My Favorite Comfort Movies – Part 2

June 12, 2020

After a serious topic last week, I’m going to lighten things up a bit – so here is another installment of my favorite comfort movies.  As an avid movie lover, I suspect this will be a topic I come back to once in a while, especially during a slower part of this unique movie year.  There are three movies I’ll discuss this week – each unique in their own way, but one thing that they all have in common is classic lines of dialogue (a prerequisite for any comfort movie).  These are lines that I have come back to over the years, especially when I am thinking about the great movies of our lifetimes.

All The President’s Men (1976)

In my first comfort movies post, I mentioned how much I love a good mystery.  This chronicle of the early days of the Watergate investigation by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post is the ultimate detective story.  What starts out as an investigation into a break in at the National Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, leads to the ultimate toppling of a President.  A few months ago, I recommended the book, on which this film was based.  The film actually only covers about half of the book, from the initial break-in up until the realization that members of Nixon’s administration were involved in illegal activities and a coverup of those crimes.  The rest of the book covers more of the investigation, and the political and legal battles Nixon went through as he fought to hold onto the Presidency.  Woodward and Bernstein wrote a sequel, The Final Days, that covered the end of the scandal from Nixon’s viewpoint, based on interviews with those closest to his downfall.

The decision to focus the film on only the initial stages of the scandal was a smart one, because it allows the film to breathe and not rush through key events in the investigation, or skip over important steps by the reporters or the dilemmas they faced in whether or not to publish a story.  You feel Woodward and Bernstein agonizing over where to go next to get more information and trying to piece together a mystery, without knowing where it would lead.  They had no idea it would lead as high into the Nixon presidency as it would go.  It’s funny, because watching the film now, it doesn’t feel like it really “ends,” because we don’t see the resignation of Nixon or all of his henchmen marched off to prison.  These events are covered through headlines we read that serve as an epilogue to the movie.  I actually like the filmmakers’ choices in how they tightened the story to make it about the journalists.  You feel like you are part of the newsroom (filmed in a replica of the Post newsroom constructed for the movie) and you can practically smell the smoke from Bernstein’s cigarettes.  This movie was released in 1976, only two years after Nixon resigned.  The audience already knew “what” happened – instead, we get to see “how” it happened.  There was a TV movie made of The Final Days in 1989 that wasn’t very good.  I won’t go too deep into it, but the story focuses so much on Nixon himself and the actor played him as more of a caricature, and the production definitely feels like a 1980s TV movie.  That being said, the whole Watergate story itself is so rich, you wonder if it could be retold today as a limited series, but I think All The President’s Men set such a high bar, I don’t know that I’d want to see any sort of remake. 

The driving force behind the film adaptation was Robert Redford, who would produce the film and play Bob Woodward.  He is perfectly matched with Dustin Hoffman, who plays Bernstein, and the supporting cast features a who’s who of 1970s actors, including Jason Robards, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the Post editor, Ben Bradlee.  Redford was at the top of his game in 1976, as a leading man in such films as Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Candidate, The Sting, and The Three Days of the Condor.  He was also starting to branch beyond acting with a production credit on this film, and only four years later would win the Academy Award for his directorial debut, Ordinary People.

I mentioned at the top that my favorite comfort movies have classic lines and this one is no different.  But before I discuss those, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the importance this story has in coining the “gate” suffix to any scandal we have seen for the last 50 years.  Looking for a funny read?  Go to this Wikipedia page for the list of “gate” scandals in all walks of life.  After a quick scan, this one made me chuckle:  “Broomgate: High-tech brooms and new sweeping techniques allowing sweepers in curling to change the direction of the curling stone and hence significantly changing the nature of the game.”  Yeesh.

Back to my favorite lines.  As a finance guy, one of my favorite is “Follow the money,” the advice Woodward received from his trusted source, nicknamed Deep Throat.  He knew that the key to the investigation was the money trail from the Nixon re-election campaign that eventually led to the Watergate burglars.  The identity of this source would remain a secret for over 30 years, eventually revealed to be Mark Felt, the former Associate Director of the FBI during the Watergate investigation.  Another one of my favorites is “A non-denial denial.”  You hear this one a few times throughout the film, when a politician answers a question that sounds like they are denying a charge, but they are technically not responding to the question.  Keep that phrase in mind next time you are watching a politician answer a question from the media. 

Speaking of the media, the coverage of the Watergate scandal by the Post and The New York Times helped continue the trend in journalism (started with coverage of the Vietnam War) that would challenge our politicians, speak truth to power, and get the truth to the masses.  There are times, though, when I wonder about the tipping point, when some journalists became more focused on being part of the story, instead of covering the story.  Unfortunately, we have been seeing this too often lately.  The journalistic importance of this story is demonstrated in my favorite part of the film at the end.  After Woodward and Bernstein have realized how serious the scandal has become, they reveal what they have learned to Bradlee, who responds:  “We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there.  Nothing’s riding on this except the first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I’m gonna get mad.”  This one is an all-time classic.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Sometimes, you just need a silly comedy with some great music to help you forget about the seriousness in the world.  The Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis, fits that description for me and is a film that never gets old.  Capitalizing on a Saturday Night Live sketch featuring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as “Joliet” Jake and Elwood, the lead singers in a blues band, The Blues Brothers was the first in a long series (a few that were good, but far too many that were pretty bad) of movies based on SNL skits.  The plot finds the Jake and Elwood trying to raise money to pay the taxes owed by their childhood orphanage to prevent its shutdown, leading them say throughout the film, “We’re on a mission from God.”  To me, this film holds a spot in two important lists:  First, it’s the first of The Mount Rushmore of best Chicago-based films (along with The Fugitive, The Untouchables, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).  Unfortunately, it’s also near the top of the list of comedies with sequels that we should never acknowledge (along with Fletch and Caddyshack).

In addition to Aykroyd and Belushi (who was coming off a monster hit in Animal House, also directed by Landis), the film features a number of legendary musical artists who perform songs throughout the movie.  I find it crazy that they were able to assemble such legends as Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and John Lee Hooker in a comedy that has some pretty absurd moments, particularly any scene involving the police chasing our main characters, or when a mystery woman (played by Carrie Fisher a few years after Star Wars) comically tries to destroy Jake and Elwood with everything from a flamethrower to a machine gun.  It’s best to not take this one too seriously and just enjoy the absurdity, like the cops chasing the Bluesmobile around the inside of a shopping mall (“New Oldsmobiles are in early this year!”), Jake and Elwood reconnecting with their band members (leading to the classic line “We’re putting the band back together”), and the final chase sequence as they race through the streets of Chicago to repay the taxes in time (to Steven Spielberg, playing the assessor).  While I love the musical numbers (particularly Shake a Tail Feather by Ray Charles, Think by Aretha Franklin, and of course, Sweet Home Chicago by the Blues Brothers Band), the little moments and funny lines throughout the movie make me smile and remind me of friends who are cult fans of the film like me.  When I started a rewatch this week, I texted a screenshot of a scene to my good friend (and fellow diehard fan) Bill and he immediately responded back with a line from that scene.  That, my friends, is a sign of the ultimate comfort movie.

Apollo 13 (1995)

We’ve covered the serious and the absurd, let’s finish with the inspirational.  Even after 25 years, this film still brings the thrills, the suspense, and the emotion in telling the story of the fateful mission to the moon that was upended by a mechanical failure halfway through the journey.  Directed by A-lister Ron Howard, and starring Tom Hanks (coming off back to back Oscar wins for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump) as astronaut Jim Lovell, the film brilliantly blends together the story of the astronauts in peril, the team at NASA working to bring them home, and the worried families watching the crisis unfold.  Hanks plays the role with a nice combination of humor and gravity, especially when demonstrating his expertise as the veteran in the crew in making decisions.  Hanks has, of course, one of the all-time lines in film history – “Houston, we have a problem,” when the mechanical failure sends the ship into a tailspin.  Howard does a nice job of connecting the multiple viewpoints of all the parties through the constant communication between the astronauts and Mission Control.  He also makes the narrative choice of informing the audience of technical details through conversations between members of the NASA team or by showing us a news anchor describing it for the television audience.  It feels a little forced at times (for instance, you may ask yourself, “Why would that one NASA expert tell the other NASA expert that fact when he probably already knows it?”), but it helps keep the story moving. 

The film features an excellent cast with Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon joining Hanks as the astronauts on the mission, Kathleen Quinlan playing Lovell’s wife and representing the helpless feeling of family members on the ground, and Gary Sinise and Ed Harris at Mission Control.  Harris (playing Flight Director Gene Kranz) received an Academy Award nomination for his role (the film was nominated for Best Picture and eight other awards, winning two technical awards for Sound and Editing) and said one of the iconic lines in the film in leading his team to find a solution to bringing the astronauts home, “We’ve never lost an American in space, we’re sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch. Failure is not an option!”  In addition to Harris, we get an appreciation for the level of teamwork it takes to solve a monumental crisis like this.  Howard choose to demonstrate this by showing teams solve mini-crises within the broader crisis throughout the film: The filter built to address a growing level of carbon monoxide on the capsule and the building of a procedure to minimize power consumption to prepare for re-entry.  The last part of this film that is so effective for me is the score – it’s a perfect complement to both the suspenseful and emotional moments in the film.  The score was conducted by James Horner, a legend in the movie business who was nominated for ten Academy Awards during his career, winning for Titanic in 1997.

Whenever I rewatch Apollo 13, I think back to one of the best experiences I had in my professional career.  In 2012, I was lucky enough to be sent to an “experiential learning” course at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.  During the program, we were led by former NASA employees who taught us about traits of strong leaders, using the NASA program to demonstrate the themes.  We learned about the challenges in starting the Mercury and Apollo programs; we heard how the leaders wondered if they should continue the program after the Apollo 1 tragedy while we were standing in the park where there are trees planted to honor astronauts who died in service; we saw how astronauts train underwater in enormous swimming pools to simulate zero gravity; we saw rockets and space capsules up close; we saw the Mission Control team conducting a video chat with the International Space Station.  But the best experience was on the last day.  We started in a classroom at our hotel where we watched portions of the Apollo 13 film, as they discussed various leadership challenges demonstrated throughout the film.  We then took a bus over to the NASA building and went to the original Mission Control (it was retired when the new one was built).  This was the actual Mission Control where so many NASA missions were managed.  We then watched the climax of the film on the video screens at the front of Mission Control.  You want to talk about an inspirational goose bump moment?  Let me tell you, the production design in the film was EXACTLY like the real Mission Control.  This film will always hold a special place with me because of that experience I was lucky to be a part of.

This Week’s Moment of Happiness

My friend Diane pointed out that I neglected to include a moment of happiness in last week’s post, so I need to make this a good one, and fortunately, we had a nice few days in our household this week.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that we have two graduations that we are celebrating this year.  After graduating college in May, our son started his new job on Monday, and while working from home is not how we all envisioned him starting his career, we are all very proud of him and how well he is acclimating to another “new normal.”  This week also saw our daughter participate in the first step of her high school graduation, when she received her diploma and we were able to take pictures with her in her cap and gown.  The pictures of all the graduates are being compiled together in a video to be played on graduation day next week, as part of a virtual celebration.  We are still hopeful they will be able to have a more traditional ceremony this summer – we’ll see what happens.  We’re so proud of her accomplishment and especially the positive attitude she has displayed these last few months.  Her ability to “roll with it” and appreciate what she has and not lament what she doesn’t have has been wonderful to see.  The events of this week made me think of conversations I have from time to time with people when they ask me what I am doing now that I am not working.  In addition to telling them about my hobbies, I usually say that I am “enjoying life.”  Being able to spend time with my family this week was a good example of enjoying life.

Thanks again for reading and if you would like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.  I’ll be back next week to discuss my newfound appreciation for the films of Spike Lee.