Citizen Kane

For some reason, "Citizen Kane" came up yesterday.  I don't even remember why now, but it got me to thinking.  This movie always shows up on critic's "Best" lists, sometimes even ranking #1 as the greatest American movie ever made.  But now I ask you, and the critics - having seen "Citizen Kane", is there anyone that really even likes it?  

Yes, it may be technically brilliant, with what were, at the time, new styles of editing and cinematography, and the concept of a wunderkind director writing and directing it.  And it was one of the first to try being made as an Independent movie.  But other than that, what is there to like about it? 

It's just the story of a very unlikable man, who makes everyone else around him miserable, who dies alone and unloved.  And in the end, you find out that the mystery of "Rosebud" is that it was his sled from when he was a kid, and that it was the only thing he really ever loved.  What's enjoyable about that? Perhaps everyone wants to watch it and feel depressed afterward?  

I mean, it just doesn't grab you, or make you want to see it again and again.  And worst of all, other than "Rosebud", it's really not even that quotable.  Best American movie?  Nah, I think not.

Secretariat

I'm a sucker for sports movies.  For every miraculous come-from-behind win - and you know there's going to be one -  I'm a mushy mess.  So I've been wanting to see "Secretariat" since it came out a couple of years ago. It's been slowly working it's way up my Netflix queue, but was still quite a way off.  Fortunately I lucked out the other night and it was on Starzz On-Demand (thank heaven for Cable).  And "lucked" would be the appropriate word.  Because it was a great movie!  Yes, you know the story going in, but like I said, I fall for that miraculous come-from-behind win every single time.

The cast was awesome.  Really - who doesn't love Diane Lane and John Malkovich?  Diane Lane plays the owner, Penny Chenery, and John Malkovich plays the trainer, Lucien Lauren.  He's washed up, and she's a woman in a man's world.  They're honest, they're smart, she talks back to the men, and he yells at everyone in Cajun French.  As for the performances - Diane Lane is really brilliant, particularly in one scene where she listens over the phone to her daughter sing in the school play, all while she's sobbing on the hotel bed, unable to get home for the performance.  As brilliant as she is, I have to say that the star of the show is the Horse himself.  Or horses, as according to IMDB, there were 5 horses used to play Secretariat in the movie.  Somehow they know the movie is all about them, and they're not beyond posing for their close-ups.  They were awesome.

The only downer for me was Dylan Walsh, who, plays Diane Lane's blankety blank of a husband.  He seems to have cornered the market on selfish husbands/fiances lately (see "The Lake House" as an example).  He puts his wife down, doesn't support her efforts, whines that she's not home, and basically tries to thwart her at every single turn.  Really, what would she see in that guy? If  that part of the story is true, it's a really thankless role.

Other performances worth noting - Margo Martindale as Penny's assistant Miss Ham, James Cromwell as multi-millionaire and rival Ogden Phipps, and Fred Dalton Thompson as Bull Hancock, and real-live jockey Otto Thorwarth as jockey Ronnie Turcotte.