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DVD Festival: Blood Diamond, The Awful Truth, The History Boys, Oliver Twist

by Kathryn Durfee, Jamie Henson
05/09/2007

Kathryn:

Being pinned to my couch this past spring break by the bug that pervaded Athens allowed me to catch up on recent (and some not-so-recent) releases now available on DVD.

Last December's Blood Diamond depicts a civil war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s and the illegal diamond trade (the stones are known as conflict diamonds). Leonardo DiCaprio plays South African mercenary Danny Archer who teams up with local fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) and American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) in search of a rare pink diamond that will change the lives of all involved.

Director Edward Zwick's wannabe epic about this international conflict is beautifully shot and well-acted, but tries to be bigger than it is. Once I accepted DiCaprio's South African accent, I was able to focus on his stunning performance, his second of the year (see October's The Departed). DiCaprio has matured since his early days on the Titanic, successfully portraying a man with nothing left to lose but hope. Hounsou and Connelly offer emotionally powerful roles as well, displaying both human desperation and sympathy in the face of violence. Archer and Bowen's relationship is a bit contrived, adding an unnecessarily drawn-out melodrama to a film already too long and deemphasizing the political issues and Vandy's family's struggle.

For those of us who still have a soft spot in our hearts for those classic black and white movies, The Awful Truth proved immensely entertaining. Starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, The Awful Truth follows Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a couple waiting for finalization of their divorce. Throughout the film, both parties try and wreck the other's opportunities for remarriage, finally realizing that they belong together. A classic screwball comedy (characterized by witty dialogue, slapstick physical humor, and a battle of the sexes), The Awful Truth was nominated for Best Picture in 1937. And keep an eye out for Mr. Smith, the Warriner's dog; he was quite the star in the '30s, appearing also in The Thin Man series and Bringing Up Baby (more fabulous screwballs)!

Jamie:

Having just gotten the magnificent job of video clerk at the Vision Video on Broad Street, I have had the opportunity to get some inside info - and eventually my hands - on a couple of entertaining movies, including classic formulas on modern terms and bleak stories in house styles.
After seeing the preview for The History Boys a few weeks ago, I was really excited to see that it was coming out last week because coming of age stories are some of my favorites. Alan Bennett adapted his play about a British Grammar School in the 1980s. Nicholas Hytner, director of the theatre production, directed the screen version.

The boys have the chance to study history to the most prestigious universities in Britain, Oxford and Cambridge, but they have to stay for an extra term at the school. They study General Studies with the dreaming Hector (Richard Griffiths) for General Studies and History with the mothering Mrs. Lintott (Frances de al Tour). The headmaster, the dunce of the school and by far the funniest character for his dumbassery, decides the students need more education. He hires the Oxford grad Irwin to develop the students' entrance essays.

The movie is brimming with sexual tension between the young and old, men and boys, boys and girls. The dialogue frequently points to the homosexual tendencies and sexual interests of everyone, though no one acts on the suggestions. One of my favorite British exports is dialogue; so quick and wry that I am sorry I didn't grow up in London. The soundtrack is bloody amazing, featuring teenage rock anthems from the likes of The Clash, The Smiths, and New Order.

The setting is a little depressing for us, the undereducated in the U.S., but it isn't too different that you can't get into the plot. There are so many characters that it's hard to gain empathy for any single character. There is a good balance between each character's involvement in the plot, but the scenes jump so quickly it's like being in Vegas for one day and trying to find every casino. The History Boys studies the last scene of Y tú mama también with a bit of homework on Dead Poet's Society, and knows the quick humor of Snatch. It may not get into Oxford, but it could surely get into an American university.

After the modern narrative of The History Boys, I decided to travel back in time with Oliver Twist. Roman Polanski's adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel from 1838 was released in 2005.

In this nearly two-century-old social story about the sordid lives of criminals, the uncontrollable world the orphan Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) gets tossed through from the orphanage and the workhouses they support to the streets of London where he is cared for by a pack of thieves led by the old man Fagin (Sir Ben Kingsley, The House of Sand and Fog). Twist has the chance to move from the alley to the library, but first he has to escape danger of Fagin and the crook Bill Sykes.

It's been a decade since I read the novel by Charles Dickens - to tell the truth I probably read the Cliff Notes anyway - but from the opening scene I was hooked on the unfortunate journey of little Oliver. The beginning of the film moves quickly, and even though it slows down it still moves along with purpose, which is good because reading Dickens is like trudging through wet cement. I had a hard time with Clark as Oliver - he moves and looks like a marionette. I can't decide if the choice was for him to actually act so scared that he looks like a piece of particle board or if Polanski is a complete genius in having this timid kid play the protagonist for his inability to act.

Polanski carried a lot of the same mise-en-scéne feeling in the spaces of Oliver's London and Szpilman's Warsaw in The Pianist (2002). If you have a few hours to spend reminiscing on the days you spent in the schoolyard having intellectual conversations about the conventions of Dickens, or just want to watch a good movie about the need for a lower class revolution in 1830s London, then pick up a copy of Polanski's Oliver Twist.

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