A lot of the fans of TCM wonder why films from the 70s, 80, and 90s would be included in a “classic” film festival. That’s understandable, most of the fare on the TCM channel comes from the heyday of the studio system when movie making was part of a factory process. The collapse of the old ways of doing things ushered in chaos, innovation, vulgarity, sexuality a very different sensibility. I love studio films from the dream factory but the term “classic” is not really limited to a time period. From my perspective, a film earns that title if it made a unique mark on the industry and culture. So many of the films that I love come from the second and shorter golden age of Hollywood, 1969 to 1977. For a few brief years, the inmates were in charge of the asylum, and there were some amazing films produced as a result.

One of those films is “Lenny”, the biopic of comedian Lenny Bruce by director Bob Fosse. Bruce turned into a controversial figure after becoming the subject of prosecution for violating obscenity laws. That controversy spurred him into becoming an activist and political figure in the culture war that was breaking out in the early 1960s. The film was widely lauded for it’s photographic style and the nominated performances of the two leads. It is however a slog to get through since the story does not have a strong narrative and the subject matter is sometimes lurid and ugly. This screening was not originally in my schedule for the festival but the work related meeting that was going to keep me out of the festival until late afternoon was not happening and so I took a chance on seeing this again, for maybe the third time since it was originally released.

In the line up to get in, I chatted with two very nice women who were old friends and were at their second TCM Festival. One is from Virgina and the other from the San Diego area. After twisting her friend’s arm into going with her last year, this year the formerly reluctant friend became the programmer for their Festival and choose this movie for their Friday morning. When the line began to move, I heard someone call out my name and I spotted my on-line friend Michael, le0pard13.com standing in line in front of me. He indicated that he would find seats for us and I joined him inside the theater. I’ve run into Michael a few times at screenings at the Egyptian and he is a great movie companion, full of enthusiasm and knowledge and also willing to listen when you have something to say. We ended up attending four films together at the Festival and I enjoyed every minute of his company.

The film itself is fascinating to see because the black and white photography seems to fit the actual time period and subject more effectively than color would have. The time period covered featured TV in Black and White. Comics talking to each other and working in nightclubs just feel like they belong in B & W. I remember “Broadway Danny Rose” the Woody Allen film featuring a number of comics and other acts of the era was also shot in B & W. Fosse had won the Academy Award for Director just two years before for “Cabaret” a musical theater piece that is much more in his groove that this picture was. He only directed five full length features, and was nominated for his work for three of them, including this film.

The special guest arranged by the Festival was star Dustin Hoffman, who was interviewed by actor and frequent TCM co-host Alec Baldwin. The interview took place after the film and Hoffman was greeted with a warm ovation from the capacity crowd. I’d actually seen him going into the theater when we were standing in line so he was there for the screening not just the interview.  At another film line in the Festival, I spoke with a woman who had sat right in front of Hoffman and Baldwin during the screening and she said that Hoffman regularly was commenting to Baldwin about things going on in the film.

Hoffman shared memories of working on the film and struggling with Bob Fosse over the direction that the performance would take. He was gracious enough to say that Fosse was the one who was right in the long run. Those of you who have seen “All That Jazz” will recall that the lead in that movie, a somewhat fictionalized version of Fosse, was working on editing a movie about a comic. Those sequences were directly based on Fosse’s struggles to get this movie to take shape. According to Hoffman, it was Fosse’s decision to use interviewing sequences to string the episodes together, that finally allowed the film to become more coherent.

Hoffman praised the performance of his co-star Valarie Perrine and said that if we had encountered the “real” Honey Bruce, we would be amazed to see that Valarie Perrine embodied her perfectly. He also shared stories of his being cast in “The Graduate” and of working with Jon Voight in “Midnight Cowboy”. As he discussed the improvisational style that Lenny Bruce used, he invoked the name of his late friend Robin Williams and a very real moment occurred when he struggled to compose himself to go on. Alec Baldwin was a supportive interviewer and managed the moment with grace. The two of them were so caught up in the conversation that they seemed to have lost track of time and the interview ran long and another screening was scheduled in the theater. As we were exiting, the lobby was already full of people waiting to get in for another program. No one seemed to mind, since everyone was enjoying their experience so much.

It is a well known fact that I am a James Bond Fanatic. Since the time I could remember going to the movies, I have been going to James Bond films. The inclusion of one of the least appreciated and most unusual 007 movies in the Festival this year had me twitterpated immediately. Here’s the rub though, I had not completely understood the options on the pass that I purchased. This is only the second time for me at the TCMFF, and it was the first where I bought a pass rather than simply purchasing an individual ticket. The Palace pass that I committed to gave me access to the screenings at the Egyptian, Theater, Poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel and at the Chinese Theater. Check that. The Chinese IMAX Theater. I did not realize until two days before the start of the event that the Chinese Multiplex screening were not covered by the pass. That meant that four of the films I had on my original plan would have to be crashed. I wasn’t worried about the money, I was worried about getting locked out

I said farewell for the day to my friend Michael, he was headed to the Hotel to pick up his Festival Souvenir Book and then over to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.  His plan was to go to the 9 pm screening of “Apollo 13” in the big house. While that is something I would love to have done, there was no way to manage it because I was absolutely going to see OHMSS, with special guest, 007 himself George Lazenby. Now here was my dilemma,  how do I go to the screening of “The Invisible Man” that I had planned on, and still get into the Bond film when the other movie would let out just a few minutes before 007 was to begin? I decided I could not take a chance. Since I had to be in the Standby line, I wanted to get there early. So I did, two hours and fifteen minutes early to be exact. I had to stake out my spot more than an hour before they passed out the priority numbers that allow you to purchase a ticket should there be room. It wasn’t that big of a deal, I spent the Summer of 1977 standing in two to three hour lines at the Chinese Theater every Friday, you know why. I was rewarded for my diligence with a coveted priority number.
I should have guessed that it would be my destiny to get in, as I was walking to the theater originally, I had a text message from my daughter informing me that the “SPECTRE” teaser was about to be released on-line.So how could I not have enough luck to get in? As I looked at the others in line, none of the Standby folks seemed to have a pass to any of the rest of the Festival. They all seem to have come for this one event only. One person said that there had been a screening of a Bond film at an earlier edition of the Festival and that it had not been well attended. That was had for me to believe but it gave me confidence that we would get in.
I was the first in the line and I marched right in when the called in the first group of ten, once in the theater, I was able to find a very satisfactory seat near the center about two thirds of the way back. Now I had been on the lookout for a couple of fellow bloggers at the Festival. These are people that I know on-line but have never met before. As I was getting comfortable in my seat, a couple came in and sat down next to me, and from the row behind us I heard a woman call out “Paula, is it OK if I come sit with you guys?” The woman standing next to me turned back and said “sure”. I don’t know a lot of people named Paula, in fact I know of only one, she runs a art house theater in Detroit and blogs at Paula’s Cinema Club . I’m not particularly shy so I just piped up and asked her, “You’re Paula? any chance you are from Detroit?” Sure enough it was her and by accident we were seated next to each other. I introduced myself by name and mentioned that I was on her site occasionally and she was quite friendly. When she left to get concession items, I chatted with her husband Tim about the theater that they run, Cinema Detroit.He was very forthcoming with their story and I was very inquisitive. It had been my dream at one point to own my own revival theater and program it with classic and independent films, and they were doing that themselves. When Paula returned I mentioned that I would probably do some posts on the Festival and I would mention that I saw them. I gave her a card I’d made up for my blogs and she suddenly said, “Oh, 70srichard, I do know you.” The card has the distinctive “Jaws” Masthead on it so she was able to put two and two together without the right input from me in the first place. Anyway, “Hey Paula”.

Let’s get to what brought us here in the first place, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, the first James Bond feature to star someone other than Sean Connery in the role of 007. I know several Bond fans out there who are quite disparaging of this entry in the series and they lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the novice film star George Lazenby. I have seen him described as “stiff” and “charisma free”. I have never thought that. I do see some faults after all this was his first acting gig ever, but I thought he looked the part and carried it off reasonably well. He was also surrounded by a cast of actors who were professionals and gave him plenty of support. It also helps that he has one of the finest narrative plots of the whole film series. James Bond falls in love and improbably marries the girl that he saves in the first scenes in the movie. Tracy is played by the talented Diana Rigg, who I knew as Mrs. Peele in the Avengers TV show. Her talent allows some of the scenes between them to play much more believably.

TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz introduced and interviewed the only man to play James Bond a single time in the movies, Mr. George Lazenby.

I found this shot at http://thirtyhertzrumble.com/30007hz-2015-tcm-film-festival-post-mortem/ This guy had a closer seat than I did.

Both of these guys have a great sense of humor and Mr. Lazenby is past the point of worrying about being politically correct. He told some pretty sexist stories and some unflattering personal anecdotes but they were all done with great gusto and in the spirit of having fun, not of diminishing anyone. There were some extra details and side trips in his well known tale of how he came to be James Bond. He also provided a simpler version of why he walked away from the role as he did. It came down to some advice that simply predicted the days of Bond were numbered and it was better to get out before the crash. Mankiewicz suggested that it was some bad advice but Lazenby said it wasn’t because he has had a very satisfying life ever since and he had no real regrets. It was also interesting to hear why Lazenby thought director Peter Hunt bailed on talking for the nine months of production to him after championing him for the role.Ben and George could probably have gone on for another hour given that they were having so much fun with each other and the audience, but eventually the movie had to begin.

I’m sure film lovers from all over know the feeling of excitement and bliss when a beloved moment arrives and it is as if Christmas morning is just starting. For me it was not the Gun-barrel crawl or the one reference to Lazenby being the new guy in the series. It comes right after that when John Barry’s electronic based musical title theme kicks in and they are followed by those great horns. Those first notes got my heart racing and my memories stirring. I was ready for 007 to save the world again. I had two or three similar moments at the film festival last weekend, but this one was the first and it was well earned. <br />
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There is no place like Hollywood today. Thousands of film fans have descended on the street in anticipation of seeing some great films. I arrived in time this Friday morning to make it to “The Dawn of Techicolor” a facinating presentation about the early history of the film color process, that focused on the early two strip process. Like a very nicely done Informative speech, the authors of the book on the subject gave a brief technical description of the process but focused mostly on the historical context.

The history goes back to the origins of the Technicolor company in 1915. There were apparently a variety of short subjects and early silent films that incorporated the two strip process to make their movies more distinctive. It was around the same time that
sound was introduced that the color process took off and the demand began to outsrip the ability of the company to provide the prints required to exhibit the movies. There were maybe 14 films made between 1927 and 1930 that used the process and only a couple of them still exist in a complete form with the color intact. There have been extensive historical restorations that took parts of the surviving color prints and matched them with black and white prints that were used in the early days of television to complete a few scenes that we were treated to this morning.

“Golddiggers of Broadway” is a clunky backstage musical that utilized the color process and is still around. We saw two or three clips to illustrate the complexity of the lighting process, which apparently sometimes left the soundstage at nearly 160 degrees. They had to cut holes in the ceiling and bring in fans to allow the perfprmers to be on the set. The cameramen had it worse though, as they recorded sound live, the cameras had to be operated in large insulated portable rooms, referred to as “Iceboxes” because of their resemblance to the refrigerators of the time rather than the fact that they were cool, which they definately were not.

“The Sultan’s Jester” was another short that we saw in it’s complete form with the color process which sometimes was inconsitent and often lead to grainy backgrounds where the focus seemed off. It featured a pretty dramatic accrobatic act that consisted of three guys tossing around a woman in some very dangerous circus type moves. It was a hoot, it seems dated but it was so sincere in the way it wanted to convey entertainment it remained a joy despite it’s clunky nature.

There was a great musical sequence from the Golddiggers film that featured “Tiptoe through the Tulips.” The presentation was done as a large scale powerpoint/prezi presentation, with pauses built into the speech for the lengthy movie clips. It was at the Egyptian Theater and it was packed. I walked in just after it started and had to stand in the wings waiting for a movie clip to start because it was so dark with just a podium light on the speaker, I could not see. Finally I found a nice spot on the side and dicovered there are no bad site lines in the theater.

While it was not a full film, “The Dawn of Technicolor” lecture was packed with clips and rare photos, and it is based on a book put together by the two historians who did the presentation, David Pierce and James Layton. If you are interested, here is a link to amazon for purchasing the book.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dawn-Technicolor-James-Layton/dp/0935398287

Last year I made my first trip down to the TCM Film Festival and crashed a screening of my favorite film. I was jealous of my friend Michael who was there for the whole Festival, but also grateful to him for saving some seats for my wife and I. I briefly met Will McKinney and Kellee Pratt, two bloggers that I follow and friends of Michael s’. I’m sure they don’t remember because it was about 90 seconds and they were off to another activity. This year however, I pulled the trigger and bought a weekend pass for the event. My job is keeping me away from the Thursday opening and the Friday morning screenings but I have planned a full schedule for myself from Friday evening on.

Some of you may be headed down to Hollywood for this this weekend of bliss, and if you have time, I would love to meet you in person. I’m not on twitter, which is apparently the best way to connect when at a function like this, but I will be updating my Facebook posts on my Movie Blog Page.

I plan on doing a full report on the event after it is over, and I hope to have pictures and video to include. For now though, I thought I would post a list of the films I am going to try to get into and if you are seeing any of these, I hope you will look for me in the crowd. I’m a reasonably friendly person and I’d love to trade opinions, stories and what not with you.

Friday Night

5:30 pm at the Chinese Multiplex 4

Same place, different Classic 7:30 p.m.

In House 1 at the Chinese Multiplex, 007 at 9:15

Saturday

 Christopher Plummer, aka Rudyard Kipling, is supposed to make an appearance at 10:00 am. Egyptian Theater

The last film produced by Jack Warner himself, at 1:45 in the Chinese IMAX

Maybe the greatest score bu my favorite film composer, in a movie from rebel John Milius.  6:15 pm at the Egyptian

Speaking of rebels, William Friedkin is scheduled to speak at this screening of his Academy Award winning film, starring my favorite actor, Gene Hackman, 9:15 at the Chinese IMAX

Sunday

 The great Tyrone Power in a dark, dark vision of con men and carnivals.

“You know what a geek is, don’t ya?”

Chinese Multiplex House 6 10:00

I’m a sucker for swashbuckling British Soldiers, Egyptian Theater 1:00

George Clooney locked in a trunk with Jennifer Lopez. Throw in Steve Zahn, Don Cheedle and Albert Brooks, from an Elmore Leonard Novel, of course this is where I will be.

Chinese Multiplex House 1 4:15

The Greatest Showman of the 20th Century, made movies as well as making things disappear. After Disappearing itself for 70 plus years, Houdini’s “the Grim Game, with musical accompaniment. 8:15 at the Egyptian Theater.

Hope everyone who goes gets to see everything they came for, and I hope I get to meet you as well. See you next week in Hollywood.

A lot of Star Trek fans who are even more passionate than I am will be sharing their thoughts all over the internet in the next few days. I can’t begin to match their stories of how the character of Spock, changed their lives. Some were able to live more happily by accepting their own differences, others will have been inspired to pursue careers in science and in writing. There will be a thousand good stories of the actor Leonard Nimoy, touching peoples hearts and minds at conventions, in interviews and with personal contact. I don’t have any of those stories. What I have is a heart that was touched by one of the least emotional characters in fiction. How can this be? It is simple, the actor who played the alien was a real person and the real person is what made the character someone we could care for. We have an emotional connection to Mr. Spock because of the friendship he had with the other main characters on Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Dr.McCoy .

Ethos, Pathos and Logos battled it out each week in an effort to solve the problems faced by the crew of the Enterprise. We usually discovered that it was not one path that leads to a solution but many combinations of these essential traits. That two humans with outsized personalities could find comradery  with an emotionless, cold, half alien seems hard to believe, until you see the show. Then we know that friendship can be many things, including frustrating. Kirk and Bones would tease Spock but he never seemed to take it any way except in the way it was intended, as the gesture of a friend. Leonard Nimoy imbued the character with the capacity to be a friend, even if the nature of the character is to reject such an emotional relationship. Nimoy was accomplished outside of the Trek universe and he had much to be proud of in all his other work, but everyone knew that when this sad day came, this was the image of the actor that everyone would recall.

All of us will feel as if we were in this scene, unable to touch our friend as he left us, bereft of the friendship that has been a part of our lives for fifty years, and sad that as with all of us, the final frontier awaits.

Having now seen all of the pictures nominated for Best Picture, and most of the performances in the Acting Categories, I’m willing to make a few calls for this evenings show. We will basically be going with the six big plus the live action and animated shorts since I have seen all of those.

Best Live Action Short

I’d be happy to see “Boogaloo and Graham” win. It was a delight to watch but it is ultimately a bit slight. My pick for winning is “Parvaneh”, a well made, politically correct parable about cross cultural connections.

Best Animated Short

Of the five nominees, “Feast” has to be the most widely seen and it is also the one that is most completely put together. Basically it tells a complete story without dialogue but with a huge amount of heart and humor.

Best Supporting Actress

In the category that they found another slot to fit Meryl Streep, I think anyone would be surprised if someone other than Partricia Arquette were to end up with the Award. She is the glue that holds “Boyhood” together. She has been winning in all the other contests at the end of the year, so she is a pretty sure thing.

Best Supporting Actor

If a name other than J.K. Simmons is called tonight, all bets are off. He is as close to a sure thing as there is and he deserves the award. Whiplash was my favorite film of the last year and it needs to get some props from the Academy. It is unlikely to win the big Award tonight so this will be the one place where it can make a splash.

Best Actress

This is the one field where I have not seen all the performances. All indications seem to be that the barely released Alzheimers drama, “Still Alice” will;bring Julianne Moore her long overdue award. I thought Rosemund Pike was outstanding in “Gone Girl” but I will go with the conventional wisdom.

Best Actor

Since people like the idea of a horserace, this is the category where I can see a close competition. Eddie Redmayne as Steven Hawking did a good job with the physicality of his role but the part is so conventionally drawn that the character is just not as interesting as he should be. Michael Keaton has the opposite issue, his character is so interesting that the performance may be hidden by the fireworks. I’m going with Keaton, I think the movie is catnip to film proessionals, it is about an actor struggling with his place in the world and it is shot in a style that celebrates creativity.

Best Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu for “Birdman”. Other than Keaton, his is the hand that is most visible on the film. Richard Linklater managed a similar influence with “Boyhood”, if that film ends up as the Best Picture winner, he could be pulled into the winner’s envelope. Conventional wisom is to go with the DGA winner and that would be Alejandro González Iñárritu. The Academy Awards gets more and more conventionally unsurprising as it’s membership expands.

Best Picture

This is the place where there is the most uncertainty about the award. A late surge by “American Sniper” may have been undermined by controversy of a political sort. “Birdman” was a critical favorite and might still win, but it is the most off center film nominated, and the broader Academy is likely to be satisfied with splitting the awards and giving this unusual film it’s glory in other categories.  My guess is that this is a “Driving Miss Daisy” and then “Crash”-ing year. The major award going to a film that is not a landslide but a default winner because it is ultimately emotionally satisfying. While I’d love to see “Whiplash” give every prognosticator a heart attack, I think the winner will be “Boyhood”.

So day two of the annual Best Picture Showcase featured four films that I had not yet seen. This was an unusual year for me, last year at the Best Picture Showcase, “Her” was the only film I needed to catch up on, so it was the only one from either day that I needed to do a fairly complete post on. This year, the burden is more complicated. All four of today’s movies were new to me, but I don’t have the energy to do a full review of each at this time of night and I want to be finished before the Awards tomorrow. So you are going to get a thumbnail review of each of the four, and during the Awards tomorrow, I may post some commentary video to go along with my opinions and guesses.

This is the film that I was least looking forward to. The subject sounded a little mundane and the film looked like it was entirely predicated on a gimmick. I had heard a number of positive comments and the reviews have mostly been glowing, but I could not shake off my dread. After being subjected to “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “The Tree of Life” in the last few years, I assumed there would be a pretentious turkey in the bunch and this looked like it would fit the bill. I am happy to say I am completely surprised and that this is indeed an outstanding piece of work, deserving of some acclaim and a warm spot in almost anyone’s heart.

While it is episodic and sometimes without much of a theme or structure, it is also a lot more entertaining than I expected. There is a stronger narrative than I was lead to believe, although it gives Patricia Arquette the thankless task of playing a woman who can only choose losers as husbands.  I should have known that the slice of life approach could be enthralling coming from director Richard Linklater. He did a fantastic job on “Dazed and Confused” twenty one years ago and this proves that he has the right touch for character pieces.

Ellar Coltrane grows up in front of us but there is more to the story than that. His character has to give up friends, confront bullies, live with neurotic parents and cope with a broken heart. I read some criticism of him in a few spots but I thought he was very good at the younger age and got better as the years passed. If you are a parent, be prepared to see some of the events in the growth of your own child pass by in the blink of an eye. It was not always smooth, and the “movies” have conditioned us to expect the worst at times, but this personal diary of a young boys life is a nice way to experience those moments again (minus the abusive drunks).

Eddie Redmayne may very well win the Oscar tomorrow for his portrayal of physicist Steven Hawking. He has a love story and a tragic human malady to support him, and the well known specter of Hawking himself hanging over the proceedings. The part is an actor’s dream because it requires a variety of emotional touchstones and a physical transformation that will impress even the most casual of viewers. It is as a result, a technically excellent performance but an unsatisfactory accomplishment. The fault is the completely straightforward narrative of the picture, which takes us from point A to point B and then to point C in exactly the manner that everyone expects.  There are no surprises here, and the thing that even the cosmologist would say is the least important reason for his being well known, the crippling disease that trapped him in a failing body. The brilliant theories are in the movie but they are not realized in a creative way and they are still almost as abstract as the lesson in quantum physics we got in “Interstellar”.

The Cambridge environment and the 1960s setting are an elegant tapestry for the love story between the two leads to play out against. The clothes, music and manners of the times feel genuine with these characters. Felicity Jones is a match for Redmayne’s performance, without all of the physicality that goes with it. The sad dance of decaying romance turning into respectful friendship also undermines the last half of the story. Yes it is honest and sensitively played, but it is also a downer which finishes the movies  early strengths with hard fact.

This was the most conventional of all the films nominated this year. Even Selma, a story that has history all over it, managed to inject a little tension and anticipation to the events it showed. This film just feels like the cliff notes version of the story, and a very obvious biopic that could have worked on any number of media formats. It is a very good film, but not an excellent one.

From a story telling point of view, this film feels like a very traditional mainstream Academy friendly movie. An oddball genius, has to overcome his own failings as a human being in order to work effectively on a critical job. It is an important part of history, especially World War Two, but also technology since it features what is basically an early computer. It also benefits from having a theme about the oppression of women and homosexuals, two pieces of bait the Academy is unlikely to ignore. Coming as it did right after “The Theory of Everything” it made me feel as though I’d seen almost every British actor of the current generation in a four hour span.

Bouncing around three time periods in the life of Alan Turing, we get enough background to see where he is coming from and why he ends up as he did. The central part of the story is the pressure filled race to crack the “Enigma” code and save lives and win the war. Benedict Cumberbatch has secured his place as a modern British movie icon after a short ten year period where he had small roles in a dozen big films and a breakout role on BBC television. His face is a passive mask on which we can easily project coldness, malevolence and a robotic personality. That he manages to make the later scenes into something more human explains his presence among the nominees for Best Actor this year. Kiera Knightly shines in a clearly supporting role as a woman who is also incredibly bright and overlooked for completely different reasons.

“The Imitation Game” is a well told war story, with a huge chunk of intrigue to boot. That it makes math puzzles interesting and important is an accomplishment of some sort. Mark Strong will soon be the new Michael Caine, he will be appearing in every other movie that comes out of Great Britain before long.  I also enjoyed recognizing Rory Kinnear as the police inspector. He is now a regular in the 007 films playing Bill Tanner the Chief of Staff, and he is technically Veruca Salt’s brother.

At Eighty Four years old, Clint Eastwood puts the rest of us average mortals to shame. He had two films that he directed out this year, the musical “Jersey Boys” and this combination war film and biopic of Navy Seal Chris Kyle. As I watched this film today, I was impressed with the detail of the battles and the settings used in filming. There is a terrific performance from the lead actor (and producer of the film) and Clint manages to get a musical credit for himself as well. This is the most financially successful of all of the films nominated and the biggest hit of Eastwood’s  career, either in front of or behind the camera. Oh yeah, did I mention that he is 84. Man I feel like a slug by comparison.

Billed as the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, Chris Kyle’s story is one that is motivated by a deep love of country and a creed that appears to have been a part of his life since childhood. He is a Shepard protecting the flock from the wolves. I can hardly believe that this story has come in for criticism from some political points of view. There may be legitimate criticisms of the Iraq war, but the troops shown here are heroes, doing their job in incredibly hard circumstances. They have a tough time balancing the warrior spirit with the need to win hearts and minds of the locals. The film never depicts the enemy as anything other than what they are, and it walks the fine line of showing evil and innocence in the same places. That is the story that Kyle tells and the movie shows.

Bradley Cooper is nominated for the third year in a row, suggesting that we can put to rest any doubts about his abilities. He shows that Kyle was a simple man who had to life a complicated life in order to do his duty. While we can celebrate his acts, they are never lingered over or shown in a gratuitous fashion. The only time any sniper shot is show boated is in a final tense shootout when an incredibly difficult shot is depicted with a slow motion camera zoom along the trajectory of a CGI bullet. This moment from a CSI episode was needed because of the distance being shown at which the shot was taken, not to make the killing of an enemy more spectacular.  The much criticized other special effect in the film ( a mechanical baby used for a brief couple of scenes) was not nearly as distracting as some have said.

The brotherhood of the soldiers and the strains on the family at home are not new concepts. They are however honestly shown here and not played for melodrama. Eastwood has the right touch for the domestic scenes and a surprising ability to make the war sequences harrowing and real.  “American Sniper” is a more relevant story than any of the other films nominated this year and the film making skill that went into telling it is second to none.