No Country for Old Men – I actually enjoyed this movie. I wasn’t expecting to; I had chanced across the gas station coin scene years ago and said, “This is not for me.” I liked the subtlety of the ending, thank you Coen brothers for that choice. And for every bad person there were three good people. I liked that too.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – What I found most interesting about this movie is the IMDB page. The book was narrated by the chief? Fascinating. And they cut that out? No wonder the author won’t watch it. Also, the behind-the-scenes story is incredible. One person diagnosed with leukemia mid-filming, early dramatic roles for two comedic actors from Taxi, Michael Douglas made bank, another person legitimately had a meltdown (two if you count Louise Fletcher, who evidently wanted to make a point that her character wasn’t her, so she took off most of her clothes for cast and crew).
All the Kings’s Men – I have recently had enough corrupt populist politicians to last me a lifetime. This movie did make me look up Huey Long, who seems like a piker in view of recent history. I never would have guessed I would agree with John Wayne about anything, but he rejected the script with the complaint that everyone was evil. Of course, that’s the point, and probably the reason why the book won the Pulitzer Prize, but really you just hate everyone at the end.