Your Favorite Feature: Film Reviews!

Yes, it's time for movie reviews again -- one of our consistently most popular types of posts.  Today, we have an added bonus: two reviews.  One is a Fellini movie, and one is by Sergio Leone.  You should rent one of them right away, while I think you should take a pass on the other.  Fellini is up first.

Amarcord (1973)

Fellini's Amarcord won the Oscar for best foreign film.  It was nominated for best direction and best original screenplay.  You should watch it and see why.

This is the third Fellini movie I've watched during my adventure.  The thing that amazed me so much about Amarcord is not that it was fantastic; it's that it was fantastic without being Felliniesque.  In other words, this is a relatively straightforward, linear, and simple story.  It is not surreal or astract or high-falutin' in any way.  (For some of you -- and you know who you are -- that is important!)

"Amarcord" means "I remember" in Italiano.  As I understand it, Fellini intended this be his homage to his small-town native city.  It takes place during the rise of Fascism in Italy in the '30s.  The story is basically a year-in-the-life of this small town.  There are lovable and eccentric characters throughout.  The children are going through puberty, and trying to have fun, navigate around school and their church, and deal with their parents.  The adults are trying to deal with their children, their spouses (or lack thereof), their jobs, the church, and the local politics.  In other words, Amarcord is just about normal life.  But it's wonderfully told, funny, poignant, and absolutely charming.  Watch it and feel nostalgia for your hometown -- and spend 2 hours smiling.  Guaranteed.

A Fistful of Dollars (Per Un Pugno di Dollari) (1964)

As you know, I've been trying to watch the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns.  I loved The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and I liked Once Upon A Time In The West almost as much.  A Fistful of Dollars was the first of the Leone/Eastwood pics.  I'm sorry to say that I did not care much for this one.

Maybe it's because this was the first of the Leone/Eastwood spaghetti western collaborations.  Maybe Leone's style was still evolving.  But this one did little for me.  All of these movies are quite spare when it comes to dialogue and even to action.  They are slow.  But the other ones I'd watched have real dramatic tension and some brilliant wit.  I didn't find much of either element in A Fistful of Dollars.  It seemed a little primitive.

I will still probably give the second Leone/Eastwood/Morricone effort (For a Few Dollars More) a watch.  But I cannot recommend this one.