The son of an owner of a rundown plantation, Perry King, purchases Ken Norton to be a prize fighter. Highlighting the very worst of slavery in the United States, it is a violent, exploitive soap opera of a film, but it is also an uncompromisingly, honest one. Women and those held in bondage have almost no agency in the Antebellum South and the intersectionality of those two establishes a hierarchy even among the oppressed. Regardless of situation they are almost always punished severely if they try to use the little power they have. King is initially presented as a sensible, almost sympathetic figure, with a harsh and ragged James Mason for his father, but the deep rooted layers of cruelty are slowly pulled back one by one until his true brutality shines during the vicious climax.

After watching the original Godzilla , I watched to check out some of the sequels especially with well known rivals. The head of a pharmaceutical company wishing to boost the ratings for the television show hones in on reports from Faro Island of a giant monster which turns out to be King Kong. At the same time, an American submarine gets caught on an iceberg which unleashes Godzilla who had been trapped there during Godzilla Raids Again, resulting in a double monster problem for Japan. Unfortunately the version I saw was another localized version shoving in American actors where previously there were none, but it still a chance to see two greats pair off. It’s not my favorite version of King Kong, but it’s rare to see him actually meet a worthwhile opponent.  

Mute alien Joe Morton, who resembles a Black man except for his unusual three toed feet, crash lands on Ellis Island. Pursued by men in black bounty hunters, John Sayles and David Strathairn, he attempts to blend in and learn about life on Earth while having many one sided conversations with the various denizens he encounters. One side plot involving a white drug lord is a bit thrown in, but the film is best when it simply reflects the world through Morton’s expressive eyes.  

On the same day that Verdi died in Milan, two boys are born on opposite sides of the economic and social spectrum, growing up as close friends. When adulthood descends upon them, they become Robert De Niro, a wealthy landowner whose family supports the fascist regime, and Gerard Depardieu, a socialist who fights for workers’ rights on the plantation. Despite being a simplified version of Italian politics, it is a riveting epic through its over five hour runtime. There’s more homoeroticism than I’ve ever seen in a film outside of porn and also features a completely sadistic Donald Sutherland, a sharp contrast to the many other hippie characters I’ve seen out of him during this era.

Journalist John Cusack travels to Savannah to research a piece for Town and Country on one of Kevin Spacey’s lavish Christmas parties. On the evening of the party after the guests have all left, local prostitute Jude Law is found dead with Spacey holding the gun. I had forgotten this was based on a nonfiction book and was really expecting a courtroom drama a la John Grisham. Instead, it plays more like a travelogue of Savannah and the eccentric characters who live there; the murder and trial being a secondary focus. Told from the perspective of a square outsider over the course of more than two and a half hours, it lacks focus and doesn’t seem to have much to do after introducing the quirky residents.  

At the behest of a Middle Eastern prime minister, hieroglyphics expert Gregory Peck reluctantly accepts a job to decode a cipher for shipping magnate Alan Badel. While under Badel’s employ, Gregory meets his mistress Sophia Loren who seems to be playing all sides in this case of international intrigue. It’s not the most noteworthy or unique in the spy genre with a narrative that seems to just catapult Peck from situation to situation. The leads pair well together with Peck as the clueless, but intellectual every man and Loren as the gorgeous, well dressed operative.