A Feel Good Friday Night

And so the Friday night comes around again, and a couple of interesting movies were opening. The ubiquitous Joydrop and myself decided to visit our favorite Lebanese steak house here in Tulsa town (The Silver Flame), and feasted. They start you off with built in appetizers of Tubule and Humus, and then they move on to a cabbage roll and BBQ ribs and bologna. Then they progress to your salad, and finally a garlic kissed and very tender filet or ribeye. The Tom Collins was strong, the Marlboros and Salems delightful and the charms of herself were unmistakably alluring. Finishing our final cup of coffee we made our way to the AMC 20 at 41st and Yale and quested for some decent parking.

Once we got there, we had no trouble finding a spot, and then the lines were short as well. It began to feel like the night would just get better and better. It was strange for the 930 showing of a premier on a Friday night, but there you have it – the theater was sparsely populated at best. We got free popcorn for using our AMC frequent moviegoer card, and moved in for the kill.

Au Theatre

The theater is a wonderful stadium style; with bench seating that makes it feel like you are on your couch. We huddled together and prepared to watch Robert Redford’s latest, The Last Castle. And it began with the militaristic and historical perspective, a description of a castle. This was a movie about a prison, it was a movie about the military, and it was a movie about Americans. So put your intellect on hold for a while and prepare to try to enjoy the Patriotism, in extreme.

The Big House

I like prison movies for the most part. I can sit down and watch Shawshank any time, and have put myself through Brubaker, The Rock, Escape From Alcatraz and even Stir Crazy a half dozen times. So I didn’t really know what to expect from this film. Redford (The Way We Were, Sneakers, Horse Whisperer) was delivered in to the front gate to bets on his longevity (ala Shawshank Redemption), right down to the betting amongst the prison cognoscenti as they are lined up and watching his arrival.

Redford was then politely deferred to for a short while, as he was formerly a three star general in the US Army – General Irwin. This is an army prison. Apparently General Irwin did something to hack off the president, and landed his butt in the cell. Colonel Winters, who runs this prison, is played by James Gandolfini (True Romance, Get Shorty, 8MM) who apparently longed for the acting challenge that the Soprano’s is somehow not providing him. He did a fair job in his role, I began to really hate his ineptitude and faltering abilities throughout, I believed him.

Tony Soprano gets his feelers hurt

Redford, however insults Colonel Winters within minutes of entering his office, and from there on out its LETS GET READY TO RUMMMMMMBLE. Winters is now after General Irwin. He does all of the typical prison things, trying to break him. He throws him in the hole, he makes him move a pile of huge rocks, he forces him to play chess and read the Bible. How much can a man take?

Somewhere along the way, the men of the prison start to tell Herr General about the gross improprieties at the prison, and then he begins to observe them himself. Slowly he becomes convinced that it is time for some change. The men drift toward him like the lemmings that they have been trained to be. The General is of course quite regal, and begins to lead them. They fight a brief (20 minutes or so in theater time) underground war of resistance with the prison officials, and the stinkpot is bubbling. There are deaths of beloved characters and a lot of extremely cheesy dialog.

The Real Star of the Show, er, Stars and Stripes

This movie never really did slow down for me though, it was NEBRASKA CORN HUSKER corny, but somehow I couldn’t pull my eyes away. Was it the cute men’s all in uniform? The gentle but patriotic trumpet lines that played softly, luring you to the battle call every so often? Was it the flag that somehow became the focus of the last half of the film? Oh hell yeah, the flag was flying, and then it flew, and it flew some more. I am not sure what kind of a deal the flag’s agent got it, but I imagine there were some points given during contract negotiations. The flag is hot right now; I think it is going to be doing Leno and Letterman during the opening of the film. I just hope the flag doesn’t let it all go to its head and get into that bloated, coke freak, Elvis stardom phase.

We bought one for the Ford Ranger on the way home tonight, and I was thinking to myself, here I am just keeping this whole thing going, pushing the flag in its quest for true stardom. The flag gets stolen at a point, hidden among some rocks, threatened with an upside down flying at a point, and of course man-handled and folded by a troop of surly army prison guards types. How did the flag ever hold up through all of that filming?

The General’s Daughter – NOT!

Well the movie predictably turns Rocky on us, and we lose any sense of fiber as the prisoners began to rally around their new leader General Blondie. Just a side note, there is a strange throw away scene where the General’s daughter comes to visit him, and says that he wasn’t a very good daddy. She doesn’t know him and doesn’t want to…so there. Besides, the flag has a stronger chin line, and is a little higher profile than you right now anyway…nanny nanny boo boo. It was a bizarre two-minute section toward the beginning, and made little sense to me at all.

Rescue Me, I need your tender charms

Delroy Lindo (Clockers, Ransom, Cider House Rules) dropped in for a delightful little appearance as General Bad Boy’s friend from DC, who might save the day if he wants an easy out. He had a very brief role, but it was fun to see the two dynamic chins across from each other. Redford with his rock like jaws, and Lindo with his chin and neck line that just never stop. The funniest line from the whole film takes place between these two pals.

Gladiator Upside Down Bean Soup

Battles ensue; the Prison yard becomes a cross between Attica and Junkyard Wars. The Hollywoodisms just never stop in this movie. At one point the prisoners get a bunch of trays from the kitchen to use as shields and they form them up and become the Roman Legion of Lunch. There is an endless stream of politically correct amblings, and a lot of really horrible writing. And yet, it continued to be mesmerizing.

Finally, whew

I could not help myself, I enjoyed it. The lines were badly written. The stereotypes were larger than life, the acting was a bit ham handed and its all been done before. But somehow this movie was OK. In the big scheme of things, I had a good time. The film deserves a shot, I wouldn’t expect it to take any awards, you know, like at that haughty Sundance Festival or anything, and if it wins any Golden Globes I will be marginally surprised. But it was decent entertainment, with the lines between good and evil erased and truncated.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8