Photo Credit: Netflix
***
I finally got around to watching “Maestro” on Netflix, Bradley Cooper’s brilliant and mesmerizing portrayal of American conductor, composer, and pianist, Leonard Bernstein, arguably one of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century.
I can easily see why Bradley Cooper is being hyped as an odds on favorite to bring home an Oscar.
I was, I’ll admit, a little disappointed in the film. At times, I thought I was watching a documentary of Lenny’s life instead of a dramatic movie.
The film just seemed to pepper viewers with seminal vignettes of his life at breakneck speed; his New York Philharmonic conducting debut (1943), his musical scores of “Our Town”, “West Side Story,” his bisexuality, etc., instead of a natural progression of his life.
I realize it’s a mighty tall order to cover everything of the Maestro’s life, but the film left out his passion for politics, civil rights, holding a fundraising event for the Black Panthers at his Dakota apartment, his protest of the Vietnam war, and in 1989, rejecting a National Medal of Arts Award from the George H.W. Bush administration for its decision to withdraw $10,000 for an AIDS show. In 1962, he hired Sanford Allen as the first full-time Black member of the New York Philharmonic; and in 1967, invited Evangeline Benedetti to become a member of the New York Philharmonic, the orchestra’s first female cellist and second tenured woman.
In 1971, he performed for the first time his composition “MASS” (commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy) in memory of John F. Kennedy.
Cooper’s interpretation of the “Maestro” was absolutely brilliant, capturing all the subtle and not so subtle nuances of his body language, especially his abandon rage when conducting, but I kept waiting for someone to tell Lenny that he needs to take something for his head cold. Cooper’s nasal inflection of Bernstein’s voice got to be a bit annoying at times.
Cooper is highly favored to win an Oscar, but I’m still putting my money on Cillian Murphy for “Oppenheimer.”
I can easily see why Bradley Cooper is being hyped as an odds on favorite to bring home an Oscar.
I was, I’ll admit, a little disappointed in the film. At times, I thought I was watching a documentary of Lenny’s life instead of a dramatic movie.
The film just seemed to pepper viewers with seminal vignettes of his life at breakneck speed; his New York Philharmonic conducting debut (1943), his musical scores of “Our Town”, “West Side Story,” his bisexuality, etc., instead of a natural progression of his life.
I realize it’s a mighty tall order to cover everything of the Maestro’s life, but the film left out his passion for politics, civil rights, holding a fundraising event for the Black Panthers at his Dakota apartment, his protest of the Vietnam war, and in 1989, rejecting a National Medal of Arts Award from the George H.W. Bush administration for its decision to withdraw $10,000 for an AIDS show. In 1962, he hired Sanford Allen as the first full-time Black member of the New York Philharmonic; and in 1967, invited Evangeline Benedetti to become a member of the New York Philharmonic, the orchestra’s first female cellist and second tenured woman.
In 1971, he performed for the first time his composition “MASS” (commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy) in memory of John F. Kennedy.
Cooper’s interpretation of the “Maestro” was absolutely brilliant, capturing all the subtle and not so subtle nuances of his body language, especially his abandon rage when conducting, but I kept waiting for someone to tell Lenny that he needs to take something for his head cold. Cooper’s nasal inflection of Bernstein’s voice got to be a bit annoying at times.
Cooper is highly favored to win an Oscar, but I’m still putting my money on Cillian Murphy for “Oppenheimer.”
--Bill Lucey
January 20, 2024
