Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra was the greatest, the voice of the century, a talented singer, a gifted actor, not a very good father or a husband but he was one in a billion and the legacy he left behind is beyond measure. That's why it's so hard to imagine anyone trying to imitate his persona or impersonate him on screen - there's just no one like him, never was and never will be.

After watching North and South I got really curious about one actor who played a fantastic villain - it was Philip Casnoff and while searching through his filmography I immediately spotted the name Sinatra in it and what do you know - he plays Sinatra, so naturally I just had to go see it with my own eyes.

Sinatra is, as it's now popular to say, a biopic covering the life of Frank Sinatra from the 1920s to 1974 and I watched the whole 4 hours of it in one sitting, without even dozing off. The narrative goes by pretty fast but most of the times I just found it difficult to tie one scene to the next, so tattered it is. One could imagine out of four hours there's got to be development, growth and closure for multiple characters but we only see one - of Frank himself - all the rest just pops up on the screen whenever they're needed and fades away just as fast.

The first two hours showcase Sinatra's younger years and they are the most inspiring and relatively good but Frank's tunes start to get on your nerves after a while - they change each other every two minutes, sometimes even repeating themselves and without a proper music score other than his songs to back up the narrative it's difficult not to feel bored a little. The last two hours on the other hand are trying too hard to pile up as many events as possible which in the end turns up to be a mess of things that don't add up to each other.

Another thing that bugged me the whole time, and I've already mentioned it, is that Frank's shoes cannot be filled by someone else and I just couldn't see Philip, with massive talent that he possesses, in the man mimicking Frank's singing behind the mic. Sinatra's voice is iconic and irreplaceable and you see that in every scene Philip does the singing; only by the end of the movie, when he plays an older Frank I was able to see The Voice in his performance.

Gina Gershon as Frank's first wife Nancy was a gem here but she didn't get enough time to truly make it big for her character; her lines were even cut off mid-sentence to bring out more of Frank's greatest hits. Marcia Gay Harden as Ava Gardner was ok and although she kept saying repetitive lines and her whole storyline got scrapped abruptly as soon as JFK entered the picture (and he vanishes as quick) she did well on her part as Hollywood's notorious heartbreaker. The rest of the cast are merely named fillers with not much background to make their characters worth mentioning.

Overall the movie, like most all of the biopics, lacks cohesion, structured narrative, consistency and reasoning, and even with four hours of screentime it doesnt make a good job in bringing Sinatra on screen and capturing his life the way it's supposed to.

I saw this made for television movie when it aired. It was "wonderful" The whole cast was great, and Philip Casnoff was magnificent. I saw him in North And South, and a few other roles, but his portrayal of Sinatra was unreal. There were times that I started to believe that I was seeing old blue eyes himself. I recorded it both nights, but it's loaded with commercials, I would really like to get a copy of the film. I'm wondering if Casnoff did any of the singing, or was it Frank Jr. I wish Casnoff would act more, besides being a good actor, he's really good looking. Is there any way I can purchase a copy of the film? I also thought that Marcia Gaye Harden was terrific as Ava Gardner.

It's far from an effective movie, and farther more from an effective mini-series because when all is said and done, I'd really rather watch a documentary...

To distill the entire expansive saga of the 83 years Old Blue Eyes shared this earth into four hours would be an impossible task without offending some corners of his latter-day devotees by virtue of omission. That said, despite being executive-produced by youngest daughter Tina Sinatra, the miniseries does a fairly comprehensive job covering many of the salacious highlights of his romantic life. I can't think of too many areas touched on in Kitty Kelley's infamous unauthorized tabloid biography that were missed by this production.

One notable inaccuracy is the over-emphasis on Sinatra's relationship with Ava Gardner. In the film, they remain together well into the presidency of John F. Kennedy; in truth, they were only married until 1957. (As an aside, I was also disappointed they did not mention the couple's drunken episode, circa 1945, when the two shot up the town of Indio, California with some pistols Sinatra happened to be carrying around.) His 22-year marriage to Barbara Marx, by far his longest-lasting of four, is not even touched on.

Personally, I would like to see a film that deals with the stories behind some of Frank's more under-appreciated works. In particular, I'd like to see a dramatization of the making of his ill-fated CBS TV show as well as some of the radio work he did during his early-50's career slump. Sinatra had a turn at DJ-ing a weekly show called "To Be Perfectly Frank" as well as starring in the mystery series "Rocky Fortune", which followed "Dragnet." Both were on NBC around 1953, between shooting and the release of his great comeback vehicle "From Here to Eternity." Also, his rescue from drowning by one-time friend Brad Dexter and the ensuing tension which doomed the production of 1967's "The Naked Runner" would make for good screen drama. Sammy Davis's expulsion from the Rat Pack due to his cocaine use in the 1970's would have been fun to watch as well. But, perhaps such anecdotes are too obtuse for a miniseries that clearly plays to the back of the house, albeit as well as one could hope.

I watched the two-video VHS packet of this, the past two nights, not knowing what to expect, and was amazed at the depth of the portrayal. I've been a low-level fan of Sinatra's ever since the screaming bobby-soxer days, and while I've never read a formal biog, the ins and outs of his career could hardly escape any observant song-lover. So I knew something of his rough spots, and was amazed by how well this film covers the complexity and nuances of Sinatra's persona.

Although the stress seems heavy on his ego, I've not much doubt it was accurate. The guy, in truth, lived a most amazing life; and I felt the honesty of the portrayal to be one of the best, for any biopic I've ever seen. It's to his family's credit that they permitted such honesty.

Casnoff not only did a superb job of the character, but he even looks amazingly like a young Sinatra. It's hard to rate the other performers on that level, but they at least are quite believable. Particularly for the two major women in his life, Nancy and Ava.