Jun. 30, 2002 - 7:30 pm
this one was Best Picture for 1985. directed by Sydney Pollack, who has recently done work on some wonderful films as producer and/or executive producer. including Sliding Doors (1998), Heaven (2002) which i still have not been able to see, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)-yes! i own a copy now on dvd, and the up and coming Cold Mountain (2003). as a director, no i don't really like his work so much, but these production jobs are terrific.
this film is very long and is very reminiscent of The English Patient (1996) which i love. but it's just not quite as good. the best thing about the film itself is the soundtrack by John Barry. it got an Oscar for that too, among many other things. but if you're going to watch a film to see how John Barry's music can help along an already great film, i'd suggest Somewhere in Time (1980) starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.
i think that's one thing about this movie. i really hate watching films with Meryl Streep in them. i just genuinely don't like her. she's not terrible. just bad to watch. i can't explain any better than that. and she had a fake accent which just made me vomit all the more.
she's supposed to be a Dutch lady who comes to Kenya in 1914 to get married to a Baron and start a coffee plantation. along the way she finds love with another man (Robert Redford) and then starts to lose everything she holds dear. another thing that i did like about the film is that Karen, Streep's character, reads a poem as a eulogy near the end of the film. it's "To an Athlete Dying Young" by my favorite poet, A. E. Housman. wonderful. i hadn't thought of it as a good poem for a eulogy, but it really was quite perfect placement for it in this context. even though the dead man was not an "athlete" as such. read the poem if you get the chance. but probably don't sit through the movie. check out the other movies i've mentioned in this entry instead.