On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront
1954

My birthday is coming up in three weeks. There are three things that if I received them, I would be the happiest girl in the world.

1. Lotso, the bear from Toy Story 3. He’s evil, pink, smells like strawberries, and sold at the Disney store. What is not to love about something that is that combination of things, especially being sold at the Disney store. It is the most fabulous place on the planet.
2. A pigeon.
3. A time machine, specifically for the use of going back in time to become best friends with Marlon Brando. I don’t care if he was a bit of a diva, he seemed somewhat wonderful in On the Waterfront.

Okay. So here is the story, as I think it went. It was slightly confusing and I watched it over three days of time, so forgive me if I get a detail wrong.

We open with a guy named Johnny being thrown out a window to his death. He was going to testify against the mob, and that unfortunately for him was a poor life decision. Terry, played by the fabulous Marlon Brando, knows that it was the mobs fault. He has some connections to this mob. His brother Charlie is the lawyer for the head boss guy. After having a personal talk with Head Boss Guy, Terry is sure that he was the one behind the killing. But he decides to testify, as he would like to live.

But it’s all good! Some other man decides to testify to bring Head Boss Guy in to jail! However when he makes this decision, he is soon crushed by a million tons of Irish whiskey. This further ensues that Terry will not testify.

But he falls in love with Johnny’s, the first dead guy, sister, and she changes his mind on the subject. It also helps that the mob kills his brother. Off he goes to testify! He breaks the case and everyone in the legal system loves him.

Of course the mob hates him a lot know. But they don’t try to kill him because they already have been caught. Because Terry is stupid he goes down and fights Head Boss Guy until he can barely walk, the stumbles off to work. The end.

Now, if this is indeed what happened, I rather liked this movie. I really love Marlon Brando. He had an amazing accent, interesting eyebrows, and he walked around in a red plaid jacket for most of the movie. How cool is that? Since this movie was in black and white, I am not entirely sure that the jacket was red, but come on. All cool jackets are red, so this one must be. How is my logic for you?

One thing that this movie in particular succeeded in was epic speeches. The priest, whose name I do not know, had many inspiring speeches about justice and not letting the mob win. Terry had a few good lines too, including the third best movie line of all time, “…I coulda had class…” according to the American Film Institute’s list.

The acting was great, Marlon Brando of course being absolutely awesome in his role. Edie, the girl, was played with just the right amounts of emotion by Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar for her efforts in this film.

But you want to know the best thing about this movie? It had pigeons. Carrier pigeons to be exact. They were so cute and fat and fluffy, you couldn’t help but fall in love with them, and at the same time, this movie.

West Side Story

West Side Story
1961

Forbidden love is bad. It ends up hurting many people, including you.

But you know what? It makes for a fabulous story.

This is the beautiful, yet tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, set in New York City and with some gang drama thrown in. We have our American gang, the Jets, and we have our Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. The Sharks are a bazillion times cooler, and a gazillion times more attractive, for the record. These two gangs hate each other with an intense passion.

So what of course happens? Tony, an ex Jet, and Maria, the leader of the Sharks Bernardo’s sister, fall in love. It was rather stupid of them if you think about it.

But they couldn’t help it. They saw each other at a dance and the world just stopped. Literally. But of course, as soon as they get together, their gangs attempt to break them up. But nothing can stop true love. Except maybe death, but we will get to that later.

The reason they were all together at the dance was because the Jets’ leader Riff wanted to challenge the Sharks to a rumble. They accept and meet later to establish terms of fighting. When this said fight happens, it does not go well. Riff is stabbed to death by Bernardo. Tony is enraged as he was Riff’s best friend, and in turn kills Bernardo.

Chino, the boy everyone wants Maria to love, runs to her to tell her what Tony has done. She at first does not believe him, but eventually accepts the truth. Does this make her feelings for Tony vanish? Of course not she’s a silly girl who is in love.
When you care about someone you hardly ever listen to rational thought or logic, like, “Hmm, maybe this guy is bad because he killed my brother.” Or “Maybe I shouldn’t go out with him because my best friend Rita doesn’t like him.” Or “Maybe I should run away screaming from this crazy man because he wanted to satanically slap my parents.” The last one doesn’t particularly apply to West Side Story, but it is still good to avoid such people.

Maria and Tony decide to run away together. They meet at a candy store, see the other, and start running towards each other. But Chino comes out with a gun and shoots Tony dead. It’s terrible. Maria then rants beautifully, that it was their hate for each other that killed Riff, Bernardo, and Tony, and the movie ends.

Cynical comments aside, I love this movie. It’s a musical, so that of course gives it huge bonus points from me. But here is the thing that makes this movie so completely spectacular. It’s choreography is AMAZING. I mean, besides the slight hilarity of gangs dancing like girls, this is so cool to watch. Jerome Robbins one a special award from the Oscars because of how brilliant this was.

The only complaint I have is the whole love at first sight thing. This is a completely ridiculous notion that only crazy people believe in. I would say no offense, but if you do believe in something as outlandish such as this, you deserve to have your feelings hurt.

But other than that slight minor detail, this movie was wonderfully made and enjoyable to watch.

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music
1965

I am going to become a nun.

Why you may ask? Well, I am pretty sure it has something to do with the fact I have been watching way too much of The Sound of Music lately. It recently became my two year old sister’s favorite movie, and when given to choice to do school, or watch this, I think it is obvious what one should do.

As I have been watching this movie three times daily, I have realized what fun it would be to become a nun! I mean, they seem rather happy, and they are always singing! I have been told this is only the case in movies, and in real life nuns are not like this, but I think the people who say this are only out to crush my dreams and aspirations for the future. Silly people.

Maria is a nun. But she’s a pretty crappy one it turns out. She’s always late for everything, except for every meal. That’s part of one of the many songs that are just destined to be stuck in your head for days at a time.

So, she’s always late, she blurts out things without thinking, and sings without permission. So what else is there to do but ship her off to become a governess for a family with seven children and no mother?

As she arrives at the house with the insane amount of children, Maria is taught by Captain Von Trapp the father, how to run the strict house. It involves whistles, and is odd. As soon as the Captain leaves, Maria ditches all the strict rules and teaches the children how to have fun, winning them over. She also makes them all matching clothes, which is oh so cute.

Of course, the Captain comes back, and is very unhappy with them singing and being happy. But after they serenade him with a lovely song, he becomes completely fine with it.

Oh. He brought back a girl with him on his trip and this girl is jealous of Maria, who likes the Captain. Mean girl eventually convinces Maria to go back to the convent and everyone is sad.

At the nun place, the head nun tells Maria to stop being a nun and return to the Von Trapps because she is in love with the Captain and that is not something nuns really should be apparently. Plus it will make her happy. So off Maria goes! Yay!

But, of course, the Captain is now engaged to the mean girl. But he soon wisens (this is a word I just made up) up and realizes he loves Maria and marries her instead. Yay!

Again things can’t be happy for too long in this movie it seems. The Captian is being forced into the navy again, but with the Nazis since they all live in Austria. He really does not agree with the Nazis so they run away and treck across the mountains singing. The end.

I absolutely love this movie, for pretty much one reason. It’s a musical, and a fabulous one at that. The songs are just perfect. After watching this movie I always go around singing what my favorite things are, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens in case you have not seen this movie. Julie Andrews does a superb job as the odd Maria, and you cannot help but love her in this movie. The only problem I really have with this movie is that it is three hours long and after awhile it is extremely hard to pay attention. That may just be me though, as I have the attention span of a goldfish.

And I am so dead serious about becoming a nun.