Dann in reel life: The Amazing Chase?

Jim Kirsten was not happy with my remarks about the difference between “favorite” movies vs. the “greatest” movies picked by ABC-TV and People magazine consumers during a recent prime-time ABC special. He had this to say:

“How dare you! Do you think everyone else but you is a hayseed? A slack-jawed idiot? I wrote you a few months ago about your column about ‘Fast & Furious.' My point was that you obviously are predisposed to not liking car chase features and maybe someone else should review that instead of you, the same way the paper had someone else review the Justin Bieber movie.

“How dare you think that us ‘cake eaters' couldn't pick ‘the best' movies. Movies are subjective. Two of the worst movies I ever saw were ‘Out of Africa' and ‘Gandhi.' Oh, my God, I couldn't stay awake for more than five minutes for either of them. But people like yourself were fascinated by them. You couldn't stop talking about the cinematography, or whatever. What the hell is cinematography?

“So please, in the future let us ‘cake-eaters' have our kind of films reviewed by someone who is not predisposed to not liking them.” — Jim Kirsten

Dear Jim: I am predisposed to liking chase films when the chase sequences are well-constructed and exciting. Here are 10 of the best:

10. “Ronin” — Cars speeding into one-way traffic was done better in “To Live and Die in L.A.,” but the major chase sequence is a nerve-jangler, especially with Robert De Niro looking appropriately petrified as he drives at insane speeds.

9. “The Driver” — Walter Hill's chase segment may not look that spectacular today, but it employed some of the chase devices (bumper-mounted cameras) widely imitated ever since. Ryan O'Neal looks way too cool as the driver.

8. “The Seven-Ups” — Roy Scheider chases cars instead of a giant shark, with equal thrills.

7. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — Spielberg's classic proves that it pays to be whip-smart when you're being chased by — and chasing – Nazis.

6. “To Live and Die in L.A.” — William Friedkin got the idea for a nail-biter of a car chase going against one-way traffic after a spinout on an icy northbound Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. He wound up in the opposing lane of traffic facing the wrong direction.

5. “The Blues Brothers” — Elwood and Jake in Chicago in a black-and-white Mount Prospect patrol car dubbed The Bluesmobile. Does it get better than this? Seriously.

4. “The Road Warrior” — A futuristic Mel Gibson takes on crazed loonies trying to catch him with their speeding jalopies. And they're not even the paparazzi.

3. “Duel” — Spielberg's made-for-TV thriller doesn't have a big chase scene. The whole film is one.

2. “The French Connection” — Studio execs thought it was so bad, they initially refused to show it to critics. What did they know?

1. “Bullitt” — McQueen is still the king.

Now, Jim, as to your question, “What is cinematography?”

Cinematography is to movies what language is to novels.

Just as word choice, sentence structure and paragraph sequencing determine the quality of literature, frame composition, lighting (and shadows), color and visual texture determine the quality of a movie.

Remember that in the beginning, silent movies had to rely on cinematography to set the narrative tone and help tell the story visually. Good cinematography continues to do that today. — Dann

P.S. I didn't review “Justin Bieber” because the inconsiderate executives at Paramount Pictures scheduled the press screening at the same time as “Just Go With it.” In retrospect, I wish I had gone to Justin's movie instead.

Uncut cult classics

Join me and film historian Raymond Benson as Dann & Raymond's Movie Club hosts “Attack of the Rocky Horror Pink Flamingo Eraserheads! The Great Cult Movies” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at the Schaumburg Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. Clips from “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Napoleon Dynamite” and oodles of others. Free admission! Go to schaumburglibrary.org or call (847) 985-4000.

This ‘Wizard' is silent

Here's something you don't see every day, and don't hear, either. The 1910 silent movie “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and its 1916 sequel, “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” (directed and written by “Oz” novelist L. Frank Baum himself!) will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Ave., Wilmette. Tickets cost $12. Go to wilmettetheatre.com or call (847) 251-7424. Live piano accompaniment by musician David Drazin.

Batter up ‘Ballhawks!'

Former Hinsdale resident Mike Diedrich spent a lot of time and not a lot of money making his Chicago baseball documentary “Ballhawks!”

“I'm a big baseball fan and a Cubs fans,” the 50-year-old Diedrich told me. As a kid growing up in Hinsdale, Diedrich used to travel the Burlington Northern train to the city, then jump a subway to Wrigley Field. Now he lives in Lake Bluff and works for an advertising agency.

“There weren't too many easy things about making this film,” he admitted. “One of the constant challenges in the advertising field is doing more with less. That was good training for making this movie with no funding. With all the technical and financial challenges, let's just say it was very interesting.”

“Ballhawks!” plays at the Midwest Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, at the Century Centre in Chicago. Go to midwestfilm.com.

NIU grad now directs

Northern Illinois University 1987 graduate Mike Disa returns to his alma mater to talk about his career from art school major to the director of the new animated feature “Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil,” opening April 29. He'll speak at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in Room 100 of the Visual Arts Building on the NIU campus, 231 N. Annie Glidden Road, DeKalb. Go to today.niu.edu.

Horror party animals

The original black-and-white Universal Pictures monster movies from the 1930s and 1940s come to the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, for a one-day, mini-horror film festival. It starts at 1 p.m. Saturday with the comic “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,” followed by “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “The Wolf Man,” “Creature From the Black Lagoon” and “Revenge of the Creature.” It would have been nice for “The Mummy” to round out Universal's classic Big 5. Go to portagetheater.org. Adult admission $10; $5 for children.

• Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!