Ranked 87 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies
Watched May 2018.
Cast: Robin Williams (Dr Sean Maguire), Matt Damon (Will), Ben Affleck (Chuckie), Minnie Driver (Skylar), Stellan Skarsgård (Professor Lambeau), John Mighton (Tom), Rachel Majorowski (Krystyn), Colleen McCauley (Cathy), Casey Affleck (Morgan), Cole Hauser (Billy)
Director: Gus Van Sant
My rating: 9.5 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
Ranked 71 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies
Watched April 2019
Cast: Dustin Hoffman (Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo), Jon Voight (Joe Buck), Sylvia Miles (Cass), John McGiver (Mr. O’Daniel), Brenda Vaccaro (Shirley)
Director: John Schlesinger
My rating: 7.5 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
Synopsis
The movie starts wth Texan dishwasher Joe Buck (Jon Voight) who convinced of his irresistible appeal to women, decided to quit his job and head for New York City, thinking he’ll make a fortune as a gigolo. During this bus trip we get some flashbacks into Joe’s past that come up again throughout the movie including traumatic experience with a former girlfriend and a gang assault on them.
New York turns out to be much harder for the naive Joe then he imagined. After checking into a seedy Manhattan hotel, Joe takes to the streets and eventually picks up Cass (Sylvia Miles), a rich, middle-aged blonde, but Joe not only doesn’t get paid he ends up giving taxi money to Cass as she starts crying about Joe implying she needed to pay for sex.
Later, at a cheap Broadway bar, Joe meets Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a crippled, petty thief and con artist who volunteers to work as his pimp and manager. Ratso however hustles Joe for introduction money setting him up with a bizarre encounter with a religious fanatic.
However the two eventually form a rough alliance, and together they kick-start Joe’s hustling career. Ratso even shares with Joe his fantasy of someday living a life of luxury in Miami Beach.
Joe’s encounters continue to be failures however including a tough homosexual experience that Joe clearing doesn’t enjoy with a timid male student only to discover that the boy cannot pay. Eventually things pick up a little when Joe meets a chic swinger at a weird far out underground party in Greenwich Village, and finally gets paid for spending a wild night with her.
However just as Joe has made a contact to get into his gigolo career Ratso’s health begins to deteriorate. Determined to get the bus fare to take his friend to his dream location in Florida, Joe brutally beats up an aging homosexual in a hotel room and steals his money (it’s unclear if Joe killed this man). Ratso manages to get onto the bus, but he dies as they reach Miami just after Joe as disposed of his cowboy outfit.
What’s to Like
The New York underbelly, the weird (but good) Warhol-type psychedelic party, the Dustin Hoffman improvised taxi scene “I’m walking here” after a real life taxi almost runs him down as they are shooting a scene is classic New York attitude.
What’s not to Like
The undertones against homosexuals throughout the movie, gay characters are the lowest people in the movie and the lowest acts that Joe participates in which his last encounter leading him to beat up a middle age gay man for money.
Thoughts
“I’m no cowboy but I’m a real stud,” Joe keeps informing us. His grandmother taught him that being a cowboy is great and it’s a role he wants to play, the wild man living on his skills (in this case love making).
Sex is obviously a major point in a movie about a hustler (gigolo) but despite Joe seeing this as something great it’s actually presented as very depressing acts, not as a way of connecting or positive mutual act, and many times the sex is associated with violence, including a flashback to Joe’s girlfriend and him being raped in Texas, and Joe attacking and maybe killing a gay man.
Joe loses himself and his naive beliefs after many many lessons on how harsh life can be and how selfish people can be. Disposing of his cowboy outfit near the end of the movie can be seen as the point when Joe finally understands the world better but is he a better person for this or is he an even worse human being? I lean towards worse despite Joe attempting to help Ratso escape to warm Florida as I can’t forgive the attack on a hapless and deseparate middle aged gay male to fund this adventure.
It’s definitely a movie you won’t quickly forget. The gritty nature of life does feel most real life for the era of the movie but it couldn’t help but make me feel a little sad, the human eat human nature of survive of self above others. Still it’s a very memorable movie and deserves it’s acclaim especially the lead actors who could have easily won an academy award.
Academy Awards
Ranked 69 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies
Watched April 2019
Cast: Clark Gable (Peter), Claudette Colbert (Ellie), Walter Connolly (Andrews), Roscoe Karns (Shapeley), Jameson Thomas (Westley), Alan Hale (Danker)
Director: Frank Capra
My rating: 8 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
In early January 2019 I turned 45 years old and later that month my youngest niece Erin commenced high school, both events got me focusing on creating some short, medium and long term future goals.
I decided to set goals into short term (12-15 months), medium term (3 years) and long term (6 years). The long term timeframe is being set by Erin’s expected finish in high school and the possible time between high school and University or joining the workforce. The short term timeframe is set on the wedding of my oldest nephew Andrew and my niece Danelle set for Friday 6 March 2019.
I decided to group these goals into four board groups;
Ranked 88 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies.
Watched April 2018.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Charlie Allnut), Katharine Hepburn (Rose Sayer), Robert Morley (Rev. Samuel Sayer), Peter Bull (German Captain)
Director: John Huston
My rating: 7.5 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
Ranked 89 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies.
Watched April 2018.
Cast: Claire Trevor (Dallas), John Wayne (Henry the “Ringo Kid”), Thomas Mitchell (Doc Boone), Andy Devine (Buck), John Carradine (Hatfield), George Bancroft (Marshal Curley Wilcox), Louise Platt (Lucy Mallory), Donald Meek (Samuel Peacock), Berton Churchill (Henry Gatewood)
Director: John Ford
My rating: 7 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
Ranked 90 on the IMDB Top 100 Movies.
Watched March 2019.
Cast: Charles Laughton (William Bligh), Clark Gable (Fletcher Christian), Franchot Tone (Roger Byam), Herbert Mundin (Smith), Eddie Quillan (Ellison), Dudley Digges (Bacchus), Donald Crisp (Burkitt)
Director: Frank Lloyd
My rating: 8 / 10
Danelle’s rating: ??
