But I loved the Spielberg adaptation of Alice Walker’s book and was excited to discuss it with my teacher when school started again. She insisted that I read the novel before speaking, which I did. The film showed me a different side of Spielberg and also introduced me to Alice Walker, so: double win.
1986: “The Mission”. Roland Joffe’s film about European missionaries in South America. I loved the music, the performances, and the photography, but the sentimentalization of the mission itself didn’t sit well with me. It was presented as evidence that the place and its teachings were unambiguously good for the region. This was the year when my taste for cinema deepened a bit and I also started reading newspapers for something other than the entertainment section. Even if the cinematic year was defined by the triumphalist “Top Gun,” I had seen “El Salvador,” “Section,” “Brazil,” “Blue velvet“The River’s Edge,”Something wild,” “The Mosquito Coast” And “The color of money“, all of which examined American and Western values in a more critical or in-depth way. I began to read the films from a slightly more political perspective and not automatically accept their values.
1987: “Dreamer“I had seen this one several times before. It’s still one of my favorite films. I memorized most of Nicolas Cage’s dialogue, including: “We are here to ruin ourselves, to break our hearts , love the wrong people and die. Storybooks are bullshit!”
1988: “Dead Ringers” and “The Mississippi is burning“Obviously I was in a lousy mood that year, otherwise I wouldn’t have made a back-to-back double feature about murderous gynecologist twins and an exploitation thriller about vigilante FBI agents on a crusade against the Klan who , historically speaking, That never happened. “Mississippi Burning” made me sick; almost everything about that movie seemed wrong to me. “Dead Ringers” was great, though. I was moved and I didn’t expect not to be.
1989: “Glory“I saw this one with friends. I was depressed that my girlfriend and future wife Jennifer was back home in Oklahoma with her family. The movie lifted my spirits because it was so noble and that the characters have sacrificed so much. I know it panders a little sometimes, but for a mainstream film that aims to please everyone, its visual language is reasonably sophisticated, even in throwaway moments like those shots of the Matthew Broderick’s colonel cutting watermelons with his saber.
1990 : “The Freedmen“Friends. Tenth, maybe eleventh viewing. The year “Goodfellas” was in theaters, it was the default movie to see, even though there were new releases that interested my friends and I.
