My Favorite Movies

It took almost three months, but I have finally seen this film and it was worth the wait. Other than about three minutes, the entire film takes place in a jury room. The movie tells the story of a man accused of murdering his father, although the viewer sees nothing of the trial and learns everything of it from the juries recollection. After an initial vote, the verdict is 11 to 1 in favor of guilty with juror number 8 (Henry Fonda) the lone dissenter. The plot isn't all that complex, but it is quite outstanding. The only negative thing I can say about this film is the fact that what happens in this film almost never happens and the ending could have been slightly more convincing.

The film, played by an ensemble cast, stars the likes of Henry Fonda, Lee Cobb, E.G. Marshall, and nine others. Since the entire movie takes place in one room, every actor has a reasonably equal part. As the lone dissenter to start the film Henry Fonda has the most dialogue and he is most excellent.

Although the film's premise is unlikely, it is not impossible. This statement reflects the movie where Fonda tries to convince the other jurors that although the defendant looks guilty, it is not impossible that he is not guilty. At just 96 minutes, the movie is not all that long but it manages to include a lot in just a short time frame. This movie is so good that I'm left with no choice but to award a near perfect score.

96/100
A

UP NEXT: The 1992 Best Picture winner, Unforgiven.

First of all, this movie was outstanding, simply amazing. The idea of following Germans in a U-Boat during World War II seemed like a pretty unique concept that could be anywhere from horrible to great depending on how it was done. This movie exceeded any expectations I had prior to viewing it.

Despite the fact that this film is 3.5 hours long (at least the version I chose), it doesn't seem like it. Almost the entire movie is action sequences and the pacing is outstanding. Every now and then the action would slow down for a few minutes and you'd start to get impatient before realizing that it's essential to have some sort of plot development in order to work.

This movie stars all kinds of people whom I've never heard of. There are far too many to attempt to list individually so I will not attempt to do so. The ship has some 41 crew members but only around five or so are described in that great of detail. This isn't a flaw by any means as attempting to go into detail with all 41 members would take hours and be dull and repetitive. The main characters were logical choices such as the ship's captain and other officers. Overall, the acting in here was quite good and I found it to be rather believable.

The main aspect that drew me to this movie was the idea of seeing this from the German side. While it seems quite odd, to state, as the movie got going you really sympathized with the characters and were cheering for them not only to survive, but to be successful in their mission which included the sinking of Allied ships. While many people nowadays tend to think of World War II era Germans as Nazis or evil Hitler clones, this movie does a good job demonstrating this is not the case. Only one member of the crew is a member of the Nazi party while the rest of the crew is either Nazi indifferent or openly anti-Nazi.

The effects in this film are also worth mentioning. As this film is relatively modern, completed in 1981, I hold it to much higher standards than a film such as The Bridges at Toko-Ri (completed in 1954). The effects here did not disappoint and were comparable to a modern-day film.

Overall, there is almost nothing to not like about this film. The opening scene prior to the crew's departure wasn't all that exciting although it was rather brief. Midway through the film several crew members almost leave but are ordered not to. This scene is technically necessary as it allows the ship to resupply itself which was needed at that point, but it did slow the plot down slightly for the few minutes it lasted. Even with these very minor flaws the film is simply outstanding and needs to be seen at once by anyone even remotely interested in World War II or war films. I don't particularly care for World War II (I like World War I better) or war movies, but I still thought this was great and it's well deserving of a nearly perfect score.

95.5/100
A

UP NEXT: Depending on how much time I have it'll either be a three-hour musical ,My Fair Lady, or a Hitchcock film, The Paradine Case.

This is the fourth consecutive Billy Wilder film I have seen and will be the last for a while as I do not have access to The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, or Stalag 17 at the moment. Of the six Billy Wilder films I have seen (this string of four along with Sunset Boulevard and Sabrina) this one is second only to Sunset Boulevard. The film is about a man (Tyrone Power) accused of murdering a single woman who is about to leave him a bunch of money and his only alibi is his wife (Marlene Dietrich). When the credits roll a voice warns the viewer not to spoil it so I'll say no more. The plot was very entertaining, well-paced, and even had a couple of comedic moments. This film is not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination, but is still funny a couple times. I do not generally care for comedy movies because a well-written drama can be funny enough, there's no need for constant laughter. Back to the plot, the moments leading up to the ending seemed a little weak while I was watching but these would-be issues were mostly resolved and this story full of twists and turns delivers a very good ending which I will not reveal for obvious reasons.

As stated previously, this film stars Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich. They both do an excellent job especially Dietrich, who I had never previously seen. Actually, one could argue they were more supporting cast than anything as Power's lawyer, played by Charles Laughton, is in almost every scene in the film. He does an excellent as well and is rather funny at times. He delivers a line near the end of the film that I thought was most excellent but it sort of reveals the plot so I will not post it here.

Other than a five to ten minute stretch near the end of this film just about everything was perfect. According to some legal experts there were a few moments in the trial that probably would not have occurred, although the experts argue that they are at least plausible. I suppose this slightly detrimental to the film as the trial hinges on these somewhat unlikely occurrences. Still, this film is great and when combined with what else I have seen Billy Wilder is now one of my favorite directors (I now have three) and moves ahead of Stanley Kubrick as my second favorite, still quite a way behind Hitchcock.

93/100
A-

UP NEXT: I'll try yet again to like Audrey Hepburn in probably her most famous role, Breakfast at Tiffany's.