661jda

TOM JONES is the kinda film that you watch it the first time and think "it's really a great film. You wait a year and watch again, and you think, "this could have been done better". The more times you watch it, the more you feel there is something wrong with it. It's not a bad film, takes place in the 1700s - not many Oscar winners in that time period. But Richardson tries to be cute with the film: asides; a bawdy storyline for the 60's but very tame nowadays; breaking the 4th wall to emphasize the comedy or the joke. It just gets old to me. It wasn't the Best Picture of 1963: too many other pics were better-my choice would have been LILIES OF THE FIELD or HOW THE WEST WAS WON. Still it is a quality film. Writing for the time was good; score was ok; costumes and set were good. The picture did get 5 Acting Oscar nominations and is the only film so far that garnered 3 best supporting actress nominations. It's a good film, just don't watch it too many times.

I went in-knowing what this was about. I came out NOT being moved. How can a person who stabs another person 29 times -19 of them mortal wounds-then elude the law for 4 years and then say "I believe in Jesus and I'm sorry"??? Not Sorry - No compassion. By commuting his sentence, all you do is prolong his misery in a captive environment, and put stress on the penal system for care and stresses the victims family. Stress on the penal system for health care, lodging, food, security: Inmates receive better care than homeless people in this country. I could think of a million things to argue, but this, like a number of other similar docs and features, doesn't sway opinions: It's a polarized topic.

The film suffers when compared to today's sword and sandal flicks, but still this is 1954 and in it's time, it was a great flick. Ending being very true to the story shows off Kirk's ability as an action star. Rousing fight scenes, epic storytelling, cinematography~costumes~and sets make for a thrilling telling of Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Was hoping Wolfgang Petersen would give us the ODYSSEY after he filmed TROY. Guess that was not to be: this might be a good candidate for a reboot. Would love to see something like this - it's been a long time and sword and sandals make good popcorn films. Someone pick up on this!!!!