Ivanhoe (1952)

In the interest of narrowing my many choices, I usually avoid movies with IMDb overall ratings less than 7, barring unusual circumstances like a vacation. Adaptations from classic literature are an exception. This version seemed like the best way to get the gist of the story in less than 2 hours, tho I read up on key divergences. Besides, it did well at the box office and garnered some Academy Award nominations.

In 1194, Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) has discovered that the missing King Richard (aptly named Norman Wooland) is being held for ransom. Rather than taking the prison by storm, Ivanhoe runs around seeking money from people who prefer him to regent Prince John (Guy Rolfe). During this endeavor, he re-encounters his crush, Rowena (Joan Fontaine), and two John-aligned nemeses from the Crusades, Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders) and de Bracy (Robert Douglas). In surprisingly large roles, both financially and plotwise, are a pair of Jews: patriarch Isaac (Felix Aylmer) and his daughter, Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor, no relation to Robert), the latter earning the jealous eye of Rowena and the lustful eye of Bois-Guilbert.

Time Bandits (1981)

I mentioned that I would see another consecutive movie about a boy. Thankfully, it's quite different. In fact, despite the PG rating, I hesitate to count it as a family flick. IMDb doesn't. (Non-American studios, I find, are more likely to have kid-unfriendly stories starring kids.)

Kevin, 11, suffers from parents uninterested in his interest in history. One night, his bedroom is accidentally invaded by six time-traveling dwarves. They're interested in history, of course, but not for the same reason: They want to steal the riches of the past. Despite his disapproval of that plan, Kevin tags along, with nary a language barrier. He learns that they've worked for the Supreme Being himself on maintenance of the space-time continuum, and since they swiped his temporal map, they have to keep moving. (They've been around for eons but seem as vulnerable as humans.) Little do they realize that the scarier threat is from Evil himself, looking to grab the map for his own ends.

Little Fugitive (1953)

Think I've seen enough movies about boys for the month? Well, it hadn't occurred to me that I should rearrange my queue to put off another. The next one on the way counts, too. But only this one stars a kid in his single digits.

With their mom making a sudden visit to an ailing grandma, 12-year-old Lennie is assigned to look after 7-year-old brother Joey for about 24 hours. Lennie resents it, so his rather nasty friends talk him into a trick that makes Joey believe he accidentally killed Lennie. Joey runs off to the not-too-distant Coney Island, and Lennie starts to worry that he won't return before Mom does.

Each Dawn I Die (1939)

Oh look, James Cagney in prison. Sound familiar? Well, despite what you'd expect, he's innocent of the major charges this time. The setup reminds me pretty strongly of Alfred Hitchcock. No wonder I put it on my queue.

Frank Ross (Cagney) is a muckraker who hits a nerve when investigating a candidate for governor (Victor Jory, state unstated). Soon he gets framed for a lethal DUI and has inadequate legal counsel. In prison, he makes an unlikely ally of infamous lifer "Hood" Stacey (George Raft). After Ross passes up an opportunity to rat on Stacey, the latter makes a tempting offer: do rat on him and thus give him the chance to escape from the courtroom with some outside help; in return, Stacey would use his connections to track down Ross's framers.

Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015)

I had seen Toshirō Mifune in a dozen films, only one of them not directed by Akira Kurosawa. Even when he's not the main character, he has a habit of capturing our attention. So I accepted the Meetup invitation to a documentary about him, tho my dad declined.

Actually, this isn't entirely about Mifune. Before getting into even his parentage and infancy (with cute photos care of his professional photographer dad), the doc presents the earliest history of motion pictures in Japan, with a focus on silent, Noh-inspired samurai shorts. I'm somewhat impressed that clips survive in any capacity. Late in the doc, we learn a little about the career of Kurosawa in the absence of Mifune.

The Black Stallion (1979)

This is one of those titles I heard of as a kid but never got the initiative to check out. I couldn't have told you any difference between it and Black Beauty. Well, despite the recency of my last viewing based on a kid's book, I didn't wait any longer.

My sources don't say when and where it takes place, but from the book, I'm guessing the early '40s, starting on a ship departing North Africa and ending somewhere in the US. Alec, who's about 13, becomes a castaway along with an untamed Arabian horse who had been roped up on the ship. After they've done each other several good turns, Alec gets the stallion, whom he uncreatively dubs "the Black," to be more docile toward him. Upon rescue (much sooner than I predicted), Alec demands to take the Black with him. But life behind a suburban fence doesn't suit the Black....

Cry Freedom (1987)

I've learned that there was a streak of anti-apartheid features in the years shortly before apartheid ended. The only one I had watched before, in high school, was A Dry White Season, which pulled no punches. This time, I thought I'd check out one about Steve Biko, whom I knew only to be treated as a martyr.

Like many films about race relations (e.g., The Blind Side), it doesn't actually give the most screen time to the main Black guy. The protagonist here is Donald Woods (Kevin Kline), '70s editor of a left-leaning newspaper who nevertheless starts in opposition to Biko (Denzel Washington in his first Oscar-nominated role), whom he sees as something like Malcolm X (how appropriate for Washington). When challenged to meet Biko, he learns that the man is more like MLK. Woods lends his support despite threats to his family.

Dunkirk (2017)

Wow, Christopher Nolan writes, directs, and co-produces the depiction of a real event for a change. Well, to a point. The individual characters involved are fictitious. But given his usual penchant for sci-fi and mindscrew mystery, it was bound to be unusually realistic for him. Perhaps he wants more of a shot at the next Academy Awards than he had with Inception.

Unlike any other war film I've seen, this one divides itself into three perspectives corresponding roughly to land (designated "The Mole," an architectural term I didn't know), sea, and air. On land, in the course of a week, Allied soldiers at Dunkirk are in the process of retreating, but German forces don't make it easy with all the ship bombing. At sea, in the course of a day, Captain Dawson (Mark Rylance) takes his yacht to join the rescue effort with his young adult son, along with an unexpected rash teenage assistant. They soon pick up a lone survivor of a bombed ship (Nolan mainstay Cillian Murphy), who exhibits PTSD and reeeeally doesn't want to return to Dunkirk. In the air, in the course of an hour, three members of the Royal Air Force (one of them played by Tom Hardy) face off with German fighters in the vicinity.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

It is a testament to my ongoing youthfulness that I watched yet another superhero movie in a theater this summer. I watched alone, because I figured my dad would choose to sit this one out. Heck, it's more obviously juvenile than most, given that Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a high school sophomore, which no doubt inspired the title. (If you think he should relinquish the "-Man" part, might I point out that he's older than 13 and one of his creators is Jewish.)

Most of the film takes place a few months after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Despite his key part in the biggest battle therein, and despite resources and kudos from Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Spidey has yet to be regarded as a full-fledged Avenger. He sends regular reports to Stark's unfriendly aide Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), hoping to get an assignment rather than deal with the usual petty criminals of New York City, even tho he's still a bit clumsy in handling those. Things finally get interesting for him when he meets some robbers with exotic equipment, but not interesting enough for Avenger backup. Is it wise to hunt down the source of this equipment by himself, against Stark's advice?

After Hours (1985)

After my semi-success with The King of Comedy, I decided to give another Martin Scorsese black comedy a shot. In a way, it's the opposite: Where the former bothered and discouraged the director, the latter was just the pick-me-up he needed after his initial failure to launch The Last Temptation of Christ. It must have been especially rewarding to writer Joseph Minion, who had never sold a feature script before.

Paul (Griffin Dunne) leads a dull existence as a word processor, until he happens to meet and bond with the attractive Marcy (Rosanna Arquette). He decides to meet her again at her home in SoHo, a long cab ride from his place. His misfortune begins on that ride when his only paper money flies out the window (remember, there were no ATMs in those days) and mounts as he learns more about Marcy than he wanted to know. For the rest of the night/movie, he just wants to go home, but the obstacles keep piling on, eventually to dangerous levels. Way to make a dull existence look good.

Sounder (1972)

Dramatic movies about dogs tend not to end happily. Stories that won Newbery Medals have that reputation even more so. Perhaps it's fortunate that the title character has less importance to this movie than Toto has to The Wizard of Oz or Asta has to the Thin Man series. Either he plays a bigger part in the book, or he serves a metaphor.

The real focus is on David Lee Morgan, circa age 11, eldest son in a poor Black family of sharecroppers in 1933 Louisiana. Early on, his father steals and gets sent to a prison camp, leaving the rest even more desperate. At his mother's request, David Lee goes on a mission to find and visit the camp, with Sounder tagging along.