Movies Seen Recently: The Dirty Dozen, Amadeus: The Director’s Cut, Man in the Moon

The Dirty Dozen (1967) – They’re rough! They’re tough! (Except Donald Sutherland.) They’re filthy!  This movie set the standard of the “unorthodox fighting force” war movies for decades to come.  I watched it with my thirteen-year-old daughter, who stayed through the entire running time and when it was done, said, “That was a very good movie.” Pro Tip: Station the woman-hating zealot murderer outside the chalet where he might encounter a female and go all apeshit, okay?

Amadeus (1984) – This is the first time I had seen the extended “director’s cut” with an extra twenty minutes of footage… and I don’t like it.  I think that restoring the plotline of Salieri attempting to seduce Stanzi, especially where it lies in the storyline, dilutes the impact of Salieri’s utter rapture at Mozart’s talent leading directly to his vow against God.  Likewise, the two scenes in the subplot of Mozart teaching the family with the unruly dogs, while amusing, are more distracting than they’re worth.  All in all, the theatrical cut is my preferred version.

The Man in the Moon (2013) – Didactic, sometimes ham-handed, and definitely not the “new art-form” that producer Glenn Beck announces it to be at the start.  But this taped stage performance, combining filmed segments, acrobatics, pyrotechnics, and a Georges Méliès-inspired Man in the Moon dominating the stage, is certainly interesting.  I don’t know how comfortable I can ever be with a summary of human history that skips from Noah’s ark and the tower of Babel directly to Abraham Lincoln (!), but the final speech of the Man in the Moon to humanity at large is certainly worth listening to multiple times.