Taking place in the late 19th century, The Boy in Blue is a sports film about a famous sculler (row boat racer) named Ned Hanlan, who was a real guy. Presumably based on real events, this plausible film provides no surprises. Every scene plays out as expected, and the drama is efficiently presented over a wonderful score. I love the music in old sport movies, like in Rocky. With this film, we get the big, triumphant strings, followed by a mode change to the natural minor, with grim, slow synths, before it goes into a tender piano solo, leading back to the huge vamp. There's even a training montage, which really gets me going.
The acting was fine. I know Cage hadn't yet found his style, but his performance is far above par for his acting-sports-star contemporaries. We get to watch Ned's rise to glory as his honor is challenged many times, but we know Ned. He's the good guy, and he's going to win because he's the good guy.
So how was the film? It was a small achievement, excecuted acceptably, worth probably more attention than it received. But that's mainly due to Cage's performance. At first glance, one probably considers this a one-dimensional "foagie flick", but there are some boobs in it, and Nicolas Cage.
- Raising Arizona
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Red Rock West
- Adaptation
- Birdy
- Wild at Heart
- Joe
- Dog Eat Dog
- Color Out of Space
- Mom and Dad
- Peggy Sue Got Married
- Zandalee
- City of Angels
- Bangkok Dangerous
- Drive Angry
- Lord of War
- Gone in 60 Seconds
- Matchstick Men
- Vampire's Kiss
- Con Air
- Face/Off
- The Boy in Blue
- Honeymoon in Vegas
- Amos and Andrew
- Moonstruck
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- Bringing Out the Dead
- The Family Man
- Knowing
- It Could Happen to You
- 8mm
- Between Worlds
- Ghost Rider
- The Humanity Bureau
- Next
- The Weather Man
- 211
- The Croods
No comments:
Post a Comment