By Ed Koch
Volume 74, Number 35 | January 05 – 11, 2005
koch on film
Phantom of the Opera (-)
This is one of the most tedious films I’ve sat through in a dozen years. It was Christmas Eve. My annual visit to St.Patrick’s Cathedral would bring me there at 11 p.m.to hear the great Christmas music played in the hour preceding the commencement of Midnight Mass which I have attended at least 35 times and hopefully will attend 10 more before my creator calls me home.
The Phantom of the Opera fit the bill for the evening, since the show is three hours long and started at 6 p.m. That meant dinner at 9 p.m.finishing at 10:45 p.m.with 15 minutes by car to the Cathedral and arrival at 11 p.m. Further, the music of the Phantom, we having seen the Broadway musical, simply couldn’t be bad in the movie version. Very true, but the movie script and the acting and the dialogue could be very, very bad and they were.
But that was the furthest possibility from my mind. After all, a friend and nightly interrogator on the world’s scene, Larry King, had seen the movie and given it his blessing, saying in the ad, ‘one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. As good as movies get. The music, the production–all incredible. Oscar worthy.’
Treacle, treacle, treacle. Larry, how could you? Must I now question other statements on your part? I will not because I generally like your interesting guests, millions of viewers have such great affection for you, and I personally know how nice you are. You are allowed one pass. But if you ever do such a thing again, I warn you, you will suffer. I will hunt you down and bring you to the catacombs beneath CNN’s building at Columbus Circle and allow the waters there to rise and snuff you out, as they failed to do to Christine’s lover, Raoul, who saved her, as she saved him from the Phantom, prolonging the film and my agony by at least a half-hour. The film is a hefty 2 and1/2 hours long. The music remains glorious, even if melodies are repeated over and over again. But the sets and add on material are ridiculous and ruined my memories of a great musical. Now I can only recall kitsch, whereas before it was grandeur. The voices of the three principals, Christine (Emmy Rossum), Raoul (Patrick Wilson) and the Phantom (Gerard Butler) are adequate, with Christine’s being excellent. My advice: get a tape or CD of the original show and let’s all make believe this movie never happened.
Those who paid Broadway theatre prices for their Phantom are happy to have done so, adding to their store of memories. If they also paid $10.25 for the movie version, their reaction can surely be only one of regret.
The Aviator (+)
A superb movie. Brilliantly conceived and directed by Martin Scorsese. The plot, which covers the life of Howard Hughes from the twenties to the forties, makes you feel you know this man, who was surely a genius and at the same time doomed to intermittent bouts with madness. Those who lived to see his death and recall the long uncut toenails and the reclusive life he ultimately ended with, know that intermittent episodes of madness became, so far as we the public know, total madness. Throughout the movie, Hughes shows his obsession with germs, refusing to shake hands or touch doorknobs, except on one occasion which the director must have failed to catch. But I did. See if you can as well.
Interestingly, Scorsese, the director, steals a little from the Orson Wells directed film — often referred to as the best of all films ever made, Citizen Kane, with an opening scene of Hughes’ mother bathing him, a suggestion of sexual abuse — he, then perhaps 12, — being repeated at the end of the film reminiscent of the ‘Rosebud’; reference in Citizen Kane. If ‘Rosebud’; means nothing to you, this is not the time to be instructed.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s brilliant playing Hughes and at the very end with mustache and a slick hair net looks a lot like Hughes. Hughes with his attention to detail, willingness to take on huge challenges and risk his wealth became a success in the film industry and created TWA challenging PanAmerican for the Atlantic Ocean trade. On the way he has affairs with Jean Harlow(Gwen Stefani) and one while never ending in marriage lasted for an extended period of time with Ava Gardner(Kate Beckinsale). His business nemesis was Juan Trippe(Alex Baldwin) who operated PanAmerican. Apparently, Hughes enjoyed the company of adolescent girls, or at least did on one occasion.
Hughes’ longest serious affair was with Katharine Hepburn(Cate Blanchett) until she meets Spencer Tracey.
The physical courage displayed by Hughes involving air crashes, a fire that burned 85 percent of his body and the intestinal courage to stand up to a corrupt U.S. Senator Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) in a scene reminiscent of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with Jimmy Stewart are all remarkable and gripping.
Every one of the principal actors performs superbly. Jude Law does a tiny cameo in the part of Errol Flynn. He is the least impressive, but does manage to look like Flynn.
The movie concludes before the end of Hughes’ life. But it is a wonderful ride.
– Ed Koch
