Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 182: Cold War Comedy

A few days ago I talked about Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove and how it mocked America's attitude to the nuclear missile crisis. Two years later Norman Jewison made The Russians Are Coming, The Russians are Coming which looked at America's attitude towards The Cold War. The film sees a group of Russian soldiers take a detour and end up on the New England coast. They then decide that they must find a motorboat to safely return them to their submarine and decide to pose as Norwegian tourists. They happen on the holiday home of Carl Reiner's frustrated writer Walt Whittaker who has come to the town in the hope of finishing his novel. He is surprised when the two Russian officers turn up at his house and soon hold his family at gunpoint until he gives them the keys to his car. Whittaker eventually overpowers the young officer who is tasked with guarding them and goes into town to try and find out what the Russians are actually up to. Meanwhile news of the Russians' presence in the town has been circulating and has led to mass hysteria breaking out. The town's level-head police chief attempts to get to the bottom of the case however some of the more vocal locals try to get their case heard. Meanwhile Whittaker starts to warm to Russian Lieutenant Rozanov, played by Alan Arkin in his first film role, and realises that he's not such a bad guy after all. The film builds up to a massive climax in which the townsfolk descend on the Russians while they in turn threatent to blow up the town. However a potential tragedy then breaks out which seemingly brings them all closer together.

The Russians are Coming is much more of a standard comedy than the much more subtle Dr Strangelove. The laughs essentially stem from the fact that the Russians are on the whole quite cool and calm while the Americans are a lot more hysterical. The whole thing has a farcical element about it but this is stopped from getting out of hand by the Russian characters who you could believe would actually kill. Personally I couldn't believe that this was Alan Arkin's first film role as he was great as the incredibly calm Rozanov who got increasingly more baffled by events in the town. Carl Reiner was also the perfect choice to play the American writer as he can get laughs based on his facial expressions alone. The supporting cast where also brilliant as a paranoid bunch who felt the Russians were there to attack them rather than simply to get back to their submarine. William Rose's screenplay is packed full of obvious yet funny jokes as well as few very well-choreographed set pieces. One element that didn't really work for me was the romance between the young Russian officer and the Whittaker's babysitter however that was mainly due to the actors rather than anything else. Overall The Russians are Coming is a lightweight comedy which doesn't have any of the political message that Dr Strangelove does. But at the same time I can't say it wasn't entertaining though I'm still not sure whether it deserved a Best Picture nomination.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 181: Rom-cons

I find the 1960s a really interesting period for cinema as it bridges the gap between the glossy product of the early years and the more experimental films from the years to come. A perfect example of this is Bonnie and Clyde a film that is shot a lot differently than many of the films I have watched up to this point and its levels of sex and violence mark it out from the safer movies at the time. The film itself concerns the formation of the Barrow gang led by Warren Beatty's forceful Clyde Barrow who hooks up with Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker while attempting to steal her mother's car. The two begin to rob banks and soon join forces with Clyde's brother Buck, his wife Blanche and local oaf CW Moss to become notorious throughout the country. The gang are beset by problems especially that Bonnie and Blanche just don't get on with each other while the quintet soon have an angry policeman on their hands after they embarrass Texas Ranger Frank Harmer. Eventually the gang make several mistakes which allows several of their number to be killed and the rest to hide out at the house of CW's father and while I won't spoil the ending I think most of us know how this story turned out. 

I was completely transfixed while watching Bonnie and Clyde from the opening bank robbery through to the bloody shoot-out and the final tragic scene everything about it felt new and fresh. Arthur Penn's directorial style owed a lot to the directors of the French New Wave with the camera angles focusing on the sexuality of both of the central characters. The key relationship is obviously that of Bonnie and Clyde and you can tell the two really do care about each other in between their bank robbing and killing sprees. The interesting thing about Bonnie and Clyde is that it makes a lot of the violence seem incredibly comic especially in the case of some of the music that is used while Gene Wilder's cameo is also an odd choice. Talking of Genes we had Mr Hackman here in his first notable role and as Buck he really is the brains of the Barrow family and even in his early days you could see that he would become a big star. In fact the acting in Bonnie and Clyde is great with all five central cast members getting Oscar nominations but the only win was for Estelle Parsons who played the cranky Blanche. Personally the best performance in the whole film comes from Michael J Pollard as the simple CW who really starts to idolise Clyde to the extent that he thinks he is invincible. That's not to put anything against Beatty or Dunaway who both became big name stars after this film and of course would go on to bigger and better things hereafter. With its breathtaking style and great performances it's not hard to see why Bonnie and Clyde was nominated for so many awards however in a year with so many great movies it only came away with two. However its legacy lives on today through the influential award-winning cinematography and through its comical presentation of violence.