Round Six - the most nail-bitey of the nail-biters

The competition thus far has not presented me with extremely difficult choices. This will be the first review that I begin without knowing who the winner is. I will have to find out based upon how I write about the two directors, both extremely talented and well-loved directors: George Hill and Sydney Pollack.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I loved this movie. It was fun, exciting, interesting, and layered. I enjoyed the character interactions, the effortless humor, the subtle sadness and interesting shots. We experience a good guys/bad guys dynamic without ever getting a glimpse at the bad guys chasing our heroes. It's as if there's a more typical western taking place at their end of the chase, framing them as wholesome and honorable lawmen. In the view of Butch and the Kid, they are invisible, powerful ghosts threatening to end their outlaw way of life. Redford and Newman work seamlessly together and manage to fit perfectly into any era they represent in their films. In terms of timelessness, this movie scores big time because I felt excited to be watching it throughout the film.

Tootsie

I appreciate that Pollack is exploring feminism through this film and attempting to articulate a message. Dustin Hoffman plays an intense, committed actor (not such a big stretch) who dresses as a woman to gain a role on a soap opera (much more of a stretch). Hoffman is delightful to see playing a "woman" and as he experiences life as a woman, he begins to notice the subtle and experience the more blatant forms of sexism present in our society. The film brings attention to some interesting challenges women face, including high expectations regarding normative beauty, the use of names like honey, sugar, doll, and toots instead of a woman's name, and judgments of strong, powerful women as masculine. But on many other more serious issues, they miss an opportunity to address and fully investigate the power dynamics affecting these exchanges. For example, one of the men interested in "Tootsie" waits outside of her apartment and manipulates his way inside. There alone with her, he professes that "he's never wanted a woman so much" and begins to try and kiss her. Hoffman jumps on a couch, the older man grabbing him from behind as he struggles. The cross-dressing actor's male roommate (played excellently by Bill Murray) shows up and inadvertently saves the day. After the other man has left, Hoffman (taking off his wig) explains, "No, I was in real trouble...you didn't see the look on his face, if you hadn't shown up I would have been a headline tomorrow." Basically, this piece of dialogue shares that Hoffman was almost raped or possibly killed when the man found out that he was - OH FUCK- actually attracted to a man. This brings up another important point that I feel the movie fails with; homophobia is rampant in the movie from characters we are meant to care for and respect. In order to keep this post shortish, I'm going to only point out one more flaw in this otherwise well-crafted film: Hoffman's character never resolves the terrible things he did to the friend he begins sleeping with over the course of the movie. He realizes, very obviously, that men treat women like shit by lying to them and then lets his friend find out the truth on television (and then never interacts with her again for all we know). He apologizes and makes up with the woman he fell in love with (the one he treated very well as another woman) and never even shows great remorse or concern for the woman he screwed over and lied to as a man. If he made this great realization that men shouldn't do this, isn't it sort of strange that he still does?

The Sting

Again we see Redford and Newman paired up in a brilliantly executed film about those living outside the boundaries of lawful society. As two con-men, the duo again slips comfortably into another time period, building a believable and meaningful relationship with ease. Hill weaves a story for the audience that is intricate and complex, surprising the first-time viewer and delighting the repeat viewer. Similar to Butch Cassidy, the story of the Sting is broken into clear parts (in Butch Cassidy each part was divided by a happy musical montage), each named with a title of the con the partners are undertaking. The music in this film is perfect, the acting excellent, the sets incredible, and the story flawless. If this film has set out to capture your imagination and thrill you, it has succeeded with amazing brilliance. If it strives to convey a deep life message, the only one I can find is that friendship is valuable. It's an original bromance, a buddy comadventure that everyone can enjoy.

Out of Africa

I'm not usually very interested in romantic dramas, but this movie was spectacular. It manages to tell the story of a powerful, important woman through her relationship with a man without devaluing her individuality and impact on the story. Meryl Streep is absolutely stunning in every way in this film; she is gorgeous, compelling, believable, and impressive. She is an incredibly deft actress, and she completely fills the role of Karen von-Blixen and charges through the movie with force that cannot go unnoticed. I am so glad that it was filmed on location in Africa, because it captures the deeper layer of the love story of the film. We fall in love with the beauty of Africa just as Karen does, we see the wild, vibrant, and precious Africa that the characters love and though frightening at first, it becomes the most perfect setting for the movie. As Karen grows more comfortable and touches the land more often, we are glad that she was a part of Africa, though eventually forced to leave. It is important to have told the story of this amazing woman, and her love of Redford's character is secondary to the message of who she is and what Africa meant to her. It is a story of lost love, of lost home, and of telling stories that are worth listening to.

The major dilemma with this choice is that I want to see more movies from both of these directors. I was so impressed and fascinated with the movies I hadn't seen before (Butch Cassidy and Out of Africa) and had a great time more closely considering the ones I already loved (The Sting and Tootsie). This is also the first time that we are unsure whether or not we agree on the outcome of the match-up. This could potentially be the turning point of this venture, when we need two separate BIG BOARDS.

So who is it, Batgirl, who wins this round? Whether it's completely fair or not, I'm going to have to go with Pollack. I feel that he did two very different types of films very well while what we saw of Hill were two very similar films (that were amazing), showing us that as a director he is very good at one thing. I'm hesitant in this decision because of the issues I have with Tootsie's message, but I appreciate Pollack's intentionality in his films. I will have to find time to see George Hill's other films (between the 500 or so films that we've committed to watching in this showdown). Sorry, Mr. Hill, you impressed me and delighted me as a movie-goer, but the director who has me really wanting to see more is Pollack.