Distant Drums (1951)

An Army outfit sets out to destroy a fort where guns are being sold to the Seminole. The soldiers are chased and must enter the dangerous Everglades in order to escape the ferocious natives.

Mediocre adventure, a Western in style, although it is not set in the American West. The location shooting gives a certain amount of distinction to this film which its script alone would not be able to provide. It is faster paced than usual for the Western genre, at least in the first half. The second half slows down a little bit.

Rating: 36

O Dono da Bola (1961)

A simpleton enters a TV competition show in the hope of helping a girl he is in love with, whose father is on the verge of losing his house. The girl, however, becomes attracted to a womanizing TV producer.

A comic depiction of the early days of TV in Brazil. The humor is of an elementary kind, suitable only for undemanding viewers.

Rating: 32

Stir Crazy (1980)

Second viewing; previously viewed in 1981, or in the vicinity of that year.

Two friends from New York, one an actor and the other a writer, decide to go to Hollywood to try their luck. On the way they are framed for a bank robbery and sentenced to a long prison term. They plan an escape.

Occasionally funny, and overall watchable, comedy with good performances from the leading duo.

Rating: 45 (unchanged)

Quem Roubou Meu Samba (1959)

A composer gets in trouble after selling his song to various recording companies. There is also a private investigator who is in a relationship with a nurse.

Musical comedy which is slightly above average for Brazilian films of that genre and period, with some funny comic sketches and passable songs. The plot is also kind of interesting, with its themes of exploitation of artists by company owners, and of memory and forgetfulness. It is generally pointed out that this film borrows from Rio, Zona Norte, released in 1957. I have my doubts, though. Quem Roubou Meu Samba is based on a nightclub "show" from 1953, and the author of that work apparently provided the plot for the film. So, it is not clear who borrowed from whom.

Rating: 40

Smith! (1969)

A rancher gets involved with a Native American who is suspected of murdering a man. He also has to worry about his ranch.

Superficially, this has all the elements of a harmless family movie about inter-ethnic relations, with a positive attitude towards it. Underneath that appearance, there is a very problematic message: it implies that minorities who have been "oppressed" in the past, however distant that past is, are free to go about committing crimes. Every crime they commit would actually be an act of self defense. Well, this is obviously crazy (no society may thrive based on that principle), but it is a notion that is still present is the discourse of many leftwing activists today. In the film, this is heavily disguised by many diversions. To begin with, the individual in question is implied to be innocent, and have really acted in self defense. But that is irrelevant to his acquittal. What counts is a speech by an elderly Native American which conveys precisely the abovementioned leftwing message. Anyway, if one is willing to forgive this very evil concept, the film is watchable, though by a narrow margin.

Rating: 33

Os Cosmonautas (1962)

An incompetent vacuum cleaner salesman gets tangled with Brazil's (fictitious) space project. There is also a thief who wants to rob the space center's money vault, and an extraterrestrial female who appears and disappears at will and wants to learn how to kiss.

Sci fi spoof. The writer/director is the proficuous Victor Lima, a guarantee of mediocrity, yet also of minimal watchability. Golias is the comic here. He would always play the same type, a clumsy rustic, and abused of grimaces. No musical numbers in this one. Most of the space film clichés are revisited, including a very naïve political message of peace and good will.

Rating: 31

Spaceballs (1987)

Second viewing; first viewed on February 3, 1988.

Planet Spaceball has used up all its air and thus faces extinction. Its king plans to steal all the air from planet Druidia. He orders Spaceball's military commander Lord Helmet to kidnap the "druish" princess, who has fled her own wedding on a spaceship, accompanied by her robot escort. The king of Druidia sets up a reward for the rescue of his daughter. The challenge is taken up by a courageous space pilot and his half-man half-dog assistant.

Not as awful as I thought on my first viewing. The humor is crude, and at times the proceedings get a bit boring, but overall the film is watchable and occasionally funny. Science fiction parodies or satires are not something new. In 1971, there was a German film name Der große Verhau which was mostly a critique of 2001. In 1974, there was Dark Star, which was also more or less aimed at that 1968 movie. I do not remember much from those movies, but I think they are all part of a phenomenon which I characterize as a certain rivalry between the epic and the comic genres. The comic genre is a parasitic genre, in a way. The more it sends up the epic genre, the more it becomes dependent on it for its very existence. The epic genre may take two paths in reaction to this: either it cultivates a haughty aloofness and thus becomes, with time, its own parody, or it incorporates humor elements into its fabric. Parodies also come in two kinds. In the first one, there is a certain affectivity toward the object of its humor In the second kind, there is only the impetus of destruction. Young Frankenstein is an example of the former. Spaceballs definitely belongs to the latter.

Rating: 33 (up from 18)