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jabailo
Reviews
The Monitors (1969)
North Americanized Prisoner
This is a somewhat cool movie; however, it loses a bit because the styling and theme is so much like "The Prisoner" (if it had antedated the Prisoner, then it would have been really cool), but it seems more like some kids doing "their version" of the Prisoner for high school.
It certainly has its moments, and I realize it's intended as a black comedy, but since the Prisoner at its core is somewhat dry humor itself...well, there you have it. I mean, even the "leader" is in a room that seems exactly like Number #2's headquarters.
It does get at least two stars just for the appearance of Sherry Jackson, famous for her cross-halter jumpsuit wearing android in the Star Trek and while that is hard to top, she is even more fetching in "the Monitors".
Note: This film is now available with Netflix streaming.
American Playhouse: For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story (1983)
Dramatic
I just finished watching the movie on the THIS network. It's easier to watch a movie like this on TV with commercials to break up the horror of the telling.
Besides presenting the history, with dramatic performances, there were some visually striking scenes. After the students were arrested for protesting, and they were placed in cattle stockades...some girls were singing, as others stuck their heads between the rails -- showing the people being treated as animals.
The film also dealt with the reality of protest...of organizing and needing money, of people speaking out losing their jobs or contracts, of being blacklisted for fighting something wrong, and the moral dilemma of asking people to stand together for their rights at the risk of them losing it all. The film shows the progression from simple concern, to taking a small risk, to being all the way in...and yet, at each step, it offers a chance for the people to stop, and take an easier way out.
Strangely, during the commercials they advertised a movie with John Wayne making this quote, "There's right and there's wrong. You gotta do one or the other. You do the one and you're living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you're dead as a beaver hat." Medgar Evans, and his family and supporters are still alive.
Wendigo (2001)
Not Horror...But Horrible
(Spoilers galore) This is an absolutely awful film. First of all it has that guy from medium. I guess he's made a career out of playing super doting dads. It was OK the first time he tried to scare his son by pretending to be a monster...but then 10 minutes later they cloyingly did it again! And so it goes, this film moves in excruciating real time. At one point, I started imaging it was days later, until I was reminded that the story line was only at the next day...in the early afternoon still! I'm not really sure who this couple is supposed to be in real life. First of all they are presented as sort of a Manhattan yuppie couple who grew up and had a kid. But they drive an old blue Volvo. Those types stopped driving Volvos decades ago. Today they drive Priuses. But in 2002, I'm sure they still weren't driving Volvos.
OK, then there's Wendigo. A "mysterious Indian man" gives the boy a little magic Wendigo statue and tells him of its powerful magic. C'mon...are we still doing ancient Indian mysteries. Just to drive it home, they pan across every Indian statue in their tourist trap upstate New York town. American Indians are portrayed in a manner not seen for decades in this film! Oh, and about Wendigo. He is not actually the cause of the horror. He doesn't kill the kid's dad which is the most horrible thing in the film...he's just killed by an ordinary hick with a grudge and a high powered rifle. The Wendigo only comes out late in the film to avenge the guy who killed the dad...oh, but wait, it seemed earlier that Wendigo was kind of mad at the dad, maybe because he killed a deer...so then Wendigo must have been happy that the dad was killed...but...
And so it goes...insulting, boring and nonsensical. There is no reason to watch this film at all.