Intermission: |quot|Small|quot| films deliver major entertainment value

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|bold_on|"The Tailor of Panama"|bold_on||ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|Directed by: John Boorman|bold_on||ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan|ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|Rated: R|ret||ret||tab|

Here's the scenario: Operatives from one big time studio manage to acquire a brief sketch of an outline for another company's blockbuster film:|ret||ret||tab|

1. Big-time action director. |ret||ret||tab|

2. Fictional account of historical facts. |ret||ret||tab|

3. Backdrop: A disaster. |ret||ret||tab|

4. Anchor: A love story. |ret||ret||tab|

5. Collect receipts.|ret||ret||tab|

It's a simple enough approach, but it's one that proved to be a winner a few years back when "Pearl Harbor" was called "Titanic." While I liked the big boat movie OK, I would only endure it again at gunpoint, and that's exactly how I feel about Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor." |ret||ret||tab|

Bay has given us such punches in the face as "Armageddon" and, absolutely the loudest film I've ever been subjected to, "The Rock." |ret||ret||tab|

While there are good things to be found in every film genre, including the hyper-testosteronic ham-fisted films that seem to be Bay's forte, I just wasn't in the mood for being subjected to this kind of torment for more than three hours over a holiday weekend. Besides, by the time you read this article you will have already seen the film and/or read at least a few hundred blurbs about it. |ret||ret||tab|

So instead, I opted for driving three hours in order to catch another movie that also happens to be a fictional account of a historical event and has a love story thrown in. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Dish," directed by Australian Rob Sitch, is a sweet and tender tale of the folks in the town of Parkes, Australia in the summer of 1969. |ret||ret||tab|

That's the year the United States sent men to the moon via Apollo 11 and Parkes had the distinction of being one of only two places on Earth to have a gigantic radio telescope used to stay in touch with and receive TV signals from the historic lunar mission. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Dish" is one of the most enjoyable things I've seen in a long time, but currently it is in rather limited release. I have a hard time figuring why, as it's a film that could, with the right publicity, find a fairly wide audience. At any rate, it's showing in Kansas City, but if it ever makes its way to the Ozarks, I will surely let everyone know.|ret||ret||tab|

"The Tailor of Panama" is another "small" film but one that somehow found its way to our market fairly early. It's somewhat different from the two films mentioned above as it's a fictional account of something that hasn't really happened yet but seems to be completely plausible. |ret||ret||tab|

Geoffrey Rush, who won an Oscar for his role in "Shine," and most recently did a great job playing the Marquis de Sade in "Quills," stars as Harry Pendel, a tailor living in Panama City who weaves as many tales some true, some not quite as he cuts suits. Harry also manages to find himself squarely in the middle of the biggest goings-on on the isthmus since ownership transferred to the Panamanian government at the end of the last century.|ret||ret||tab|

The Cold War is over, and there's not a lot happening in international spy circles when British agent Andy Osnard, in trouble for his womanizing and general hell-raising, finds himself "on assignment" it's actually more of a banishment in Panama. |ret||ret||tab|

He befriends Harry, and the two manage to stir up a pot of trouble for Central America, as well as the world of international espionage.|ret||ret||tab|

When Osnard arrives in Panama he's greeted by Harry, who welcomes him to a place he describes as "Casablanca without heroes." It's an apt description and one that sets the tone for the entire film. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Tailor of Panama," is based on the popular novel by the ever well-sold John Le Carre and is a well-executed bit of cinema. It's a piece that manages to be cynical, but cynical in the finest, most noble sense of the word.|ret||ret||tab|

Le Carre, whose spy novels have been filling the pockets of the publishing industry for a good long time now, plays with the milieu and pokes fun at the entire genre. |ret||ret||tab|

With the Cold War winding down and the United States emerging as the planet's sole super power, the spy game and the industry that thrives on books and movies about it is in the most precarious state it's seen since the heyday of films like "The Manchurian Candidate," "Dr. Strangelove," and the James Bond franchise.|ret||ret||tab|

Director Boorman, who has been fairly hot and cold over his long career (how could the guy who gave us "Deliverance" also be the director of "The Exorcist II, The Heretic"?) is at the top of his form here, presenting the subject in a delicate and fresh manner while letting the tale unfold without any prodding from behind the camera. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Tailor of Panama" is likely to get lost in the summer of big budget blockbusters ahead, but it, as well as "The Dish," are two films that will go down as personal favorites of 2001.|ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)|ret||ret||tab|

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