Movie Mondays

This was a good week for movies. I saw one that I had never heard of, "He Ran All the Way." It stars Shelley Winters and John Garfield. I was tempted to change the channel because even though I like Winters (her part in A Place in the Sun breaks my heart), the movie description made the movie seem boring: "Thief holes up with family." Just as I was about to change the channel, my mother called. I caught the movie again about 30 minutes in and I was hooked. Garfield's character steals the payroll (in the time before checks) and kills a cop. He stole the money to spite his mother because she keeps emasculating him. He hides out at a public pool and meets Winters. He offers to escort her home and ends up in the apartment she shares with her parents and little brother. He takes the family hostage, but he's in over his head and needs "time to think." Winters is in love with him and she offers to leave with him. He sends her to buy a car, but when she gets back, she says the car needed work and won't be delivered until later that afternoon. He starts to get paranoid, thinking that she's betrayed him. I started to wonder too and thought she went to the police and set up a trap, but I was wrong. She was really in love with him and willing to leave with him. She ends up killing him. I guess she really didn't love him that much.

Recommendations? Yes. Watch with someone who likes character-based movies.

Earlier last week, I saw "The Wild Bunch." I didn't understand why it was rated R when I read the description. After all, William Holden and Ernest Borgnine are in this movie. I later found out that some violent scenes were cut from the original release. As a child of '80s Stephen J. Cannell shows, the violence didn't seem like much to me, but I was surprised at the amount of boobies that were flying all over scene.

The plot? Again, bad guys that you can't help but root for.

Recommendations? If you have a three hours to spare, watch it. It's also a good movie to watch when you're in the mood for something different. People have gone on and on about how it was a ground breaking movie, etc. As I said, I have a different perspective and unfortunately, all that violence is old hat.