H

Our cinematic journey through the alphabet continues. There sure were a lot of H films on my list. 26 to be exact. (Compared to only three films that started with the letter G.)

Great:

• Hearts and Minds — Amazing documentary about the US war on Vietnam.
• The Hidden Fortress — B&W Kurosawa samauri adventure from 1958.
• High and Low — B&W Kurosawa noir from 1963.
• How Green Was My Valley — Old school melodrama from John Ford.

Good:

• Hard Times — I’m not into Charles Bronson or James Coburn but this movie, set in New Orleans, was surprisingly good.
• The Heartbreak Kid — Charles Grodin does Neil Simon.
• Heart of Glass — Bizarre. Herzog hypnotized his actors for this one. If you only watch it once, turn on subtitles and play the commentary track.
• A High Wind in Jamaica — James Coburn again. He grates on my nerves, but this was fun.
• House of Sand and Fog — Good and depressing.
• Harvey — Really good; seems like it should have been great; why wasn’t it?
• Hud — Stark and sad.
• Hero — Epic historical martial arts fantasy. Visually dazzling.
• Hope & Glory — The Blitz from a kid’s perspective.
• The Hours — I’m not sure I really understood half of what was going on here.
• Huey Long — Documentary by Ken Burns. I didn’t really know Jack about Huey. Seems he almost became an American dictator.

Mixed bag — I enjoyed these pretty much, but with some reservations:

• Hamlet — The 1948 Olivier version.
• Happy Accidents — Romantic comedy with a science fiction twist.
• Heavy Traffic — Bakshi animation.
• Hidden Agenda — Political intrigue in Northern Ireland.
• Holes — If I was a kid, or if I had a kid, maybe I would have liked this more.
• The Homecoming — Oddly compelling. Or was it just odd?
• The Hospital — Great Scott!
• Hoosiers — I wouldn’t have liked this as much if I hadn’t lived most of my life in Indiana. Hell, I would never have even watched it in the first place.

Not so good:

• A Hard Day’s Night — I like the Beatles, but not enough to enjoy this film
• Houseboat — Silly and boring.

Downright awful:

• Hercules in New York — Arnold as demigod. Falls into the “so bad it’s good” category.

Didn’t actually watch:

• Hiroshima Mon Amour — Sent it back to Netflix after keeping it for a few weeks. I just couldn’t get in the mood to watch this film.

So now we’re gearing up for the letter I, which should be Interesting. The Iceman Cometh is four hours long, and I, Claudius is almost eleven hours…