Sorry to Bother You

There are no apologies in the harsh “Sorry to Bother You,” but you’ll be sorry if you didn’t see it.

“Sorry to Bother You,” the 2018 directorial debut of musician Boots Riley, is a black comedy that’s real, a fantasy about a future dystopia that’s really familiar, and a satire so vicious it’ll really cut at your person.

However, it’s really great.

Lakeith Stainfield, of “Atlanta” and a real highlight for “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” fame, plays “Cash” Green, a person who doesn’t have a future and living out of his uncle’s (Terry Crews) garage in Oakland.

(Simon Miraudo said in his review, “The first clue that this isn’t your typical flick is the fact they got Stanfield to play an everyman. He’s an exceptional actor, from Short Term 12 to Get Out and again so here. Still, when he’s playing your beacon of sanity, you know you’re in for a strange trip.”)

Cash gets a job as a telemarketer, which is really great for him, but he needs to make some sales if he wants get paid with commission. (Sadly, there’s no salary.) A fellow black coworker, played by Danny Glover, tells Cash to use his “white voice” to make confidence in customers on the other end of the phone, and suddenly, the nasal, sycophantic sound of David Cross comes out of him, helping him close deals and get promoted – or, literally, golden elevator – up to “Power Caller” status.

Now he can sell the expensive items. He finds out what those items are, and the film approaches the climax.

Miraudo said, “The trailers for Sorry to Bother You focus on the "white voice" stuff, and not what comes next. Be thankful. Seeing Stanfield lip-sync to David Cross is hilarious, and it becomes a cutting recurring joke. However, it’s the swirling, roiling drama on the sidelines that becomes central—and truly significant—as we near the, ahem, inventive climax. No spoilers.”

A promoted Cash ends up on the bad side of his protesting colleagues (Steven Yeun, Jermaine Fowler) and ends up on the good side of WorryFree CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer, up to 11). WorryFree gives people free food and housing in exchange for a lifetime work contract and something extra that is a little worrisome. Miraudo said, “When Cash first sees a cheery WorryFree ad on TV, you’d think writer-director Riley was only gently nudging America satirically for using imprisonment as a new form of slavery. But this ain’t Ava DuVernay’s The 13th, and Riley’s not doing anything gently.”

Miraudo continued, “Without ruining and also not underselling the movie’s wild transformation into something entirely unexpected, Sorry to Bother You goes HAM with an inspired and absurd finale. Provocative points are made, and then some, and then some.” You’ll always remember this movie after seeing it.

Miraudo noted, “Riley’s script articulates abstract arguments with verve, and it repackages debates about race, revolution and workers’ rights in a container you wouldn’t have ever imagined.” It’s infuriating and also really funny, in smart and juvenile ways, and has a great cast of appealing actors, including Tessa Thompson, as Cash’s performance artist – and performative protestor – girlfriend Detroit. Miraudo mentioned, “Riley, whose political hip-hop group The Coup told a version of this story on their 2012 concept album Sorry to Bother You, supplies the propulsive soundtrack with tUnE-yArDs. I can keep listing amazing things if you need me to?”

Or, you can watch the movie, and have the great look and sounds unfolded more perfectly by Riley. Miraudo said, “All you need to know going in is that it’s a trenchant commentary on blackness, whiteness and moral greyness, told in living colour by an artist who nonetheless draws a definitive line and makes you pick a side.” Sorry not sorry.

This is a funny movie, but once you reach the climax, you’re going to be constantly saying, “What in the world am I watching!?” That’s exactly what I said when I saw it. But that’s not to say that this film is in anyway bad. You will still like this movie for the comedy and the realism it portrays on corporate America and anywhere else in the world this happens in. Check it out and see for yourself.

Alright, that ends this year’s “Black History Movie Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed this month and I will see everyone next month on a next series of movie reviews.

Green Book

62-year-old director Peter Farrelly has made some great comedies over the past three decades including “Dumb and Dumber,” “Kingpin,” “There’s Something About Mary” and “Shallow Hal.” People can’t really fathom that it’s taken more than 25 years for Farrelly to make his first drama. It wasn’t because he didn’t try.

Studios weren’t really interested in the beginning with his script for “Green Book,” released in 2018, which he co-wrote with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie, but that changed when he was able to convince Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali to star in the film. What we finally saw speaks for itself. The film won the worthwhile Audience Award at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival and was slated to feature importantly when the Academy Award nominations were announced.

Matthew Toomey compared in his review, “It’s easy to see why comparisons are being made with another Oscar winner, Driving Miss Daisy.  Released back in 1989, it was the tale of an old lady (Jessica Tandy) who has her eyes opened to racism in the United States thanks to her loyal African American driver (Morgan Freeman).  They were as different as chalk and cheese but the film culminated with Tandy grabbing Freeman’s hand and saying the now famous line – “you’re my best friend”.”

Set in 1962, “Green Book” switches the races in that situation. Don Shirley, referred to as “Doc,” played by Ali, is a famous black pianist based at Carnegie Hall. While performing his small part for the civil rights movement, he has agreed to perform at so many venues across the country to showcase his piano playing in front of white audiences. It’s an 8-week tour that begins in Pennsylvania and concludes in more “conservative” states like Mississippi and Alabama.

Doc notices that him being in the Deep South will greatly attract attention from white supremacists and he asked Tony Vallelonga, played by Mortensen, an expert in night club “public relations,” to be both his driver and security guard. They’re both from New York City but that’s all the similarities they have. Tony doesn’t really like the job and idea of working for a “colored” but he’s in a bad area financially and needs the cash to help support his wife (Linda Cardellini) and two children (Hudson Galloway and Gavin Lyle Foley).

There are a few little surprises but for the most part, “Green Book” is just like anyone could expect. There’s early tension between the characters but a friendship is quickly made between them. Did this feel-good biography really happen? You’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask. Tony’s son co-wrote the screenplay and based it on stories and audio tapes given by his late father. From others perspectives, Doc’s 82-year-old brother said this was “a symphony of lies” and was disappointed that he and his family were not asked during the filmmaking process.

Toomey said, “I can’t attest to its factual accuracy but Green Book is still a warm-hearted crowd pleaser that achieves its mission thanks to the two stellar performances from Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.  The interaction between the pair is the clear highlight.  Power games are afoot in the first half of the movie as each asserts their authority.  The calm, articulate Doc lays down clear ground rules (no smoking the car, hands on the wheel at all times) but the chatty, food-loving, chain-smoking Tony is quick to test those boundaries to see how far they can be pushed.”

The film becomes more dramatic and emotional in the second half as they come face-to-face with the natural “it’s just the way we do things down here” racism that existed, and still exists, in parts of the country. The situations become more difficult and as details are told about Doc’s past, he becomes a more interesting, concerned character. Toomey said, “The narrative is a little too skewed towards Tony’s good deeds (and I know some have been critical of this) but I’d argue that we still get to see Doc make his mark on the world and break down barriers (which was always his intention).”

Nothing in “Green Book” is actually new or revealing but it’s still a well told story.

This is a good movie that you should see. There isn’t anything new in here, like I said, but I still think it’s another feel good movie that everyone should see. You’ll really love the roles that Mortensen and Ali play, because it can be relatable in some way. See it for yourself and see what you think.

Stay tuned next week for the finale of this year’s “Black History Movie Month.”

Head of State

For this year’s “President’s Day Movie Review,” I thought I would switch things up and talk about a political comedy, which is probably something I don’t think I ever did before. Let’s take a look at the 2003 comedy, “Head of State.”

This is a flawed movie, but not a boring one and doesn’t lack in intelligence. Roger Ebert said in his review, “What it does wrong is hard to miss, but what it does right is hard to find: it makes an angry and fairly timely comic attack on an electoral system where candidates don't say what they really think but simply repeat safe centrist banalities.”

In “Head of State,” the presidential and vice presidential candidates of an unknown party, obviously the Democrats, are killed when their campaign planes crash into each other less than two months before the election. Trying to find a replacement candidate, the party decides Mays Gilliam, played by Chris Rock, a doubtful Washington, D.C., alderman who has saved a woman and her cat from a burning building. He looks like he has no chance of winning, but obviously party boss Sen. Bill Arnot, played by James Rebhorn, doesn’t want him to win – he wants to utilize him as a token black candidate who will lose but win useless points for the party.

If Mays can’t win, then he has nothing to lose and his plan is obvious: Instead of trying to satisfy everyone, he should say the unspeakable. Ebert noted, “We've seen this strategy before from movie candidates, notably Kevin Kline in "Dave," Warren Beatty in "Bulworth" and Eddie Murphy in "The Distinguished Gentleman," and the notion runs back to Frank Capra. What Rock brings to it is brashness--zingers that hurt. "What kind of a drug policy," he wants to know, "makes crack cheaper than asthma medicine?" The movie, directed and co-written by Rock, is wickedly cynical about the American electoral system.” This shows Mays having a prostitute named Nikki (Stephanie March) because, campaign manager Martin Geller (Dylan Baker) explains in a way that you’ll just have to see the movie because I’m not filling this review with anything inappropriate. This gives him an opponent, the incumbent vice president, played by Nick Searcy, who’s famous because he’s Sharon Stone’s cousin, and his motto has a type of quality: “God bless America – and no place else.” Mays goes through the first weeks of his campaign, following the instructions of his strongly conservative campaign advisers, Geller and Debra Lassiter (Lynn Whitfield) until his brother, a Chicago bail bondsman named Mitch (the late Bernie Mac), asks him when he’s going to start speaking his mind. When he does, the first thing he says is that he wants Mitch as his running mate.

This is one of the areas that doesn’t work. Ebert noted, “Bernie Mac could be a funny veep candidate, but not as a bondsman whose peculiar personal quirk is to hit people as hard as he can as a sign of friendship. The character should have been redefined, and a scene where Mays and Mitch batter each other should have been edited out; it works only as an awkward puzzlement for the audience.”

Another area that doesn’t work is the character of Kim, played by Robin Givens, who beings the movie as Mays’ fiancé, is broken up with, and she turns into a crazy stalker who follows him everywhere, overacting on a terrifyingly harsh way, until she exits in a very cruel way. The character could have been broken up with, especially since Mays meets a cute caterer named Lisa, played by Tamala Jones, who looks like first lady material.

Ebert credited, “Chris Rock is a smart, fast-talking comedian with an edge; I keep wondering when the academy will figure out he could host the Oscars. Here he plays his usual persona, more or less, in a movie where some of the edges are rough and others are serrated.” We keep getting these types of movies where political candidates say what they think, are not afraid to offend, cut through the nonsense and take stands. Must want to fulfill some dreams about what we want to see.

This is a type of comedy that I think everyone should check out, especially if you’re fan of Chris Rock and Bernie Mac. We won’t be seeing any of this in this year’s election, but it would be something we wish to see. If you want to get a good laugh at a spoof of the presidential election, this is the one for you. Check it out and see for yourself. If there is any criticisms against this movie, don’t pay any attention to it, see the movie and judge for yourself.

Happy President’s Day everyone! Stay tuned this Friday for the next installment of “Black History Movie Month.”

10 Things I Hate About You

For this year’s “Valentine’s Day Movie Review,” I thought I would review a movie that I saw most of in my sophomore and junior year of high school, but didn’t see the whole way through until a few years back. That is the teen romantic flick, “10 Things I Hate About You,” released in 1999, which is still a classic after it was first released.

This year marks that it has been 21 years since the film was released in theaters. The film is just as fun to watch today as it was back then. Danielle Solzman credited in her review, “I credit this–of course–to the chemistry between leads Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.  They are but one equation in this ensemble-heavy film.”

This modern-day adaptation of Taming of the Shrew takes place in Washington State, where we find out fast that Bianca Stratford (the beautiful Larisa Oleynik) cannot date unless her older sister, Kat (Julia Stiles), starts. There are some screwball comedy elements that start here because new student Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls in love with Bianca but Bianca has a crush on Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan). Cameron doesn’t let that interfere when he becomes friends with Michael Eckman, played by David Krumholtz, and the two make a plan. This requires making Patrick, played by the late Heath Ledger, date Kat. All of this is because of the rules set by Kat and Bianca’s father, Walter Stratford, played by Larry Miller. This is obviously easier said than done. Strangely enough, Kat is the one student who doesn’t date.

What happens is that Patrick gets paid to date Kat. Eventually, Cameron and Michael go to Joey. Basically, Joey’s paying Patrick money to date Kat so that he can date Bianca but doesn’t know that Cameron is hitting on Bianca. Solzman noted, “It’s good that screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith only take the gist of a Shakespeare classic. This allows for the writers to have some flexibility with how they tell the story.” It doesn’t get really insane with following every character. The resolution is why this film stays a high school comedy classic.

Solzman admitted, “One of my favorite moments is when Patrick–in an effort to woo Kat–serenades her by singing Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” with the help of the school’s marching band. Because he ends up in detention, Kat helps break him out by flashing the teacher. This latter part probably doesn’t hold up under 2019 standards but the film is two decades old.”

Which makes viewers ask on whether we watch the film with a current view or not? Solzman answered, “My vote is likely no because of when it was written.” There’s a good chance that students will do crazy things when they fall in love. Obviously it wouldn’t go as far as flashing a teacher. However, if it means to get your boyfriend out of detention, this means that anything can happen.

Great performances from an ensemble cast make “10 Things I Hate About You” a great teen comedy romance.

If you haven’t seen this film, it’s a good watch for today. You should find this movie and see it because you will have an enjoyable time watching. It might be difficult to see it since Heath Ledger is no longer alive, but it’s a good way to honor his memory. Definitely check it out and see for yourself, because I think people will love it.

Happy Single Awareness Day to all the single people out there, like myself. I know people might be wondering when I will start saying “Happy Valentine’s Day,” but that I can’t answer. Whenever I get married, which I don’t know when that will happen, I might start saying it then, but as of right now, I won’t since I’m not a fan of this holiday. I think I might have said “Happy Valentine’s Day” a few times in the past, but I would have to go back and see my past reviews to know for sure.

Anyway, stay tuned on Monday to see what I will review for my yearly “President’s Day Movie Review.”

Purple Rain

“Purple Rain,” released in 1984 and starring the late rock star Prince, might had created a surprise and sudden box office hit for Warner Bros. Duane Byrge said in his review, “Sensitive and highly visual, this Albert Magnoli-directed film is an accomplished and sophisticated example of storytelling.” Even for people who aren’t Prince probably will get sucked into the energy, love its simple, often emotional storyline.

Prince stars as a determined, helpless young musician. He’s got a short fuse, soaking his music in his anger and insecurities. Simply put, his music is very personal, and Prince soon sees he’s losing his place in the club where he and his band, the Revolutionaries, are close making a huge deal. His enemy, Morris Day, harasses him, “You’re just like your old man. You don’t have what takes to be on top.”

The method to change Prince’s direction is a charming, young singer, played by Apollonia Kotero, who enters into his life. She’s mysterious and amazing, and if Prince wants to stay afloat as a singer, it will be by falling in love with her.

Despite the story being told as a simple story of survival through love, its musical differences (through the editing and soundtrack), along with its highly fluent visuals, realistic emotions and sympathies that rock movies often don’t include.

Byrge credited, “Credit Magnoli’s fluid, evocative direction as well as his and co-editor Ken Robinson’s superb orchestration of shots. In this regard, special praise must be given to director of photography Donald L. Thorin, production designer Ward Preston and set decorator Anne McCulley, whose efforts have added texture and depth.”

Byrge continued, “Despite a slightly slow beginning, Purple Rain builds to a satisfying and climaxing crescendo with Prince’s performance of the title tune an emotional dedication to his father. In short, the story (scripted by Magnoli and William Blinn) jells, both as a romance and as a story of personal triumph.”

The charming Prince and really beautiful Apollonia Kotero as his love interest are (in the usual elements of musicals) a pair you love. Morris Day, lead singer of The Time, and Jerome Benton as his sidekick add parts of humor to his emotionally-led movie. The technical credits are also really great.

If you’re a fan of Prince, you should see this movie. I saw this movie, I believe, last year and I really fell in love with it. I had known this movie for a few years after hearing a comedian reference it in his standup, but I never got around to seeing it until last year. I even got the soundtrack on my iPhone. You should see it because it is a classic.

Look out later today for my yearly Valentine’s Day review.

Birds of Prey (subtitled And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

I decided to go watch “Birds of Prey,” which came out almost a week ago, and I’ll let everyone know what I thought of the first R-rated movie in the DCEU.

Matthew Lucas started his review by saying, “Birds of Prey, the sequel, spin-off, or whatever you'd like to call it to 2016's Suicide Squad, marks one of the most impressive jumps in quality from first film to second film that I can recall.” “Suicide Squad” had grossed over $700,000,000 worldwide, which is one of the highest grossing films that a lot of people didn’t really get into.

All praises, “Birds of Prey (subtitled And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” looks to have learned a lot of the flaws of the loud “Suicide Squad;” lowering the stakes, modernizing the story, not casting Jared Leto’s really criticized Joker, and making Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn the main focus. The film starts with Harley getting thrown onto the street after breaking up with the Joker. This starts a revenge process that puts Harley on the top of the list with so many of Gotham criminals who’ve had problems with her for years, but couldn’t go anywhere near her when she was dating the Joker. Now everyone from criminals to cops now wants to track her down, with one crime boss mainly, the evil Roman Sionis, played by Ewan McGregor, wanting to find her.

Followed by criminals and cops, Harley now sees she has to team up with four other women – humiliated detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), assassin Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Sionis’ frustrated driver Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), to protect a teen orphan (Ella Jay Basco) from Sionis’ goons. Each one has their own fighting styles and their own problems with Sionis in order to break his evil criminal business finally.

Lucas had noted, “Birds of Prey more closely resembles more serious action films like John Wick and Atomic Blonde than it does its predecessor, embracing its R-rating and tearing into its bruising action scenes with relish, with the tongue-in-cheek humor of the Deadpool films. Cathy Yan directs with a stylish verve that actually recalls Tim Burton's Batman films, especially in the film's funhouse finale, where the carnivalesque sets turn into a kind of Luis Buñuel-inspired nightmare. It's great stuff, trimming the excesses of Suicide Squad, lowering the stakes, and giving us more of its best elements - namely Robbie's Harley Quinn. Birds of Prey replaces world-ending stakes and evil sorceresses of Suicide Squad with a more localized crime drama, and it's all the better for it, giving the new group a chance to congeal without working so hard to tie it into a grander narrative.”

Actually, the film is fun primarily because it does feel different from the rest of the DC films. Other than a few references to Batman, the Joker, and the events of the previous films, “Birds of Prey” mostly is a standalone. Lucas ended his review by saying, “Robbie is the film's strongest asset but Yan (whose only other credit is a Chinese film from last year called Dead Pigs that never got an American release) displays a commanding visual eye and a knack for combining comedy with serious, sometimes brutal, action. It's a gleefully over-the-top, candy-colored comic book spectacle that finds a pleasing balance between character and action that puts it a cut above its superhero peers.”

In actuality, I thought this film was going to be more violent and more powering towards women than how it turned out. Even though it wasn’t like that, I still had a fun time watching this. To the film’s credit, I applaud it for not having a nude scene. Still, I don’t see any harm if anyone wants to go see it as I think everyone will have a fun time watching it. Make sure to stay after the credits to hear Harley on audio almost reveal the identity of Batman.

Thank you for joining in on today’s review. Stay tuned this Friday for the next installment of “Black History Movie Month.”

Brian's Song

Welcome everyone to this year’s “Black History Movie Month,” where I will start it off with a movie that I saw maybe half of in eighth grade but ended up watching entirely a little while ago, “Brian’s Song,” released in 1971.

Brett Willis started his review by saying, “Having been born in Green Bay, I’m not partial to stories about the Chicago Bears.” As you could predict, “Brian’s Song” is more than a football movie. The movie is about the friendship made between two polar opposite men and the way they support each other in difficulty. Some critics say that this is one of the best TV movies ever made.

Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) and Brian Piccolo (James Caan) are first seen as Bears rookies. Sayers (who still has the NFL record of six touchdowns in one game) definitely will make the team. Piccolo has to work extra hard just to be second best. We see the two chosen to “break the NFL ice” as interracial roommates. Brian helps Gale recover a knee injury and Gale supports Brian with a life-crisis ailment. The performances are very good, and real on-field NFL archive footage is combined with sideline reenactments to give the film an extra feeling of realism.

Profanity is reduced to a few “D” and “H” words. The other likely offensive part is racial language. Willis admitted, “In today’s politically correct environment, it may seem strange for Brian to jokingly use racial epithets and stereotypes on Gale. But in the ’60s my black friends and I could call each other any name we wanted, and we all understood that it wasn’t the same as when spoken by an outsider. I’m not arguing that racial slurs are good—I gave them up around the time I became a Christian. I’m just saying that a modern viewer of this film should not be distracted from its central message by taking offense where none is intended.” The main message is symbolized in Gale’s (real-life) acceptance speech for a “courageousness” award, where he not only says that Brian should get the award, but also that he “loves” Brian. At the time of that speech, people looked at one man saying he loved another (sincerely) as incorrect. However, looking at it from a religious view, it has always been correct.

If you haven’t seen this movie, go out and watch it. This is the one movie that people say that men can cry while watching it, but I didn’t. Not to say that I didn’t feel the sadness from this movie, I did, but I don’t cry while watching movies. I know that’s not the first time I said that, but it’s true. However, this is one that you have to see, especially if you like sports movies.

Look out next week for the next installment in “Black History Movie Month.”

Spartacus

Today, we lost one of the greatest actors who lived a very long and prosperous life, Michael Douglas’ father, Kirk Douglas, at 103. Truly a spectacular actor in his own respect, I thought that I would review one of his best works that he is famous for, “Spartacus,” released in 1960.

When it was first released in 1960, the movie was called the first intellectual film since the silent era – the first Roman or Biblical saga to have the ideas as well as display. Even the ending was brave. The protagonist is crucified and denied a traditional victory, and has to be comforted with the hope that what he fought for will live on.

Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Seen three decades later in a lovingly restored version, “Spartacus” still plays like an extraordinary epic, and its intellectual strength is still there. But other elements of the film have dated. The most courageous thing about it, from today’s standards, is that it closes without an obligatory happy ending, and an audience that has watched for 187 minutes doesn’t get a tidy, mindless conclusion.”

The film is about the story of the Roman slave Spartacus, played by Kirk Douglas, who fights for the Roman Empire while dreaming, the narrator informs everyone, “of the death of slavery – which would not come until 2,000 years later.” He is sentenced to death after biting a Roman guard, but spared by Peter Ustinov, as Batiatus, a broker of gladiators. Spartacus is trained in the arts of combat at Batiatus’ gladiatorial academy, where one day two powerful men and their wives arrive from Rome. The spoiled women ask to be entertained by seeing the two fights to the death, and Spartacus is put up against a skilled black gladiator, played by Woody Strode, who spares him and gets killed.

The idea of being forced to fight just to entertain spoiled women angers Spartacus, who takes the slave revolt that eventually goes over half of Italy. Leading his troops to war against weak and terribly led Roman legions, Spartacus stands near victory before his platoon finally get caught between two armies and outnumbered.

All of this takes place against a setting of Roman corruption, and we become familiar with the setting power plays of the senate, where Crassus (Laurence Oliver) hopes to become a dictator at the cost of the more lenient and nicer old man Gracchus (Charles Laughton). There are also inappropriate schemes. Gracchus is a womanizer, and Crassus is a bisexual who is in love to a handsome young slave (Tony Curtis) but is also wanting to win the love of the slave woman Varinia (Jean Simmons), who is the wife of Spartacus.

Ebert noted, “The movie was inspired by a best seller by Howard Fast, and adapted to the screen by the blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Kirk Douglas, who produced the film, effectively broke the blacklist by giving Trumbo screen credit instead of making him hide behind a pseudonym.” The direction is done by 31-year-old Stanley Kubrick, who notices the ideas of Douglas, Fast and Trumbo but cannot be said to add much of his own style that he does to the film.

Ebert admitted, “I’ve seen “Spartacus” three times now - in 1960, 1967, and 1991. Two things stand up best over the years: the power of the battle spectacles, and the strength of certain performances - especially Olivier’s fire, Douglas’ strength, and Laughton’s mild amusement at the foibles of humankind. The most entertaining performance in the movie, consistently funny, is by Ustinov, who upstages everybody when he is onscreen (he won an Oscar). Some of the supporting performances now seem dated and the line readings stilted; dialogue such as “How will I ever be able to thank you?,” delivered by a senator placed in charge of a legion, gets a bad laugh.”

Every historical film has the danger that their costumes and hairstyles will horribly age. Ebert noted, ““Spartacus” stands at a divide between earlier epics, where the female characters tended to look like models for hairdressing salons, and later epics that placed more emphasis on historical accuracy. But the hairstyles of the visiting Roman women at the gladiatorial school are laughable, and even Jean Simmons looks too made up and coiffed at times.”

Balancing against the dated elements are some that were ahead of their times, including a silent but complicated understanding of loving motivation. Olivier’s character becomes more complex in its revival than it was the first time released, because they restored a key scene, taken out by censors, where he and Tony Curtis are in a bath together, and he confesses, “I like both oysters and snails,” leaving little doubt on whether it is meant to be as far as he is concerned. That brings him wanting Jean Simmons into focus: He wants her not simply to own her, but as a way of victory over Spartacus.

The film has been restored by Robert A. Harris, who also brought “Lawrence of Arabia” back to its original form, and Harris has done a good job. The complete 187 minutes of screen time has been put together from different shorter release versions. 10 minutes of opening, intermission and closing music is given. The color was renewed by going back to the original forms and restoring them. Ebert said, “the sound track is in six-track Dolby (although many theaters are equipped with only four tracks), and the 70mm wide screen picture reminds us of when movies filled our entire field of vision.”

Ebert noted, “One aspect of the soundtrack is distracting: In the early days of stereo, movies such as “Spartacus” used the left track for characters on the left side of the screen, and the right track for those on the right, and then switched for the reverse shot - a disorienting auditory experience for the audience. Today’s approach in surround sound puts the voices on the center channel and the effects on the side, a better approach.”

Maybe the most interesting part of “Spartacus” is its hidden political speculations. Ebert noted, “The movie is about revolution, and clearly reflects the decadence of the parasitical upper classes and the superior moral fiber of the slaves. But at the end, Spartacus, like Jesus, dies on the cross.” At the end, his wife stands under him and shows them their child, saying “He will live as a free man, Spartacus.” Yes, but the baby’s freedom was granted not as its right, but because of the kindness of the gentle old Gracchus. Today, that wouldn’t be good enough.

This is one of the best movies ever made and a classic that still holds up well today. If you haven’t seen it, see it, especially since a legend has passed away. Especially with classic lines like, “I’m Spartacus” and “I am not an animal.” I give this film a high recommendation and rest in peace Kirk Douglas.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Look out this Friday when I start this year’s “Black History Movie Month.”