The Movie Journal

  Jailhouse Rock (1957) During the 1950’s and 1960’s, rock stars capitalized on their popularity by making feature films starring themselves. Two famous rock stars/bands often did this; The Beatles and The King himself, Elvis Presley. I tried to stay away from these movies because they do not look particularly interesting and I felt like the acting skills would be diminished. As a fan of Elvis’s music, “Jailhouse Rock” is one of his best songs. I felt like perhaps it was time to see his 1957 feature Jailhouse Rock which is widely regarded to as his best film. It is not a complete disaster, but it is also not great. The elaborate dancing sequence with the title song is worth tuning in to because it features unforgettable choreography (from Elvis himself) and of course, the music! That said, the acting is bland, and the story failed to garner my full interest.   This production became Elvis’s third film and first studio film with MGM. The film actually was little known headi...

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The Bridge on the River Kwai is a war movie that is often very entertaining, but it sets itself apart from other war movies. Unlike those other movies, this particular film is a provocative film that asks complex questions, but doesn’t answer them easily. It is all up to the audience to believe what happened and why it happened. Of course, everyone may have different opinions and the movie seems to ask for that. Usually in war movies, they are concerned about the bigger picture such as who wins or who loses, which is all very fair questions. But the reason this film works more than most war films is because it poses questions that are deeper than the winner or loser. The movie talks about individualism. It’s not all about who wins or loses the war, but who is in that war and how does war affect the individual. The most famous quote of the movie is actually the final line of the film. It goes “Madness! Madness!” This quote was nominated by AF...

12 Angry Men (1957)       12 Angry Men is one of best courtroom dramas in the history of cinema. Even though it is an older film, it is also a refreshing take on courtroom dramas. On the surface, this film is a pure drama about the courtroom, but it goes much, much deeper than that. I was discussing in an earlier review ( Dial M for Murder ) about the use of a single location. Well, this film inhabits that single location very much so, and the film is actually famous for that. Outside of three minutes, the film takes place in a single New York City courtroom. That works very well in this film takes to the expert directing by first-time director Sidney Lumet and veteran cinematographer Boris Kaufman. The film is expertly shot and the use of the focal length’s shots allow the audience to feel more of each character’s feelings. Lumet later discussed how a “lens plot” occurred to him. As the movie progressed, he changed the lenses to longer focal lengths, in...