the movie i have seen more than any other (about eight times) is sand pebbles, from 1966, with steve mcqueen.
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"Engineer Jake Holman (mcqueen) arrives aboard the gunboat U.S.S. San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the "rice-bowl" system which runs the ship and the uneasy sybiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission."
steve mcqueen is captivating in this film. some of my favorite scenes are when he teaches a chinese coolie how to operate the ship's engine. in order to be understood, mcqueen often speaks in the coolie's dialect, and it's incredible to see him teach that man. i won't reveal endings, in case someone decides to go out and rent the flick on this recommendation. the movie is as good as anything that mcqueen has ever done, quite possibly the best.
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the movie i have seen next to the most times (about six) is pocket money, from 1972, with paul newman and lee marvin. it also stars strother "what-we-have-here-is-a-failure-to-communicate" martin, who also appears with newman in butch cassidy and others. i guess newman just likes him a lot and takes him with him wherever he goes. <g3>
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"Broke and in debt, an otherwise honest cowboy (newman) gets mixed up in some shady dealings with a crooked rancher (martin)."
lee marvin is at his best, imo, in this otherwise obscure flick. he drinks to excess, flies around the southern desert in a souped up chrysler, wearing driving gloves and always dressed in a jacket and tie that looks like he takes them off at night and puts them back on the next morning. he's as sharp and street-wise as they come, at one point, somewhere down around chihuahua, referring to a pocket knife as a "mexican boxing glove". he endeavors to take the square newman under his wing and (wink-wink) show him the ropes. when negotiations often end abruptly with the newman character paying the other guy his asking price, marvin's character always looks like he could wring newman's neck for being such an easy touch. the movie's conflict stems from paul newman's character's struggle with marvin's way of doing things. wayne rogers is also in it, and is excellent plus. i can't say enough good things about pocket money.
:)
mark |
