The Deer Hunter

Holy sad movie Batman.  Meryl Streep, please when did you discover your funny bone?  I get it, you had to get your foot in the door with the vulnerable steel magnolia schtick, but puhleeeez, it's winter and I'm just getting sadder.

Welcome to Vietnam everyone.

Okay, not really.

Welcome to a little town in nowhere Pennsylvania where three best friends, Steve, Mike & Nicky, decide to leave the factory and go to Vietnam.

Mike:

And Nicky:

are in love with the same woman:

(go figure)

The first half of this three and a half hour, multiple award winning, film is dedicated to the last 48 hours before shipping off.  The middle 30 minutes is about their time in Vietnam and specifically as POWs where they are exposed to and forced to participate in russian roulette.  Those that make it back are not the same men.  I will say however De Niro rocks some very serious badassery for about 25 minutes that makes the 3 hours of emotional pain totally, totally worth it.  The remainder is all aftermath and the reality of communities and soldiers adjusting to a world after Vietnam.

I read a review on Netflix by a self-proclaimed Vietnam vet who said this movie is "a very good anti-war movie"  I disagree.  I found it to be patriotic and sad but it didn't have an anti-war or anti-Vietnam message as far as I could tell.  It didn't glorify the horror or praise it nor did it stand against it.  It did however strive to acknowledge the sadness and trauma of war and the effects it has on the soldiers and their families.


But back to Meryl Streep.  With out even articulating a full sentence and with in her first 5 minutes on screen she has your heart in your throat.  You meet her as a young woman trying to wrangle her drunken father into bed before she leaves the house to go be the maid of honor at Steve's wedding.  Dad pops her a good one and she quietly steels herself.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Meryl Streep is dialed in at this time for the quiet, intelligent strength balanced against an adorable capacity for light and play.  And Hollywood is seeing this and casting accordingly.  Her Linda is a small town girl who ceases to put up with a drunken father.  She's in love with two men and just as willing to say she doesn't know what she's feeling as articulate it once she does.  Linda's growth and changes in response to the three men growing and changing as a result of their experiences shows the audience that was has happened to these men is real and goes down into the roots of the community.

Also, let's just take a moment to acknowledge the grace and beauty that was Christopher Walken.  What happened Walken?  He dances, he kisses, he charms!

Needless to say, his fairy tale prince features and graceful dancing just didn't jive with more cowbell and I was distracted.  Actually I will say there was one seen where Nicky is in the hospital and he's asked to remember his parent's birthdays and the depth with which he comes undone almost steals the entire movie.

Meanwhile Meryl Streep is kissing De Niro for the first time on film:

Also.  And this next pic might be a big flippin' spoiler so don't look to closely or go away, but for the second time in the Meryl Streep Oeuvre, we get to hear her sing at the end of the film.  It's probably the saddest rendition of the national anthem I've ever heard:

Damn I need a comedy already.

Holocaust

Woah.


Can we just take a moment and recognize the ridiculousness of what I'm doing?  I just sat through 8.5 hours of a retelling of the HOLOCAUST all for a cumulative hour, at best, of Meryl Streep.  Something is very, very wrong with me.

That being said.  On we go.

This 5 part mini-series covers the story of the Family Weiss from the early intimations of the Nazi party all the way through the defeat of Hitler and the end of World War II.  This particular post will be SPOILER FILLED.  The honest truth is that I'm not sure that there are a lot of readers of this blog let alone any who reeeeeaaallly want to go spend 9 hours to watch a 1977 rendition of the holocaust.  If you do, stop reading, just go away already.

Meet Inga:

Inga has a deep and abiding love for her new husband Karl:

JAMES WOODS!!!!  Yeah, he's basically in diapers.

It's 1935 and Karl & Inga are a "mixed marriage" for the time.  Both families are a little awkward at the wedding.  The Weiss' are because they feel guilty about being bad Jews because it wasn't really a jewish wedding.  And the Helms' were because they are almost all budding Nazi's and basically think Inga's spoiled and a little crazy for marrying "A Jew" but they love her anyway.

Time passes and progresses to 1938.  Papa Weiss gets a clear warning from a well meaning gentile who has just enscripted with the SS who basically tells him to get the hell outta dodge.  At which point I freak about a little because it is so effing stressful watching the core of the Weiss family (Mama Weiss, Papa Weiss, Rudi Weiss and Little Annoying Daughter Weiss) not leave.  Karl & Inga have the good sense to at least try to figure out a way out of town but they are so consumed by their love they keep getting distracted:

Meryl Streep's Inga is young, unrealistic and very in love.  She's stubborn, brave and intelligent.

The Weiss' have a hard year after they refuse to leave Berlin.  Grandpa and Grandma Weiss read the tea leaves and after some serious initial violence from the Nazi's they off themselves.  Papa Weiss is deported to the future Warsaw ghetto where his brother Uncle Weiss lives.  Karl gets hauled off by the SS for questioning.  And the Annoying Little Sister get gang raped and goes febrile-minded and sent to an aylum where she is essentially promptly gassed in a shed with the others.  Fun times.   So Inga is left to take in her brother in law Rudi and her mother in law Mama Weiss.

At this point Meryl's family demands that she kick the Jews out and she tells them to shove it.  Then a family friend, or possibly a cousin (it's never made clear) who is also a Nazi tells Meryl he's working at the concentration camp where Karl is.  Then he makes her sleep with him in order for him to bring notes to Karl.  And he brags to Karl about it every time he delivers a note.

More time passes.  1941.

Mama Weiss has finally managed to reunite with Papa Weiss and things aren't all that great in Warsaw.  The Jews get executed every time they leave the ghetto and try to return with food as it is considred smuggling.  All characters involved seem to have a hard time wrapping their heads around mass extermination.  Rudi has high tailed it to Russia and met a nice lady.

During scenes with nazi's actual footage and photos from the actual mass murders and burials are being shown.  The nazi's seem to be waffling at the prospect of killing 11 million people, apparently it's a daunting task.

You know what?  Eff this.  Like this time of year isn't totally depressing already.  The last thing I need to be doing is recapping the HOLOCAUST in the name of Meryl Streep.

I've been staring and staring at this post trying to find away to keep going but mostly I just feel incredibly grateful for my family.  Bottom line it's depressing as hell.  Meryl Streep gives a decent performance and the ending shot is of the remaining survivor of the original family who, despite every awful thing that befell him and his family, is smiling:

Julia

Woah.  Wow.

This was a really good movie.  I just didn't know what I was getting into.  It turns out this particular film was a biggie for it's time.  It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and took home the fame and glory for Best Screen Play as well as Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.  Jane Fonda was robed.  Vanessa Redgrave was a wildfire and deserved hers.  They were both so flipping beautiful!  Why did no one warn me?  I mean look:

The film is an adaptation from Lillian Hellman's autobiographical story "Julia."  The story and the film revolve around her close friendship with Julia and their growth in to adulthood along with their respective choices in the face of burgeoning fascism in Europe pre-World War II.  The story also addresses Lillian Hellman's creation of her first play, the Children's Hour as well as the beginning of her 30 year affair with Dashiell Hammett, god-farther of the detective novel genre.  Hellman is portrayed as a temperamental, Johnny Walker drinking, cigarette smoking, aspiring writer.  She yell, throws fits, is determined and eventually drops everything and risks everything to help an old friend.  Brave to the point of foolish... or possibly the other way around.

This is an intense story with an even more intense ending.  These women and the young actresses that played their younger selves did a remarkable job drawing me into their profoundly intimate friendship.  Add in the fact that this is Lillian Hellman's flipping story and every scene that had Fonda & Redgrave in it was just rife rife rife with lady loving subtext.  The intensity of their connection was just plain palpable.  Which made the 4 minutes Meryl actually had on screen that much more important.  Because I hated her.

Ok, hate is a strong word.  Maybe really disliked her.  A lot.  And I was supposed to.  She played Anne Marie, a woman who knew both Julia and Lillian and was portrayed as a smarmy, condescending, superficial beeotch.   4 tiny little minutes and I was all, "You leave Lillian alone.  You don't know shit about Julia!"  Plus the brunette look was just so alien.

Later on in the movie it's intimated that her character/the person she was based on in real life was a total whack job that seduced her brother when she was 16.  Not the kind of person one wants to be buddies with to begin with.

At anyrate.  This film blew me a way a little.  No doubt because I'm not doing my homework going into any of these for fear of backing out before I really begin.  It's a small part in a movie important to it's time and a good feather to get in her cap early.

If you've ever done time as a writer in any fashion there was one scene I found particularly cathartic.  Lillian/Jane Fonda is hammering away on a type-writer that seems to be falling apart, so what does she do?  She chucks it out the window:

But she's still pissed:

Yeah, that face right there says everything about writing.  It sucks and you can't stop.

The Deadliest Season ... Almost

Okay people.  I've put some serious time into finding a viewable version of "The Deadliest Season."

Let's take a moment to talk about those quotation marks.  The mean, when I read that phrase I hear a loud hockey announcer saying "Pow-errr Plaaaaaaaaay!"  But instead they are standing in their seats shaking their fists at the ice saying "Deaaad-leeeeee-eeeeest SEEEEA-SON!!!!!!"  Just FYI.

1977 + CBS + made for TV movie + Meryl Streep + Hockey =  Does it get any better?  Doubtful.

The truth is I could probably find a pirated version out there in the ethers.  Ok I did.  But my conscience just won't let me.  It's not that I'm a stickler for the law.  It's more that I can't seem to stomach the thought of ripping off Meryl Streep, and that includes 28 year old Meryl Streep, aka Sharon the hockey wife.

But I'm on a mission now people.  And while I will not put everything on hold until I find the elusive legitimate copy of the "Deadliest Season" I will find it... oh yes I will.

In the mean time, please tide yourself over with this strange little scene from 33 years ago.

Secret Service

Welcome to 1864 1977.  Our first stop is Virginia during the Civil War.  Specifically to a made for TV broadway revival of play performed in 1896 for a whopping 150 some odd shows.  A big deal at the turn of the century.  I know this because the man that looks like Gregory Peck who came on before the movie told me and said that it was America's "first thriller."  And you know what?  I had a good time.  Maybe that's because I know I have to do the holocaust trilogy waiting in my Netflix que.  But I did!

So many sites to see.  Big 1970s hair!  With in the first 2 minutes on stage Meryl Streep's sass came out:

 pushed right through her southern belle and on to the screen.  Nice to see it was always there.  Oh and John Lithgow had hair once!  No kidding, he really did and it was super nicely coiffed:

Okay, I'm not going to give you a play by play but here is the gist:

Meryl Streep plays Ethel who is entirely hung up on John Lithgow aka Captain Thorne.  She manages to fanagle a commission from the president (of the South) that would keep Thorne in town manning the telegraph office and away from battle.  Thorne is adamant that he can't do it and he has to leave for his other assignment.  THEN Jim Dial shows up and is all "John Lithgow is a spy!"

  and it just gets crazy from there.  Pretty dramatic stuff actually, lots of twists and turns and a bit of sweet comedy from and incredibly young Mary Beth Hurt.  I'm pretty sure she was actually 12 at the time.

With the exception of Jim Dial, it was very decently acted.  Sadly his mustache was distracting and he almost annihilated every scene he was in.  Only Meryl Streep held her own against him.  Her portrayal of a smitten, self obsessed, southern belle was quite believable.  And in classic Streep style she took it to the next level: Ethel was smart and conflicted and her emotions played across her face despite herself.  Ethel didn't know just what she wanted with consistency and so you didn't either.  Her inner turmoil was what held the play together despite Jim Dial's attempt to undo it.  At the intermissions between the acts we were treated to confederate song stylings by the actors.  Which, frankly, was a little awkward.  On the other hand, right out the gate Meryl Streep let the world know she was at least a double threat with both acting and singing.

Hey, remember that time I posted a picture of Meryl Streep singing in front of the confederate flag?  Yeah that was great.  And now I am deeply afraid of the Google searches that will hit on this blog post.


The film was not nearly as slow or hokey as I was braced for.  Well maybe I felt a little nauseated at the very very end, but it was 1895 when it was written so what do I know?  Of course I don't think the original John Lithgow and Meryl Streep got quite as fresh on stage as they did on the screen.

Clarification

Before I really dig in here allow me to clarify some of the details of what I'm doing here.

1)  An "ouvre" is technically the entirety of an artist's body of work.  Due to my lack of a time machine and excess funds I am not able to take a tour through Meryl Streep's entire work on the stage.  This is instead only her screen work.  Thus movie ouvre.  Television movies count.  Movie + Ouvre = mouvre.

2)  I am working my way backwards through IMDB.  If it says z came before b, then z came before b.  I don't care when it was filmed, just when it was released to the contemporary populous of the time.

3)  And on that note, Meryl Streep's first listing on IMDB is voice work for an animation short in 1975.  Her character is called Stage 6.  I think it's already ridiculous enough that I now have to work my way through the latter half of the 70's in any form, even for her.  I really think both you and I can live with out me finding obscure animation from 1975 so I can only hear her voice for a cumulative total of 10 minutes or whatever.  I'm just not doing it.  I never said I was a purist.

4) You may have noticed, I'm not calling her Meryl.  She's Meryl Streep.  No first name like we're buds because that's just a sad fantasy I refuse to discuss.  And no nicknames and no calling her Mary Louise, because that's just condescending.

Now that we've settled that, stay tuned.

Prologue

We were on our way home from Julie & Julia sometime last year and I had this "brilliant" idea.  Then I spent the better part of the rest of my graduate career getting intoxicated and making grand pronouncements like, "When I have a life again I'm going to watch everything Meryl Streep ever did and blog about it!"  Because that's exactly what people with a life do, right?  Oh well, the point is here I am with said life: blogging.  Because I thought it would be hilarious to do to Meryl Streep what Amy whatshername or whoever the original blogger was did to Julia Child, but not nearly as hard or weight gain inducing (theoretically).  Very meta, or whatever.  Let's just call it inspired.

Plus it turns out that if you run your mouth enough people actually start to call you on it.  Who knew?

Word on the street says if one is going to explore an ouvre it ought to be chronological.  I can't say I'm particularly thrilled about this development.  Upon organizing my Netflix que and intensely studying IMDB, it looks as if the seventies were a) obscure and b) slightly depressing.  I mean, Meryl's TV/movie acting tour through the 70's.  Not the whole decade.  Well, maybe the whole decade, but to be fair that statement is based entirely on other people's opinions as my brain had not yet developed to the point where I could testify either way.

I am going to have to get a nickname for the grande lady sooner or later.  Can't just run around typing Meryl this Meryl that like we're all buddy buddy.  Because we aren't.  I mean, she's practically raised me since I discovered entertainment in the form of moving lights.  But let's get real the woman deserves mad respect.  In retrospect, I question the wisdom of jumping into the deep end with Meryl (see I need a nickname, it's just too familiar).  It's not the sheer quantity of movies before me (67) but the fact that there are so many good ones and she has so many dedicated fans who are quite capable of hate mail because I fail to see the brilliant, subtle whatever.  Like most people I am a movie geek.  But my background in no way prepares me for a comprehensive and accurate review and assessment of the merits and, shall we say, learning opportunities of Meryl Streep's career here-to-fore. So be nice interweb, just lurk if you can't say anything nice and or/constructive.  This is a happy place.  Sort of.

Okay, and I'm afraid of She Devil.  There, I said it.  I don't want to watch it plain and simple.  But I will.

So for those of you that are following on this courageous journey, welcome.  I guarantee nothing in the way of updates.  I'm going to shoot for once a week, maybe twice if I'm feeling particularly motivated.  I imagine things will pick up in the 90s or late 80s.  As it is I'm having to do things just short of pirating to find a couple of those tv specials from the 70s.