jimmy (Randy Quaid), the laid back and friendly Erich (Norbert Weisser) and the elderly Max (John Hurt).

Despite the interventions of his father (Mike Kellin) and a sweaty local lawyer, all attempts to secure Billy's freedom fail. Worse is to come, when after years in captivity his release date is shockingly pushed back. Billy and the fellow prisoners start plotting escape plans, but life in prison will take every bad turn possible. At Billy's lowest point, a visit from his girlfriend Susan (Irene Miracle) proves to be a turning point.

Directed by Alan Parker and based on Hayes' real-life experiences, Midnight Express makes for harrowing viewing. Billy's adventure is not for the faint hearted. This is a story of overzealous local authorities sending a message to the international drug smuggling community by throwing the book at a young man, and what follows in terms of physical and emotional torture is difficult to take.

The film's trajectory is linear and unrelenting. Once Billy falls into the hands of the Turkish authorities there is no escaping the cascading horrific events that follow. There are frequent physical beatings, humiliation and isolation, all in a filthy environment controlled by sadistic guards. The layered cruelty coupled with hopelessness inevitably lead to a slow descent into madness, and Parker never flinches from placing all elements of the agonizing journey on the screen.

Oliver Stone wrote the script (adapting Hayes' book), and takes all possible liberties to make Billy as sympathetic as possible, in the process turning the entire Turkish nation into a cesspool of villainy. The valid criticism of the film is the sharp definition between the foreign prisoners as all worthy of empathy and the portrayal of every Turkish character, from judges and lawyers to guards and prisoners, as corrupt, mean, barbarous, conniving and backstabbing rapists. In addition to prison head guard Hamidou, local prisoner Rifki (Paolo Bonacelli) is a despicable weasel inside the walls, and embodies the worst of what Stone wants to portray about Turkey.

Brad Davis does well in the central role of Billy Hayes, finding the right amounts of determination, intensity and rage. The supporting cast is fragmented, although John Hurt leaves a mark as the seemingly perpetually doped prisoner Max.

Almost physically painful to watch, Midnight Express is an uncompromising cautionary tale delivered with unblinking fervour.

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The Movies Of Randy Quaid

All movies starring Randy Quaid and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Last Picture Show (1971)

What's Up, Doc? (1972)

Paper Moon (1973)

The Last Detail (1973)

The Long Riders (1980)

The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz (1994)

Breakout (1975)

Midnight Express (1978)

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Days Of Thunder (1990)

The Paper (1994)

Independence Day (1996)

Vegas Vacation (1997)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Independence Day (1996)

An alien invasion science fiction extravaganza, Independence Day packs a globe-full of carnage into the story of yucky invaders intent on destroying Earth, and the human efforts to repel them.

With July 4th approaching, a menacing armada of mammoth alien spaceships arrives over Earth, disrupts all satellite communications and takes up station above major cities. US President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), a former air force pilot, is unsure of the aliens' motives and whether or not to order an evacuation. His advisors include the stoic General William Grey (Robert Loggia), excitable Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki (James Rebhorn) and Communications Director Constance Spano (Margaret Colin).

Constance's former husband is David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an intellectually gifted MIT graduate whose lack of ambition has landed him a job as a satellite technician at a television station. David decodes the aliens' inter-fleet communication signal, revealing their countdown towards a massive hostile attack. David and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) rush to the White House to try and warn the President. In Los Angeles, Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) is a cocky air force pilot, debating whether to propose to long-term girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox), an exotic dancer. He interrupts his vacation and reports back to base upon witnessing the alien spaceship above LA.

The aliens do indeed attack as predicted by David, causing massive loss of life and the destruction of entire cities. The President is hustled off on Air Force One, but the First Lady (Mary McDonnell) isn't so lucky. Hiller joins an air force counterattack, but the advanced technology of the invaders proves too strong. President Whitmore faces a monumental challenge to save the human species, and the path to unlocking an effective military counter strategy passes through the government's secretive Area 51 facility in the Nevada desert.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a throwback to 1950s style humans vs. aliens sci-fi thrillers. With the advantage of glitzy special effects and charming actors radiating heroism, the film rides a cool groove of action and devastation, set against end-of-the-world excitement. The film takes its time in the first 30 minutes to establish an interesting set of characters, and once the aliens reveal their intent, Emmerich kicks off more than two hours of merriment and mayhem around a simple question: how will humans fight back when faced with nothing less than a surprise war of annihilation with superior extraterrestrials.

For all the sound, fury and glib one-liners, not all of Independence Day is as slick as it would like to be. The scenes of massive spaceships hovering over cities are impressive, but never quite satisfying with the enemy craft rarely fully defined. In general the computer-generated scenes of destruction are hit-and-miss, with the scale sometimes appearing suspect. To maintain family-friendliness there is a notable absence of corpses in scenes where survivors stumble through the wreckage of cities reduced to rubble. The technological key to defeating the aliens, once found, is barely explained, with star charisma expected to be more important than even an iota of scientific discourse.

The romance elements are standard fare for the genre without getting too much in the way, while the independence day hokum about the rebirth of humanity on America's birthday is adequate for easily excitable patriotic young minds, but is best not dwelled upon.

But star charisma is what Independence Day is all about, and the combination of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum does not disappoint. Smith oozes star power, gets the best lines and the snappiest attitude, and emerges as a hero as both an ace pilot and a man sticking by his exotic dancer girlfriend. Goldblum plays perfectly off his persona as the geeky-but-potentially-cool science guy cultivated around The Fly and Jurassic Park. Bill Pullman is adequate but lands in more bland territory compared to his two co-stars.

The secondary cast adds plenty of texture and is better than the regulation stock characters. Robert Loggia adds stature as the General standing by the side of the President, James Rebhorn is his counterweight as a Secretary of Defence playing politics at the wrong time, and Judd Hirsch get an expanded presence as David's slightly overwhelmed but still thoughtful father. Randy Quaid achieves one his better supporting roles as an alcoholic crop duster with a colourful history related to the aliens, and eventually finds his inner Slim Pickens.

Flashy and furiously fun, Independence Day has much to celebrate.

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Movie Review: The Last Picture Show (1971)

The lives and loves of the residents of a small Texas town in the early 1950s, The Last Picture Show is monumentally winsome. Peter Bogdanovich creates a memorable set of complex characters who take a life of their own, and live on in movie folklore despite the irreversible fading away of their town.

High school seniors and friends Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are facing an uncertain future. Sonny is sensitive and caring, and always looks after the mute Billy the street sweeper (Sam Bottoms). Duane is brash and confident, and more aggressively seeks a path to a better life. Their town of Anarene is dusty, windy, and exists solely to support nearby oil fields. The town's unofficial leader is Sam "the Lion" (Ben Johnson), who attempts to be a positive influence on the lives of the local teenagers and owns the movie theatre, pool hall, and cafe, where waitress Genevieve (Eileen Brennan) works.

Sonny does not much care for his girlfriend, and is soon having an affair with the much older Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), with the semi-tacit approval of her husband, the High School athletics coach. Duane very much likes his girlfriend, town beauty Jacy Farrow (Cybil Shepherd). But Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn) thinks that Duane is not worthy of her daughter. Lois herself is not satisfied with her husband and seeks the affection of oilman Abilene (Clu Gulager).

Jacy uses Duane to lose her virginity and dumps him, turning her attention to older men and richer boys, including the oleaginous Lester (Randy Quaid). A shock awaits Sonny and Duane when they return from an impromptu trip to Mexico, and their lives are set on a nasty collision path involving Jacy. The teenagers need to become men in a hurry, as the destiny of the movie theatre and Anarene itself look ever more bleak.

Bogdanovich co-wrote the screenplay with Marty McMurtry, the author of the semi-autobiographical book, and filmed The Last Picture Show in brilliant black and white. The stark contrasts enhance the film's overall mood of an era of innocence ending, and a town crawling to a dusty death. Bogdanovich cajoles mature performances from a relatively inexperienced cast, Bottoms, Bridges and Shepherd creating characters desperately seeking better futures while struggling through a mundane present.

Timothy Bottoms gives Sonny a somewhat resigned persona as someone who makes the most out of opportunities that come to him rather than creating his own path in life. Sonny's relationship with Ruth is arranged by the coach; he unexpectedly inherits a business; and his relationship with Jacy is very much instigated at her initiative. Meanwhile Bridges portrays Duane as a scrapper who will have to fight for everything in life, and who will therefore lose most of what he values and hurt those who care for him.

Cybill Shepherd effortlessly provides Jacy with a dangerous innocence that becomes increasingly formidable the more she listens to her mother. Openly using sex as a siren to lure men, Jacy's means of escaping the drudgery of life in Anarene is to test drive lovers, with her mother's encouragement, until she finds the one who offers the best chance of easier riches. Jacy and Lois are a daunting mother / daughter couple and make for compelling viewing while representing a harsh indictment of some women's mores in small town Texas.

The countryside is wide open, the roads narrow and bumpy, the cars and trucks are battered, the paint on the walls is peeling, the old men are weathered, and the adults wear an expression of being in a constant battle for economic survival. And the ever present howling wind blows incessantly through Anarene, almost insisting that the town be blown off the map.

Only Billy the street sweeper appears to have the optimism to fight on for the future of the town, tirelessly sweeping the streets, until he too is forced to give up. The Last Picture Show is never more poignant than when the last cheerful light is turned off.

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