Videos to GO

While preparing this week’s column, I came to a couple of realizations. First, the only new DVD that was even remotely worth commenting on was the Rene Zellwegger, Harry Connick, Jr. romantic comedy New in Town. My only comment on “been there, done that.”

The other discover I made was that several of my favorite movies were celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their initial release. Looking back over 1979’s offerings, one can find a number of outstanding films. With that in mind, I’d like to offer a few suggestions on rentals to enjoy from a surprisingly creative year.

All That Jazz- Bob Fosse was a true Renascence man. Originally a Broadway dancer, he soon graduated to choreography and theatre, later film and television, direction. In 1972, he scored the show business world’s equivalent of the Grand Slam, winning the Tony Award for Liza Minelli’s Liza with a Z stage review, an Emmy for the directing the television version and an Oscar for directing the film version of Caber. Several years later, Fosse took audiences deep inside his own life and psyche for this unforgettable musical fantasy.

Roy Scheider (Jaws, The French Connection) stars as Joe Gideon, a multi-talented entertainer with an insatiable passion for performance, on and off stage. His numerous affairs have ended marriages and relationships. They’ve also provided him with material that energizes his work. The question is: where does the show biz smoothie end and the real man/lover/father/friend begin? And does Gideon himself know?

Fosse based the film in large part on his own near death experience, when he suffered a heart attack while putting together the original stage version of Chicago (starring his ex-wife Gwen Verdon) while also putting the final touches on his cinematic biography of revolutionary comedian Lenny Bruce, All That Jazz crackles with energy and humor, while examining with lacerating honesty, the compromises we often make in love, life and at work. Scheider is terrific as Gideon and Fosse utilized his athletic body to full effect in the dance sequences. Anne Reinking, Leland Palmer and Elizabeth Foldi are sensational as the three women in Gideon’s life, his girlfriend, ex-wife and daughter, respectively. Jessica Lange proves a fascinating muse of sorts as the mysterious Angelique. Nominated for ten Academy Awards,
Jazz took home several, including well deserved nods for editing, set direction and costume design. It proves there really is no business like show business. MPAA Rating: R for profanity, nudity, drug and sexual content.

Manhattan- Woody Allen offers a valentine to his beloved borough with this razor sharp, bittersweet comedy of manners and romance. Allen plays Isaac Davis, a writer for a Saturday Night Live-style television show who’s in a bit of a mid-life crisis. He wants to quit his job and write a novel, but needs cash for alimony and child support. He’s met a smart, sweet young woman whom he really connects with (Mariel Hemingway, in an Oscar nominated performance,) but she’s 17 and he’s 42.

Another problem: Isaac’s second wife (Merryl Streep) plans to write a tell-all book about the collapse of their marriage and her turn to lesbianism. Meanwhile, Isaac finds himself attracted to a talented, but high strung writer (Diane Keaton)-but she’s having an affair with Isaac’s best friend, a married college professor (Michael Murphy.)

Allen’s and Marshall Brickman’s screenplay captures and mocks the moods and mores of the decade with skill and wit. The acting ensemble is spot-on throughout and Gordon Willis’ black and white cinematography (along with the use of the immortal music of the Gershwins) gives New York the look and feel of a city of legend. If you ever decide o put together a time capsule of the ‘70’s, Manhattan must be a part of it. MPAA Rating: R for mild profanity and sexual content.

Norma Rae-Before Sally Field became a spokesperson for calcium improvement she starred in this small and moving drama about one woman’s journey towards self-awareness. She plays a textile factory worker in a small Southern town. Single mom to two small children, she speaks her mind on behalf of her fellow workers when she thinks she can help. That outspoken nature attracts the attention of union organizer Ruben Warshofsky (Ron Leibman,) who’s trying to organize the factory where Norma works.

Ruben’s New York accent and big city ways make it difficult for him to reach the workers, so he enlists Norma’s help. The two soon find themselves fighting company tactics and a whispering campaign, as well as their unspoken attraction to each other, as they fight to bring the workers a shot at justice.

Loosely based on a true story, Norma Rae is one of those films that reduce big issues to a small, affecting human drama. Director Martin Ritt (Hud, Sounder) beautifully captures the sometimes claustrophobic feel of small town life and the resilience of working people in the face of struggle. Field’s layered, passionate performance won her the first of her two Best Actress Oscars (one of two this film won.) Beau Bridges and Pat Hingle head a strong supporting cast. This is a film you’ll savor and consider log after the final credits finish. MPAA Rating: PG for profanity, mild violence and sexuality.

Other releases that should be a part of your 1979 Video Festival; The late Sydney Pollack’s Capra-like Electric Horseman was a pure delight, with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Fonda also shined opposite Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas in the nuclear thriller The China Syndrome. Nickolas Meyer’s imaginative time travel thriller Time After Time stared Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen. Being There was a very funny Hal Ashby satire, based on the novel of the same name, starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglass. Robert Duval’s unforgettable lead performance powered The Great Santini, based on Pat Conroy’s novel.

Merryl Streep turned in two more distinctive performances: as a sexy brainy civil rights lawyer engaging in mutual attraction in The Seduction of Joe Tynan, starring and written by Alan Alda and as an overwhelmed wife and mother who leaves her husband and son in Kramer versus Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman. (Steep and Hoffman both took home Oscars fort their work in this film.)

Finally, if big, broad summertime laughs are what you’re looking for, check out Bill Murray’s big screen debut, Meatballs. Happy “re-viewing” to you all!

Joe Barber’s entertainment reports and reviews can be heard Fridays through Sundays on the WTOP-FM Radio Network (103.5, 103.9, 107.7 & Wtop.com.) He can be seen regularly on WETA-TV’s Around Town and Fridays on Comcast Sports Net’s Washington Post Live.