The Hot Rock

Robert Redford is one of those iconic actors that I have, for whatever reason, never spent much time watching.  It's not a conscious omission, I just haven't happened to see his work; in fact, combing through his IMDb profile, I realized that I have only seen three of his movies that have been made in the last thirty years.  I mention this because The Hot Rock is not one of Redford's most famous films, and wouldn't typically be the movie someone watches to acquaint themselves with a Hollywood icon.  So, why The Hot Rock?  Well, I had access to it, it had Robert Redford in his prime, the director had recently made Bullitt, the screenplay was written by William Goldman (one of my favorite authors), and it was a heist movie.  Even though the film is not famous today, that sounded like a pretty good combination of things I like.

Career criminal Dortmunder (Robert Redford), literally minutes after he completes his most recent prison stay, is approached by his brother-in-law, Andy (George Segal), for a heist job.  It seems that the Brooklyn museum has a very valuable diamond that was once a cherished artifact for an unnamed African nation.  A representative of that nation, Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn), wants to have the diamond returned to his people, but diplomacy hasn't worked, so he's interested in funding a heist.  Dortmunder is the master planner and Andy picks locks, but that's not enough.  They recruit a driver, Murch (Ron Leibman), and an explosives expert, Greenberg (Paul Sand), to round out the team.  There is just one small problem.  These guys are idiots.  What sets The Hot Rock apart from other heist movies is that the theft is successful, but also botched.  The plan is solid, and they execute it well, but there is a mishap that forces the group to fend for themselves.  This leads to more robbery attempts, which also work, but are also bungled.  To give you an idea of how goofy things get, the final robbery attempt includes hypnotic suggestion and the phrase "Afghanistan banana stand."

"People will remember this movie for what phrase?!?

How's the acting?  It's a little odd, to be honest.  Robert Redford does a solid job in the lead role, but he appears to be unaware that he is starring in a comedy.  He isn't acting as a straight man, he isn't playing anything for laughs...he's just doing a good dramatic role and occasionally getting frustrated at the incompetence of his coworkers.  It's an odd fit for a film that leans toward slapstick comedy.  George Segal is much more at home in his role, which plays to his strengths; he gets to whine, make comedic asides, and overplay some Jewish stereotypes.  I'm not a big Segal fan (I consider him a B-level Elliott Gould, who I also don't particularly like) and this didn't change my mind, but he wasn't too obnoxious here.  Neither Paul Sand nor Ron Leibman did anything too memorable, but I thought Moses Gunn was fine as the exasperated financier of the group.  Zero Mostel plays an important role in the final third of the film, although it isn't groundbreaking; he plays a dishonest lawyer with tricks up his sleeve.  While I won't say that Mostel was very funny or acted particularly well, I will admit that his tendency for overacting was more subdued here than in other films.

Peter Yates did a good job directing portions of this movie, but seemed less sure of his talents in other parts.  I thought the heists were all shot and edited well, and would have fit in a serious crime movie with no problem.  My problem comes from the comedic moments.  I don't think Yates has much of a comedic touch or a sense of timing.  Perhaps he was counting on William Goldman's script to provide the humor, but he shouldn't have.  This isn't a witty script; it needed help from the direction and editing.  Sure, the action sequences looked good, but the fact that the goofier moments didn't pack more comedic punch and Redford's apparent disconnect from the rest of the film detract from Yates' successes in the film.  And the whole hypnosis thing was out of left field.

There are only two screenshots from this movie online, and this was one of them.  Huh.

I was not expecting The Hot Rock to be a goofy crime caper.  That's fine.  I don't require movies to conform to my expectations...but this one probably should have.  The acting from Redford, the pretty cool heist sequences, and the general tone of the movie would have lent themselves better to a less slapstick film.  I think Great Britain agreed with me; the title of the movie was changed to a kookier one for the UK theatrical release:

While I may have preferred the movie more if it had been more serious (or at least less silly), it's still a decent watch.  I wouldn't say that it is anything special, and I completely understand how it has become a lesser-known work for all those involved, but it's a lightweight and inoffensive popcorn flick.

Marathon Man

After his award-winning and iconic performance in Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman's career changed.  In the 90s, some of his more memorable performances were the colorful characters in Hook, Wag the Dog, and Dick Tracy, while his post-2000 output is split between "quirky" and voice-over work for children's movies.  In other words, his characters have become more "characters" than people.  For anyone just reaching adulthood (which would mean that they were born in 1993, which makes me feel older than the pyramids), Dustin Hoffman has always been a silly, short actor.  When I watched Marathon Man recently, it reminded me just how good Hoffman once was at portraying the everyman.

This movie doesn't introduce the audience to Hoffman's character right away.  Instead, it focuses on a case of road rage between an elderly German-American and an elderly Jewish-American that results in both drivers being killed in a collision with an oil truck.  And my wife wonders why I hate driving in the city.  It takes a while before the importance of that incident becomes clear, but I'll save you the suspense.  The German was the brother of Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier), an infamous Nazi doctor.  Szell's brother would cash in his brother's stolen treasures from the war and send the money by courier to Szell in his well-protected South American home.  Without his brother to turn the goods into money, Szell must risk a return to America, or else be killed by his protectors when his money runs out.

Doc (Roy Scheider) works as a CIA operative, with one of his responsibilities being to help Szell; in exchange for transferring the money to Szell, the US government would get information about surviving Nazi war criminals from Szell.  But the CIA doesn't care enough about Szell to protect him any more.  To make sure that Doc doesn't impede his plan, Szell fatally wounds him.  Doc manages to make his way all the way across New York City to his brother, Babe's (Dustin Hoffman), apartment.  Any man that go to such great lengths to prolong his pain, but not his life, must have had a good reason for doing so, right?  Well, that means that anyone interested in Szell's riches is now suddenly interested in Babe, and the stakes are high enough to justify just about anything.

Marathon Man was adapted from the book of the same name by the book's author, William Goldman.  If you are familiar with his work, then it should be no surprise that this is a layered narrative that pieces together seemingly unconnected stories surprisingly well.  If you are familiar with his screenplays, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of what made the book fun to read has been edited out of the screenplay, to make it a more manageable story.  The core story remains mostly unchanged, except for the ending, so we still have the benefit of Goldman's awesome characters.  Sure, it's easy to like Babe, because he's a stubborn, intelligent, poor college student.  Doc was an interesting character, despite his brief screen time.  Even William Devane was given a character with levels.  The character that stands out the most, though, is definitely Szell.  Laurence Olivier's performance was chilling and, if you don't like the dentist, the stuff of nightmares.  The infamous scene where he tortures Babe with dentistry, while not explicit, is still unsettling.

A classic Shakespearean actor, about to mess you up.

This movie is not about the characters, as interesting as they may be.  It's about the story and the way it unfolds.  Director John Schlesinger handles this complex story well, and he respects the intelligence of the audience enough to not spell every last detail out.  The key story elements are explained, but there are no unnecessary flashbacks or ghosting images on the screen, and I appreciate that.  The soundtrack is effective, changing the mood from scene to scene, but gradually becoming more ominous as the film progresses.

What this movie does best, though, is exploit some very common fears.  The dentistry scene is the most famous in the film, and rightfully so.  Everyone is vulnerable in the dentist chair, and having your dentist calmly explain that he is going to drill into a healthy tooth and dig into a raw nerve, just to hurt you, is horrifying.  When I watched this scene again, I was struck by my own reaction; yes, I was a little uncomfortable at the moment, but the idea behind the scene disturbs me more than the scene itself.  And the idea of being interrogated, but not having lies or the truth believed --- that's pretty scary.  That is not the only scene that takes advantage of a commonly vulnerable time.  Babe's home is invaded by thugs while he is in the bath.  The panic on his face as he realizes just how hard it will be to protect himself is instantly and easily related to.

From a film perspective, there isn't much to critique negatively in Marathon Man.  When Doc died, the makeup used to give him a pale face was pretty awful, right up there with Cary Elwes in Saw.  I've never understood why this movie spends so much time on the death of Szell's brother, when it could have fleshed out Babe or Doc more with that time, but it was still an amusing scene.  And, as much as I enjoy Dustin Hoffman in the 70s, his angry/scared yelps can get annoying after enough repetition.  Still, this is an intelligent thriller with a good cast, good direction and good writing.

Harper

When I watch movies from the 1940s and 50s, I usually don't notice much that seems anachronistic.  Sure, the technology is outdated, but their language and dress are pretty classic.  If I went out to dinner, dressed and acted like Humphrey Bogart or Carey Grant, I wouldn't get confused looks from strangers.  Films from the 60s, though, sometimes show their age more, thanks to their hep slang and groovy fashions.  Harper is an interesting watch, partly because it is clearly a product of the mid-60s, but also because it is just as obviously inspired by classic film noir.

Lew Harper (Paul Newman) is a private eye that's seen better days; he's been living out of his office, reusing coffee filters, and his car looks beat to hell.  Sure, it's a Porsche, but that doesn't mean it's looking good.  Harper is hired Elaine Sampson (Lauren Bacall) to find her husband, a very wealthy man with a history of being flaky.  Elaine isn't worried about her Mr. Sampson shacking up with another woman --- she is an invalid and turns a blind eye to that --- but she doesn't want her gullible husband getting suckered into giving some hussy a bunch of money.  The last time Sampson disappeared and got generous, he literally gave away a mountain to a crooked church.  Why not call the police?  Well, they'd rather handle things quietly, if possible.  Harper makes the rounds, questioning his ditzy and flirtatious daughter, Miranda (Pamela Tiffin) and his pilot/cabana boy, Allan Taggert (Robert Wagner), but they don't really give him much help.  That's not too surprising; Sampson wasn't out with a woman, he was kidnapped.  There's something fishy about the kidnapping, though.  Somehow Harper has to put the pieces together to explain how an overweight former starlet (Shelley Winters), a drug-addicted jazz singer (Julie Harris), and the crackpot church all have something to do with Sampson's disappearance.

I love movies like Harper.  You have a too cool for school lead character that loves to swagger, even when that confidence gets him nearly killed.  Like all classic noir, this story has a lead actor with a heart of stone, who is clever, tough, and willing to do whatever it takes to learn the truth.  Of course, that means that his actions aren't always legal, and he might not take legal actions to solve the big problems, either.  Basically, if you like tough guys that are charming as hell and solve mysteries, Harper is a good choice.

It never hurts to have Paul Newman playing the charming bastard in the lead role.  Newman was one of the greats, and I like him best as the guy that would fun to hang out with, but not necessarily someone you would let your sister date, if you know what I mean.  The supporting cast in this movie is pretty awesome, even if they all have relatively small parts, compared to Newman.  For starters, having Lauren Bacall in a noir is always a good choice; her appearance here is a clear allusion to The Big Sleep, where her father in that film played a rich invalid that pays a detective to find a missing man.  Bacall still was magnetic, even when reduced to sitting down in all her scenes.  Robert Wagner and Pamela Tiffin weren't particularly impressive, but they played flaky characters well enough.  Shelley Winters was sad as the past-her-prime star and Julie Harris did a good job as the tough jazz singer.  I was particularly happy with the small parts played by character actors Strother Martin and Robert Webber.  The best surprise for me, though, was the chemistry between Newman and Haper's ex-wife, played by Janet Leigh.  I'm not terribly familiar with Leigh, aside from her small part in Psycho, so it was nice to see her in a substantial role.  She played one of the best tired-of-her-man's-bullshit parts I have ever seen on film, and she managed to be tough, cranky, and sensitive all in one go.  And their dialogue...!  Here's a taste:

Leigh: What do you want from me?
Newman: Anything I can get.
Leigh: At least you're honest.
VIOLENT SMOOCHING

Man, that's good stuff!

You can credit the fun dialogue to William Goldman, who has a talent for memorable lines. You want more?  "The bottom is loaded with nice people. Only cream and bastards rise to the top."   Just typing that put a smile on my face. And this film has one of the better ambiguous endings I've seen. Goldman's screenplay is brought to life by director Jack Smight, who does his best to keep the tone and the pace of Harper in keeping with Bogart-esque noirs of yesteryear. I'm not a huge Smight fan, but he handles the dialogue and the action sequences well and keeps the story from being too confusing, which is very important in thrillers like this.

But this is definitely a film that has aged less gracefully than other Newman classics.  Really, any movie that shows characters dancing to rock music is going to look silly in retrospect, but this one has more dancing than any self-respecting noir should have.  I will admit that Pamela Tiffin dancing to surf music while standing on a diving board was pretty funny, but I don't think it was supposed to be that funny.  Most of the lines coming out of Robert Wagner's mouth are dated by his slang, which adds unintentional humor to a movie that isn't trying to make jokes.

Aside from the funny dancing and slang, there's not a whole lot wrong with Harper.  It is definitely an homage to noirs, so it doesn't feel terribly original, but that's not always a big deal.  The one area where this film could have been improved was in the overall feel of the movie.  The characters in this story are pretty sleazy, but the film is dazzling with its handsome cast and bright colors.  Newman manages to look a little scuzzy, but he's the only one who puts any effort into looking the way his character acted: dirty.  Still, the dialogue is often great, there are several memorable scenes, and it's always fun to watch Paul Newman outsmart people.