Last Updated on August 31, 2022, 4:45 PM | Published: August 30, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — After a brutal summer, we’re finally forecast to see some much more reasonable, mild temperatures as September gets underway. With any luck, we might even be looking at something resembling a chill, comfortable season.
And of course there’s no better way to celebrate than with a good old-fashioned comfort movie, something timeless and quotable, or something unendingly moving and cerebral. The kind of film that never gets old.
We all have our own comforting classics – even if the subject matter therein is anything but – and throughout September, theaters across the city are offering plenty of chances to catch some of the greatest on the big screen.
With runs of newly refined masterworks, exclusive screenings and events for the city’s fantastic film societies, and a wonderful ongoing classics series from the city’s biggest multiplex, this month is the perfect time to grab some popcorn and let your nostalgia go wild.
“Giant” – Harkins Theatres Bricktown – September 6th
Surely one of the most legendary and mythologized productions in Hollywood history, director George Stevens’ “Giant” may well be best known in the modern era for being James Dean’s final film, but that fact amounts to mere trivia next to the sprawling scale and scope of the story itself.
True to its name, “Giant” is a huge movie, not only in its mammoth three-and-a-half hour runtime, but even more so in its handling of everything from generational trauma, to the runaway oil industry, to the changing landscape and lifestyle of the untamed west, to even the era’s precarious race relations. In fact, all the film’s challenging themes fit pretty well into recent America.
If you’ve never been exposed to the mega-epic charms and sweeping romanticism of “Giant,” this is your chance to see it the way it was meant to be experienced, on a screen as big as its own ambitions.
For showtimes and tickets, visit harkins.com.
“Apocalypse Now: Final Cut” – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – September 8th through 10th
Speaking both of massively long runtimes and of monumentally ambitious themes that may be more relevant now than ever, OKCMOA is presenting a run of director Francis Ford Coppola’s genre-defining, Vietnam-set, existentialist masterpiece of war, “Apocalypse Now.”
Emerging from an historically troubled production, in which Coppola was never really able to realize his own final vision, “Apocalypse Now” uses the backdrop of the Vietnam War to explore not only the pointlessness and hopelessness of war itself, but also the enduring evil and insanity of colonization.
After forty years, Coppola finally oversaw a full re-editing of the film to his own streamlined, coherent vision, what many believe to be the best version, and also personally supervised the transfer to immaculate 4K.
For showtimes, tickets, and more info, visit okcmoa.com.
“American Movie” presented by OK Film Society – Rodeo Cinema Film Row – September 8th
One of the great modern classic documentaries, 1999’s “American Movie” delved into the true-life experience of upstart indie filmmaking like never before.
Aspiring writer/director Mark Borchardt dreams of making the movie masterpiece he’s been developing for years, but before he can make it happen, and before he can quit his job delivering papers and move out of his parents’ house, he decides to make a grindhouse horror short to secure funding.
What follows is a sometimes hysterical, sometimes sad, and always starkly real look at the importance of big dreams in a small town.
The Oklahoma Film Society is presenting “American Movie” in a free public screening at Rodeo Cinema’s Paramount Building location in Film row.
For tickets and information, visit rodeocinema.com.
“The Godfather” w/ Gray Frederickson presented by OKCMOA Film Society – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – September 22nd
Once again exploring the work of Francis Ford Coppola, this time with the film that is not only his undisputed masterpiece, but very possibly the greatest film ever.
What’s left to be said of this staggering look into the dark power structures that helped build modern America? What new insights are left to be had from a film so beloved, and so often seen, as “The Godfather?”
Well, if anyone can answer that, it may be Gray Frederickson. As one of Coppola’s trusted producers for over a decade, OKC native Frederickson helped usher “The Godfather” and its groundbreaking sequel onto the screen (along with “Apocalypse Now” and the brilliant, Oklahoma-set “The Outsiders.)
Frederickson will be introducing the film and opining on its unprecedented legacy that celebrates 50 years in 2022.
The event is exclusive to OKCMOA Film Society members. For information on how to join, visit okcmoa.com/filmsociety.
“Blade Runner: The Final Cut” – Harkins Theatres Bricktown – September 27th
Famously shunned and panned upon release, filmmaking iconoclast Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” has grown to become one of the most acclaimed and respected science-fiction films in history.
Though the film’s proposed futuristic year of 2019 has come and gone, its themes of unmitigated urban sprawl, multi-cultural poverty, and controversial law enforcement practices are all still spot-on.
More than anything, the film’s central questions – what is the nature of “artificial” life and does humanity have any right to treat it differently? – seem to be growing more relevant every day.
Like “Apocalypse Now,” Scott had a nightmare realizing his intended vision for the film, but “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” is considered by the revered director to be the definitive cut and also the absolute best way to see the film for the very first time.
If you’ve never experienced “Blade Runner,” or if you’ve ever had the remarkable opportunity to see it in the big screen, do not miss this chance.
For showtimes and tickets, visit harkins.com.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
