8. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Mutiny on the Bounty Movie Poster

I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to watching Mutiny on the Bounty. I am not necessarily a huge fan of sea yarns. However, I soon realized my error as I was enthralled by not only the performances of the two main stars, Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, but I was also quite interested by the nefarious means by which Captain Bligh kept disciplining his sailors!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Mutiny of the Bounty starts with the impressing of soldiers. As seen by Fletcher Christian's willingness to drag men away from their lives for two years to go to sea, he was willing to follow the King's orders. He wasn't someone to just rebel because he felt bad for the others.

Before the voyage even starts, Captain Bligh shows how evil he really is when he has a man flogged before the ship's company even though he has already died due to his previous punishment. The man was guilty of striking an officer.

Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh - Mutiny on the Bounty

Over the course of the voyage to Tahiti, men were subjected to floggings and worse. The depths of Bligh's corruption and sadism were revealed as each punishment and death was worse than the last. He punished a man for taking cheese when he, himself, had ordered the same man to have it delivered for his own use. Then, a man was keelhauled as a punishment (dragged under the ship from bow to stern). After the ship landed in Tahiti, two men who had secretly went off the ship to see the island were brought back and thrown below in chains with little no water. However, the thing that really upset the men on board was when the well loved surgeon who was very sick was forced by Captain Bligh to go on deck to watch a flogging. He died before the men's eyes. Christian had had enough at this point and armed the men loyal to him to mutiny.

Fletcher Christian and Tehani
on Tahiti

The mutineers then returned to Tahiti. One of the officers who had been asleep at the time of mutiny, Roger Byam, disagreed with the mutiny even though he was good friends with Christian. He missed the boat to join Bligh and settled with the other men in Tahiti. Bligh and his followers were put in a boat at sea. Through Bligh's strong will, they were able to make it 3600 miles to safety with dwindling food supplies and by the end no water.

Captain Bligh and his followers
are on the small ship being
sent out to sea after the mutiny

Bligh returned to Tahiti to pick up the mutineers and take them back to English for punishment. Christian left with the mutineers but a few including Byam 'reported back for duty' to Bligh. He did not accept that they were loyal throughout and chained them in the hold. When they made it back to England after a treacherous journey, they had to stand trial. All the mutineers who had been captured were sentenced to death. However, Byam stood before the tribunal and explained how terrible conditions had been at sea. Byam ended up being saved in the end, and more importantly, the navy changed its rules about how superior officers were to interact with sailors on the high sea.

Mutiny on the Bounty was an interesting study in the way that a loyal man who has a grounding in good morals can go against the 'law' to do what is right. One thing that I found interesting was how many people actually went with or wanted to go with the Captain when he was put off the ship. Captain Bligh ranks up there for me as one of the worst 'bad guys' in movies. Sadly, as the movie portrayed, he was an amazing seaman. When it was required for him to step up to the plate and get the loyal men home to England, he found a way to make it happen. His hatred ran so strong that he did not accept failure at all. He needed to get home to punish Christian.

The real Captain Bligh

I read later that this was a fictionalized account of the real story. Even though the movie ends with Christian making it safely to another island with his wife and child, in real life things did not turn out so well. The men who fled Tahiti eventually settled on Pitcairn Island. Eventually, many of them were killed in an uprising between them and some of the Tahitian men who came with them. Interestingly, descendants of the mutineers still live on the island today.

Bligh went on to be promoted and made the governor of New South Wales, Australia. Here, too, he was faced with a mutiny which he survived. He ended up as seventh in command of the navy, Vice-Admiral of the Blue.

In terms of the actors, Charles Laughton was amazing as Bligh and Clark Gable's ability to deliver a line with a twinkle in his eye captured the spirit of Fletcher Christian. I have read that the antagonist in any movie needs to be so bad that it makes the audience move even further into the protagonist's corner. The way that the movie slowly built the case against Bligh was extremely well done, and by the end I was left wondering how any men could follow him. Overall, this was quite an enjoyable movie. In my next post, I'll got through it's beat sheet.

7. It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night
Movie Poster

Ahhh - Romantic Comedy. How I love you. This is the Grandaddy of them all. It Happened One Night was so enjoyable. For one thing, I'd had six days of drama and tears and real life. I needed a lighthearted comedy. Here was a great example that stands up to today's standards.

I had only experienced Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind. While I loved his rakish attitude in that movie, I honestly didn't get what all the furor was over him - why Judy Garland sang lovingly to his picture, "You made me love you." However, after this movie I think I get it. His comic timing was great. He and Claudette Colbert had chemistry and worked so well together to make this movie really work. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night

The movie starts with a wealthy girl named Ellie runs away from her father. She had married someone who he disapproved of, and he had her locked up on a yacht while he got an annulment through. She escapes by jumping off the yacht and swimming away. 

Penniless, she hocks her watch to get new clothes. She then gets on a bus to head to her husband in New York City. Her father sends detectives and more after her. Peter Warne, played by Gable, is a down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter who soon discovers who she really is. He agrees to help her if he can get an exclusive on her trip to New York. Hijinks ensue. They pretend to be married and spend a night in a hotel room divided by a bedspread. I absolutely loved the part where Gable started singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" - classic!

The next day, they get on the bus. One of the men on the bus sees a newspaper article offering a reward of $10,000 for anyone who finds Ellie. He realizes that she is on the bus and decides to approach Peter about splitting the profits. Peter pretends he's part of a kidnapping ring and scares the man into keeping the story quiet.

They decide to leave the bus behind in case others get the idea to turn her in. They end up hitchhiking in one of the funniest scenes of the movie. Ellen proves that 'the limb is mightier than the thumb'.

They end up at another hotel. After a conversation about marriage, Ellen tells Peter she loves him. He's not sure at first how to respond. Once she's asleep he runs off to sell his exclusive story to the newspaper about Ellen and him for $1000. In the meantime, Ellen thinks he's left her and goes ahead and calls her father. Peter drives past her, her father, and her husband on the way back to propose to her.

On the day of the 'official' wedding, Peter has requested to meet with Ellen's father to settle up financial matters. Ellen thinks he's come for the reward. However, he only asks for the money to pay for the actual expenses of the trip. Before he leaves, he tells her father that he does love her. Later, as her father walks her down the aisle, he reveals that Peter didn't want the reward. She leaves her husband at the altar and runs to Peter. The movie ends with the pair married and on their honeymoon.

What's amazing is the number of scenes repeated in romantic comedies throughout the years. The movie Leap Year has so many similarities, it's amazing. There's the road trip, the bedroom scene, the 'wealthy' sheltered girl and the working class guy. The more movies I watch, the more I realize that they have all been done before, it's just find the new edge that makes them great. 

It Happened One Night Beat Sheet

It Happened One Night 
Movie Poster

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for It Happened One Night (1934). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

Opening Image – The film opens on a yacht. Ellie Andrews has been locked in her stateroom by her wealthy father until he can get an annulment through for her recent elopement. Her father is complaining that she is on a hunger strike. 

Set-up – Ellie escapes the yacht and swims to Miami where she hocks her watch to buy clothes and a bus ticket to New York where her husband waits. In the meantime, Peter Warne is a down-on-his luck newspaper reporter who has just been fired by his boss in New York City. He, too, is taking the bus to New York. 

Theme Stated  – In modern screenplays, the theme is normally stated to the protagonist around minute 5. In this movie, the theme is one of growing independence. 

Catalyst – Ellie gets on the bus and travels to New York. 

Debate – There is not much debate before Act Two, more set up to get to the main part of the movie. 

Break Into Two  – Act Two is the upside world of Ellie traveling on a bus with little to no money and only Peter to help. 

B Story – Peter Warne, the newspaperman, at first follows Ellie to get a story and later falls in love with her. 

Fun and Games –  We see Peter and Ellie at various bus stops.  They go to a motel where they have to share a room. 

Midpoint - A man on the bus recognizes Ellie and wants to return her to her father for a $10,000 reward. Peter manages to turn him away but they must now leave the bus. 

Bad Guys Close In – Ellie and Peter have no money. Peter's suitcase gets stolen. All they have to eat is carrots. They stay at a motel without any means to pay for it. 

All is Lost – Ellie gets woken up in the middle of the night to find that Peter is gone. She thinks that he has left her. She calls her father to get his help. Peter passes them as they leave the town and sees her with her husband. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Both Peter and Ellie are devastated. 

Break Into Three – Ellie decides that she should just go ahead and remarry her husband in a large wedding and forget about Peter, especially after she thinks he wants to collect the reward. 

Finale – Peter comes to visit Ellie's father and only wants the money he spent on getting her home, not the reward. He tells her father that he loves Ellie. As her father walks Ellie down the aisle, he tells her that Peter didn't want the reward, and that she should not get married. She leaves in the middle of the ceremony to find Peter. 

Final Image – In one of the coolest endings, we see the outside of the Ellie and Peter's motel room, hear a trumpet sound, and see a blanket (the walls of Jericho) fall before the screen goes black. 

Cavalcade Beat Sheet

Cavalcade Movie Poster

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for Cavalcade (1933). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

Opening Image – An image of a coin bearing Queen Victoria’s image and a note which says: “This is the story of a home and a family … history seen through the eyes of a wife and mother whose love tempers both fortune and disaster… As 1899 ends, England is at war with the Boers in South Africa, but the tide of battle is against her… It is a national emergency… New Year’s Eve…our London family, sheltered through two generations of Victorian prosperity, awaits the headlong cavalcade of the Twentieth Century…” The scene then opens on Big Ben at night in the fog, rining 11:45 and then moves to a grandfather house in an old home.

Set-up – We meet the husband and wife and their children along with the servant and his wife and daughter. The husband and the servant are heading off to war with the Boers. Both wives don’t want them to go. They all celebrate New Years at the millennium together and then march off to a ship to fight in Africa.

Theme Stated  – When Robert Marryott says, "Give the future a chance," to his wife Jane, she replies, " We don't know if there is to be a future." This is repeated throughout the movie mainly by the women when talking about love with the men. It is echoed in the song "Twentieth Century Blues": In this hurly burly of insanity, our dreams can not last long.
 

Catalyst – The men have to leave to go to war.
 
Debate – The women don’t want the men to go but they explain that they must.
 
Break Into Two  – The men head off on the ship to Africa and the women are left behind .

B Story – The love story is between the husband and wife, Robert and Jane Marryot. They represent the solidity of  the 19th century as opposed to the changes in the early twentieth century.

Fun and Games –  The men return and life continues as before for the Marryots. Queen Victoria dies which has a huge impact on the nation. Then the Bridges leave service to start their own pub. 

Midpoint - Alfred Bridges is killed by the Coach driving through the streets.  

Bad Guys Close In – Edward and Edith die on the Titanic. Joey then joins the military to fight in World War I. 

All is Lost – Joey's dies right before the armistice at the end of World War I. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Jane Marryot, Joey's Mother has to deal with the loss of her second child. 

Break Into Three – Life continues after their losses, but the world is changing. Men return from the war hurt physically and mentally. The government is shown as corrupt. The society is moving away from God. They've got the 'Twentieth Century Blues' according to the song sung by Fanny Bridges. 

Finale – Robert and Jane share New Year’s Eve together in 1933. Everything passes, even time. Robert still believes in the future. They are older and happy together. Jane gives a toast to: "The future of England. Let’s couple the future of England with the past of England. Let us drink to our sons who made part of the pattern, and our hearts which died with them. Drink to the hope that this country of ours which we love so much will find dignity and greatness and peace again."

There is a montage of music and preachers and the deaths and the war and the world leaders, and there is a cacophony while Fanny is singing. Then the scene returns to the two of them drinking to  dignity, greatness, and peace. 

Final Image – People gathered on New Years Eve to sing Auld Lang Syne. They go out on their balcony and the husband gives her a really sweet kiss, then they have their heads tougher as they look up in the sky to a cross on top of St. Paul’s  and God Saves the Queen plays while the bell rings. 

6. Cavalcade (1933)

Cavalcade Movie Poster

Cavalcade won the Academy Award for best picture in 1933. Before today I knew nothing of the movie more than its name. However, I love Noel Coward, and this was based on a play he wrote in 1931. What I didn't expect is that I would be watching a precursor to Downton Abbey and its upstairs/downstairs dichotomy. Ironically, Cavalcade even includes the Titanic disaster, just as Downton. I wonder if Julian Fellowes was in any way affected by this tale. 

Cast of Downton Abbey

Cavalcade follows the story of two families in England: One the wealthy owners of a home in London and the other their servants. It starts on New Year's Eve, 1899. Interestingly, we can now relate in some ways to the feelings of those who brought in the change in the millennium. And that is what this movie is really about: how the world changed from 1899 to 1933. The movie does not present the changes as pretty or nice in any way. We encounter a world of increasingly dangerous wars, changes in the social order, the evils of alcohol, and the movement away from God.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Herbert Mundin as Alfred Bridges, Diana Wynyard as
Jane Marryot, Clive Brook as Robert Marryot, and
Una O'Connor as Ellen Bridges in Cavalcade

This moral tale builds slowly. At first, it is just the story of two women, both whose husbands are going away to serve in the Boer War. The master and servant are both shipping out at the same time. They leave behind their wives and children. However, they both return and do not seem that changed by the war. However, the servant, Robert Bridges, has bought himself a pub from someone who decided to stay in Africa. He and his wife, mother, and daughter move to the pub.

The story fast forwards and Bridges is now a drunkard who rarely pays his bills. His wife sends him away so that he won't embarrass her when 'her Ladyship', Lady Jane Marryot, comes to visit. He comes back early and interrupts, causing a scene. He leaves the house, gets in a fist fight, and then is killed by a coach and four.

Margaret Lindsay as Edith Harris and
John Warburton as Edward Marryot on
their honeymoon aboard the Titanic.

The next scene has the two families meet up at Brighton Beach. Bridge's daughter, Fanny, is a young but considered a wonderful dancer. The Marryots are all there, and the elder son, Edward, is going to marry a woman named Edith. This scene quickly follows with them standing together on a ship, talking about first their love. Then they move into more serious territory with Edith saying that she doesn't think that their relationship will be happy in the long run, that things are different than they were in the past. They step away to reveal they are on the Titanic.

Later, World War I begins, and Joey can't wait to join. Before he does, he rediscovers Fanny and they start an intimate relationship which continues each time he has leave. He returns to the front one last time after asking her to marry him. She basically says that even though she loves him, that she will not. That their lives are just too different. On the front, he sees his father one last time. The armistice is called for, but Joey dies before it takes effect.

This is where the filmmakers throw the issues of the day in our faces. They start by showing the men injured during the war, even weaving baskets - a scene that today would be seen as sarcastic but was completely believable at the time. Then we break to a number of short scenes with discussions about disarmament followed by talk of keeping stores of mustard gas. We see a man speak out against the existence of God followed by a priest proclaming from Luke 9:25: "For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?" This is followed by Fanny Bridges singing the "Twentieth Century Blues," which includes the theme of the movie, "In this hurly burly of insanity, our dreams cannot last long." I'm including the scene below to show what I mean:



Finally, the film ends on another New Year's Eve in 1933 with Sir Robert and Lady Jane Marryott together toasting the future. However, even though Robert is still positive about it, Lady Jane is more realistic. She states, "[Let's] drink to the hope that this country of ours which we love so much will find dignity and greatness and peace again."

What I Learned From the Movie

1. The filmmakers needed to a do a little more showing and a little less telling. I don't believe I've ever had a theme or these type of moral messages thrown in my face quite as obviously as what happened in the last third of this movie. Even though I think that most of the message was quite good, it should have been incorporated within the framework of the movie and not as a sequence in and of itself. Instead of feeling preached to, I would have felt that I was experiencing the changes along with the characters. 
2. Transitions are so important to keeping a movie flowing. In these early days of film, they still hadn't gotten scene transitions down. There were many abrupt scene changes that were jarring to the viewer and broke the 'fictive dream' that the story was attempting to tell. 
3. Some scenes dragged on too long. There was too much exposition and not enough movement. This was especially true during some of the song numbers. This was not a musical, yet at least three times in the movie we listened to entire songs. Even though these included commentaries on the time, they made me as a modern movie goer a little frustrated. Important lesson for me in my own writing endeavors. 
4. As a way to show the tragedies of the war, the filmmaker juxtaposed images of soldiers marching and  singing songs like "Smile, Smile, Smile" while women back home were singing to inspire men to enlist while men were falling over dying in front of the same church. If this sounds like a jumbly mess, it was. The sounds were dissonant, but not in a way that added to the drama. Instead, they made me wish for a better sound mixer. The images were repetitive, and the fact that they all died in the exact same spot even though new years (1915, 1916, 1917) were being shown on the screen was just silly. 
5. Throughout the movie, the women are portrayed as realists, and the men are children. The women understand that war means death, and the men are jumping to go fight again and again. The men talk of love, and the women talk of the uncertainties of the future. It seems like in many of these early movies, the screenwriters picked sides in the battle of the sexes. Women were either silly or smart, men were either in control or oblivious. 
6. While we might think all things change, in reality life just seems to repeat itself. Here is a generation back in 1933 writing about the 'good old days'. Today, many look back at the 50's in the same way. Someday soon, the 80's will be the time to remember. I can see myself in my old age railing about the way kids behave. Someday. 
7. I loved the relationship of the Marryotts throughout the film. It was gentle and loving and rarely seen in movies. 

In the end, I enjoyed the movie despite its shortcomings. Of course, that could be chalked up to me being an anglophile and loving all things Downton and Mr. Selfridge!

Grand Hotel Beat Sheet

Grand Hotel Movie Poster

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for Grand Hotel (1932). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

First, before beginning this beat sheet, I decided that there really wasn't one character whose story is being told. With this in mind, I decided that the protagonist for the story, at least in my mind, is the Grand Hotel itself. I used this throughout this Beat Sheet

Opening Image – The film opens in a busy switchboard room at the Grand Hotel. The operators are busily connecting calls. 

Set-up – The filmmakers ingeniously introduce the various characters by having them talk on the phone. The camera switches from one to the next so we see all their major issues. One wants a business deal, one plans to steal something, one's wife is pregnant, one is dying and spending his days enjoying himself, and the last person is the maid to the famous ballet dancer, Grusinskaya, who is afraid her mistress will not perform.

Theme Stated  – Nothing ever happens here. This makes no sense when looking at the stories themselves. However, if you think of the hotel as the protagonist, then nothing really does change. People come and people go but it remains the same. 

Catalyst – This was a tough one for me. Each individual story had its own catalyst. For example, the Baron needed to pay a debt which was the catalyst for him to plan and steal Grusinskaya's pearls. However, the catalyst in terms of the movie was simply that everyone was coming to stay at the same hotel. 

Debate – If the catalyst of the movie was everyone coming to stay at the hotel, the debate section involved each of the individual characters dealing with their specific problems. 

Break Into Two  – Act Two is usually the 'upside down' world - where the protagonist is thrown into something it is not used to. In this story, the individual characters each have their own 'funworld' versions of reality. I believe that Act Two begins when we understand the backstories for each character and what it is they want. 

B Story – There are a number of love stories, however I think the true B Story is the love of the Baron for  Otto Kringelein. He can't steal from him, and he ensures that Flaemmchen, the stenographer, is there for Otto too.  

Fun and Games –  The Baron is planning his theft but also planning to date Flaemmchen. He helps Otto learn how to enjoy himself. Flaemmchen begins working for General Director Preysing. Basically, we are learning more about each of the characters and watching how they interact. 

Midpoint - To me, the midpoint comes when the Baron decides not to steal from Grusinskaya and instead falls in love with her. They quickly pair up. This is definitely a false victory. 

Bad Guys Close In – The Baron needs to get money to pay a debt. He has refused money from Grusinskaya and resists the temptation to steal from Otto. 

All is Lost – The Baron decides to steal from Preysing. However, he gets caught and Preysing kills him. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Everyone including the hotel staff is upset about the death of the Baron. 

Break Into Three – Flaemmchen and Otto decide to join together and travel to Paris together in the hopes of finding a cure for Otto. 

Finale – Grusinskaya leaves the hotel, still thinking that the Baron will come to meet her at the train station. Flaemmchen and Otto leave for Paris. Preysing is arrested. Only the Doctor who seems to live at the hotel remains and states as he did at the beginning that people might come and go but nothing happens at the Grand Hotel. 

Final Image – We draw back from the revolving door of the hotel to see a conveyance bearing the title Grand Hotel pulls up with new arrivals.

5. Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel Movie Poster

And so we turn to Grand Hotel. Ensemble movies like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Love Actually can trace their roots to this movie which was based on a play of the same name that based on a novel written  by Vicki Baum. This is the first film on the list that relied on characterization more than setting or events happening to the main characters. The actors in Grand Hotel truly stepped up to the plate, and watching it was like watching a virtual who's who of old Hollywood: Greta Garbo, Joan Collins, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore. These are all names that have lived through the years. Another name that I have heard over the years watching the Academy Awards is Jean Hersholt. The humanitarian award named after him is periodically given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes. In this movie, he played the porter who's wife is in the hospital about to have a baby.

John Barrymore and Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel

Both Barrymore's played quite interesting roles. John was the main love interest of both leading ladies as the 'Baron' who is planning to steal from Garbo to pay off a debt he owes. Lionel played the dying working man who has decided to finally live life to the fullest. As he says, "For the first time in my life, I tasted life." I really enjoyed both their performances. It was hard to believe that the Lionel would someday play 'Old Man Potter' in It's a Wonderful Life.

Joan Crawford and John Barrymore in Grand Hotel

I have read that when they filmed the movie, they never wanted to have Garbo and Crawford in the same scene together because they'd be afraid they would overshadow each other. I could definitely see why after watching the film. While both played their roles well - Garbo as the long-suffering dancer and Crawford as the young stenographer trying to make her way in the world - I enjoyed Crawford's character more. Garbo utters her famous line, "I want to be alone," near the beginning of the film. She plays a diva with such gusto. But Crawford has a comic glint to her eye that brings humor to every scene she graces. Her lightness of touch is refreshing after all the overacting of the previous films. She and John Barrymore are closer to modern day actors than most of the others in the film. It's crazy to think that she is the same woman as portrayed in Mommy Dearest. I guess some people just aren't cut out to be parents.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The film starts and ends with the same sentiment stated by Dr. Otternschlag: "Grand Hotel . . . always the same. People come, people go. Nothing every happens." And then the movie goes on to prove otherwise. Yet at the same time, there is something unchanging about a hotel. While little dramas are occurring all around, these do not change the essence of the place.

One interesting thing that I found about the film was that it was able to combine a number of different elements into one cohesive plot. There was a thief, an unscrupulous businessman, an attempt at adultery, a love affair, a dying man, a drunkard doctor, and a murder, and all the stories worked.

The method for introducing the wide range of characters was quite unique: each was making a telephone call explaining their situation. From that point, the plot moved easily from humor to drama, from love to lust, from love of life to death by murder. There is much for a writer to learn from this early example, and I finished the movie feeling as if I had left a master class on ensemble films.


After only five films, I have to say that I am already seeing how films have begun to evolve and how they relate to the films of today. Blake Snyder says that when any good screenwriter in Hollywood decides to sit down and write a film, he goes back and watches the films in that genre to see how it was done before. So many scenes from later movies can be traced directly back to these early films.

Cimarron Beat Sheet

Cimarron Movie Poster

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for Cimarron (1931). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

Opening Image – The film opens with the Oklahoma Land Run in 1889. The wagons, horses, and pioneers are waiting at the starting line until noon for the run to begin. 

Set-up – Yancey Cravat is beaten to his land by Dixie Lee, a lady of ill repute. He then travels back to his family and his in-laws in Wichita, Kansas to tell them about the Land Run.

Theme Stated  – According to the Blake Snyder, someone typically states the 'theme' to the protagonist around the fifth minute of the movie.  I believe in this case, the theme was stated by Yancey that Oklahoma is a miracle and a land of opportunity. However, it will be seen that the opportunity is for Sabra to grow into an independent woman. 

Catalyst – Yancey has decided that he wants to move to Oklahoma and be part of the town of Osage which has popped up overnight. His wife, Sabra, agrees to move with him. 

Debate – Sabra's mother is opposed to her moving to Oklahoma, just like she was opposed to her marrying Yancey. She tries to talk her out of moving. 

Break Into Two  – They arrive at the town of Osage and see what a frontier town complete with outlaws is really like. 

B Story – The love story is between Sabra and Yancey. 

Fun and Games – The two of them set up a home, and Yancey establishes a newspaper called the Oklahoma Wigwam. He is seen as a leading citizen and gives the first sermon at a makeshift church, during which he kills the leader of a gang who is wreaking havoc on the town. He later kills "The Kid" who has planned on robbing the bank. Sabra has a baby girl. Yancey decides to leave his wife in 1893 when a second Land Run is going to happen. Sabra does not want to leave the life they are building in Osage. She stays behind and runs the paper in his name.   He returns in 1897.

Midpoint – By 1907, Yancey has risen in stature and is running for governor of Oklahoma. Things look great for the pair. This is a false victory. 

Bad Guys Close In – Man approaches Yancey and asks him to compromise his values and help seize oil that has been found on the Osage Reservation. 

All is Lost – Yancey decides to throw away his chances to be governor by printing a piece in the paper supporting Indian citizenship. He then leaves his wife for a second time. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Sabra is left alone once again. This part of the movie is lacking as it does not show her struggles at all - almost like they don't exist. 

Break Into Three – Sabra has to make things work on her own. Sadly, this part of the movie is also missing and we move forward in time. 

Finale – Sabra has grown in independence and stature until she is elected to Congress. When visiting an oil refinery with other dignateries, a disaster is averted when Yancey sacrifices himself. She is able to talk with him before his death. 

Final Image – A statue modeled on Yancey is revealed celebrating the pioneer spirit of Oklahoma. 

4. Cimarron

Cimarron Movie Poster

I love old westerns. They bring back memories of childhood, watching John Wayne with my Daddy. That's why when I saw that #4 on the list was a western, I got really excited. What I found was that while this western wasn't exactly what I expected, it was fascinating in many ways.

Cimarron takes place in the early days of the Oklahoma Land Run in 1889. The tale starts on the morning of the Land Run, and the scene that ensues once it begins is utter chaos as wagons laden with people and men and women on horseback ride off to find their perfect claim. There's even a man on a bicycle in the run. It was amazing to me to watch this scene, and I wonder how many people and animals got hurt in its filming.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The tale centers around a pioneering newspaper editor named Yancey Cravat who moves to Oklahoma with his wife and son to be part of the excitement. He likens the results of the land run to the miracle of creation. They are joined by a stowaway, Isaiah, an African-American boy who has escaped the harsh realities of life as a servant in Wichita, Kansas.

Irene Dunn as Sabra and Richard Dix as Yancey Cravat
 in Cimarron

Yancey is an enigmatic figure. He is well known throughout the state and the territory. He was once a lawyer before becoming a newspaper editor. And he has a unique way at looking at the world. He truly believes in treating those around him with complete and utter respect. Where others look down on the Cherokee and treat them with disdain, he understands their plight and sympathizes with them. Along with the Indians, he also stands up for a Jewish man and a woman of ill repute. Further, he's an excellent shot and one of the first actions he does when he moves to town is to kill the leader of a gang. Ironically, this takes place in the middle of a sermon he's been asked to give since there is no preacher in town. The realities of the wild west! When he kills the outlaw called 'The Kid', he turns down the idea of a reward. He knew 'The Kid' before he had turned bad and felt that circumstances had led him to a life of crime. He felt bad for killing him but knew that he had to protect his family and community.

All of the above makes Yancey seem truly heroic. However, there was a huge chink in his armor: as the Allman Brothers would sing many years later, he was born a ramblin' man. He told his wife that the longest he'd ever been in a place was five years and it felt like a jail sentence. Once they were established in Osage, Oklahoma, Yancey decided to leave his wife Sabra with a son and a baby daughter in 1893.

Irene Dunne in Cimarron

To me, this is when I realized that the story was really not about Yancey, but instead about Sabra. She takes over the paper and makes it flourish. She still is true to him and leaves his name on it as editor. She knows he'll return. And he does in 1898 after serving in the Spanish American War.


Things look good again. Time flies and in 1907, he's running to be governor. Oil has been discovered on the Osage Reservation. When a city elder tries to get him involved in a scheme to take the oil from them, he is disgusted and chooses to write an editorial about the plight of the Indians. In this, he calls for them to get complete citizenship in the United States. His wife begs him not to do it because she knows it will ruin his chances in the election, but he says he must. Then he leaves her again.

Statue at the end of Cimarron

We jump forward to 1929 and see Sabra has modernized the paper, and it is thriving under her. She still believes in Yancey and has kept his name as the editor. Then by 1930, we see that she has been elected to Congress. She goes to visit an oil well with visiting dignitaries when an explosion is averted by a man who has sacrificed himself to save the rest. It is Yancey. His last words to her are: "Wife and Mother. Stainless woman. Hide me. Hide me in your love." At the same time, a statue is being unveiled to the pioneer spirit. When the cloth is ripped off, it looks exactly like Yancey and a woman is crouching behind him.

Okay, so I finished the movie and was confused. Was Yancey a hero or not? While the movie portrayed him as larger than life throughout and his wife never truly complained or got angry with him for his leaving, I felt cold at the end. I knew the story was originally written by a woman, Edna Ferber. So I decided to do a little research. What I found made the entire story make sense to me: Cimarron is a satire. Here, the backbone of building the community was this strong woman, Sabra. In the book version of the story, Sabra is shown as being even more self reliant. She only found her own power because Yancey left her, becoming a feminist in the process. Plus, she understood the importance of women to 'civilizing' the territory. Without Sabra and women like her, the author implies, the territory would never have truly been tamed. The irony comes to full fruition at the end of the movie when the statue is revealed to not be a woman but a man, Yancey, portrayed as the protector of the weak and the true pioneer.

The movie was adapted from the book by screenwriter Howard Estabrook. His treatment of the story left out the irony and left a much weaker story for it, in my opinion. Nonetheless, I marvel at the scope of the movie for the time it was created. It cost more than $1.5 million dollars to create, extraordinarily expensive for the time. The Land Grab scene included more than 5,000 extras. It is one of only two films to receive Academy Award nominations in every category. (The other was Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?)

Other thoughts:

1. I was amazed at the job the filmmakers did at showing how Osage developed from its earliest days where lawyers were working out of tents to settle land disputes to 1929 where it is a thriving metropolis. Each new year brought new buildings and modes of transportation. Further, the characters changed with the times. Really well done.
2. The filmmaker heavily relied on title cards to move from period to period. While some of this was fine, the ones that were full of exposition hearkened back to the days of silent pictures and seemed overly intrusive to the story. 
3. The evolution of Sabra from a bigot to an independent and tolerant woman was fascinating to watch. 

I will be putting up the Beat Sheet for this one soon. 

All Quiet on the Western Front Beat Sheet

All Quiet on the Western Front

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

Opening Image – The film opens with title cards describing the war. Then we see a woman washing the floor and a man opens a window on a scene of soldiers marching through the town to songs and cheers. 

Set-up – The war has begun and young men are enlisting everywhere. A teacher calls on his students to enlist, inspiring them to take up arms in defense of the 'fatherland'. When the teacher turns to the student's 'leader' Paul, he says that he will enlist and the others join suit. 

Theme Stated  – According to the Blake Snyder, someone states the 'theme' to the protagonist around the fifth minute of the movie.  However, I believe that the theme of this movie is the final title card before the movie begins which states, "It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." 

Catalyst – Teacher talks them all into enlisting. 

Debate – Typically, there is some debate before the protagonist begins his journey in the main part of the film. However, once the young men decide, the next scene is in the training camp. This is the beginning of their understanding that life is going to be different. The question, however, in this part is about surviving these changes. 

Break Into Two  – The soldiers are sent to the upside-down world of the Front. 

B Story – The love story is between Paul and Katczinski who acts as his mentor and friend throughout the story. 

Fun and Games – The men learn about what war is really like. They experience the trenches and no man's land. 

Midpoint – Paul's friend Franz has died and Paul is losing his positive attitude. According to him, he never truly understood what death was about, and he never valued his own life so much as before. 

Bad Guys Close In – Fighting gets worse. Paul gets caught in the foxhole where he kills a Frenchman with a knife. He is later wounded and sent to a hospital. He is then sent home. 

All is Lost – Once Paul gets sent home, he realizes that the people there are clueless to the realities of war.

Dark Night of the Soul – Paul doesn't really fit in. He decides to tell the young students in his old school what war is really like to his teacher's chagrin. 

Break Into Three – Paul realizes he must return to the front. 

Finale – He goes back to the front to find Katczinski. Once he finds him, they reconnect. However, Katczinski is killed. Then as Paul reaches for a butterfly, he is shot by a sniper. 

Final Image – The young men are shown marching, just like in the beginning, but this time against the backdrop of a field of soldier's gravestones. 

3. All Quiet on the Western Front

Movie Poster for All Quiet
on the Western Front

This is the first movie on the list that I have seen before. In high school, we read the book and watched the movie. I found that watching it as an adult, now that I have taught over a thousand students and have children of my own, has brought new and deeper to me.

The movie is a realistic look at war. In that way it is related to so many modern war movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, and Saving Private Ryan. In fact, I had forgotten how realistic and disturbing the battle scenes were in the movie. In fact, 68 years later people would be talking about how realistic and bloody Saving Private Ryan was in its opening scene. However, All Quiet on the Western Front did it first. The first time that the newly trained unit moves up to the front and experiences life in the trenches with the enemy rushing towards them through 'No Man's Land', Paul, the protagonist, watches as a man who has grasped the barbed wire near him is hit by a bomb. When the smoke clears, only two hands cut off at the wrist are still grasping the wire. Jarring, disturbing, and created in 1930.

The fact that the story from the German point of view makes it even more moving for me. Typically, we 'root' for the protagonists not only because they are the focus of the story, but also in war movies because we are from the same culture, the same background. However, the point of the movie is exactly that: it doesn't matter whose side the fighters are on, the men at the front are all the same. While some might have a bit of a clue about why they are fighting, they didn't start the war. However, many of them will die. It begs the question, why?

While I'm not a pacifist, I do believe in war for a purpose. When I look at past wars, World War I is one that stands out as so stupid. Countries were pulled in based on their previous agreements without having been directly attacked or even threatened with attack. I guess, for me, it is much easier to understand a war like World War II where the men and women were fighting a true evil. However, just having this train of thought makes me feel somewhat like the old men in All Quiet who sit around and comment on the war without having actually been on the front lines.

Compared with the previous two winners, All Quiet on the Western Front was so much better. The actors were believable, the emotions were real, the movie had a good mix for small laughs with large tragedies, the filming was a step up from just two years previous, and the sound problems seem to mostly have been worked out.

SPOILER ALERT

Boys in a Fervor After They've Decided to Enlist in
All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front starts in a classroom, quite a statement about education and youth. An old professor who probably never saw the hint of a gun stirs up his youthful students to join en masse - for the Fatherland. It is SO IMPORTANT to remember the effect we teachers have on our students. The students led by Paul Baumer, the groups unofficial leader, leave the classroom with visions of heroism. But these ideas start to be stripped away on the first day of training.

Local postman Corporal Himmelstoss is in charge of their platoon. And he is merciless and cruel. Case in point: when his higher ups tell him to give the men leave until midnight the day before they move to the front, he causes them to miss it. He is not dissimilar from the Drill Sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.

When the group gets to the front, the reality of war sets in quickly. There is no food. They stay in burnt out buildings, finding places to sleep where they can. Luckily they have Stanislaus Katczinski who takes on the role of the mentor and father figure for the soldiers. Over the course of the movie, he and Paul grow incredibly close.

When the men move to the trenches, the constant bombardment leads many to go crazy. Once the bombardment stops, the soldiers rush out and wait for the attackers to run across No Man's Land. This is when things really get brutal. The opposing forces overrun the trench and bayonets and fists fly. Death surrounds the men.

Over the course of the movie, the soldiers have brief respites between intense battles. At one point, only 80 out of 150 come back. As the men get to rest and eat double rations, the famous scene of the movie occurs where they discuss how the war started and how they really don't have anything against the men they are fighting and killing. Paul and two of his buddies also get to spend one night with some French women.

Paul With French Soldier in a Foxhole
All Quiet on the Western Front

At one point, Paul has sheltered in a foxhole when a French soldier jumps in. Paul knifes him, but he doesn't die immediately. Over the course of the long bombardment, Paul alternates between anger at the man and regret for having hurt and eventually killed him.

When Paul gets wounded, he gets sent home on leave. He finds that things have changed from his perspective. The people don't have any understanding of what he has gone through and  he feels little connection to his old life. When his old teacher asks him to help him inspire his new class of students to join up and fight in the war, Paul can't say much more than that war means death. In the end, Paul realizes that he feels more at home on the battlefield with Kat than back at home.

He returns to the front and immediately reconnects with Kat who is out looking for food. However,on the way back to the rest of the men, Kat is killed. Paul has lost his only true friend. The movie closes soon after when he reaches for a butterfly and gets shot by a sniper. All noises cease - all is quiet. Finally, we see images of the young soldiers marching superimposed over an immense soldier's graveyard.

Closing Images of All Quiet on the Western Front

I will be posting my attempt at the Beat Sheet for this later today. Stay Tuned.