MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: LEGEND OF THE LOST (1957)

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It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Sunday, March 3, 2019

LEGEND OF THE LOST (1957)

John Wayne must have had a lot of trust in underrated helmer Henry Hathaway, or simply admired his efficient style, making four more films with him after this clunker. Each of them miles ahead of this stinkbomb.* It’s your standard Treasure Hunt adventure with Rossano Brazzi going to Timbuktu and hiring local vagabond Wayne as his guide into the Sahara. He hopes to find the lost city (and the lost gold) his father died trying to claim. Sophia Loren’s the local good time gal & occasional thief who tags along and comes between the men. Romantic triangle anyone? Greed & madness? Lost in the Sahara? Backstabbing? (That’s literal backstabbing.) Equally ridiculous & formulaic, not a happy credit for scripter Ben Hecht. With ace cinematographer Jack Cardiff doing little for either Loren or the Sahara . . . and Wayne & Sophia doing even less for each other.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *The next Hathaway/Wayne pic, NORTH TO ALASKA/’60, is fun & spritely; then CIRCUS WORLD/’64 (not seen here); SONS OF KATIE ELDER/’65 (standard revenge Western with a sharp third act);and a classic, TRUE GRIT/’69. (Wayne also shows in Hathaway’s HOW THE WEST WAS WON/’62, but only in the John Ford directed Civil War segment.)

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Sunday, March 3, 2019

LEGEND OF THE LOST (1957)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE