Train Wreck

So in the last couple days I knocked a couple more movies off the Best Picture list and revisited On the Waterfront (as it's been 20+ years since I've seen it).

Mutiny on the Bounty was decent, though overacted and at times made little sense to me. I suppose that part of the message was that authority is authority is authority, and to go against it is bad bad bad. Well, um, that's completely contrary to my world view so I guess I'd have been a pirate like Clark Gable.

The Greatest Show on Earth was pretty boring, and played out like a circus documentary interspersed with contrived love stories and a tacked on plot about Jimmy Stewart having killed his wife. Near the end of this train wreck of a film was an actual train wreck, and I guess that the special effects must have been good for the time. Maybe that's why it got the Oscar? A secondary female character looked a hell of a lot like Kelly Bundy, so it had that going for it.

As for On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando is a great actor. Karl Malden is hilarious as Father Barry who will kick your ass, and then compare everything and everything to something in the bible. OK, so it's not perfect, but it's still a terrific film.

I'm happy I got through these, since I'm really hoping that the movies will start to get better. I've been absolutely underwhelmed with the "best" that Hollywood has had to offer over the years. I guess I'm too sensitive to overacting and don't buy into a lot of the plots.