Month: November 1999

Based on the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha (which debuted on the cable network Showtime on Thanksgiving Day and is also available on video) is a likable introduction to Native American history and legend. Some of its young, mostly Native American cast are a bit too modern in their demeanor and the delivery of their dialogue for this to be taken as a serious historical film, but Song is respectful — almost reverential — in its presentation of Native American religious beliefs and cultural attitudes, which isn’t something seen onscreen often enough.

This is not your father’s Civil War movie. It’s more like your father’s Vietnam movie. Morally complicated and frequently disquieting, Ride with the Devil is an intelligent and moving reexamination of the Civil War from the point of view of cultural Southerners living on the western frontier of the United States.

Sleepy Hollow is only loosely based on Washington Irving’s famous tale, but the liberties that Burton and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker take serve to make the story more than a simple and effective spookfest, exposing fears and anxieties we — and, in particular, men — still share in common with our counterparts two hundred years ago.

Already an historical document, capturing the brief, heady time during which this new medium was charted and explored by online pioneers. But that was incidental to Block’s overt intention, which was to look at how the Web has altered and continues to alter the art of human interaction. The result is fascinating, funny, and often disturbing.

Imagine these two young Xers, Aleksandar Popovski and Darko Mitrevski. They grew up in Macedonia, but it could have been anywhere. They read a lot of comic books as kids, I’m sure, and watched a lot of science fiction movies. And. I imagine, one day they said to each other, Hey, we could do that. And the result is Goodbye, 20th Century!

For while Dogma is without doubt critical of organized religions — and the Catholic Church in particular — it is also one of the most religious movies ever made, a psalm to faith imbued with a wonder and awe of God and all of God’s creation… if you believe in that kind of thing. And even if you don’t, Smith’s own deep belief (he is a practicing Catholic), overflowing from the screen, is more than enough to sweep you in and keep you enthralled for a couple hours.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc isn’t really bad, but, alas, it isn’t really good either. It desperately wants to be a French Braveheart, but director Luc Besson is no Mel Gibson. And neither is star Milla Jovovich.