Thanks for joining me on this escapade so far. I enjoy the feedback I'm getting on Twitter, and the format is free and easy so I can add frequently without it feeling overbearing. I hope that you enjoy what you've been reading, and if certain sections appeal to you more than others, let me know so I can bring more of what you enjoy.
I SAW IT
I have enjoyed my time interacting with everyone and writing about film in the past few months, but a huge tip of the hat to the podcast, 80's All Over. I stumbled upon their show about halfway through their rundown of 1980, and I was hooked from the first second. Having gotten into film specifically starting in 1981, this decade means the world to me when it comes to nostalgia and great movies. I'm the guy who always brings up 1982 as the best film year ever. I'm the guy who shoots you down if you try to offer a film from this current decade as better than NIGHTHAWKS or EVIL DEAD II. I'm the guy. Their podcast brings all of my geeky days checking newspaper movie ads and calling theatre recording numbers to see what was opening Friday back to life, and I'm forever thankful for it.
If you haven't checked them out yet, do Drew and Scott a favor and give 'em a listen. Go to their Twitter account ( click here) and follow their links to find their show (and review them!)
Anyhoo-- back to TRUE CONFESSIONS. I started my "film nerd" life with seeing DEER HUNTER uncut on broadcast television in early 1981. I then went on to seek out RAGING BULL at the discount houses (second run theatres charging $2.00 or less for admission) when it reached them, and I saw GODFATHER and GODFATHER PART II in the summer of 1981. 1981 was the year of Robert DeNiro/Robert Duvall utter nirvana for me. Please now... imagine what my face looked like when I found out that DeNiro AND Duvall would be in a new film together that fall... add some zits, wipe the pizza sauce off of my chin, and you have a good idea. This film was going to be my ENTIRE second half of the year! I couldn't be more excited for anything. And feel free to go back and see how well 13 year old me was doing with girls in 1981 and you'll find this to be true.
My father and I would go to the movies every Tuesday night after dinner. It was our ritual... our thing. We both had very similar interests in movies so it was easy to pick films. And there were always enough fun movies in the early 80's that we didn't have weeks that we were lacking for choices. The thing was... my dad had ZERO interest in TRUE CONFESSIONS. He saw what it was about and had no interest. He saw the trailer in the theatre and had no interest. He listened to me go on and on and on about it for about a month and a half, and he had even LESS interest. Also, this was not a film I was going to be able to get my friends turned on to.
Luckily, as a particularly slow stretch in the beginning of November hit the discount houses, I got a break. The only chances for a Tuesday night movie were going to be TRUE CONFESSIONS... or A FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. I had beaten the odds. My dad would not let a Tuesday night go by without a movie, so he grudgingly relented, and I was on my way to see the movie of the century!!!
And it was simply "meh."
TRUE CONFESSIONS, to describe the plot briefly, is the story of two brothers in Los Angeles in the 1940's. One (DeNiro) is a young monsignor working his way up through the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The other (Duvall) is a hardnosed homicide detective. Their work paths cross when a prostitute ends up dead and cut in half (shades of the Black Dahlia case) and a powerful land developer (played by Charles Durning) is implicated. The land developer also turns out to have his hooks into the Church, and DeNiro's character specifically, so solving the murder for Duvall's detective isn't as easy as originally hoped.
I, and many people, originally took TRUE CONFESSIONS for a crime thriller with a both a family and a religious bent to it. If you did go in that way, the film can do nothing but ultimately disappoint, as the crime ends up being not all that captivating and the resolution to the mystery almost feels like a throwaway at the end. With that being the case, and my 13 year old self not being fully aware enough to understand what director Ulu Grosbard was going for, I walked out of the theatre completely deflated. I waited all this time for THIS???
Repeat views when it came out on cable the next year or two didn't help matters anyway. I tried hard looking for clues that I had missed in the solving of the crime. Maybe I just hadn't been paying attention? But still... nothing. The performances were great. I was still obsessed with DeNiro and Duvall. Yet, I still could not get into TRUE CONFESSIONS one bit.
I had watched it once or twice as I had gotten older and appreciated it a tiny bit more, but after listening to "80's All Over" discuss it in detail during their September of 1980 show, became intrigued again. Kino Lorber was holding a sale for their blu-ray titles and TRUE CONFESSIONS was listed. So I went ahead and jumped in with both feet.
I still cannot profess undying love for the film, but I am now fully aware (I think!) of what the film is about and what it is trying to do. After looking at it for over 30 years as a crime thriller, I can now see it much clearer as the character study of two brothers who get along but whose works in life complicate their relationship to no end. TRUE CONFESSIONS is much more a film about corruption of one's morals than it is a film about a murder. In fact, just as a red herring is described as a clue in a mystery that is meant to be distracting, the red herring in TRUE CONFESSIONS is solving the murder itself. It does eventually have meaning in the film, but the crime is simply in the film to bring important characters together on-screen, not to find a smart, clear resolution to that crime.
Instead, I now can get caught up in watching the two brothers movie in different directions on the moral compass. Duvall's detective wallows in the filth of the criminal element he deals with every day, but through trying to solve the murder, he becomes cleaner and more ethical as the film progresses. At the same time, DeNiro's monsignor begins the film literally as holy as one can be, but finds himself falling further and further from grace as he becomes more intertwined with Durning's evil character. TRUE CONFESSIONS best captures the brothers' storylines best in two scenes set in a confessional. DeNiro and Duvall sit on the same sides of the screen in both scenes, but there is a different character in need of confession in each one.
I also was able to appreciate quite a bit more the inner machinations within DeNiro's church. The Cardinal (Cyril Cusack) is more concerned with the money coming into the church than the quality of the service being provided to the parishioners. This plays within his conversations with DeNiro about land deals, but is more significant in a subplot where he tries to put an older monsignor (Burgess Meredith) out to pasture. The elder, despite gaining in years, still believes in spreading the gospel and helping his parish as his main work. Sadly, this time has passed for him, and DeNiro is in charge of moving him along. The most interesting parallel is between the Church's washing their hands of Meredith, and the eventual resolution for DeNiro's character. Although both went about their careers in vastly different ways, they both end up at the same tiny desert chapel to waste away their final days. The Catholic Church of Grosbard's film is going to chew you up and spit you out eventually, no matter how you went about your business.
Nuance, in the end, turns out to be the way in which TRUE CONFESSIONS finally works (or doesn't work, depending on your final evaluation) for the viewer. I truly feel the best way to handle the story (although not the most exciting) is to not get drawn in by the murder mystery at all. It is the least important part of the plot, and it is the least deftly handled. Instead, take the 105 minutes to watch DeNiro and Duvall put on a quiet yet dazzling display of understated acting, appreciate the supporting cast of Durning, Meredith, Cusack, Ed Flanders, Kenneth McMillan and Rose Gregorio, and let Ulu Grosbard place you in a leisurely paced but 100 percent wonderfully detailed 1940's moral drama. Watch TRUE CONFESSIONS the right way.... it has true staying power.
I HAD IT ON MY WALL
Continuing the 1981 theme, I eventually had this one up on my wall for quite some time. I picked it up at a baseball card show for two dollars from a baseball guy who had picked some movie posters up and didn't know what to do with them.
I played soccer for seven years. Pele was my sports hero! And Rocky was on the poster! And some other guy!
This one stayed on the wall for a while. Eventually "the other guy" dressed up as a woman and tried to knife Nancy Allen. I didn't like that guy. He was a meanie.
I NEED THAT
More 1981 action. I get it. If you don't like the film, I really do understand. Even to me, it's not exactly a great film. But it's fun, it has Burt Young, and I simply need a blu-ray case that has THAT poster on the front. Get on it, distributors!
TOP 5 LIST
Enjoying the trip through 1981 here (and again, HUGE ups to 80's All Over, who have been covering the HELL out of this particular calendar year and have just done their 1981 recap-- you better be heading there after finishing here!) so why not keep it going?
There are plenty of films that younger me liked that were critically panned and that I no longer enjoy as an adult. There are also several films that I still put in the "Like" column, whether because I've never rewatched or I'm just stubborn. I have no problem being a contrarian, so here are my:
TOP 5 FILMS FROM 1981 THAT CRITICS SNUBBED BUT I STILL LIKE (or haven't rewatched since the 80's so don't smack me, please!)
(In no particular order)
ALL THE MARBLES - The dialogue in this story of a wrestling promoter and his two female fighters creaks with the worst of them, and the broad soap-operish turns makes this film borderline painful at times, but the work from Vicki Frederick, Laurene Landon and especially Peter Falk is so good that I still like it. And it does supply the requisite exciting sports finish.
CAVEMAN - Notable for being the first "family film" that our whole clan went to see AFTER I had been indoctrinated into the world of "grown up" movies. It's sillier than the worst pun you can think of, and it's probably made (charitably) for an 8 year old, but the cast absolutely seems to be having a ball making it, and the dinosaur effects are cartoonishly fun to look it. They're like a comic version of Harryhausen.
TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT - There was a different "Southern fried" type movie in theatres every single week from 1971 to 1985. You couldn't avoid them. About forty percent of them were named after country music songs. This one is made for the most absolute version of the common denominator, but again it's the cast that puts this one in the win column. Check out that poster and tell me there's anyone you DON'T enjoy watching in a movie. Oh, yeah... and there's LOTS and LOTS of beer in it. Another fan favorite from the much-missed Avco Embassy Pictures.
\
BUDDY BUDDY - Yep, I agree with everything you have to say about this one. Now...after having a long period of time to see all of the best films that put Lemmon, Matthau and Wilder together... this is wayyyyyyy down the list. In 1981, however, this was my very FIRST time seeing any of them at work together (I knew Matthau from BAD NEWS BEARS but that was it). Even at their sincere worst, Lemmon and (especially) Matthau will find ways to make you laugh. Well, okay, they do for me. I don't find it good, but as huge fans of all involved, I still do find it watchable any time it comes around.
LOOKER - Oh, my goodness. The action scenes are goofy as hell. Albert Finney seems to be amazingly miscast as the action hero (although he acquits himself rather nicely in the same year's WOLFEN). But the technology, as it is in every Michael Crichton venture, is fun to both look at it and think about in real-world implications. As a marketing major during college, the scenes with visual manipulation during commercials always fascinated me. And to the 1981 me, this film had quite a bit of nudity for a PG film, so that was no small thing towards helping me enjoy it.
What 1981 films did you/do you still like that critics or those around you pan?
I HEARD IT
We'll finish off our 1981-themed post with the End Titles from TRUE CONFESSIONS.
If you can't play the video above, you can find it by clicking here.
Nuance, in the end, turns out to be the way in which TRUE CONFESSIONS finally works (or doesn't work, depending on your final evaluation) for the viewer. I truly feel the best way to handle the story (although not the most exciting) is to not get drawn in by the murder mystery at all. It is the least important part of the plot, and it is the least deftly handled. Instead, take the 105 minutes to watch DeNiro and Duvall put on a quiet yet dazzling display of understated acting, appreciate the supporting cast of Durning, Meredith, Cusack, Ed Flanders, Kenneth McMillan and Rose Gregorio, and let Ulu Grosbard place you in a leisurely paced but 100 percent wonderfully detailed 1940's moral drama. Watch TRUE CONFESSIONS the right way.... it has true staying power.
I HAD IT ON MY WALL
Continuing the 1981 theme, I eventually had this one up on my wall for quite some time. I picked it up at a baseball card show for two dollars from a baseball guy who had picked some movie posters up and didn't know what to do with them.
I played soccer for seven years. Pele was my sports hero! And Rocky was on the poster! And some other guy!
This one stayed on the wall for a while. Eventually "the other guy" dressed up as a woman and tried to knife Nancy Allen. I didn't like that guy. He was a meanie.
I NEED THAT
More 1981 action. I get it. If you don't like the film, I really do understand. Even to me, it's not exactly a great film. But it's fun, it has Burt Young, and I simply need a blu-ray case that has THAT poster on the front. Get on it, distributors!
TOP 5 LIST
Enjoying the trip through 1981 here (and again, HUGE ups to 80's All Over, who have been covering the HELL out of this particular calendar year and have just done their 1981 recap-- you better be heading there after finishing here!) so why not keep it going?
There are plenty of films that younger me liked that were critically panned and that I no longer enjoy as an adult. There are also several films that I still put in the "Like" column, whether because I've never rewatched or I'm just stubborn. I have no problem being a contrarian, so here are my:
TOP 5 FILMS FROM 1981 THAT CRITICS SNUBBED BUT I STILL LIKE (or haven't rewatched since the 80's so don't smack me, please!)
(In no particular order)
ALL THE MARBLES - The dialogue in this story of a wrestling promoter and his two female fighters creaks with the worst of them, and the broad soap-operish turns makes this film borderline painful at times, but the work from Vicki Frederick, Laurene Landon and especially Peter Falk is so good that I still like it. And it does supply the requisite exciting sports finish.
CAVEMAN - Notable for being the first "family film" that our whole clan went to see AFTER I had been indoctrinated into the world of "grown up" movies. It's sillier than the worst pun you can think of, and it's probably made (charitably) for an 8 year old, but the cast absolutely seems to be having a ball making it, and the dinosaur effects are cartoonishly fun to look it. They're like a comic version of Harryhausen.
TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT - There was a different "Southern fried" type movie in theatres every single week from 1971 to 1985. You couldn't avoid them. About forty percent of them were named after country music songs. This one is made for the most absolute version of the common denominator, but again it's the cast that puts this one in the win column. Check out that poster and tell me there's anyone you DON'T enjoy watching in a movie. Oh, yeah... and there's LOTS and LOTS of beer in it. Another fan favorite from the much-missed Avco Embassy Pictures.
\
BUDDY BUDDY - Yep, I agree with everything you have to say about this one. Now...after having a long period of time to see all of the best films that put Lemmon, Matthau and Wilder together... this is wayyyyyyy down the list. In 1981, however, this was my very FIRST time seeing any of them at work together (I knew Matthau from BAD NEWS BEARS but that was it). Even at their sincere worst, Lemmon and (especially) Matthau will find ways to make you laugh. Well, okay, they do for me. I don't find it good, but as huge fans of all involved, I still do find it watchable any time it comes around.
LOOKER - Oh, my goodness. The action scenes are goofy as hell. Albert Finney seems to be amazingly miscast as the action hero (although he acquits himself rather nicely in the same year's WOLFEN). But the technology, as it is in every Michael Crichton venture, is fun to both look at it and think about in real-world implications. As a marketing major during college, the scenes with visual manipulation during commercials always fascinated me. And to the 1981 me, this film had quite a bit of nudity for a PG film, so that was no small thing towards helping me enjoy it.
What 1981 films did you/do you still like that critics or those around you pan?
I HEARD IT
We'll finish off our 1981-themed post with the End Titles from TRUE CONFESSIONS.
If you can't play the video above, you can find it by clicking here.
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