Synopsis
John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) – a 5 feet tall motorcycle patrol officer somewhere in the vicinity of Monument Valley in Arizona – begins the day pestering his captain for a transfer to homicide. His imbecile partner Zipper (Billy “Green” Bush) feels they have a good life riding motorcycles for a living, but Wintergreen dreams of “that brown suit, that Stetson hat and four wheels under me instead of two.” Zipper harasses a hippie they pull over, but Wintergreen is fair-minded and honestly wants to help people.

He gets his chance when the patrolmen come across a desert rat (Elisha Cook Jr.) babbling about his best friend killing himself. Responding to the scene of the crime, Wintergreen finds it odd that the deceased supposedly shot himself in the chest. A coroner (Royal Dano) doesn’t want to hear Wintergreen’s amateur theories, but homicide detective Harve Poole (Mitchell Ryan) commends the officer. “Incompetence is the worst form of corruption. Glad there’s someone around here who understands that.”

Poole recruits Wintergreen to serve as his driver. The patrolman is so by-the-book that while searching a commune for their suspect, Wintergreen politely accepts everyone’s word that they don’t know anything. Poole is eager to transform his diminutive protégé into the best damn detective in Arizona, but when he discovers the local bartender (Jeannine Riley) he’s smitten with has slept with Wintergreen, their working relationship goes south. Meanwhile, Wintergreen develops his own idea of who their killer is.

Production history 
James William Guercio was a session player and songwriter who ascended to stellar success in 1968 when he offered to manage and produce a band he renamed The Chicago Transit Authority, soon shortened to Chicago. The president of United Artists – David Picker – called Guercio and asked him if he’d like to make a film. Guercio was interested, and responded to a script by Rupert Hitzig and Robert Boris based on the story of a motorcycle policeman who’d been shot and killed in Phoenix.

Guercio was introduced to Conrad Hall, the cinematographer who’d just won an Academy Award for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Hall offered to set up interviews for a cameraman. With a budget of only $1 million and a single camera, Guercio planned on shooting the film non-union, loading up two stationwagons with equipment and driving to Monument Valley. Hall was intrigued enough to offer himself for the job. Guercio forfeited his entire director’s salary so he could afford to pay the renowned cinematographer.

Hall – who’d also lit In Cold Blood – had a repertoire of breaking the rules. This included overexposing film to get rid of saturation and take out as much color as he could. Guercio – on the other hand – saw his film as a western. Deep blue skies and bright vistas were exactly what he had in mind. He gave Hall the freedom to light the interiors any way he wanted, but insisted the exteriors look like John Ford. Hall relented and enjoyed a good working relationship with the first-time director.

United Artists was enthusiastic about their 27-year-old wunderkind, trumpeting Guercio’s cinematic arrival in the summer of ‘73. Posters read: “An American Movie by a New Director. James William Guercio.” But when the film played the Cannes Film Festival, it was serenaded with boos and deemed fascist. Critics denounced it as “slick and exploitative.” 20 years later, Janet Maslin referred to Electra Glide In Blue as “the most overpromoted and widely reviled film of the 1970s.” Guercio never directed again.

Opinion 
Even if Electra Glide In Blue were not any good, the fact that it was made at all would be worthy of serious study. The manager of the rock/pop group Chicago is given $1 million to direct a movie, which – while civil protests still raged across the U.S. – asked audiences to sympathize with police officers. If that’s not counter programming, I don’t know what is. While not necessarily a great film, it was way, way ahead of its time, and has a lot in it to recommend.

While even Guercio admits the story was “a boring little mystery,” Robert Blake is terrific in it, playing a little guy who sticks to his moral code no matter how silly it makes him look. The scenes of his character ritualistically donning his work uniform cut glass, while Conrad Hall’s lighting is some of the most evocative of his career. Guercio indulges himself a bit too extravagantly with the musical score and a 6-minute long tracking shot that ends the movie, but does have something to say about morality that still resonates today.

Frank Showalter at Frank’s Movie Log writes, “Electra Glide in Blue is a surprisingly good movie. Watching it, you’d never suspect that it was director James William Guercio’s first movie. From the opening shot to the final frame Guercio shows a lot of style. While the credit for much of probably goes to cinematographer Conrad Hall … If you’re a fan of Peckinpah, be sure and check it out.”

“Politically this is a hard film to call, being neither pro-cop nor pro-hippie, and stylistically it’s a mixture of traditional classicism and what was then cutting-edge technique. But as a fascinating one-off of its period, Electra Glide in Blue is well worth seeing,” writes Gary Couzens at DVD Times.

Mike Lorefice at Raging Bull Movie Reviews writes, “Whatever you think of Blake as a person, there’s no arguing he could be a very sincere and human actor. He does things real people do in times of turmoil; he thinks, hesitates, and then takes some action knowing it won’t be well received but doing so anyway because the option of looking on in silence isn’t acceptable.”

“This country is undergoing a precisely formulated conspiracy of police genocide.” View the dynamite 1973 theatrical trailer for Electra Glide In Blue.

© Joe Valdez

Synopsis
Retired master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) spends Sunday laboring in the kitchen, preparing a restaurant-sized meal for his daughters. Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is a high school teacher who has devoted her life to Jesus Christ since her college boyfriend broke up with her years ago. Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) is a busy corporate executive who indulges in some afternoon sex with an ex-boyfriend. The youngest – Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) – works at Wendy’s.

The women live with their father in Taipei, but Jia-Chien announces that she’s put a deposit on a condo and is moving out. Before Chu can react, he departs to rescue his former employer from a banquet party disaster. He confides to his friend Old Wen (Jui Wang) that he wishes all his daughters would move out so that he could lead a quiet life. They believe their father has remained a widower out of obligation to them, oblivious to his feelings for Jin-Rong (Sylvia Chang), a young single mother and friend of the family.

Chu’s daughters are even more repressed when it comes to love than he is. Jia-Chien is attracted to a hotshot negotiator (Winston Chao) at work and debates taking a promotion that would send her to Amsterdam. Jia-Jen becomes fixated on a men’s volleyball coach and soon begins receiving anonymous love letters at school. Jia-Ning develops feelings for the on-again/off-again boyfriend of one of her fast food co-workers.

As her platonic relationship with the negotiator deepens, Jia-Chien reveals that her dream was to become a master chef like her father. She resents him sending her to college instead. The only means of communication between father and daughter is food. Chu makes an impression on Jin-Rong’s daughter by taking her gourmet meals to school each day, while her grandmother (Ah Lei Gua) zeroes in on the widower romantically, unaware of whom he truly loves.

Production history 
After the international success of The Wedding Banquet, director Ang Lee was suddenly in demand by Hollywood. Ang preferred to establish himself as a Chinese filmmaker and accepted an invitation to shoot his next project in Taiwan instead. He’d developed a script with Hui-Ling Wang titled Eat Drink Man Woman, which would again focus on a classical Chinese father – again played by Sihung Lung – who is gradually brought out of his shell by changes in family values.

As with his previous film, Ang turned to associate producer and co-writer James Schamus to rewrite the script. Schamus had never been to Taipei and went to the library to bone up on his Chinese culture. Ang was not happy with the rewrites, which seemed artificial to him. Schamus responded by giving the characters Jewish names and rewriting the script as if it was a big Jewish family. Schamus changed the names back and when Ang read the script, the director responded that it finally sounded like a Chinese family.

In addition to a $1.5 million budget – twice that of The Wedding Banquet – Ang also had the luxury of shooting in a country without union regulations. Without the pressure of a tight schedule, the film was shot over a relaxed 60-day period. With much more time to think about the film, the result was by far the most refined work of Ang’s young career. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and became a crossover hit at the U.S. box office.

Opinion 
If there were an award for Greatest Food Movie of All Time, Eat Drink Man Woman would be one of the nominees. This would have been a good film with its culinary delights alone – five chefs were employed by the production – but what makes it great is how food is used as a substitute for a father unable to express feelings to his daughters any other way. The result is a work of sensuality and wit that avoids becoming a junk food course, or pandering down to the clichés of your typical drama/comedy.

The script has the density of a novel in the way each character is given a secret inner life separate from their family. Like a novel, it also has the tendency to run on, but the film is exceptionally well cast. Sihung Lung is remarkable as the repressed chef, while Chien-Lien Wu has tremendous verve as his middle – and perhaps favorite – daughter. Nearly every scene resonates with so much life. Remade in 2001 as Tortilla Soup, shifting the family to a Mexican American one and starring Hector Elizondo as the patriarch.

Joe Shieh at KFC Cinema writes, “Perhaps the biggest forte of this film is Ang Lee’s ability to take his camera and capture the beauty of Taiwan. He shows us the streets of Taiwan, the kitchens of Taiwan, the apartments of Taiwan, the countrysides of Taiwan, and so much more. Being from Taiwan myself, the scenery gave me a fresh taste of something I had seen so many times in my life, yet it was served to me with such delicacy, it was like a new experience.”

“Even if it weren’t a good movie, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman would still be a mouth-watering advertisement for Chinese food: The only way this film won’t make you hungry is if you’ve gorged yourself on dim sum before you pop it in the DVD player,” writes Betsy Bozdech at The DVD Journal.

Edwin Jahiel at Movie Reviews by Edwin Jahiel writes, “Much of the story is like a soap opera, or should I say a soup opera. But unlike soaps or melodramas, it has a rather charming aloofness, a kind of delicate attitude that seems to mistrust Hollywoodian or European histrionics and emoting. With discreet humor and no traces of fanfare or grandiloquence, the film conveys beautifully the difficulties of being oneself and of being part of a family.”

“Hello? Have you eaten? Not yet?” View the opening credits sequence for Eat Drink Man Woman, one of the best adverts for Chinese cuisine ever made.

© Joe Valdez

Synopsis
“When will you marry?” The words of Mrs. Gao (Ah Lei Gua) play as her son in America – Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) – exercises and listens to her messages on cassette tape. Mrs. Gao announces that she’s enrolled him in a Taipei singles club, and to expect a form in the mail for him to describe his perfect woman. Wai is a workaholic Yuppie in Manhattan who unknown to his parents, lives with his American boyfriend, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein).

Wai’s capital is tied up in a rundown building he owns. One of his tenants – a destitute painter named Wei-Wei (May Chin) – lives in a storage space. Wei-Wei is convinced she’ll be caught by Immigration and returned to China soon. Wai permits her to pay her rent with her artwork, but resists her amorous advances. Simon proposes a way for Wai to resolve the tension with his parents and for Wei-Wei to stay in the U.S.

Wai’s parents arrive in New York for their son’s wedding to Wei-Wei. Father (Sihung Lung) is a retired army general whose only wish is to have Wai produce a grandson. Simon is passed off as Wai’s landlord and attempts to instill some domesticity in Wei-Wei. Wai hopes to satisfy his parents and get them on a plane back to Taiwan. He refuses to allow them to throw a wedding banquet and instead, forces them to suffer the indignity of a civil ceremony at City Hall.

Dining out, Mr. Gao is recognized by his former driver, Chen (Tien Pien). Chen owns the restaurant, and is insulted that a man as respected as his former commander should suffer a wedding dinner so puny. Chen throws a grand banquet, inviting some 200 guests and sponsoring revelry into the night. Wai has so much to drink that he is unable to resist Wei-Wei’s advances in the honeymoon suite. This strains Wai’s relationship with Simon, and threatens to expose his lie to his parents before they can return to Taiwan.

Production history 
Ang Lee came to NYU from Taiwan to study filmmaking. His thesis short film Fine Line won major recognition and upon graduation in 1984, Ang assumed he would immediately begin making Chinese language films. A friend named Neil Peng knew someone who lived a double life with an American lover. When his parents visited, he would rearrange the house and pretend the boyfriend was his landlord. Ang felt that this was the first half of a movie, and wrote a script with Peng titled The Wedding Banquet.

Unable to obtain financing in the U.S. because the script was in Chinese, rejected in Taiwan because of its gay subject matter, the project languished. In 1989, Ang discovered a script competition sponsored by the Taiwanese government. He came up with a script about a retired tai-chi master titled Pushing Hands. It won 1st place. Accepting his award in Taiwan, Ang was approached by Central Motion Pictures, which put up the money for him to make it his debut feature film.

Though it did not fare well outside of Asia, Pushing Hands was such a hit in Taiwan that the studio requested a follow up. Producers James Schamus and Ted Hope had formed a company called Good Machine, catering to “no budget” filmmakers in New York. They wanted to work with Ang, but Schamus felt The Wedding Banquet needed work for it to cross over in the west. After Schamus helped with a rewrite, the picture was a major critical and commercial success, becoming the highest grossing movie ever in Taiwan.

Opinion 
The film was refreshingly original in its day and helped establish Ang Lee in Hollywood, but 15 years has not been kind to The Wedding Banquet, a noble effort that unfortunately is riddled with amateurism on almost every front. Script, casting, music and camerawork all come across as constricted. While this was a low budget movie, it only seems like a quarter of its $1 million financing really got on the screen.

While The Wedding Banquet has emotions that at times feel real – like Mrs. Gao breaking down over the indignity of her son’s City Hall marriage – the script is built around conceits that never amount to anything more than plot points. With the exception of Sihung Ling and Ah Lei Gua – who are terrific as the parents – the casting is weak. And Ang doesn’t seem comfortable behind the camera. Even the big wedding banquet sequence feels bottled up and stiff.

James Berardinelli at reelviews writes, “There is enough depth in this picture to fill up several movies, yet The Wedding Banquet shortchanges none of its interwoven storylines. While I won’t go so far as to say that this is a magical motion picture, it certainly serves as excellent entertainment on more than one level.”

© Joe Valdez

Synopsis
“I came to America in 1914, by way of Philadelphia. That’s where I got off the boat. And then I came to Baltimore. It was the most beautiful place you have ever seen in your life.” This begins the oft-repeated story Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl) tells to his grandchildren. Sam’s remembrances include entering the wallpaper business with his four brothers. Presiding over Thanksgiving dinner, Sam debates his brother Gabriel (Lou Jacobi) over which year it was that they brought their father to America.

Sam’s son Jules (Aidan Quinn) is a door-to-door salesman. His cousin Izzy (Kevin Pollak) promises him that with all the money out there after the war, the time is right to go into business. His wife Ann (Elizabeth Perkins) is tentative, but when a mugger stabs Jules on his rounds – while his young son Michael (Elijah Wood) watches – the men open a discount appliance store. Their main inventory is a new fad called television. The business is a huge moneymaker.

Success prompts Jules to move his immediate family to the suburbs, severing them from the larger family network. Sam’s wife Eva (Joan Plowright) – who refuses to ride in a car if her daughter-in-law is driving – chides Ann so much that the grandparents are moved into a separate house. This distresses Michael. The boy’s love for cliffhangers has developed into a habit of playing with fire, and he blames himself for a blaze that erupts at his father’s store. Michael confides this to his grandfather, who urges the boy to tell the truth.

Production history
After winning an Academy Award for directing Rain Man, writer-director Barry Levinson turned to an idea that had been nagging him since he’d shot his debut film Diner. One line of dialogue had gotten into his head and stayed there: “If I knew things would no longer be, I would have remembered them better.” Levinson had grown up in a middle class Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore of the 1950s, with grandparents and other relatives living only a street away. His father was in the discount appliance business.

It occurred to Levinson that his sense of family began to change once the role of storyteller shifted from the head of the family to a television set. “Television has had an enormous impact. It permeates our lives, it changes how we function, it affects how we relate to one another. Really, it takes over everything.” Out of his mourning for the dissolution of the traditional family – and stories his grandfather passed down to him – Levinson began writing a script called The Family.

Changes in transportation and the growth of the suburbs also found their way into the script, which Levinson wanted to reflect the immigrant experience he had seen growing up, a Baltimore story as opposed to a New York one. Retitled Avalon, the film was released in October 1990 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. It garnered four Academy Award nominations – including Best Writing and Best Cinematography – but its lack of marquee actors left it largely ignored by audiences at the time.

The disconnect with audiences may have also been due to the fact that – like Diner – Levinson’s script unfolds as an album of memories, impressions and conversations, which taken on their own, seem pointless. A family circle meeting is interrupted by a circus parade. A street car smashes into Ann’s parked car, somehow validating her mother-in-law’s fear of women drivers. Gabriel disowns Sam when his brother cuts the Thanksgiving turkey before he arrives for dinner. These are really the major “events” of the film.

Opinion
Barry Levinson has made as many poor movies (Toys, Disclosure, Envy) as good ones (Good Morning Vietnam, Bugsy, Wag the Dog), but this film is the jewel of his career. On any list of the greatest movies about family ever made, Avalon is near the top. The Krichinskys are probably Polish, likely Jewish, but unlike most immigrants tales, where they come from makes absolutely no difference. This is a film about tradition, and what regrettably happens when families abandon their most neglected tradition: storytelling.

The characters may not seem to be the most complex – captured a bit here, a bit there – but the casting is exceptional, particularly Armin Mueller-Stahl as the family’s imaginative patriarch. The vibrant lighting by Allen Daviau and the melancholy musical score by Randy Newman culminate in career finest work. Levinson is never the least bit condescending toward the audience in his tragic portrait, filling Avalon with so many small rewards that it may take additional viewings to absorb how masterful the film truly is.

Gregory Dorr at The DVD Journal writes, “Despite its modest scale, Avalon is a sweeping, though intimate, epic. As the film patiently moves through its careful narrative, the Krichinsky family is so vividly realized that it becomes extended family to the audience, where every good time, conflict, and heartbreak feels wrenchingly personal.”

“Avalon charts in a realistic way the forces that have irreparably affected that nuclear unit of the past, but it doesn’t stop there. The emotional undertow of the film goes straight to the heart with its touching depictions of suburban childhood, marital phases, family feuds, and the delights of grandparenting,” writes Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat at Spirituality and Practice.

Scott Mignola at Common Sense Media says, “Watching Avalon is a little bit like sitting down to a big supper with an entire family: aunts, uncles, grandparents, kids running around, kicking each other under the table. You come away from it exhausted, bruised, but hopefully enriched by a good meal and a few generation’s worth of stories.”

© Joe Valdez