Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

So I carried out my threat and created a meme. Hee! And then promptly left the text document at work. *sigh* So the full list of meme questions will be posted tomorrow. However, I remember the first one easy enough, I figured we'd get the basics out of the way :) OH! Warning! There are spoilers here because none of these movies are recent so be warned. I'd particular suggest being careful if you've never seen The Sting - that's a movie that should never be spoiled before you watch it!!

1. What is your favourite movie? (Or Top 5, Top 10, Top OMG I Got Carried Away etc)

I'm going for a Top 5 here as this particular list hasn't changed in a long time (I'm kinda hoping Salt is good enough to bump one of these down a lil' :D)

In reverse order:-

5. Sanjuro

Ahh Toshiro Mifune *draws hearts alllll around him* Did for Samurai what John Wayne did for Westerns :). "Sanjuro" (meaning Thirty Year Old - it's a name the ronin uses in both this movie and the prequel, "Yojimbo") helps nine young samurai rescue an honest government official and his family. It's a lighter movie than Yohimbo, several scenes are played for comedy, but there's a strong dramatic element, culminating in the amazing duel at the end - blink and you'll miss Sanjuro's draw. I prefer this movie to Yojimbo mostly because I think the pacing is better and it is a lighter story. Which is not to say it's not without several dozen fantastic sword fights :D I have often mourned that there are only two proper Sanjuro movies and wish that Kurosawa and Mifune had made more. Ah well.

4. 28 Days

NOT 28 Days Later! Do not think I've suddenly taken a liking for horror movies :D No, this is a delightfully sappy Sandra Bullock movie about an alcoholic writer who has to go to rehab for 28 Days. This is my go to movie when I want to be cheered up :D There is an outstanding support cast - Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Alan Tudyk, Diane Ladd and Dominic West to name just a few - and while the plot is nothing outstandingly original, it's well done and well acted. Plus it has the best use of "Joy to the World" ever :D

3. The Shawshank Redemption

If I need to tell you about this movie, I can only assume you spent the last 10 years or so under a rock. It's only the best prison movie ever made, ever ever ever so there! *nodsnodsnods* Based on a Stephen King short story, the movie stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as prisoners in the brutal Shawshank prison, after Robbin's character, Andy Dufresne, is convicted (wrongly) of his wife's murder. Another movie with a terrific supporting cast and terrific script and a final sorta twist in the tale that makes people cheer out loud when they see it for the first time :D And it's got a happy ending which makes me a happy mousey. Seriously, check this movie out. It's a movie I'm going to mention again in later categories in this meme, 'm sure :)

2. The Cruel Sea

OK, I will be surprised if anyone younger than me knows this one as it hasn't been shown on TV for a loooong time. A black and white classic British war movie, this starts Jack Hawkins and Donald Sinden as navy officers fighting the German submarines in the Atlantic during WWII. It's based on a book although it makes some significant changes (and I read the book and was thoroughly disappointed with it). It really does show just how basic things were - none of the flashy technology we take for granted on warships now is available until about half way through the movie when they try out this new fangled radar thing. The conditions the men work under and the grim reality of war and the choices that had to be made are well shown, such as the decision not to stop and pick up survivors of a wreck because a submarine is waiting to torpedo them. Halfway through, the film devastates you by having our hero's ship torpedoed and many of the secondary characters we've spent the first half getting to know are killed, but that was the grim reality of being sunk, many didn't make it. *sniffles* Still one of the best war movies made in my humble opinion.


1. The Sting

I first saw this movie waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the late 70's, when it was shown on BBC one Christmas. I was absolutely glued to the TV and my Mom, who'd seen the movie at the cinema and knew the plot, had huge amounts of fun with the twists and turns the plot takes, making me keep watching right to the end so I could see how the sting actually worked. My jaw was on the floor. The con movie that all other movies can only attempt to equal, never better, and elements of the sting reappear in movie after movie. Of course, any movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman is going to be good :D Those two were brilliant in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" but for my money, they were never better than here. Newman plays the grizzled old conmeister, Henry Gondorff, while Redford is the up and coming youngster, Johnny Hooker. They square up against the evil Doyle Lonnegan, played with malevolent restraint by Robert Shaw, and through a series of smaller cons, take Doyle to the cleaners with "the sting" at the end. Oh the twists at the end! Imagine the mousey squeaking when I thought Johnny really had betrayed them all and that both he and Henry were dead! And the squeaking when they both got up and grinned once Doyle was out of the way! I still squeak happily everytime I watch that scene :D

Here's a clip from early in the film, after Hooker meets Henry and they start the process of setting up the con.