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From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: THE COTTON CLUB ($.05, $.10, and $.25 reviews...)
Message-ID: <258@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 02:35:50 EST
Article-I.D.: vax2.258
Posted: Fri Jan 18 02:35:50 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Jan-85 05:51:36 EST
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Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
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        The nickle review:

        You may not know why you're at The Cotton Club during the start
of the picture... 
        ...but you sure do by the end of it.  And you're happy you
stayed.

        The dime review:

        For those of you looking for just a good time, you might ask:
is it entertaining?  Well, I found it to be very entertaining... in
fact, if you ever wanted to know what a full-scale thirties movie
would look like, no holds barred, this is it... this must be noted to
be Coppola's most *entertaining* picture.  If you have ever enjoyed
jazz, gangster pictures or just plain entertaining dialogue and
characters, you'll enjoy this.

        Next... do I think this is a *great* picture?  Well, I give
great only to a very few pictures I see -- afraid not.  But this *is*
one of the best pictures that came out this year.  It will not win any
Oscars for acting (possibly justifiably) or screenwriting (others have
done better) or directing (close competition (David Lean will get it
for coming out of retirement to make what advance word says is a very
good picture for someone who just came out of retirement)).  But it
should have, more than any other film out this year, the Best Picture
award.  Because while no single part of it is infused with genius, the
entire picture is made with EXCELLENCE -- it has to be the most bloody
balanced thing to come out since the autogyro.  I expect that FFC
deserves most of the credit for this, but the technical people, the
actors (yes, Richard Gere plays the role who should right down the
white line with no straying), and everyone else (I never thought I'd
see the day John Barry came out with something that didn't sound like
it had been written for just the brass section of the orchestra).  Go
see it... I give this probably the highest rating of any film seen
this Christmas (unless Brother from Another Planet is in your
neighborhood, in which case, see it first (I saw it last May)). 

        And, finally, the two-bits notebook:

        I KNOW a lot of people are going to say that this is not a
great picture?  Why?  Because every time the Oscars come out, the
picture that wins has to have Something To Say.  It has to have A
Message.  It has to Underline A Situation.  It has to Emote.  So the
only movies that ever win Best Pictures cannot be about something
frivolous about gangsters and dancers (unless it shows that gangsters
are a product of society, or that dancers have it particularly tough
as a section of society), because
                                                it's
                                                        not
                                                              *RELEVANT*!!

        So, I am sure that FFC will get ignored for this movie come
awards time.  What is particularly ironic (and sad) is that many
people see Coppola as an "art" director, i.e. "Apocalypse Now", and
will have nothing to do with "The Cotton Club", which seems to have no
other purpose than to entertain (another reason it won't get an Oscar).
 Actually, I think it's entertaining enough to pay for its
much-ballyhoed self, but not if somebody doesn't get off their butts
quick and say that this is a film which you don't look at your watch
during the first half of the movie, and you don't remember if  you had
a watch by the end.

        I keep coming back to the technical points.  This is a film
which uses so many cinematic methods that have been discovered over
the last 55 years, that only a film historian could catch them all. 
But she or he would have a difficult time of it, as they are used in a
bewildering number of combinations, that actually makes many of them
look brand new.  There are cinematic sequences here that should (and
probably will) be used in film classes, where they say, "Here is a
classic example of juxtapostion" (Gregory Hines dancing sequence as the
actor playing Dutch Schultz is gunned down).   If no other award goes
to this movie, Best Editing is a must... there is no question that this
aspect of Cotton Club will be remember for many years to come.

        The actors are all up to what they should be, with Bob Hoskins
and Fred Gwynne as two gangster *every* mother would love... they are
the only real characters that really catch your attention by
themselves... the others are work to match the symmetry of the movie
(as mentioned above, not a bad thing -- at least, it is unusual, and
too uncommon).

        Anyway, probably one of the few big movies this year to be a
big excellent move (notice that most of the other excellent movies are
all "small pictures"?).

        And I am now certain that I cannot look at Charlie Chaplin
without thinking of IBM.  I hope they're happy....

          "There *are* standards.  If you can't see one, you *make* one and
           stick to it come Hell or high water -- until you see a BETTER one."

                                                -John Gaunt

					Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
					John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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