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Tinsel town goes mile high
'Hooray for Hollywood' series at Denver Art Museum celebrates cinematic epics
By Adam Goldstein
goldstea@mscd.edu

Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, William Holden and Ernest Borgnine in Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 film The Wild Bunch.

To inaugurate its new facilities at the Fredrick C. Hamilton building, the Denver Art Museum is celebrating some of Hollywood’s most epic creations.

The Lewis Sharp Auditorium will host seven separate films culled from different decades over the next seven weeks. These are among American film’s most grandiose creations, and the spiffy new forum will help to spotlight their significance.

April 4
The General (1927)
When it was released in 1927, The General received lackluster reviews and poor box-office returns. Its star, silent film legend Buster Keaton, lost his status as an independent filmmaker and accepted a limited deal with MGM.

Decades later, the film was rediscovered by cinema buffs and historians, who hailed it as one of the greatest silent films ever made.

Keaton stars as a love-struck Confederate, driven by his dual passion for his sweetheart Annabelle Lee, played by Marion Mack, and a train engine. With well-honed pratfalls and physical comedy, Keaton’s character navigates water tanks, cowcatchers, artillery cannons and natural disasters on his quest to recover both.

Based on a true story of the hijacking of a Confederate train, The General draws on epic effects and scenery to spotlight Keaton’s comedic prowess.

With a fully restored version of the film and Hank Troy’s live piano accompaniment, this screening will fully recreate the golden era of silent film.

April 11
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Almost 70 years after its premiere, The Wizard of Oz stands as a cultural staple, an undisputed classic of American cinema and a vibrant modern fairy tale.

Director Victor Fleming turned Frank L. Baum’s majestic vision of a faraway world into Hollywood’s first color epic, melding the fantastical elements of the book with A-list star power and a dreamy, mystical score by Harold Arlen.

Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Burt Lahr and Jack Haley deliver legendary performances as the film’s quartet of protagonists, while Margaret Hamilton’s cackling Wicked Witch of the West has given countless impressionable children nightmares.

The film’s opening titles may hold the most eloquent summation of its own staying power: “For 40 years, this story has given faithful service to the young in heart; and time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion.”

April 18
Casablanca (1942)
Casablanca’s backdrop is rich with political intrigue, and its World War II setting echoes with the struggle between totalitarianism and democracy. At its core, however, the movie remains the simple tale of a tortured love triangle.

Marked by memorable catch phrases, stunning cinematography and unforgettable film-noir performances by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains, Casablanca earns its status as one of film’s most influential epics.

Director Michael Curtis seamlessly combines a tender love story with a taut ambience of war and death, as he takes a political stand in the film’s anti-Nazi subtext. Released in 1942 during the Allied invasion of North Africa, Casablanca is a stunning achievement in storytelling, and it is an unflinching statement of political conviction.

April 25
On the Waterfront (1954)
Director Elia Kazan tackles issues like corrupt trade unions and racketeering through the gritty lens of a traditional gangster film in this classic starring Marlon Brando.

As Terry Malloy, a former boxer and street-wise tough, Brando plays the lackey of the local union boss in Hoboken, N.J. Awash in expired dreams and failed hopes, Malloy eventually tires of his own role in the city’s corruption.

Malloy’s struggle to redeem himself is a highly personal parable, even as the consequences of his fight have larger social implications. Kazan manages to invest the film with immediacy and timelessness, and Brando’s award-winning performance is a high point in his career.

May 2
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Sam Peckinpah achieved an artistic pinnacle in this gritty and violent depiction of the West’s final days as an untamed frontier.

Long known for his unflinching and bloody views of the American frontier, Peckinpah brought all his trademark gore to this tale of grizzled outlaws. Still, the film offered a parallel amount of historical and social commentary to match its violence, and it remains a telling view of a country’s transition in a new century.

William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Jaimie Sanchez and Edmund O’Brien come together in an ensemble cast rich with depth and conflict, lending credence to the film’s rugged atmosphere.

May 9
Jaws (1975)
Moviegoers waiting in line for Steven Spielberg’s big budget debut stood in queues that snaked around city blocks in the summer of 1975. Indeed, the term “blockbuster” stemmed from the phenomenal lines that trailed from the theaters showing Jaws.

The crowds would not be disappointed. Spielberg’s taut thriller about a homicidal great white shark and its hapless New England victims inspired a nationwide fear of the water. More than 20 years later, the innovative cinematography, the spooky score and the standout performances are just as engaging.

One of the highlights of the film remains Robert Shaw’s portrayal of Quint, a modern-day Ahab bent on slaying his aquatic foe. Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss give superb depictions as Quint’s fellow hunters, lending the chilling action an approachable and human face.

Though Spielberg went on to break more box office records and create more cinematic masterworks, Jaws survives as one of his greatest achievements. It’s a fish hunt that would have made Melville proud.

May 16
Tootsie (1982)
On the surface, the humor of Tootsie rests in a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman. Watching Ratzo Rizzo don a dress and adopt a female persona contains enough inherent comedy to carry an entire film. There is much more at work in this film, however, than just its surface laughs.

Director Sidney Pollack created a comedy that boasts as much biting social commentary as sight gags in this story of an actor’s struggle to find work. When Michael Dorsey, played by Hoffman, lands a gig on a soap opera as a sassy southern belle, he is exposed to all of the hurdles and double standards that are part of a female actor’s standard existence. The film’s observations about gender roles in contemporary society are as pertinent in 2007 as they were when the film debuted in 1982.

The supporting cast helps make the film: Bill Murray’s performance as Hoffman’s roommate, as well as Pollack’s own cameo as his agent, are brilliant, while Jessica Lange and Teri Garr play plucky foils to Hoffman’s sometimes stubborn, sometimes clueless character.