1924

The Iron Horse

A woman is to be wed, but Lincoln knows she is about to Mary the wrong man. She meets up with the
right man while he is building the transcontinental railroad. In trying to build the railroad they are
attacked by Cheyenne. There is a great scene where the Indians are riding, they ride along a lake and
the water reflects them perfectly. The final scene is not really a part of the story, it is just a reenactment
of the golden spike. A directors note in the card before the scene tells us that the two trains filmed
were the original two trains.

1934

L’Atlante

A couple buys a boat after they get married. There is tension in the marriage caused by them being on
the boat. There is one scene where the husband throws a fit, it looks bad, but she was about to sleep
with a lecherous old man. The best scenes where right after they abandon her in Paris. The old man
plays a record with his finger. And then the husband jumps off the boat and swims around under the
water doing flips and stuff.

1944

To Have and Have Not

This is not as exciting as I remember. I remember the film as mostly the scene on the boat at night.
That was the only good part. If you are very interested in the politics of the French Colonies after the
fall of Paris, or if you know nothing about it, this film might be interesting. I’m just in the middle and
found it dull.

1954

Rear Window

This movie is much better than I remembered. Also, I remember no one believing him. His girlfriend
and his nurse are way into it. Anyway, the plot is a photographer has a broken leg and he is up in his
apartment for weeks. He starts spying on his neighbors. One of the things he sees is a murder. At least,
he sees evidence of a murder. The only thing I specifically remember from the first time I watched this
movie is when he found out that the flowers had become shorter. I get the feeling Alfred Hitchcock
loved making this movie. It was sort of a film about film. Every window functioned as a cinema screen
as did mirrors. It’s a fun movie to look at.

1964

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

A musical! This is a great musical. It is sung through. I was really not expecting anything that happened
to be the next thing that happened. Roland is probably gay. So many colors. Anyway, the basic plot is
that a guy has to go to lose a war and his girlfriend is pregnant. They grow distant while he is away and
they wind up marrying different people. Don’t watch it for the plot. Watch it for the songs and the
pretty colors.
1974

Young Frankenstein

The first half is a little boring, but second half is great. The second half is where Puttin on the Ritz is and
where he says “No matter what I do or how cruelly I may beg, do not open this door…Let me out I was
kidding” The first time I watched this movie I was kicking myself for not recognizing the woman with the
White streak in her hair was the Bride of Fankenstein.

1984

The Natural

This was the only baseball movie that I knew about that I hadn’t seen. It was kind of a boring one. I
watched the directors cut, so maybe that is why it dragged on a bit. The bit before the end was
interesting. Where he is sick and wondering if he should play in his final game. The game itself was kind
of dull. There were three hits throughout the movie that were all the same. The camera slowed down
and the same music sting played. “do duuuuuu do do duun.” The first time he knocks the skin off the
baseball. The next two times, he breaks something. The last time is the famous time, where he takes
out the lights in the stadium. I don’t know why they made a fake team for him to play for. All the teams
he plays against are real, why not have him play for the Giants? Now I have seen basically every
baseball movie.

1994

Angels in the Outfield

I haven’t watched this since I was a kid. The only bit I remembered was the bit at the end where the kid
is flapping his arms, but how I remembered it was a wildly different context. I remembered it was they
had some sort of fight and he forgives him right at the end and flaps his arms to bring the angels back.
That’s not right. It doesn’t even fit with the lore of the story. The story is a little boy wants his dad back.
He sees his dad early on and asks if they can be a family back. The dad sarcastically says, sure when the
Angels win the pennant. He doesn’t get the sarcasm, so he prays for the Angels to win the pennant. I
think I sort of remembered that part of the plot. But he couldn’t summon the angels. He could only see
them. He would tell the coach which Angels the angels were helping. In the final game he is told by the
head angel (Christopher Lloyd) that they can’t interfere anymore, Championships have to be won on
their own. He doesn’t relay this message to anyone. At the end the pitcher is worn out and needs one
more pitch. He doesn’t think he can do it. That is when the kid starts flapping his arms, to make him
think that there is an angel helping the pitcher. The whole stadium follows him. Believing that he has
the help of the angels, strikes the last batter out.

In the middle of the movie he finds out that his dad was not serious when he said they would be
together again when the Angels win the pennant. That was his whole motivation. I don’t like it when
books and movies do that. If you think about it, it is realistic, but its not good writing. They needed it
for the end to work when the coach of the Angels adopts them, but I still didn’t like that bit.

There was only one scene I remembered as I was watching it. That is the scene when the kids are
playing baseball and one of them is told to run home, so he heads back to his house. I don’t know if I am
remembering that from this movie, or if the exact same scene happened in another movie.
2004

Million Dollar Baby

The second “half” was much shorter than I remember. I remember it being about half of the movie. It’s
only about the last twenty or thirty minutes. On the second watch, the first half of the movie is better.
It is just a classic boxer movie. Without the second half, it is just a standard boxing movie, but girl. The
second half makes this movie noteworthy even if it wasn’t about a girl. But, once you are over the
gimmick, the standard boxing movie is better. I was really wishing that the ending would change when I
watched it this time. Since I hadn’t seen it in a while, I didn’t know which fight was going to be her last
fight (just like Morgan Freeman said). The B plot was just there to give Morgan Freeman something to
do and not just be a magic negro.

2014

American Sniper

The best scenes where the ones where he has to decide to shoot someone or not. I think the last one
was the best, where he is begging for the kid to put down the RPG and he does. That made me feel like
the moment in other war movies where the cavalry comes in and saves the day. Likewise, when he has
to shoot someone it feels like when one of the good guys dies in a regular war movie. Most of the
movie was boring. I didn’t care about his life. There was one good scene where the VA doctor talks to
him about the fact that he saved soldiers in Iraq, but “there are a lot of soldiers here who need saving.”
His death was kind of random. Any movie based on a true story has people dying at random. For no
reason at all.