Oct 30th  
Toy Story**  
(US 1995)                           

Two rival house toys for a boy's affections have a battle to get back home when they fall into the hands of a mischievous neighbour.
The first of the Pixar animated features - as influential and as troubled to make, in its way, as was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was for traditional animation. It led to a whole slew of wisecracking American films of this kind, not all of which are quite so thoughtfully and intelligently scripted as this one, and while the computer animation lacks the charm and the beauty of hand drawn cartoons, it is commendably tightly paced and sticks to the old fashioned principle of entertaining its audience.

Written by: Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolov.
Producers: Ralph Guggenheim, Bonnie Arnold.
Director: John Lassiter.
Voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen (as Buzz Lightyear), Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shaw, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts.
Music/Songs: Randy Newman.

+ BUZZ LIGHTYEAR: "To infinity, and beyond!"

Oct 23rd   
The Thin Red Line*  
(US/Australia 1998)                         

Experiences of American soldiers in and around the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II.
Sprawling ecological war epic with a who's-who of American actors in the all-star cast (some of whom are cut - see below) in reverence to their director, who stages a rough, tough novel about combat soldiers his own way within the context of nature itself. The result is beautiful to look at and listen to, but not quite as baffling as Malick's later work.

Written and Directed by: Terrence Malick, based on the novel by James Jones.
Producers: Robert Michael Geisler, Grant Hill, John Roberdown.
Starring (in no particular order): Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Ben Chaplin, Nick Nolte, John Travolta, Elias Koteas, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, Adrien Brody, John Cusack, John C. Reilly, John Savage, George Clooney, Miranda Otto.
Photography: John Toll.
Music: Hans Zimmer.
Editing: Billy Weber.

+ the original first draft cut ran 5 hours. Among those notables on the cutting room floor: Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen, Jason Patric, Bill Pullman, Mickey Rourke, Martin Sheen (narrator) and Billy Bob Thornton

++ previously adapted into a film in 1964

Oct 16th
(Odeon Colchester)  
They Shall Not Grow Old** (15)   
(GB/New Zealand 2018)               

Documentary reminiscinces of several former British soldiers on the Western Front, focusing on th general trench experience without any reference to the history of WWI itself, but remains refreshingly objective to its period and the semi-colourisation with added dialogue to the soldiers' mouths creates an immediacy which is often touching, and the imagery shows many of the visual influences that the director used throughout his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Director: Peter Jackson.
Music: Plan 9.

+ screened simultaneously with the London Film Festival

Peter Jackson's grandfather, Sgt. William Jackson, who served in WWI and to whom the film is partly dedicated

Oct 13th
(Pictureville Bradford)
How the West was Won* (U)     
(US 1962)

The story of the Wild West in segments, taken from the early settlers until the time of the first railroad from East to West.
Breathtaking if pretentious epic Western showcase for Cinerama in drama format; a little more intimacy would have helped, and some of the star cameos are wasted, but the skill of its directors keeps the pace acceptable instead of funereal.

Written by: James R. Webb.
Producer: Bernard Smith.
Directors: Henry Hathaway, John Ford, George Marshall.
Starring: Debbie Reynolds, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, Karl Malden, Agnes Moorehead, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Carolyn Jones, Robert Preston, Russ Tamblyn, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Walter Brennan, Henry Morgan, John Wayne, Massey (as Lincoln), and others.
Narrator: Spencer Tracy.
Photography: William Daniels, Milton Krasner, Charles Lang Jnr, Joseph La Shelle.
Music: Alfred Newman.
Make-up: William Tuttle.

+ see also This is Cinerama (1952)

Oct 12th 
(Cineworld Bradford) 
First Man* (12A)

(US 2018)                                                       

Neil Armstrong goes to the Moon to help himself get over the loss of his young daughter.
Well acted and visually poetic, although rather too dependent on hand-held camera, this subjective view of one of history's greatest astronauts doesn't quite do justice to the real Neil Armstrong's greatest strength, his objective pragmatism - making the landing on the Moon less of a world event than a moment of quiet introspection.

Written by: Josh Singer, based on the book by James R. Hansen.
Producers: Wek Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, Damien Chazelle.
Director: Damien Chazelle.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Patrick Fugit, Jason Clarke, Ciaran Hinds, Lukas Haas.
Photography: Linus Sandgren.
Music: Justin Hurwitz.

Oct 8th   
Rain Man**   
(US 1988)                           

A car dealer discovers after his estranged father dies, that he has an autistic elder brother whom he abducts to try and get his half of the inheritance.
Slick if slightly superficial study of autism which serve as the incidental plot element to essentially a road movie with two quirkily matched stars, and an ostentatious performance by Hoffman, strong enough to win him the Oscar. It threatens to turn sentimental but never really manages it, which in this case is perhaps a shame, as the characters remain as polarized by the end as they were at the beginning.

Written by: Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow.
Producer: Mark Gordon.
Director: Barry Levinson.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen, Lucinda Jenney, Barry Levinson.
Photography: John Seale.
Music: Hans Zimmer.

Oct 6th  
Rattle of a Simple Man*  
(GB 1964)                           

A Manchester football fan returning from the Cup final is dared on a bet to spend the night with a classy looking prostitute, and the two learn some things about each other.
An endearing but essentially one theme play about a tart with a heart educating a simpleton is stretched out to feature length without really going anywhere, but with an interesting array of talents for the time, with just occasional hints of darker tones in progressively permissive 1960s.

Written by: Charles Dyer, from his play.
Producer: William Gell
Director: Muriel Box.
Starring: Harry H. Corbett, Diane Cilento, Michael Medwin, Brian Wilde, Carole Gray, Thora Hird.
Photography: Reg Wyer.
Music: Stanley Black.