Gooper

Alfred Newman's gorgeous score is a true landmark in film music. At age 36, Newman had already had six years of top-flight contributions to the art of scoring in every genre. With 'Ramona', the first release of the newly amalgamated 20th Century-Fox, Newman was given free rein to create an operatic full-range score of great sophistication and emotion. It matches the rest of the lavish production perfectly. Darryl Zanuck, who'd hired Alfred for his 20th Century Pictures lineup, was most fortunate to contract him in 1940 to head 20th-Fox's Music Dept. He led it gloriously for twenty years, and the rest is history.

The problem with reviewing a film like 'Wilson' is that audiences today often concentrate on how the film should've been rather more than what it actually is. 21st-century preferences can be OK with accepting a Marvel opus as 'plausible', yet frustrations occur because a biopic from the '40s lacks incisive accuracy or revisionist aspects.

The term 'solid' used to crop up in reviews a lot if the film deserved it. Most everything about 'Wilson' is certainly solid. The production values are a triumph of the studio technique. The creative team at 20th needs no introduction here, but Zanuck ensured everyone was in peak performance mode. Shamroy's camerawork is solid to say the least, as if he's shooting in Todd-AO. Lamar Trotti's (original) screenplay is steady, credible, stately-paced, and most of all, intelligent. Trotti was Zanuck's most trusted screenwriter, and for good reason. Henry King's direction - talk about solid! One of the most reliable, capable, and admirable of the great directors, King didn't need a 'style' to tell the story. Yet he always delivers the goods. Speaking of competent, Barb McLean is certainly among the star women editors of the era.

Almost needless to say, Alfred Newman's score does much of the heavy lifting throughout the picture. One of Zanuck's strong points was, once he had great creative talent under contract, he let them do their thing. His own thing was mostly the script, so he never had to worry about what his head of the Music Department (the best in Hollywood) was going to come up with.

Especially during the war, the studios wanted to engage audiences with the familiar old songs and flag-wavers. 'Wilson's got 'em, but the Newman treatment comes on strong, with freshness, confidence and purpose.

I'm sure Alfred would've preferred to avoid the cliches, but in this and all his other scores, he (and orchestrator Ed Powell) always enhance the familiarity, so that they sound like variations instead of dutiful renditions. His original themes are interwoven, and one wishes they could have been allowed more screen time. His theme for Wilson himself is epic and inspiring, but wisely understated.

For such an unconventional film, it's also highly entertaining. It draws you right in, from the dignified credits and right into the football game onwards (the coverage is spare, but epic), the drama is engaging and intriguing. Of course it's not for everybody, and it certainly doesn't have to be. At the time, Hollywood aimed for as broad an audience they could get. Still, a few years later, O'Neill's 'Mourning Becomes Electra' would be tackled over at RKO, with a young Kirk Douglas. Running time: 173 minutes,

All the players in 'Wilson' put in solid performances. It's all Good Acting, and to my mind, unnecessary to pick apart.

Taken for what it really is instead of what it isn't, 'Wilson' is an excellent drama and a top-notch production. Besides, like other 'presidential' biopics, just because the last name is used for the title doesn't mean it's the last word on the subject.

'Nie Er' is an amazing discovery. It is a soulful and credible biopic of the composer who wrote 'March of the Volunteers', which became the PRC's national anthem. His very real travails are presented in straightforward manner, showing how a passionate and very talented man was nevertheless sidelined. Heavy propaganda is quite deftly avoided, because it is unnecessary.

The scoring is both poignant and powerful. I was reminded of Alfred Newman. The acting is excellent, the art direction has that wonderful murky quality found in most Chinese studio productions of that era, and the 'Peoples'Color' is muted and quite faded, but somehow effective. (Based on the DVD available from Beauty).

I watched it without subtitles, and the print obtained for the DVD was scratched and aged, but it only added to the film's mystique. The sound was excellent.

The sincerity of the film is quite moving. Chinese cinema of this genre was to reach its peak with Ping Wang's 'Dongfang Hong' ('The East Is Red') in 1965, and 'Nie Er' is an outstanding member of this remarkable group.