Playlist: Tetro

Francis Ford Coppola: His last great movie...and I mean GREAT was Apocalypse Now...1979...that's 31 years ago. This guy should be in the scrap heap...but when real film buffs look at great directors, Coppola's name is always high on that list, we cant get away from the Godfather I and II...it could be argued that Godfather III was good...but great? To me Tetro is the next GREAT Coppola film...when it comes to his films, why not put this film on the same level with the classic Godfather films and Apocalypse...sure it never had the wide spread hype and fan fare of those films..but at its core is a cared for multi-level film that truly is close to the heart and life of the filmmaker. This is an artist at his best...I will not go into the story too much except to say that a young man comes to Argentina to fine his older brother and discover answers to his families questions..the film unravels these mysteries in a way that I was surprised by...even though toward thew middle of the film I saw the twist coming...so this is similar to my experience with a very different film , Shutter Island...where Scorsese is making films now that make tons of money..Coppola was lucky to get this film made as well as even seen. Coppola doesn't care for that anymore would be my guess...he just wants to make his films his way.
Many comparisons I have read compares this most closely with Rumble Fish (probably because its in black and white and pops with color at important spots...but I see it as bigger then that...this is a great film...not for everyone...but a top film in the career of Coppola...

Now for Vincent Gallo...Gallo was not the first choice...oddly, Matt Dillon was the first choice...lucky for us he was busy, and Gallo got the role...Gallo actually acts here, its a struggle...in interviews on the blu-ray he states as much...he respects Coppola and really wants to do a great job in a Coppola film...(On the title card of the film it has both their names at the same time..I mean I as Vincent Gallo fan #1 creamed my pants)...but Gallo is truly a haunted character as Tetro...things happen in this film like in Shutter Island that scream for a second viewing...his performance will be understood more after that second viewing for what is revealed in the end. Gallo is a director and an improvisational actor who claims is set in his way, and hates rehearsal..Coppola is like Andre in My Dinner with Andre...he goes to ridiculous extremes to rehearse and it was apparent that this was uneasy for Gallo...but he had to realize that it was to pay off..and it did...you get your Gallo being smug and a jerk here...you get your Gallo yelling and becoming unravelled...and you get a great performance. Coppola even states that he never heard of Gallo until Dillon pulled out, apparently the crew in Argentina's first choice to replace Dillon was Gallo...Coppola then watched Buffalo '66...thank God it wasn't The Brown Bunny.

See this: BOOM

Lifetime Movies: 1974

Coming in later than our beloved Franco...let's get it out of the way and say that the easy choice, and the right choice, is Godfather Part II. Sure it's a no-brainer, but what about why it works..the great acting, the timeless tale, the morality play. Then there are the great actors...the saddest casting choice still is that FFC (Coppola) could not get Robert DuVall to be in The Godfather III...in my mind this would have led him to not focus on his sister and daughter so much in the failed last film of this great saga.

Also...I gotta say that this really was FFC's year, The Conversation also came out--this is a hidden classic, and FFC's last film to be written as an original script till last year's Tetro. Being that GF II is the first in this series lets also get straight that there was no way that Frank or I saw this as infants. I must have been 7 before I saw this film...it was always there, always a part of my life as a kid..the best memories must be reading the Italian and seeing DeNiro as my hero.

Other films that get a nod in 1974 are as follows with comments:

Benji: my first film I ever saw, it was in a church basement in Brooklyn

Godzilla v Mechagodzilla: funny I would have picked this to be made earlier, I loved all Godzilla films as a kid and loved the fact that all other ideas had failed and the Japanese had to resort to building a Mecha- version of Godzilla to defeat him

The Lords of Flatbush: this film is probably terrible...but as a kid from Brooklyn, you have to pay attention to films that specify your hometown, not to mention it features Stallone and the Fonz

A few other thoughts: There was a lot of crap this year, that's 1974...and it goes to show you, every year there is a lot of crap. It's our job to DISTILL it for you.