Movie – Charlotte’s Web (1973)

I may be wrong, but I am almost certain that Charlotte’s Web is the very first movie I ever saw in a theater.  For reasons now unknown to me my elementary school class was taken to see it.  I remember all of us kids running in and immediately heading right down to the front row.  I didn’t actually know why we were there (never having seen a movie in a theater before), but I could sense the excitement from the other kids.  I was surprised when the movie started, but quickly got wrapped up in it.  I remember all of us kids both laughing at some of the antics, especially those of the rat (whose voice I recognized as Paul Lynde from Hollywood Squares), and crying at a scene at the end.  At some point years later I did watch this again as an adult, but my memories of having seen it as a child are actually the ones that are more solid in my mind.

Movie – Empire Records (1995)

Empire Records is one of those movies I watched back in the day not expecting much of anything and ended up being pleasantly surprised by it.  It probably didn’t change anyone’s lives, but it is a solidly entertaining movie.  It features a large ensemble cast of familiar faces, especially if you are a fan of TV crime dramas of the 2000s.  Among the cast is Liv Tyler, who although not born in Maine, has credited her upbringing here for keeping her grounded in Hollywood.  This film is one of the very first that she ever did.

Movie – The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)

I was originally going to review a different movie for Judd Nelson, but after watching The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day as part of prepping for my just-posted review of the first film, I saw that Nelson had a role in the sequel and it seemed fitting to review the two films back to back; the first for Mainer Bob Marley and the second for Mainer Judd Nelson.  Marley fans, don’t fear; he is also back for the sequel.  In fact, most everybody from the first film reprises their roles in the second, even though it took ten years for it to finally make it to the big screen.  The result is a lot of fun for fans of the first movie.

Movie – The Boondock Saints (1999)

Several years ago I used to occasionally do searches on IMDB for films that had been rated by at least 20,000 people and then look through the ones I hadn’t watched to pick something that looked interesting.  This was how I discovered The Boondock Saints.  I had never even heard of the film before and it was only later that I found out that this movie, which features a bunch of gun violence, was originally due to be released just after the Columbine shootings occurred.  Because of this the film was first delayed, then had some scenes censored, then ended up getting released for only a week in a small number of theaters.  It was only after it got released on DVD that people discovered it and the word of mouth started to spread.  And the word of mouth was so strong that it managed to get a sequel made ten years after this film was almost consigned to sit on a studio’s shelf forever.

Movie – The Green Mile (1999)

Quick quiz: what is the only Stephen King adaptation to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office?  Quick quiz #2: what is the movie that King considers to be the most faithful adaptation of his works?  If you didn’t answer "The Green Mile" then you didn’t read the title to this post.  The “green mile” refers to a condemned man’s walk from his death row cell to the electric chair that will take his life.  We come to realize during the movie that the title is also a metaphor for another character’s journey.  Director Frank Darabont had previously filmed King’s novel The Shawshank Redemption, so he had no trouble getting the go ahead to do this one.  The result competes with Shawshank as my favorite movie ever made from a Stephen King work.

Movie – Up in the Air (2009)

Up in the Air was nominated for six Oscars in 2010, including Best Picture.  Long before I had been working on seeing all the Best Picture nominees in Oscar history I had been trying to see every newly nominated film each year.  Somehow I never got around to seeing Up in the Air back in 2010.  I finally saw it about a year ago and kicked myself for waiting so long because I loved it.  It is both heartfelt and funny, both touching and bittersweet.  I had liked director Ivan Reitman’s prior two films (Thank You for Smoking and Juno) and this one seemed to combine the best elements of both of them.  And Up in the Air also contains what might be George Clooney’s best performance.

Movie – MASH (1970)

This review is going to be about MASH the movie, not the long-running television series.  If you didn’t know that the TV show originally was a movie then you may be surprised by what you see.  Both were originally based on the 1968 “Richard Hooker” novel of the same name.  (More on “Hooker” a little later, including why I have the name in quotes.)  The year that MASH the movie (hereinafter known simply as MASH) came out, the film Catch-22 also came out.  The latter was expected to be the more successful of the two, based on the people making it, but MASH proved to be the one that had more lasting success.  Both show the craziness of war, Catch-22 for World War II and MASH for Korea.  I like both films quite a bit.  (You can read my review of Catch-22 here.)  Of the two, MASH is the more realistic film, having been based on the author’s real experiences during the Korean War.

Movie – The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Maltese Falcon is often named as the first true film noir to come out of Hollywood.  This is debatable, especially since this story had already been adapted twice before from Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, first in 1931 under the same title and then in 1936 as Satan Met a Lady.  Noir isn’t just about the story, though, but also about the mood and presentation in the film.  Whatever the case, this film proved to be extraordinarily influential on the entire noir genre which would explode onto screens in the 1940s.  In addition to being nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, The Maltese Falcon proved to be very popular with audiences, too.  So much in fact, that the studio decided to put Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre together in another film.  The result?  Casablanca.

Movie – The Searchers (1956)

I’ve never really been one to declare “Best Movie Ever” kinds of films, whether overall or in genres.  This is partially from having seen so many good movies I really don’t want to have to pick a best among them, and partially because my opinion would vary depending on when I was asked to name one.  The Searchers is certainly a movie that many people have named the best film ever made in the Western genre.  I will say that there have certainly been times where I would agree with that.  What I can state is that I consider this film to contain the best film performance I’ve seen from its star John Wayne.

Movie – Enchanted (2007)

The animated/live action combination Disney movie Enchanted was very popular with audiences, cemented Patrick Dempsey’s transition to romantic leading man, and made a star of Amy Adams at the almost geriatric Hollywood actress age of 33.  The movie is a loving parody/tribute to all the Disney films that preceded it, especially the Princess ones.  The tone of the movie is not as mean-spirited as the Shrek films, though.  Instead of making fun of fairy tales themselves it mines humor from juxtaposing fairy tale characters with the very real world of New York City.  The result is something both children and adults can enjoy.

Movie – The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

The Ox-Bow Incident, both novel and movie, made large impacts when they came out.  The novel was the first book published by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, a man born in Maine and who was well-traveled by the time it was published.  He was an educator by trade and this novel was hailed as “real” writing – a reaction books in the western genre had never received before.  Because of the subject matter in the novel, though, it was a difficult path to getting the movie made.  Even when completed it sat for months because the studio didn’t know how to market it.  When it finally did come out it received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.  It is also one of two films from the early part of his career (The Grapes of Wrath being the other) that Henry Fonda has said he is really proud of.

Movie – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is famously the first feature length, fully animated motion picture that was ever made.  (The German film The Adventures of Prince Achmed preceded it, but that was animated in silhouette only.) Walt Disney had specialized in the animated shorts that would run before the main picture, including winning an Oscar for Three Little Pigs in 1934 (more on that in a bit.)  He decided he wanted to be the main attraction and committed himself and his studio to the huge amount of work it would take to draw and color all of the cells needed for a movie ten times the length of the average short.  And it wasn’t just the images, but also the music that would need to cover the much longer length.  For this Disney turned to Frank Churchill, a man he had been collaborating with since 1930.  The result was magic and Disney films became known not only for their animation, but for the music that accompanied them.

Movie – A Place in the Sun (1951)

One thing I should mention right off the bat is that although this movie stars a young Elizabeth Taylor, known at the time for her Lassie, Father of the Bride, and National Velvet films, A Place in the Sun is not a happy, lightweight movie.  This was Taylor’s first foray into making serious films and it was also her first real adult role.  Lead actor Montgomery Clift, on the other hand, was already an Oscar-nominated performer.  Clift would receive another nomination for this role – one of nine for the film.  It would win six Oscars in all, including Best Director and Best Screenplay (co-adapted from Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy by Maine’s Harry Brown – future screenwriter of Oceans Eleven).  Taylor did not receive a nomination, but co-star Shelley Winters did for playing a woman caught up in a bad situation with Clift’s character.

Movie – The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

There is a group of Americans, all within a 10-15 year age range, that grew up watching The Brady Bunch TV show, either as it was broadcast, or in syndication afternoons after school.  I am one of them.  This show was hugely popular among my friends and we wouldn’t think about missing an episode.  It had jokes for kids, a fantasy goodie-goodie blended family when so many of our own families were breaking up, and it had a happy resolution at the end of every episode.  Yes, even as kids we knew it was corny, but that didn’t matter; it’s what we wanted, and sometimes even needed, to see.  Flash forward twenty years and a movie version of the show was done.  It was hugely liked by the people in this demographic…and left most everyone else scratching their heads as to what the heck they were watching.

Mainers Making Movies

“You can’t get there from here."  - Legendary advice from native Mainer to person ‘from away’ who stopped to ask for directions

I’ve mentioned a few times on this site that I am from Maine.  For the non-Americans (and for those Americans that haven’t looked at a map in years because they have GPS), Maine is the state in the northeastern corner of the country.  It is located as far as you can get from Hollywood and still be in the continental United States.  Combine this with a total state population which is less than many U.S. cities, and the number of Maine people who have made a name for themselves in movies is small enough for me to cover a key dozen or so with this category.

I knew of some Maine movie people off the top of my head like John Ford, who actually followed his older brother Francis to Hollywood.  Francis has nearly 500 acting credits on his resume, and also directed almost 200 silent movies, but he never achieved the fame of his younger brother.  To bolster my knowledge, though, I did some research on IMDB and found well over 400 people born in Maine who have movie credits.  Some credits are the kind that don’t really lend themselves to a single movie review (i.e. James Pierpont, who wrote the song Jingle Bells, which has appeared in thousands of movies.)  More modern Maine songwriters with movie credits include Juliana Hatfield, Howie Day, and Patty Griffin.

Other credits I can’t use are for people mostly known for their television work.  These include Victoria Rowell (The Young and the Restless), Noah Gray-Cabey (Heroes), Andrea Martin (SCTV), Linda Lavin (Alice), John O’Hurley (Seinfeld), David E. Kelley (creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and many other shows), Erin Andrews (sports reporter), Stephanie Niznik (Everwood), Anna Belknap (CSI: NY), and Katie Aselton (The League).

And while Maine has had many writers, like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Harriet Beecher Stowe, it’s the more modern ones such as E.B. White (Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little), Richard Hooker (MASH), and of course, Stephen King, who have had the largest impact on movies.

There is a long-standing maxim among many Mainers that you have to be born here to be a “real” Mainer, and when people say it they are usually at least half serious.  While I don’t necessarily subscribe to it I will be bypassing such people as Glenn Close, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Jonathan Frakes, Stockard Channing, David Morse, and many others who live part of their year in Maine.  However, I am going to include Liv Tyler, E. B. White, and Richard Hooker.  Although not born in Maine, Tyler was brought up here and she has often credited that upbringing with keeping her grounded when dealing with all the craziness of Hollywood.  White made his home in Maine and raised his family here, including noted Maine Naval architect Joel White.  Hooker (real name H. Richard Hornberger) settled in Maine after serving in the Korean War and saved many lives as a thoracic surgeon in Mid-Maine Medical Center in Waterville, Maine.

Some Mainers that I know of I can’t include simply because I haven’t seen the movies related to their work, or what I have seen is not something I would recommend.  This includes Laurence Trimble (directed over 100 silent films), Charles W. Goddard (wrote The Perils of Pauline, which every cliffhanger owes a debt to), Kevin Eastman (co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Rachel Nichols (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 2011’s Conan the Barbarian), and Althea Currier (star of some early Russ Meyer films). 

Finally, I was amused to find out that there are even some Mainers in the adult film industry.  Among others they include director Jake Malone and actress/model Jayme Langford.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and add links to the movie reviews associated with each one:

Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes – The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

Screenwriter Harry Brown – A Place in the Sun (1951)

Songwriter Frank Churchill – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Writer Walter Van Tilburg Clark – The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Actor Patrick Dempsey – Enchanted (2007)

Director John Ford – The Searchers (1956)

Actress Gladys George – The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Writer “Richard Hooker” – MASH (1970)

Actress Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air (2009)

Writer Stephen King – The Green Mile (1999)

Comedian/Actor Bob Marley (not the reggae singer) – The Boondock Saints (1999)

Actor Judd Nelson – The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)

Actress Liv Tyler – Empire Records (1995)

Writer E. B. White – Charlotte's Web (1973)

On to the reviews…