July 29th 2014. Pick of the Day.

July 2014. Independence Day, the World Cup and the 45th anniversary of the Eagle's touchdown in the Mare Tranquilitatis. All in all it's been a pleasant passage of 31 days. The month's not over yet though, nor is the rep film circuit's sked. So let's get to it.

Continuing series today include Femme Noirs at Film Forum, Lady in the Dark: Crime Films from Columbia Pictures 1932-57 at MoMA, the Luis Buñuel retrospective at BAM Cinématek, and Journalism in Film at the Nitehawk Cinema. A-spooling we shall go;

Film Forum

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964) Dir; Richard Lester

TENSION (1949) Dir; John Berry

SUDDEN FEAR (1952) Dir; David Miller

MoMA

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945) Dir; Joseph H. Lewis

THE RECKLESS MOMENT (1949) Dir; Max Ophuls

Symphony Space

TOUCH OF EVIL (1957) Dir; Orson Welles

BAM Cinématek

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1954) Dir; Luis Buñuel

BAM Cinématek - Putnam Triangle Square

THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS AND MOTOR KINGS (1976) Dir; John Badham

Tony Dapolito Recreation Center

TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock

Nitehawk Cinema

THE GREEN BERETS (1968) Dir; John Wayne

Today's Pick? How does one properly evaluate a relic from another era without its surrounding context? A labor of love, a passion project by one of the most celebrated and formidable movie stars Hollywood ever produced? If the politics of that artist and his work align comfortably with contemporary sentiment, if he indeed was prescient enough to find hmself on the right side of history, voilá! No further explanation, though perhaps encouraged or desired, is actually neccessary. The work ultimately speaks for itself.

Then, there's the trickier material. Leo McCarey, who spent the peak of his career crafting humanist screeds like MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW and RUGGLES OF RED GAP, found himself a friend of HUAC and the Blacklist in the postwar era, his ham-fisted 1952 anti-communist polemic MY SON JOHN perhaps sadly most emblematic of his declining powers. Middling artistic quality aside, it's the pro-McCarthy sentiment the film's most remembered for, the stick filmmaker is still beaten with, rightly or wrongly, to this day.

It's also interesting to note how easily audiences will forgive a film's politics when the craft with which it's presented is of the top-notch variety. Liberals have little qualm with otherwise fascistic manifestos like Don Seigel's DIRTY HARRY, or gruesome revenge thrillers like Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS, because, though they may be reactionary exploitation fare, they're exceptionally well-crafted reactionary exploitation fare, providing easy-to-hate villains and commensurate, gratifyingly bloody comeuppance. Politics doesn't matter much in these cases, becuase...well, they're just too much fun, were whence released and remain so.

Somewhere between these two uncomfortable poles lies today's Pick; an incredibly earnest piece of pro-U.S. military propaganda, made at the height of what we once nostalgically referred to as America's most unpopular war. Its director had already helmed one dream project 6 years earlier, an equally fact-inconvenient re-telling of the Alamo saga, a mutli-million dollar epic that nearly bankrupted its maker, one of Tinseltown's biggest earners. He managed to eventually drag that dead horse into the black, and to be fair it had and has some admirers, some whom are fighting for its restoration at this very moment (#savethealamo). Most, however, agreed that his talents were best mined before the camera and not behind it.

At the height of the Vietnam conflict, however, when he still stood mightily at the top of the box offfice, he decided that his gifts would be best put to use by taking what he saw as his increasingly crazy country by the scruff of its neck and slapping a little sense into it. On film, that is. What with all the anti-American sentiment roiling about him, an overheating boiler ready to burst in his eyes, he decided the country needed to be reminded of what its people were fighting for, just like the fine propaganda films Hollywood churned out to bolster the war effort back in the 40's. Of course, he hadn't actually served during that conflict, a fact that mentor John Ford never let him forget. But he did appear in some of that propaganda, and in his way felt that he had contributed to the effort, and to making his country, which he undoubtedly loved dearly, a stronger place. So, 23 years after that war ended, he decided to promote the new one, as only he knew how. By teaching some goddamed weak-kneed liberal punks a lesson.

Had a Ford or a Siegel directed the same material would we now be treating the film like a classic, philosophy aside? We'll never know. It might be fair to say that it needs to be viewed in the context of its time, 46 years on, to be fully appreciated. Except that the context of its time does it no great favors either. Villified in its day, and of perhaps lessening critical stature as time goes on, the film's merit is that it is the rarest of artifacts; the pure and intact variety. It remains undiluted, every ounce of its purpose ready to be pored over and discussed once more, by those willing to put their personal politics aside perhaps and give it an honest overview. It is the only pro-Vietnam war film Hollywood ever backed, one of the few Vietnam films to be backed by a studio at all, the conflict was so unpopular. And it is the second and last time one of the truly monumental stars of Hollywood directed a film. For the latter reason alone, coupled with the opportunity to view it on a big screen, you should drop everything else today and join me for this.

John Wayne's THE GREEN BERETS unspools tonight in glorious 35mm at the Nitehawk Cinema, as part of their Journalists in Film series. Why do I feel the journalist ain't gonna come across too sympathetic in a John Wayne flick?

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in July '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too. Excelsior, Stockhaz!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P. S. Even though we've fully entered the summer months and therefore not often as mindful of the displaced, some of our fellow NY'ers are yet to be made whole since Hurricane Sandy hit nearly two years ago. Check in with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you can't still volunteer/donate to our neighbors in need. Be a mensch.