Film Faves: 1993
Hey there folks and welcome back to another edition of Film Faves!
Film Faves is a regular feature here on The Gibson Review wherein I count down my twelve favorites of any given film topic. Other sites may offer an objective 'Best of', 'Top Ten' countdown with some Honorable Mentions. With Film Faves, I fill you in on a topic and countdown my favorite dozen - that's it. Think of it as a celebration of film and an extra insight into what really gets me jazzed about movies.
The march through time continues this time with the year 1993. Let's get on with it.
While the year 1993 may not be considered as significant a year in film as what was to come in 1994, it still was a great year in terms of its large quantity of quality films.
To start off, the most prestige of prestige films and perhaps the greatest film of the past 30 years, Schindler's List was released and inevitably won the major awards. Other prestige pictures of the year included The Age of Innocence, In the Name of the Father, The Joy Luck Club, The Piano, Philadelphia, The Remains of the Day, and Surf Ninjas. Ok, maybe not that last one.
The foreign film circuit included Belle Epoque, Farewell My Concubine, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue (the first of a trilogy), and - of course - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
On the other end of the spectrum, in the field of the silly or low-brow comedy, Jim Carrey and Pauly Shore both had their first leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Son in Law, respectively. There were also the spoofs Hot Shots! Part Deux, Fatal Instinct, and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1.
Horror fans were delighted by the promisingly-titled Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, which featured a final bit of fan service at the end that wouldn't pay off for another ten years with Freddy vs. Jason. Also, the third chapter in the Evil Dead series, Army of Darkness thrilled many. And former Ewok and Nelwyn Warwick Davis plastered on the make-up to star in Leprechaun.
Alicia Silverstone made her debut in the thriller The Crush and Macauley Culkin turned bad in The Good Son.
Other notable films of the year include Addams Family Values, Carlito's Way, Dazed and Confused, Rising Sun, The Sandlot, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Short Cuts, Six Degrees of Separation (Will Smith's dramatic film debut), The Three Musketeers, and What's Love Got to Do With It.
No year is immune to crap, however, and 1993 had a fair share with Cop and a Half, Life with Mikey, Look Who's Talking Now, Mr. Nanny, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Son of the Pink Panther, Striking Distance, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Weekend at Bernies II, and the king of shitty video game movies: Super Mario Bros.
As with 1994, there were way too many films I loved to fit on the list. This is more so the case than last time with such films as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Cliffhanger, Cool Runnings, Dave, Demolition Man, Falling Down, The Firm, Last Action Hero, Manhattan Murder Mystery (inspired by deleted portions of Annie Hall), Much Ado About Nothing, The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Perfect World, and Rudy all falling off the list.
Here are the ones that did make the list of my favorite films of
1993:
12. True Romance
It may come as a surprise being as how I’m generally a pretty big Quentin Tarantino fan that I only recently caught up with this love story that he penned and Tony Scott directed. In general, I don’t consider myself a Tony Scott fan (Unstoppable was his first good film since Crimson Tide), but I really enjoyed True Romance. Man and woman fall in love one night. Woman turns out to be a hooker. Man visits woman’s pimp and ends up killing him. Pimp has connections to a drug lord. Man accidentally steals a suitcase full of cocaine. Drug lord sends men after man and woman. Typical love story, no? What blows my mind about this film is its cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Michael Rappaport, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn! How is it possible to get so many talented people together in one movie?! Interestingly, the film’s ending as originally scripted was not so happy for the couple. But Tarantino eventually conceded respectfully to Scott’s fairy tale take on his script and the happier ending won out.
11. Groundhog Day
Bill Murray stars as a man doomed to literally repeat the same day over and over again. That simple premise was enough to provide some of the best comedy of the decade. Ned Ryerson, Punxsutawney Phil, ‘I’ve Got You, Babe’, the suicides… Thankfully, director Harold Ramis had more to offer than a simple gimmick with some gags. In order to un-stick himself from time, Murray’s character must become a better person, which partially involves a romance with a co-worker (Andie McDowell). Groundhog Day is a classic (the AFI named it among the 100 greatest comedies) and arguably Bill Murray’s last great comedic performance. How many times do you suppose he relived that day, anyway?
10. Sleepless in Seattle
Meg Ryan made three romantic comedies with Tom Hanks. Sleepless in Seattle is her best work with him. It’s ironic then that this is the film where they share the least amount of screen time together. What makes it such a great film? It has a charm and strength of writing unmatched by Joe Versus the Volcano or You’ve Got Mail. Unlike many rom-coms – including the latter – the plot does not rely on the romantic leads refusing to initiate a particular conversation. No, instead the widowed Hanks must first re-enter the dating pool, Ryan must become aware of her passionless engagement, and then they must find each other! It is clearly by design that this film pays homage to one of the most conventionally romantic melodramas of Hollywood’s Golden Age, An Affair to Remember. Sleepless, with heart on its skyscraper, swoons at old notions of romance – and it is sweeter and more wholesome for it. The danger of the film then is its surface-level idealization of romantic love and its effects on any 13 year-olds who are looking to find true love – or even a date, for that matter. Regardless, appearances by Rob Reiner, Rita Wilson, Rosie O’Donnell, Gaby Hoffman, and David Hyde Pierce help make this as delightful a confection as those heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.
9. In the Line of Fire
Here’s a nice little political thriller. John Malkovich is frightening as a man plotting to kill the president. Clint Eastwood plays an aging Secret Service agent who was at Kennedy’s side that faithful day decades ago in Dallas, Texas. Malkovich and Eastwood engage in a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Rene Russo is stuck with perhaps the weakest character, a tough agent who represents the attitudes toward women in the workforce of the “That’s sexual harassment. And I don’t have to take it” nineties. She makes the most of it and manages to be just as sexy as she is essential to the team. Eastwood starred and directed another film in 1993 (A Perfect World) that is even less-remembered than this one – this being the better of the two – however both are worthwhile.
8. Fearless
Jeff Bridges had a career revival of sorts in recent years with Crazy Heart and True Grit. But before then, his best performance may have been in this film about post-traumatic survival. The film, directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society), left quite an impression on me at an early age due to its compelling look at trauma and survivor’s guilt. Its unflinchingly realistic plane crash sequence preceded those of many movies and the TV series Lost. Rosie Perez won an Oscar for her performance as a woman who survived the crash, but lost her toddler and is unable to move on. This is Bridges’ show, though. He is disconnected from society and his family. He foolishly challenges the higher powers-that-be by frequently putting his life at risk. Perez’s character is the only one he can relate to and feel compassion for. Fearless is a moving film and one of the most underrated in the careers of both its director and star.
7. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
There were few films like Gilbert Grape – at least back in 1993. It’s a small-town rural film with a quirky cast of characters. However, unlike other small-scale movies with quirky characters, the ones in Gilbert Grape aren’t played for laughs; they feel as real as any rural community near you. In the center of it all is, of course, Gilbert (Johnny Depp in one of his best roles), a twenty-something who begins to feel trapped by the needs of those around him and longs to escape. Leonardo DiCaprio impressed many as a powerful new talent with his convincing early performance as Arnie, Gilbert’s developmentally disabled little brother who causes a lot of headaches by regularly climbing the town’s water tower. The rest of the cast includes Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Kevin Tighe, John C. Reilly, and Crispin Glover, all of whom bring quite a bit of humanity to the film, but no more than Darlene Cates as the Grape household’s morbidly obese matriarch. In every other film a character of her size is a one-dimensional joke. Here, she is a person and partially what anchors Gilbert to his town, even if he’s sometimes embarrassed by her. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the Swedish director behind My Life as a Dog and The Cider House Rules. It is such a beautiful film and Depp’s performance is so quiet and moving that it angers me to think the Academy snubbed his performances in both this film and Ed Wood, failing to recognize his talent until a performance as broad and flamboyant as Captain Jack Sparrow. Perhaps that’s the answer to this film’s title question.
6. My Life
My Life is a little-seen film starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. Keaton plays a father-to-be who is secretly making a catalogue of tapes for his future son about his family, important life lessons, and father/son bonding subjects like how to shave. The reason for these tapes is he is dying of cancer and not expected to live through his wife’s pregnancy. I will admit right off that this film makes me ball like a little baby. It touches on so many aspects of fatherhood and the lessons a father might hope to teach his son. The film’s success depends entirely on Michael Keaton who gives an incredibly touching performance. Nicole Kidman offers a decent amount of support, despite having the film’s one cringe-worthy line (“Love us!”). Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I’ve never been so moved by the sight of a circus as I have in this film.
5. Jurassic Park
Hold on to your butts… While this film drops a few spots due to a couple major continuity errors during the big T-Rex attack that were brought to my attention in recent years, Jurassic Park remains the best adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel and one of Spielberg’s most exciting films of the last twenty years. The velociraptors still scare and Jeff Goldblum, as the film’s chief skeptic, still relieves the tension. Two sequels followed, each worse than what came before, and a fourth film is still being knocked around in development. The experience of seeing believably-rendered dinosaurs walk the earth for the first time – and the phenomenon that chomped its way into pop culture – will never be captured again, even if they try it in 3D.
4. Gettysburg
The year is 1863, less than a hundred years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, three years into the Civil War, and less than 150 years ago. The Confederate and Union armies converged near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a historic battle. It will end General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North, result in the war’s largest number of casualties, and lead to the Union’s victory. This is the story of that three-day engagement and the principle players in it. The film, directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, at a run-time of over four hours, is deliberately paced and quite fatty with moments of pontificating monologues about the war and the relationships between characters of both sides. But it somehow never gets boring. No matter which half of the country you’re from it is without question the men depicted here on both sides are treated fairly and honored as generally good and admirable. What helps carry you through the film’s mammoth length isn’t so much that all of its strategizing and exposition actually goes somewhere (unlike the sequel, Gods & Generals). It is Randy Edelman’s rousing score and the incredible cast. Jeff Daniels, C. Thomas Howard, and Kevin Conway make up the Union’s triumvirate Chamberlain brothers and Sgt. Kilrain. They hold a fantastically intense defensive front that must make up forty minutes of the film; that battle and their relationship are the highlights of the film for me. Martin Sheen and Tom Berenger are the Confederacy’s General Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. They respectfully debate the strategy behind their invasion, hearing each other out with high regard. The rest of the cast features Richard Jordan (in his final role), Stephen Lang (future Avatar villain as Mjr. Gen. Pickett), Sam Elliott, cameos by Donal Logue, Ted Turner, George Lazenby, and Ken Burns, and thousands of Civil War reenactors. Gettysburg is the greatest depiction of the Civil War – albeit only a fraction of it – and one of the finest war films ever made.
3. The Fugitive
The Fugitive is perhaps the greatest movie based on a TV show ever (Mission: Impossible is probably a close 2nd). Harrison Ford plays a wealthy doctor on the hunt for his wife’s one-armed killer, all the while eluding Tommy Lee Jones’ wily U.S. Marshall. Here is a film that doesn’t merely attempt to mimic its source, but instead rises to another level. It’s an intelligent mystery with a couple clever twists, but also a great character-driven drama. Not only do we want Ford’s Richard Kimble to succeed and marvel at his cunning, but we also come to appreciate Jones’s Marshall and his bantering team of expert detectives. Also great is James Newton Howard’s score.
2. Mrs. Doubtfire
This film took third place as your favorite ‘dad’ movie in a recent poll. It may be my favorite of Robin Williams’ comedic roles. The film, directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, first two Harry Potter films), taps into the truths of divorce and the bond between a father and his kids without getting sappy. Oh yeah, it’s also really funny. Harvey Fierstein gives a memorable performance as the supportive gay make-up artist brother, without whom the entire plot wouldn’t be possible. Pierce Brosnan is great as the well-to-do man you want to hate who moves in on Daniel’s (Williams) ex-wife and kids. I cannot hear ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ without picturing Williams in drag rocking out while sweeping.
1. Tombstone
The cast. The dialogue. The score. I love just about everything in this movie. It’s amazing this film turned out as well as it did; the production was riddled with issues and director turn-over. Check this cast list out: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, Dana Delaney, Powers Boothe, Jon Tenney, Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church, Jason Priestley, Terry O’Quinn, Billy Zane, Michael Rooker, John Corbett, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Ben-Victor, Harry Carey Jr., Charlton Heston, and Robert Mitchum. That clearly kicks True Romance’s ass! Kilmer is a particular stand-out (an achievement in itself with such a cast) as Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp’s friend ‘til the end. Also worth noting, Kevin Jarre, screenwriter of Glory, wrote the script and directed Heston’s scenes. George P. Cosmatos, who’d previously directed First Blood Part II and Cobra, got the final director credit. Also, one Catherine Hardwick, who’d later direct Thirteen and Twilight, worked as the film’s production designer. Interestingly, Tombstone was released six months before a similar film, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner. Apparently, this isn’t much of a coincidence as Costner was originally interested in Tombstone, but felt Wyatt should be the main focus. He parted and made his own film. It did not do as well, as its gross failed to meet half its budget and only eleven of twenty-six critics reviewed it positively. Tombstone, on the other hand, is the second best western of the 1990s, in my opinion.
That about wraps up 1993. What are your favorite movies? Did I overlook any movies you loved that year? Feel free to post a comment below or on the Facebook Fan Page. Also, be sure to vote on the poll to the right.
Next time on Film Faves, Sharon Stone's legs get cross-examined, Steven Seagal goes toe-to-toe against Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood ponders violence, and a valley girl fights off vampires. It's party time, excellent, with 1992 and a friend like you!
Film Faves is a regular feature here on The Gibson Review wherein I count down my twelve favorites of any given film topic. Other sites may offer an objective 'Best of', 'Top Ten' countdown with some Honorable Mentions. With Film Faves, I fill you in on a topic and countdown my favorite dozen - that's it. Think of it as a celebration of film and an extra insight into what really gets me jazzed about movies.
The march through time continues this time with the year 1993. Let's get on with it.
While the year 1993 may not be considered as significant a year in film as what was to come in 1994, it still was a great year in terms of its large quantity of quality films.
To start off, the most prestige of prestige films and perhaps the greatest film of the past 30 years, Schindler's List was released and inevitably won the major awards. Other prestige pictures of the year included The Age of Innocence, In the Name of the Father, The Joy Luck Club, The Piano, Philadelphia, The Remains of the Day, and Surf Ninjas. Ok, maybe not that last one.
The foreign film circuit included Belle Epoque, Farewell My Concubine, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue (the first of a trilogy), and - of course - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
On the other end of the spectrum, in the field of the silly or low-brow comedy, Jim Carrey and Pauly Shore both had their first leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Son in Law, respectively. There were also the spoofs Hot Shots! Part Deux, Fatal Instinct, and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1.
Horror fans were delighted by the promisingly-titled Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, which featured a final bit of fan service at the end that wouldn't pay off for another ten years with Freddy vs. Jason. Also, the third chapter in the Evil Dead series, Army of Darkness thrilled many. And former Ewok and Nelwyn Warwick Davis plastered on the make-up to star in Leprechaun.
Alicia Silverstone made her debut in the thriller The Crush and Macauley Culkin turned bad in The Good Son.
Other notable films of the year include Addams Family Values, Carlito's Way, Dazed and Confused, Rising Sun, The Sandlot, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Short Cuts, Six Degrees of Separation (Will Smith's dramatic film debut), The Three Musketeers, and What's Love Got to Do With It.
No year is immune to crap, however, and 1993 had a fair share with Cop and a Half, Life with Mikey, Look Who's Talking Now, Mr. Nanny, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Son of the Pink Panther, Striking Distance, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Weekend at Bernies II, and the king of shitty video game movies: Super Mario Bros.
As with 1994, there were way too many films I loved to fit on the list. This is more so the case than last time with such films as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Cliffhanger, Cool Runnings, Dave, Demolition Man, Falling Down, The Firm, Last Action Hero, Manhattan Murder Mystery (inspired by deleted portions of Annie Hall), Much Ado About Nothing, The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Perfect World, and Rudy all falling off the list.
Here are the ones that did make the list of my favorite films of
1993:
It may come as a surprise being as how I’m generally a pretty big Quentin Tarantino fan that I only recently caught up with this love story that he penned and Tony Scott directed. In general, I don’t consider myself a Tony Scott fan (Unstoppable was his first good film since Crimson Tide), but I really enjoyed True Romance. Man and woman fall in love one night. Woman turns out to be a hooker. Man visits woman’s pimp and ends up killing him. Pimp has connections to a drug lord. Man accidentally steals a suitcase full of cocaine. Drug lord sends men after man and woman. Typical love story, no? What blows my mind about this film is its cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Michael Rappaport, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Bronson Pinchot, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn! How is it possible to get so many talented people together in one movie?! Interestingly, the film’s ending as originally scripted was not so happy for the couple. But Tarantino eventually conceded respectfully to Scott’s fairy tale take on his script and the happier ending won out.
Bill Murray stars as a man doomed to literally repeat the same day over and over again. That simple premise was enough to provide some of the best comedy of the decade. Ned Ryerson, Punxsutawney Phil, ‘I’ve Got You, Babe’, the suicides… Thankfully, director Harold Ramis had more to offer than a simple gimmick with some gags. In order to un-stick himself from time, Murray’s character must become a better person, which partially involves a romance with a co-worker (Andie McDowell). Groundhog Day is a classic (the AFI named it among the 100 greatest comedies) and arguably Bill Murray’s last great comedic performance. How many times do you suppose he relived that day, anyway?
Meg Ryan made three romantic comedies with Tom Hanks. Sleepless in Seattle is her best work with him. It’s ironic then that this is the film where they share the least amount of screen time together. What makes it such a great film? It has a charm and strength of writing unmatched by Joe Versus the Volcano or You’ve Got Mail. Unlike many rom-coms – including the latter – the plot does not rely on the romantic leads refusing to initiate a particular conversation. No, instead the widowed Hanks must first re-enter the dating pool, Ryan must become aware of her passionless engagement, and then they must find each other! It is clearly by design that this film pays homage to one of the most conventionally romantic melodramas of Hollywood’s Golden Age, An Affair to Remember. Sleepless, with heart on its skyscraper, swoons at old notions of romance – and it is sweeter and more wholesome for it. The danger of the film then is its surface-level idealization of romantic love and its effects on any 13 year-olds who are looking to find true love – or even a date, for that matter. Regardless, appearances by Rob Reiner, Rita Wilson, Rosie O’Donnell, Gaby Hoffman, and David Hyde Pierce help make this as delightful a confection as those heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.
Here’s a nice little political thriller. John Malkovich is frightening as a man plotting to kill the president. Clint Eastwood plays an aging Secret Service agent who was at Kennedy’s side that faithful day decades ago in Dallas, Texas. Malkovich and Eastwood engage in a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Rene Russo is stuck with perhaps the weakest character, a tough agent who represents the attitudes toward women in the workforce of the “That’s sexual harassment. And I don’t have to take it” nineties. She makes the most of it and manages to be just as sexy as she is essential to the team. Eastwood starred and directed another film in 1993 (A Perfect World) that is even less-remembered than this one – this being the better of the two – however both are worthwhile.
Jeff Bridges had a career revival of sorts in recent years with Crazy Heart and True Grit. But before then, his best performance may have been in this film about post-traumatic survival. The film, directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society), left quite an impression on me at an early age due to its compelling look at trauma and survivor’s guilt. Its unflinchingly realistic plane crash sequence preceded those of many movies and the TV series Lost. Rosie Perez won an Oscar for her performance as a woman who survived the crash, but lost her toddler and is unable to move on. This is Bridges’ show, though. He is disconnected from society and his family. He foolishly challenges the higher powers-that-be by frequently putting his life at risk. Perez’s character is the only one he can relate to and feel compassion for. Fearless is a moving film and one of the most underrated in the careers of both its director and star.
There were few films like Gilbert Grape – at least back in 1993. It’s a small-town rural film with a quirky cast of characters. However, unlike other small-scale movies with quirky characters, the ones in Gilbert Grape aren’t played for laughs; they feel as real as any rural community near you. In the center of it all is, of course, Gilbert (Johnny Depp in one of his best roles), a twenty-something who begins to feel trapped by the needs of those around him and longs to escape. Leonardo DiCaprio impressed many as a powerful new talent with his convincing early performance as Arnie, Gilbert’s developmentally disabled little brother who causes a lot of headaches by regularly climbing the town’s water tower. The rest of the cast includes Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Kevin Tighe, John C. Reilly, and Crispin Glover, all of whom bring quite a bit of humanity to the film, but no more than Darlene Cates as the Grape household’s morbidly obese matriarch. In every other film a character of her size is a one-dimensional joke. Here, she is a person and partially what anchors Gilbert to his town, even if he’s sometimes embarrassed by her. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the Swedish director behind My Life as a Dog and The Cider House Rules. It is such a beautiful film and Depp’s performance is so quiet and moving that it angers me to think the Academy snubbed his performances in both this film and Ed Wood, failing to recognize his talent until a performance as broad and flamboyant as Captain Jack Sparrow. Perhaps that’s the answer to this film’s title question.
My Life is a little-seen film starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. Keaton plays a father-to-be who is secretly making a catalogue of tapes for his future son about his family, important life lessons, and father/son bonding subjects like how to shave. The reason for these tapes is he is dying of cancer and not expected to live through his wife’s pregnancy. I will admit right off that this film makes me ball like a little baby. It touches on so many aspects of fatherhood and the lessons a father might hope to teach his son. The film’s success depends entirely on Michael Keaton who gives an incredibly touching performance. Nicole Kidman offers a decent amount of support, despite having the film’s one cringe-worthy line (“Love us!”). Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I’ve never been so moved by the sight of a circus as I have in this film.
Hold on to your butts… While this film drops a few spots due to a couple major continuity errors during the big T-Rex attack that were brought to my attention in recent years, Jurassic Park remains the best adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel and one of Spielberg’s most exciting films of the last twenty years. The velociraptors still scare and Jeff Goldblum, as the film’s chief skeptic, still relieves the tension. Two sequels followed, each worse than what came before, and a fourth film is still being knocked around in development. The experience of seeing believably-rendered dinosaurs walk the earth for the first time – and the phenomenon that chomped its way into pop culture – will never be captured again, even if they try it in 3D.
The year is 1863, less than a hundred years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, three years into the Civil War, and less than 150 years ago. The Confederate and Union armies converged near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a historic battle. It will end General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North, result in the war’s largest number of casualties, and lead to the Union’s victory. This is the story of that three-day engagement and the principle players in it. The film, directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, at a run-time of over four hours, is deliberately paced and quite fatty with moments of pontificating monologues about the war and the relationships between characters of both sides. But it somehow never gets boring. No matter which half of the country you’re from it is without question the men depicted here on both sides are treated fairly and honored as generally good and admirable. What helps carry you through the film’s mammoth length isn’t so much that all of its strategizing and exposition actually goes somewhere (unlike the sequel, Gods & Generals). It is Randy Edelman’s rousing score and the incredible cast. Jeff Daniels, C. Thomas Howard, and Kevin Conway make up the Union’s triumvirate Chamberlain brothers and Sgt. Kilrain. They hold a fantastically intense defensive front that must make up forty minutes of the film; that battle and their relationship are the highlights of the film for me. Martin Sheen and Tom Berenger are the Confederacy’s General Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. They respectfully debate the strategy behind their invasion, hearing each other out with high regard. The rest of the cast features Richard Jordan (in his final role), Stephen Lang (future Avatar villain as Mjr. Gen. Pickett), Sam Elliott, cameos by Donal Logue, Ted Turner, George Lazenby, and Ken Burns, and thousands of Civil War reenactors. Gettysburg is the greatest depiction of the Civil War – albeit only a fraction of it – and one of the finest war films ever made.
The Fugitive is perhaps the greatest movie based on a TV show ever (Mission: Impossible is probably a close 2nd). Harrison Ford plays a wealthy doctor on the hunt for his wife’s one-armed killer, all the while eluding Tommy Lee Jones’ wily U.S. Marshall. Here is a film that doesn’t merely attempt to mimic its source, but instead rises to another level. It’s an intelligent mystery with a couple clever twists, but also a great character-driven drama. Not only do we want Ford’s Richard Kimble to succeed and marvel at his cunning, but we also come to appreciate Jones’s Marshall and his bantering team of expert detectives. Also great is James Newton Howard’s score.
This film took third place as your favorite ‘dad’ movie in a recent poll. It may be my favorite of Robin Williams’ comedic roles. The film, directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, first two Harry Potter films), taps into the truths of divorce and the bond between a father and his kids without getting sappy. Oh yeah, it’s also really funny. Harvey Fierstein gives a memorable performance as the supportive gay make-up artist brother, without whom the entire plot wouldn’t be possible. Pierce Brosnan is great as the well-to-do man you want to hate who moves in on Daniel’s (Williams) ex-wife and kids. I cannot hear ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ without picturing Williams in drag rocking out while sweeping.
The cast. The dialogue. The score. I love just about everything in this movie. It’s amazing this film turned out as well as it did; the production was riddled with issues and director turn-over. Check this cast list out: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, Dana Delaney, Powers Boothe, Jon Tenney, Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church, Jason Priestley, Terry O’Quinn, Billy Zane, Michael Rooker, John Corbett, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Ben-Victor, Harry Carey Jr., Charlton Heston, and Robert Mitchum. That clearly kicks True Romance’s ass! Kilmer is a particular stand-out (an achievement in itself with such a cast) as Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp’s friend ‘til the end. Also worth noting, Kevin Jarre, screenwriter of Glory, wrote the script and directed Heston’s scenes. George P. Cosmatos, who’d previously directed First Blood Part II and Cobra, got the final director credit. Also, one Catherine Hardwick, who’d later direct Thirteen and Twilight, worked as the film’s production designer. Interestingly, Tombstone was released six months before a similar film, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner. Apparently, this isn’t much of a coincidence as Costner was originally interested in Tombstone, but felt Wyatt should be the main focus. He parted and made his own film. It did not do as well, as its gross failed to meet half its budget and only eleven of twenty-six critics reviewed it positively. Tombstone, on the other hand, is the second best western of the 1990s, in my opinion.
That about wraps up 1993. What are your favorite movies? Did I overlook any movies you loved that year? Feel free to post a comment below or on the Facebook Fan Page. Also, be sure to vote on the poll to the right.
Next time on Film Faves, Sharon Stone's legs get cross-examined, Steven Seagal goes toe-to-toe against Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood ponders violence, and a valley girl fights off vampires. It's party time, excellent, with 1992 and a friend like you!