Raging Bull, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Blues Brothers - on the Big Screen June 4, 2010

The ‘80s at the Movies
At the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre
A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Historic Movie Palace.
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel. (201) 798-6055 Fax (201) 798-4020 Web www.loewsjersey.org

As the Loew's Jersey continues to celebrate its 80th Anniversary Year, we present three landmark films of the the 1980s.
All screenings in 35mm

Friday, June 4 8PM
"Raging Bull" Starring Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto. Directed by Martin Scorsese. 1980, 128mins., B&W and Color. Orignal Rating: R.
$6 for Adults; $4 for Seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

Saturday, June 5 at 6PM
"Pee-wee’s Big Adventure" Starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger. Directed by Tim Burton. 1985, 90mins, Color. Original Rating: PG.
$6 for Adults; $4 for Seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

Saturday, June 5 at 8:15PM
"The Blues Brothers" Starring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Henry Gibson. Directed by John Landis. 1980, 133mins., Color. Original Rating: R.
$6 for Adults; $4 for Seniors (65+) and children (12 & younger)

- - - Combo discounts for multiple film screenings in a weekend are available - - -

See "Film Notes" Section, Below, For More Info About Each Movie

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnele Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title. PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

The Loew’s Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc.

FILM NOTES

"Raging Bull" Martin Scorsese's brutal character study incisively portrays the rise, fall and redemption of real-life middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, a violent man in and out of the ring who seemed to thrive on his ability and willingness to take a beating. Opening with the spectacle of the over-the-hill La Motta (Robert De Niro) practicing his 1960s night-club act, the film flashes back to 1940s New York when Jake's career is on the rise. But Scorsese and De Niro avoid uplifting Rocky-like boxing movie conventions to make an unflinching portrait of an unlikable man and his ruthless profession. Their Jake is relentlessly cruel and self-destructive, a person whose inner demons cannot be exorcised even by acclaim and success. The physical brutality that makes Jake a champion in the boxing ring cripples his relationships with his wives, his business associates, and his brother. In many ways, De Niro's performance as Jake makes him seem more like an animal than a human being; and yet when he hits bottom, personally and professionally, Jake does emerge with a gleam of self-awareness. In nearly any other film, a performance as strong and intricately detailed as De Niro's would totally dominate, but here Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty both offer superb, career-making support. Scorsese’s great visual sense is seen in how the boxing sequences are shot, choreographed, and edited with such audacious power and impact that it's hard to believe they occupy only ten minutes of screen time. The film’s visceral emotional impact is also increased by Mark Chapman’s stark black and white cinematography that imparts a tabloid realism, along with some beautifully designed tracking shots and use of slow motion that add a stylized edge. When Raging Bull opened, it under-performed at the box office as audiences and critics were initially repulsed by its protagonist. Yet the story of a lost soul struggling for a way out of the emotional damnation of his own brutal nature is so compelling, and is told with such a profound mix of unblinking horror and understated compassion that Raging Bull is now widely acclaimed as the best American film of the 1980s.

"Pee-wee's Big Adventure" In the late 1970s, night club comedian Paul Reubens developed the comic persona of Pee-wee Herman, a childlike, squeaky-voiced “host” of a kiddie show who was part Pinky Lee and part Soupy Sales. His imaginative and multi-layered skewering of the typical trappings of children’s television shows became a national sensation, earning Reubens repeated guest spots on Late Night With David Letterman and other TV shows, and even a cameo appearance (in character) in The Blues Brothers. For Pee-Wee’s own film, Reubens and comedian Phil Hartman (the two had known each other since working in an improv group years before) scripted a surrealistic reworking of the classic Italian film The Bicycle Thief. In the plot, Pee-wee is an overgrown pre-pubescent boy sporting a molded Princeton cut, blush, lipstick, and a shrunken gray flannel suit who lives an idyllic life in his bizarre home (some have compared the remarkable set design to the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) until someone nabs his most prized possession: a fire engine-red customized bicycle. He then embarks on an epic cross-country search to find his lost love, not to mention more than a little adventure. The script was remarkably fresh and inventive, and Ruebens’ performance was pitch-perfect: playing it silly, yet managing to imbue his character with enough sensitivity to make audiences care about him while never seeming maudlin. Tim Burton made his feature length directorial debut with the film, and immediately established what would become his trademark quirky style. The film has a look reminiscent of German expressionist movies of the 1920s, filtered through a pop-art sensibility of cartoons, horror serials, and Gothic fairy tales. The result is a surreal, mystical world, yet one very close to our own – that perfectly fits the absurdist humor. And the score by Danny Elfman is terrific. In all, Pee wee's Big Adventure is a delightful film, enjoyable for children as well as adults.

"The Blues Brothers" In what can only be described as one of the most remarkable adaptations of sketch comedy characters to the Big Screen – as improbable as it is successful -- John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, two white boys with black souls who the nation first glimpsed in routines on Saturday Night Live. Sporting cool shades and look-alike suits, Jake and Elwood are dispatched on a "mission from God" by their former teacher, Sister Mary Stigmata (who is something of a cross between Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s and Sister Mary Ignatius from the blackly satirical play Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You). That mission is to raise $5,000 to save the orphanage they grew up in. In the course of the zany adventures that ensue, the Blues Brothers run afoul of a group of neo-Nazis, virtually kidnap former members of their old band, perform the theme from Rawhide for what may be the most unruly bar crowd in cinema history, and duck the murderous wrath of Jake’s ex-fiancé. Aside from being one of the most truly infectious slapstick comedies ever filmed – despite their preternaturally cool personas, the brothers Blue are remarkably likable, and it is all but impossible not to laugh out loud at some of the film’s gags -- the movie is also an unapologetic homage to rhythm-and-blues in all its popular derivatives, from Cab Calloway to James Brown to Aretha Franklin, all of whom appear in lovingly realized musical scenes. And there is great fun in spotting the other members of the film’s legion of guest stars, including John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Paul Reubens (aka, Pee-Wee Herman), Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg. And topping it all off, the streets, highways and police department of Chicago are laid to waste in what is, if not the most spectacular, then without doubt the funniest and coolest car chase scene ever filmed. The Blues Brothers is filled with great fun and great music from beginning to end, and is the essence of entertainment.

(Film descriptions compiled and adapted from AllMovie.com and other sources.)

Official Website: http://www.loewsjersey.org