Fat man, you shoot a great game of pool

Three from the AFI lists, with a couple "normal movies" to rest my cinematic-appreciation muscles. All this quality can be fatiguing, y'know? It turned out to be a weird mix, even for me. 

Rocky (1976) - "A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight a heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: it's on the AFI lists
AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Movies (original list 1998) #78

    100 Years ... 100 Thrills (2001) #52

    100 Years ... 100 Cheers (2006) #4

    100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th anniversary ed. 2007) #57

    10 Top 10 (2008) Sports #2

IMDB: 8.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 94% Audience: 69%

notable quote: "Women weaken legs, huh? Women. weaken. legs."
story: boxer and thug Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) lives a life of routine—gym, no-challenge fights, enforcing debt collection for a local boss, and visiting his dream girl at the pet store. This all changes when the champ picks him—out of the blue—for an exhibition-style match that anyone would expect to be no contest.
visuals: gritty, dark, and realistic
costumes, hair & makeup: likewise realistic and evocative, particularly in the outward transformation of Rocky's pet shop girl Adrian Pennino (Talia Shire) from wallflower to blooming rose

intangibles: it is easy to write off this film as cartoonish and stereotyped, but upon seeing it again—for the first time in decades, and since watching Raging Bull (reviewed here)—I found it deeper, more sad, and more honest-to-goodness inspiring than I had remembered. 
Academy Award winner:
• Best Picture—Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff

• Best Director—John Avildsen

• Best Film Editing
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actor—Stallone (the third person to be nominated for both acting and writing in the same year, after Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator and Orson Welles in Citizen Kane)

• Best Supporting Actress—Shire

• Best Supporting Actor—Burgess Meredith (Mickey Goldmill)

• Best Supporting Actor—Burt Young (Paulie Pennino)

• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen—Stallone

• Best Sound

• Best Music, Original Song—"Gonna Fly Now" (a.k.a. our junior high marching band theme)
overall: recommended

The Sound of Music (1965) - "A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: it's the AFI again.
AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Movies (original list 1998) #55

    100 Years ... 100 Passions (2002) #27

    100 Years ... 100 Cheers (2006) #41

    25 Greatest Movie Musicals (2006) #4

    100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th anniversary ed. 2007) #40

IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 83% Audience: 91%

notable quote: "These walls were not built to shut out problems. You have to face them. You have to live the life you were born to live."
story: nun meets boy (and family) and falls in love
visuals: very, um, Swiss
costumes, hair & makeup: it's every 1950s interpretation of an Alpine dream

intangibles: Look, I'm not gonna lie—it was a pain for me to watch this. It is as close as I can get to all the "never, ever, ever" movies on the AFI and other best-of lists. It is so cloyingly sweet and ...good. Undeniably well done, I still cannot bring myself to like it, personally. And I admit skipping through the musical numbers, because there's a limit to my patience. 
Academy Award winner:
• Best Picture—Robert Wise

• Best Director—Wise

• Best Sound

• Best Film Editing

• Best Music—Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actress—Julie Andrews (Maria)

• Best Supporting Actress—Peggy Wood (Mother Abbess)

• Best Cinematography, Color

• Best Art Direction—Set Decoration, Color

• Best Costume Design, Color
overall: recommended with the obvious caveats

Strange Culture (2007) - "A documentary in which actors interpret the legally touchy subject of artist Steve Kurtz, who is being held as a suspected terrorist because of his work."
Source: I bought the DVD from Amazon (seller)
I watched it because: I admire Thomas Jay Ryan's work
IMDB: 6.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 91% Audience: 60%

story: this is a meta-documentary, so the viewer observes 

    a) the story

    b) the filming of the story, and 

    c) background commentary and discussion about both the filming and the story
visuals: bare-bones
costumes, hair & makeup: likewise, pretty limited
acting: Ryan is a cult favorite, one of my acting heroes, and (I can say this without revealing anything worth a damn) the basis of one of my most secure passwords. THAT is how much I admire his work... when he is given something to do. 

intangibles: this is an important cautionary tale, but not a good movie. It ought to be shown to graduating fine arts and media students, and every grad student in those fields should do detailed studies of it because they could live it at any time. For the rest of us, it is not necessary viewing.
overall: marginally recommended

The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) - "A minority stockholder takes on the crooked board of directors at a billion dollar corporation."
Source: it's in my "Silver Screen Romances" box set
I watched it because: I wanted a reliable, happy movie
IMDB: 7.5/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 100% Audience: 67%

notable quote: "Now, McKeever—that's what I call love talk!"
story: woman—who seems to be a dumb blond—disrupts shareholder meetings and then life in general at the corporation at which she owns a few stocks. CEO gets involved, to sort things out.
visuals: it was filmed in the best, most crisp black and white, so the ladies look beautiful and the gents seem very dashing. And everything at the company appears extremely modern!
costumes, hair & makeup: if you like the 1950s, you'll love this
acting: Judy Holliday (Laura Partridge) was fantastic. A great blend of innocence and resilience. And Paul Douglas (Edward L. McKeever) was awesome. I'd loved him in A Letter to Three Wives (reviewed here) and this film added a new layer of appreciation.

intangibles: not quite like any movie I've seen before, this was smart and funny and I liked it a lot
Academy Award winner: Best Costume Design, Black and White
Academy Award nominee: Best Art Direction—Set Decoration, Black and White
overall: recommended

The Hustler (1961) - "It tells the story of small-time pool hustler 'Fast' Eddie Felson and his desire to break into the 'major league' of professional hustling and high-stakes wagering by high-rollers that follows it."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because:
AFI: 10 Top 10 (2008) Sports #6

IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 98% Audience: 93%

notable quote: "Boy, is he great! Jeez, that old fat man. Look at the way he moves: like a dancer.... And those fingers, them chubby fingers. That stroke... it's like he's, uh, like he's playin' the violin or somethin'."
story: Fast Eddie Felson learns pool
visuals: dark and gritty, pool rooms and hotels
acting: Jackie Gleason (Minnesota Fats), Paul Newman (Fast Eddie Felson) and Piper Laurie (Sarah Packard) put in outstanding, heartbreaking performances

intangibles: a much sadder film than I'd anticipated, I absolutely loved it nonetheless
Academy Award winner:
• Best Cinematography, Black and White

• Best Art Direction—Set Decoration, Black and White
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Picture—Robert Rossen

• Best Actor—Newman

• Best Actress—Laurie

• Best Supporting Actor—Gleason

• Best Supporting Actor—George C. Scott (Bert Gordon) (refused even to be nominated)

• Best Director—Rossen

• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
overall: highly recommended

[the title quotation is from The Hustler]