NO EXPLOSIONS

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2004)

I have always loved this movie. I read a review from another subscriber that dissed the newer movies like the LOTR Trilogy. He recommended that many new movie fans watch the old movies. Some young people I know will not watch some movies because they are in black and white. A person that I love has said that it is difficult to watch older movies because you have to pay so much attention to the dialogue. This is really sad because this person is extremely intelligent and reads the classics all the time. I loved when my 22 YO daughter watched Psycho(1960) for the first time a few years ago and was completely fooled having never heard about it. So my friends maybe there is hope. Maybe as time goes on the lure of crashing cars and explosions will be less attractive. The accomplishments of special effects will always be just another facet in the diadem of great movie making.
Nobody has ever done Frankenstein better than Karloff. King Kong is creeping up on 75 years and the special effects are still "special". In the Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) they accomplished the "effect" of arrows striking the villains by having the master archer of the day
twang real arrows into stunt men wearing breastplates and the score was written to be in musical tune with the dialogue. AND! it was in color!All the way back in 1938!!! I have luckily played Juror # 3 in several stage productions and know every word of dialogue in all of the versions(stage, tele-play and screenplay) and in my opinion this is a masterpiece. This movie is simply brilliant from every aspect of film as an art. There are no explosions,curse words, car chases or machine guns. But there is unbelievable tension and real violence. Plenty of naked hatred and prejudice. For those of you who have not seen this and are wise enough and maybe old enough to appreciate it please watch and enjoy. For those of you who need hate and violence to get cranked up this movie has all of that without all the phony pretense. But you have to be willing to listen.That means shut your mouth and open your ears and pay attention for a whole 90 minutes or so - in a row.