tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38691831319284273322024-03-07T03:32:17.401-05:00"Vaulted Treasures" Film BlogCraig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-51303348031877007332021-11-22T08:02:00.022-05:002021-11-22T13:06:58.032-05:00TARNATION ALLEY: IS THE FAMILY FRIENDLY "FINCH" (2021) THE YEAR'S BEST FILM? - by CEJ<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizX0uWnM_d-ZR2iYwLTCsDrd4UodNc8m3B05QTgJBwEf6N6CBjW0HlAkxoXW2k9GMCJIm8BfehF54bK6L2cDpI3g7cLFBWl5oBJjzsWGYFa-ZrbtPV17V_FEWVaD7_i0bPM3QJ00G0UNg/s535/finch2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizX0uWnM_d-ZR2iYwLTCsDrd4UodNc8m3B05QTgJBwEf6N6CBjW0HlAkxoXW2k9GMCJIm8BfehF54bK6L2cDpI3g7cLFBWl5oBJjzsWGYFa-ZrbtPV17V_FEWVaD7_i0bPM3QJ00G0UNg/s16000/finch2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GDtIQ6eZplqhQZH_o8ws6p80_OBdUy91h8I7t4IUIW0BIZ6qnRAR_fZkhjIyk2petndmgp6_WkuLxff9M7cZRzBLPDxqjKmF7qkFtJxhottEIBNk2LzPal9Kz0X4RTqs0sZJUvEXieI/s525/Finch1b.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1GDtIQ6eZplqhQZH_o8ws6p80_OBdUy91h8I7t4IUIW0BIZ6qnRAR_fZkhjIyk2petndmgp6_WkuLxff9M7cZRzBLPDxqjKmF7qkFtJxhottEIBNk2LzPal9Kz0X4RTqs0sZJUvEXieI/s16000/Finch1b.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="color: #f1c232;"><u>FINCH</u> </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Dir. by - Miguel Sapochnik </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Prod. by - Craig Luck, Daniel Maze, Kevin Misher, </span><span style="color: #f1c232;">Ivor Powell, Jack Rapke, </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Miguel Sapochnik, Robert Zemeckis </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Written by - Craig Luck, </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Ivor Powell</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Director of Photography - </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Jo Willems</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Edited by - Tim Porter</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Production Design - </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Tom Meyer</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Music - Gustavo Santaolalla</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Run Time: 115 mins. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Release: 11/5/2021</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">Production Companies - Amblin Ent., Reliance Ent., Walden Media, ImageMovers, Misher Films</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">GullCottage rating</span></div><div><span style="color: #f1c232;">(***** on a scale of 1-5)</span></div></div></div> <span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gYSdTX91oOT1y-UP7BePGfMJ93FUxSvgwW4amVNSDqkNI-kxl0HiFDPWMOt2Ucbb5wfC3RmCo1SLPe6pD8cCoBOpWoBHJLJUR672DN4dZSQSTcj5-SBw6jfdGnk-5LosT0Rw4OEfP3M/s535/finch3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gYSdTX91oOT1y-UP7BePGfMJ93FUxSvgwW4amVNSDqkNI-kxl0HiFDPWMOt2Ucbb5wfC3RmCo1SLPe6pD8cCoBOpWoBHJLJUR672DN4dZSQSTcj5-SBw6jfdGnk-5LosT0Rw4OEfP3M/s16000/finch3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Well, obviously less a question and more a statement disguised as one, far as this guy’s concerned the answer is a resounding <i>“Hell yeah!”</i>. Funny thing, though, is as soon as some of you saw the phrase “family friendly” - admit it - you kinda made <i>that </i>face, didn’t you? Uh huh. But I’m not talking a “so-called” family film in that beat-to-death and clichéd THE BOATNIKS, NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO way. And not that those aren’t enjoyable films with lots to offer. But they’re “so-called” in that they’re not so much “family” films as they are “kids” films. Get my meaning? Over time that’s become the defacto … and wholly inaccurate ... definition of “family film” / “family friendly”. And at the outset, before diving into the surprisingly unique, heartbreakingly-magical-and-hopeful-yet-at-the-same-time-dark-and-mature, … <i>and genuinely special</i>! ... FINCH, I’d like us to be on the same page about that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdw9j0KInR84kBrmf1kGCZrus4GJJNvmvaNEA9HKp2230dlE0wB2OxEorbdUqrPeBPM1-zrJeHriiChYPyIvXwwdrxKQkLtD-0Oa2tBA51Ou3p7V2Aj50clF1zIHDdV4rsaOySn3pdkw/s311/finch4.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdw9j0KInR84kBrmf1kGCZrus4GJJNvmvaNEA9HKp2230dlE0wB2OxEorbdUqrPeBPM1-zrJeHriiChYPyIvXwwdrxKQkLtD-0Oa2tBA51Ou3p7V2Aj50clF1zIHDdV4rsaOySn3pdkw/s16000/finch4.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L) Dir. Miguel Sapachnik / (R) Producer Robert Zemeckis</td></tr></tbody></table> Around the time of the release of BACK TO THE FUTURE III, director Robert Zemeckis, who also happens to be one of the producers of Miguel Sapochnik’s visually and emotionally gripping FINCH – at it’s core a straight up Rod Serling-esque treatise on both the light and dark nature of individual humanity - set the record straight on what a true “family film” <i>should </i>be, … which is (I mean, duh, right?) one in which not only little kids can become engrossed, but one which every member of the family – the young’ens, dark and moody teens, and even Moms, Dads, Grandmoms and Grandpops – can find themselves enjoying. And coming from the guy who knows a thing or two about grabbing the attention of every demographic within a single film – be it with one of his BACK TO THE FUTUREs, ROGER RABBIT, ROMANCING THE STONE, FORREST GUMP, CAST AWAY or whatever – I’d say he hit that nail precisely on the head. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> This is what we have with FINCH, an often disturbing yet ironically at the same time hopeful post-apocalyptic cautionary sci-fi yarn cum road trip. Think DAMNATION ALLEY without the flesh-eating cockroaches, or MAD MAX: FURY ROAD sans the guitar flamethrower, and with enough LOGAN’S RUN-esque light at the end of the journey to rope in, entertain and, yes, <i>remind </i>all (hey, I <i>did </i>say it’s Rod Serling-esque, remember?) of what in the long haul, both individually and for humanity’s future in general, ultimately matters as being most important. And isn’t this something many have been mulling over and making life change choices about since the COVID pandemic upended every-single-effin’-thing in everyone’s life over these last couple of years? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLAS76pdM81Bz8zbMCy6RzOA-KkR23_dSrYtGsAdAxMxlZZII6aYtsgdIs6Xcgk5YpgwRHrioN7NsRt6lEiIr0Q6J1Oz-F7UlxTUqfok8RmxEs4F57W2HKQfv1nde4r5K7A1GxqmMlg0/s534/finch5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLAS76pdM81Bz8zbMCy6RzOA-KkR23_dSrYtGsAdAxMxlZZII6aYtsgdIs6Xcgk5YpgwRHrioN7NsRt6lEiIr0Q6J1Oz-F7UlxTUqfok8RmxEs4F57W2HKQfv1nde4r5K7A1GxqmMlg0/s16000/finch5.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> In the not-too-distant future a major solar flare has punched enough sizable holes in the earth’s ozone layer to make the planet uninhabitable for most life - be that life human, animal or plant – with the average daytime temperature reaching approx. 150 degrees F. Among the few survivors within this near literal hellscape is Finch Weinberg (Tom Hanks), a former engineer whose intellect has allowed him to survive for years within the underground laboratory of his former employer company – a bunker out of which he regularly ventures to scour abandoned malls, etc. for food and other essentials that he might sustain the existence (one can hardly call it “life”) of himself, his dog Goodyear, and a small utility robot, kind of an advanced Mars Rover, named “Dewey”. <i>And, oh, a nice shout-out to Douglas Trumball’s SILENT RUNNING there with “Dewey”</i>👍. Anyway, … <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1FgSZF73cBAeJVPld_6j2ojF3V_EmRsicPh6rhBGJM7q1YL0DLFQDJj2zdQlENtlTWAG4Q6J1uP4Infj4j7br1pYlhs9pr_G7yXRgNHujgmjP1TeKjeQS3nzzzzHE9eBdsgAgaRu8F4/s400/finch7.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1FgSZF73cBAeJVPld_6j2ojF3V_EmRsicPh6rhBGJM7q1YL0DLFQDJj2zdQlENtlTWAG4Q6J1uP4Infj4j7br1pYlhs9pr_G7yXRgNHujgmjP1TeKjeQS3nzzzzHE9eBdsgAgaRu8F4/s16000/finch7.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Not only has the ozone decimation created a mostly scorched earth itself. But it triggers sudden and catastrophic atmospheric pressure shifts – shifts which regularly generate outbursts of hurricane-like dust storms carrying multiple tornadoes and slicing sand and debris within; the combination of which - factoring in the excessive heat as well - can flatten entire city blocks and rip to shreds anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be caught on the streets. In fact the film opens with a wowzer of an action / suspense sequence with Hanks and Dewy scrounging for supplies at the ghost of an old Dollar Store (while Don McLean’s “American Pie” heartbreakingly wafts from the old-school cassette player in Finch’s converted all terrain vehicle) and such a monster storm rolls into the city. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Finch and Dewy find themselves in said vehicle attempting to outrace the storm back to the safety of Finch’s bunker as the micro hurricane overturns abandoned vehicles and blasts to bits the remains of entire city blocks. In it’s pacing, editing, tone and uber-realistic realization of it’s visual effects (both practical and CGI) it’s surely among the most breathtaking filmic sequences of the year, and – all talk of Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE aside – this is one scene I truly wished I could’ve seen on an IMAX-sized screen rather than the – yeah, impressive, but not nearly the same thing – HDR tv screen in the home viewing room. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXyWqfCj9P196tbwkgrImoIa1DTyHTDk04tEjugH3vlx7y30bEVnYmktCHKHIQFL_x7kTBSIyPlAQhr5mvNgNOUS2ra4xtPvPwKgpF88Kgh2vISr5mydiV8tcxNKAvqCx1r2ZV2j7GUg/s601/finch10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXyWqfCj9P196tbwkgrImoIa1DTyHTDk04tEjugH3vlx7y30bEVnYmktCHKHIQFL_x7kTBSIyPlAQhr5mvNgNOUS2ra4xtPvPwKgpF88Kgh2vISr5mydiV8tcxNKAvqCx1r2ZV2j7GUg/s16000/finch10.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Now, while FINCH opens with that impressively nail-biting sequence, and while it does contain a few heart-palpitatingly suspenseful others within the confines of it’s 115 min. running time, it is most assuredly not an action suspense sci fier. So, one shouldn’t enter into it with that mindset. If you do you’ll most likely come away disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, director Miguel Sapochnik sure as hell knows how to wrap his audience around the finger of a killer action / suspense sequence, as evidenced by some of the mind boggling JOHN WICK / JOHN WOO-like razzle dazzle of his underrated 2010 future-world action flick REPO MEN with Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, as well as with some of those grand scale battle scenes he over the years staged for GAME OF THRONES. But FINCH rather quickly reveals itself to at it’s core be a more laid back, character-based “road movie” peppered with a couple of such suspense set pieces rather than an action or suspense film for the simple sake of one. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwofFMQtcspMtCsKznK8ZfU__bAAOZXmDlmcW-pe9Tz39gusfZDMEk9lae5lLT4cwrHp-S-2Ax15ZfnjU5AYOpz3xBo5cuwOwf5xiVWy10jWyHXnLhnMRjCOfD4a74P_5gBcbK-qjkHwo/s535/finch11.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwofFMQtcspMtCsKznK8ZfU__bAAOZXmDlmcW-pe9Tz39gusfZDMEk9lae5lLT4cwrHp-S-2Ax15ZfnjU5AYOpz3xBo5cuwOwf5xiVWy10jWyHXnLhnMRjCOfD4a74P_5gBcbK-qjkHwo/s16000/finch11.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sapochnik's REPO MEN (2010)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> As mentioned earlier FINCH isn't DAMNATION ALLEY or THE ROAD WARRIOR. And, even though it’s certainly more tonal and thematic kin with say David Lynch’s THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999) with Richard Farnsworth, or Roger Donaldson’s THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN (2005) with Anthony Hopkins, it’s not quite as “laid back” as those films either. It falls somewhere in-between – perhaps a little closer on the cinematic tone shelf with John Hillcoat’s 2009 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD with Viggo Mortensen, … only not quite as nilhistic. Hope I’m zooming in on the right tone here without giving away anything. Oh, yeah, one very important thing too … <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmu5b7K8kL30OL40f46Qf3QGUmEsj5xh5e6QyGpAihDGuMElPPrgFGSDUUqb3dMX4QcZfe-CBGE0KmOpwITJX54G-KnVIYTs6o4ljDXgf78evIv6A5M4XsEgL9xWQs1VuZ23RsAmYbaCM/s402/finch12.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmu5b7K8kL30OL40f46Qf3QGUmEsj5xh5e6QyGpAihDGuMElPPrgFGSDUUqb3dMX4QcZfe-CBGE0KmOpwITJX54G-KnVIYTs6o4ljDXgf78evIv6A5M4XsEgL9xWQs1VuZ23RsAmYbaCM/s16000/finch12.jpg" /></a></div><br /> A few critics have opined that <i>“… while well made, and while Hanks performance is quite good, FINCH brings nothing new to the genre of post apocalyptic films”</i>. But I’m gonna swim against that stream and say this is a superficial and narrow-minded observation born of today’s simplistic Film 101-esque <i>“Wow and surprise me with Tsui Hark action, James Cameron FX, and Rod Serling / M. Night Shyamalan-like plotlines and surprise twists, … or this film isn’t worth it”</i> mindset. No, FINCH isn’t a George Lucas, Christopher Nolan or even Alex Garland-like “narrative freight train” where <i>“This happens, then this happens, then the story shifts in this direction, then this happens, then this happens and if shifts again and …”</i>. No. And it really doesn’t expand the genre anymore than LOGAN’S RUN, THE OMEGA MAN or THE ROAD did. It has no intentions of doing so. So, if one wants to hang the <i>“doesn’t add anything new”</i> millstone around FINCH’s neck, then you also kind of have to do the same for those three aforementioned (and other) films as well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VYFK0avY3fGRDplpnkZrXaeznJutPsSVBaLCPmClx_AwuuXl1DGY-VT7S2Wn27DwXkWkza8hvmVZjxD2gWe621EVECEaerr9XeSy8iSD-daO3yXp1M2yIgx6tJVY_Tnp87YAAs2WZyY/s535/finch13.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VYFK0avY3fGRDplpnkZrXaeznJutPsSVBaLCPmClx_AwuuXl1DGY-VT7S2Wn27DwXkWkza8hvmVZjxD2gWe621EVECEaerr9XeSy8iSD-daO3yXp1M2yIgx6tJVY_Tnp87YAAs2WZyY/s16000/finch13.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Nah, FINCH is much more 1970s and 80s era old-school in that, just as back then how writer / filmmakers such as Robert Towne, John Sayles, John Milius and others used <i>“Old as the hills and twice as dusty”</i> tropes like film noir, westerns and more to make clever (and often pointed) commentary / observations on issues of the day, … and how, y’know, LOGAN’S RUN used the post apocalyptic genre to at it’s core tell an old-fashioned love story of one-to-one commitment during the era of “free love”, how THE OMEGA MAN used it’s “Last Man On Earth” post apocalyptic scenario to comment on the need for individualism in an increasingly “homogeneous” world, and how SOYLENT GREEN quite literally spoke to “social cannibalism”, etc., … . Yeah, so to also does FINCH use the tried and true (some might say “played out”) post apocalyptic filmic milieu / genre to do what is essentially a more intimate and sci fi-ish take on the biblical story of Noah’s Ark – one which, lo and behold, happens to perfectly dovetail with more than a few global warming issues of the day as well as a number of sociological concerns of our COVID era. But like LOGAN'S RUN and OMEGA MAN it does it in an entertaining and non-preachy way. Well, ... like LOGAN'S RUN does, anyway - haha! 😉</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoACEkBAhWNj26HGjhrQNwrpErmAURg5dOcPApULascfUpZkUhSr_JnoKB7FzSQAFCAktda6ZGFoYT48b9957CfukDZzWPy6qh-Glpf7179aBI5Y-zGlW9x2fyfFOIg0pmqYyW_-DUmI/s533/finch14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoACEkBAhWNj26HGjhrQNwrpErmAURg5dOcPApULascfUpZkUhSr_JnoKB7FzSQAFCAktda6ZGFoYT48b9957CfukDZzWPy6qh-Glpf7179aBI5Y-zGlW9x2fyfFOIg0pmqYyW_-DUmI/s16000/finch14.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Early on in FINCH, … in fact right after Finch and Dewey outrun the hurricane / sandstorm and make it back to Finch’s underground bunker, … we learn that Finch has been digitizing books while constructing an android, an android which later chooses as it’s own name “Jeff”. Jeff has been created so that if anything should happen to Finch, Jeff can become a receptacle or “message in a bottle” (if you will) of certain things – <i>and one task in particular!</i> (no spoilers here) – concerning mankind’s past / existence. While Finch is in the midst of doing so, weather detection indicates a massive hurricane / dust storm is on the verge of rolling in, a storm the likes of which has never occurred. Estimates are that it will last not for a few hours, as is the norm, but for 40 days, … <i>and you don’t get more Old Testament biblical than that!</i> Realizing he, Dewey, Jeff and Goodyear won’t be able to outlast the storm within the bunker, Finch makes the decision to load up a retrofitted (and truly bad-assed) RV / mobile home – sort of a less militant version of DAMNATION ALLEY’s “Landmaster” – and to head north towards San Francisco, a city which, for some reason hinted at via old postcards from family, holds personal significance for Finch. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoREZrLd0RcwJUp7z28MHbbRBpnqttzgnWpnN7u_-VVoW4AIi50p0QmHOWH4XBnssF31GjCGO64IAq-GmfGE8UiaBfru0VEPI7Ylt2Z3SdaVIs-CvQzZDzEswWCJ7cKrDo795R3WkZwQ/s534/finch15.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoREZrLd0RcwJUp7z28MHbbRBpnqttzgnWpnN7u_-VVoW4AIi50p0QmHOWH4XBnssF31GjCGO64IAq-GmfGE8UiaBfru0VEPI7Ylt2Z3SdaVIs-CvQzZDzEswWCJ7cKrDo795R3WkZwQ/s16000/finch15.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Finch, the dog and the bots load up in the RV, head north and, while braving deadly storms, human marauders and (perhaps the most dangerous of all) crippling memories from Finch’s own past, Jeff is taught how to drive (some truly funny sequences there!), how to care for dogs, and (kind of as if Pinocchio or STAR TREK’s Data had received a crash course) not only taught how to sort / sift through voluminous amounts of factual material concerning physics, biology and human history, but about the nature – both light and dark – of what it truly means to be human. In essence, while not doing the <i>“bringing two of each animal species aboard the ark in order to replenish the earth”</i> thing, Jeff becomes the “two by two” vessel which, in the ultimate event of Finch’s demise (and he’s only human and will die one day) will help to replenish (<i>“Be fruitful and multiply”</i> if you will) a sense of old-world humanity into a currently cut-throat, socially (and at times literally) cannibalistic, violent, <i>“I got mine - you get yours”</i>, <i>“dog eat dog”</i> world. So, once again a very sharp / on-point analogy (intended or not, who knows?) in the COVID era where a year ago people were ready to one up, roll over, out jockey and physically fight one another for something as simple as toilet paper. Heaven help us if we ever got / get beyond TP and to the point of basic survival supplies like food and shelter as most of the world of FINCH finds itself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUR-flA9at3j4pN2DWenMKiHLVVMwG5HvKbWSVTvv2ZXURR-ygheote5lNpZ4Yj3o_9EbEdZ74kS7kgDvbr0AzqtvHxYYYFB_CnnGfHu57Bq8KLZub4tffOTG4RGvIqZbM8IkxEgJIQI/s591/finch16.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="527" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUR-flA9at3j4pN2DWenMKiHLVVMwG5HvKbWSVTvv2ZXURR-ygheote5lNpZ4Yj3o_9EbEdZ74kS7kgDvbr0AzqtvHxYYYFB_CnnGfHu57Bq8KLZub4tffOTG4RGvIqZbM8IkxEgJIQI/s16000/finch16.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FINCH's "road movie" thematic kin: (top) DAMNATION ALLEY (1977 / dir. - Jack Smight) /<br />(bottom) THE ROAD (2009 / dir. - John Hillcoat)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> So, all said, if one wants a “new” twist on the post apocalyptic genre, well, this is a remarkable one – a character and biblically thematically based one! I’m from the 1970s where – from CHINATOWN, to BLAZING SADDLES, to THE GODFATHER and even STAR WARS - this kind of “using a cliched genre to make a new point” was the purpose of so many films. And FINCH, co-written by ALIEN / BLADE RUNNER producer Ivor Powell and (truly a Hollywood success story) Craig Luck – who just a few years ago was an on-set assistant / go-fer on films such as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROUGE NATION, SOLO, DOCTOR STRANGE and ANNIHILATION - deliberately harkens back to that 70s brand of uber-intelligent and subtextual sci fi filmmaking we got in movies like the aforementioned LOGAN’S RUN and THE OMEGA MAN, as well as others like SILENT RUNNING, the original PLANET OF THE APES series, ROLLERBALL and more. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4FD8_2onUZQ_XuYflRVBvp-GBWk3AI1y62pOnAGEv_oEPjwfGEIlrePelklyDSBer9b2CSdZfF91TUlTft-w3iDq3zZzTJ6FtGXXwdI8Zny7wQ54fI51YHvgTg47qNe-JXo1sV-vOBk/s600/finch17.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4FD8_2onUZQ_XuYflRVBvp-GBWk3AI1y62pOnAGEv_oEPjwfGEIlrePelklyDSBer9b2CSdZfF91TUlTft-w3iDq3zZzTJ6FtGXXwdI8Zny7wQ54fI51YHvgTg47qNe-JXo1sV-vOBk/s16000/finch17.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FINCH's "road movie" tonal kin: (top) THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999 / dir. - David Lynch) /<br />THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN (2005 / dir. - Roger Donaldson)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> As for the intriguingly “family friendly” aspects of this film … . Well, first off, nailing down the casting of Tom Hanks is a super important primary aspect as he automatically brings an honesty and integrity to the proceedings even before he opens his mouth. He’s an actor (and perhaps even more so nowadays) a personality / persona which, Walter Cronkite-like, is – across ethnic, political, religious and geographical boundaries - beloved and trusted by men and women of all ages and from all walks of life, and with whom children (even very young ones) have a natural affinity and warmness towards; those last qualities a large part of the reason for the success of films like the TOY STORY series and even the otherwise kinda / sorta creepy THE POLAR EXPRESS. But the stunning realization of the android Jeff is another all important family friendly aspect as well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaWS9KDKG4z12eEhCEgjnAuNZsY9RZgQEM9qZvh6y9b7adSaRRoYssE3hjVOgc_miZNNlVUWynwQQbHuiGN2XDKK-NsdxVu8mNnYTVeR7_8q_TstMxxipMLDbfaM39hwvjjsuBAHoR1o/s400/finch18c.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaWS9KDKG4z12eEhCEgjnAuNZsY9RZgQEM9qZvh6y9b7adSaRRoYssE3hjVOgc_miZNNlVUWynwQQbHuiGN2XDKK-NsdxVu8mNnYTVeR7_8q_TstMxxipMLDbfaM39hwvjjsuBAHoR1o/s16000/finch18c.jpg" /></a></div><br /> I remember working at a large independent video store in Philadelphia back during the 1980s / early 90s. And, while it was expected that kids would come in with mom and dad, glance over the shelves and go sugar-happy-ballistic-bouncy seeing the boxes for THE LITTLE MERMAID and AN AMERICAN TAIL, etc., it was genuinely surprising to see them almost have the same reaction to seeing the box for Fred Schepisi’s 1984 drama ICEMAN with John Lone, Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse and Danny Glover; or Carroll Ballard’s THE BLACK STALLION from 1979. These weren’t / aren’t “kids movies”. But the main characters in those films - from John Lone’s 40,000 year old man revived and alive in the modern world, to the titular wild Arabian horse of Ballard’s film, are primal “outsiders” among more (so-called) “have it together” adults. And there’s a connection / familiarity / point of identification which small children had / have with them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOgdrFLLvr9R_imjgZ1M-pvJzYDsmakopRAjY6t8x8FHhbZ5E_IFGAAcc2zwtiX78EdeEzO1izJN3vc-K6MPZT7RXSm7hxL3PZ3-ih6XhF6xpAqbtKrCXODL8HXwmI4IO24pE-SBT7f0o/s533/finch19.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOgdrFLLvr9R_imjgZ1M-pvJzYDsmakopRAjY6t8x8FHhbZ5E_IFGAAcc2zwtiX78EdeEzO1izJN3vc-K6MPZT7RXSm7hxL3PZ3-ih6XhF6xpAqbtKrCXODL8HXwmI4IO24pE-SBT7f0o/s16000/finch19.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> This is a rare and ethereal thing because you never really saw that kind of “affinity” from kids for Jeff Bridges’ similarly primal and childlike STARMAN. But you do also see it in how to this day small children react to the character of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (the most popular comic book character with very small kids) and even to Robert Zemeckis’ CAST AWAY, … in particular the “character” of Wilson the inanimate volleyball – who (well, actually <i>which</i>) is brought to “life” more from Tom Hanks’ performance opposite him / it than anything else. The same exact thing with Hanks and the android Jeff. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuHbKTc4nHJsBGgkUB6zq4tD6ga7YNVUPGtK6rmuwAedM42jRsV1oZMSn_csGguYB5d2giapPF5n1j5jMbmx6Dx6_fhF6b__Zlrrp1qrB_1GQqTLMCM5KkSeeYWrz-9kXsxoaInGOSbA/s535/finch20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuHbKTc4nHJsBGgkUB6zq4tD6ga7YNVUPGtK6rmuwAedM42jRsV1oZMSn_csGguYB5d2giapPF5n1j5jMbmx6Dx6_fhF6b__Zlrrp1qrB_1GQqTLMCM5KkSeeYWrz-9kXsxoaInGOSbA/s16000/finch20.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Jeff is essentially a newborn child who has to learn <i>every</i>thing. And as such he’s got a zillion questions, is often eager to please – sometimes dangerously too much so, occasionally impetuous, has his feelings easily hurt; and needs the patience, understanding … and at times firm hand … of a loving parent. Realized as partially a live on-set performance by X-MEN: FIRST CLASS / GET OUT actor Caleb Landry Jones in a “robot suit”, and partially via motion capture and CGI, in FINCH Jeff not only emerges as arguably the most engaging and lovable android since R2 and 3PO escape-podded their way into our hearts almost 45 years ago. But the relationship between him (yes, I'll use that word) and Hanks becomes the perfect eternal Father’s Day gift from the cinematic gods (yeah, this definitely goes on the “Best Father’s Day” movies list alongside A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, A BRONX TALE, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) as both kids and adults can - perhaps paradoxically - tap into the reality at hand within a larger than life science fiction based tale. The reality of love, protection and direction from a very imperfect parent seeking to prepare loved ones for a day when the parent will no longer be there, and the young’ens will have to care for themselves in a harsh / cruel world. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHce1PK44ycFB46GetSiH_4OxXNYPLa3zqRQsqkfhOxxhemEt_cOjBRE2HFRbnAK_l_ZZvSu1TwlJnf3HFFWLceYO_X6PAanJraRKHo7OcUjSMPRWIRMIZ2wlt0FZnAvq0abIPlKljwQ/s535/finch21.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHce1PK44ycFB46GetSiH_4OxXNYPLa3zqRQsqkfhOxxhemEt_cOjBRE2HFRbnAK_l_ZZvSu1TwlJnf3HFFWLceYO_X6PAanJraRKHo7OcUjSMPRWIRMIZ2wlt0FZnAvq0abIPlKljwQ/s16000/finch21.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Suspenseful, funny, mysterious and scary,<i> and with a dog, robots and more!</i> ... . Hey, <i>that’s</i> a road movie for the entire family. And in it’s intelligence and heart – for me at least – one which just might rate as the best film - sci fi or not, for families or otherwise - of the year <i>period</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBMXWv0R7yg8hs16m2RW9aM5ydbfobvdmb1kDZgYY-X2KefHw2CFarKQLBYerKsntf_-tyofI69U9Xlofrj-J8j7z5wOjFQo3FoWxbjoqSjfsLTyA5rCBXr6ZCRU4lc5ytIdYv740y5s/s320/finch22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBMXWv0R7yg8hs16m2RW9aM5ydbfobvdmb1kDZgYY-X2KefHw2CFarKQLBYerKsntf_-tyofI69U9Xlofrj-J8j7z5wOjFQo3FoWxbjoqSjfsLTyA5rCBXr6ZCRU4lc5ytIdYv740y5s/s16000/finch22.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> CEJ </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More @ ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">ARTICLES / LINKS - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">* Variety: <a href="https://variety.com/2021/artisans/awards/tom-hanks-finch-visual-effects-1235110066/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcff01;">HOW "FINCH"'S VISUAL FX TEAM COMBINED PRACTICAL ELEMENTS TO BUILD TOM HANK'S DROID (11/11/21 - by Jazz Tangcay)</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">* Hollywood Outbreak.com: <a href="https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2021/11/11/finch-took-tom-hanks-into-the-great-outdoors/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcff01;">"FINCH" TOOK TOM HANKS INTO THE GREAT OUTDOORS (11/11/21) </span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">* Deadline: <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/11/apple-record-finch-tom-hanks-greyhound-streamer-most-watched-film-1234871353/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcff01;">APPLE LOVING TOM HANKS AS NEW RELEASE "FINCH" ECLIPSES "GREYHOUND" TO BECOME STREAMER'S MOST WATCHED OPENING (11/10/21 - by Mike Fleming, Jr.)</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">VIDEO FEATURETTES - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"> FINCH trailer (2021 / 2:41 mins.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-0bYWnP3jH4" width="320" youtube-src-id="-0bYWnP3jH4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">MAKING OF "FINCH": BEST OF BEHIND THE SCENES, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">AND ON-SET INTERVIEW WITH TOM HANKS (2021 / 8:42 mins)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAgw01Z5cBw" width="320" youtube-src-id="tAgw01Z5cBw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">*Spoilers*</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">"FINCH" DIRECTOR REVEALS THE ORIGINAL ENDING OF </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">THE FILM AND WHY IT CHANGED (2021 / 16:25 mins.)</span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1GjgIesaJM" width="320" youtube-src-id="s1GjgIesaJM"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">Jimmy Kimmel Live: TOM HANKS ON GOING TO </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">SPACE, NEW MOVIE "FINCH", AND THE PASSING </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">OF HIS DEAR FRIEND PETER SCOLARI (2021 / 17:55 mins.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0mTXbsQ0OGE" width="320" youtube-src-id="0mTXbsQ0OGE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><span style="color: orange;"><b>Vaulted Treasures</b> is part of <b>The GullCottage / Sandlot</b> - a film blog, </span></div><div><span style="color: orange;">cinema magazine, </span><span style="color: orange;">growing reference library and online network </span></div><div><span style="color: orange;"><i>"Celebrating The Art of Cinema, </i></span><i style="color: orange;">... And Cinema As Art"</i></div><div><span style="color: orange;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="color: orange;">Explore The GullCottage / Sandlot @</span></div><div><a href="http://www.gullcottageonline.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">http://www.gullcottageonline.com</span></a></div></div>Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-4373404485009203162021-08-30T03:01:00.010-04:002021-08-30T13:21:21.756-04:00ARE PHRASES LIKE “CANCEL CULTURE” & “VIRTUE SIGNALING” GREAT WHITE HYPE, … AND MERELY THE CRIES OF THE CUCKOLD? WHAAAA? - by CEJ<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CaivsFXbqfoBzlz9-KkQ-DVYbCkntY-CyS9UF8lSrWhRFEOVPqgtflxIy6HeqbVamwcCyUttDhwuAdZbsMLIcVPpPtX67c6IPShQsnJ9fky4OmD-zH50YnvczHf9y1UsXEfKYcnNJAs/s534/cancel1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CaivsFXbqfoBzlz9-KkQ-DVYbCkntY-CyS9UF8lSrWhRFEOVPqgtflxIy6HeqbVamwcCyUttDhwuAdZbsMLIcVPpPtX67c6IPShQsnJ9fky4OmD-zH50YnvczHf9y1UsXEfKYcnNJAs/s16000/cancel1.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00Aqc6lN_WlxFTwcy5OtKC6UoAQnOGDf4XNhHxrY0pZIK-sInR6tQnOzW3ATLZSoSszwhTiwE5l9uNW7vd5o5DoHVXqvYqPoC7JgEpjxjCkIHM9AiLcx6pJuQ9BqnIgTp1dlE3gab2R4/s320/BLOGheadShot.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="320" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg00Aqc6lN_WlxFTwcy5OtKC6UoAQnOGDf4XNhHxrY0pZIK-sInR6tQnOzW3ATLZSoSszwhTiwE5l9uNW7vd5o5DoHVXqvYqPoC7JgEpjxjCkIHM9AiLcx6pJuQ9BqnIgTp1dlE3gab2R4/w400-h291/BLOGheadShot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> With trenches being dug in recent days over the “canceling” of everything from Pepe LePew and that handful of Dr. Suess books, to THE MANDALORIAN’s Gina Carano and more, an intriguingly apt (if somewhat off-color) analogy occurred to me the other day – cuck porn. For those unfamiliar with the term (… <i>or those pretending to be unfamiliar with it</i>), I’ll let the esteemed <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/cuck-definition" target="_blank">GQ magazine define it as their verbiage is considerably more “journalistic scholarly”</a> (or at the very least more polite) than mine. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <i> “Cuck has its roots in cuckold, an old-fashioned term for a man whose wife is having sex with another man. Because everything is porn eventually, this soon became an X-rated genre of its own with a (usually white) guy watching impassively while his wife has sex with another guy, who's often, but not always, black. Porn with racial tension that plays to a white man's insecurities about his ‘possessions’ being taken from him?” </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI27BnbzUkj0UTTUW-GigptM-O4AWchp2Rjg55kVRJ_QxUjmdKy6h4vpuCaCe89kv9vxDdgUU1FO9GFM_JsWS8T_7TPdr6g1k84eXtCyhiuYFMcOEm0UDZ6zIDIxEZnfwjZ1doB_tEWmE/s370/cancel4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="370" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI27BnbzUkj0UTTUW-GigptM-O4AWchp2Rjg55kVRJ_QxUjmdKy6h4vpuCaCe89kv9vxDdgUU1FO9GFM_JsWS8T_7TPdr6g1k84eXtCyhiuYFMcOEm0UDZ6zIDIxEZnfwjZ1doB_tEWmE/w400-h329/cancel4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> Now, we could end this piece right there and the point would be made quite clearly. But let’s add another link to this chain – an economic / historical one. After 9/11 Paramount Pictures decided to yank DVD copies of it’s 1976 Dino DeLaurentiis’ version of KING KONG from stores, and to replace the jacket sleeve image - that famously awesome John Berkey poster art with Kong astride the World Trade Towers, surrounded by helicopters and fighter jets, with Jessica Lange in one hand and an exploding plane in the other - because it felt that image might be uncomfortably troublesome for many still sensitive to the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack. So, was that “cancel culture” (long before the term was coined), or a corporate decision by an intellectual property owner maybe partially doing it out of genuine altruistic social concern, but <i>certainly</i>, ... <i>undoubtedly, ... </i>and <i>mostly </i>concerned about how the marketability of their product, if <i>un</i>changed, would now fare in a world which <i>had </i>changed? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> We could end right there too. But for the hell of it let’s add even a few more links. At any rate, none of this is new, and, contrary to the cries of many - in regards to (so-called) "woke-ness" and the demand for a more balanced depiction in media regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation - not much has actually changed over the last 50 or so years. If anything it seems that only the colors, be they white, black, yellow, … <i>but mostly green</i>, … have. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVBiZhm7UCcsMljbCAbMR6G5AZCbqTISPOQBD0LgVFVodasFW9Ayjvxg7oBSKc5mZv8_VrtsBsL1eqsU2Hx5JbEXbelhDjT7qUsQqlwjAsL132wEaEPl-lMKGccarZiLDiVJE_N4vDS8s/s546/cancel5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVBiZhm7UCcsMljbCAbMR6G5AZCbqTISPOQBD0LgVFVodasFW9Ayjvxg7oBSKc5mZv8_VrtsBsL1eqsU2Hx5JbEXbelhDjT7qUsQqlwjAsL132wEaEPl-lMKGccarZiLDiVJE_N4vDS8s/s16000/cancel5.jpg" title="original 1976 KING KONG poster campaign (art byk John Berkey)" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original 1976 KING KONG poster campaign (art by John Berkey)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;"> VIRTUE SIGNALING, P.C.-NESS. AND KOWTOWING, ... </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">OR LOOKING OUT FOR ONE'S OWN MUTLI-BILLION DOLLAR CORPORATE ASS?</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB01jP3qRGhiK7gnNUxLno6icYsy-lWYNqM336gNWXXnr-35UuLouk3anvK4g6QTXLsf5RkddL1htjUNbWnRoEoR1fd6t0udWkEn7HLEvSe8rQzSf3foQ41_yyyUPod1qr-hBvkkKe7wA/s500/cancel22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB01jP3qRGhiK7gnNUxLno6icYsy-lWYNqM336gNWXXnr-35UuLouk3anvK4g6QTXLsf5RkddL1htjUNbWnRoEoR1fd6t0udWkEn7HLEvSe8rQzSf3foQ41_yyyUPod1qr-hBvkkKe7wA/s16000/cancel22.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> I stand 6’5”. Years ago I worked at a restaurant as a waiter, and there was a span of about three months where I noticed that whenever I entered the kitchen I was stooping because some of the large ventilation and air conditioning duct work was ever-so-slowly beginning to lower from it's ceiling brackets. Over the weeks (and months) I noticed I was stooping more and more, and I mentioned this, ... and that concerning duct work ... to management, yet nothing happened. Well, nothing happened <i>until, ... </i>haha! I was off for about three days, came back, noticed the duct work had finally been corrected (and it looked damn nice!), and I made what I thought was a joke, saying, <i>“What happened, did it finally get low enough for one of the managers to hit their head, and they decided, ‘Yeah, we’d better get that sh*t fixed?’”</i>. When everyone looked at me with <i>that </i>look I realized that’s <i>exactly </i>what had happened. OOPS! So, yeah, it’s kinda unfortunately the lamer part of human nature to not really notice (or sometimes even give a damn) about something until it affects us personally. Which brings us back to the “cuck” analogy. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_TkiWTKC2NbET5CX6cyn47rVN78CeXg_26hHvOm6ZzPid7FQOspYPGmKpt-smBLo_P0uNlRaiVEDTeI2xKCp3lwDAztBlu0aOG23TeDHOwOjiE0g3maFudWRnltkZNoxluKeEIHMG9o/s936/cancel6.v1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj_TkiWTKC2NbET5CX6cyn47rVN78CeXg_26hHvOm6ZzPid7FQOspYPGmKpt-smBLo_P0uNlRaiVEDTeI2xKCp3lwDAztBlu0aOG23TeDHOwOjiE0g3maFudWRnltkZNoxluKeEIHMG9o/s16000/cancel6.v1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The LGTBQ lifestyle is "dangerous" and "not to be trusted" in<br />FREEBIE AND THE BEAN (1974) and CRUISING (1980)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Many - and, yeah, some of you reading this right now - love bitching and moaning about how “nowadays” movies and audiences do (or don’t do anymore) this or that. Y’know, looking back fondly on a time before (how does it go?) <i>“Hollywood became the home of chickenshit, apologetic, cancel culture virtue signaling”</i>, etc. But I gotta tell you it cracks me up how (I’ll use the word too) <i>nowadays </i>many of<i> </i>these same people - most often white hetero men - put their ignorance on display by “fondly looking back” on a film industry time which existed before many of them were even born, and of which they've only recently become "aware" because last night they happened to catch a film on TCM, Showtime or Prime that got them all fired up. Yeah, there are older whiners too, also usually white hetero men. But the younger ones are really hilariously irritating in proving the old adage that "A <i>little bit</i> of information can be a dangerous thing". </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Case in point, in the last year I’ve read a few postings by people who after recently seeing films such as Richard Rush’s FREEBIE AND THE BEAN (1974) or William Friedkin’s CRUISING (1980) went on hubris-filled, piss-and-wind tears about how <i>“In today’s Hollywood, with all the virtue signaling, you just couldn’t make a film like this”</i>. Well, I love FREEBIE AND THE BEAN too (not so much CRUISING), but technically you really couldn't make those films back then either. I mean, I remember when they opened. Both were box office bombs, critics tore them apart as being among the worst films ever made by those respective filmmakers (particularly CRUISING, which was kind of the flip side of Friedkin's acclaimed THE BOYS IN THE BAND ten years prior), and both were very publicly and loudly protested for their depictions of the gay community. So was the 1968 Frank Sinatra film THE DETECTIVE, by the way. The only difference is that back then no one gave a leapin’ sh*t about the opinions of those doing the protesting.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyPhRUMsT0H2z8jmgy0gyuHKOfiZ8PGcGSq80jfzjLAZjtdQqQbCjsZek1t8OTKC8h3EDvwx-4H3CoJCskIoPiGlgm5m2qp5Zcp_sHItDpp0zNgI-3V_ycDH5ZHSua2BfEz46FU5HEGg/s500/cancel7.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIyPhRUMsT0H2z8jmgy0gyuHKOfiZ8PGcGSq80jfzjLAZjtdQqQbCjsZek1t8OTKC8h3EDvwx-4H3CoJCskIoPiGlgm5m2qp5Zcp_sHItDpp0zNgI-3V_ycDH5ZHSua2BfEz46FU5HEGg/s16000/cancel7.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">THE DETECTIVE (1968)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Today, however, it’s not just the “white heterosexual male dollars” which drive the economy. And if there’s any kind of “woke”ness going on, it’s simply the age-old one of companies waking up to the fact that certain demographics – be they Black, women, Asian, Latino, LGTBQ, etc. - represent a huge buying block which (because of skewed metrics) they never realized or chose to acknowledged before. So, not taking anything away from those in corporate leadership positions who truly want to enact more positive social change. But more than anything, though, it’s a simple "1+1=2" matter as to why <i>now </i>corporate entities are more open to listening to the concerns of those demographics when once upon a time they weren’t nearly as inclined to do so. It’s more about bottom line bucks than it is about “wokeness”. So, how ‘bout deleting that lame-assed defacto argument from your gueue, because it's a rather impotent one these days? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZNkd2uEhgTxii9lG5XmjFwElEKogpShzxGJ-CUBgny3MNgQS8O8iHKK489Lx9lu9SFfSgwFGOYeyyqPHaZRXAQrtishWsh-TKvWGGXgIIGJD5S5zwF_FR-7pf3I0G-V9DQmBW0Jqmr4/s450/cancel25.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZNkd2uEhgTxii9lG5XmjFwElEKogpShzxGJ-CUBgny3MNgQS8O8iHKK489Lx9lu9SFfSgwFGOYeyyqPHaZRXAQrtishWsh-TKvWGGXgIIGJD5S5zwF_FR-7pf3I0G-V9DQmBW0Jqmr4/s16000/cancel25.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AUNT JEMIMA brand's (at the time) newly revamped ad campaign,<br />launched at the 1933 World's Fair</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> The same exact thing with other “problematic” corporate properties like THE SONG OF THE SOUTH, the name “Washington Redskins”, the depiction of the do-ragged, mammy-like AUNT JEMIMA, Christopher Columbus statues, Confederate flags outside state and federal office buildings and more. None of these protests are new. People have been raising Cain about them for decades and beyond. Only now, with an acknowledgment of the economic power of the dollars of these once ignored groups, have these concerns finally reached a point of being addressed. So, just like with the duct work in the restaurant and the managers, just because you may have only <i>now </i>noticed the controversy behind some of these things because it’s had an effect on something close to you, doesn’t mean any of this is new or represents “wokeness”, “kowtowing”, “virtue signaling” or anything else. It just means you didn't know, weren't aware and / or just didn't give a damn either way until today. So, that's more a factor of your own personal ignorance, and not that of a suddenly "woke" society. Let's be very clear on that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yp8WGubi2AZANcPovPyHnpXc9SjTXH99zXEY7tmjwbSwIMcUQisAeI29njH4-CYdgjBFmaYO5bySYiLXbzqHl2eAm5GyBwnsllJEZuFnL267iYXqr3DJMzUXl-fbypO3FEK2E6-Vmvg/s500/cancel8.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yp8WGubi2AZANcPovPyHnpXc9SjTXH99zXEY7tmjwbSwIMcUQisAeI29njH4-CYdgjBFmaYO5bySYiLXbzqHl2eAm5GyBwnsllJEZuFnL267iYXqr3DJMzUXl-fbypO3FEK2E6-Vmvg/s16000/cancel8.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left) SONG OF THE SOUTH - 1946 / (right) Well, ... you get the idea. </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Once again this brings us back to the “cuck” analogy wherein it’s all about <i>“a (usually white) guy watching impassively while his wife has sex with another guy, who's often, but not always, black. Porn with racial tension that plays to <u>a white man's insecurities about his ‘possessions’ being taken from him</u>”</i>. Only in today’s entertainment industry the analogous “wife” is the corporate entity / studio, the “black man” is the demographic previously ignored but now pleasuring her to multiple orgasms, and the insecure “husband” terrified at his loss of what back in “the good ‘ol days” was his power is / are those who are “fondly looking back” on a time when that economic power / influence wasn’t (oh, what the hell) as flacid as it is today. Yeah, perhaps a bit too Freudian an analogy. But it’s not an entirely inaccurate one, is it? Don’t take my word for it, though. How ‘bout we crunch some actual numbers? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">THE LAND WHERE DEAD PRESIDENTS RULE (THAT'S MONEY, </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">AND NOT THE 1995 FILM, BTW)</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NoRtnVnAv-E6BREuK8ZseCYVBnyu6KcjbHVui3Z0KT9gsYywcp0rpmoTaZAQ8ywudeUTddTe7TccvQQkLaq3h3GfxYp6Eu9p1sZABMoz4YTgi0ukL0yFZTuwdPblGje5DD5YqiA-tWE/s525/cancel16.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="525" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NoRtnVnAv-E6BREuK8ZseCYVBnyu6KcjbHVui3Z0KT9gsYywcp0rpmoTaZAQ8ywudeUTddTe7TccvQQkLaq3h3GfxYp6Eu9p1sZABMoz4YTgi0ukL0yFZTuwdPblGje5DD5YqiA-tWE/s16000/cancel16.jpg" /></a></div><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Once upon a time (back in the 50s - 60s, and even to a degree into the 70s and 80s) the world media economy catered to what it felt was it's largest and most powerful demographic - those aforementioned white heterosexual males. Y’know, the bread-winner. The one who put the gas in the car. Hell, the one who bought the car, the lawn and the lawnmower and the house upon which it all stood and / or around which it was all centered. But in recent years the world has become much smaller – one where (as we’re primarily talking the entertainment industry) the average studio film will now pull in 70% (and sometimes more) of it's revenue from countries outside the U.S. In fact in 2018, the year of A STAR IS BORN, BLACK PANTHER, BLAKKKLANSMAN, INFINITY WAR, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and GREEN BOOK, of the $41.66 billion taken in at the global box office, $29.8 billion of it was non-domestic (came in from foreign territories). (2014) <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20130620-is-china-hollywoods-future" target="_blank">How the global box office is changing Hollywood - BBC Culture</a> / (2019) <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/01/highest-grossing-movie-studios-2018-record-international-global-box-office-market-share-chart-analysis-2019-forecast-1202528459/" target="_blank">2018 Global/Overseas Box Office Studio Rankings, 2019 Forecast – Chart – Deadline</a> . Also keep in mind that recent economic projections have been zooming in on the fact that the continent of Africa and the region of Southeast Asia have been deemed two of the largest potential growth markets of this century in general, and not just in relation to the entertainment industry, ... which (of course) in time ultimately becomes a part of that assessment. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7P6k-U3jo8BQrcy8tWBq_l-WZL1EnTOsh1rMtqPjIu4iNkzFcUEmTV4uStyE5srdVQGLWsLIFJ8DvINsUD27ShWLaFvuqWlKmRc3A3rdoMbDGh8vkAwNUQazCNvjYQNR3y7zLFQQ7wc/s475/cancel10.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7P6k-U3jo8BQrcy8tWBq_l-WZL1EnTOsh1rMtqPjIu4iNkzFcUEmTV4uStyE5srdVQGLWsLIFJ8DvINsUD27ShWLaFvuqWlKmRc3A3rdoMbDGh8vkAwNUQazCNvjYQNR3y7zLFQQ7wc/s16000/cancel10.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2018's record breaking BLACK PANTHER</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> In the U.S. it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple to deduce how the conception of economic demographics has drastically shifted over the last, hell … 20 years. Simply take a look at how many prime time TV commercials (and not just those on “specialized” networks like BET, LIFETIME, etc.) are selling everything from cars to pizza to home mortgages with spots featuring interracial, same sex, Asian, Latino and other non-white / non-hetero couples. Yeah, once upon a time corporate industry and media felt it didn't have to give a damn about the complaints of many “minority” groups. But now to continue to adhere to that ancient attitude is economic suicide. Many have been protesting and raising hell about GONE WITH THE WIND, Pepe Le Pew and more for the last 50 years. This isn't new. The only thing that <i>is</i> new is that corporations are finally starting to take those complaints seriously because they now know where their financial bread is buttered. And, oh, hey, I hate, hate, <i>hate</i> to say it, … but it’s an age thing too. Yup, we're talkin' about those goddamned Millennials! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrIX6QjhUYn_v4jQshlUwmkrcyzlghyphenhyphenOcZX1nq03sGvksVijuz2AZ-JO86sTzV3hxcCLqyTSM1Qhut6roMlVY23owd_6DaxQiOecg4hpQOpgO0XWpXdebQLrzMBmK1cu3YVX_1vMAMY4/s475/cancel11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrIX6QjhUYn_v4jQshlUwmkrcyzlghyphenhyphenOcZX1nq03sGvksVijuz2AZ-JO86sTzV3hxcCLqyTSM1Qhut6roMlVY23owd_6DaxQiOecg4hpQOpgO0XWpXdebQLrzMBmK1cu3YVX_1vMAMY4/s16000/cancel11.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Say what you will about that smartphone-addicted, “touchy, feely” cultural cabal of young’ns born after 1980. But did you know that in 2020 Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomers as the largest living adult population, and clocked in with a buying power estimated to be approx. $1.4 trillion annually? As the old saying goes (my old generation’s saying, I guess), <i>“That ain’t chicken feed”</i>. And while, yes, you certainly have Millennials as culturally tunnel-visioned as any of their parents or grandparents, on the whole they tend to be more open minded and desirous of change when it comes to social, racial, environmental and economic issues. As such, one has to realistically ask <i>“Are the changes happening now simply ‘virtue signaling’ and uber PC-minded ‘cancel culture’”</i>, or are they- like Paramount’s decision on it’s KING KONG World Trade Center imagery - simply wise corporate decision making? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN00tStaJmwSxPG2JKFubLHok65qKh9H1WfonmHQFB_nPd-OXSDlRdb4Lc0wuIMo9Sftvd24NSIRK5KoBHH9mwPNr8d2LS1wFOQDYm6QOf5JTr8TNhB6BjLcq-meyjIvEuSPie59WNhVM/s475/cancel12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN00tStaJmwSxPG2JKFubLHok65qKh9H1WfonmHQFB_nPd-OXSDlRdb4Lc0wuIMo9Sftvd24NSIRK5KoBHH9mwPNr8d2LS1wFOQDYm6QOf5JTr8TNhB6BjLcq-meyjIvEuSPie59WNhVM/s16000/cancel12.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Let’s be totally straight-up, common sense for real here, huh? With over $40+ billion annually at stake, and most of it coming in from so-called “minority” demographics (LGTBQ, women, Black, Asian, Latino, etc.) around the world, do you honestly think any rational and intelligently thinking corporate exec will risk a nickel of that because of the dumb-assed statement or action (using the “N” word, referring to someone as a “f*g”, being busted as a sexual harasser, flying a Confederate flag on their social media page, making a joke about rape, take your pick – there are so many!) of some actor, singer or other individual? Would <i>you </i>risk it with <i>your </i>money!? Going back to those many years in restaurants, I can pretty much say, <i>“Hell, no!”</i>, most wouldn’t. The average Joe or Jane Schmoe (and not just some Hollywood corporate exec) is pretty damned particular, careful, ... <i>and often downright stingy</i> ... when it comes to their own hard earned nickels and pennies. Hell, I’ve seen customers poorly tip the waiter because they were pissed they were seated next to a table which was too loud (something outside the waiter’s purview), or who refused to tip - or even wanted fired - the hostess or coat check girl because they felt she didn’t smile enough. And this is for a check under $100, and not a $41 billion corporate purse. So, can we please just knock off the faux righteous indignation posturing? Oh, and in conclusion (yeah, finally – <i>haha!</i>), as for that ever-recurring bitch / moan, faux "just and righteous" complaint about how <i>“All of this ‘virtue signaling’, ‘cancel culture’, etc. is the death of artistic integrity”</i>... . Please! Do you wanna <i>really </i>go there? Okay, ... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">WHITEWASHING, <i>TRULY </i>CANCELED CULTURES, … </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400;">AND THE “RUBBERBAND EFFECT” </span></b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym1MJLjTWZQ3yxBo-kZNAP9hq_KcWPJFfZtrbIgNISljjrptHguPhkIDnCrXFdh69EbqgwjOkaMGnqyMO5CTLzIfmc3XKY0jANnS_uece-Ak7pZryyT0NW0yzF7j0SxswU0fx4hJu3mQ/s400/cancel13.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym1MJLjTWZQ3yxBo-kZNAP9hq_KcWPJFfZtrbIgNISljjrptHguPhkIDnCrXFdh69EbqgwjOkaMGnqyMO5CTLzIfmc3XKY0jANnS_uece-Ak7pZryyT0NW0yzF7j0SxswU0fx4hJu3mQ/s16000/cancel13.jpg" /></a></div><br /> It’s ultra-ironically-hilarious (that is, when it’s not so enraging) to hear cucks … . I’m sorry, I mean to hear those complaining about “virtue signaling” and “rampant canceling” attempt to use the final option, “Hail, Mary”, can’t-pull-anything-else-out-of-the-basket excuse of how this “new culture” will be / is the death of artistic integrity and free speech, and that it’s censorship, blah, blah, blah. <i>Ehhhh, … no</i>. Cut the b.s. and back up off of that! As said earlier, none of these complaints concerning the depictions of minorities, gays, women, etc. is anything new. They’ve been around since forever. You and others just never gave a damn until they finally started to threaten the status quo of something you enjoy. So, there’s that. But when you try to fly the “artistic integrity” and “anti virtue signaling” flag when a film is remade or a franchise character’s race or gender is altered from previous versions, … but you never said a damn thing about how until Antonio Banderas in 1998 the character of Zorro had never ever been portrayed by a Latino (but by white actors) in an American film or tv series, … . Or how (with a few notable exceptions) Shakespeare’s legendary Moor character OTHELLO was seldom portrayed by a black man, but rather by white actors in blackface (such as Olivier, Welles, etc.) in both major filmic and stage productions over the last century … . Or how Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo from 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA had in every major American film until 2003’s THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN been altered / changed from Verne’s conception of a character of Indian ethnicity to an erudite Englishman portrayed by the likes of James Mason, Herbert Lom, Michael Caine, etc. ... . And how it wasn't until after nearly 100 years of Nemo being portrayed in film that THE LEAGUE finally featured an Indian actor - acclaimed stage and screen performer / director Naseeruddin Shah - in the role ... . Well, if you really want to talk about <i>truly </i>canceled cultures, then, yeah, okay, let's do so. And we can start <i>right here </i>and now<i> </i>by asking the question <i>"Where were your 'artistic integrity' concerns while all of this and more was going down every time you turned on the tv or bought a movie ticket over the years?". </i>Artistic hypocrisy's a cold and ironic little bitch, isn't she?<i> </i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKMu0cncIxUNQquiUj4gXse5mXIzSFyPFsCZvUHzmq8N2cWXxSE2xLqOgs4pSD8FW0MH8yaJqOL_vtMEjjei9EUSm1AJfrI0QgJuHGPV4K64_j4vqCV_G1K9Pftv05jEFHKUvMO_OKso/s425/cancel14.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKMu0cncIxUNQquiUj4gXse5mXIzSFyPFsCZvUHzmq8N2cWXxSE2xLqOgs4pSD8FW0MH8yaJqOL_vtMEjjei9EUSm1AJfrI0QgJuHGPV4K64_j4vqCV_G1K9Pftv05jEFHKUvMO_OKso/s16000/cancel14.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Now, are there those who take P.C.-ness to ridiculous heights? Of course there are. And there have always been such people. I remember growing up in the 70s when there were parents groups circulating petitions to get THE THREE STOOGES banned (or at least edited) on local tv because of the “violence” in them. And certain groups have since forever been attempting to have books like THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN and others banned. This isn’t new either, but has been going on damn near since these classics were first published. But for every one bass-akward school district or library which attempts to do so, another 20 libraries and school districts celebrate those and other novels by having annual "Banned Books Celebrations" to encourage people to read them for themselves. But that's not what you see or read within the echo chamber of social media when the cucks complain about “cancel culture”. No, to them this is all a new (and therefore dangerous) phenomenon. The same with movies being presented with some kind of contextual introduction. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> Anyone remember the "disclaimers" which ran during the first network tv airings of THE GODFATHER (in November 1977) and DePalma's SCARFACE (January 1989) - placed there when Italian-American and Cuban-American groups raised concerns about the films’ depictions of the respective races? Even during it’s production SCARFACE was something of a socio-political hot potato – especially in the Miami, Florida locations where much of it was filmed. It’s amazing how these relatively not-too-long-ago examples are conveniently forgotten when bitching and moaning about the “alarming <i>new </i>trend” of “virtue signaling”. (April 2018) <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/revisiting-the-controversy-surrounding-scarface.html" target="_blank">Revisiting The Controversy Surrounding Scarface (vulture.com)</a> . And as for films presented / broadcast with a contexualized introduction, and how such an intro is supposedly <i>“demeaning to the audience, and assumes they aren’t sharp enough to ‘get it’ on their own”</i>, well … </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJ2p_U9ZsQIN7JaXKeTU7WXpeJk6bMlMgc4XiGiFtVyrBYOyTRpTSgKHsiY9YX27tccujtrhHfGUqoS-eR_49wxegc7J99ZAYrPk3LC7of0eZAK9keerL_FD8VuWRU6VvqX3lVaEVQoU/s525/cancel15.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="525" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJ2p_U9ZsQIN7JaXKeTU7WXpeJk6bMlMgc4XiGiFtVyrBYOyTRpTSgKHsiY9YX27tccujtrhHfGUqoS-eR_49wxegc7J99ZAYrPk3LC7of0eZAK9keerL_FD8VuWRU6VvqX3lVaEVQoU/s16000/cancel15.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left) THE GODFATHER - 1972 / (right) SCARFACE - 1983</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> That’s what they've been doing on TCM and other networks for the last 30 years with every film anyway - y'know, with intros by Ben Mankiewicz, the late Robert Osborne and even guest hosts like Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollock, Ellen Barkin, Spike Lee, Hugh Hefner, Tom Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, David Mamet and others. Ever step out of your narrow social media echo-chamber where everyone speaks the same thing, I mean, just long enough to hear Scorsese talk about the racism of John Wayne's character in THE SEARCHERS? Or about the technical mastery but thematic / philosophical disgust with the racism of D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION? This ain't new. And Scorsese - since his career began - has always been very vocal about the need to view these kinds of films within the proper context. <i>And he loves THE SEARCHERS!</i> It's one of his favorites. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> So, how 'bout we not just automatically toss everything under the convenient (and wholly inaccurate) umbrella of "cancel culture" or “virtue signaling” when the actual accurate truth is that every situation is unique unto itself. Yeah, I know actually taking the time and effort and energy to really, genuinely think sometimes in shades of gray, and not just simplistic “either / or” black & white, can be cumbersome and time consuming, … and may even ruin a great meme which on the surface seems to roll off the tongue. But if you really want to make a valid point (and not just guzzle your own backwash), then that kind of critical thinking <i>is </i>a necessary adjunct. And as for those occasions when sometimes over / uber P.C.-ness seems to be taking things to extremes? … </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNlRIIvb44a5MdLKI00ESFnPCIWhCUBSq-U_VvWjMTflJUNxJgWTaPG-w2y2yN3cBg3lr8LKOr8RKrpNCCb7yj7ZKWeh3Dd1fCqSf0hjGOLGTzXlxvVKrna0Or0XDiFyrDR1THagC9zU/s530/cancel17.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNlRIIvb44a5MdLKI00ESFnPCIWhCUBSq-U_VvWjMTflJUNxJgWTaPG-w2y2yN3cBg3lr8LKOr8RKrpNCCb7yj7ZKWeh3Dd1fCqSf0hjGOLGTzXlxvVKrna0Or0XDiFyrDR1THagC9zU/s16000/cancel17.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left) John Ford's THE SEARCHERS - 1956 / <br />(right) D.W. Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION - 1915</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Yeah, on those occasions you call that extremism out. But you do it intelligently – using history and economics and more - and not just by whining like the proverbial little bitch because you heard talk through the grapevine, or you read a posting that someone shared … <i>which was shared by another, then shared and shared again ad infinitum like the online version of whispering something to the person next to you on the school bus</i>, … that a cartoon or movie you last saw maybe twenty years ago is having an intro attached to it. By “intelligently” I’m also talking about understanding that umbrella of what I’ve over the years come to refer to as “The Rubberband Effect”. This is when things have been to one extreme for sooo long, that when that bias is finally snapped, things tend to catapult to the opposite direction to an equal extreme until eventually over time reaching a real world / actual / accurate / mid-point stasis. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRh2c7aUjXQ9otzVTC1DZHhQ-4qrD-jLSQ6-J-M3ztkYfHl2AUDEz31fgPtLIYzRN1WIe5Kj6nDbNSmmFRhFPbYpxxf3JaRz7D1n0P-XeEPzbWILpB-gti2nAxYU2oBlnnvtEQIWh5iY/s540/cancel23.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRh2c7aUjXQ9otzVTC1DZHhQ-4qrD-jLSQ6-J-M3ztkYfHl2AUDEz31fgPtLIYzRN1WIe5Kj6nDbNSmmFRhFPbYpxxf3JaRz7D1n0P-XeEPzbWILpB-gti2nAxYU2oBlnnvtEQIWh5iY/s16000/cancel23.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Rubberband Man" (1976) - The Spinners, ...<br />Sorry, couldn't help it - haha! Now you've got the song running <br />through your head, don't you?</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UKG4p_oyJMs" width="320" youtube-src-id="UKG4p_oyJMs"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Take for example how for many years Blacks were depicted in films as mammy maids and midwives, “Stepin Fetchit” types, railway porters, bug-eyed comic relief in old-school zombie flicks, and members of what Mario Van Peebles once referred to as the “Moteesa” tribe, … as in those shuffling, slow-witted butler characters in movies who always said <i>“Mo’ tea, Sir?”</i>. But when SWEET SWEETBACK’S BADASSSSS SONG and SHAFT snapped that cord, things went to the opposite - but equally extreme and unrealistic - end of the cinematic arena with (what Richard Pryor once called) the “Super Nig*er” movies of the 70s blaxploitation era. This till finally reaching a more equal / more realistic depiction of a race and culture in tv shows like LIVING SINGLE, BLACK-ISH and others. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOJ9pF93cRFPiZ1W7rjwp0X_u4scGgaYOgjkg1EYfmKjBgQvnl0PiEsc_f9bon9G4Sk-sjz_evZQBEiRKIsgO96rr5vToUxGpmdIYEIVub2bf3lc8PqNjg-js-BDVXl006FZ5GGnQE_k/s550/cancel20.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOJ9pF93cRFPiZ1W7rjwp0X_u4scGgaYOgjkg1EYfmKjBgQvnl0PiEsc_f9bon9G4Sk-sjz_evZQBEiRKIsgO96rr5vToUxGpmdIYEIVub2bf3lc8PqNjg-js-BDVXl006FZ5GGnQE_k/s16000/cancel20.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left to right) From Stepin Fetchit (1934), <br />to BOSS NIGGER (1975), to BLACK-ISH (2014)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> We see the same “Rubberband Effect” paradigm with the depictions of Asians in film - going from buck-toothed FU MANCHU-esque villains, comic relief laundry boys and asexual buffoons (remember Mickey Rooney in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S? 😳), to super martial arts kick-asses, then finally to more realistic depictions in films like THE JOY LUCK CLUB, THE FAREWELL, and tv series such as FRESH OFF THE BOAT. The same with Native Americans, Latinos, LGTBQ characters and more as well. To a degree we’ve go to expect / anticipate a certain amount of “The Rubberband Effect” as part and parcel of social (and by extension entertainment industry) evolution – remembering that by definition evolution is a series of (sometimes traumatic) mutations which eventually converge to make the species (and, in this <i>particular </i>case, artistic industry) stronger as a whole. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_6cMX39B1lzNqFnxtuISErrF50hXwrs4Bx8FAaR27iidaNFpPUPu5AasvNfD01yEhypHM8TMhseiEiOhlQm_cHNgplc5PIIUHGWCMQyA-oHEWnWvS1uYh7aADpzGRCFdGyLwukFUVMw/s550/cancel21.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_6cMX39B1lzNqFnxtuISErrF50hXwrs4Bx8FAaR27iidaNFpPUPu5AasvNfD01yEhypHM8TMhseiEiOhlQm_cHNgplc5PIIUHGWCMQyA-oHEWnWvS1uYh7aADpzGRCFdGyLwukFUVMw/s16000/cancel21.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(left to right) From BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961), <br />to ENTER THE DRAGON (1973), to THE FAREWELL (2019)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Anyway, those are my points in regards to this whole “cancel culture” discussion. And while you may still not agree, I think you have to admit that I’ve made some of those points in a pretty damn valid manner. I welcome any discourse and / or disagreement. But if you do I <i>demand </i>that you too also use actual historical, economic and other precedents to make your point, and not just run off on a-not-very-well-thought-out emotional tangent. Because, be it concerning politics, religion, contemporary culture or whatever, … </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Contrary to what many believe today, saying something loudly and with a great deal of sincere conviction isn’t the same thing as making a valid point or being right. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Let’s try to remember that as we often limp and stagger into a more evolved future. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Peace. ✌️ </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> CEJ</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #ffa400;">© Copyright 2021 The GullCottage / Sandlot </span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div>________________________________________________</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: orange;"><b>Vaulted Treasures</b> is part of <b>The GullCottage / Sandlot</b> - a film blog, </span></div><div><span style="color: orange;">cinema magazine, </span><span style="color: orange;">growing reference library and online network </span></div><div><span style="color: orange;"><i>"Celebrating The Art of Cinema, </i></span><i style="color: orange;">... And Cinema As Art"</i></div><div><span style="color: orange;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="color: orange;">Explore The GullCottage / Sandlot @</span></div><div><a href="http://www.gullcottageonline.com"><span style="color: yellow;">http://www.gullcottageonline.com</span><br /></a></div><div><span style="color: orange;">and</span></div><div><div><div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/GullCottageOnline"><span style="color: #fcff01;">https://www.facebook.com/GullCottageOnline</span></a></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div>Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-58684503711068019222020-05-09T21:38:00.000-04:002020-05-10T00:02:41.962-04:00BETTING ON BLACK - "BOOMERANG" (1992): CHANGING THE WORLD CAN BE HILARIOUS BUSINESS - by CEJ<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgAOUTb_C5ia58LICpNy68ItyUaXMcn45iesKZVv_t9G7chKCKIUhchxOn6RcITyLtZvlm8-kv9ljQl8RI_XYwxZD4w9jlMpYIIcpNtNVCrE709YSAT6yGofnChq7f2BTORwwHnfMGPA/s1600/boomer2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgAOUTb_C5ia58LICpNy68ItyUaXMcn45iesKZVv_t9G7chKCKIUhchxOn6RcITyLtZvlm8-kv9ljQl8RI_XYwxZD4w9jlMpYIIcpNtNVCrE709YSAT6yGofnChq7f2BTORwwHnfMGPA/s1600/boomer2.jpg" /></a></div>
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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<u style="color: #e69138;">BOOMERANG </u><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Reginald Hudlin</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Brian Grazer, Warrington Hudlin</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Screenplay - Barry Blaustein, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">David Sheffield</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Story by - Eddie Murphy </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Woody Omens</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Earl Watson, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">John Carter, </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Jablow</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Design - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Jane Musky</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - Marcus Miller</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 117 mins. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">7/1/1992</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Companies - Imagine Entertainment, Eddie Murphy Productions</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist. by - Paramount Pictures</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(**** on a scale of 1-5)</span></div>
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Uh huh! I can hear the voices already - "<i>Yeah, BOOMERANG's a funny movie and all, maybe even a damn good one; but the 'Changing the world' thing is a bit much, isn‘t it?"</i>. Well, ... not really. Now, hear me out. I remember a couple of occasions, both many years ago when I worked at a large Philadelphia video store. One was when after years and years a co-worker finally saw BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, and another when someone else (or it may have even been the same person, I don‘t remember) finally saw THE FRENCH CONNECTION. And both reactions were <i>"Yeah, it's a good movie, BUT ...!"</i>. In the case of BUTCH & SUNDANCE the "but" was <i>"... it's really just another buddy movie, though, isn't it?"</i> and with THE CONNECTION it was <i>" … ultimately just another gritty cop flick"</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCEYuxyX3dxsW74gS6d7hFuQ8stTSyWLFOfQLDU3C0PlZcXswOi2tuk77mdNXUKWxJ5K6YdRmuX1gA-VzqN_PeohZCGS4ILDmlYZbkvx3e7eGzvs9vorBn4rkrpuy_HzRRpyUFhvGmpI/s1600/Hudlin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCEYuxyX3dxsW74gS6d7hFuQ8stTSyWLFOfQLDU3C0PlZcXswOi2tuk77mdNXUKWxJ5K6YdRmuX1gA-VzqN_PeohZCGS4ILDmlYZbkvx3e7eGzvs9vorBn4rkrpuy_HzRRpyUFhvGmpI/s1600/Hudlin1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Reginald Hudlin / 2017</td></tr>
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My response to both were, <i>"You're overlooking the fact that this genre didn't really exists as we now know it until ..."</i> the aforementioned BUTCH & SUNDANCE and CONNECTION. For, while both were indeed damn good movies upon their initial releases, ... and critically acclaimed and the whole nine yards, yadda yadda, ... the passage of time went on to etch their respective places in cinema history as ultimately much more. They became benchmarks or touchstones - certainly in relation to the films which would follow in their wake. And only the passage of time can reveal a particular film as such. I mean, hell, look today at 48HRS., LETHAL WEAPON, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE or whatever, and you can almost see the umbilical - pumping blood, oxygen and everything else - leading right back to the prenatal womb which is BUTCH & SUNDANCE.<br />
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And, while (duh?) police procedural films certainly existed before THE FRENCH CONNECTION, most were either very noirish or at the very least highly stylized. Even films like BULLITT and SHAFT were very slick, cool and fashion conscious. But after CONNECTION crime films were given visual and tonal license to be down & dirty and realistically near pseudo-documentary profane (see the soon to follow THE TAKING OF PELHAM, REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER and SERPICO); and they began to take place more and more in that “grey area” landscape where there existed a very thin line between the psychology of the cops and the crooks. And in <i>this </i>regard think of the later PRINCE OF THE CITY, BLACK RAIN, TO LIVE & DIE IN L.A. and others.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXubxsXKPHrSJV0kE_wV2mai5rJNzuCKCxkqTtHt6FNganKWlw2fpntGobakdj5oc3i4VJxY8nAd7BmXZTWcNnF4r2-U0CzWk-Pj_yK_BaLPZdAcBwTkqnTZt7aWO0h9Jx4OAhLcQJWZc/s1600/ButchFrenchDuo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXubxsXKPHrSJV0kE_wV2mai5rJNzuCKCxkqTtHt6FNganKWlw2fpntGobakdj5oc3i4VJxY8nAd7BmXZTWcNnF4r2-U0CzWk-Pj_yK_BaLPZdAcBwTkqnTZt7aWO0h9Jx4OAhLcQJWZc/s1600/ButchFrenchDuo.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Changing the cinematic vernacular: <br />
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969 / top),<br />
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971 / bottom) </td></tr>
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Similarly, while it may be hard to remember almost (Wow!) <i>30 yrs. later!!!</i>, Reginald Hudlin's BOOMERANG was very much a similar (what I like to call) "fulcrum shift" film. In this case it was a game-changer in the acceptance by a major studio of African-American characters in a film by an African-American director which became a mainstream hit for that studio. Now, does being a financial hit make a film a classic or "fulcrum shift" pivot point? Of course not. But (and this is the <i>really </i>important part here) BOOMERANG's success would help to insure that other such mainstream films would be made by other African-American directors in the future. Films like Forest Whitaker's WAITING TO EXHALE, Malcolm Lee's THE BEST MAN and all the way up to Tim Story's BARBERSHOP - wherein the lives and lifestyles of workaday African-Americans (and not just super cops or young people attempting to escape the horrors of the 'hood) became known to the rest of the world. Now, while this may also be hard to remember, this was not always the case. Yeah, even as recently as 30 ago.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaeauur4fsf5ov14iNSh8WI9EsBw1GiSmOtKhyttVoKUyQea2SHfmkk7rkbD0osm8_hz09Fe_ZdjrWD912NXKCktSm1cLy6wcjoZsyoIqUFRoLL2LrnqUszI_hCK6eLdAmNrqqSJ3ZKY/s1600/trio2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaeauur4fsf5ov14iNSh8WI9EsBw1GiSmOtKhyttVoKUyQea2SHfmkk7rkbD0osm8_hz09Fe_ZdjrWD912NXKCktSm1cLy6wcjoZsyoIqUFRoLL2LrnqUszI_hCK6eLdAmNrqqSJ3ZKY/s1600/trio2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) WAITING TO EXHALE (1995), THE BEST MAN (1999), BARBERSHOP (2002)</td></tr>
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Keep in mind that when it comes to color, … and while there is still (I mean, let's be realistic) more than a fair share of ignorance and prejudice walking around in Hollywood's halls of power, the color which in the end <i>most </i>encourages or discourages the average studio isn’t necessarily black, white, red or yellow, but ultimately green … <i>or the lack thereof. </i>Combine that with the famous film industry axiom that <i>"It's always easier and safer to say 'no'"</i>, and you've got the recipe as to why for far too many years far too many studios fell back on the oft repeated mythical b.s. safety net mantra that <i>"Movies by ethnic filmmakers aren't big hits with crossover audiences". </i>BOOMERANG finally took that excuse (and that's all it was all along) away. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The members of the First Artists production company -<br />
(L to R) Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand and Sidney Poitier</td></tr>
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What about something like Gordon Parks' SHAFT or the comedies of Sidney Poitier (UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT, LET'S DO IT AGAIN, etc.)? Well, not to drift too far off the subject, ... though in reality it actually isn't, ... SHAFT was made by a studio - MGM - on it's last gasping breath, and during a time where many studios on the brink of receivership were trying every "Hail Mary" gambit they could think of once the small-budgeted and youth-oriented EASY RIDER knocked things outta the park. And the Poitier films were actually the product of the <a href="http://gullcottageonline.com/FirstArtists_WarnerBros.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">First Artists production company</span></a> founded by Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman specifically to make films which major studios originally didn't want to get behind - among them THE GETAWAY, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN, UP THE SANDBOX and POCKET MONEY. The First Artists films (including Poitier's) were then distributed by Warner Bros., but <i>not </i>initiated by them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAUkU08opUZrBFMaHqKk5AP0XjvxsX5X_lYJWcXUktjrxanZ82dVU7kHgg1oyUbjb8oVhteDjcDbsvWw6785zW4YEcrCKK_WwOtsbi9ayfVbz8L06CFrG49wPMvfQeeEgixluojHdZVak/s1600/Trio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAUkU08opUZrBFMaHqKk5AP0XjvxsX5X_lYJWcXUktjrxanZ82dVU7kHgg1oyUbjb8oVhteDjcDbsvWw6785zW4YEcrCKK_WwOtsbi9ayfVbz8L06CFrG49wPMvfQeeEgixluojHdZVak/s1600/Trio.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Eddie Murphy "Golden 80s Trifecta" of (L to R) 48HRS. (1982),<br />
BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984), COMING TO AMERICA (1988)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Moving later down the line <span style="text-align: left;">some might point (as did many studio execs back then) to the huge piles of green raked in by earlier Eddie Murphy films like COMING TO AMERICA, the aforementioned 48HRS. and BEVERLY HILLS COP as examples of "black films" which beat BOOMERANG to the punch in that regard. But a) the Murphy characters in those films were more highly stylized, tropish and / or very genre-based - which is to say not realistic, ... or even as in the case of COMING TO AMERICA a deliberate fairy-tale concoction of sorts. And b) all of those films were (and, yeah, I know I’m running the chance of getting into potentially sticky ground here, but this is very important) by white filmmakers. In fact it was this particular aspect which made many studio execs at the time feel the films were safer and less risky. </span></div>
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No! I don't hold with the belief that only people of color should make films about people of color, or that films about <i>any </i>people should only be made by a filmmaker from that same group of people. But I <i>do </i>believe a member of a particular group can often bring to a film a great many more little known insights and observations which someone not of that group can bring. Insights and minute cultural details (of both small and large significance), the existence of which the non-group person may not even be aware.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgSLNmRsW0kW5rL31N5Ufm-OoAggoURk2JQKqI4d6-dH_7P2HFZd031SnqJYJ3vMX7ClPa4yuZjgsnJNrf69g7XSncX8V84k3Z0ySTD7siVUcYCYyDN3ZIAG7RH-ECj-U_xRGKJmsHWs/s1600/SmokeKids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="497" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgSLNmRsW0kW5rL31N5Ufm-OoAggoURk2JQKqI4d6-dH_7P2HFZd031SnqJYJ3vMX7ClPa4yuZjgsnJNrf69g7XSncX8V84k3Z0ySTD7siVUcYCYyDN3ZIAG7RH-ECj-U_xRGKJmsHWs/s1600/SmokeKids.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(top) SMOKE SIGNALS (1998 / dir. - Chris Eyre),<br />
(bottom) THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (2010 / dir. - Lisa Cholodenko)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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As such / and for example one of the many great things Clint Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2006) does is to paint a vivid portrait of a Native American (real life Marine Corporal Ira Hayes, portrayed by Adam Beach) caught between ethnic assimilation and racial prejudice in America. But Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre's 1998 film SMOKE SIGNALS (also starring Adam Beach) does it even better, ... and with a great deal of humor to boot. And while films by non LGBTQ directors like PHILADELPHIA (from Jonathan Demme) and AMERICAN BEAUTY (courtesy of Sam Mendes) feature sympathetic / positive depictions of LGBTQ characters, a film like Lisa Cholodenko's HIGH ART (1998) or THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (2010) feature (c’mon, let's face it) much more well rounded / people-next-door-type depictions. All of which brings us back to Reginald Hudlin's BOOMERANG. <i>Whew!</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaTZUpGJbWgl9lBe_knQV7q9e35hPFNoWkD_KR3gYSQa94ne3fo4zEYuCP2pIJW6DH15ZUkUsHgaS4RBizYnBNuw1YEKl50oNx2gqImULRd9YdzooU5uBDLoMox7noSXOKL0oSsQQOoc/s1600/boom8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaTZUpGJbWgl9lBe_knQV7q9e35hPFNoWkD_KR3gYSQa94ne3fo4zEYuCP2pIJW6DH15ZUkUsHgaS4RBizYnBNuw1YEKl50oNx2gqImULRd9YdzooU5uBDLoMox7noSXOKL0oSsQQOoc/s1600/boom8.jpg" /></a></div>
BOOMERANG's romantic comedy premise is fairly simple and "pick your era" malleable. So malleable in fact it's been repurposed, retro fitted, ripped off (take your pick of "r"s) countless times in numerous BET, Will Packer, Tyler Perry and other films since. In a nutshell "A Playa Gets Played ... and learns a lesson from it". Specifically in BOOMERANG Murphy portrays uber successful New York ad exec Marcus Graham - notorious for mackin' on and seducing the hottest women in the city, then loving and leaving them. Y'know, as some used to say back in the day, <i>“He‘s all about the ‘Hit it, then git it!’</i>”. That is until both his professional and personal lives are turned upside down when his agency is taken over by a larger corporate concern, and he finds himself working under (in more ways than one - haha!) his new superior (Robin Givens), who is very much the female version of Marcus.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9VFVQdcRCWzhZvP99uxlvxycojSf30a22yzrIEV4qUSKjZ_L1HrfGbOsdTap4nsg5mzA1SBBjgA6nYFuOBOVNQn_BBLgtnYp_-r7sc01rs7shYplgDpi830a9zjZhxWmNaC4OCCt60Ps/s1600/boom9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9VFVQdcRCWzhZvP99uxlvxycojSf30a22yzrIEV4qUSKjZ_L1HrfGbOsdTap4nsg5mzA1SBBjgA6nYFuOBOVNQn_BBLgtnYp_-r7sc01rs7shYplgDpi830a9zjZhxWmNaC4OCCt60Ps/s1600/boom9.jpg" /></a></div>
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One of the many things BOOMERANG does well - and which many didn't expect - is that it refuses to be "The Two-Hour 'Eddie Murphy Comedy Hour'". While Murphy's Marcus <i>is </i>the central character, the film really is also something of an ensemble piece where all of the supporting players get their time in the narrative / character arc sun. They include Halle Berry - who had earlier roles in JUNGLE FEVER, STRICTLY BUSINESS and THE LAST BOY SCOUT, but who here burst forever into the hearts of an entire generation; Martin Lawrence, David Allen Grier, the aforementioned Givens, Grace Jones (and who the hell knew beforehand that she could be such a great comedienne, here spoofing Grace Jones?!), legendary actor / choreographer Geoffrey Holder, Eartha Kitt, Tisha Campbell (who'd later co-star with Lawrence in his long running tv series) and the irrepressible John Witherspoon (<i>"You've got to co-ooordinate!"</i>).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeET1IPyobXw4vr7qvN5Gh0fiHQ7mf8tDnmmjGzR1P84ZHFZojUc4S3nNikK_Gc3861hjfh8jeGL1lWaT8nd61ehCzSo7V7FxtEBiQEBe5i7rH-xQor5PWey7mcYsPTflDJIv6y6y9Mtk/s1600/boom10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeET1IPyobXw4vr7qvN5Gh0fiHQ7mf8tDnmmjGzR1P84ZHFZojUc4S3nNikK_Gc3861hjfh8jeGL1lWaT8nd61ehCzSo7V7FxtEBiQEBe5i7rH-xQor5PWey7mcYsPTflDJIv6y6y9Mtk/s1600/boom10.jpg" /></a></div>
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A young Chris Rock even gets in a few great lines as a mail room worker desperate to hustle his way up the company ranks. And there’s a hilariously loving shout-out to barrier breaking African-American director Melvin Van Peebles (SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG) as a film editor who partakes in an Abbott & Costello-like verbal routine over whether or not a piece of footage contains a view of a woman’s nipple or just the shadow of one. Haha!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2blZLiIbBgS-7sbHx0lcp9SzVetQxR4uRPddTKzwiFpicqwHTLPl_vm9Jb6WxvUvNTQs65JUOuqZLPVznLebzS2_Q9QwVPfmUaEPrYyQqVg-NSq4f0bgtxUtIDPvDzm55EhPFYYA0Sh8/s1600/OldGuard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2blZLiIbBgS-7sbHx0lcp9SzVetQxR4uRPddTKzwiFpicqwHTLPl_vm9Jb6WxvUvNTQs65JUOuqZLPVznLebzS2_Q9QwVPfmUaEPrYyQqVg-NSq4f0bgtxUtIDPvDzm55EhPFYYA0Sh8/s1600/OldGuard.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Among BOOMERANG's legendary "Old Guard":<br />
(L to R) Eartha Kitt, Geoffrey Holder, John Witherspoon, Melvin Van Peebles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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By the way, in case that murderer’s row cast line-up didn’t tip you off, BOOMERANG is in some respects very much a loving cinematic passing of the mantle from an earlier group of barrier-breaking black artists (Kitt, Holder, Witherspoon, Van Peebles, et al) to the (then) young up-and-coming one charged with carrying on their legacy. In retrospect today it is now also a bittersweet passing of that mantle as within that group of older artists all but Van Peebles have since passed away.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fYPVVthaYwb4npCvogdKNv4518O5aV8jiyT2CeC6P3iDzx5o-26H5LM-53bhMDAS60V9qaFShA16snaz131EX2WE2rVm3qpCCt0m985d5R3etxxrCSzgU9a-RA60YVBXW_aFasIU4Ds/s1600/NewGuard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fYPVVthaYwb4npCvogdKNv4518O5aV8jiyT2CeC6P3iDzx5o-26H5LM-53bhMDAS60V9qaFShA16snaz131EX2WE2rVm3qpCCt0m985d5R3etxxrCSzgU9a-RA60YVBXW_aFasIU4Ds/s1600/NewGuard.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Among BOOMERANG's (at the time) up-and-coming "New Guard":<br />
(L to R) Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, David Alan Grier, Tisha Campbell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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While contemporary and R-rated, director Hudlin wanted to pattern BOOMERANG after the smooth old-school vibe of a Cary Grant film ... with a dash of Truffaut's JULES AND JIM inherent in the love triangle between Murphy, Berry and Grier. And as such - filmed in New York during the winter months, y'know, so the cast can cut striking images in those bad-assed winter coats - everything from BOOMERANG's cinematography (courtesy of Woody Omens) to production design (the legendary Jane Musky), score (by funk-jazz maestro Marcus Miller) and more screams near-James-Bond-cinematic elegance: the kind where the story's setting becomes every bit as important a character as any portrayed by the cast members. And released during the 4th Of July holiday week alongside Penny Marshall's A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (another "fulcrum shift" film deserving it's own posted piece at another time), BOOMERANG was a hit with both audiences and critics.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57eGhlKcG7ZE3UMxJ5MaFDB-xW7HPVMlxy9yPbZ6HIn1mQKHS3J6SLbhtPxYHaA5OCyA3FbtE4DSHQl9YE9wofDO_0ZH4qAvWMmvglOEVnW5zCLOf_feMwxZVAdBJA5dzHWiyQoaXE_g/s1600/BehindScenes2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj57eGhlKcG7ZE3UMxJ5MaFDB-xW7HPVMlxy9yPbZ6HIn1mQKHS3J6SLbhtPxYHaA5OCyA3FbtE4DSHQl9YE9wofDO_0ZH4qAvWMmvglOEVnW5zCLOf_feMwxZVAdBJA5dzHWiyQoaXE_g/s1600/BehindScenes2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hudlin and Murphy on the streets of NYC</td></tr>
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There were, however, a few (hey, let's call them what they were) genuinely racist digs at the film. I particularly remember one controversy which erupted at the time wherein one critic (thinking they were being witty, I guess) referred to BOOMERANG as a "fantasy film" in that it featured very successful African-American business people. Hudlin responded by pointing out how such a comment displayed the ignorance many had (and still do have) of the history of black-owned businesses and black business people in America - from ignoring or not being aware of say the Johnson's Products corporation (an inspiration for the beauty products firm which takes over Marcus' ad agency), to the legendary Madam C.J. Walker - the first black female millionaire in America, and from whom Eartha Kitt's "Lady Eloise" character is partially inspired.<br />
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Interestingly this same kind of "ethnic presumption" is exemplified in the film itself in a scene where Marcus (Murphy) and his two closest friends and business compadres - Tyler (Martin Lawrence) and Gerard (David Alan Grier) - shop at an Upper West Side men's clothing boutique and are not only tailed throughout the establishment by a suspicious salesperson. But when Tyler asks the price of a jacket, he's told <i>"We don't have layaway"</i>. When the guys react to the comment in a justifiably offended manner, they're then told by the fearful employee in a "please don't hurt me" voice <i>"We don't keep cash on the premises"</i>. The scene is both hilarious and enraging at the same time. And if you're an African-American there's a good chance it also has a tragic ring of familiarity to it as well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvbVFsgWRhIu7yP_uej6YXlZv6w-VR6-XVc4k5tUWxUaQ1SEjDgVP5hMThWR5kaASIMSMgG7PQS231yJcF0xYMOM2S-q133fYtVxHuLSfQ1k8K3w2JfyEl6u7MYaBGIAM3l4hnfTmtcI/s1600/BoomStore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvbVFsgWRhIu7yP_uej6YXlZv6w-VR6-XVc4k5tUWxUaQ1SEjDgVP5hMThWR5kaASIMSMgG7PQS231yJcF0xYMOM2S-q133fYtVxHuLSfQ1k8K3w2JfyEl6u7MYaBGIAM3l4hnfTmtcI/s1600/BoomStore.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is an example of that thing mentioned earlier: how "... a (filmmaker) member of a particular group can often bring to a film a great many more little known insights and observations which someone not of that group can bring; insights and minute cultural details (of both small and large significance) - the existence of which the non-group person may not even be aware". The fact that at the time of the film's release many non-African Americans found the scene shocking (though, yes, funny too as it was intended) proves the point of a certain part of the populace "not being aware" of certain things. As for the aforementioned critic's "ethnic presumption" in referring to Hudlin's film as "a fantasy" in which blacks are successful business people, Eddie Murphy himself took the particular journalist and others to task by penning a rare <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-20-ca-4002-story.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times</span></a> a couple of weeks after BOOMERANG’s debut.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupywXgnBQq8GdgfHI1_gQnOXl33cG0Puvy8uC74mT6gLs1Xe6MNY-3ZuYVEjXOIQJmZVkkLjJovdx70pBVFCylPZnC9NugHd2AFTtBGfd074SAm5QuL0TZVnoGO-q_LpXL3E6-OFKYxI/s1600/MarcusMon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupywXgnBQq8GdgfHI1_gQnOXl33cG0Puvy8uC74mT6gLs1Xe6MNY-3ZuYVEjXOIQJmZVkkLjJovdx70pBVFCylPZnC9NugHd2AFTtBGfd074SAm5QuL0TZVnoGO-q_LpXL3E6-OFKYxI/s1600/MarcusMon.jpg" /></a></div>
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The fact-of-the-matter of the day (as unfair as it was) is that until BOOMERANG most films from African-American filmmakers, ... the only films which seemed to find distributors (or at the very least the ones able to grab the media and awards season attention)... were the "Hood films" cut from the BOYZ 'N THE HOOD, STRAIGHT OUTTA BROOKLYN, SOUTH CENTRAL mode. Sure, there was the occasional art house exception like Julie Dash's visually elegant (and visually eloquent) <a href="http://vaultedtreasures.blogspot.com/2018/04/daughters-of-dust-1991-one-of-most.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991)</span></a>, or Spike Lee's sprawling MALCOLM X (released later in '92 as well). But the fact is Dash never made another theatrical feature film after DAUGHTERS. And Lee couldn't get Warner Bros. to fully fund the 3 hour film he wanted to make. So he did the back-then version of crowdfunding by getting celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and Prince to financially get behind his vision of the project.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieh0xEJJ1fUFHSs9GO_G-pGVvI9WfHZfUY4tXoM-T6mj2sIuE6_DpLkwy0DxUxxOE4iLVxgF5QXkHPd1oPT5IEZtwnxzz1rSneCRbWOpGlEcTanvylXIp-EKwJQzMak9xva54e99sAun8/s1600/DaughtersX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="495" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieh0xEJJ1fUFHSs9GO_G-pGVvI9WfHZfUY4tXoM-T6mj2sIuE6_DpLkwy0DxUxxOE4iLVxgF5QXkHPd1oPT5IEZtwnxzz1rSneCRbWOpGlEcTanvylXIp-EKwJQzMak9xva54e99sAun8/s1600/DaughtersX.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(top) Julie Dash / DAUGHTERS FO THE DUST (1991),<br />
(bottom) Spike Lee / MALCOLM X (1992)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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And as far as T.V. "back in the day" of BOOMERANG ... . Well, while during the era of the late 1960s / early 70s Civil Rights and Black Power Movements there had been proactive / self-determining black characters in shows such as JULIA, ROOM 222 and Norman Lear's THE JEFFERSONS, by the 1980s era of Reganomics and the rise of what some would call "Yuppie-ism", black characters - even the leads in TV series such as DIFFERENT STROKES, GIMMIE A BREAK and BENSON - were often either orphans adopted by "rich white saviors" or were domestics working for them. And even mainstream hits like THE COSBY SHOW and A DIFFERENT WORLD were considered (this phrase always gets me!) "unicorns" in that such a crossover success - even a huge one like COSBY at the time - was considered too rare to be thought of as a new commercial norm or lasting paradigm.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvVACwdhSArb_2wSXo322Gc4-aFIvqVdBVXIk7E-FhwSAvEEPmgOaH6slrBhbn5NDNAG-3-vr2uoYAeoKYR3uAeOV129ezbw4L0Sm6hxB7eNbTKic5tTonC8QAs9Z36zRek4iqzlj1QcY/s1600/boom11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvVACwdhSArb_2wSXo322Gc4-aFIvqVdBVXIk7E-FhwSAvEEPmgOaH6slrBhbn5NDNAG-3-vr2uoYAeoKYR3uAeOV129ezbw4L0Sm6hxB7eNbTKic5tTonC8QAs9Z36zRek4iqzlj1QcY/s1600/boom11.jpg" /></a></div>
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The financial success of BOOMERANG, however (produced for $42 million and taking in $131 million), held it's own against other Summer of '92 hits such as BATMAN RETURNS, LETHAL WEAPON 3 and UNFORGIVEN, and signaled a change in the kinds of films black directors, writers and more were henceforth able to get into the mainstream. But it still wasn't an easy progression.<br />
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I vividly remember Spike Lee's former cinematographer Ernest Dickerson (MALCOLM X, JUNGLE FEVER, MO' BETTER BLUES, DO THE RIGHT THING) catching flack from a (I guess) well meaning / well intentioned white film critic who felt that after making a stunning directorial debut with 1992's violent Harlem youth drama JUICE starring Omar Epps and Tupac Shakur, Dickerson was "wasting his talent" on genre fare like 1993's SURVIVING THE GAME (a modern take-off on Richard Connell's THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME with Ice T and Rutger Hauer), and 1994's TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpGC0CQA_T6Nx5ny_JSOjoSvo9NQ7OESQctOxPhhsSokON_ltEsJ58tt82xdlh3qTQnMtT2OTiG36AIcDqpb-Yh61A2NC9iotdoLjoj6dmjRUKD7JM9KY6Hq0bKLgG4ZSXKGwebTvmPM/s1600/ErnestDickerson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXpGC0CQA_T6Nx5ny_JSOjoSvo9NQ7OESQctOxPhhsSokON_ltEsJ58tt82xdlh3qTQnMtT2OTiG36AIcDqpb-Yh61A2NC9iotdoLjoj6dmjRUKD7JM9KY6Hq0bKLgG4ZSXKGwebTvmPM/s1600/ErnestDickerson.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ernest Dickerson -<br />
(L to R) JUICE (1992), SURVIVING THE GAME (1994),<br />
TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT (1995)</td></tr>
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If I recall correctly Dickerson's response was to remind such self appointed "guardians of cinematic tastes" that African-American filmmakers can be (and are) just as diverse as their white counterparts; and similarly grew up loving to read classic novels and short stories such as Connell's, and comic books like those which inspired both the TALES FROM THE CRYPT tv series and his film. Y’know, reminding some of the critics at that time that we were reading, drawing, going to the movies and doing other things too as children, and not just dodging bullets and being beaten up by bad police.<br />
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The statement evident in up-and-coming black filmmakers making such “popcorn flicks” - <i>apart from the very pragmatic one that we can make a studio’s cash registers ring just as effectively as our less "melanin enhanced" cinematic brethren can</i> - was that our lives and history consisted of both positive and negative aspects. And like any other filmmaker, African-American ones began to demand the right to tell <i>all </i>of those stories, and not just the ones a collection of Hollywood suits in a boardroom or pitch meeting thought were comfortably and commercially “urban“. I mean, look at the other important filmmakers who dove into those "less artistic" “popcorn” genres for the sheer pleasure of fun and homage - among them Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, John Frankenheimer, William Friedkin, Freddie Francis and others - all of whom also directed TALES FROM THE CRYPT stories by way of the tv series which lead to Dickerson’s theatrical film.<br />
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No! BOOMERANG didn’t single-handedly, superhumanly alter the course of African-American filmmaking the way the Man of Steel all by his lonesome lifted that car over his head on the famous cover of ACTION COMICS #1. <i>Uh, uh!</i> It arrived during an era which was already seething and fermenting with a desire for change. And it’s success was a major catalyst, … an added reagent (if you will) which finally helped that fermenting dough to rise and take shape. One of the trends / movements which always heralds a major social change is a prevalence of satire directed towards a long existing societal norm or socio-political mindset - a norm which many come to believe needs to be torn down and rebuilt.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U2DiwtWSzoxfUyM7ft54pVXUc84oCKg70wCuxK_cf5LRXexoR-qZhr3mjd4iYHv5SkQziaQV2vzkKlbAZjt_oaAezApRAjsBcI5SuSC2drgTYm-LhdlByElepcupdsEMLElAtXxDwNc/s1600/Satire1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U2DiwtWSzoxfUyM7ft54pVXUc84oCKg70wCuxK_cf5LRXexoR-qZhr3mjd4iYHv5SkQziaQV2vzkKlbAZjt_oaAezApRAjsBcI5SuSC2drgTYm-LhdlByElepcupdsEMLElAtXxDwNc/s1600/Satire1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Changing the social mindset via satire -<br />
(clockwise) YOU NATZY SPY! (1940), THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940),<br />
TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)</td></tr>
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During the rise of Fascism in the 1930s / early 40s in Europe - a time when many in America held isolationist views and felt it wasn’t “America’s business” to protest and get involved; mostly as it would harm U.S. business interests abroad - satirist fired the first loud volleys against that Fascism in the form of The Three Stooges’ YOU NATZY SPY! (1940), Charlie Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940), and Ernst Lubitsch’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) - all of which, by the way, were criticized by many in the U.S. at the time as “stirring up trouble”. That is, of course, until Dec. 7, 1941, after which they were then considered “ahead of their time”.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Changing the social mindset via satire -<br />
(clockwise) IN LIVING COLOR (1990), I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA' (1988),<br />
HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE (1987)</td></tr>
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In the late 1980s / early 90s one could observe a similar fermenting of not only “artistic disenchantment”, but a general societal disenchantment / lack of tolerance with the current status quo in regards to the growing stereotypical depiction of African-Americans in film, television, news and more. And the creative ferment backlash against that mindset first began to make itself known via satirical outlets such as the ground-breaking sketch comedy series IN LIVING COLOR (1990 - ’94), and films like Robert Townsend's HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE ('87) and Keenan Ivory Wayans I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA! ('88) - all of which hilariously, and at times brutally, made mincemeat out of not only the popular media‘s depiction of blacks in America at the time (lampooning everything from the blaxploitation images of the 70s through the gang-banger flicks of the 80s), but also skewered the stereotypical images many blacks in America had come to believe about themselves.</div>
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Hudlin’s BOOMERANG cleverly bridged comedy and romance (and, yeah, no kidding - even a little drama!). And it’s financial success served as a <i>“See, we told you so” </i>back up / justification / validation to the backlash which IN LIVING COLOR and the others had begun to stir up. It performed the “passing of the mantle” from the older generation to the next, and simultaneously set the stage in order that the next generation might take what it had inherited and carry it further in a more diverse depiction of African-Americans in both media and society from then onward.</div>
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Now, did Hudlin, screenwriters Murphy, Barry Blaustein & David Sheffield and the others do / create all of this socially relevant “fulcrum shift stuff" consciously, ... deliberately? I honestly don‘t believe so. Generally speaking the average (and usually most effective) film artists aren’t those who are necessarily “trying to deliver a message”. Yeah, there are those “message films” which can and do strike a cord within the populace. But more often it’s those films which are just seeking to be entertaining - and in the midst of being entertaining happen to strike a nerve within the cultural / psychological zeitgeist - that ultimately end up as “sign posts” films within a particular era.<br />
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This is because in seeking to entertain, the average creative individual tends to ask themselves <i>“Hmmm? What’s really REALLY scary, romantic, funny, etc.?”</i>. And the answer is usually highly subjective - dependent upon what’s happening outside that creative’s window at that particular time. As such what was funny, scary, romantic, etc. ten or five years ago (or even ten or five months ago) won’t necessarily be so now.<br />
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In this regard Hudlin and Murphy’s BOOMERANG ends up both the culmination of a certain “fermentation of dissatisfaction” over an era, as well as <i>the response to</i> that dissatisfaction - a response which then served as a “fulcrum shift” point and launch pad into a new era. In the same way in which time is finally the one and only true litmus test of a crafted wine's structural quality (sorry, but a history of having worked in restaurants cause my analogies to drift there now and then - <i>haha!</i>), so has the passing of almost three decades set BOOMERANG apart as a seminal milestone in American film canon every bit as much as did earlier films such as BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, M*A*S*H, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, SHAFT, ENTER THE DRAGON, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and a handful of others - all of which in their own unique ways did the same exact thing in altering (a little or a lot) the course trajectory of American film which would follow in their wake.<br />
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So, yeah, changing the world can be hilarious business.<br />
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Well played, Playa!<br />
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CEJ<br />
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More @ ...<br />
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* Los Angeles Times - <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-20-ca-4002-story.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">ON "BOOMERANG" AND ISSUES OF BLACK AND WHITE: ALL WE WANT IS EQUAL TREATMENT (7/20/92 - by Eddie Murphy</span></a>)</span><br />
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* New York Times - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/26/archives/film-the-hudlin-brothers-set-out-to-prove-black-is-bountiful.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">THE HUDLIN BROTHERS SET OUT TO PROVE BLACK IS BOUNTIFUL (7/26/92 - by Patrick Pacheco)</span></a><br />
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* Entertainment Weekly - <a href="https://ew.com/movies/2019/02/11/boomerang-eddie-murphy-halle-berry/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">THE UNTOLD STORY OF "BOOMERANG" EDDIE MURPHY'S UNDERRATED ROM-COM CLASSIC (2/11/19 - by Kristen Baldwin)</span></a></div>
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* First Klass Breakfast - <a href="http://fkbonline.com/exclusive-director-reginald-hudlin-talks-boomerang-25-years-later-marshall-and-more/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">DIRECTOR REGINALD HUDLIN TALKS "BOOMERANG" 25 YEARS LATER, "MARSHALL" AND MORE (Sept. 2017 - by Regg)</span></a></div>
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* Roger Ebert.com (orig. pub. Chicago Sun Times) - <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/boomerang-1992" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">"BOOMERANG" MOVIE REVIEW (7/1/92 - by Roger Ebert)</span></a> </div>
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-60672488142870207342020-03-27T01:09:00.002-04:002020-05-08T01:24:23.590-04:00REIGN OF FIRE (2002): THE TRUE COVID-19 "SHELTER-IN-PLACE" FILM, ... LEMME EXPLAIN! - by CEJ<div style="text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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<u style="color: #e69138;">REIGN OF FIRE </u><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Rob Bowman</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Roger Birnbaum, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Gary Barber, </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Screenplay - Matt Greenberg, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Adrian Biddle</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Declan McGrath, Thom Noble</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Design - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Wolf Kroeger</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edward Shearmur</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 102 mins. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">7/12/2002</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Companies - Touchstone, Spyglass Entertainment, </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">The Zanuck Co.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist. by - Buena Vista Pictures</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(**** on a scale of 1-5)</span></div>
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<i><b>_______ "Knowledge is the only weapon we've got left. </b></i><br />
<i><b>In the beginning it was ignorance which destroyed us" _______ </b></i><br />
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In recent days countless millions around the globe forced to “shelter in place” at home due to the spreading coronavirus have not only found themselves rediscovering old fave pleasures like family meal times, reading, and tossing the ball around the backyard with the kids, but also, perhaps unsurprisingly, enjoying one which in less restrictive times might have been considered a lazy and irresponsible betrayal of adulthood, ... or at the very least the last Jay & Silent Bob-like refuge of the perenially "blunted" - bingeing on movies for days at a time. Who’d a thunk it, huh? And among the most popular filmic subjects have been (no drum roll because ultimately it's <i>“No duh!”</i>, right?) those dealing with pandemics and global disasters. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-and-2012-among-netflixs-most-popular-titles-2020-3" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Netflix recently reported that on Friday March 20, 2020 alone</span></a> the docu-series PANDEMIC: HOW TO PREVENT AN OUTBREAK, the CW mini-series CONTAINMENT, and the feature films OUTBREAK (1995) and CONTAGION (2011) topped it’s charts, with flicks like 2012 and WORLD WAR Z following closely behind.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv3zl5fQzZiOksWtjBHW80a-WdmZHPUGZqLUhQAKyJHbwGtX-ONSqCtNsmgqQRrD13lL5VSN6GHhRcMmeYQELxip3oRFwGqeEAz8UPrrPou2rdyZ03ODZpmqH6uSYuzepnWV47cv58Ask/s1600/fireDuo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv3zl5fQzZiOksWtjBHW80a-WdmZHPUGZqLUhQAKyJHbwGtX-ONSqCtNsmgqQRrD13lL5VSN6GHhRcMmeYQELxip3oRFwGqeEAz8UPrrPou2rdyZ03ODZpmqH6uSYuzepnWV47cv58Ask/s1600/fireDuo.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Atwood / Rod Serling</td></tr>
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<i>“No duh?”</i> because this is not only what art does, but (more importantly) this is what art / the arts were always intended to do. It is the very reason for art's existence in all of it's facets. Yes, including the one-legged, buck-toothed, "bastard son of a thousand maniacs" offshoot of the family - film. Former Smithsonian / Renwick Gallery director Elizabeth Broun once oh-so-accurately stated that <i>“Art is not always about pretty things; it’s about who we are, what happened to us, and how are lives are affected”</i>. Rod Serling famously acknowledged that <i>“… with THE TWILIGHT ZONE I knew I could get away with Martians saying things Republicans and Democrats couldn’t”, </i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/20/margaret-atwood-i-am-not-a-prophet-science-fiction-is-about-now" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">and in a 2018 interview with The Guardian</span>,</a> THE HANDMAID’S TALE author Margaret Atwood - commenting on the eerie contemporary prescience of her 1985 novel in conjunction with the rising #MeToo movement - set things very straight, stating …<br />
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<i>“I’m not a prophet, let’s get rid of that idea right now. ‘Prophecies’ are really about now. In science fiction it’s always about now. What else could it be about? There is no future. There are many possibilities, but we do not know which one we are going to have". </i>And about THE HANDMAID'S TALE in particular she added, <i>"Sorry to have been so right”</i>. OUCH!<br />
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Speaking as a writer / screenwriter myself (and I believe for others too), we often stare out the window wondering what makes something genuinely scary, funny, sexy or whatever. And the answer to that question is usually what happens to be occurring outside that window on any given day. It’s all about context: how what was once not considered scary or “effective”, “deep” or “pertinent”, and what may have previously been written off as little more than “fanciful” or any number of other dismissive terms, can - in one instant / with one event - suddenly find itself pivoting on the dime into the exact opposite; and, not unlike Atwood’s HANDMAID‘S TALE, becoming “prophetic“, “observant“ or “perceptive“. Of course the “vice versa“ version of that holds true as well. And forgive one more example, but it’s the best of ‘em of all - a personal one Stephen King relates in his sprawling 1981 non-fiction look at culture, pop culture and more (it’s also perceptively funny as f**k too!) DANSE MACABRE.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen King</td></tr>
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In one reminiscence the Maestro Of Horror relates how at age ten he and a group of friends eagerly piled into a local theater to see Ray Harryhausen’s EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS. And they were enjoying the hell out of it’s escapist thrills - what with those awesome-to-this-day stop motion animated flying saucers descending from the clouds to obliterate Washington, D.C. - something to which Roland Emmerich’s INDEPENDENCE DAY would tip it’s hat in far more grand fashion forty years later.<br />
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Anyway, it was simple escapist fun until smack dab in the middle of said great death ray obliteration the film stopped, the house lights came up, and the manager took the stage with a grim look on his face, gulped and - feeling it was of the utmost importance and duty to do so - informed everyone that the Russians had just launched Sputnik into orbit, beating America into space, and that the satellite was most likely passing over the U.S. at that very moment. After the announcement the lights went back down, the film resumed, … and suddenly the idea of America being attacked from space was no longer innocent escapist “fun”. For little Stephen and his posse of Saturday afternoon movie hommies, in an instant EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS had morphed from a fanciful sci fi flick into a wholly unintended yet now very effective horror film. And it was all based upon context - on what was going on outside the proverbial window at that particular moment. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TOP: Sputnik 1 launches (Oct. 4, 1957);<br />
BOTTOM: EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS debuts (June 13, 1956) </td></tr>
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Now, with that understood, I’ve never felt (and especially in the last few weeks) that films like OUTBREAK or CONTAGION, … or even earlier techno thrillers like 1971’s THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN or 1965’s THE SATAN BUG were the most accurate “pandemic” films. Don't get me wrong, they’re all phenomenal. But they tend to focus more on the inanimate “outbreak” itself; and this is fine. But I’ve always found to be more prescient, engrossing, perceptive or “spot on” (choose your term) the less obvious film examinations. Those which - like Rod Serling’s Martians - create a timeless “McGuffin”-esque stand-in. Those which don’t focus on the “pandemic” as the antagonist per se as much as on how the pandemic merely serves as a catalyst to the <i>real </i>contagion which is the reaction of the populace (large or small / microcosmic or macrocosmic)<i> to</i> the introduction of that strain, bio-invader, etc.<br />
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As such, films I find to now be the most accurate, and by extension perhaps more "COVID-19 cathartic" in the sense of allowing us to exorcise certain unspoken (not just medical and scientific, but socially interactive) anxieties, are those such as John Carpenter’s THE THING, Frank Darabont’s THE MIST, Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, and perhaps one of the most underrated, somewhat forgotten and, in retrospect, most eerily spot-on-the-money - Rob Bowman’s 2002 (what wiki amusingly categorizes as) “post apocalyptic science fantasy film” REIGN OF FIRE.<br />
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<i><b>_______ "The only thing worse than a dragon ... . Americans!" _______</b></i></div>
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If for the sake of arguing you want to talk <i>non-genre</i> films which effectively mine the "group psychology reaction to a pandemic or crisis" theme, you can very much toss those close-quartered Agatha Christie whodunnits into the pot - among them MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, DEATH ON THE NILE and TEN LITTLE INDIANS - where the unknown mystery murderer is the "pathogen". And you can surely superimpose John Ford’s FORT APACHE, and <i>especially </i>Ed Zwick’s 1998, pre 9/11 drama THE SIEGE (both where so-called / so believed socio-ethnic "outsiders" become the inciting catalyst for group paranoia and an examination of self) onto the paradigm as well.<br />
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Hell, just substitute today‘s “forced to shelter-in-place” edict and a spreading virus scenario in place of APACHE’s “Little Bighorn”-inspired attack; and do the same for THE SIEGE’s inciting terrorist incidents in the Big Apple, and you've plainly got within these "old movies" versions of everything “today" and fascinatingly "up-to-the-minute reactionary” - from Donald Trump’s daily press conferences, to civilians rushing to horde goods, to a populace perhaps more keen on finding a scapegoat than a solution, and even the singling out of one ethnic group upon which to unleash a larger collective’s sense of fear, paranoia and pent-up hostility.<br />
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It’s as surely evident in those aforementioned non-genre films as is Atwood’s “theocratic HANDMAID'S TALE nightmare” coming to all-too-accurate near fruition every night on our evening news. And, hey, recognizing these (I don’t think I risk disagreement from anyone in calling them) "societal warts" isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not if we can observe and - as the arts allows us to do - study and learn more about ourselves from our cinematic avatars / alter egos under those filmic “lab”-like conditions in the hope of avoiding the mistakes the fictional versions of ourselves make. Ultimately it is those mistakes which we alternately find dramatic, scary, funny and more. At any rate, in regards to their genre counterparts ...<br />
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I’ve always felt science fiction, fantasy and horror to be an <i>even more</i> accurate representation / barometer of contemporary social anxieties because by the very nature of genre - wherein a larger-than-life and often surreal scenario is created in order to not necessarily address those anxieties <i>directly - </i>they ironically allow for both a more sub-consciously honest discussion of those anxieties by the film makers, and a more sub-consciously honest (though usually unspoken) response <i>to </i>them by the audience. In a certain way audiences and individuals are able to enter into a sub-conscious cinematic “dream state” where fears, hang-ups and non-verbalized trauma can be parsed out, sifted through and dealt with. This whereas a more direct addressing of those same traumas, et al can - and frequently<i> is</i> - met with an insistent denial that the trauma even actually exists.<br />
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For support / proof of this notion refer to the various forms of present day art therapy - the roots of which can be traced back to aspects of Freud’s THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. And note how said therapy today is consistently and successfully used in the treatment and recovery of those suffering from war induced PTSD, sexual assault posttraumatic stress disorder and other deep psychological traumas. If that's all just a bit too heavy, okay. Then consider a more user friendly “simply cool-assed movie” example of the same, ... though on a national scale. Think back on the films of late 2001 and early '02, and of the dwindling box office in the days after 9/11 when many in the U.S. stayed home in fear; this fear and uncertainty not only driving an icy cold economic dagger into the heart of the film industry, but into that of the American consumer economy in general as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">September 11, 2001</td></tr>
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Then think of one film in particular, Sam Raimi’s original SPIDER-MAN - the first major studio post 9/11 release (in May 2002) which featured a New York City under siege by a terroristic entity (here in the form of the Green Goblin), but which in the end - with the help of a masked representative of the common man and woman - emerges as a city which survives, overcomes and triumphs. This not unlike the film itself which became <i>the </i>top box-office grosser of the year, financially besting even the eagerly anticipated STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES until later that Christmas when nudged from the #1 spot by the second HARRY POTTER and LORD OF THE RINGS entries. That first SPIDER-MAN film also rewrote the concept of the modern day summer blockbuster.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SPIDER-MAN (2002)</td></tr>
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It’s always been my belief that Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN provided an “eager to deal with the trauma” American public a masked (no pun intended) means of parsing out arguably it's most deeply ceded nationally traumatic nightmare since the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a mass scale emotional catharsis which more direct “terrorism on domestic soil” films (and damned good ones too!) like Andrew Davis’ COLLATERAL DAMAGE (released Feb. ’02) and the Tom Clancy adaptation THE SUM OF ALL FEARS (May ’02) didn’t allow because the public just wasn’t yet ready to deal <i>directly </i>and <i>specifically </i>with that subject. All of which brings us to REIGN OF FIRE. <br />
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<b><i>_______ "We can do this easy, ... or we can do this <u>real</u> easy" _______</i></b></div>
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I’ve always loved REIGN OF FIRE, but admittedly originally it was more in that Stephen King-like EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS / “10-yr.-old-boy-who’ll-never-grow-up”-gee-whiz!-I-love-the-smashing-together-of-genres-in-this-bad-assed-manner" sort of way. Also not unlike the "Stephen King / EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS thing", however, my perception of the film changed (though with me over the years as opposed to a few moments caused by Sputnik) as I came to discover it's more (let’s call it) ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE / PLANET OF THE APES / TWILIGHT ZONE-like ability to cleverly, wittily (and now even disturbingly) exemplify a socio-political subtext which may have always been there, but which never had the catalyst applied (the “just add water” element if you will) which would make that subtext more obviously pronounced. I love when a film does this, ... and when we <i>allow </i>a film to do this, ... rather than placing it in a forever impenetrable and immovable bottle of preconceived, narrow-minded opinion.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">REIGN OF FIRE dir. Rob Bowman</td></tr>
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Written by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg, and directed by Rob Bowman (best known at the time for multiple episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, X-FILES and CASTLE, as well as the feature film X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE), 2002’s REIGN OF FIRE opens in (then) contemporary London where, during a renovation project deep within the bowels of the city’s Underground rail system, an ancient cave is breached and a dragon in uber hibernation is awakened and loosed upon the world. <br />
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Yeah, this is straight-ahead pulp-type material of the QUATERMASS sort if there ever was. But, as with the best pulp material, it sets up a wonderful tabula rasa onto which any number of subtextual elements can be emblazoned.<br />
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A montage of images, clippings and narration fills us in on later discovered facts: namely how long ago the dragon's kind, after exterminating dinosaurs on earth and thereby exhausting their food source, went into hibernation until a new source arose - mankind. Then, after that London Underground incident, and being unleashed once again upon the earth, they expanded from continent to continent like a rapidly growing viral plague and repopulated the planet. By 2020 when the rest of the film takes place (<i>interesting date, huh?</i>) - aided and abetted by mankind nearly wiping itself off the globe by using nuclear weapons in it’s war against the creatures - the dragons became the dominant species while small pockets of humanity learned to shelter-in-place in hidden communities, fearful and adhering to strict quarantines and martial law policies which if breached run the chance of exposing the remaining survivors to the plague that is the hungry hunter dragons.<br />
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Responsible for such a hidden community in a retrofitted Northumberland castle is Quinn Abercromby (THE DARK KNIGHT’s Christian Bale) - who as a child watched his mother die in that Underground construction site that fateful day, and his trusted brother-like companion Creedy (300’s Gerard Butler). Within that quarantined community all is far from well, however, as a philosophical conflict has been growing over the years between those who feel the safest and wisest continued course of action is to remain in place, while others - mostly a younger generation tired of seclusion - seeks to break containment. Early in the narrative a small group of “containment breakers” rebelliously leave camp, and in so doing tragically gives away the position of the castle. The dragons, aware of a new and plentiful food source, then launch a series of nocturnal attacks on the increasingly beleaguered Northumberland battlements.<br />
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But as if that weren't enough, the philosophical conflict between the Brits becomes worse - turning into a clash of national cultures when a small military unit of Americans who call themselves the “Kentucky Irregulars”, lead by the half-mad Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) and his second in command Alex Jensen (GOLDENEYE’s Izabella Scorupco), arrive with a tank, helicopters and a Lockheed Galaxy battle cruiser aircraft, claiming that they’ve killed dragons around the world, and have now tracked the species Queen to her layer in London. Van Zan seeks to recruit Quinn’s people for what he believes will be the final battle between man and dragon. This while Quinn resists, ... and as Creedy finds himself emotionally and philosophically torn between the two leaders and their diametrically opposed courses of action.<br />
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To call this a wild and woolly yarn is an understatement.<br />
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Perhaps REIGN OF FIRE was a bit <i>too </i>wild and woolly for the box office. Not a financial success upon initial release, it wasn't helped by mixed reviews from critics - most of whom comfortably settled upon the notion that it was <i>“well wrought yet mindless fun”</i> and little else. But I’ve always disagreed. Perhaps not to the same degree, but in similar fashion to how long before the Columbine and other school mass shootings occurred I’d always interpreted Stephen King’s CARRIE as a thinly veiled (genre safe?) examination of the uncomfortable (and mostly then un-discussed) topics of school bullying and resultant exponential school violence, so had I always seen and interpreted Bowman’s “military vs. dragons” yarn as trafficking in that same "group psychology during a siege" territory as had the earlier mentioned John Carpenter’s THE THING, King’s THE MIST, and Scott’s ALIEN - all where a “pathogen” of some kind is introduced into a small community, and it’s presence causes the unleashing of long repressed and unacknowledged fears, prejudices and more within that community where it's residents had previously been (for the most part) “peacefully” coexisting within the boundaries of polite society and law.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheltering in Place - Top to bottom: THE THING (1982) / THE MIST (2007) /<br />
TWILIGHT ZONE "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" (1960)</td></tr>
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Bringing Rod Serling back into the mix, if there's anything the three aforementioned films all have in common ... . If there's a similar substance running through their thematic central nervous systems, it's a very pronounced <a href="https://ccms.buncombeschools.org/common/pages/UserFile.aspx?fileId=3313039" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street"</span></a> aspect. Their narrative, character and thematic DNA all harken back to the now iconic Serling-scripted 1960 TWILIGHT ZONE episode wherein, after the introduction of an alien "pathogen" element into the OZZIE & HARRIET-like suburban hamlet of Maple Street, trust and law becomes supplanted by fear, a so-called survival of the fittest mindset, paranoia, mistrust and a questioning (for better and for worse) of long-held beliefs. This same narrative-thematic virus (<i>sorry, couldn't help it!</i>) runs through the platelets of Bowman's great big, hairy-chested, dragon-ized, rip roaring pulp yarn cum social allegory. And it's never been as pronounced till now. Till glancing out the window, then viewing it yet again in light of the current "shelter-in-place" COVID-19 crisis where it almost becomes an entirely new film.<br />
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Hmmm? Am I reading more into REIGN OF FIRE than is actually there? To be fair, and in the interest of full disclosure, I guess I <i>have </i>to acknowledge that it's possible. But I’ve been doing this for a long time now, and I honestly don’t think I’m giving the film more cred than it deserves. There’s a good way to find out for sure, though. Judge for yourself. During the coming weeks - or however long the “shelter-in-place” edict continues to exists in many areas here and abroad ... . Y'know, during one of those movie binge days, evenings or weekends, rustle up REIGN OF FIRE On Demand or via any one of the many streaming outlets where it’s readily available. I've even seen DVD copies in various department store cheapie bins for three or so bucks. And, hey, over the years it <i>has </i>managed to attain a rather fervent cult following.<br />
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Give it a look-see, or if you've seen it before ... <i>another </i>look-see in light of recent events. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how clever, canny and (especially nowadays) how human-nature-perceptive it genuinely is.<br />
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Stay safe all.<br />
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<i> “Ooh Rah!”</i><br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-12791525645860954862020-02-19T04:01:00.002-05:002020-02-19T15:39:13.641-05:00STAR TREK: PICARD (HEARTBREAK, BEAUTY, HISTORY AND) "ABSOLUTE CANDOR" / Ep.#4 - by CEJ<br />
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<u style="color: #e69138;">STAR TREK: PICARD </u><br />
<u style="color: #e69138;">"ABSOLUTE CANDOR" </u><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Directed by - Jonathan Frakes</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Produced by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Akiva Goldsman,</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Chabon, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Alex Kurtzman, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Jenny Lumet, Patrick Stewart, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">- Michael Chabon</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Based Upon - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - created by Gene Roddenberry</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. of Photography - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Darran Tieran</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Editor - Sarah C. Reeves</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - Jeff Russo</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(ST: THE MOTION PICTURE</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Theme - Jerry Goldsmith)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 44 mins. </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release (2/13/20) </span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Companies - Secret Hideout / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Weed Road Pictures / Escapist Fare / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Roddenberry Entertainment / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">CBS Television Studios </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist. - CBS Television Dist. / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">CBS All Access </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">(***** on a scale of 1-5)</span><br />
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Only watched the most recent episode (# 4) of STAR TREK: PICARD, "Absolute Candor", tonight. Well, early A.M. actually. And, directed by "No. 1" himself - Jonathan Frakes, and written by Pulitzer Prize winning author (and PICARD co-show runner) Michael Chabon, I honestly don't think it's a stretch to call it the best entry thus far, ... which is saying something as <i>all </i>the episodes in this - one of the best of the TREK universe reboots - have been damned phenomenal. Back in the 1960s a number of French cinema journalists (some of whom later became legendary film makers themselves) coined the phrase <i>"Testament Film"</i> wherein one film in essence "summed up" what a particular filmmaker was (for lack of a better term) "all about". </div>
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Along those lines many agree that CITIZEN KANE is Orson Welles' Testament Film, that VERTIGO is Hitchcock's, and so forth. Nowadays, of course, film fans love to argue these things with debates flipping from E.T. to SCHINDLER'S LIST as Spielberg's, BLADE RUNNER vs. ALIEN with Ridley Scott (though I'd personally go with LEGEND - as the term denotes "most indicative", and not necessarily "best", popular or most acclaimed), and BRAZIL / THE FISHER KING in regards to Terry Gilliam, etc. Anyway, all of that to say (for me at least), if there's such a thing as a "Testament <i>Episode</i>" for a series, I'd chalk up "Absolute Candor" as STAR TREK: PICARD's thus far. </div>
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What I'm loving about this series (and specifically about this particular entry) is - of course - what it <i>does</i>, but also what it <i>doesn't </i>do. It would be far too easy to (and other TREK series have made the mistake of) retreading / revisiting / redoing favorite 'ol STAR TREK tropes. But as such, I mean, c'mon, how many times can you blow up the Enterprise (or other beloved vessel), defy Starfleet and go renegade because of one's conscience, get out of a jam by creating a nifty / radical / "foolish" military maneuver, et al and expect to get the same thrill or emotional tug from the audience? Hey, this may be a "left field" analogy, but bear with me and think of how some of the most intriguing musical scores in a given popular series of films have been those which <i>don't </i>lean upon beloved (and sometimes overused) themes. </div>
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John Williams' INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, Hans Zimmer's INFERNO, and David Arnold's CASINO ROYALE kind of choose to <i>not</i> (as Spielberg once referred to it) rely upon the emotional shortcut of "pressing the musical thrill button" of familiarity every time we have an action sequence. And as such when a familiar / beloved theme <i>is</i> eventually used - such as when Daniel Craig finally says at the end of CASINO ROYALE <i>"My name is Bond, James Bond"</i>, and we hear "The James Bond Theme" for the first time in all it's uninterrupted big brass and twangy guitar glory, it <i>really</i> means something. Anyway, STAR TREK: PICARD as a series - and "Absolute Candor" specifically - similarly interpolates various characters, cultures, themes and more from previous TREK films and series, but it doesn't retread or rely upon them. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ep. #1 - "Remembrance" (debut 1/23/20)</td></tr>
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Those references (and at times fan saavy Easter Eggs) are more like a sprinkling of seasoning there to add to an impressively elegant meal combo of narrative, character and thematics - already tasty in it's own right. And this rather than used to cover up a lack of quality or originality - y'know, the narrative, character and thematic version of "leaving something in the oven too long, scorching the hell out of it, then desperately trying to cover things up before the guests arrive". Like I said, maybe a "left field" analogy, but you totally get where I'm coming from, yes? As for that aforementioned quality and originality (and trenchant emotional and contemporary socio-political resonance) exemplified in what the series <i>does </i>and <i>doesn't </i>do ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hannelle M. Cooper / dir. - Ep.#1: "Remembrance" (1/23/20),<br />
Ep.#2: "Maps And Legends (1/30/20)</td></tr>
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PICARD (and this most recent episode) are kinda / sorta big time liars ... <i>in the very best way.</i> In the trailers we get all of the "thrill button" stuff. And, yeah, that's fun. But the series itself is pleasantly / surprisingly much more literate. In fact it often narratively unfolds in a (more common to novels; less common with film and TV) non chronological / non-linear manner. For example in Episode #1 - "Remembrance" (directed by CRIMINAL MINDS and GRIMM's Hanelle Culpepper; and scripted by Akiva Goldsman & James Duff from a story by Goldsman, Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman) we learn of a years ago plan by the Federation to relocate the Romulan population after a horrific supernova, and how that plan was aborted in the proverbial 11th hour - thus leaving many Romulans stranded (or abandoned and betrayed - take your pick of terminology!) in mid relocation by Starfleet after the outbreak of a war on Mars lead by a group of rouge "synthetics" (androids) threw the monkeywrench of fear into Federation Command.<br />
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Fast forward to now, and the opening moments of "Absolute Candor", where details are filled in with a flashback to 14 years prior when Picard shared the trust of much of the Romulan refugee population, and the particular admiration of a young orphaned Romulan boy to whom the retired Admiral served as something of a surrogate father figure. After the Federation abandonment, however (deliberately reminiscent of the plight of Cuba's "Boat People" in the mid 1990s, and the infamous fate of Jewish refugees aboard the ocean liner St. Louis in 1939 - which was the inspiration for the 1977 film VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED), not only has Picard quit / retired from Starfleet in protest of said abandonment. But he's now thought of as a traitor to justice by many Romulans - some of whom have since "merely" become racially embittered (the "Romulans Only" sign in front of the cafe / bar is a stinging historical jab), and others who have become terrorists.<br />
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Among those who felt most personally betrayed is the young boy - Picard's "surrogate son" if you will - now grown into an adult with formidable combat skills. At any rate <i>this </i>is how PICARD thus far puts character above the "thrill button" material, ... but which, yes, still always manages to give us at least one (and sometimes two) well realized "thrill button" sequences per episode.<br />
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As for characterizations I'm absolutely enamored at how the series takes certain (let's be nice and call them) cinema tropes and turns them slightly on their ear. Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios - Captain of the <i>"ship for hire"</i> ... which is, ehhh, ... <i>"leased"</i> by Picard for his personal mission - is a nifty twist on the "former military man become a pirate" cliche'. At first we expect but another "Han Solo"-type knockoff. But by episode #4 we come to realize Rios is a rather cultured and complex individual who (among other things) loves old fashioned "paper reading material" (aka - books) and opera; and is, not unlike Picard, dealing with his own bulging closet full of personal demons from his past.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Frakes / dir. - Ep.#4: "Absolute Candor" (2/13/20), <br />
Ep.#5 "Stardust City Rag" (2/20/20)</td></tr>
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Rios' emotionally divided nature (which back in the days of Disney's PINOCCHIO was visually exemplified by Jiminy Cricket on the puppet boy's shoulder as he attempted to be the better part of his conscience) is here rather wittily visually represented via his ship's various "EH" (Emergency Hologram) crew members - each neural based A.I. unit patterned (psychologically "cloned" - if you will) after Rios' own brain engrams, but at the same time with distinct personalities of their own which often verbally argues / debates with the war scarred former soldier. <br />
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In a more modern (and earthy) depiction of a TREK crew's "Number 1" officer, LAW & ORDER: SVU's Michelle Hurd portrays Raffi Musiker - once Picard's right hand during the ultimately abandoned Romulan evacuation. While Picard dealt with the tragedy by disappearing into his family vineyard back in France, Raffi over the years sank into a life of substance abuse which she is battling when Picard re-enters her life and asks her for help.<br />
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It would have been easy (and lazy) to make the fish-out-of-water Dr. Agnes Jurati - portrayed by CONFESSION OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN and THE BOOK OF DANIEL's Allison Pill - the (these days now cliche'd) "hip female nerd" scientist, not unlike Pauley Parrette's Abby from NCIS, and Kirsten Vangsness' Penelope Garcia from CRIMINAL MINDS, and / or to play such a character for laughs. But Pill's Jurati - the foremost expert in "Advanced Synthetic Research" at the Daystrom Institute (and see the 1968 TREK episode "The Ultimate Computer" as a reference to where said institute's name originates - <i>heh! heh!</i>) - emerges as not only intelligent but (most importantly) very real and afraid, ... <i>but more afraid to not listen to her conscience</i>, even if doing so comes at the cost of her career and maybe even her life.<br />
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In some respects she becomes the series "touchstone" character in that she's the most normal (at least in the TREK world) and identifiable to the audience at large, and therefore kind of comes to represent us as we might be if we found ourselves tumbled through the looking glass into a similar sci fi scenario.</div>
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In a nutshell with PICARD we've got some of the most beautifully and realistically realized characters in any TREK incarnation ever! Not to mention perhaps one of the hands-down most multi-layered and fascinating looks at any of the canon's alien cultures - here depicting the Romulans as we've never seen them before. And, oh yeah, while - in keeping with the "less is more" philosophy - the manner in which Jerry Goldsmith's original STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE theme (which also became the theme to THE NEXT GENERATION) is sparingly used by series composer Jeff Russo is nothing short of brilliant and at times extremely subtly touching. I'd be shocked if this episode doesn't net him an Emmy nomination next year - especially considering that heartstoppingly beautiful "mini ballet" piece heard during a short romantic "ice skating" interlude.<br />
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One more thing too. And it may be my imagination, but did I hear a very faint reference in "Absolute Candor" to Michael Giacchino's "Romulan Theme" from J.J. Abrams' 2009 STAR TREK film? Like I said, it may be my imagination only hearing what it <i>wants </i>to hear. But it may not be! I'll give a more close listen during the rewatch. And, hey, that next episode, "Stardust City Rag" looks like sheer bad-assery-ness and fun! Just as how the original series every now and then took a nice break every few episodes to give the audience a relief from heavy drama, heady sci fi and social commentary, etc., and just took us on a rollicking old-school action adventure ride, so does "Star City Rag", featuring the return of Jeri Ryan as former Borg drone "Seven Of Nine", seem to fit that bill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ep. #5 - "Stardust City Rag" (2/20/20)</td></tr>
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It's no exaggeration to say that STAR TREK: PICARD is presently doling out some of the best television presently being produced. And if "Absolute Candor" is truly a testament of more to come, all I can say is "Hell yes, ... </div>
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<i> ... make it so!"</i>.<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-1734290791890763682020-02-12T11:42:00.000-05:002020-02-13T02:00:10.235-05:00MOVIE-BLAST SAMURAI!: "THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN" CUTS TO THE GENRE QUICK - by CEJ <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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<u style="color: #e69138;">THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN </u><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Directed by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Kevin McTurk</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Produced by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki,</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Heather Henson, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Lisa Henson, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Elias Savada, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Jason Speer</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">- </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Tab Murphy</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Story by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Tab Murphy </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">& Kevin McTurk</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. of Photography - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Bennett Cerf</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Editor - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Fallavollita</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Will Thomas</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 16 mins. / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Sept. 2019 </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">(Portugal / France) </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Fall / Winter 2019 - 2020 (Festival Circuit) / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Company - The Spirit Cabinet</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(***** on a scale of 1-5)</span></div>
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<i style="text-align: left;"><b>__________ “I have seen horrors no mortal ever should” __________</b></i><br />
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In medieval Japan a lone ronin (masterless samurai) swordsman forces the cursed severed head of an undead warrior to lead him to the mountaintop lair of “The Black Monk” - a supernatural oracle whom the swordsman believes possesses information which will allow him to hunt down and destroy the powerful soul-eating demon who slaughtered his shogun master as part of a plan to raise an army of the dead to conquer the world. Before reaching the Monk, however, the swordsman must hack his way through a gauntlet of bloodthirsty monstrosities including a cadaverous witch with mind-bending abilities, a colossus-like gatekeeper who seems to feel no pain, and - most terrifyingly - his own sense of guilt, remorse and failure. Oh yeah, this epic tale is told in 16 minutes, … <i>and with puppets! </i></div>
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I was fortunate enough to catch the bunraku-style puppet-animated short THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN, and … . Nah, that’s not entirely accurate. I was fortunate enough <i>to be efffin' blown away! </i>by THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN. Yeah, that's <i>more-like-it</i> right. Scripted with old-school brio by Tab Murphy (of GORILLAS IN THE MIST, LAST OF THE DOGMEN and Disney’s HUNCHBACK, ATLANTIS and TARZAN), and directed with the stylish grimoire gloom of a kaidan ghost story (by way of a jidaigeki actioner) by Stan Winston Studios alum Kevin McTurk, the crowdsourced HAUNTED SWORDSMAN proves that less is more as it elicits more grins, chills and grindhouse-style viewer shouts (at least from me!) during it’s brief running time than many studio tentpole blockbusters dole out in a self-importantly stretched out three hours. </div>
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What are some famous quotes about brevity? <i>“The more you say, the less people remember”</i>. <i>“If I’m to speak ten minutes I need a week to prepare; but if for an hour I can speak right now”</i> (hold onto that one, we’ll come back to it). There’s Shakespeare’s <i>“Brevity is the soul of wit”</i>. And of course that chestnut from junior high English. Remember, when you had to get up in front of the class to deliver a book report? - and your teacher reminded you <i>“If it can’t be said in five minutes, it can’t be said”</i>. BOOM! Well, one can argue (or at least I will) that the filmic equivalent of brevity is even <i>more </i>important than it‘s printed prose counterpart because when reading, one’s more subjective “personal mental movie screen” will subconsciously speed up or slow down things as it sees fit. But when committed to the more objective medium of film, where every audience member is forced to experience everything at the same exact pace, what may be “leisurely” and “involving” to one audience member can be downright boring to another. </div>
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And for this reason, sorry, but as much as we all want our money’s worth when shelling out jacked-up dollars for IMAX-type screens, most films - especially lighter genre fare - just don’t need to clock in at near 3 hours. Okay, we’ll let ENDGAME slide because it was the summation to what essentially was a ten year Republic cliffhanger serial. And THE LORD OF THE RINGS … . Well, they’re the THE LORD OF THE RINGS - taken from three sprawling literary tomes. THE HOBBIT films though? Nah, you definitely felt the padding there. And this is why the narrative short film is an artform unto itself. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Kevin McTurk (left) and Screenwriter Tab Murphy (right)</td></tr>
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Far too many filmmakers make the mistake of (and, yeah, actually win awards) following the erroneous “creative” edict that the narrative short is simply the READER’S DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS version of a feature length film. And as such many tend to just “lop off” the time consuming ends of a story by easy-peasy front-loading too much info via voiceover narration, falling back on excessive STAR WARS-like backstory text, or the all-too-obvious “Hail Mary” trope of too damned many flashbacks at the most narratively inopportune moments with the result of grinding things to a halt like a series of stop signs every half-mile on the autobahn. With THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN, however, the film version of <i>“If I’m to speak ten minutes I need a week to prepare ...” </i>(oh, and that was Woodrow Wilson who said that, by the way) is in full evidence as Tab Murphy’s “reveal one narrative and character layer of the onion every few minutes” script obviously took more than a little time to craft. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXElPNOB0Z6lqTMahiVI6PO8KCkivl_FHpyKXcfMbqnq8OVGEIULAxWv8bcNUz2wW2SusCHGYmDuMzfKlyPBhsKxAKD85jszPKTkUZUVOxsqgLAF8VaEhseuS94K1WIZaOeeY9GSKk2o/s1600/hauntClimb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXElPNOB0Z6lqTMahiVI6PO8KCkivl_FHpyKXcfMbqnq8OVGEIULAxWv8bcNUz2wW2SusCHGYmDuMzfKlyPBhsKxAKD85jszPKTkUZUVOxsqgLAF8VaEhseuS94K1WIZaOeeY9GSKk2o/s1600/hauntClimb.jpg" /></a></div>
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THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN opens with a bang - visually and viscerally blasting us into an entirely “other” dreamscape setting via a widescreen, multi-plane animated zoom through a high peak mountain range underscored by poundingly bad-assed taiko drums thundering across the soundtrack. Within seconds we find ourselves accompanying The Swordsman (voiced by DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY’s Jason Scott Lee) as he does a Tom Cruise MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2-like free climb ascent towards the cavernous lair of The Black Monk - all the while the caged and constantly chattering cursed head of The Navigator (voice of the irrepressible James Hong of BLADE RUNNER and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA) swings back and forth in a basket slung over his shoulder. Speaking of voice work … . </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXCS2bjsm105tS6pjnDF_lms3yFXUDSIFRkUCfBvTqW1fXsyZkTLipWhxYsof4xhv23swiMJ_ZK15pODrg2uqbTT_o76klshWG7lAZlrGjEp5dr_pgOFZ2qelWJkR49AUOazo_sJ5nYgg/s1600/hauntCast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="505" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXCS2bjsm105tS6pjnDF_lms3yFXUDSIFRkUCfBvTqW1fXsyZkTLipWhxYsof4xhv23swiMJ_ZK15pODrg2uqbTT_o76klshWG7lAZlrGjEp5dr_pgOFZ2qelWJkR49AUOazo_sJ5nYgg/s1600/hauntCast.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(The cast, clockwise from top) Jason Scott Lee - The Swordsman, James Hong - The Navigator,<br />Christopher Lloyd - The Black Monk, Franka Potente - The Onibaba Witch</td></tr>
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Any director worth his or her salt knows the perfect cast can work narrative miracles with and for an audience. John Huston’s casting of Sean Connery & Michael Caine in THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975), DePalma’s selection of Costner, Connery, Garcia and Martin-Smith for THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), and Walter Hill’s bringing together Nick Nolte & Eddie Murphy in 48HRS. (1982) made the audience forget how information-heavy the plots of those films actually were as the performers made the viewer feel more like they were eavesdropping in on random and naturalistic conversation, and less like they were (in reality) being spoon-fed narratively necessarily plot “breadcrumbs“ which lead them from one scene to the next and the next. </div>
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Director McTurk carries off a similar act of subtle “plot compression” with a dynamite cast of voice talents smoothing over <i>even more</i> the already sleek and streamline script. This they accomplish by tossing themselves headlong (without any of that cloying “wink wink” / “nod nod” crap to the audience) into their characterizations. And in this regard, in addition to the aforementioned Lee and Hong, sit back and dig RUN NOLA RUN and THE BOURNE IDENTITY’s Franka Potente as “The Onibaba Witch”, and BACK TO FUTURE and TAXI’s Christopher Lloyd as “The Black Monk”. Fun is contagious. It infects the viewer. And it’s obvious here that Lee, Hong, Potente and Lloyd are having a grand 'ol time with these characters. The same can be said for THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN’s creative crew. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3B6haLQdiHLJqQ3LbTAskPr0tu8QO8-TsT8MNngVp0MOh_DSI0924ujvpcUs-7N62RcyUgzJzVczvwZHHfKnAVLAnERKXt_uqU-qnHxm66C_kiw0HNd22lLGmAr3rhA5UUoQTvqe_f4/s1600/hauntWitchPre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3B6haLQdiHLJqQ3LbTAskPr0tu8QO8-TsT8MNngVp0MOh_DSI0924ujvpcUs-7N62RcyUgzJzVczvwZHHfKnAVLAnERKXt_uqU-qnHxm66C_kiw0HNd22lLGmAr3rhA5UUoQTvqe_f4/s1600/hauntWitchPre.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Witch" preproduction concept designs</td></tr>
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From a technical standpoint the puppetry, similar in it’s bunraku style execution to McTurk’s previous short, the Lovecraftian / Hammer-style THE MILL AT CALDER’S END (2015), is so smooth and “non puppet”-like it actually takes a couple of minutes at the beginning of the film for the eye to determine exactly how the characters are being realized. Look closely enough and you’ll find the physical craftsmanship of McTurk’s mini-epic so minutely detailed that the Swordsman’s face has fine skin blemishes, the background foliage wafts in an apparently random breeze, and the campfire light actually flickers across the faces of our hero and his severed head companion. While most likely achieved via a “color wheel” - not unlike what Ray Harryhausen and associates used during the “Pegasus escape” and “Medusa” sequences of 1981’s CLASH OF THE TITANS - the intervening years of advanced technology, digital cameras and more have here made the classic animation lighting technique practically indistinguishable from that of live action. </div>
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Kudos to McTurk’s HAUNTED SWORDSMAN creative team which includes Production Designer Guy Davis (of CRIMSON PEAK, THE SHAPE OF WATER and Dark Horse Comics’ THE MARQUIS), Puppet Sculptors Arjen Tuiten (PAN’S LABYRINTH), Paul Komodo (a former associate of the legendary H.R. Giger) and Mitch Devane (who worked on BRAM’S STOKER’S DRACULA and THE RING); Puppeteers Ron Binion (CRANK YANKERS, DISNEY'S THE BOOK OF POOH) and Eli Presser (THE MILL AT CALDER’S END); Animatronic Designer Peter Abrahamson (MEN IN BLACK 2, HELLBOY), Designer Luke Khanlian (STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE GREEN MILE), Painters Jim Gore (THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, LADY IN THE WATER) and Miyo Nakamura (X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, THE THING); and Mike Elizalde’s Spectral Motion crew - the gang responsible for many of the visual wonders of PACIFIC RIM and STRANGER THINGS. </div>
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A huge shout-out too to composer (and former Roger Eno collaborator) Will Thomas, whose bellicose score conjures musical memories of past epics like Jarre’s SHOGUN and TAI PAN, Zimmer’s THE LAST SAMURAI, and Hayasaka’s Akira Kurosawa classics. And the entire filmic endeavor is tightly threaded together by the producing team of Elias Savada, Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki, and Heather Henson & Lisa Henson. Yes, of <i>that </i>Henson family of legendary puppeteers. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYY4ojnvA4PJt4oDE84HfHufGn4MocIn59LbXDldHfbdZlyogj6JjrLiTdrFmR8Q6XCUmhrtzEwbdBSbTalBHlAVkC6IdmL81AYR6MzTuMafm0R-npoHpfaZ6V0qP2Rmg5IN3FJtLUKY/s1600/hauntAD2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYY4ojnvA4PJt4oDE84HfHufGn4MocIn59LbXDldHfbdZlyogj6JjrLiTdrFmR8Q6XCUmhrtzEwbdBSbTalBHlAVkC6IdmL81AYR6MzTuMafm0R-npoHpfaZ6V0qP2Rmg5IN3FJtLUKY/s1600/hauntAD2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Grand in thematic scope and visual splendor, yet intimate in characterization, THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN has been wowing audiences the last few months on the festival circuit - where it recently stopped off in Austin to snag honors at Alamo Drafthouse / Ain’t it Cool News’ FANTASTIC FEST 2019. Keep an eye peeled for when it swings it’s way into your neck ’o the woods. And be sure to make a bee-line, and Bogart yourself a fifth row center seat in front of the biggest damned screen you can find. Kinda / sorta feeling like the fourth chapter of an ongoing weekly adventure serial, when THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN ends … as all good things must … there’s a 12 year old part of you just a'Jonesin’ for the next installment so we can learn what the hell happens next. </div>
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If successful enough McTurk and Murphy promise us more. <i>Please, oh, please</i>, let it be so!<i> </i></div>
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<i> Hai! </i></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"> CEJ </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-80675147887785694332019-08-07T08:10:00.003-04:002019-08-08T08:25:34.670-04:00"ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE" (2019): WHEN (DELIBERATELY) LESS BECOMES (CALCULATIVEY) INFINITELY MORE - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nW1ugApIpkq8iSWZorNJa-m-fl95gIkR4Q8ds3hG-66YLM21MGezhU-iYRZsF3UsYgpWXqMO6GAvVZMRsw4I6g258r0fgKjZo-8zdIJimNk_tnaVebGWAoXn8xDMcgagR4p3n7ST7cs/s1600/AlwaysPoster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nW1ugApIpkq8iSWZorNJa-m-fl95gIkR4Q8ds3hG-66YLM21MGezhU-iYRZsF3UsYgpWXqMO6GAvVZMRsw4I6g258r0fgKjZo-8zdIJimNk_tnaVebGWAoXn8xDMcgagR4p3n7ST7cs/s1600/AlwaysPoster2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<u style="color: #e69138;">ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE </u><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Nahnatchka Khan</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Nathan Kahane, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Erin Westerman, Randall Park, Ali Wong</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by - Ali Wong, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Randall Park, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Golamco</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Tim Suhrstedt</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Lee Haxall </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Design -</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Richard Toyon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Andrews Greyboy</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 102 mins.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">5/29/19 (select theatrical) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">5/31/19 (Netflix)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Distrubuted by - </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Netflix</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(**** on a scale of 1-5)</span></div>
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There's a scene in Douglas Trumball's 1983 experiential sci fi film BRAINSTORM where project head Cliff Robertson says to his tech development leaders Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (they in charge of creating a headset which can transfer both first person memories and emotions from one person to another as simply as you'd make a phone call), <i>"I want you to knock my socks off!"</i>. And to this day that line always comes to mind when I see a film, hear a piece of music, watch a stand-up concert or whatever which I didn't expect to floor me as much as it did.<br />
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That rare phrase came clearly to mind earlier tonight (well, technically yesterday as it's past midnight now) while finally getting around to watching the Netflix feature rom-com ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE. Now, before you make that face, ...yeah, yeah, <i>I know! </i>Most friends and acquaintances I know who've seen the film have made mention of the fact that it's a charming - and even darned good -rom-com, but in the grand scheme of things really no great shakes, and certainly no WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or other such film. But I disagree. It actually <i>is</i>, and for reasons I think many have overlooked. Here me out to the end of this and I think you just may (<i>gulp! ... dare I say</i>) find yourself agreeing with me. At any rate ...<br />
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I believe that, not unlike with comic book adaptations, audiences (and certainly high minded cineaestes) are conditioned to not expect any kind of noteworthy socio-political layerings within certain genres. And because they don't expect it as they might with for example a Terence Malick or Oliver Stone or other sort of film, ... well, they <i>don't </i>find it. But take a look say at two comic book films which opened within less than a month of each other in 2016 - CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. Both are perhaps two of the most trenchant post 9/11 films ever made, be they "comic book adaptation", "serious" or otherwise. Both deal with a societal / national security response after a terrorist-like attack of mass destruction. And both are about how a group of individuals who normally should be on the same page suddenly find themselves divided by a blurred line where "prudent response" and "xenophobic paranoia" (and the possible suspension of civil rights because of it) places them in violent ideological conflict with one another. I've always said that if one fails (or refuses) to see that blatant socio-political warning within those films then you should just hand in your official movie fan card. But that's another posting.<br />
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Let's face it - the average social "message" (if you wanna go that route) is more often than not much more effectively carried and injected into society's bloodstream via the less overtly self-aware cloaking which a standard (even played out and cliched') genre film can offer than by it's more "serious" (if you will) cinematic kin. Think back on the original PLANET OF THE APES (1968) and how it subtly and subverisvely carried many of the same socio-political discussion points into mainstream America which at the time caused similarly themed - but more obvious - films like THE DEFIANT ONES and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER to be protested and even banned in some southern American states. Now, don't get me wrong, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE isn't a "cloaked socio-political manifesto" of any kind. Certainly not like the original APES and other films from ROLLERBALL to ALIEN NATION to CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR were. It's a charming and amusing rom-com. But precisely <i>because </i>it's so damned normal is exactly why it so impressively (cue Cliff) <i>"knocked my socks off"</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Social relevance through pop genre: Franklin Schaffner's PLANET OF THE APES (1968) / </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Russo's CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)</span></td></tr>
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Think about it - the comedy series WILL AND GRACE arguably did more to advance among the general Joe & Jane Middle America populace the simple concept that gay folks are as normal as anyone else than did decades of damn good / critically acclaimed serious films like THAT CERTAIN SUMMER, LONGTIME COMPANION and PHILADELPHIA. And as for ethnic representation and racially themed subject matter, observe how similarly more typical / normal (and perhaps even cliched') sitcoms like SANFORD & SON, BLACK-ISH, JANE THE VIRGIN and UGLY BETTY did more on a regular basis to drive home the fact that African-Americans and Latin-Americans are as (surprise, surprise) normal and as all American as anyone else than did twenty years of more overtly dramatic Oscar and Emmy bait films and series which trafficked in said similar subject matter.<br />
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This those series did by a) ... and <i>super importantly! ...</i> simply being funny, and b) by simply being accurate to the unique experiences of certain folks to such a degree that (via that wonderful experiential mechanism of emotional transference we call cinema) <i>other </i>folks ironically found those experiences to be not unique at all but similar to their own. <i>That </i>is why ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE <i>"blew my socks off"</i> in the best BRAINSTORM-like way. WHEW! See, it all came full circle didn't it, even while you were thinking the whole time <i>"Where the hell is he going with all of this?"</i>. Haha!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Nahnatchka Khan (center) on set </td></tr>
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The premise of ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE is simple, ... perhaps in the extreme. But it's this (so-called) "simplicity" which - for me anyway - works as such an effective hook into the audience's "sense of personal familiarity". The film opens by covering the childhood-to-young-adult lives of San Francisco latchkey kid Sasha Tran (whose parents are always involved elsewhere) and next door neighbor Marcus Kim - whose family kinda / sorta comes to adopt Sasha as their surrogate own. Needless to say, spending so much time together as BFF's, Sasha and Marcus come to fall in love over the years, though neither of them realize it, ... or at least aren't willing to admit it. That is until one clumsy evening when both lose their virginity to one another and, unable to get around the initial discomfort, they go their separate ways. Years later as adults Sasha is a successful celebrity chef engaged to a famous corporate restaurateur, and Marcus runs a local business with his father (character actor fave James Saito) while performing in a talented-but-really-going-nowhere local band called "Hello Peril". The two meet, reconnect, and realize - through a series of genuinely funny and perceptive episodic ups and downs - that they're indeed soul mates destined to be together ... if each can only get out of their own way and let their hearts do the deciding rather than their uber-careful and too protective and practical minds. Anyway, ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Girls night out with Veronica (Michelle Buteau) and Sasha (Ali Wong)</td></tr>
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To a degree it's the standard "Boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl back" paradigm we've seen in a thousand other rom-coms. But (once again for me at least) the greatness or lame-ness / success or failure in using a tried-and-true (or, hell, even played out) genre to unique effectiveness is in <i>how </i>you use that "tried and true"-ness to new effect. And director Nahnatchka Khan's (not only narratively, but fimically / technically profecient-as-all-hell) film tosses in a few subtle and relatively "subversive" ideas during it's clever "rom-com retread" trip.<br />
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FIRST OF ALL it deliberately steers away from the standard and cliched' <i>"The woman is emotionally open while the guy is emotionally closed off"</i> bullsh*t. The best romantic films over the years have been those which have similarly veered from that stale yawner trope as well. Pull from your memory files both THE WAY WE WERE and PRETTY WOMAN as examples - where both the female and male characters suffer from a degree of narrow-mind-ed-ness, ideological extremeism and <i>"I'm always right"</i>-ed-ness born of a hurtful past. And how in both films the characters becoming involved with one another causes them both to reach a more realistic and life productive "middle ground". Gary Marshall's PRETTY WOMAN (1990) even goes so far as to have it's characters (one a prostitute and one a heartless corporate raider) acknowledge that <i>" ... We both f**k people for money"</i>. Damn, Skippy! <br />
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SECONDLY Khan's rom-com is perceptive (and funny) as all get-out in observing and making comment upon how so many relationships are built upon, ... no, not those staples we all claim to cherish - y'know, like honesty, communication and such. But how so many are more often built upon a foundation of what is <i>not </i>said or acknowledged: upon assumptions of that which we presume (or at least hope) the other person is obviously aware. ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE hits this particular relationship phenomena / conundrum right on the head as few films I've seen have ever done. And THIRDLY ... . And yes I know "thirdly"'s not really a word. But anyway, THIRDLY ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And, yup! Keanu shows up too ... in perhaps his most hilarious performance since 1989's PARENTHOOD</td></tr>
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Khan's film does one of the best jobs I've seen in recent years of (and, yeah, it <i>does </i>sound like contemporary PC "inclusion" cliche') celebrating a culture. But it does so without hitting you over the head with it as if we're sitting down to fourth period junior high school Social Studies class. Sasha and Marcus are Asian-Americans (both the children of immigrants) who - while totally American-ized - also second-naturedly practice family / traditional customs in the same way in which we all do even though we really seldom realize it. At the very beginning of the film, when grammer school latchkey kid Sasha arrives home to an empty rowhouse and lets herself in, the first thing she does is remove her shoes. But it's just in the natural flow of things. No big deal is made of it. And later while helping Marcus' mother prepare dinner (a major part of the impetus which drives her to be a successful chef later in life) she's shown how Koreans often use scissors to cut ingrediants. But again this and more are almost done in a peripheral / throwaway manner as to not draw attention to itself.<br />
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And by not making a big deal of it, the fact that these Americanized kids still hold onto certain old country ethnic traditions <i>does become</i> a (subtle) big deal. It reminds me of how a beloved high school teacher of mine once said she preferred thinking of America not as a "melting pot" - where all of the elements merged into one single homgenously bland new element, but more a "salad bowl" - where each ingredient maintained it's own uniqueness, and because of this the whole had a much more interestingly / multi-layered flavor than it would possess otherwise. Khan's film nicely does the same.<br />
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<i> So, how's that for knocking one's socks off!? </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vivian Bang steals the show as delightfully ditzy, wanna-be "Earth Mother", Jenny</td></tr>
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Many such cultural traditions and more are casually sprinkled throughout the narrative and character design of the film. And they, like a properly seasoned dish or perfectly fermented and aged spirit (forgive the analogy, but I spent half my life working in restaurants!) give the film a uniqueness - an ironic normalcy - in having them there but not drawing a distractingly self-aware <i>"Look Ma, I'm directing and making an empowering cultural point"</i> kind of attention to themselves. For my money <i>this </i>is the best and most effective manner of cinematic cultural inclusion rather than turning a culture, <i>any culture!</i>, into an iconic untouchable "something" which borders on the mythic rather than the everyday normal.<br />
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And, oh yeah, along those lines there are also a nifty handful of good-natured (while simultaneously acerbic) digs at cultural appropriation, assimilation and ethnic profiling too. One of the funniest and most "ouch"-like occurs during a discussion between Sasha and her "Girl Friday" assistant Veronica (portrayed by stand-up comedian / podcast host Michelle Buteau) where they're discussing the stationary on which her new Asian themed restaurant will print it's menu, and Sasha / Wong says <i>"Nah, use the rice paper, white people eat that sh*t up!"</i>.<br />
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Those familiar with history will also grin at how the name of Marcus / Park's Bay Area band in the film, "Hello Peril", is a twist on the xenophobic phrase "Yellow Peril" used years ago by those who feared an "Asian invasion" of the West. So, yeah, some of the humor here is surprisigly / refreshingly of the non-politically correct and polite sort. But if you know anything of the stand-up of Ali Wong, and the writing, acting and music history of Randall Park, none of this will come as any shocking surprise. More than anything, however ...<br />
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ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE is romantic as all hell. But whether or not one sees it as such (as do I) of course depends upon one's personal definition of "romantic". For me there's nothing in the world more romantic than an extended conversation. I can count on one hand the number of times in life I've gone on dates - usually dinner - then afterwards me and the woman just walked and talked, or we'd drive to some riverside area and talk and talk and talk into the wee hours. Those times when you're so unaware that you're so in synch with each other's personalities and mindsets that not only do the hours disappear as minutes, but you don't even notice you're finishing each other's sentences, and that you're getting all of the other person's (what you both thought were) obscure references. And, hey, how your often twisted senses of humor bounce off of one another in perfect rhythm.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Character actor fave James Saito (L) and Randall Park (R) as Harry Kim and son Marcus</td></tr>
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The best relationships (be they longer ones or regrettably shorter ones) begin this way. And to this day I remember those kinds as being most important to my formation as a well rounded adult. Because of this I've always found the most romantic films to be those which are able to somehow bottle that lightning of <i>"there's nothing more romantic and sexy than an extended conversation"</i>. And as such to this day "dialog rhythm heavy" romantic films like ROMAN HOLIDAY, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, THE WAY WE WERE, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, the underrated OSCAR AND LUCINDA, WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, BEFORE SUNRISE and more are the ones which have always stolen my heart. There's a real life magic in that "dialog rhythm" thing, and Khan's film captures it to great effect. So much so that I just might have to rate this one as one of my ten all time fave rom-coms ever. Yup, it's <i>that </i>good.<br />
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I'll wrap things up by tossing out quick "kudos!" to a fantastic (and a most naturalistic) cast which wonderfully brings it all to life. And particular shout-outs along those lines to actress Vivian Bang - who steals every scene she's in as the charmingly "new agey" Jenny, and Keanu Reeves - who has a grand 'ol time spoofing a ficticious version of himself ... as well as self-indulgent, uber sensitive and hyper self-aware Hollywood stereotypes.<br />
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And, oh, if you're as old as I am you'll be thrilled to see characer actor fave James Saito - who's been a fixture in everything over the last 30+ years from voicing "The Shredder" in TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES to DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, LIFE OF PI, PEARL HARBOR, and TV movies and shows such as FAREWELL TO MANZANAR, M*A*S*H, T.J. HOOKER, MIAMI VICE, IRON FIST and more. Here he plays Marcus' father. And as such it's awesomely refreshing to see him finally get to play a <i>normal guy</i>. His performance here makes me truly hope he gets more roles along this line. Anyway ...<br />
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In case you couldn't tell by now, I really <i>REALLY </i>dig this one! Sweet where it should be, and a little sour where needed (the end title rap song "I Punched Keanu Reeves" is the damned funniest thing you'll hear all year - haha!), Nahnatchka Khan's ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE is the perfect confection for those who want a little substance, intelligence ... <i>and a bit 'a attitude</i> ... to go along with satisfying that cinematic sugar craving.<br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-9618446175353232402019-06-19T00:11:00.000-04:002019-06-19T09:55:28.065-04:00"SHAFT" (2019): MAYBE NOT A "BAAAD MUTHA ...", BUT (SHUT 'YO MOUTH!) SURPRISINGLY GOOD! - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAIlixwTC7EOVi2CtNw_QRR3W1n7aQENla2mDlcmpJn8dqeSfQnrorsnlL_-M3NgJ9TAPgv_0gF6K65Z9710JnHZQ2PA5lJyiRn6iU_0acUIfdPniir823yipLZSvF26TWR3yY3LQW1w4/s1600/robPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; color: #e69138; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">SHAFT</span></a><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Tim Story</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by - Kenya Barish </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">& Alex Barnow</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Based Upon the character John Shaft from the novel by Ernest Tidyman </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Jon Davis </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Larry Blanford</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Peter S. Elliot </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Art Direction - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Brittany Hites, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Jeremy Woolsey</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Christopher Lennertz</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 111 mins.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Released: 6/14/19 (US) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Warner Bros. (US)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Netflix (International)</span></div>
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Hmmm? I guess you can call Tim Story's SHAFT "The MOONRAKER of SHAFT films" in that ... . Well, MOONRAKER is a helluva fast and furiously fun action / adventure film. It's just not a really good "Bond film", is it? In fact forget "good", it's really not a Bond film at all. And if you can get around that, and maybe not count it / think of it <i>as</i> a "Bond film", it's really a damn enjoyable ride. Kinda the same here. But only "kinda" as there surprisingly <i>are, </i>believe it or not, more than a few nuggets here which <i>do </i>feel like vintage SHAFT - both the John Singleton 2000 film (which I really love big time as it exercised the perfect balance in bringing the Ernest Tidyman / Gordon Parks sensibility into the new millennium with style, social relevance and supreme bad-ass-ed-ness) and the original trio of 70s era mystery / actioners.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4KnAQx0mAx2wunH1u2NLPeVoDIDeXIf5dNau9zxez2dVDHxhpIvo3WdtGa3ux9JFCCdXI6G3lSACYs78vNik5qp7jLbEqCQn7teWMxiK8SBDLTzBsIUbstiYpfuTPiTK9wM1NJQuXKI/s1600/sh3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4KnAQx0mAx2wunH1u2NLPeVoDIDeXIf5dNau9zxez2dVDHxhpIvo3WdtGa3ux9JFCCdXI6G3lSACYs78vNik5qp7jLbEqCQn7teWMxiK8SBDLTzBsIUbstiYpfuTPiTK9wM1NJQuXKI/s1600/sh3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) imparts fatherly and street wisdom to <br />
MIT / FBI analyst son JJ "John Jr." (Jessie T. Usher) </td></tr>
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As such when I personally heard another SHAFT film was in the works with Sam Jackson reprising his role (and with Richard Roundtree joining the cast again) I was thrilled. When I saw the first trailer, however, which for all the world seemed to turn the character into comedy fodder, I was heartbroken ... <i>and pissed as hell! </i>But you can't keep a good SHAFTer down (yes, I made up that word - we'll see if it catches on, haha!), and one couldn't <i>not </i>see it as curiosity is the mutha of all bitches to endure. Anyway, like I said, director Tim Story's new SHAFT is a heck of a lot better (and a lot less the 48HRS. / BEVERLY HILLS COP-style comedy / actioner) than expected. And there's one thing which saves it from "lame reboot hell".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgUwysuzizNJhF7H1Bs-bXjSxS4jdkllzy5BMsIV9_2Fn1q3nlRtxtnYGw5no40VxHVehSwY-1Jt8_mVVRqVIRMFqyB7UAJSDV6L092ToPKep8pH5DBEMo5khZ7JsCxa8PFI1NCZO3aY/s1600/sh5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgUwysuzizNJhF7H1Bs-bXjSxS4jdkllzy5BMsIV9_2Fn1q3nlRtxtnYGw5no40VxHVehSwY-1Jt8_mVVRqVIRMFqyB7UAJSDV6L092ToPKep8pH5DBEMo5khZ7JsCxa8PFI1NCZO3aY/s1600/sh5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In an unintended version of THE PARENT TRAP, Maya (Regina Hall) and John (Jackson) are brought together <br />
again when their son JJ launches a personal investigation into the suspicious death of a childhood friend. </td></tr>
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It isn't that the the story is very original (because it ain't - you can see every "surprise" a mile away) or that the action is eye-dazzling (because there's really nothing new here), or that some of the humor isn't forced (because there are more than one or two scenes where it feels like the writers are trying <i>waaay</i> too damn hard). No, what makes this SHAFT work as a crowd pleaser is the fact that you (and yeah, I know it sounds clichéd and corny) genuinely come to love this family - three generations of Shafts (Jackson, Roundtree and Jessie Usher) with estranged mom Regina Hall trying to shield her son from her ex's "bad influence" and dangerous lifestyle.<br />
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The official plot has Hall back in the 1990s moving herself and infant son away from baby-daddy Shaft / Jackson's dangerous world when a reprisal against him from New York drug kingpin "Gordito" Carrera (portrayed by Jim Jarmusch stalwart Isaach de Bankole') strikes too close to home. Years later 20 something year old "JJ" (John Jr. - played by Usher) - now an MIT grad genius and FBI analyst who mistakenly believes his father abandoned him and his mother - comes calling. Or more accurately he comes attempting to guilt trip dad into helping him get to the bottom of why a childhood friend - a former soldier with a connection to a veterans' drug treatment center - himself died of a highly suspicious overdose.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfCxvK7hycoCR9S3_Qkmp3sKzHobMrVubMqVhe-8Cu36XE89rAKCf2iXmd_y1xIcNfhb9ha-CLZLZ2mZvmcCZgFPf59wCTfWzEpBtxQDLxx2d5ttaY8-kaQx1GfEdVKddNtYk7K_SqoY/s1600/shaftGORDITO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="420" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfCxvK7hycoCR9S3_Qkmp3sKzHobMrVubMqVhe-8Cu36XE89rAKCf2iXmd_y1xIcNfhb9ha-CLZLZ2mZvmcCZgFPf59wCTfWzEpBtxQDLxx2d5ttaY8-kaQx1GfEdVKddNtYk7K_SqoY/s400/shaftGORDITO.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isaach de Bankole' as "Gordito" Carerra</td></tr>
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Needless to say (and like I said, you see it coming a mile away) father and son step into a LETHAL WEAPON / FRENCH CONNECTION-like quagmire of international drug smugglers and assassins hiding behind a government shield. And (surprise, surprise!, ... well, not really) "Gordito" is the mastermind behind much of it.<br />
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So, yeah, that's the superficial plot - and one which <i>is</i> very Ernest Tidyman-like. But any man, regardless of age, race, social upbringing or whatever, will recognize this story's creative raison d'état as actually being the father & son, love & hate, dialog / banter between Jackson and Usher, which is, notwithstanding the laughs, on-the money and emotionally accurate as all hell. You recognize the (I hate this damn word, but) <i>truthiness </i>of the back-and-forth whether you've actually had such conversations with your own father or son, or you only <i>wish </i>you had. It rings as alternately heartbreakingly bitter, sweet and very often hilariously genuine in the final wash. And as such it (not unlike the dialog badminton between Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin in Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN) puts this film over and makes us give a damn about what ultimately becomes of this trio. Well, ... what becomes of this <i>quartet</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">X-MEN's Alexandria Shipp as Sasha - childhood friend and <br />
unadmitted / unacknowledged lifelong love of JJ's life</td></tr>
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It's also very much reminiscent in some ways of the multi-generational ying & yang between Matthew Broderick, Sean Connery and Dustin Hoffman in Sidney Lumet's FAMILY BUSINESS - from which I honestly believe the script here co-written by Kenya Barish (creator of TV's BLACK-ISH) deliberately borrows more from than anything in Ernest Tidyman's original novels or Gordon Parks 1971 film. But it works - as stated earlier - "even though it's not <i>really </i>'SHAFT'".<br />
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There's another awesome effin' thing this film does rather subtly and intelligently (... and hilariously too!)? It's something few of the more negative reviews making the rounds have managed to notice ... or at least acknowledge ... in their narrow minded screeds as to why if the new film fails to ape the earlier ones, it's not a success.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQuEhWVACj-lqQgrkAfntQ_oqqEBz-yXTjzmvzXbH2lpN1s6VwjLfStt-Tli770XT57P2RXg-oTbuDsWNpSQJkEQMTgPY0W5RcAbdnoh2Nq6CguY9VC1eZOSsc05S_ian_NpXEvToMdk/s1600/shQUARTET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQuEhWVACj-lqQgrkAfntQ_oqqEBz-yXTjzmvzXbH2lpN1s6VwjLfStt-Tli770XT57P2RXg-oTbuDsWNpSQJkEQMTgPY0W5RcAbdnoh2Nq6CguY9VC1eZOSsc05S_ian_NpXEvToMdk/s1600/shQUARTET.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A history of SHAFT (in film): SHAFT (1971), SHAFT'S BIG SCORE ('72),<br />
SHAFT IN AFRICA ('73), SHAFT (2000)</td></tr>
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There's a wonderful recurring "undercurrent" debate as to whether Jackson's (and ultimately Roundtree's) Shafts are now embarrassing uber-macho anachronisms lost in the modern world, ... or among the last real men (of not only action, but of conscience, decisiveness and transparency) left in America after waves of sensitivity has turned most U.S. males into beings too fearful to do or say anything which may cause them to be "media shamed" ... even if what they may say or do is the <i>right </i>thing. In a clever way the film (at least as far as I read it) seems to come down on both sides, leaving it up to the audience to think about it but ultimately make up their own minds. I very much like that.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQ8itsIFq4_n5GFmeUkopMFT-sZrBepEPBDzcYkY-9Q2m0KQvYDHP8yZzO4O0eGBAIn4iZpxIjuilZSli6WdVQbV9Xao9zvV-dRCm5wXxs3zuavR9jUXCrIc6j4nPO60frBZqewJZ4Ww/s1600/shBOOKquartet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="509" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQ8itsIFq4_n5GFmeUkopMFT-sZrBepEPBDzcYkY-9Q2m0KQvYDHP8yZzO4O0eGBAIn4iZpxIjuilZSli6WdVQbV9Xao9zvV-dRCm5wXxs3zuavR9jUXCrIc6j4nPO60frBZqewJZ4Ww/s1600/shBOOKquartet.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A history of SHAFT (in books) - among the seven SHAFT novels by Ernest Tidyman:<br />
SHAFT HAS A BALL (1973), GOOD-BYE, MR. SHAFT ('73),<br />
SHAFT'S CARNIVAL OF KILLERS ('74), THE LAST SHAFT ('75)</td></tr>
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And (of course!) there's the music ...<br />
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We get the expected contemporary R&B and Hip Hop songs (and updated and remixed versions of classics) along with a score by BAD MOMS, RIDE ALONG, HORRIBLE BOSSES composer Christopher Lennertz which integrates Issac Hayes' iconic "Theme From SHAFT". I mean, how can we <i>not</i>, right? It would be musical sacrilege to leave it out. But (for me at least) Lennertz's score ends up being more functional than creatively memorable, in contrast to say ID4, CASINO ROYALE, BABY BOY composer David Arnold's score to John Singleton's 2000 SHAFT.<br />
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It almost feels as though Lennertz was given the edict to <i>"give us a score which does this and this and this, and nothing more or less"</i>, and he gave it to the producers / film makers, whereas (again, as it seems to me at least) Arnold's score didn't just obligatorily infuse the "SHAFT rift" whenever Jackson kicked someone's ass up and down the street. In fact Arnold's musical take felt less like a "SHAFT score" <i>in particular</i>, and more like an Issac Hayes, Johnny Pate, Dave Grusin, Herbie Hancock 70s era score <i>in general </i>done up with contemporary orchestra and production techniques. And in so doing it brought SHAFT perfectly into the high tech 2000s, but ironically did so while remaining faithful to the same smooth retro groove of the original films.<br />
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Arnold's score holds more of a creatively loving "neo 70s" vibe (sounding like SHAFT, THREE TOUGH GUYS, TRUCK TURNER and David Arnold all at once - and film music aficionados will recall he did a similar "groove type thang" with Singleton's FOUR BROTHERS as well!), while Lennertz's feels a little more like "a good modern <i>impersonation </i>of a SHAFT score". Not bad at all, mind you. But just as with a Bond score, "not bad" isn't usually good <i>enough </i>as the music is such an integral part of what makes a genre-unto-itself like SHAFT, Bond, STAR TREK, STAR WARS or ROCKY work.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A history of SHAFT (in comic books) by David F. Walker & Bilquis Evely - debuted Dec. 2014.</td></tr>
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All in all ...<br />
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While I'm not a fan of the more forced comedic elements in this installment (though the ones which <i>do </i>work are priceless! - and Samuel L. Jackson has never in his career been more simultaneously cool <i>and </i>hilarious in verbally dishing them out), it is director Tim Story's primary strength as a "family film" maker which brings this chapter across the finish line with it's franchise honor intact. Now, that's not "family film" as in a "for all ages" one. Hardly here! SHAFT is deservedly "R" rated. But in some respects even <i>that </i>at times seems forced - with characters slinging "F" bombs around when they're really not necessary. And don't get me wrong, I'm no prude. I love a good expletive-laden cop flick. But as that's not really what this film has on it's mind, the at times over-the-top verbiage does occasionally start to border on needlessly insecure overkill. Uh, uh ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Tim Story (L) on set with Jessie T. Usher</td></tr>
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Take a look at many of director Story's other films and you'll see what I mean about how their primary strengths (as well as his as a film maker) are when he puts under the microscope the various dynamics of family - functional and dysfunctional, blood-related or surrogate. And take another look at BARBERSHOP and those two underrated FANTASIC FOUR films of his - the ones with a pre-CAPTAIN AMERICA Chris Evans as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch - for proof.<br />
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In that regard there's a quote I've always found accurate as all get-out - "There's no such thing as 'dysfunctional' family; for better and for worse there's just 'family'". And it is this sneaky / sly and (dare I say in regards to a SHAFT film?!) old-fashioned sensibility running quietly through it's central nervous system which in the end makes this, ehhh ... reboot? ... sequel? ... rift? ... on the original(s) surprisingly enjoyable.<br />
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"Shut 'yo mouth!" We can dig it! ;)<br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-59660234279309467502019-04-04T13:38:00.000-04:002019-04-07T00:39:04.403-04:00THE ADVENTURES OF TOM FOOLHARDY: VOL 1 -THE $1 STORE LITERARY SOCIETY - by CEJ<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy2UzaI7TVtOcZkHg-f_hyphenhyphen8-7Fge7xxxxDz0FiCCHszLCSgqeYwdjQ6qrfwYMwDlGPk8ylpa_B9zBTgbsJXWWoURRADNHOPmJO7-z3f7WXtbb8RTgL1eGdydJcqj14kMe0rmT7SP3rfA/s1600/books1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy2UzaI7TVtOcZkHg-f_hyphenhyphen8-7Fge7xxxxDz0FiCCHszLCSgqeYwdjQ6qrfwYMwDlGPk8ylpa_B9zBTgbsJXWWoURRADNHOPmJO7-z3f7WXtbb8RTgL1eGdydJcqj14kMe0rmT7SP3rfA/s1600/books1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps dead for <br />1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time"</i> - Carl Sagan</td></tr>
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<span style="color: orange;">VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES (<i>and this time books</i>) YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange;">YOU FORGOT, ... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</span></div>
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No secret, <i>and sure as hell "no shame in our game"</i>, as to how I feel about the Best Buy / Wal-Mart / Rite Aid movie cheapie bin. It's a vaulted freakin' treasure trove which in a recent <a href="http://www.art19.com/shows/movie-sneak/episodes/a7e9e0db-a78d-4134-8ec1-74f28f5dbcc2" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST episode</span></a> we also referred to as a "cinematic well of the souls". One of the few remaining places where, since the local video store went the way of the Dodo, for less than the price of a hot dog at the movies a dyed-in-the-wool film fan can not only expose themselves to an "off the beaten track" film (<i>or two</i>) you won't even find on Netflix, Epix or Amazon Prime, but you can just own the damn thing too, and not ever have to worry again about it being deleted next month from a streamer's queue because they've reached the summit of their bandwidth or their contract with a particular studio goes kaput!<br />
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Sadly for many of us the old-school book shop has in recent years faced a similar E.L.E.-like cultural demise. But if there's a "Cheapie Bin" version of a treasure trove of "off the beaten track" books one can delve into these days on a budget it's surely your local lowly Dollar Store.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Books are a uniquely portable magic"</i> - Stephen King /<br />
THE NEVERENDING STORY by Michael Ende<br />
(book 1983 / film 1984)</td></tr>
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Don't laugh! Over the years while picking up a few extra wine glasses for a party, gift wrap, glowing eyes for a Halloween display, pen lights or any of a dozen other things, I've come across more than a few damn good novels - hard covers, trades and paperbacks - for one slim buck which I later saw selling online or on a Barnes & Noble clearance table for $5 - $10.<br />
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I grew up in libraries, book stores, flea markets and Friends Of The Free Library annexes. And to me there's nothing like "taking a flyer" on something you've maybe never heard of ... <i>but it just sounds so damned fascinating.</i> I'm all for streaming and eBooks and what have you. But there's nothing like browsing. And, uh, uh, sorry, "browsing" online isn't the same as taking the time to physically thumb through pages and volumes.<br />
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There's a chill Zen magic in just sitting there, unbeholden to the clock (and that's what a damn good book blurb will do for 'ya), reading flaps or rear covers and deciding that <i>"Ah, what the hell!"</i> for a dollar you can afford to take the risk. In fact you'd be stupid <i>not </i>to. Think of it as a more mircocosmic (and much safer) version of skydiving, bungee jumping or leaping off a cliff into the waves.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYrUGW3ikTMGpz-xyWhFrKc1s-7dS4jpE1HALK4MkK9MsMAhhBAA6GmYpff18bGBj5iOvrC0hiUN5u_BGaNAiJf61gV7dcBOJsxG779nUSxw9eJaeMQ2Kxr3t4QNJpXgTbCVcd3LxZPA/s1600/BOOK+THIEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYrUGW3ikTMGpz-xyWhFrKc1s-7dS4jpE1HALK4MkK9MsMAhhBAA6GmYpff18bGBj5iOvrC0hiUN5u_BGaNAiJf61gV7dcBOJsxG779nUSxw9eJaeMQ2Kxr3t4QNJpXgTbCVcd3LxZPA/s1600/BOOK+THIEF.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture; just get people to stop reading them"</i> - Ray Bradbury /<br />
THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak (book 2005 / film 2013)</td></tr>
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Reminds me too of working in a video store back in the 80s / 90s and doing "Bad Movie Night" - where we'd try to find what <i>had </i>to be the worst film ever made. But, no b.s., I swear 7 times outta 10 instead of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000-ing the evening's choice to dusty death, I and others ended up discovering something we'd love for the rest of our lives.</div>
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The Paperback Exchange at the Willingboro Public Library, and the book shop at the no-longer-in-existence Pennsauken Mart were manna from lit heaven while growing up. Both where in South Jersey, though I'm sure you had your version of each as well. For example at the Mart you could pick up four or five paperbacks for a buck because they tore the covers off of 'em. Remember that? Anyway, nowadays at least once every month (and usually more often during the summer, go figure) I'll pick up a handful of books from the 'ol Dollar Store. I did so the other day, and the most recent haul consisted of ...<br />
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* <b>THE JANUS AFFAIR</b> - Never heard of this one before, but it seemed like a blast so I snagged it. Later looked it up and discovered it's the first entry in a series of cyberpunk-ish novels called THE MINISTRY OF PECULIAR OCCURENCES by New Zealand author Phiippa Ballantine. Sort of a Victorian era X-FILES it reminds me of Gavin Scott's early 1990s gem of a TV series THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF JULES VERNE. Sounds like a good time.<br />
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* <b>THE PRINCE OF VENICE BEACH</b> (never heard of it before either) is a 2014 "Y.A." novel by Blake Nelson. From what I understand it features sort of a male Nancy Drew type - a So Cal teen beach bum who becomes a local sleuth and ends up smack dab in the middle of the most Rubik's Cube-like of Raymond Chandler mysteries. Coolness!<br />
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* <b>THE DEVIL'S TRAIL</b> (2002) by Robert J. Conley. Another new title and author never before on my radar. But there's nothing like a good pulpy western fast read. And this 'un (sorry, couldn't help it!) at 250 pages looks like such a fun ride. It's about the "world's scrawniest gunslinger" who became an outlaw at 13 when he shot the man who shot his beloved dog, "Farty". Then after adventures on both sides of the law he ends up part of a posse out to collect the bounty on a legendary criminal. In the process he becomes a legend himself and, from what I gather, goes on to star in a few more novels.<br />
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* <b>LAST PLANE TO HEAVEN</b> (2014) is a collection of short stories by sci fi author Jay Lake. And what more can you add to that. In the words of the late great Stan Lee ... <i>"'Nuff said!"</i>.<br />
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* <b>ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD</b> (2011) is a collection of shorts by E.L. Doctorow. And I'm seriously looking forward to this as I grew up a big time fan of Doctorow. Yeah, I'm old enough to have been around when both BILLY BATHGATE and even RAGTIME were first published. Check out their publication dates and do the math, and <i>that's </i>how old I am. Yeah, man, pass the AARP card and that container of Icy Hot; take it easy on the salt, ... and oh, you kids get off my damn lawn too while you're at it. Haha! Nah, seriously me and Doctorow go waaay back.<br />
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* <b>THE NICE GUYS</b> (2016). I love a good novelization as, if you get the perfect writer with their own literary history and voice, they'll bring a damned great vibe and / or spin to a screenplay-to-book-adaptation distinct from that of the film. Great examples include Orson Scott Card's novelization of James Cameron's THE ABYSS and pretty much <i>any</i>thing by Alan Dean Foster (ALIEN, STARMAN, OUTLAND, CLASH OF THE TITANS).<br />
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While I enjoy the early Shane Black scripted films such as LETHAL WEAPON and THE LAST BOY SCOUT, I absolutely <i>love </i>his seriously pulp inspired later day ones - which he also directed - like KISS KISS BANG BANG and THE NICE GUYS. They've got that patented Black attitude, but also a "dark maturity" which only comes with age. You can't fake that. While the earlier ones had say a smart-assed sense of humor woven into the characters, narrative and dialog, the more recent ones have a sly and cynical wit burned into their DNA which I find infinitely more interesting. Think the younger bad-asses of Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION as opposed to the more autumnal nature of JACKIE BROWN's older, more jaded, cynical (and yes, more human and humane) main characters. Anyway, ...<br />
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Charles Ardai's a fascinating fellow in and of himself. And some might know / remember his name from various stories published in both the ELLERY QUEEN and ALFRED HITCHCOCK mystery magazines. But he's also the guy behind the "Hard Case Crime" imprint. Begun in 2004 it's a line of old-school 1930s / 40s era pulp-style novels - some of them reprints of classics and others new material by known authors imitatively writing in the old-school idiom. To date the hands-down most popular "Hard Cases" have been Stephen King's JOYLAND (2013) and THE COLORADO KID (2005) - the later of which was loosely adapted into the SyFy series HAVEN.<br />
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As Shane Black is sooo in love with old-school Southern California-style pulp fiction, I'm looking forward to what Ardai brings to his THE NICE GUYS script while adapting it into straight hard boiled detective prose.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"We are of the opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from<br />the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read"</i> - Jules Verne</td></tr>
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* <b>BONUS * </b>And oh, yeah, to date my two <i>most prized</i> "Dollar Store" Holy Grails ...<br />
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* <b>ZORRO AND THE DRAGON RIDERS</b> (1999 / by David Bergantino) Ultra bad-ass-ed-ness here as a wealthy landowner with political ambitions gets fed up with Zorro fighting for the people and giving the peasants hope. So, he hires from Japan four Ronin samurai warriors to track down and kill the masked avenger. They set a trap for Zorro (who is actually wealthy Bruce Wayne-like Don Diego de la Vega behind the mask) by burning and looting various poor villages - knowing that he'll show up to defend the citizenry. That aforementioned bad-ass-ed-ness (swordplay and all) then ensues.<br />
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* <b>THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER</b> (1993 / Shirley Harrison - editor) Up until stumbling across this one about ten years ago, the scariest / creepiest books I'd ever read in my entire life were Vincent Bugliosi & Curt Gentry's HELTER SKELTER, William Peter Blatty's THE EXORCIST, and Whitley Strieber's COMMUNION. Hey, say what you will about Strieber and whether or not you think his story of alien abduction is horse pucky or not. His book is terrifyingly well written. And if it doesn't give you nightmares then you just ain't human. Anyway ...<br />
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As said those three <i>were </i>the scariest books I'd ever read until THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER. History considers "Jack" the first modern serial killer in that he frequently contacted the local press about his crimes. And years later a diary by him was found and "authenticated". "Authenticated" is in parentheses because the genuineness of the manuscript - purportedly by James Maybrick, a London textile merchant - remains debatable.<br />
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One third of the book is the diary itself. One third is a provenance by various experts / historians proving the validity of the journal. And one third is a debunking by just as many experts and historians who feel the journal is magnificently realized bullsh*t. Whether it's genuine or not, it's a damn fascinating <i>and genuinely unnerving </i>read. Pissed off that I loaned out my Dollar Store copy to a friend and never got it back. So, I had to re-purchase it via Amazon for a bit more. Oh, well. What're you gonna do, right?<br />
¯\_(ツ)_/¯<br />
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At any rate considering I've run out of shelf space because of volumes by Clive Cussler, Amy Tan, Nicholas Sparks, Tom Wolfe and others, as well as a truckload of authors you've probably never heard of ... And, oh, did you know that along those lines, in addition to a TITAN A.E. novelization there was a series of three prequel novels - each centered around the three main characters from Don Bluth's animated film? <i>How awesome is that!?</i> But that's something I never knew until finding one of them at a Dollar Store a few years back. Anyway, with all of that in mind ...<br />
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I've no qualms in calling the local lowly Dollar Store a buried "Well Of The Souls" treasure for great (often underappreciated) literature.<br />
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Set aside a few preconceived notions and dive in for yourself. You may be surprised at what awaits at the bottom of that chamber. As 'ol Sallah once said to Indy ...<br />
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<i> "You go first". </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgzjiHPHvM5RxBtY6USs0PJR2T9vcrxNo66cFTIYjGGhkNJ1Gt7L1ZnTsWMtv9bLZoFbTh-G8nT7N2PiWdmDnVnS3dYC4RJ9cogjI2D387LzmX8yJ5zUx8jzneH7mcpw5n4GwPPgOJ_I/s1600/BOOKSextraARK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgzjiHPHvM5RxBtY6USs0PJR2T9vcrxNo66cFTIYjGGhkNJ1Gt7L1ZnTsWMtv9bLZoFbTh-G8nT7N2PiWdmDnVnS3dYC4RJ9cogjI2D387LzmX8yJ5zUx8jzneH7mcpw5n4GwPPgOJ_I/s1600/BOOKSextraARK.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere"</i> - Mary Schmich</td></tr>
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-20937546010461236302019-03-23T16:46:00.002-04:002019-04-05T14:04:06.706-04:00THE STORIES OF "US" (2019): BRUCE LEE MEETS "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" IN JORDAN PEELE'S TERROR TRIP THROUGH GENRE HISTORY - by CEJ<br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. and Written by - Jordan Peele</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Jason Blum, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Ian Cooper, Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Mike Gioulakis</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Nicholas Monsour </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Design -</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Ruth De Jong</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Run Time: 116 mins.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">3/8/19 (SXSW) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">3/22/19 (US)</span></div>
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In the 1973 adventure classic ENTER THE DRAGON, as the sampan filled with the world’s greatest martial artists chugs towards the tournament on Han’s private island, self-inflated bad-ass Parsons (portrayed by Australian Shotokan black belt legend Peter Archer) flexes and shows off a few fight moves in front of Lee (Bruce Lee) in an attempt to goad Lee’s ego into “throwing down” right then and there on the deck of the craft in order to find out “straight-up and right now” who’s the <i>more </i>bad-assed. Then, in what remains ironically one of the most famous scenes in all of action movie history, Lee explains to Parsons <i>“The Art of Fighting Without Fighting”</i>.<br />
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He convinces Parsons that fistifcuffing on the deck of the ship perhaps isn’t the best thing to do. So, he suggest they take a small lifeboat-like dingy to the shore of a nearby island. Parsons agrees and steps down into the dingy, then Lee untethers the craft from the ship, watches Parsons float away into the distance, then goes about his earlier business. Hence<i> “The Art of Fighting Without Fighting”</i> is when one puts his or her ego in check long enough to realize that it isn't always the most obvious first reaction action which is the most effective. The last time we<i> </i>used that analogy for a film was when describing Robert Zemeckis’ brilliant 2000 mystery-cum-ghost story WHAT LIES BENEATH to a friend as <i>“The Art of Doing Hitchcock Without Doing Hitchcock”</i>.<br />
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In that film by putting the <i>“I know my Hitchcock as much as anyone else, and I’ll prove it”</i> part of his ego in check, and by <i>not </i>doing the “Brian DePalma thing” of specifically patterning shots after frames from earlier Hitch thrillers, but rather taking the soul of Hitchcock and “implanting” it within an entirely new 21st century filmic body, Zemeckis’ WHAT LIES BENEATH ironically became the <i>most </i>faithful Hitchcock homage in years. Now, whew!, all of that to explain how in similar fashion Jordan Peele, after the stunning success of his 2017 horror / satire GET OUT, had a lot to prove on his sophomore outing. But instead of succumbing to the ever-so-tempting <i>“Look, Ma, I’m directing!”</i> instinct, with the gleefully creepy US he puts his ego on hold, crafts a multi-layered chiller diller, and gives us one of the best “evil doppelgänger” yarns ever in the history of a genre visited before by the likes of Harlan Ellison, Rod Serling and other such titans of weird fiction.<br />
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Sorry for the few run-on sentences there. But at the same time <i>not </i>so sorry as this one's got us stoked because quite simply you can’t be a hack and keep company with folks like Ellison and Serling. And while not trying to compete with or imitate any such literary or filmic icon, Peele ironically - not unlike Lee and Zemeckis - more than holds his own with them, and at times (forgive the sacrilege) might even excel past them with a clever piece of cinema grimoire both familiar and startlingly unique for the era in which, <i>and</i> <i>for which</i>, it was created.<br />
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US doesn’t seek to invent a new genre. Nor does it seek to ape one down to the letter either. Rather it sets out to re-introduce a classic (if more obscure) sub-genre to a younger audience in modern fashion - thus turning said younger audience into fans of the original material, … which it’s kinda like and <i>not </i>like at the same time. <i>You follow?</i> Yeah, we know it's a little weird sounding. But it makes sense. In fact in that regard US the film is in some respects a lot like the doppelgängers who show up to torment their physically (and quite possibly psychologically) twin family.<br />
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This is a no spoilers review, so we won’t allude to anything you haven’t already surmised from the trailers, clips, TV spots or cast interviews on various talk shows. US opens in 1986 where, after wandering away from her family during a beach trip to Santa Cruz, 10 yr. old Adelaide Thomas finds her way into a carnival’s hall of mirrors, and is traumatized by meeting a horrific exact living double of herself. Unable to verbalize the terror, she, not unlike an assault victim, silently carries the trauma into adulthood - where her present day self is portrayed by 12 YEARS A SLAVE and BLACK PANTHER‘s Lupita Nyong‘o.<br />
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Adelaide has managed to keep her psychological / emotional demons at bay and away from her family for her entire adult life. That is until during a new trip to the same beachside community the unspeakable springs to life four times more terrifying than before as not only <i>her </i>evil double returns as an adult, but so do those of her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex) - all of them for some unknown reason violently intent on taking the places of the real family. And from this point the TWILIGHT ZONE-ish version of the $54,000 DOLLAR QUESTION becomes <i>“Are the evil doppelgängers of supernatural origin, strange clone-like physical origin, are they from another parallel dimension, or</i> (like something out of a Shirley Jackson novel)<i> a product of one or more of the family members’ inner psyches projecting themselves into our reality in corporeal form?”</i>.<br />
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US interestingly answers that question for the audience halfway through the film then makes an intriguing - if not entirely successful - course change into becoming another <i>kind </i>of film during it’s second half which raises an entirely new set of questions for the audience to brain tease it's way through. As for that second half we say <i>“If not entirely successful” </i>because (for our money anyway) in such a horror thriller very often less is much more as the questions and freakish answers which each individual audience member comes up with in the cinema of their own minds is usually infinitely more fascinating and terrifying than anything a filmmaker can explain or physically show. This isn’t always a bad thing. Think of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS - where the first half is a straight up horror film, and the second half becomes an adventure story, and both work like gangbusters.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVyJ75bEEN9XAwLw9fSWynarocP0wAWQPSdkGcIxl5B3NReksf57-9rVJy6tMiUPZsIsXzVbsZhhhBU7mj7whmSPLuq2gme4jxYmvRAxsvU2iP_70l9ypyT7qG8b6BV5r9PdsK4aouX8/s1600/DUEL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVyJ75bEEN9XAwLw9fSWynarocP0wAWQPSdkGcIxl5B3NReksf57-9rVJy6tMiUPZsIsXzVbsZhhhBU7mj7whmSPLuq2gme4jxYmvRAxsvU2iP_70l9ypyT7qG8b6BV5r9PdsK4aouX8/s1600/DUEL.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DUEL (1971)</td></tr>
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But also consider Steven Spielberg’s earlier 1971 tv movie DUEL - released outside the U.S. as a feature film where in some versions you actually see a driver’s hands, feet, etc. in the cab of the marauding 18 wheeler hell-bent on turning motorist Dennis Weaver into canned road kill. This as opposed to the original tv version where we never saw inside the cab, and never knew if there was a madman behind the wheel or if the vehicle was powered by some supernatural Theodore Sturgeon or Stephen King-like entity possessing it and turning it into a killing machine on wheels. By the way, Spielberg has gone on the record stating that he himself prefers the version of DUEL where you <i>don't </i>see inside the cab.<br />
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Peele’s explanation for what's going on (well, kind of a partial explanation, anyway) is freakishly intriguing to be sure, but it’s nowhere near as fever dream scary as when we have no idea - or even a guess - whatsoever, and we as an audience are hopelessly trapped in what Rod Serling’s opening TWILIGHT ZONE narration famously described as that land of the imagination <i>“between light and shadow”</i>, <i>“between science and superstition”</i> and <i>“between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge”</i>. That’s a damned scary place, but an intellectually fascinating one at the same time. And writer / director Peele seldom misses a beat in wringing every single drop of sweat from our pores, and keeping every single electro pop of brain energy a’burnin’ in our noggins as we try to figure out this wild cinematic world he’s plopped us smack dab down into the middle of. It's helluva fun ride.<br />
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The TWILIGHT ZONE analogy is entirely apropos as, not only will Peele’s new re-imagining of Serling’s venerable series begin its run on CBS’ All Access steaming service in a few weeks. But because Peele has also acknowledged how the original 1960 TZ episode “Mirror Image” (written by Serling, directed by John Brahm, and starring Vera Miles - the one where she encounters an exact double of herself in a bus station) was the primary inspiration for his film just as another TZ episode, Richard Matheson’s “Little Girl Lost”, was the creative first spark which brought Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s POLTERGEIST into existence.<br />
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The great thing about US and POLTERGEIST, however - in keeping with the Bruce Lee “Fighting Without Fighting” edict, is that they don’t redo the original stories and try to pretend they’re new - y’know, in the way that INTO THE STORM pretended it wasn’t a carbon copy of TWISTER, SELF-LESS acted like it wasn’t John Frankenheimer’s SECONDS with a new coat of paint, or INTO THE BLUE (Xeroxing THE DEEP), PROUD MARY (a connect-the-dots retread of Cassavetes’ GLORIA) and numerous other films of late have been “trying to smoke it passed audiences“. Uh, uh! Hell, US refreshingly isn’t even beholden to the (admittedly entertaining) Quentin Tarantino / Brian DePalma “food processor” brand of cinema either.<br />
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Y'know, that thing where a number of scenes are reproduced from classic films (sometimes even down to costumes, camera angles and music) yet strung together into an entirely new film. Along those lines take a look and take note of DePalma’s “Odessa Steps” sequence as realized in THE UNTOUCHABLES, Uma Thurman’s yellow Bruce Lee GAME OF DEATH jumpsuit in KILL BILL, as well as the angle and editing of KILL BILL’s hospital sequence (lifted from Frankenheimer’s BLACK SUNDAY), the design of it’s “House Of Blue Leaves” battle climax setting (lifted from Sydney Pollack’s THE YAKUZA), and the very “slave to bounty hunter to vengeful hero” plot of 2012’s DJANGO UNCHAINED - a stringing together of the plots of the three 70s era Fred Williamson revisionist westerns THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY (‘72), THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLEY (‘73) and BOSS NIGGER (‘75). For as much as we love DJANGO UNCHAINED, the fact is it's very much a combined "Reader's Digest" version of those three films with a hip 21st century attitude.<br />
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Make no mistake, US <i>is</i> definitely a genre fanboy’s thematic Cuisinart version of a wet dream. But it’s not a retread. And that’s a super-important and very noticeable difference. More like in the same way in which Peele’s earlier GET OUT was a modern day DNA transplant of THE STEPFORD WIVES, so is US the latest entry in the sci-fi / horror sub-genre of the age old evil doppelgänger yarn. And if it’s true that the most reworked story in cinema history is Dickens’ OLIVER TWIST - redressed and revisited as EMPIRE OF THE SUN, THE COLOR PURPLE, CLOCKERS, AN AMERICAN TAIL and more over the last century of film, then surely the doppelgänger tale, perhaps second only to the "paradox of time" story, is among the most revisited in the sci fi / horror realm.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fetching the Fetch: "How They Met Themselves" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti -<br />
watercolor version, c. 1860-64</td></tr>
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In addition to TZ’s “Mirror Image” some of the most popular and surely memorable incarnations of the doppelgänger sub-genre include the original STAR TREK series’ “Mirror, Mirror” (the one with the evil Kirk and Spock with the goatee - remember that one?), one of the best of Irwin Allen’s original LOST IN SPACE episodes - 1967’s “The Anti-Matter Man” (where a rift in the timespace continuum causes an evil Robinson family and robot to slide through and battle the good ones), and one of the most gripping episodes of 80s era television <i>period - </i>genre or not: the 1985 debut episode of the revamped TWILIGHT ZONE series, “Shatterday”, based on a story by Harlan Ellison, starring Bruce Willis, and directed by Wes Craven.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0qjnZjgoriTqac8LIzXTulgHnsvy83q_xcgsqp6gPkql_9L5qQnD36wM6_kW_5zoCO1prr8pph59DnVPj_GjrvwzYuLwRNzgoTgG-11aiq6dgWfGrvS0e_tSrRMjcTxM-dfopn2_mK0/s1600/utrio1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0qjnZjgoriTqac8LIzXTulgHnsvy83q_xcgsqp6gPkql_9L5qQnD36wM6_kW_5zoCO1prr8pph59DnVPj_GjrvwzYuLwRNzgoTgG-11aiq6dgWfGrvS0e_tSrRMjcTxM-dfopn2_mK0/s1600/utrio1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Top to bottom) HOW THEY MET THEMSELVES <br />
THE TWILIGHT ZONE - "Mirror Image" (orig. airdate 2/26/60),<br />
LOST IN SPACE - "The Anti-Matter Man" (orig. airdate 12/27/67), <br />
STAR TREK - "Mirror, Mirror" (orig. airdate 10/6/67)</td></tr>
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All of those stories - each damned clever and witty in their own right - aren’t rips of one another, but rather like the OLIVER TWIST reworkings are all to greater or lesser degree based upon the original Irish folk legends of the Fetch more than anything else. So, yes, Peele’s film does doff its cap to what came before. And, <i>hell yes!</i>, in parts it feels like a deliberate “Cinematic Easter Egg Hunt to End All Easter Egg Hunts”. For example in the very first scene / opening shot we notice four VHS video tapes strategically placed alongside an 80s era television set - three store bought tapes and one home recorded one. And if you’re familiar with the plots of the movies on the three store bought tapes it’ll give you a little heads-up as to some of US’s upcoming narrative elements.<br />
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If you’re also familiar with other 70s era films (those of Peele’s formative inspirational years) like the NIGHT STALKER tv movie sequel THE NIGHT STRANGLER, THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD, DON’T LOOK NOW and Philip Kaufman’s remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, then there are additional specific scenes in Peele's film which will surely make you grin with a sense of “insider joke” familiarity every bit as much as they made us grin like big goofballs. So, yeah, Peele’s film is a horror film with something in it for everyone, especially the genre fan. But once again it acknowledges a love of these films - functions as a living stroll down horror memory lane (if you will) - without blatantly ripping off what it sees on the side of the road and trying to pass it off as it’s own. It acknowledges what came before but says, <i>“Let’s take the DNA of that and not create a clone, but an entirely new being with it’s own voice and personality </i>(it’s own soul if you will)<i>, but which very much remembers where it‘s DNA came from”</i>. And, oh yeah, on the “horror” subject …<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO7bqlBp2su8MDv4yYaWaWu3jWHwXfW4g9o-8LlBAJFxcIJgUfM9zCvk3UFE9ePAKp7IZ02A8FwVm6TiIWmyJxzuPwDUfUpPN0oQVfxNjsuLCWReOFCDF20QrhEna7WOyI04kM7SQeVA0/s1600/PEELErollingStone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO7bqlBp2su8MDv4yYaWaWu3jWHwXfW4g9o-8LlBAJFxcIJgUfM9zCvk3UFE9ePAKp7IZ02A8FwVm6TiIWmyJxzuPwDUfUpPN0oQVfxNjsuLCWReOFCDF20QrhEna7WOyI04kM7SQeVA0/s1600/PEELErollingStone.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolling Stone - February, 2019</td></tr>
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No "if"s, "and"s or "but"s, US is a bonafied horror film. <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/director-jordan-peele-new-movie-cover-story-782743/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">In a January 2019 interview with Rolling Stone’s Peter Hiatt</span></a>, writer / director Peele flat out acknowledged that after the <i>“Is it a horror film or a thriller?”</i> (as if one film can’t be both) “genre confusion” of GET OUT, what he wanted to do next was a no-holds-barred, flat out<i> “’spill your soda’ scary”</i> (his words, not our’s) horror tale. And that’s what we get.<br />
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US isn’t a perfect film. As mentioned earlier we found the first half more terrifyingly gripping than the second half (which <i>is </i>suspenseful). And even during that first half many of the scenes for our money run on a few extra beats too long. It’s as if Peele is so in love with the cleverness of his material in each scene he can’t bear to cut or lose any of it even for the sake of dramatic pacing. And as such there are a few lags in that first half because of it. At its best US plays like the crème of those lean and mean “one stab” / single-premise-with-multiple-permutations-and-possible-outcomes 70s era tv movies like THE NIGHT STALKER, BAD RONALD, DUEL, SATAN’S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, THE NORLISS TAPES and THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET. And when you think about it part of what made those films so to-this-day memorable (and still scary) was their brevity.<br />
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US is great running at just under two hours. And it would have been even better had it come in closer to 95 or 100 minutes. Even those other 70s theatrical films like PETER PROUD and DON’T LOOK NOW - in which US is in obvious and understandable head-over-heels love - clock in at a shorter running time than Peele‘s. And part of their success is in how they don’t allow their premises to overstay their welcome. They dramatically know how to (as we used to say back in the day) <i>“hit it then git it”</i>. And US comes precariously close to forgetting that. As for the execution of it's other craftsman-like details, Peele's rollercoaster is a cinema textbook masterpiece.<br />
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The score by classical and contemporary composer & teacher Michael Abels is a freakish work of mad genius. It’s amalgam of chanting OMEN-like chorus, Afro-Cuban percussion and orchestra manages to simmer on the back burner of the audiences' memory long after exiting the theater. And the film's visual execution, concocted by Peele and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (IT FOLLOWS, SPLIT, GLASS), is eerily unnerving and endearingly playful at the same time.<br />
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The opening sequences in 1986 are filmed in almost CHARLIE BROWN / E.T. childhood-point-of-view fashion with the camera seldom rising above the height level of young Adelaide, and the adults mostly seen from the waist down until leaning over into the frame to converse with our young protagonist. It's both cute and creepy at the same time. Then later there’s (quite cleverly) hardly a scene where the members of the cast are filmed in the center of the frame in classic fashion. The most prominent “center of the frame” traditional visual moment is during the scene we see in the various trailers and tv spots - when the “alternate family” first appears at the end of the driveway dressed in red coveralls and holding hands.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) Composer Michael Abels and <br />
Dir. of Photography Mike Gioulakis</td></tr>
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Once the “alternate family” suddenly splits off in all directions like a macabre flock of birds breaking formation, all hell breaks loose both narratively and visually with characters both good and bad moving off to the left, right or bottom of the frame and throwing the visual balance slightly off this way and that. It’s barely noticeable consciously. But not unlike how in the old BATMAN tv series, whenever we were in the villains’ lair and the camera was always tilted, it here sends off a subconscious sonar “ping” to the audience that <i>something’s not quite right</i>.<br />
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In light of all of this, and especially after the film’s final reveal, we admit the stuff about the running time and scenes in the first half being a bit too long emerge as minor quibbles in what is hands down one of the best modern day horror films to come along in years.<br />
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As popular and well made as are the more recent slate of cinematic terror trips (films like INSIDIOUS, THE CONJURING, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, ANNABELLE, THE UNBORN, THE NUN, etc.), we’ve just never been as taken by them the way many others are because to us too many of them rely upon CGI trickery to create their nightmarish imagery. For us, in the same way in which watching actual stunt personnel doing <i>actual </i>feats of derring do as opposed to their obvious CGI counterparts doing the same, so do we believe that the film audience not only sees but <i>feels</i> the difference deep in their gut when freakish fever dream imagery is realized mostly in camera. There's a sense of unexplainable creepiness and dread in subconsciously knowing that actual physical reality is somehow being twisted right before our eyes. And this is part of the reason why films such as THE EXORCIST, the original THE OMEN and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, and even many of Universal's horror hits of the early 1900s like DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN still somehow remain timeless today. It's not just nostalgia. They've somehow managed to bottle psychological lightning and preserve it via the physical cinematic arts. Peele's film does the same. <br />
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It's easy to forget how small scale some of the creepier TWILIGHT ZONE, OUTER LIMITS and NIGHT GALLERY episodes were. Most of them took place on maybe three sets at most, featured but a handful of actors (usually no more than four or five main speaking roles), and were shot with only one or two cameras usually locked into place, or at best on short-tracked dollies. But the ideas were so big the eye forgot to notice the lack of extravagances and uber technical razzle dazzle. The story, characters and director’s sense of style are what were king. And there was a Bruce Lee-like confidence in that alone for the film and filmmaker to feel secure in not having to ape or imitate what came before, or to slam the audience up against the wall in the cinematic / sensory equivalent of a gang rape in order to provoke an emotional response.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkEea1x2X4qBVKQDK6InPi9f9iamN6VDullOmwKmAD3LQIlnaoofg2y5NC_obFVIDjI78gJyY3nkDetyFpJVMsJZ00Emel2PUIbIjTc1Od38C0RQ-hkLW8y_BNAHk1xA6M4R_RF5Ae3Y/s1600/u9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkEea1x2X4qBVKQDK6InPi9f9iamN6VDullOmwKmAD3LQIlnaoofg2y5NC_obFVIDjI78gJyY3nkDetyFpJVMsJZ00Emel2PUIbIjTc1Od38C0RQ-hkLW8y_BNAHk1xA6M4R_RF5Ae3Y/s1600/u9.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the US South by Southwest Festival premiere: (L to R) Writer / Director Jordan Peele and cast - <br />
Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Tim Heidecker, Elisabeth Moss</td></tr>
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While among the best of modern day horror, Jordan Peele’s US is at the same time a throwback to the days when “the idea” ruled. And in our present era where every other week rolls out yet another zombie or vampire tv series or flick - such to the point that many start to look and feel the same - it’s refreshing to see a genuinely creative and lovingly nostalgic spin on an age-old genre without resorting to simply ripping off what came before and claiming it as "the new cinematic thang". While faced with an impressive and daunting history of similarly themed films and series created by some of the legends of the genre, with US Jordan Peele has staked his own worthy claim as artist provocateur par excellence in <i>“the Art of Terrifying An Audience With An Evil Doppelgänger Tale … Without Doing The Stereotypical Evil Doppelgänger tale”</i>.<br />
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We think Bruce Lee would approve. ;)<br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-16401584781802745742018-12-01T17:41:00.003-05:002019-04-05T14:01:42.678-04:00PETER YATES' "ROBBERY" ('67) - WHAT "HEAT" & "MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE" WANNA BE WHEN THEY GROW UP - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIkfJkmYgMc-odwXfPIHOA20IJn108Qd4mgMDytd3tV2NzvciFAN7d7xtfgOk33dLKFr6Lu21BiyMcgF1DjrlRM_HfaLXrf5nP9dggrcqTg2SbPnLBYdC5oXnyQm6tbwkTAJNhJUbJrc/s1600/rob1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIkfJkmYgMc-odwXfPIHOA20IJn108Qd4mgMDytd3tV2NzvciFAN7d7xtfgOk33dLKFr6Lu21BiyMcgF1DjrlRM_HfaLXrf5nP9dggrcqTg2SbPnLBYdC5oXnyQm6tbwkTAJNhJUbJrc/s1600/rob1.jpg" /></a></div>
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!<br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Peter Yates</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by - Peter Yates, Edward Boyd, George Markstein, Gerald Wilson</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">From - "The Robber's Tale" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">by Peta Fordham</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Prod. by - Stanley Baker, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Michael Deeley</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music by - Johnny Keating</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Douglas Slocombe</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Reginald Beck </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Art Direction - </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Micheal Seymour</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 110 mins.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: 9/21/67 (UK) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">9/27/67 (US)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Embassy Pictures (UK)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Paramount Pictures (US)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(***** on a scale of 1-5)</span><br />
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<i>Streaming is wonderful, but many cinematic gems (for various reasons) have yet to make the leap to NetFlix, Hulu, Blu-ray or even DVD. In fact some have never been released in ANY home video format. And for this reason we saved our old school VHS tapes / players and DVD burner; and love to return "to the vaults" to relive old faves.</i><br />
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Today it's commonplace (and common sense) for actors to start their own production companies in order to find good material from which they themselves can at times snatch a decent character role, and at other times maybe not appear in but from which they can take a measure of creative satisfaction by shepherding to the screen a "pet project" they just <i>have </i>to get before an audience. James Garner's Cherokee Productions gave birth to TV's iconic THE ROCKFORD FILES and films such as GRAND PRIX and SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. Clint Eastwood's Malpaso gave the world DIRTY HARRY, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and more. Sean Connery founded Fountainbridge, Will Smith - Overbrook, Tom Cruise - CW and so on.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSpnaOChdpz6HrRtxk1amqlsUUuJTQ_tUfWEbpq94Yt-fWSnw_jahIUSCBWSliW3titBk6UH0VwkGnEra7_FjnPnc8xO1_ASmLwRXdOOKyuZ852txL80UcI5yUYpBDIZSsdKU64Z6uak/s1600/rob3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSpnaOChdpz6HrRtxk1amqlsUUuJTQ_tUfWEbpq94Yt-fWSnw_jahIUSCBWSliW3titBk6UH0VwkGnEra7_FjnPnc8xO1_ASmLwRXdOOKyuZ852txL80UcI5yUYpBDIZSsdKU64Z6uak/s1600/rob3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Directed by Peter Yates, ROBBERY is a speculative take <br />
on the infamous "British Royal Mail Train Robbery" of Aug. 3rd, 1963</td></tr>
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But to date one of the most impressive was also one of the earliest - formed by Welsh actor / producer Stanley Baker in the 1960s. One of British film history's most recognizable faces (we promise you've seen him time and again - he having starred in over 70 films including THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, ZULU, HELL DRIVERS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and more), one of his most iconic films as actor and producer also happens to be one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made. Surprisingly still all but unknown in the U.S. (and we hope to help remedy that situation), it's cinematic DNA - along with it's director's signature style - directly lead to the creation of the classic American Steve McQueen police thriller BULLITT, the intricate 1972 heist comedy THE HOT ROCK with Robert Redford and George Segal, and (while we've never heard or read anything <i>"official"</i> along these lines) we've always found it all but obvious that it was a primary influence on Michael Mann's highly regarded 1989 TV movie L.A. TAKEDOWN and it's even more highly regarded 1995 kinda sorta remake / expansion film HEAT. Yeah, that's a helluva filmic pedigree. And it belongs to Peter Yates' 1967 burnished gem of a caper yarn ROBBERY.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD9s_pRx8MGTp2GkzwCiD8-ioQleulPeVqPSzOfGWGEJjUIaQIePk3MhsO4sxXp2wqqyfdnuM-mLsrabew6fDXFJa5QLZ4drdYx2JjTo1yjSk2_5xMT9Lz3okS2xmsesFErPsF2u3uYEU/s1600/rob4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD9s_pRx8MGTp2GkzwCiD8-ioQleulPeVqPSzOfGWGEJjUIaQIePk3MhsO4sxXp2wqqyfdnuM-mLsrabew6fDXFJa5QLZ4drdYx2JjTo1yjSk2_5xMT9Lz3okS2xmsesFErPsF2u3uYEU/s1600/rob4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanley Baker (far right) leads the crew both as "Clifton" -<br />
the team's criminal mastermind - and as one of the film's primary producers.</td></tr>
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Britain's legendary "Great Train Robbery" (not to be confused with the events of the Michael Crichton Victorian era novel / film) took place in the early morning hours of Aug. 3rd, 1963 on the Bridego Railway Bridge near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. It was there that a gang of 15 men (none of them carrying firearms) pulled off the complex and momentous task of tampering with the line's railway signals, thus secluding a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London, and robbing it of £2.6 million (£48 million in today's currency / $75.5 million in today's U.S. dollars). While most of the gang was eventually found and arrested, the bulk of the stolen money was never recovered.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPXEt6dcqK8E6lSPJn7WJYSxSTwnM7_6aP3Id5SpxduuDU9QLlopoqmb2TsLhJv77Jcrlqh4vPPpkvGhfaww3FHpVDwAh8923NDNuHPhY6z1P7NM4d7gIvipNDOqp3G8DZrI7r3nsHuA/s1600/rob5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPXEt6dcqK8E6lSPJn7WJYSxSTwnM7_6aP3Id5SpxduuDU9QLlopoqmb2TsLhJv77Jcrlqh4vPPpkvGhfaww3FHpVDwAh8923NDNuHPhY6z1P7NM4d7gIvipNDOqp3G8DZrI7r3nsHuA/s1600/rob5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(pub. 1965)</td></tr>
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Over the next 50+ years almost 20 books would be published on the Great Train Robbery, each offering varying accounts and theories as to who was the true mastermind behind the heist, and whether or not he (or she) was ever captured. The first two - published shortly after the actual incident, and while investigations, searches and trials were still being conducted, were 1964's "The Great Train Robbery" written by Scotland Yard investigator John Gosling - it telling the story from the police perspective; and 1965's "The Robber's Tale". Penned by Peta Fordham, the wife of one of the barristers representing gang member Ronnie Biggs (who was convicted but escaped prison after having served 15 months), "Robber's Tale" proudly brandished the subtitle "The <i>Real </i>Story Behind The Great Train Robbery". But most felt it was a hastily written and exploitative documentation containing numerous unverified innuendos, and which contained no more "inside" information about the robbery and subsequent trial than was already available to the general public via reams of press coverage.<br />
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The future producer of classic American films such as THE DEER HUNTER and BLADE RUNNER, in the 1960s Michael Deeley was best known in his native England as the man behind numerous British TV series as well as 1965's award winning comedy film adaptation of the popular stage play THE KNACK ... AND HOW TO GET IT. After securing the rights to Fordham's book he brought it to director Peter Yates, who at the time only had two previous feature film credits to his name and had primarily been known as a TV director on series such as THE SAINT.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjEI5wtgHIuNYrhQjZ29g3fPsossCzBt6Zk_UhkqInvzE22kTC3V0v0GRojdSMUTP4bfc0UZjXKOY6sAKOYTEEVLiFnT-RVACPIJ-SnawAJVBpBHxKUwo8Bn6ZKTPpr8Ng9Z1qAp74U4/s1600/rob6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjEI5wtgHIuNYrhQjZ29g3fPsossCzBt6Zk_UhkqInvzE22kTC3V0v0GRojdSMUTP4bfc0UZjXKOY6sAKOYTEEVLiFnT-RVACPIJ-SnawAJVBpBHxKUwo8Bn6ZKTPpr8Ng9Z1qAp74U4/s1600/rob6.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dir. Peter Yates (circa early 1960s)</td></tr>
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After their project was turned down by Woodfall Productions (the company co-founded by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman), Deeley and Yates brought it to actor Stanley Baker, who as star and producer of the hit film ZULU (1964) had established a good working relationship with that film's financial backer - legendary British film mogul Joseph E. Levine. Levine agreed to bankroll ROBBERY and the project was a go.<br />
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As those "varying accounts and theories" surrounding the events of the robbery were still being debated as Deely, Yates and Baker embarked on the creation of their film (hell, the James Bond film THUNDERBALL would even jokingly imply that super-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld's organization SPECTRE was actually the brains behind it), they decided to make no pretense at attempting to adhere to "hard and fast documentation"; this in the event that years (or even months) later newly discovered evidence or testimony would discredit and / or seriously date their feature. As such ROBBERY's screenplay (co-written by Yates, Edward Boyd and George Markstein) would make the gang members a fictitious amalgam of the actual crew. And all of the events leading up to the 25 minute robbery itself - in the film painstakingly, realistically (and oh soooo stylishly) recreated from the court testimonies of the perpetrators - would be speculative fiction.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFlOaDkuzlh5ljmWIewfUmFPtnPjS2w7qh_abvycOQsjBZZQMlSqo6lpqN-pv5Fdm89qMCgQpZEUhmwoirZolWt32p5ZJrGg2VXNWrrnIJkBF1uh6O09988Bd862VY0s5YFSvkiD7mx4/s1600/rob7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFlOaDkuzlh5ljmWIewfUmFPtnPjS2w7qh_abvycOQsjBZZQMlSqo6lpqN-pv5Fdm89qMCgQpZEUhmwoirZolWt32p5ZJrGg2VXNWrrnIJkBF1uh6O09988Bd862VY0s5YFSvkiD7mx4/s1600/rob7.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Producer Michael Deeley (top left) on THE ITALIAN JOB (1969)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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To give the film more appeal in the U.S. an American character was written into the original script as the actual mastermind behind the heist. Legendary gangster actor George Raft originally signed on, but had to back out when England's Home Office refused him entry to the country because of his real life mob associations. Three days of footage was actually later shot aboard Joseph E. Levine's yacht on Long Island (U.S.A) with American actor Jason Robards (ONCE UPON THE TIME IN THE WEST, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN) as the "brains behind the caper". But it was later decided not to use the scenes and keep the operation an all British affair.<br />
<br />
As such the final cast included Stanley Baker as gang leader / mastermind Paul Clifton, James Booth (ZULU) as Inspector Langdon, Joanna Pettet (who'd co-starred in the 1967 James Bond spoof vers. of CASINO ROYALE) as Clifton's wife, Kate; and as various gang members - Frank Finlay (THE LONGEST DAY, THE THREE MUSKETEERS), Barry Foster (BATTLE OF BRITAIN, FRENZY), Clinton Grey, George Sewell and other recognizable character actor favorites from the UK's stage and screen world.<br />
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Whether thrillers, comedies or searing dramas, the films of one of our all time favorite film makers, the late director Peter Yates (1929 - 2011), were known for their gritty representation of character as well as swift pace. THE HOT ROCK, FOR PETE'S SAKE, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, THE DEEP, the hybrid action-comedy-drama MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED, along with BREAKING AWAY, KRULL, THE DRESSER, ELENI, SUSPECT and THE HOUSE ON CARROLL STREET all garnered Yates worldwide critical acclaim. But, as is often the case with most departed film makers, that world would remember Yates for one work in particular - in this case his 1968 American directorial debut BULLITT.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaXgnCfZH8yEe4OUgxdL8rm-jUwo7i0m9VIIIn66Jec0K5LrCQDaE0YyhKo0VRq49erjfrQDSP_0kejLV9ixlpjLDSFQroosO3cjqNSUSX6m29y3sN81B9hKFAKu_1YuFCzOgSzRzBuY/s1600/bullitt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdaXgnCfZH8yEe4OUgxdL8rm-jUwo7i0m9VIIIn66Jec0K5LrCQDaE0YyhKo0VRq49erjfrQDSP_0kejLV9ixlpjLDSFQroosO3cjqNSUSX6m29y3sN81B9hKFAKu_1YuFCzOgSzRzBuY/s1600/bullitt.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BULLITT (1968)</td></tr>
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In a Jan. 11th, 2011 New York Times obituary written about Yates, Bruce Weber stated, <i>"Mr. Yates’s reputation probably rests most securely on BULLITT – and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic"</i>. But what most (in our opinion heart-achingly) fail(ed) to recognize and cite among Yates' list of genuinely impressive cinematic accomplishments is that BULLITT was deliberately patterned after the super-cool look (in costumes and sharp cinematographic angles), tone & feel (in terse, near pulp-like dialog and jazz-influenced score), and even in it's hair raising car chase sequence very much after ROBBERY.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPQhbQrQF2gju60avnUTyZDz49BRP5CRwfYgSPf_K4zznmFq0TagKocD02RTh9Hdq7CBPlEa8fg6vPJHORluiMT7iEhp-OuWrsmElC546WmdvUYKhukYiOuiJHx9hlo0LUHZRME5TM7Vs/s1600/rob9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPQhbQrQF2gju60avnUTyZDz49BRP5CRwfYgSPf_K4zznmFq0TagKocD02RTh9Hdq7CBPlEa8fg6vPJHORluiMT7iEhp-OuWrsmElC546WmdvUYKhukYiOuiJHx9hlo0LUHZRME5TM7Vs/s1600/rob9.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Clockwise from top) Dir. Yates with Steve McQueen on BULLITT ('68), <br />
with Barbra Streisand on FOR PETE'S SAKE ('74), with Alex Rocco on<br />
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE ('73), and with Nick Nolte, Jacqueline Bisset & Robert Shaw on THE DEEP ('77)</td></tr>
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The first 15 minutes of ROBBERY - a considerable chunk of screen time for a film running 110 mins. - opens with a bang. A mini-movie in and of itself, and every bit as hair-raisingly exciting as a 007 movie pre-credit sequence, we the audience are thrown headlong into the third act of the latest in a string of capers designed to raise capital for the gang's "ultimate crime" - the titular later-to-come Royal Mail train heist. Using anesthetic gas Clifton's second-in-command, Frank (portrayed by Barry Foster), and a handful of others knock out a diamond courier, then, after hustling him into the back of an ambulance to cut the jewel-laden briefcase from his wrist, are spotted by police. A chase then ensues through London's crowded streets.<br />
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Resorting to their "Plan B" escape alternative, at every couple of street corners - as their getaway car screeches around the bend, another gang member leaps near-Kamikaze-like from the vehicle, and violently rolls to a stop off-road or under a parked truck to then elude the police on foot. Perhaps surpassing the later chases of BULLITT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE SEVEN UPS (those three films produced by American filmmaker Philip D'Antoni), in retrospect - especially if you watch the films after viewing ROBBERY - it is painfully cinematically obvious that all of those now-classic aforementioned tire-and-asphalt-burners were to greater or lesser degree patterned after the opening minutes of ROBBERY - it's chase still one of the most mind-bogglingly shot (as in the audience wondering <i>"Jeez! Was anyone killed while filming this?"</i>) in action movie history.<br />
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By the way, no! No one was killed during the realization of ROBBERY's hair-raising introduction. But, as with Yates very next film, BULLITT, the cinematic pace and intensity is ratcheted up exponentially by grade "A" contributions from a sterling technical crew - in this case including the down-and-dirty-realistic cinematography of Douglas Slocombe (THE LION IN WINTER, ROLLERBALL, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) and revolutionary editing of Reginald Beck (MODESTY BLAISE, THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSY). So enraptured with ROBBERY's execution (in particular it's slick "60s era GQ" visual style and opening chase sequence), it was Steve McQueen himself who lobbied Warner Bros. to hire it's director, Yates, to helm his next film - the now classic BULLITT.<br />
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Winning a Best Screenplay award from the Writer's Guild of Britain, ROBBERY was a commercial success everywhere in the world but the U.S, where Yates says it was poorly promoted. In the wake of the film's global critical acclaim, Yates' career wasn't the only one which blossomed. Having joined as producing partners on ROBBERY, Stanley Baker and Micheal Deely founded Oakhurst Productions. Then, eventually joined by Barry Spikings, the trio would go on to form the Great Western company, which would eventually take over the legendary British Lion studios and release classics such as DON'T LOOK NOW, THE WICKER MAN, CONDUCT UNBECOMING and the 1976 David Bowie / Nicholas Roeg sci-fier THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAG39vgBO1qR5W6xq4r8fccHsYIZ4JrXxv2CSsPWnaRhvMPDAbULZgRP6FDKkyXzcN0DqBgKPluyEvTH0ksp7pHW0O86rAwqLX9vqiqTBbKwl781izJaFGwHqbEReKKrVYy1Szq2hLh2o/s1600/rob12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAG39vgBO1qR5W6xq4r8fccHsYIZ4JrXxv2CSsPWnaRhvMPDAbULZgRP6FDKkyXzcN0DqBgKPluyEvTH0ksp7pHW0O86rAwqLX9vqiqTBbKwl781izJaFGwHqbEReKKrVYy1Szq2hLh2o/s1600/rob12.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A thematic precursor to James Caan's "Frank" in Michael Mann's THIEF ('81) and <br />
Robert DeNiro's "McCauley" in HEAT ('95), Baker's "Clifton" attempts to balance his secret <br />
criminal life with the domestic one he shares with his beloved "Kate" (Joanna Pettet)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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A near life-long heavy smoker, Baker was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1976, then passed away later that same year at the age of 48. His legacy as both actor and independent producer continues to influence the course of modern film. And a major shifting point in that career was the success of ROBBERY - it ironically still little known to most film fans in America.<br />
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Amazingly, although we considered ourselves huge life-long fans of director Yates (hell, two of our all time fave films <i>period </i>are his EDDIE COYLE and THE DEEP), even we had never heard of ROBBERY until one Saturday afternoon in the early 1990s. Those over 30 may recall that, as DVD's began taking over the marketplace from video cassettes, there was a sudden surge in the liquidation of VHS tapes everywhere from large scale rental chains to the local neighborhood Mom & Pop video emporium on the corner. And if we recall correctly we picked up ROBBERY the same day we also snagged Nicholas Meyer's little known COMPANY BUSINESS (with Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov) and Fred Schepisi's underrated THE RUSSIA HOUSE (starring Sean Connery & Michelle Pfeiffer) - all three for under ten bucks. Ahhh, those were the days!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr09f1DQAQORZ-bIYM0AubCdbFC2ASz1Mr_J9sttm_s9WLBSlFo6LqzCOqRmPvfvaa3lR8TC13wrzEhNC8a1JZlC_9H1IdbP7ZYnnpMJFQnuKeF8mRWxCv4leYPEktUBiQDCUDLTFaAiQ/s1600/rob13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr09f1DQAQORZ-bIYM0AubCdbFC2ASz1Mr_J9sttm_s9WLBSlFo6LqzCOqRmPvfvaa3lR8TC13wrzEhNC8a1JZlC_9H1IdbP7ZYnnpMJFQnuKeF8mRWxCv4leYPEktUBiQDCUDLTFaAiQ/s1600/rob13.jpg" /></a></div>
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Rushing the loot home and popping ROBBERY into the 'ol Panasonic tape player first we were immediately blown away. Within the first 10 minutes one couldn't help but immediately recognize - from Johnny Keating's super cool, brass-laden, big band jazz score, to the film's air-tight technical execution, especially in that insane opening London car chase - BULLITT's genetic indebtedness to the cine-genome of ROBBERY. Needless to say because of this we in subsequent years were consistently stunned when the film, which <i>was </i>finally beginning to build a wee bit of a steady cult reputation in the U.S. via VHS and cable TV screenings, never received a stateside DVD release. That is until <i>kinda / sorta</i> 2008.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTGypFR1fC21VU6MlrtT1nk3_BxOxd88yw2OXESiQTflYXpVjmzT7lsnxIVBMM7s078iN9tB7wozKyL5mJ2NizU9KA2jwkaJZEDG0XL7yuFKQzbc373PqJL5HUUpG_F8GycDqxQ445sw/s1600/rob14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSTGypFR1fC21VU6MlrtT1nk3_BxOxd88yw2OXESiQTflYXpVjmzT7lsnxIVBMM7s078iN9tB7wozKyL5mJ2NizU9KA2jwkaJZEDG0XL7yuFKQzbc373PqJL5HUUpG_F8GycDqxQ445sw/s1600/rob14.jpg" /></a></div>
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In 2008 Studio Canal officially released ROBBERY as a Pan & Scan, "Region 2" (not playable on players in the U.S. and Canada) DVD in England. And there were (and still are) also a few sites of dubious legality which claimed to offer "Region Free" versions of the film as a "per order" DVD-R. But as stated in other "Vaulted Treasure" postings we can't really speak positively or negatively as to the quality of such "independently produced" discs, or even whether or not they will play on all machines. There was, however, some good (as well as, we guess, bad) news for Blu-ray aficionados in 2015.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix5bhO6A91PT3jdUTwePQiqTD4PrqXYJbPmqeNvmIULyJFn6m3irBe07AROhFIoaHnmtvCZ7lCC9m1twujAMkvOg38aKTuU-EaqSK9Am1EgrX33kaWIOfUGUOhL2SHrViPhEG6l06bFKo/s1600/ROBBERYlobbyCArd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix5bhO6A91PT3jdUTwePQiqTD4PrqXYJbPmqeNvmIULyJFn6m3irBe07AROhFIoaHnmtvCZ7lCC9m1twujAMkvOg38aKTuU-EaqSK9Am1EgrX33kaWIOfUGUOhL2SHrViPhEG6l06bFKo/s1600/ROBBERYlobbyCArd.jpg" /></a></div>
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The good news was that the Network label released a stunning new transfer of ROBBERY scanned to 2K resolution from the original 35mm negative, and restored it in it's correct theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The Blu contained a newly recorded interview with Michael Deeley as well as "WAITING FOR THE SIGNAL" - an all new documentary on the making of ROBBERY. It also included archival Behind The Scenes material, and an episode of TV's CINEMA series featuring a sit-down with the late Stanley Baker. The only rub (the bad news part) was that the Blu (just like the previous DVD) was only available as a "Region 2" disc. Those who still have VHS players can find video tape copies of the film on Amazon.com (U.S.) running from $8.00 used to $120.00 new. And, for those interested in burning a personal copy from TV, up till as recently as four years ago the film was still sporadically showing up on SHOWTIME and a few other commercial-free cable movie networks. It is to date, however, still not yet available for streaming anywhere in the U.S.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_GpdAmu1xuy181ysCnw09GePejZjnw6l2Bb-8vYObBkzS0vt6RGB-Z1Q3FjhHStM2DQyfkxlPilWQLjW1pDPH5MBKk4T48O-ZDumJJlF7n1NAipaRsIn4s52Gqca-d3_qoYIbWawO2o/s1600/RobTrio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_GpdAmu1xuy181ysCnw09GePejZjnw6l2Bb-8vYObBkzS0vt6RGB-Z1Q3FjhHStM2DQyfkxlPilWQLjW1pDPH5MBKk4T48O-ZDumJJlF7n1NAipaRsIn4s52Gqca-d3_qoYIbWawO2o/s1600/RobTrio.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) 1987 Charter VHS, 2008 StudioCanal DVD, 2015 Network Blu-ray</td></tr>
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Regardless of whichever medium you choose to seek out and experience this lightning-fast (and yes, we're going to use that phrase one last time) "super-cool" masterclass in bad-assed action / suspense cinema, we most heartily urge that you to do so. THE ITALIAN JOB, the OCEANS 11 remakes, and even the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films? Over the years we've come to the conclusion that each of them in their youth, ... all they ever really wanted to do was be ROBBERY when they grew up. Give a look-see at this one, and we think you'll agree.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0axrEikiZQu4gSm3-Sh0O-_B8zsunlcWjt_xqAaUNvawUGKut9QpqoIjDiZBUf-EbVA2zfiuJpuHxCkfSz2X3jBh1koyODzWUOIzWVJV1VmK4HFE8u7LnEEMn8I_eeQNfsJNGfJCsMuE/s1600/robTeam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0axrEikiZQu4gSm3-Sh0O-_B8zsunlcWjt_xqAaUNvawUGKut9QpqoIjDiZBUf-EbVA2zfiuJpuHxCkfSz2X3jBh1koyODzWUOIzWVJV1VmK4HFE8u7LnEEMn8I_eeQNfsJNGfJCsMuE/s320/robTeam.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-84376948064947707382018-11-04T13:11:00.002-05:002019-04-05T14:02:09.411-04:00THE, YEAH (SOMETIMES), MAGIC OF *WHERE* YOU SEE A FILM - by CEJ<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnk_6KMSmshGvkJop8waTyZew215iNPYiXFfU97FVpxyNoLpzNtomJv4YK09KswN6Bx2_vsvcNvpIz4DU5fSg4ijLpCRhdMvDquuljBDL1L5Z7C-p56cyQayTKY7zN6YDzh4eUTetzXy4/s1600/BOYDpic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="545" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnk_6KMSmshGvkJop8waTyZew215iNPYiXFfU97FVpxyNoLpzNtomJv4YK09KswN6Bx2_vsvcNvpIz4DU5fSg4ijLpCRhdMvDquuljBDL1L5Z7C-p56cyQayTKY7zN6YDzh4eUTetzXy4/s1600/BOYDpic1.jpg" /></a></div>
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJrttLzuRQXNI9R0nZQPRHnMRLnzflm-6N8bZ_rgo2k_leWQb9cdP2acyFZktbiWnFrzGHJCbwREdaTbuuhbShhqDLkRFXKsljJv3jGdgEpy9GNifl-K1NEnaSRY66HYVRZJG52Q9RfY/s1600/boydEric.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJrttLzuRQXNI9R0nZQPRHnMRLnzflm-6N8bZ_rgo2k_leWQb9cdP2acyFZktbiWnFrzGHJCbwREdaTbuuhbShhqDLkRFXKsljJv3jGdgEpy9GNifl-K1NEnaSRY66HYVRZJG52Q9RfY/s1600/boydEric.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Boyd Theater (1930s) / The SamEric Theater (1980s)</td></tr>
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Hmmm? While that VAULTED TREASURES subtitle above always says <i>"Movies you never knew about, you forgot, or you forgot to love more the first time around"</i>, this one will be a slight (let's call it) "Electric Slide" sidestep or two to the left by maybe replacing the word "movies" with "theaters". I'm gonna try <i>not </i>to be all "age-i-fied" on this one. Y'know, try not to make this one of those postings which begins with <i>"You may have to be over 30 to appreciate this". </i>But the truth is, <i>ehhh</i> ... <i>you kinda just <u>may</u> have to be!</i> Jeez, sorry! But hear me out before you get that look on your face, oh "Dear Person Younger-Than-Me", because I'd be willing to bet next month's rent that you've got one of these too somewhere in your past. Maybe not the exact <i>same kind </i>of "one of these". I mean, I've spoken to those who had a particular video store which became the creative "trysting place" of their formative youths. Or a record shop, or book store, or comics shop, or long defunct arcade, etc. which sparked their interest in some form of the creative arts. But you've got one. And I defy you not to get nostalgic and corny and all when flashing back to it and the (no exaggeration to say) maybe life defining times you had during <i>your </i>"back in the day" there.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipefRQbXKGezEx9LtE-9WPNu8dm_W-B2RtizCCYBCRezVWwzJcXDjmcrh09-bOC2CO0oztJqwvvagwj10BleQJlsvymok1tq258xJrEPeIsU__T-tnX9z0CxQwmh3uh4whPeuiGiv3lu4/s1600/boydTrystingPlaces.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="531" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipefRQbXKGezEx9LtE-9WPNu8dm_W-B2RtizCCYBCRezVWwzJcXDjmcrh09-bOC2CO0oztJqwvvagwj10BleQJlsvymok1tq258xJrEPeIsU__T-tnX9z0CxQwmh3uh4whPeuiGiv3lu4/s1600/boydTrystingPlaces.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mostly no-longer-existent 1980s - 90s era "Trysting places of the arts" as<br />
depicted in film (top to bottom): The record store - HIGH FIDELITY (2000) /<br />
comic book shop - UNBREAKABLE (2000) / video store - BE KIND REWIND (2008)</td></tr>
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At any rate I posted something on Facebook yesterday about noticing increasing gray hairs on my head. And perhaps this is just another rendition of the same thing - the much smaller scale written version of how Terry Gilliam's wife once playfully accused him of making the same movie over and over and over again. And if you really think about it, she's right. Look closely enough at BRAZIL, BARON MUNCHAUSEN, THE FISHER KING, 12 MONKEYS and others, and there's a very striking (I wouldn't call it "sameness", but) thematic similarity running through the central nervous system of them all. And I guess this is kind of along the same part and parcel lines as the "reflecting back and noticing things as you get older" nature of the "gray hairs" thing. In fact like the "gray thing" this too started as a social media posting - just one which got way too damned long, so it was placed here. People will tend to click away from a long social media posting but will often be more inclined to read a short blog, ... even if that blog posting is in actuality longer than the social media one. Go figure, huh? But I've digressed enough. On to it ...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7Rd8mLhQYxgt2oaVgHbpySLUSVIr3z1Ml954Ln7_CCVrcVn_R_ygGghj0x9SQXh_mZB6b4T_FTwLKGrIYHFE9xBXhqvQSHNl1d7V8X8JfmbRvuE6VXtKnm6BlecY663Rjy09LsCB47k/s1600/boydGilliam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7Rd8mLhQYxgt2oaVgHbpySLUSVIr3z1Ml954Ln7_CCVrcVn_R_ygGghj0x9SQXh_mZB6b4T_FTwLKGrIYHFE9xBXhqvQSHNl1d7V8X8JfmbRvuE6VXtKnm6BlecY663Rjy09LsCB47k/s1600/boydGilliam.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One more movie stills digression with "three according to Gilliam" (L to R) BRAZIL (1985), <br />
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1988),12 MONKEYS (1995).<br />
Okay, now we can continue ... </td></tr>
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A Facebook friend in Chicago made comment this weekend about the love of Windy City fans for The Uptown Theater, and how they hope it can be saved from the wrecking ball. And it brought memories flooding back ... . Well, "flooding back" isn't really accurate as the memories are still vivid, and a very important part of my life (creative and personal) to this day. We had a magnificent theater like that in Philadelphia - a gorgeous art deco palace at 19th & Chestnut Streets in Center City. When it opened in 1928 it was called The Boyd Theater. Films like GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ and others had their premiere runs there; it was one of the original 3-strip Cinerama theaters in the nation; and it was <i>the </i>premier tri-state area (Philadelphia, South Jersey, Delaware) 70mm Roadshow palace as well - with BEN-HUR (Chuck Heston showed up in person on opening night), DR. ZHIVAGO and others running there in their original formats.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtS-8HRhymSIEtnqbLbMeyH-q3el4tMkt9z1HIDVKJIM9f7zqHe22t1FRYAxIgQiJNSL6SsEAoFdPzGZh-GgBrjfmdIll6vYduk0LbqCflciqPvC5R9neI-mXbfrAyoCb4b2lrgj6ikU0/s1600/10ComEmpire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtS-8HRhymSIEtnqbLbMeyH-q3el4tMkt9z1HIDVKJIM9f7zqHe22t1FRYAxIgQiJNSL6SsEAoFdPzGZh-GgBrjfmdIll6vYduk0LbqCflciqPvC5R9neI-mXbfrAyoCb4b2lrgj6ikU0/s1600/10ComEmpire.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(top) THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) - 70mm screen grab,<br />
(bottom) STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) - 70mm cell scan</td></tr>
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In 1971 The Boyd was taken over by a local chain called SamEric Theaters, which has since been taken over by The Regal Entertainment Group - the owners of Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theaters and United Artist Theaters. And that's where and when <i>my</i> personal love of the place grew as it was <i>the </i>largest screen in three states for quite some time while I was growing up. To this day I've been to IMAX theaters which couldn't hold a candle to a great 70mm print at the SamEric. Even when I lived in South Jersey, and a film was playing at the local mall not far away, I'd take the bus or (later when I got my license) drive 20 to 30 miles to see it at "The Eric" (that's what the locals called it) or "At 19th & Chestnut" (it's former pre-GPS film fan designation) just because of that screen and that ohhhh-so-immersive wraparound sound.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_A7KMDTOskU68VoKBFavJ5u1VYI1-Ju0oH5qJWO-CtjSkcxehSQRBXc8pKDBisn87EQMCGNVCyy02ducymt5DaNBqpBB6TkY8riZun6ytriUp4jvkexBO5yTfA-7J2uFt_aRgwqn4IPM/s1600/boydLobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_A7KMDTOskU68VoKBFavJ5u1VYI1-Ju0oH5qJWO-CtjSkcxehSQRBXc8pKDBisn87EQMCGNVCyy02ducymt5DaNBqpBB6TkY8riZun6ytriUp4jvkexBO5yTfA-7J2uFt_aRgwqn4IPM/s1600/boydLobby.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Boyd (later SamEric) lobby</td></tr>
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To this day I've fond memories of seeing THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS, TEMPLE OF DOOM, A VIEW TO A KILL, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, an awesome all day STAR TREK film marathon and more at the Eric. And I always regretted not being able to see SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE or TRON in their original 70mm runs there. And, oh yeah, films like Jonathan Demme's 1993 drama PHILADELPHIA had their world premieres there too.<br />
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When multiple screens became all the rage (and an economic necessity), instead of chopping up it's gorgeous main theater, the SamEric group actually sprung the mega bucks to knock down a lobby wall and add a new annex onto the existing building with three smaller screens. <i>Hell yeah!</i> But of course as such when something like RETURN OF THE JEDI, OCTOPUSSY or INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE opened and was playing on the main mega-screen <i>and </i>one or two of the other screens (and back then it was the same admission price for all of them) it was incumbent upon you to know which times were for which of the four theaters.<br />
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One of the things I most loved about The Eric / The Boyd (but not everyone did) was what a "chameleon"-like theater it was in the 1980s - 90s. Depending on what was playing (and what day and / or time of day you went) The Eric was <i>the </i>place for a night out with family or with a date, or it was the slightly grander scale version of a grindhouse theater in all it's heyday glory, but with a seven or so hundred (rather than two or three hundred) strong crowd hurling comments at the screen, ... and sometimes in unison.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0YGoDXWK71yeUFTzzRQrp2zXNo7kdtXojoY9ymoYuhzLDuWzd5c3MTVjo1sdQvAxZpBexCF12-D6RK7e6xZSEwr1cFUbW-cF1dAM18tn-lcqtrj1XxH6mHvzrSo56xGpuTfs00cYIWs/s1600/boydINTERIOR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0YGoDXWK71yeUFTzzRQrp2zXNo7kdtXojoY9ymoYuhzLDuWzd5c3MTVjo1sdQvAxZpBexCF12-D6RK7e6xZSEwr1cFUbW-cF1dAM18tn-lcqtrj1XxH6mHvzrSo56xGpuTfs00cYIWs/s1600/boydINTERIOR.jpg" /></a></div>
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I remember how on the Friday night I saw COMING TO AMERICA there with a date it was more a multi-ethnic / multi-age "family night out" kind of crowd - with everyone lined up at the ice cream shop across the street before and after each show. And how on other Friday nights or Saturday afternoons films like THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, CHILD'S PLAY, THEY LIVE, FATAL ATTRACTION, SCREAM and others turned it into the biggest "interactive shout at the screen" fest outside of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and Times Square New York of the 1980s. As said, some patrons didn't dig the (at times) schizoprenic nature of The Eric. But if you loved <i>EVERY KIND</i> of film (and I always did) it was a stone cold blast. And yeah, sometimes "stoned" was the operative word as many in the audience were unequivocally convinced that was the only state to be in in order to watch certain kinds of films. Hey, life in big city, huh?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3lsGs1_DSaseODRV2HRVlKInwU78sxtSJtpNUNC2eFMrKBw6X80Dbp0QL5etTTHXZXbc5dus3wro1I2TcDb7axM-kbvxSDX6cMBwvxbvqv8hszljFUa_nWEu_lOfJN718FwhG5uP-9TY/s1600/boydINTERIOR2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3lsGs1_DSaseODRV2HRVlKInwU78sxtSJtpNUNC2eFMrKBw6X80Dbp0QL5etTTHXZXbc5dus3wro1I2TcDb7axM-kbvxSDX6cMBwvxbvqv8hszljFUa_nWEu_lOfJN718FwhG5uP-9TY/s1600/boydINTERIOR2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ghost of The Boyd / SamEric after shuttering its doors in 2002</td></tr>
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To this day I believe part of the "group psychology of enjoyment" inherent and at work at The Eric was that - not unlike with an old school Vegas magic act before it begins - the theater had these huge heavy dark red velvet curtains which would open (and once or twice done so manually by two guys on stage when the motor was on the fritz) as the theater lights dimmed. There was something magical about that. You could feel the rise in expectation within the audience, especially when they all started cheering and clapping and hootin' and hollering when it did. <i>Then </i>if the film itself had some kind of recurring, recognizable and beloved cinematic opening - like the James Bond gun barrel or the STAR WARS "A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away" prologue - <i>ohhh, Mama!</i> - there was a deafening cheer as the audience went 100% total and complete absolute bonkers apesh*t. And that was more infectious than the ebola virus.<br />
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Hell, the truth is that some films (CHILD'S PLAY 2 anyone?) were made 10 times more enjoyable by just seeing them in that particular theater and with a particular audience - one which was just "into it". And to this day when I'm writing a script, and looking for a "vibe", or if I'm attempting to describe what "kind" of a film I'm envisioning to someone, I'll often refer to it as a <i>"19th & Chestnut movie",</i> then I'll explain why, and they totally get it.<br />
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The last film I saw at The Eric / The Boyd before it closed was 1998's X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE. And after it brought those velvet curtains together for the last time there was a fifteen + year effort by many to have the theater designated an historical site in order to save and preserve it. But to no avail.<br />
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I truly hope Chicago's beloved Uptown Theater can be saved from the ball and preserved - as I hear Joliet's The Rialto (about an hour outside of town) managed to be - because, as much as I truly love today's IMAX venues and digital sound and all, there's still nothing quite like watching a movie in a grand ol' cinemadrome like The SamEric / The Boyd. Tom Hanks was even blown away by the place during the Philadelphia World Premiere of the movie PHILADELPHIA in 1993 - surprised and excitedly exclaiming, <i>"Wow! A real movie palace!"</i>.<br />
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Hell, in places like that even going to the bathroom, or stepping out into the lobby to get a refill of popcorn, was a hell of a theater-going experience.<br />
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See 'ya in the balcony. And, hey, no hanky panky up there. The ushers with the flashlights are watching. ;)<br />
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CEJ<br />
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More on The Boyd / SamEric Theater @<br />
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* CINEMA TREASURES.ORG: <a href="http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1209"><span style="color: yellow;">http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1209</span></a><br />
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* CURBED PHILADELPHIA: <a href="https://philly.curbed.com/2015/3/16/9980704/lets-take-one-last-look-back-at-phillys-art-deco-palace"><span style="color: yellow;">https://philly.curbed.com/2015/3/16/9980704/lets-take-one-last-look-back-at-phillys-art-deco-palace</span></a><br />
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* MENTAL FLOSS.COM - "15 Eerily Beautiful Photos Of Abandoned Movie Houses":<a href="http://mentalfloss.com/photos/91024/15-eerily-beautiful-photos-abandoned-movie-theaters?fbclid=IwAR3jtHbJXh3p27UhSmzoykNLE-K8xnfQR0uNu_ixJ2ltoxha06ZNpjPwkWI" target="_blank"> <span style="color: yellow;">http://mentalfloss.com/photos/91024/15-eerily-beautiful-photos-abandoned-movie-theaters?fbclid=IwAR3jtHbJXh3p27UhSmzoykNLE-K8xnfQR0uNu_ixJ2ltoxha06ZNpjPwkWI</span></a><br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-38219709798391528602018-10-26T05:48:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:02:26.295-04:00TWO LAYNES TO HELL: REVIEWS - "FETISH FACTORY" / "VALENTINE DAYz" - by CEJ<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtrDREVYLWeWZjh1lNjpD8Z3O6T4F4Y-R6cRX4ni2iGdf-3bBPOVfJGEqQ5J5-OLus3Dj7dCYgzMeKFrQ0rCrXQfP7v6S94uK2l0yrdVMdczT7aFoNMTNZHnVm3Xnx0JP9bliOtgwKS1c/s1600/L1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="535" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtrDREVYLWeWZjh1lNjpD8Z3O6T4F4Y-R6cRX4ni2iGdf-3bBPOVfJGEqQ5J5-OLus3Dj7dCYgzMeKFrQ0rCrXQfP7v6S94uK2l0yrdVMdczT7aFoNMTNZHnVm3Xnx0JP9bliOtgwKS1c/s1600/L1.jpg" /></a></div>
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgCrpRjGdevVc1HQv_7XlI2OFDwp8hpUTEf9WyY20DW1c5Sl1B1x4q9uNi_BjE-VnHCTyJuCsleHCX5odLc6EuhWPNB-ynNm6jSqf1yvOBwMNHEV89vPa26Zwl43NDED_SKsKYEVdDe4/s1600/l2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgCrpRjGdevVc1HQv_7XlI2OFDwp8hpUTEf9WyY20DW1c5Sl1B1x4q9uNi_BjE-VnHCTyJuCsleHCX5odLc6EuhWPNB-ynNm6jSqf1yvOBwMNHEV89vPa26Zwl43NDED_SKsKYEVdDe4/s1600/l2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">FETISH FACTORY (2018)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(***½ on a scale of 1-5)</span></div>
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With less than a week to go before … c’mon, admit it … what's <i>really </i>everyone’s favorite holiday - good ‘ol Halloween - we at the Cottage wanted to toss a couple of streaming possibilities into the ring for this upcoming weekend and that final stretch of days leading up to the 31st. </div>
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I’ll admit it. I’m pretty damned tired of zombie movies. This year marks the 50th anniversary of George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (still among the best of ‘em all), and in it’s undead wake - especially over the last ten or so of those years - the genre has been soooo played out it’s knees are shot far worse than my own. Sure, there have been a few bright spots like Garland & Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER, Henry Hobson’s genuinely moving MAGGIE (featuring a surprisingly heartrending performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger - <i>yeah, seriously!</i>) and a few others. But I even checked out of THE WALKING DEAD after Frank Darabont got shafted by AMC. As such (and if you couldn’t tell by the way that handful of films above were described) my creative interest and loyalty tends to land more with a film<i>maker</i> rather than with the specific genre in which he or she may happen to be plying their cine-artistic trade. That’s why, in spite of my recent garlic to vampire-like aversion to zombie flicks, I actually looked forward to not just one, but count 'em <i>two </i>new such themed films from writer / director / producer Staci Layne Wilson - FETISH FACTORY (aka CABARET OF THE DEAD) and VALENTINE DAYz. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Staci Layne Wilson at Shriekfest Los Angeles 2017</td></tr>
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If Staci's name sounds familiar it’s no surprise. You may have seen her over the years as an interviewer on SyFy Channel or Dread Central, or Yahoo! Movies or other places. Her short films such as PSYCHO THERAPY and NOT WITH MY DAUGHTER have been hits on the festival circuit. She’s written a shelf-load of books - among them CITY OF DEVILS, the fiendishly clever THE TRAGEDY MAN <span style="color: yellow;"><span style="color: yellow;"><i><a href="http://gullcottageonline.com/TRAGEDYmanWilsonReview.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">(which we did a review of a little while back)</span></a></i></span>,</span> the non-fiction 50 YEARS OF GHOST MOVIES, and the up-close-and-personal SO L.A.: A HOLLYWOOD MEMOIR. Lots to talk about in that last one as she’s the offspring of rock musician Don Wilson and 60s pinup icon Nancy Bacon. And oh yeah, she’s presently finishing up a documentary-of-the-heart centered around her dad’s legendary band The Ventures. So, yeah, if you do movies or you've got a TV you’ve probably heard the name somewhere around these parts. </div>
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We interviewed her around this time last year too on THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST <a href="http://www.art19.com/shows/movie-sneak?month=9&year=2017" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">(<i>anyone wants to cue it up she comes in at the 10:45 mark</i>)</span></a> where she gave a nifty heads-up on what was then the <i>upcoming </i>ultimate strippers vs. zombies throwdown flick FETISH FACTORY. And with a premise and a title like that, how could one <i>not </i>want to see it? - hell, out of curiosity if nothing else, right? Pleased to say though that FETISH FACTORY is a heckuva lot more than a nifty title or premise in search of a movie. In fact while those are what will probably attract audiences at first, what will <i>keep </i>them entertained, and I believe coming back again and again till this one becomes a bonafied old fashioned cult film, is it’s “vibe”, … it‘s “personality”, … it’s clever, smart (and smart-assed) sense of wit which is an extension of that of its filmmaker. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The undead legacy of George A. Romero</td></tr>
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Written and directed by Layne the plot of FETISH FACTORY is bare bones simple, straight-forward and blissfully unpretentious. Run by the tantalizing Miss Irma (Diane Ayala Goldner of Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN II, … <i>and who wonderfully steals every single scene she’s in here!</i>), a “pop up” cabaret catering to clients with code names like “Footman”, “Lipstick” and “Whipping Boy” becomes the devil’s playground version of The Alamo when a phenomenon begins turning men into zombies ... <i>who feed only upon women</i>. SURPRISE, SURPRISE! That's right, <i>subtext!</i> Go figure, huh? Now do that thing like in the cartoons where you shake your head back and forth real fast and blurry to clear it. See, and some of you were thinking <i>“What more brains could a flick with a title like that have other than the ones splattered across the walls?”.</i> </div>
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But that’s what I mean about a film being an extension of the filmmaker’s personality and world view. While it’s certainly not sermonizing, one can’t watch the mayhem of FETISH FACTORY and not pick up on it’s thinly veiled analogy between the “clients” and their “hostesses” running parallel with that of the flesh eating male zombies and their female prey, especially in light of such high profile news stories of late involving Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and others. </div>
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Passion is contagious. So is fun. And the cast of FETISH FACTORY all toss themselves headlong with abandon into the cinematic equivalent of not so much a carnival funhouse ride as much as it is the small budget independent horror movie equivalent of a monster truck rally. Layne’s more than game cast includes Carrie Keegan (of BRAVO AFTER HOURS and REEL JUNKIE), Jennifer Blanc-Biehn (whom you may remember from tv’s PARTY OF FIVE and DARK ANGEL), Emma Julia Jacobs (HITCHCOCK, RUBY SPARKS), Chase Williamson (JOHN DIES AT THE END), Tristan Risk (DARK WEB), and Ruben Pla, Jesse Merlin and the late Daniel Quinn (to whom the film is dedicated) as the clients with “those names”. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) Carrie Keegan, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Staci Layne Wilson, Tristan Risk</td></tr>
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One interesting thing to also take away from FETISH FACTORY - while the film certainly makes no pretense at being P.C., in light of today’s #meToo sensibilities one may wonder before entering it's doors how exploitative (or not) things may get there. After all it’s a movie about exotic dancers and not Sunday School teachers. However, while the old adage (especially with film) is that “sex sells”, that’s really not on the menu here. </div>
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Sorry guys. Yeah, I’m saying that while the women <i>do </i>look damned good in this one, you don’t see any “t” or “a”, or even any of that (actually laughable) late night Showtime pretend sex. If that’s what you’re after you might wanna keep scrollin’ down that Amazon Prime queue because humor, wit and old fashioned <i>“hair ’em, scare ’em and make ’em laugh”</i> sensibilities of the old grindhouse sort are the fetishes this one’s got on it’s mind. </div>
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If there’s one minor caveat (and it’s an entirely subjective one on my part), I wish the film looked a little (for lack of a better term) “grungier”. There’s a part of me used to watching this kind of movie in a gum-sticky floored inner city theater with pot smoke wafting into the air, and with streaks, skips and pops riddling the film stock itself. That kind of "dirty it up and age it" post digital manipulation is expensive however. And Ms. Layne and her cast and crew were functioning with minimal resources. Considering that, the technical dexterity and visual bravado on display here is a wonder to behold with the writer / director accomplishing a helluva lot with very little. And, oh yeah, while I wouldn't call it a "twist ending" there is also a nifty coda which leaves the film with actually more of a TWILIGHT ZONE / OUTER LIMITS feel than a straight-up horror one.<br />
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One can only imagine what Layne will do when she gets her hands on a sizable budget in the near future. And if the sheer joy which tears through FETISH FACTORY is any indication then I’m fairly certain that future's just around the corner. A wise studio exec would be a fool not to toss her the keys to the cinematic Jag.<br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">VALENTINE DAYz (2018)</span><br />
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While triple-threating as writer, producer and director on FETISH FACTORY, Ms. Layne wears the producer’s hat (along with Sarah Craig, Kate Rees Davies and Griffin Gmelich) on VALENTINE DAYz. While written & directed by Mark Allen Michaels, VALENTINE is from the (let’s call ‘em) modern L.A. equivalent of that legendary pool of Texas filmmaker friends and cohorts from back in the day which included the Cohen Bros. and Sam Raimi. Remember how they worked on and pitched in with each other’s early projects, and how they collaborated on 1985’s CRIMEWAVE? Another contemporary equivalent would be the years long personal and artistic brotherhood between Mexican born film makers Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The same exact thing here as many of FETISH FACTORY’s cast and crew - among them Carrie Keegan, Diane Ayala Goldner, Aaron Kai and more - are all involved with VALENTINE DAYz as well. </div>
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In fact Mr. Kai (Ms. Layne’s significant other in life) not only appears in both films, he also serves triple duty behind the scenes on both in the art and camera departments. This he also did on director Michaels’ previous feature, the “Sasquatch thriller with a twist” THE FIANCE (2016) - that one of which also starred VALENTINE DAYz’s Carrie Keegan and Dallas Valdez. <i>Whew!</i> See what we’re talking about here - that close knit kind of film making community? Anyway …<br />
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After the rollicking nature of FETISH FACTORY I was stunningly caught off guard by the more subdued dramatic tone of VALENTINE DAYz. Not unlike FETISH it’s plot is bare bones straight-ahead. Or at least it begins that way. And in a sense VALENTINE cleverly does what Stephen King will often do, which is to set a smaller more intimate story tangentially within the same universe as a more sprawling one. In the same way say in which King’s short stories “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One For The Road” function as a prequel and sequel respectively (but with different characters) to the 1975 novel ’SALEMS LOT, so does writer / director Micheals’ VALENTINE DAYz seem to be a smaller scale, more personal "taking-place-over-in-the-corner-there" story set within the apocalyptic zombie disease infected landscape of Max Brooks’ WORLD WAR Z. </div>
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In VALENTINE two individuals approaching middle age, Max (Valdez) and Sara (Keegan), finally find true love with one another only to have it shattered as the world goes topsy-turvy apesh*t when it’s smitten with the aforementioned zombie infection. At the beginning it seems as if this will be sort of a non-humorous version of Edgar Wright’s SEAN OF THE DEAD (2004), or a non-nuclear nightmare rendition of Steve De Jarnatt’s MIRACLE MILE (1988) where a man braves an apocalyptic landscape in order to reunite with the woman he loves. But when Max’s criminal past - and certain abilities he possesses because of that past - are revealed, things take a turn into a tonal territory at times reminiscent of 80s era cult fave films such as Luc Besson’s SUBWAY (1985), Richard Stanley’s HARDWARE (1990) and, yeah, even Alex Cox’s REPO MAN (1984). That's a big compliment, by the way!<br />
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VALENTINE DAYz isn’t what I’d call a “narratively complex” film, … or what George Lucas once referred to as a “narrative freight train” - y’know, one of those films where <i>this </i>happens, then <i>this</i>, and then <i>this</i>, and then the plot turns in on itself, etc. But it <i>is</i> best to view it with a clean slate, and to not know ahead of time where the plot is going to take you. As such I’m not going to reveal anything. I will say, however, that, hell, I would’ve been content to just stick with the Max and Sara “love story in a world gone mad” aspect alone. But the other threads which tendril out from that central one <i>are </i>admittedly fascinating roads down which to travel story-wise. And any one of them is worthy of an entire film itself.<br />
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Viewing FETISH FACTORY and VALENTINE DAYz back-to-back very much returned me to the days of Philly’s late great TLA Theater when it was primarily a retro art movie house rather than the concert venue it is today. The TLA (Theater Of The Living Arts) frequently ran double-bills of films which kinda / sorta had a commonality - even if a strained one - between them. So, one week you could catch a double-bill of THE NAME OF THE ROSE playing with THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT, then the next week you’d do SUBWAY and DIVA, then the one after that you’d get REPO MAN with THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER, etc. There’s a reason these two films here remind me of that era, but I can’t quite at this time put my finger on the pulse of exactly why. </div>
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It could be that, while I wouldn’t necessarily call Ms. Layne a “retro” film maker ... . I mean, her thematic and visual sensibilities are every bit as modern (in the best sense of that word) as anyone else's. But, as stated earlier, the projects with which she involves herself aren’t just “a nifty title in search of a plot”. They may seem such to the casual eye briefly skimming over the titles in an Amazon, Netflix or whatever queue. But, as with those old TLA films, Layne's, while very much enjoyable on a pure fun level, sustain and carry themselves by having a few more layers of interest (and yes, a bit of intelligence) below the surface of the genre razzle dazzle. And if more zombie-themed films tended to lean in that direction I don't think I'd be so <i>"been there, done that; no biggie"</i> about so many in general.<br />
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Give a look-see to either FETISH FACTORY or VALENTINE DAYz this Halloween season. Or better yet take both Laynes to their respective cinematic hellscapes. It’s a great ride.<br />
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CEJ<br />
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More on Staci Layne Wilson @ <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="https://www.stacilaynewilson.com/"><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.stacilaynewilson.com/</span></a></span></div>
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and via IMDB @ <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2672601/?ref_=nmmi_mi_nm"><span style="color: yellow;">https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2672601/?ref_=nmmi_mi_nm</span></a></div>
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-56789222601620264912018-09-16T17:28:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:02:46.305-04:00"I NEVER MET ANYONE WHO REALLY CHANGED THEIR LIFE" / MAMET TAKES MANHOOD TO "THE EDGE" - by CEJ<div style="text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">THE EDGE</span><span style="color: #e69138;"> (1997)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. by - Lee Tamahori</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by - David Mamet</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music by - Jerry Goldsmith</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Donald MacAlpine</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Neil Travis </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Production Designer - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Wolf Kroeger</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Costume Design - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Julie Weiss</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 117 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: Sept. 26, 1997 </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">20th Century Fox</span><br />
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That whole <i>"I never actually met anyone who ever really changed their life"</i> thing is a bit of dialog Alec Baldwin says to Anthony Hopkins in 1997's THE EDGE. If you're a writer phrases tend to pinball around in your head and psyche the way lyric combinations do within those of songwriters, color fusions do for illustrators, and myriad possible light refractions and bendable optical effects are always tantalizingly dancing before the mind's eye of a photographer. That particular snippet of dialog from THE EDGE - courtesy screenwriter / playwright David Mamet - has been ricocheting and pinging around inside my noggin a lot over the last week or so I guess because I'm in the process of attempting that very thing right now. Regardless of how old you are I've always felt the phases of one's life are like a pair of pants which, just as when a child grows, one <i>out</i>grows and thus finds the need for a bigger one - both pants and life.<br />
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It's a generally accepted literary truism (and yes, I consider great plays and screenplays bonafied literature) that Pulitzer prize winning playwright, screenwriter, essayist, director and more ... <i>oh hell! let's just call him "Renaissance man", shall we?</i> ... David Mamet is a great writer. But I honestly don't think many who parrot back that sentiment realize just how <i>truly </i>great. His original screenplay THE EDGE is a perfect example of why I think this way. Many will say, <i>"Yeah, THE EDGE is a great suspense actioner with some fantastic dialog, but it's no GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, SPEED THE PLOW, OLEANNA or even THE VERDICT or HOMICIDE"</i>. But, no, it actually really <i>is</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-WznWOE3BDzQs6VNnebR6qPYK978MyFPDGMeDudj65AudrTHLvkgKHpn4YQNqA_UMfartWyzXdjZiOO9kKmmu6dyJkylTAHk7pFYLLakBW1YJqCgGqsfT8_3yWwJ0MLlJ2gADJ3W16c/s1600/1ed6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-WznWOE3BDzQs6VNnebR6qPYK978MyFPDGMeDudj65AudrTHLvkgKHpn4YQNqA_UMfartWyzXdjZiOO9kKmmu6dyJkylTAHk7pFYLLakBW1YJqCgGqsfT8_3yWwJ0MLlJ2gADJ3W16c/s1600/1ed6.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Mamet</td></tr>
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It's not unlike that thing we mentioned before in that other chat. Y'know, what Stephen King called working with "bound feet"- where an artist is asked to create / be themselves / let it all hang out, sure, ... BUT!!! within the strict confines of a particular medium or media. And how sometimes those constraints can ironically have the positive effect of funneling down, ... or more accurately "reducing" down that artist's thematic sensibilities until it's the most concentrated of elements like a great sauce prepared by a master chef. No time or luxury (especially with something like a screenplay) for self-aggrandizing <i>"Look 'Ma, I'm a writer!"</i>-type grandstanding. It's gotta be all about the characters and their struggle. And if you're a helluva writer, then within the 100 - 120 page confined arena of a script your voice is still going to come through loud and clear. In fact if you're <i>that </i>good, ... and Mamet certainly is, ... you can sometimes come through even more loud and clear for an audience who may otherwise not have been attuned to hear things under a different set of circumstances. For me Mamet's THE EDGE is among the best examples of this "bound feet" / "concentrated sauce" scenario. The reason is simple, if not so easily achieved by us other mere mortals ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mamet's measure of a man: THE VERDICT (1982)</td></tr>
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If you look below the surface and to their core <i>sooo damned many</i> of Mamet's stories are about "the measure of manhood". There's usually a dual look at what society at large considers manhood (which is usually tethered to a certain kind of success), against a more internal / personal realization which, when you truly possess such, it doesn't matter a damn what the rest of the world sees or knows. It's what the man in the mirror sees and knows which compels you.<br />
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I probably wouldn't engender too much opposition in saying the play / film GLENNGARY GLEN ROSS (1984 play/ 1992 film) is perhaps <i>the </i>all around epitome of this Mamet-esque concept while THE VERDICT (1982) might be the obvious filmic epitome. In GLENNGARY social / financial success becomes the manhood measure. And it becomes it to such a degree that normally (whom we'd consider) decent people are willing to stoop to the worst of lows to achieve it. The salesmen of GLENNGARY, while more socially respected than say the straight-up criminal hustlers of AMERICAN BUFFALO ('75 - play / '96 - film), HEIST (2001), THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) or REDBELT (2008) are ... . Well, in Mamet-land their game is ultimately the same, and often for the very same reasons of prestige, power and respect as that of the more criminally cliched'.<br />
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On the other hand you also have those Mamet men like Paul Newman's Frank Galvin in THE VERDICT, Kevin Costner's Elliot Ness, Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mike Terry from REDBELT, or Robert DeNiro's "Sam" in RONIN (1988) for whom the same kind of moral conflict into which Richie Roma, Shelly Levene, Al Capone and Teach & Donny are tossed causes these fellows to not only <i>not </i>want to gravitate towards the dark side of manhood, but - for very diverse personal reasons - ends up causing them to want to become a better man <i>for their own sakes</i> and no one else's.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitp4-2PfAN7xyCCQa9afVaUy-xhKIpxAe3H5xE0JRHw_wuXgl8-tegEXHUQ1X4hH430SUHrW_9B9DV9Pum0fHh62pwDJ_JTEbglWdBJwTLhamGEikH_pR-yBMwYX_93ArgqOVZ-pVE5yg/s1600/1ed4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitp4-2PfAN7xyCCQa9afVaUy-xhKIpxAe3H5xE0JRHw_wuXgl8-tegEXHUQ1X4hH430SUHrW_9B9DV9Pum0fHh62pwDJ_JTEbglWdBJwTLhamGEikH_pR-yBMwYX_93ArgqOVZ-pVE5yg/s1600/1ed4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mamet's "measure of a man": GLENNGARY GLEN ROSS (1992)</td></tr>
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Now, yeah, I already hear the comments of <i>"Well, y'know, THE VERDICT and RONIN weren't actually original Mamet scripts, they were adaptations - the former based on a 1980 novel by lawyer Barry Reed, and the later on an original screenplay by J.D. Zeik.".</i> And yeah, yeah, I know. But both scripts quite legendarily very much <i>became </i>Mamet's own. With THE VERDICT Mamet wrote the original first script, which was so damned gritty and unglamorous in it's depiction of the turnaround of alcoholic ambulance chasing attorney Frank Galvin, it was despised and rejected by producer's Richard Zanuck & David Brown and original director Arthur Hiller. And numerous actors, directors and writers (among them Robert Redford, Jay Presson Allen, Sydney Pollack and James Bridges) came and went during the early stages of pre-production until Sidney Lumet and Paul Newman ultimately decided they preferred Mamet's take on the material best of all.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQ0Q8ABQ62IaTW9CH-nSWBYILrEfSkT_fNjTosiClJBnylMfbay7oJnPLgu7TNjdI-v2F1_NI0nbI-1Oy550Pa7TKDjI4i2qsBeGy6wln3IBVm0v-0bHA_rYrDKIMfIVrX7JQxwQObZs/s1600/1ed5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQ0Q8ABQ62IaTW9CH-nSWBYILrEfSkT_fNjTosiClJBnylMfbay7oJnPLgu7TNjdI-v2F1_NI0nbI-1Oy550Pa7TKDjI4i2qsBeGy6wln3IBVm0v-0bHA_rYrDKIMfIVrX7JQxwQObZs/s1600/1ed5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mamet's measure of a man: THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987)</td></tr>
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In the case of RONIN, while the original script was by WITCHBLADE's J.D. Zeik, director John Frankenheimer always insisted that <i>"not a line of Zak's script was shot"</i> and that it was Mamet's stem to stern rewrite which added most of the memorable subtextual material to DeNiro's "Sam" character. While Frankenheimer always felt the credits should have read "Story by J.D. Zeik / Screenplay by David Mamet", on RONIN Mamet used the pseudonym "Richard Weisz" in keeping with his standard practice of only attaching his real name to projects where he was the single writer.<br />
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At any rate Galvin, Elliot Ness, Terry and "Sam" are all men who - for those diverse personal reasons - seek to change their lives. They're tired of what they are. They've outgrown their former existence and they want, ... no, they <i>need </i>new ones. In Mamet's THE EDGE Hopkins' Charles Morse is the definitive version of the Galvin / Terry / "Sam" "Mamet-man", and Baldwin's Bob Green becomes the epitome of the opposite more negative Levene / Teach & Donny side of the manhood coin.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mamet's measure of a man: THE EDGE (1997)</td></tr>
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Anthony Hopkins' is billionaire bookworm Charles Morse, who accompanies his fashion model wife Mickey (portrayed by fashion model legend Elle Macpherson) on a photo shoot to a remote Alaskan lodge. Also present are Mickey's photographer Bob Green (Baldwin) and a magazine crew entourage which includes Bob's assistant Stephen (Harold Perrineau). Upon coming across the striking photo of a local bear hunter legend named Jack Hawk (Gordon Tootoosis), Bob decides to find him in order to convince him to be in their shoot. He convinces Morse to join him and Stephen on the day-long adventure. And while on a short flight en route to Hawk's cabin their prop plane becomes the victim of bird strike and goes down in the wilderness, killing the pilot and leaving city boys Morse, Bob and Stephen to survive all on their lonesomes.<br />
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Morse's book-wormish nature ends up being the trio's greatest asset as for awhile he's able to "MacGuyver" them sufficient food and shelter. But even his box of "Trivial Pursuit"-like survival factoids seem to meet their match when the three eventually become the stalked prey of a regional killer bear ('ol "Bart the Bear" from Jean-Jacques Annaud's THE BEAR - '88 and Ed Zwick's LEGENDS OF THE FALL - '94). To add to the mix, Morse has become convinced that Bob is having an affair with his wife, and that Bob may be planning on using their present predicament to stage an "accident" wherein Morse will be conveniently taken out of the picture.<br />
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It's never explained how Hopkins character became a billionaire - through old money or the sweat of his incredibly resourceful mental brow. But right from the git-go of the film we realize he's a man who is absolutely not content with his present life. To this notion most of the audience of course says,<i> "Are you kidding! He's got EVERYthing - money, power, a gorgeous wife!"</i>. But (and it's very much to Hopkins credit for being such a damned fine "internal" actor that) while this mental state of unrest is never explicitly verbalized, we, from the very first time we meet him, obviously understand that Morse is on edge. "On edge" about the possibility of his wife's infidelity, yes. But obviously about much more.<br />
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His young trophy wife is almost the literal definition of a trophy or a totem in the most obvious sense. But she's not all. A totem or trophy is all that his wealth in general seems to mean to him at this point. There's the fleeting hint that Charles has always been a lonely and otherwise unpopular individual save for his wealth. And that he aches for the chance to know of his own value as a person <i>period </i>apart from his fame and fortune in the same way a "trust fund baby" might want to change their last name, move into a tiny apartment and "start from scratch" in order to prove a sense of worth to themselves. But however Morse reached this life point of discontentedness (through his own fault over time or not, we just don't know) all of that around him has become mere totems - mere artifacts which once maybe meant something, but have since become near idolic and meaningless in the same way a national flag or the Lord's Prayer can for some lose all meaning, ... if there was any there to begin with.<br />
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Director Lee Tamahori's film of Mamet's script is rife with totemic subtext and images. The very first image we see after the film's initial fade in is that of the tail of a private jet owned by Morse. This is the first totem / trophy we become aware of concerning his success in the eyes of the world. As Morse's wife Mickey frolics (and maybe flirts) with friends, the plane's mechanic makes comment about how much he'd love to get his hands on her. Then after Hopkins inquires what the hell he's referring to, the mechanic responds <i>"The plane of course. What'd you think I was talkin' about?"</i>. At this point we come to realize Mickey is another totem / trophy in Morse's life. And that, hey, he may just be unduly worried and insecure about her love and faithfulness. Hell, maybe he even married her in the first place to placate that feeling of "outsider-ness", thinking that she would give him entree' into the world of the genuinely popular and loved. There's an intriguing litany of possibilities Mamet allows us to read into Charles Morse. But when all is said and done for whatever reason he is not happy in his life regardless of what the rest of the world sees or thinks it may know about him.<br />
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The opening credit sequence - accompanied by a lush, gorgeously ballsy big-skyish, Jerry Goldsmith Main Title piece- takes us on a flight (in that prop plane which will go down later in the film) to the remote Alaskan lodge owned by Styles - portrayed by Peckinpah stock company fave L.Q. Jones of THE WILD BUNCH, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE and PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID. Then as the plane lands - it's pontoons skidding the river before the lodge - director Tamahori, who earlier proved his understanding of dichotomous interpretations of modern manhood with his 1994 breakthrough film ONCE WERE WARRIORS, explicitly proves his understanding of Mamet's version of the same with a set of two camera moves which set the visual thematic for the remainder of the film.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jake's (Temuera Morrison) twisted notion of "the measure of a man" <br />
in director LeeTamahori's brutal yet insightful ONCE WERE WARRIORS (1994)</td></tr>
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THE FIRST is as the camera pans from the landing plane to the grizzled face of lodge owner Jones. As it does so it dramatically pivots around him - signalling that we've just shifted / crossed into another world, another realm, another life arena where the rules, criteria and yardstick determining "the measure of a man" are vastly different from the one in which we just left. It's kind of / sort of the hairy-chested, spinach eating version of <i>"We're not in Kansas anymore", </i>but that we're now in a place where that which made you slick, successful, a titan of industry and / or a hit with the chicks <i>"back there where you come from"</i> no longer matters a damn in this primal survival-of-the-fittest landscape ready, willing and eager to cleanly strip away - in the heartbeat of a proverbial "New York minute" - your outer veneer of b.s. to revel what truly lay beneath.<br />
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THE SECOND camera move (following immediately on the heels of that first pivot) is as the camera lovingly descends the length of an actual Native American totem pole in front of the lodge in the same way it longingly caressed the tail of Morse's jet but a few filmic moments earlier at the airport. With these two opening images the dichotomous definitions of "success" and "true manhood" are cleanly delineated, and the contest to determine both are about to begin in an inhospitable and unforgivingly feral arena - a mashup of one of the most brutal regions of mother nature combined with the most primal inclinations of human nature when plunged into a kill-or-be-killed scenario. With all of this in place, and with our guys finally stranded in the wild, it is then approximately halfway into the film's 117 min. running time where / when that most Mamet of pivot points occurs in the aforementioned conversation between Hopkins and Baldwin. That bit I've always considered among the most heartbreaking dialog exchanges in all of 90s cinema, ... if not in modern film <i>period: </i>Baldwin's existential admission that <i>"I never actually met anyone who ever really changed their life".</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamahori (top), Baldwin and Hopkins on THE EDGE</td></tr>
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With all stripped away Hopkins' Morse decides to no longer be a slave to popular conception and expectation - to that of society's or to his own. When he determines that he's had enough running in place and frantically hanging on and paddling just to survive, and he says that line featured so prominently in the film's original trailer, <i>" ... 'cause today I'm gonna kill the mother f**ker!"</i>, he's not just talking about the stalking bear any more than Andy Dufresne's escape from SHAWSHANK was about getting out of prison. Yeah, it was about escaping a "life sentence", but not just that of four physical walls.<br />
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Interestingly I've always seen the gender flip side of men like Morse and Dufrense in women like THELMA & LOUISE (1991) - as Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis enter into the harsh near biblical wilderness / arena of the American Southwest and find their outer definitions and conceptions of "womanhood" (both that of society's and their own) burned away. We see this as little by little they choose to lose the totems which earlier in the film meant so much to them - things such as jewelry, makeup and mirrors. This is perhaps most poignantly driven home in the scene (right before we enter the beginning of the film's 3rd Act) where at a desert gas station Sarandon's Louise exchanges the last of that which reminds her of her previous life - her bracelet - for the most practical of human necessities, a hat to protect her from the desert sun.<br />
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On a very personal level of artistic admiration (and more than a little writer-ly envy) if there was ever someone I'd tout as being "another Mamet", ... . And I hate to use that phrase as it kind of demeans a person into not being an original self, ... but for the sake of verbal shorthand, I'll do it, ... it would be writer Callie Khouri.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Callie Khouri (left) and THELMA & LOUISE (1991)</td></tr>
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Her scripts to THELMA & LOUISE, the underrated SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT (1995) and even DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD (2002) (written for the screen and directed by Khouri, based on the novel by Rebecca Wells, and which some critics found to be a bit of a hot mess) are all ultimately about taking responsibility for one's own sense of "womanhood" and sense of self regardless of society-at-large's definition. From there her characters then begin the often not-simplistic-or-easy-but-ultimately-rewarding course of changing their lives.<br />
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Pulp material can be a powerful container with which to carry and deliver subtextually loaded material. Check out the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen King for proof of this. Or socially trenchant films like the original PLANET OF THE APES, Marvel's recent BLACK PANTHER or the more subtextually heavy pulp novelish scripts and films of Philip Kaufman - like 1974s arctic adventure THE WHITE DAWN, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976) and his 1978 redo of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Hell, his 1983 film version of Tom Wolfe's THE RIGHT STUFF even carries the exact same Mamet-like conundrum / query under it's celluloid skin of <i>"What is it which truly determines the measure of a man - is it outward success </i>(represented by the media fame and hero-making of the Mercury astronauts)<i> or inward personal achievement </i>(encapsulated by Chuck Yeager's continued - mostly unknown - attempts to 'find where that demon in the sky lives on the Mach meter')<i>?". </i><br />
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Anthony Hopkins' Charles Morse has always been the epitome of this for me. He knows because David Mamet knows and Lee Tamahori knows. And, if we're listening to that inner "voice" we too know. In the end it's all about facing down and conquering the beasts of one's own fears and / or own stagnant existence<br />
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<i> </i> In THE EDGE, ... in the end ... Morse's code comes down to the fact that ...<br />
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<i> Life doesn't change the man. The man changes his life.</i><br />
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Now, let's go out there, set the trap, and <i>kill the mother f**ker!</i><br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-78724545600765997342018-08-27T11:03:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:05:01.175-04:00NEIL SIMON TRIBUTE: "THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE" (1975) - IT AIN'T CAPRA, BUT IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE ... WELL, NOT REALLY, BUT YEAH, KINDA - by CEJ<div style="text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!<br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">THE PRISONER OF </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">SECOND </span><span style="color: #e69138;">AVENUE (1975)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. & Prod. by - Melvin Frank</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Screenplay by - Neil Simon,</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Based Upon His Play </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music by - Marvin Hamlisch</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Director of Photography - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Philip </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Lathrop</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Bob Wyman </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Art Director. - E. Preston Ames</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Costume Design - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Joel </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Schumacher</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 98 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: March 1975 </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Warner Bros. Pictures</span><br />
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<b>Okay</b>, <i>oddball analogy ahead!</i> If there was ever a "George Gershwin" or "Miles Davis" of American theater, I always felt it was Neil Simon. You know, someone who approached theater - that which many for so long considered the members-only purview of the high falutin' "learned aficionado", then (in Simon's case, like a bespectacled, Depression-era-born-in-the-Bronx, Jewish Prometheus), swiped it's artistic fire from Olympus ... . <i>I mean, from The Great White Way</i>, ... and brought it down to the shirt-stained, concrete-and-parking-meter world of <i>the Great Unwashed</i>. For that I'll be eternally grateful as I honestly don't think today we'd have a Steppenwolf Theater, Groundlings, Upright Citizen's Brigade or numerous other companies had we not first had a Neil Simon. I guess his passing hit me more personally and poignantly than I figured it would because I was (and still<i> am</i>) one of those concrete-and-parking-meter-raised "Unwashed" who in his younger years didn't know (or give) a damn about theater until Neil Simon's wit regarding, and compassion<i> for</i>, the human condition tickled my funny bone, scratched my brain, and goosed my gluteus literarius into making me want to <i>know</i>, <i>do </i>and <i>be </i>more within a creative existence of my own.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neil Simon (1927 - 2018)</td></tr>
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Why something becomes a personal favorite "whatever"<i> </i>is<i> </i>an<i> </i>extremely subjective psychological, emotional, part nature / part nurture, ... and hell, <i>maybe even part spiritual</i> ... mumbo-jumbo mashup. And as such, while I too love Mr. Simon's more popular plays and films like THE ODD COUPLE, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS and BILOXI BLUES as much as the next fan, my all time favorite remains THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE. Essentially it's a hilarious story about a guy who has a nervous breakdown. And what the hell's funny about that, right? Well, more<i> </i>accurately (as if that first description wasn't dark enough) it's about a man who feels as though he's losing his manhood - his sense of purpose for being - and he doesn't know what to do about it.<br />
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Simon wrote THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE back in the <i>"suck it up and man it out"</i> days before clinical depression was accepted by the general public as a genuine mental disorder with psychological, genetic and environmental causes. And while it first debuted as a very successful play in 1971 (starring Peter Falk & Lee Grant, and directed by Mike Nichols - <i>Wow, what a trio!</i>), it was the 1975 film version - directed by Melvin Frank, and starring Jack Lemmon & Anne Bancroft - which proved to be <i>my</i> gateway drug into Simon's den. Then as the years passed, that patented uncut bag of canny dialog, uber-perceptive characterizations and more I first sampled on SECOND AVENUE would, in other stories spooled from the typewriter of the Bronx Bard, become my own personal stash of SuperFly TNT. <i>Oh, what the hell! I figure as long as we're talking about the era of the 70s, why not? Haha!</i> But I digress.<br />
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Anyway, Lemmon and Bancroft are slightly upper middle class couple Mel & Edna Edison - who live comfortably enough on the Upper East Side "until" Mel loses his job during the 70s recession, finds that at his age he's unqualified for any other kind of work, then gets caught up in a discombobulating emotional centrifuge of trying to maintain his dignity as a husband and as a man while finding himself for the first time needing to reach out to others for help, including his older brother Harry - portrayed by Broadway actor / director Gene Saks.<br />
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"Until" is in quotations above because the fact is even before Mel loses his job there are indications that he is (in his own words) "slipping" and becoming mentally and emotionally "afraid" in life in general. During one earlier fateful evening when unable to sleep he confesses to Edna how he feels the world is closing in on him. And it is in this retrospective light it dawns on us that the action of Mel's firm kicking him to the curb after 22 years was merely the catalyst which ignited / brought screaming to the surface the condition Mel had been so good at hiding for so long.<br />
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The play and film refer to Mel's malady by 70s era nomenclature - a "nervous breakdown'. But with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight we well recognize the unspoken opponent with which he "goes to the mats" as being what today would be diagnosed as depression. As such, given the delicacy of the subject matter (<i>even terror of it as exemplified in one particular late night scene</i>), and considering the era in which the film was made, the kindness, humor and intelligent social foresight with which Simon and director Frank treat the characters, narrative and said subject is nothing short of jaw-dropping. <i>This</i> is why the film continues to blow me away to this day.<br />
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Unlike other more simplistic, if enjoyable, comedies about hard times falling upon the well-to-do (and FUN WITH DICK AND JANE - '77, TRADING PLACES - '83, and THE NEW AGE - '94 are the first which spring to mind, ... although Mel & Edna are no where <i>near </i>as well off as the characters in those films), THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE doesn't<i> </i>feature a pair of smug and selfish dilettantes, as do those others, who deservedly crash and burn because of a self- delusional sense of entitlement.<br />
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Lemmon and Bancroft are decent hard-working people who take the bus, do their own laundry, manage to make ends meet, and every now and then can take a vacation. So, while fate seems to enjoy the sight of it's size 12 Doc Marten lodged firmly up Mel's ass, we absolutely do not. And as Murphy and his ever escalating law proves itself stubbornly in flux in the Edison's lives, we can kind of understand rather clearly and easily why - combined with the crumbling of Mel's mental and emotional building blocks - he, in an Ahab-like act of rebellion comes to declare an ultimately impotent war against the City of New York in particular, ... and the world and fate in general. Yeah, we get it!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mel Edison (Jack Lemmon) declares war on the entire world</td></tr>
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Via watching THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE roughly 30 times in one month on HBO as a(n) (admittedly odd) kid, Simon's film would - along with Spielberg's THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS and Blake Edwards' THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (both of them not only rife <i>with</i>, but dependent <i>upon </i>"snappy dialog") become among the first movies I memorized. It was certainly the first play, as I later discovered upon picking up the published version at the Willingboro Public Library. And as the film remained faithful to the text of the original work, that weird kid would also unexpectedly become the beneficiary of a nifty early lesson in the craft of visually adapting source material as he realized the movie version, while near verbatim dialog-wise, had "opened up" the story geographically by placing selected (and additional) sequences outside the limited logistics of a single apartment interior stage setting.<br />
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My stepdad was an interstate trucker. And I'll never forget watching the relationship strain between him and my mother over a particularly harrowing span of time for our family when during a months-long Teamsters strike a) he literally risked death by taking non-Union hauls in order to keep from losing our home, and b) my mother went back to school then took crappy job after crappy job to keep the family financially together when even non-Union trucking gigs proved unavailable. I'd seen the film version of Shakespeare's THE TAMING OF A SHREW in school, and was amazed at how much the character interplay at times reminded me of my parents and their friends. But THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE was much more contemporary and specific in that regard.<br />
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Whereas SHREW <i>reminded </i>me of real life, SECOND AVE <i>was </i>much more real life. And that was a huge revelation to a young and creatively hungry mind at the time familiar with little more than James Bond and Ray Harryhausen movies or the occasional Saturday afternoon Amicus or American International horror double bill. As I already knew of Simon's THE ODD COUPLE from the movie and TV series, I set out to learn more of him, then over time as a result ended up branching out and falling in love with other playwrights such as Sam Shepard, August Wilson and David Mamet. So, thanks, Neil, for escorting me into that world which, while still at a young age, made me want to strike out and try my own hand at spinning prose and doling out dialog.<br />
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Those who are observant realize how an ever recurring theme within the work of Shepard, Wilson and Mamet is that whole "definition of manhood" thing - and the dichotomy between the real vs. illusionary concept which society at large tends to <i>claim </i>is real. This theme very much runs through the central nervous system of THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVE. But whereas with the other writers it tends to be examined in a dark, often profane and even spiritually broken manner, with SECOND AVE. it's done in a damned hilarious one. It may be cliche' to say <i>"this one makes you laugh <u>and</u> cry"</i>. And yeah, I hate that hoary, overused P.R.-sounding, dusty horsesh*t verbiage too. But in this case it's no dusty horsesh*t.<br />
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Unexpected (and particularly heartbreaking) in this regard is how Bancroft's Edna becomes the family anchor as Lemmon's Mel looses his mental and emotional grip. Then later, as the mounting pressures on her (which includes not only keeping things financially afloat, but keeping Mel from slipping into crippling depression) begins to take their toll, it's Mel who begins to bounce back in time to keep <i>her </i>from falling.<br />
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There's a wonderful story for grown ups here - stunningly written, performed and narratively braided within the lush, full and flowing locks of comedy and pathos. It's a masterclass in damned good writing for actors, and damned good actors performing damn well written material.<br />
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If you've never seen THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE, I can't urge you enough to give it a look-see. I think you too will come away saying the same as did numerous critics during the time of the play's original debut: that the great "joke writer" Neil Simon had impressively come of age at a time when society at large needed his alchemical mix of belly laughs and sincerely earned crocodile tears more than ever. Don't let this PRISONER escape.<br />
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Sorry, couldn't help it. ;)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Urban "American Gothic" via Neil Simon</td></tr>
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And, oh yeah ..<br />
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<b>*Nifty Trivia:</b> THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE's costume designer is future BATMAN FOREVER, FLATLINERS, FALLING DOWN and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA director Joel Schumacher. The film also famously features two future Oscar winners in a couple of their earliest roles: Sylvester Stallone as the young "Street Punk" Jack Lemmon (kind of accidentally) mugs in Central Park, and F. Murray Abraham as Lemmon's cab driver in the opening title sequence.<br />
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Gene Saks, who portrays Lemmon's brother, Harry, directed Simon's THE ODD COUPLE and BAREFOOT IN THE PARK on Broadway. And the voice of Lemmon and Bancroft's unseen upstairs neighbor (the inspiration for FRIENDS "Mr. Heckles"?) is character actor Joe Turkel - perhaps best known as "Bartender Lloyd" in THE SHINING and Dr. Eldon Tyrell in BLADE RUNNER.<br />
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There was a theatrical revival of the play in 2010 starring Jeff Goldblum & Mercedes Ruehl.<br />
<i>Would have loved to have seen that one!</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Top) Lemmon's Mel mugs "Street Punk" Stallone,<br />
(Bottom L to R) Peter Falk & Lee Grant - 1971 / Mercedes Ruehl & Jeff Goldblum - 2010</td></tr>
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-89492784861443924112018-04-26T17:32:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:05:15.790-04:00SH*T OR SHINOLA? NOTE FROM A PAYING CONSUMER: "DEAR MOVIE SNOB, NOBODY REALLY GIVES A DAMN WHAT YOU THINK" (With respect this includes you, Mr. Cameron) - by CEJ<div style="text-align: center;">
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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Remember in FIELD OF DREAMS when James Earl Jones' character Terence Mann says how baseball has served as signposts throughout history? Well, movies (<i>all kinds</i> of movies) do the same. There used to be this awesome antique / collectibles shop near South St. in Philadelphia. I believe it's (surprise, surprise) a restaurant now. But, as a history nut over the years I'd picked up a number of great things there including an actual newspaper published during the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition - which is where Alexander Graham Bell first introduced his "telephone" to the public. Those who know a little about historical architecture know that up until maybe one hundred years ago - and perhaps even sooner - many buildings used newspaper as insulation. Pressed hard over the years between horizontal layers of brick and morter, some of the inner layers of that insulation were protected from the corrosive effects of air and sun, and - not unlike the JURASSIC PARK mosquitoes trapped in amber - when uncovered years later they too were found to contain a detailed DNA sampling - but in this case that of a city's history.<br />
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Anyway, the gentleman who owned the place (... <i>and damned if I can remember his name right now; he was an awesome fella!</i>) had these three original (not reprints, mind you<i>)</i> 1976 KING KONG posters by illustrator John Berkey. Y'know, the awesome one to the Dino De Laurentiis film which everyone hated, with Kong astride the World Trade Center towers - Jessica Lange in one furry hand and an exploding fighter plane in the other. As a child I'd owned a mini promo version of that poster - one you got for free by cutting a coupon out of a comic book then sending it to the Paramount promo office in New York. I'd long since begun collecting full sized movie posters, but I'd never managed to pick up the Berkey KONG one sheet let alone an original. So, I wanted to buy one of 'em, ... but he wouldn't sell it to me, saying he'd promised <i>all three</i> to one guy who couldn't afford to get them at the time, but promised he'd come back on payday Friday.<br />
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I was a little confused (and maybe even a bit miffed) at first - kind of wondering why the hell one person should get to corner all three of them. Miffed that is until the shop owner explained the guy's story. That KONG film was the last movie his parents took him and his two brothers to see before they split up. It was the very last thing they ever did as a complete family. And he wanted to give a poster to each of his brothers that upcoming Christmas (and keep one for himself) as a reminder to them all - and they all had kids of their own now - as to how important family truly is. WOW! I was floored and said, <i>"Holy crap! You can't argue with that"</i>. Now, ...<br />
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The general consensus at the time of KING KONG's release (and many still feel the same about it today) was that it wasn't / isn't a very good film. Surely not on par with the 1933 Cooper / Schoedsack original or even Peter Jackson's 2005 redo. And sure as hell not something most would consider "important" or of "quality". That assessment of which begs the question as to <i>"What then constitutes a 'good' or 'important' film - either for / towards an individual, for / towards an audience in general, or for / towards the cinematic art form itself?"</i>. Not trying to get all American Film Institute or IFC here, but ...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI6yFkbiak6WYY0VzlTxrEyK6JHabcteYtQ26bXhK0EscvccZQpLD6BK-XaGPYMGm08FRwXV0cxVvi1BZ9lrlVVPbFaXyiof4KdemnyHi8IbjWxE7QQ1aO4lNVEIH1_2qo_S88kwSbhM/s1600/KONG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI6yFkbiak6WYY0VzlTxrEyK6JHabcteYtQ26bXhK0EscvccZQpLD6BK-XaGPYMGm08FRwXV0cxVvi1BZ9lrlVVPbFaXyiof4KdemnyHi8IbjWxE7QQ1aO4lNVEIH1_2qo_S88kwSbhM/s1600/KONG.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dino's KING KONG (1976) - <i>"Sh*t or Shinola?"</i> Like it or not, it's all relative, ... and relative!</td></tr>
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There are those - film makers, film critics, and the average social media commenting "John and Jane Q. Public" who, based upon their frequent tweetable comments, seem to feel that there are such things as "quality film making" and "shit film making". And while I don't disagree with that, they also seem to equate what they call "important film making" <i>with </i>"quality", and in auto-pilot mode also tend to equate "fun and / or (a critic's favorite put down) 'disposable' films" - or at least what they consider to be<i> </i>too much or too many of them - with "shit film making". I don't agree with <i>that</i>. But, okay, let's follow that thread of "logic" for a minute. When we do we kind of come full circle back to, <i>"Okay, so, once <u>again</u> what then qualifies as an 'important' film or film making", and what qualifies as 'shit films' and 'shit' film making?". </i> If "important" is too weighty a term for some, then feel free to swap it out with the word "serious". So, what constitutes serious or important film making? Where is the scale, and who creates it? Is it some electoral college decided-upon conclusion, or the opinion (the Roman coliseum "thumbs up or down", or even pseudo-holy sanction) of a critic, a film maker or some film school syllabus; and usually a critic, film maker or film school considered to be "important" or "serious" themselves / itself?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK35voHjckOfspO2Qh1FBpIW0LU3Zp4g8ZjCgXx2A1Tp1KfPwFQuetBE3aomAWqgKdT8vpjp16oVcURN0NO_Ilh1tw3QGtQ2gDiFkqbG3xjFZ6E9JquPKPsOeoWIVahj4eUh-WvFiaMBk/s1600/trio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK35voHjckOfspO2Qh1FBpIW0LU3Zp4g8ZjCgXx2A1Tp1KfPwFQuetBE3aomAWqgKdT8vpjp16oVcURN0NO_Ilh1tw3QGtQ2gDiFkqbG3xjFZ6E9JquPKPsOeoWIVahj4eUh-WvFiaMBk/s1600/trio.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Sh*t or Shinola?"</i> - (clockwise) SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017),<br />
BLACK PANTHER (2018), THOR: RAGNAROK (2017)</td></tr>
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Obviously I'm here referencing a recent quote made by TERMINATOR / TITANIC / AVATAR writer & director James Cameron (it's above there) regarding the recent popularity of superhero movies, and referencing how this quote has been meme-ified and is presently making the social media rounds as if a dire warning proclaimed hither and yon from the mouth of Paul Revere. However, since this isn't national "Let's Beat Up On Jim Cameron Day", I'm also gonna include others who've made similarly (in my opinion) snobbish - if genuinely heartfelt and sincere - remarks of their own along these lines in recent days. And yes, that includes you too Dustin Hoffman, Martin Scorcese, ... and more than a few personal social media friends whose comments scroll across my feed daily. Now, ...<br />
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I've always felt that if let's say you're nervously sitting in a hospital waiting room on one of those too small / too damned uncomfortable plastic chairs while a loved one is in the O.R., and either THE ENGLISH PATIENT or LIAR, LIAR comes up on TV, ... well, which film will probably be more "important" to you at that time? Which will help you decompress a little, and give you the second emotional wind you may need to (as Etta James once musically preached) <i>"Get you through the night"</i>. And which may scare the crap outta you, and which will at that particular time and place dig into those psychologically and emotionally raw areas which at present perhaps need more healing and salving, ... or (at the very least) anesthetizing ... rather than dissection and probing with blunt-edged instruments?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5w0N0sQ35iZ4lOpuNzpi2JG2NsDLXJVsBDEwjJI1wLq99CwDDmB2c2pgQ9MyXPlP0R1ZseJd0WQ7wpNgTFmf2GX_K1o50QtdhRHwKH8fQe8ygm0CGGKRTs_keKpsq45oVqaRhqtJXyhc/s1600/Liar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5w0N0sQ35iZ4lOpuNzpi2JG2NsDLXJVsBDEwjJI1wLq99CwDDmB2c2pgQ9MyXPlP0R1ZseJd0WQ7wpNgTFmf2GX_K1o50QtdhRHwKH8fQe8ygm0CGGKRTs_keKpsq45oVqaRhqtJXyhc/s1600/Liar.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "importance" of being earnestly Carrey - LIAR, LIAR (1997)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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So, "importance" or a "good" or "bad" film, or a "film of worth" or "shit film making" or "mindless and disposable" all ends up being relative to the person and the context in which that person is viewing the film, does it not? Now, that's a microcosmic (or individual) version of a truism. But the macrocosmic (more societal / global) equivalent can be seen in how those "fun", "disposable" and "shit" genre films always see a spike in popularity during times of social unrest - be it the loooonnng run of Universal horror films which became popular in the days between WWI and WW2, the loooong run of (some would call 'em) "empty headed musicals" during the Second World War, the run of cheesy nuclear terror-based sci-fiers during the Cold War 50s, the politically and philosophically loaded sci fi of the 1960s - 70s (y'know, 2001, PLANET OF THE APES, LOGAN'S RUN, ROLLERBALL, DAMNATION ALLEY, etc.), and on through our superhero movies of today.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRRUjjx2sFFIXj5NxeRidlTP9iwhmoY7iWQ3xGOdwSu0xRl749ARh4IbeqFew-IvjSuhBB7gXbJ7fjycfNTpgI9P_GL6SifFiNr7rDQQiqdKNzxC4zyKlpv54yillOQH6Mdt31Znd5yWg/s1600/2001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRRUjjx2sFFIXj5NxeRidlTP9iwhmoY7iWQ3xGOdwSu0xRl749ARh4IbeqFew-IvjSuhBB7gXbJ7fjycfNTpgI9P_GL6SifFiNr7rDQQiqdKNzxC4zyKlpv54yillOQH6Mdt31Znd5yWg/s1600/2001.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) - at the time of its release slammed by some <br />
as<i> "the grimmest film I've ever seen"</i>, <i>"morally prententious"</i> and <i>"a shaggy God story"</i>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Keep in mind too how ... e<i>very ... single ... one</i> ... of those runs had their more snobbish cinematic detractors who felt those films were destroying quality film making as it was known, or at the very least were just individually shitty films in and of themselves. Such views would run the gamut from Time Magazine's more diplomatic manner wherein it referred to 1931's DRACULA with Bela Lugosi as <i>"Not as good as it ought to be",</i> and the Chicago Tribune labeling it as <i>"Too obvious"</i> and with <i>"... it's attempts to frighten too evident", </i>to the more brutally slung slings and arrows hurled at Kubrick's 2001 by noted personalities such as famed historian, social critic and (who comes up with these designations anyway?) "public intellectual" Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who derided Kubrick's now-classic sci-fier as <i>"Morally pretentious", "intellectually obscure" </i>and more.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjNZMQSVR1-h833W8cnq2ZK6sOvHqOnuZrlElzi76yLHNRZ6DDwQkFqMkry5HFoK8qDfy-6a3UOrtg-fm-eisiTuWwpPzp0RhQlJueJOq-yuJ4InNr3UzJpvaAjG-ve0Zl50jlF3AJMc/s1600/souls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjNZMQSVR1-h833W8cnq2ZK6sOvHqOnuZrlElzi76yLHNRZ6DDwQkFqMkry5HFoK8qDfy-6a3UOrtg-fm-eisiTuWwpPzp0RhQlJueJOq-yuJ4InNr3UzJpvaAjG-ve0Zl50jlF3AJMc/s1600/souls.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The horror of American, then later German, eugenics experiments of the 1930s is implicit (and explicit) <br />
in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932), based on H.G. Welles' THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Repelling further down that rabbit hole, and using Mr. Cameron's word "fatigue" as our tether, how and why is it that the aforementioned cine-arbiters of good and decent taste never seem to ask, <i>"Do you yet have Rom Com fatigue"</i> or <i>"Films Based upon Plays fatigue"</i> or <i>"Historical Drama fatigue"</i> or any other subject matter fatigue based upon a particular kind of source material? No one will deny that within those various sources / subjects, and within the films based upon them, lay a vast array of topics, subtopics, socio-political observations, humor and more, because that's the case with <i>any </i>source material. Yes, even including comics in general and superhero comics in particular. So, maybe scratch that retort off the list. Also if one takes the time to count, you'll note that there are no more comics-to-film adaptations during any given year than there are "Plays to Films", or "True Stories to films" or any other kind of film.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUg-vY-GB6f5niNoJU5huImG5EQVzO-H6ClFd1Ert1aj3QX3MfjlpvJKp13OGhZ6J5qxZni_gU7AOUBqTi4E7EHmY1SXuVOBEYx64ULuXqYHsCUcgABXSr637JohspQ_Mz_xA_BWhPBSQ/s1600/histTrio2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="551" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUg-vY-GB6f5niNoJU5huImG5EQVzO-H6ClFd1Ert1aj3QX3MfjlpvJKp13OGhZ6J5qxZni_gU7AOUBqTi4E7EHmY1SXuVOBEYx64ULuXqYHsCUcgABXSr637JohspQ_Mz_xA_BWhPBSQ/s1600/histTrio2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historical Drama "fatigue"? No, not really - (L to R) GOODBYE, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (2017), <br />
PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN (2017), MARK FELT (2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Continuing along with those very basic math skills one also has to note / keep in mind that out of approx. 200 films released in a given year, at most four to six of 'em will be major superhero movies. The only difference (and admittedly a <i>big </i>one!) is that at this point in time those comic adaptations / superhero movies are among the most popular and lucrative ... just as were the Universal horror films (and their endless line of years of sequels and spin-offs) in their day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJWE447o4CBDy6wXkdSiuBBOLC1EA8_YyLH0QG07gPzZuC_jNLR462-9e1WYXdHk8xxGg26qb3F1FbyszsIMH4Ywk6pJmAIelHFP3P2HTcJPwi-2jiKwWWmDNBM9Ysv79BfyVXm7DtP0/s1600/DrSmith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJWE447o4CBDy6wXkdSiuBBOLC1EA8_YyLH0QG07gPzZuC_jNLR462-9e1WYXdHk8xxGg26qb3F1FbyszsIMH4Ywk6pJmAIelHFP3P2HTcJPwi-2jiKwWWmDNBM9Ysv79BfyVXm7DtP0/s1600/DrSmith.jpg" /></a></div>
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There's a difference between personally not digging something, or even being personally tired of it, and writing something off as <i>"... hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process".</i> I've always referred to that as "pulling a Dr. Smith". You remember how in the old LOST IN SPACE tv series whenever Jonathan Harris as Dr. Smith was afraid or nervous or whatever, he'd pull young Will Robinson in front of him and say <i>"Don't hurt the boy"</i> or <i>"You're making the boy nervous and afraid"</i>. Essentially attempting to save face and / or legitimize his own personal ... <i>whatevers </i>... fears, hang ups, etc. onto the canvas of someone else. Y'know, spread it around so it doesn't look like it's just him, but that he's only being logical in a manner in which every rational thinking person would agree.<br />
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People do this every damned day with religions and political ideologies. I mean, how many people begin a debate with <i>"Liberals / Conservatives always do and say such and such"</i> rather than with <i>"Me personally, I believe ..."?</i> So, it's kind of a "no duh!" or no brainer, isn't it, that if the "Dr. Smith dodge" (or more accurately "<i>self delusionary</i> Dr. Smith dodge") is going to be employed often unconsciously by religious and political folk, that said brand of human nature "logic" will also find its way into other scenarios as well, including that of film criticism?<br />
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Maybe "hyper-gonadal" guys in spandex is all that <i>you </i>see based upon your own personal life long combination of nature and nurture, but (as with those three KING KONG posters) others may very well see something entirely different based upon <i>theirs</i>. In the X-MEN films some saw for the first time in mainstream media stand-ins and representations of themselves as those who had long been marginalized from, and even cut out of, society because of race, gender, sexual orientation or because they may have been overweight or had some kind of physical handicap. When in the very first film the blue-skinned Mystique beats the hell out of a bigoted senator while saying, <i>"People like you were </i><i>the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child</i><i>"</i>, that's powerful stuff.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSv-ttTntK1UaINeCs6UDjY2o2U6XkJcVpaOe3OHtm2tH2cXvzmY795aPhP-SahVLhjPqrCX4ZFX8KdWkLJhEZDSy8ltIhYcznQKsJMf6ZsVwwETHX8QiGgzkux0cx0dWsvVdqDclAS0M/s1600/HistDrama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSv-ttTntK1UaINeCs6UDjY2o2U6XkJcVpaOe3OHtm2tH2cXvzmY795aPhP-SahVLhjPqrCX4ZFX8KdWkLJhEZDSy8ltIhYcznQKsJMf6ZsVwwETHX8QiGgzkux0cx0dWsvVdqDclAS0M/s1600/HistDrama.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Historical Drama "fatigue"? No, not really - (clockwise from top) DARKEST HOUR (2017), <br />
THE POST (2017), DETROIT (2017), DUNKIRK (2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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If you can watch BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE or CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and come away from them blind to the fact that both are hardcore (if stand-in / representational) analogies of a post 9-11 America where citizens are divided on <i>"Where do you draw the line between bonafied security and xenophobic fear?"</i>, then I think you just weren't paying attention. Or if you can come away from a viewing of BLACK PANTHER and not see a serious discussion among all of the <i>"hyper gonadal"</i> derring-do about the dangers of geopolitical isolation, and one's own national culpability in helping to create what many might call a "terrorist", then I say you either weren't sharp enough to pick up on those obvious thematics, ... or (perhaps more likely) you just never saw them because you never expected or even wanted to see them in that which you assumed - and therefore viewed - as "disposable" if fun <i>Zowie / Pow!</i> fodder.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLyXzibevaFcy-_6yh4zOS2PeBA5TG_IhHMjXcPUMgdl-X2d7IiJFfQEL8VWbUFXq11PFbAxUaQ9lt3Hu5ht4Png_0A4xZZkVkHcz4bWuDX0-DEavehHo__ANIMkHvUkTYSm44SI-yrKs/s1600/batVsup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLyXzibevaFcy-_6yh4zOS2PeBA5TG_IhHMjXcPUMgdl-X2d7IiJFfQEL8VWbUFXq11PFbAxUaQ9lt3Hu5ht4Png_0A4xZZkVkHcz4bWuDX0-DEavehHo__ANIMkHvUkTYSm44SI-yrKs/s1600/batVsup.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Safety and security from terrorism vs. xenophobia <br />
and isolationism - BATMAN V. SUPERMAN (2016) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Not liking or being tired of something is fine. That's cool! That's okay! That's one's individual right! But the final judge and jury is ultimately the paying consumer, and not necessarily the film maker or the critic or the studio guy or gal who sees films for free via advance screening invites. So, it ends up being that consumer (and hey, I'm one of 'em) who has the right to say to Cameron, Scorcese, Hoffman and others, <i>"Hey man, as much as I love and respect you and your work, I really don't give a f**k what you think when it comes to what I put my hard earned dollars down for"</i>. Y'know, <i>"Where do you get your own artistic hyper-</i><i>gonads big enough where you think you should be telling me what kinds of films as an audience I should be seeing?"</i>.<br />
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Shakespeare's plays were performed for the masses - often in theaters of which the 1970s and 1980s equivalents would have been "grindhouse" movie joints. In a 2008 interview with film critic / cinema historian Elvis Mitchell, Tony Award-winning actress Joan Allen mentioned how her career alma mater - Chicago's legendary Steppenwolf Theater Company - was established so that blue collar working stiffs and their families might have affordable entertainment alternatives on a Friday night. And hell, even the New Testament of the Bible was originally written in Koine Greek - the vernacular of the average person on the street, rather than Classical Greek - that of the more upper crust elite. Hey, you remember I said I was a lifelong history nut, right? That's where that little tidbit came from.<i> Hehe!</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbu8bEXJqvKUlXqy1d9B9joMbqvJm_L8v5w7qNz6kRJg0TxegAdM5A578ao2FCwoCYxk7uM6_VznsBwJbgpT5ABfSnz4y9i1K0vpcUAXU1QSafohsXuKHu4sJ1wJPPgcxhFL8xt6Hrmas/s1600/Civil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbu8bEXJqvKUlXqy1d9B9joMbqvJm_L8v5w7qNz6kRJg0TxegAdM5A578ao2FCwoCYxk7uM6_VznsBwJbgpT5ABfSnz4y9i1K0vpcUAXU1QSafohsXuKHu4sJ1wJPPgcxhFL8xt6Hrmas/s1600/Civil.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Safety and security from terrorism vs. xenophobia and <br />
isolationism - CAPT. AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As such, I'll borrow elements of Cameron's "fatigue" memo for my own purposes and say how <i>I'm</i> personally pretty damned tired of today's self-appointed "arbiters of good taste", ... those self-believed-to-be elite "quality police" who somehow, and for some inexplicable reason, seem to think they've been bequeathed the right to set the artistic bar for others simply because it wasn't like this back when they grew up or when they first got into the business. Times change, and the film industry, like any evolving life form, must change with them. Either that or the organism eventually dies. Biology calls it the "The Edge of Chaos".<br />
<br />
The idea is that too much stimulation or change at once will kill an organism because it hasn't had the time to physically adjust to the new environment. But <i>not enough</i> stimulation or change will just as readily kill the organism because if it remains stagnant for too long it will become weak and diseased, and in some respects it will begin to start feeding upon itself then cease to exist in that environment where others have been able to make the evolutionary shift. Life therefore thrives and grows and evolves most effectively in a constant ying / yang state wherein that lifeform / organism is constantly (even forcefully) encouraged to change and adapt. The creative arts are the exact same way.<br />
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Try to remember how when people bitched about the 80s era Spielberg / Lucas-like movies "taking over", for its own survival the industry was forced to seek alternatives, and ultimately the independent movement (as well as attendant film channels and film festivals) burgeoned as never before. The same thing here, people. The only consistent thread in an ever-changing industry is the concept that everything changes, and that a new kind of film will force the previous generation of films and film makers to up their game in order to remain not just commercially but artistically viable. When we fail to remember this we end up very much like that 100+ year old, "near-hermetically sealed from air and sun" newspaper I purchased from that antique / collectible shop. It's a fascinating as hell time capsule of a previous era. <i>But that's all it ends up being - a fascinating time capsule. </i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguq5Gf2sEQUMEnWQ1PXZNsS2OMaIFTUSm19K4WWenn4rlAhWI8BrknGTE3WGHyXLh-oPl3AA7n8i843yQPnYXuaBXod7IMSbmbJEax45WoRCyTUkBhh4TvNZledu8qnCLpsxlxa6wpqVE/s1600/Killmonger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguq5Gf2sEQUMEnWQ1PXZNsS2OMaIFTUSm19K4WWenn4rlAhWI8BrknGTE3WGHyXLh-oPl3AA7n8i843yQPnYXuaBXod7IMSbmbJEax45WoRCyTUkBhh4TvNZledu8qnCLpsxlxa6wpqVE/s1600/Killmonger.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Safety and security from terrorism vs. xenophobia and<br />
isolationism - BLACK PANTHER (2018)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i>
Hey, I'm not gonna pretend that big bucks aren't driving every Tom, Dick and studio exec's (<i>hey, that rhymes</i>) desire for their people to <i>"Get me one of those comic book movies or TV shows right now!".</i> But you really can't bitch and moan about the four to six comic book movies out of 200 movies per year being the cause of that mindset. That happens with <i>any </i>type of film which hits big. How many GODFATHER and SHAFT and JAWS and EXORCIST and STAR WARS clones and sequels and more did we see in their wake? And before you get that <i>"Hollywood sucks, give me the independents any day of the week!"</i> smug look on your face, also remember on that independent cinema side of the coin how many <i>"Get me one of those!"</i> knock offs and wannabes followed in the stripstream of SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING and others. And how now everyone just wants another GET OUT.<br />
<br />
Part of show business is indeed <i>business</i>. And some cineastes (both fans and film makers) may say <i>"We want to see more non cookie cutter movies"</i>. But if you don't support them with your hard earned "e pluribus unum" you make it difficult for more of them to be made and / or widely distributed. Case in point: within the last six months Paramount ate the big one when they released three such "non cookie cutter" films in a row - MOTHER!, SUBURBICON and DOWNSIZING - and no one went to see them. Then when they chose to release ANNIHILATION overseas directly to Netflix rather than theatrically, there was a scream from holy hell directed at the studio for <i>"Not having faith in a difficult to market film".</i> But they'd just released <i>three </i>difficult to market films which no one ended up giving a damn about. And they <i>weren't</i> big budgeted films either. So, they didn't need to make back TRANSFORMERS or AVENGERS dollars.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6kOwGwRmCwRh2Va8lxyRb79uV78ijwk6KbAHUOCm7ignXZ63bv5HBCCQaTOwMybyPuA6TOlKAIEQPDgvpSBRVDfbJ3snFV8h3_UTvxeedW486Jmoq_KtxA38TiHf3yhVZ8wOSXgrUYY4/s1600/ParaTrio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6kOwGwRmCwRh2Va8lxyRb79uV78ijwk6KbAHUOCm7ignXZ63bv5HBCCQaTOwMybyPuA6TOlKAIEQPDgvpSBRVDfbJ3snFV8h3_UTvxeedW486Jmoq_KtxA38TiHf3yhVZ8wOSXgrUYY4/s1600/ParaTrio.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) MOTHER! (2017), DOWNSIZING (2017), SUBURBICON (2017)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I realize it's a very frustrating time for many within the industry, but choosing the recent popularity of those "four to six per year" superhero movies as the "three legged dog dujour" to kick and blame isn't fair, ... or even accurate.<br />
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Hey, I've got my ticket for AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - IMAX 3D - for opening day tomorrow morning at 9:AM. I'm going with my mother. She was always my first audience. As a child when I read comic books, then started writing and drawing my own, then later took an interest in writing short stories and eventually screenplays and more (hey, I even precociously attempted to write a novel when I was 12), she was always the first person to see the latest project or newest draft. Oh, and it's also kind of neat and nifty that the very first <i>anything </i>of mine I ever saw published was an illustration I did of INFINITY WAR's mondo villain Thanos - it surprisingly published in a national art newsletter / magazine of the day. So, mom knew who the bad-assed Thanos was long before many others even heard the name. In fact, as I was a serious comic book nut back then, she today is probably the only grandmother who knows more about the Marvel Universe and it's denizens than her grandchildren - my nephews.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJE1S6rE4exK_vZ7-mNHFOz4HfSta9cQEPcfRSyjV53hu2VJ4Lo0rdCaM2mKNviDyfNpw976UGIAuslIVkgF3Zq_mo6yWyTjzA8Vo-qdtBQl82OEIkn-ijmnq-Asbs78jbGhXtNuPIv8/s1600/thaosART1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJE1S6rE4exK_vZ7-mNHFOz4HfSta9cQEPcfRSyjV53hu2VJ4Lo0rdCaM2mKNviDyfNpw976UGIAuslIVkgF3Zq_mo6yWyTjzA8Vo-qdtBQl82OEIkn-ijmnq-Asbs78jbGhXtNuPIv8/s1600/thaosART1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanos. No, not by me. Hardly! This is by artist Freddie Williams II</td></tr>
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Long before the young'uns she even knew the more "obscure" characters like DOCTOR STRANGE. And she's certainly got ground on them in being long familiar with the more harder-edged characters they're far too young for at present - folks like GHOST RIDER, LUKE CAGE, BLADE and THE PUNISHER. So, all of this personal hot air and reminiscence to get across the point that for me those "hyper-gonadal" comic book movies in general, and Marvel films in particular, are kinda / sorta <i>my </i>personal version of those three KING KONG posters in that these films have personal, historical and even socio-political resonance and importance <i>to me</i> even if they may not hold that kind of spot in the artistic / creative central nervous system of a James Cameron or others. As for the socio-political thing, feel free to check out a <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.gullcottageonline.com/MarvelBlackPanther_RevieCEJ.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">GullCottage piece penned on BLACK PANTHER</span> </a></span>a few months back.<br />
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Mom and I did GUARDIANS 2, LOGAN, WONDER-WOMAN (yeah, I know, she's D.C.), SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, THOR: RAGNAROK and BLACK PANTHER on opening weekend. And we'll continue with INFINITY WAR.<br />
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Cineastes and snobs be damned! And that's with all due respect and love to Messers. Cameron, Scorcese, Hoffman and the rest of the gang. Hey, like 'ol NATTY GANN said during her famous journey ...<br />
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<i> "You're not the boss 'a me!".</i><br />
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Just sayin'.<br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-24215177219747265062018-04-11T23:55:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:05:28.292-04:00"SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER" (2002): SELF-DETERMINATION (AND CALLING OUT THE BULLSH*T!) YEARS BEFORE #MeTOO - by CEJ<br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">SEARCHING </span><span style="color: #e69138;">FOR </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">DEBRA WINGER</span><span style="color: #e69138;"> (2002)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written & Directed by - Rosanna Arquette</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Produced by - Rosanna Arquette, Kristina Birkmayer, David Codikow, Mark Cuban, Patty Long, Todd Wagner, Happy Walters</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music Super. - Jojo Villenueva</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Cinematographers - Jean-Marc Barr, Olivier Boucreux, Cort Fey, Joey Forsyte, Nathan Hope, Micheal Wojciechowski</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Editor - Gail Yasunaga </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Set Decor. - Carisa Rosenthal, Joanna M. Wright</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 98 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: May 2002 (Cannes) </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">July 2002</span><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> (U.S. theatrical)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist: Lions Gate Films</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(**** on a scale of 1-5)</span><br />
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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Searching for a poetic reference I've got to go with the biblical one about <i>"a prophet without honor in his own country"</i> - with the definition of "prophet" being the strictest one as in an oracle who divined something which most others at the time did not, could not, or just plain<i> refused</i> to see as that which inevitably very soon <i>would </i>be. In such light it's hard to believe that a film featuring Frances McDormand, Charlotte Rampling, Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan, Selma Hayek, Kelly Lynch, Alfre Woodard, Venessa Redgrave, Diana Lane, Tracy Ullman, Sharon Stone, Ally Sheedy, Theresa Russell, Holly Hunter, Laura Dern, Patricia & Rosanna Arquette, and Debra Winger among others (and hell, <i>that's only half the list!</i>) could be considered "obscure" or "relatively unknown" for so long. But such is the case with Rosanna Arquette's feature length documentary SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER.<br />
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While it debuted <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/films/searching-for-debra-winger" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">"Out of Competition" at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival</span></a>, then later enjoyed a limited theatrical run through Lions Gate Entertainment, I became familiar with this compressed cinematic gem via Leonard Maltin's now defunct weekly TV series SECRET'S OUT back when the show ran on the (old version) of Reelz Channel in the early 2000s. A couple of years later I'd stumble across a $3.00 DVD copy in a supermarket cheapie bin (the modern day "Well of the Souls" of cinematic treasure troves!), and snatch it up. But watching it now in the slipstream of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, it's nothing short of jaw-dropping to look back 15 years and see how, not unlike life in general (and hey, with women ... <i>and Debra Winger in particular</i>), Arquette's film has only improved with age. Now, that's not just because it concerned itself with addressing certain facets of #MeToo and #TimesUp long before those hashtags became front page news, but more because SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER even now manages to supersede them as a rallying cry for action over talk. Stick with me a few minutes and I think you'll understand and agree. Watch this pearl of a film for yourself, and I <i>promise </i>you'll agree even more.<br />
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Upon release there were a few critics who felt Arquette's compilation of one-on-ones with various actresses was, yeah, insightful and in spots even intriguing, but that her cinematic and interview style were "choppy" and at times even "sappy" and unprofessional. I heartily disagree, ... though I can understand <i>why </i>some could misinterpret things as such.<br />
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First off, what's the film about? Well, that's one of those questions wherein on the surface you have one answer as to <i>"Why did the filmmaker set out to make this thing in the first place?"</i>, but on another level you have the more bonafied <i>"Okay, I get that, but in the end what's <u>really</u> going on here?"</i> aspect. And those aren't always the same thing. Y'know, as "about" and the "meaning" and / or "truth" of something is often found "in between the lines" of the obvious. And how sometimes that which is between those lines will be subtext written (for all intents and purposes) in invisible ink only later made see-able on the parchment pages via the greatest of reagents - the simple passage of time. In fact often it can be only through said passage of time that even those who are the subjects of / within a documentary (and in some cases even the film makers) can clearly come to see and understand those previously invisible / "between the line" layers themselves. The context of time can often (intentionally or not) change the meaning.<br />
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SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER is the working definition of a famous quote by Orson Welles wherein he stated <i>"In a fictional film the director is God, but in a documentary God is the director"</i> - meaning that a good documentarian will allow the film to take her/ him where it decides <i>it</i> wants to go, ... which may not necessarily be to the final thematic location of the filmmaker's originally mapped-out intent.<br />
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<i>This</i> trip begins with Rosanna Arquette having just crossed the 40 year mark. And, while at said particular life point she's never felt more comfortable within her own skin, she at the same time surprisingly finds herself not as fulfilled in her creative career existence. She wonders, as do many at that life bridge, if it's because she's unable to find a balance between career and motherhood. Or maybe it's that the film industry itself is unfulfilling. Maybe it's always been a b.s. of a sham, ... a two dimensional mirrored construct that she didn't realize or allow herself to see as such in her younger years. Perhaps it's all just in her head as the not atypical musings of a mind approaching midlife. Or could it likely be a combination of elements of all of the above?<br />
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Always wondering why actress Debra Winger (of URBAN COWBOY, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN and TERMS OF ENDEARMENT fame) chose to essentially retire from the business five years prior - when she was around the same age Arquette was approaching at the time she decided to make this film - our director sets out to interview over 40 actresses on two continents over the course of a year, beginning each sit-down by asking each woman why <i>they </i>feel Winger may have left the biz; then ultimately by film's end having a chat with Winger herself in order to ask the same.<br />
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It's not too difficult to see why a few critics jumped the gun in using the word "sappy", because during the first 20 or so mins. of its 98 min. running time, the film <i>does </i>at first appear as though it's going to be little more than an hour and a half of actresses feeling guilty about not spending enough quality time with their children. Now, granted, that's not an <i>un</i>important subject to those within the families of those actresses, but (no disrespect intended) it's not necessarily a gripping topic to the average viewer. However, shortly thereafter the Orson Welles adage thematically kicks in, and things take off (or "evolve" might be more accurate) into a stream of (stream of consciousness?) subjects of discussion which have since proven to have major ramifications within the film industry of 2018.<br />
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In this light perhaps one of the most fascinating and admirable things about the film is in what it <i>doesn't</i> do - in that it doesn't turn into a screed about how all men in the film industry are evil. Which is not to say there aren't more than a few horror stories along those lines to make one's toes curl and flat out enrage the hell out of you.<br />
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Because Arquette opts here to use much of (what other film makers might consider) "B roll" footage ... . Y'know, the more unplanned and off-the-cuff material; ... that which was recorded as the interviewer and interviewees were grabbing a smoke and prepping for their <i>official </i>sit-down talks ... . Because she uses that with other footage captured in restaurants and bars after a meal and a few drinks or bottles of wine have been summarily consumed, and everyone is loose, open and honest as hell ... . Well, this<i> </i>is where, how and why the topics of discussion become "no bullsh*t within these borders" <i>extremely </i>frank and honest, and at times brutally so.<br />
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The film is rated "R", and it's not only because of the plethora of F-bombs dropped like V2s in a re-enactment of the London Blitz, but more so because of unexpurgated discussions about studio execs approving or disapproving of an actress in a role because of her <i>"audience fu*kability quotient"</i>, or Patricia Arquette recalling expressing her open disgust on a film set when a producer (who in retrospect sounds a helluva lot like Harvey Weinstein) attempted to fondle a crewmember's vagina, then asked an actress to smell his fingers.<br />
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Not shy about dropping names, Winger herself relates how, while enjoying working with a consumate filmmaker like Taylor Hackford on AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, she also had the experience of former Paramount Studios co-head Don Simpson knocking on her hotel door one night during the shoot to offer her pills which could help her <i>"lose some of the water retention"</i> he felt was making her look too heavy in front of the camera. At that moment Winger decided - for better or for worse - that she wouldn't ever play the game by Hollywood's rules. So, yeah, some of the talk in the film ain't pretty. But in spite of this however the conversations ultimately lead towards, while yeah, being pissed at that kind of sh*t, and not wanting to put up with it, the more <i>pro</i>active "out flanking" maneuver of battling that kind of behavior and mindset by (and this is a huge topic for those who know me) <i>seizing control of one's own destiny</i>.<br />
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Whoopi Goldberg and Frances McDormand (and McDormand's interview is candidly conducted in a ladies room at Cannes) talk about the need to outlast the executive a**holes who will eventually fall from power - as the film biz is one wherein a studio mogul at the top of the food chain one week can be (and often <i>is</i>) out on their ass the very next when new corporate interests take over the lot. And for those paying attention, and for others scratching their heads, this <i>very much</i> throws into context McDormand's words just a couple of months ago when she accepted her Oscar for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI.<br />
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Hayek talks of the need for women to become the producers of their own material rather than sitting around to be "rated" as attractive or not, and waiting for someone else to give you a role of which you can be proud. At a dinner table Martha Plimpton and Ally Sheedy effectively remind those in attendance of the importance of sometimes saying (and I'm paraphrasing) <i>"Screw characters who are so-called 'role models' and 'strong representations', because once a certain age threshold is reached by an actress those roles fall out of favor and out the reach".</i> They say instead <i>"Lets create roles / characters with whom the average person of any given age or social level can identify".</i> Y'know, real normal people like the kind you and I bump into on the street, at work and in the supermarket every day.<br />
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In fact the only one here who has any (what could be considered) uber negative things to say about men in the industry is actually the <i>only </i>man interviewed in the film - late cinema critic & historian Roger Ebert, who effectively (and accurately) rails against those action franchise roles which, while enjoyable, and while they have their place and even importance, are ultimately often little more than "substitute male" fantasy fodder for pubescent boys. And he happens to express this opinion while at Cannes standing before a promo display of Angelina Jolie's first TOMB RAIDER film.<br />
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It might be a bit of a stretch to say that the SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER interviews became a "galvanizing agent", or that they "led to" a desire for a new generation of women in Hollywood to want to seize more control of their professional (and yes, personal) destinies as did that earlier Stanwyck / Davis / Hayworth generation of the 1940s. But I <i>do</i> believe it's more than coincidental that around the same time as this docu's filming and release a number of women had just recently founded (or were in the process of founding) their own production companies for the very same reasons. Among those companies were Salma Hayek's "Ventanarosa" - which would go on to produce 2002's multi-award winning FRIDA and TV's UGLY BETTY; Drew Barrymore's "Flower Films" - responsible for NEVER BEEN KISSED, DONNIE DARKO and CHARLIE'S ANGELS; and Sandra Bullock's "Fortis Films" - the entity behind PRACTICAL MAGIC, HOPE FLOATS, MISS GONGENIALITY, TV's THE GEORGE LOPEZ SHOW and others.<br />
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Shortly thereafter, as other actresses also neared their own 40-year thresholds, and wanted to see more realistic roles for women of all ages, they too became the masters of their own destinies in creating those roles. And the results of their desires would be the establishment of Reese Witherspoon's "Pacific Standard Company" (GONE GIRL, WILD, BIG LITTLE LIES), Queen Latifa's "Flavor Unit Entertainment" (THE COOKOUT, BEAUTY SHOP, and TV's SCREAM), and Nicole Kidman's "Blossom Films" (RABBIT HOLE, THE FAMILY FANG, and BIG LITTLE LIES - this in conjunction with Witherspoon's company).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FRIDA (2002), CHARLIE'S ANGELS (2000), HOPE FLOATS (1998) </td></tr>
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Yet <i>another </i>generation / wave of women-owned production houses would follow in the wake of the previous - among these newer ones<i> </i>those owned by Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Banks, Taraji P. Hensen and Natalie Portman - and which would be responsible for even more recent fare such as I, TONYA, the PITCH PERFECT series, PROUD MARY, JANE GOT A GUN and more. And sure as hell as I type these final paragraphs, yet even <i>another </i>wave or two of companies are in the process of sprouting to life to fill the ever-increasing product demand void brought about by the implementation, global growth and popularity of streaming services such as Neflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others - all of these women-owned production houses following similar suit in an insistence to both create more wide-ranging roles for women as well as to help eradicate incidents of sexual harassment and other forms of gender and age-centric abuses within the industry.<br />
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Oh, it's also noticeable (and again, I believe more than coincidental) that shortly after the SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER interviews, actresses such as Jane Fonda <i>and Debra Winger herself </i>decided to end their self-imposed retirements in order to take on some of these more diverse, newly created roles in both film and television - the kind of which didn't really exist until <i>after </i>the WINGER interviews and release of the film. So, while I don't necessarily think Rosanna Arquette's 2002 documentary was the catalyst behind the (as Melanie Griffith dubbed it during a dinner chat) soon-to-be "Evolution Revolution", I genuinely believe Arquette managed to here capture as "lightning in a bottle" the overwhelming zeitgeist during a time in which a great deal of frustration, personal and career self-reflection, and even anger was coalescing for many women in the industry, and being packed like gunpowder into the barrel of a newer era where the old rules of the game would eventually become no longer acceptable.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger in Jonathan Demme's RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008),<br />
written by Jenny Lumet</td></tr>
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Watching SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER in 2018 is like watching the glowing hot coals onto which recent incidents such as the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and the successes of female driven projects such as WONDER WOMAN and BIG LITTLE LIES, would be the gasoline tossed onto them. And, as with the future visions of any "Prophet without honor in their own country", those visions and opinions passionately expressed in this rarefied brand of documentary in retrospect now seem obvious and inevitable, though a relatively short time ago this was hardly the case.<br />
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As such a great deal of high praise is due to Rosanna Arquette as director for "following her gut" in allowing this gritty, low budget and at times raw-but-stunningly-realized film to evolve and assert its own broader themed (and ultimately more globally encompassing) self, rather than to settle for being a more tunnel-visioned examination of her own personal journey and angst in search of creative fulfillment. The best documentaries are those wherein the film maker is brave enough to let themselves get out of the god*amn way, and let the film speak for itself. And in being confident enough to do so Arquette's SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER has also (perhaps ironically) <i>become </i>the very answer of / to her own said personal journey / quest - this while simultaneously serving as a thematic lamp post for others hacking their way along the same pathway. It <i>is</i> without a doubt Arquette's bravest and most lasting filmic achievement to date. For me it's a filmic achievement which instantly raised her artistic "street cred" to new levels. And ...<br />
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... one of which I think deserves yet <i>another </i>rewatch tonight.<br />
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CEJ<br />
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<br />Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-42765363905554508502018-04-01T17:14:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:10:55.204-04:00"DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST" (1991): ONE OF THE MOST STUNNING FILMS EVER MADE FINALLY GETS ITS DUE - by CEJ<br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST </span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. - Julie Dash</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Cast: Cora Lee Day, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Barbara O, Trula Hoosier, Adisa Anderson, Alva Rogers, Umar Abdurrahamn, Kaycee Moore, Bahni Turpin, Tommy Redman Hicks, Tony King, Cornell Royal, Vertamae Grosvenor, Sherry Jackson</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Written by - Julie Dash</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Produced by - Lindsay Law, Julie Dash, Arthur Jafa</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - John Barnes</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. of Photog. - Arthur Jafa</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Editors - Joseph Burton, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Amy Carey</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 112 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: Jan. '91 (Sundance), Sept. 10, '91 (Toronto Fest)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dec. 27, '91 (U.S. theatrical)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Sept. 11, '16 (rest: Toronto)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist: Kino / Cohen Media</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;"><br /></span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(***** on a scale of 1-5)</span><br />
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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We love extremely visual movie making! And it's no exaggeration to say Julie Dash's DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991) is one of cinema history's most stunningly gorgeous films ever. Now, "visual movie making" isn't automatically a redundant phrase as (to us at least) it doesn't just mean moving frames (the definition of film) or "nice pretty images". Nowadays you can get that anywhere, from your average music video to technically well executed and witty Super Bowl ad spots. But no, by our definition truly "<i>visual </i>movie making" is when the images and characters and other elements of a film - be they in a feature, short, TV episode or whatever - are so inexorably ... psychologically ... spiritually (if you will) linked that the whole becomes infinitely more than the sum of its parts. It ends up being a delicate house of cards of light and sound where no one of those elements can independently exist apart from the other without each losing their artistic potency.<br />
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Remember in the original BLADE RUNNER when replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) finally catches up with his creator Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), and while seeking a way to lengthen his life span via altering his own genetic coding he and his maker launch into a high tech debate which in the end winds up only explaining how any attempt to change Batty's established DNA sequence will result in his entire biology crashing? Well, in the best sense, <i>truly visual</i> film making - where the DNA strands of character, narrative and cinematography are so closely knotted together - is the exact same thing. <br />
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Omar Sharif was originally concerned that his titular character in David Lean's epic love story DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) would come off as inert because he (and if you genuinely take the time to notice, it's true) didn't really have a lot of dialog in a movie with a running time clocking in excess of three hours. But after viewing early edits, and realizing what Lean was doing, Sharif was stunned to see how the entire film was almost <i>literally </i>seen through that character's eyes. Watching DOCTOR ZHIVAGO today, after having heard Sharif's words, it all now in retrospect seems obvious. The <i>film itself</i> as photographed / shot, ... in it's very style and execution is an extension of the character's psychology, ... of his very soul - the dichotomous (at times conflicting) eyes and soul of a man who is both scientist and poet. And as such Freddie Young's "conflicting" cinematography features love scenes shot in an often gritty and color de-saturated state, while scenes of war and violence and poverty are often lensed in a gorgeously filtered manner. In fact a huge disagreement over this kind of visual irony which Lean wanted caused original cinematographer Nicolas Roeg and the director to part ways not long into the production.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPlimwUDyYUn468OdACbAyWgVqjRI2EXtsFNEuimTFJznM94wskS58xE2kMmvOVE3NXoD-ZADlH70JgAWTtqVb8zzM_V4cMVO0kHg9vYHNmHbujTAi-P9Pc6mXDFUVSxEBW17h3o4sdaM/s1600/zhiv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPlimwUDyYUn468OdACbAyWgVqjRI2EXtsFNEuimTFJznM94wskS58xE2kMmvOVE3NXoD-ZADlH70JgAWTtqVb8zzM_V4cMVO0kHg9vYHNmHbujTAi-P9Pc6mXDFUVSxEBW17h3o4sdaM/s1600/zhiv.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The eyes have it: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)</td></tr>
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Another inspiring example is in Walter Hill's 1993 historical drama GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND. Shot by Lloyd Ahern in Utah, Arizona and California - and in some of the same locations sage brush auteur John Ford was known to call home - Hill's political western from the very beginning features audience-encompassing widescreen vistas. But it's not just because <i>"It looks great to shoot westerns this way"</i>.<br />
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In a 1993 interview Ahern spilled the beans on how the film's entire visual aesthetic was designed to ultimately funnel down to a single scene near the film's midway point where Gene Hackman as U.S. Army Gen. George Crook and Wes Studi as Geronimo sit in a small canyon alcove to discuss possible peace. In the sequence Studi asks, <i>"With all of this land why is there no room for the Apache? Why must the white-eye have <u>all</u> land?". </i>And<i> </i>in that moment the camera does<i> not</i> do the expected thing - which would be a pullback or other transition to a sprawling Monument Valley-like vista out of the John Ford playbook. Uh, uh!. Instead there's a very quiet but pronounced <i>close</i>up on Hackman's face as his eyes glance to the horizon behind Studi, and he struggles for an answer ... but can't come up with one. The cinematographic scheme of the entire film was designed for that one f**king awesome closeup which spoke millions, and spoke it with no words. <i>That's</i> what we mean by "truly visual" film making. For the last 27 years Dash's DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST has remained at the top of our "Most Visually Stunning Films Ever Made" list for that very reason.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Vjrf-zBNPq4DstrcxGv6Onh3EzDx4IzFoodCs0ECNhoVwpcIh2W4TPBDEg87jOHbPQE5o0vyQLWseja3u3SbGLdU6ZhvHGHbqLsLxHF7_OS-vFJmXkNO1rfYG85S5yB_zETqCI9BO78/s1600/geron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Vjrf-zBNPq4DstrcxGv6Onh3EzDx4IzFoodCs0ECNhoVwpcIh2W4TPBDEg87jOHbPQE5o0vyQLWseja3u3SbGLdU6ZhvHGHbqLsLxHF7_OS-vFJmXkNO1rfYG85S5yB_zETqCI9BO78/s1600/geron.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The eyes have it: GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (1993)</td></tr>
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Taking place in 1902 on St. Simons Island (just off the coast of Georgia), DAUGHTERS is centered around the Peazants - a family of Gullah islanders. For those unaware, the Gullah (aka "Geechee") are African-Americans who live in various regions of the southeastern U.S., and who maintain many of the traditions of their pre-slave-era African ancestors. This includes speaking their own "creole"-like language which primarily stems from Twi, Kikongo and other Bantu and Ghana dialects. In 1902 many still resided on St. Simons, and as such for a visitor stepping onto / into the island community, it was culture shock in not just being greeted with remnants of traditional African language, but in many ways it was stepping from a time machine into a past of perfectly preserved African tribal cultural mores and customs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The loving, wise and matriarchal Nana (Cora Lee Day)</td></tr>
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As with any family, however, in DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST there are ideological differences - here between younger members who wish to leave for a modern life on the mainland where better opportunities are promised in the northern states, and the older family and community members concerned that if this happens, their culture - that which has kept them alive and strong and proud for years - will be forever lost: diluted into non-existence within the American melting pot at a time when many blacks were seeking to distance themselves as far as possible from any vestigial memories of their enslaved past.<br />
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One of the many wonderful things about Dash's film though is in it's ability, in the most human, relatable and realistic of ways, to express how - while neither viewpoint is wrong - they can and <i>do</i> cause a complicated-as-hell family dynamic.<br />
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Told in at times non-liner fashion (we'll explain in a sec) the story of DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST pivots primarily around the quadrangle of elderly and matriarchal Nana Peazant (Cora Lee Day) - who practices traditional African religious customs, and who vows to never leave the island; Nana's granddaughter Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) - returning for the family reunion dinner from Philadelphia, where she's become a fervent Christian; Viola's cousin Yellow Mary (Barbara O) - who also returns from the mainland with her same sex lover Trula (Trula Hoosier); and young Eli (Adisa Anderson) - Nana's grandson, who is torn down the middle as to whether he wishes to stay or leave.<br />
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Because traditional culture, examined in DAUGHTERS' conundrum of <i>"to be or not to be"</i> / <i>"to leave or not to leave",</i> is writer / director Dash's touchstone thematic here, and as it is exemplified in the characters' clothing, lifestyle, food, religious traditions and more, that culture becomes a living and breathing character itself within the film. And as such David Lean's ZHIVAGO-esque notion of the world seen through a single character's eyes is done perhaps one better in Dash's outing than in Lean's own as DAUGHTERS employs the clever conceit of being narrated by Nana's <i>yet-to-be born</i> grandchild who is looking back on her family history. As you can imagine, this surreal POV allows for some stunningly realized imagery (courtesy of cinematographer Arthur Jafa - who'd go on to shoot Spike Lee's visually arresting CROOKLYN) as well as an at times non-liner narrative chronology.<br />
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There's nothing <i>un</i>real at all in the visuals and narrative, mind you. Just that everything is kind of "slowed down" to the point where we, from the perspective of the unborn child (and children are fascinated by <i>everything </i>they see), notice every single gorgeous detail in nearly ever single frame of film, right down to the detailed stitching of Arline Gant's multi-layered costumes, the slightly heightened sound of the waves licking the shore, the gentle breezes and rustle of leaves, and the near musical squawking of the island bird life.<br />
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Also, probably not since Sergio Leone has anyone ever cast a company of stunningly individual real life faces to populate a film as does Dash. Every furrowed line running down the countenance of every elder has a bottomless well of history between those crevices. And you want to know more of that history though the film's running time doesn't allow it. In this regard take particular notice of the expressiveness of the older men in the cast - lead by actor Umar Abdurrahman who portrays Bilal Muhammad, a practicing Muslim on the island.<br />
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It's also no coincidence that the main group of women who serve as our "narrative tour guides" through the film are of varying skin complexions - as this allows not only all African-Americans in particular to see themselves represented, but allows the same for most families of <i>any </i>ethnic group in general, as every culture in America deals with the same familial issues on display here - issues of tradition, one's roots, gender roles, ethnic self loathing, and how often skin complexion can factor into the sometimes blurred line between racial integration and culturally "selling out". While certainly every African-American watching DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST can relate to these issues and more, they are certainly not unique to blacks in America. And the microcosm of the Peazant family cleverly comes to represent ethnic culture in American society at large over multiple generations. All of this is done however in an extremely non preachy but rather entertaining and (as stated earlier) visually arresting manner.<br />
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Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 1991, DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST was released theatrically by Kino International, and was the first feature film from an African-American woman director to see national distribution. There was a growing wave of African-American film makers making serious inroads into mainstream cinema at the time. In fact John Singleton's BOYZ N THE HOOD, Bill Duke's A RAGE IN HARLEM, and Spike Lee's JUNGLE FEVER all opened within months of DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST back in '91. But we felt then (and still do today) that Dash, while perhaps unfairly still not as well known to the general public as are her male director counterparts, certainly taught the master class with this stunning work. Let's face it, it's quite likely that, had this exact same film been made in the 1960s by a foreign male film maker, it would today be considered a "major trend setter" - it's style and thematics of which movies would have been imitating for the next fifty years.<br />
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Proof of it's artistic status can be found in the fact that in 2004 DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" to American film - right up there with other selections over the years such as ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 12 ANGRY MEN, 2001, APOCALYPSE NOW and more. <i>Way to go, Julie!</i><br />
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Believe it or not, in spite of all of this however, and in spite of Kino International's present day status as a home video label on par with the Criterion Collection, DAUGHTERS saw no legitimate home video release until a 1999 Kino VHS, followed by a 2000 Kino DVD. And even those quickly went out of print with the DVD then becoming a hard-to-find and high priced collectible, ... unless you were fortunate enough to burn a copy from one of the film's occasional airings on Sundance Channel or IFC, which is what we actually did at the time. And while we're not usually fans of later day music videos blatantly appropriating / swiping the style of a relatively unknown film, it's no secret that <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/beyonce-lemonade-julie-dash-daughters-dust" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Beyonce's visual album "Lemonade"</span></a> - which patterned much of it's look on imagery from DAUGHTERS - ignited new interest in Dash's classic. In fact it generated so much interest among music and film critics, and curiosity from a new generation of film makers, the Cohen Media Group footed the bill to do a 25th Anniversary restoration and theatrical re-release of the film in 2016.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Top) DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST - 1991 / (bottom) LEMONADE - 2016</td></tr>
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The restored DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST was released by Sony in a Blu-ray edition in April 2017. And as of this writing (April 2018) it is currently streaming on Netflix.<br />
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If you've never seen this one-of-a-kind gem of a film, do yourself a favor and check it out on as large an HD screen (or theatrically if you can catch a revival showing) as possible. We're fairly certain you'll be as spirited away by its timeless themes, imagery, characters and dream-like quality as we were, and as we remain to this day.<br />
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It's been far too long in coming. But it's high time (and damn nice!) to see Dash's DAUGHTERS finally receiving its due.<br />
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<br />Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-52720873977356371332018-03-25T16:37:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:10:37.945-04:00ON THE CONTRARY: "JUSTICE LEAGUE" (2017) IS REALLY A DAMN GOOD FILM! HERE'S WHY ... - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #e69138;">JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. - Zack Snyder </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(Joss Whedon - uncredited)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Ezra Miller, Jason Mamoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Ciarán Hinds, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, J.K. Simmons</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Screenplay - Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Story - Chris Terrio, Zack Snyder / </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">Based on Characters from D.C. Comics</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - Danny Elfman</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. of Photography - </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Fabian Wagner</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Editors - David Brenner, Richard Pearson, Martin Walsh</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 120 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: 11/17/17 (U.S.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist: Warner Bros. Pictures</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">(**** on a scale of 1-5)</span><br />
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, </div>
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... OR YOU SIMPLY JUST FORGOT TO LOVE MORE THE FIRST TIME AROUND!</div>
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Grandmom always used the phrase "Being contrary" to politely describe one of her numerous grandkids (then eventually great grandkids) who for no discernible reason seemed to have the proverbial "bug up their ass" in wanting to do the exact opposite of what everyone else was doing ... and wanting to do it just <i>because </i>it was the opposite, and not necessarily because they themselves enjoyed it more than that in which the "rest of the family pack" was engaged. Well, just to be clear, that's <i>not </i>our modus operandi in regards to these "On The Contrary" entries - wherein we kinda stick up for, and point out the attributes of, films which by and large have accrued a great deal of ... well, no sense in dancing around the verbiage, ... where we stick up for, and point out the positive attributes of, films which most of the general public just f**king despises.<br />
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Our last entry about <a href="https://vaultedtreasures.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-contrary-dark-tower-2017-is-really.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">THE DARK TOWER</span></a> set off a couple'a one or two "Hatfields vs. McCoys"-like online skirmishes. And that's okay, because for whatever reason nowadays to disagree about politics or organized religion is understandable and even encouraged. But to disagree and break ranks on the general consensus <i>of a film!</i> is somehow intolerable. So, if we can fly in the face of that sort of movement, then hey, more power, brother! We've even (<i>"Oh, tragedy!"</i>) had people unfriend us on social media because they lost respect for our opinion and "couldn't take us seriously" when we expressed a gleeful enjoyment in a film most deemed as "summer movie trash". Well, it was either that or the semi-smart-ass response on our part in which we made it clear that <i>"We don't take ourselves all that seriously either, so it would be kind of hypocritical to expect others to do so". </i>At any rate, no, we're not just being contrary, but we rather like to think we're being more in line with a quote by 'ol Steven Spielberg which we just love as it makes so damn much common sense ...<br />
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<i>"I even get inspired by movies that aren't very good, because there's always something good in movies that are collectively thought of as a failure".</i><br />
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Which is not to say that we think 2017's JUSTICE LEAGUE - from everyone's favorite cinematic three-legged dog to kick, Zack Snyder (cue the Harry Dean Stanton song from KELLY'S HEROES) - isn't very good. On the contrary (<i>there's that phrase again!</i>), we think it is while so much of the rest of the world disagrees. We just wanna lay out a few cinematic reasons as to <i>why </i>we dig it as much as we do though - reasons we think tend to get overlooked in today's length-of-a-news-bite rush to "love" or "hate" a film 100% upon first viewing, <i>and in some cases even <u>before</u> it's released - y'know, based upon leaked footage, an earlier script draft which ended up making the rounds, or "buzz" via rumor and more</i>. And oh, for those whose criteria of a film's worth is it's domination of the box office, or it's lack thereof, here's a little somethin', somethin' to consider ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Classics which were originally box office failures include <br />
(L to R) BRINGING UP BABY (1938), FANTASIA (1940) and THE THING (1982)</td></tr>
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Keep in mind that some of what are now considered the most popular and acclaimed films in history where originally box office failures: among them BRINGING UP BABY, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (many were appalled at how "dark" it was at the time), Kubrick's 2001 (many attending it's premiere screening walked out), Disney's 1940 masterpiece FANTASIA (which after numerous theatrical re-releases wouldn't see a profit until the late 1960s), and BLADE RUNNER and John Carpenter's THE THING - both of which opened on the same day back in the summer of 1982, and crashed and burned so badly they were relegated to the second run and "Dollar Theaters" and drive-ins within three weeks.<br />
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Now, with a budget just north of $300 million (entirely too much, we agree on that!), JUSTICE LEAGUE needs to make at least twice it's budget to break even. And with a global box office take of near $660 million combined with Blu-ray, DVD, streaming and other home video ancillaries, when all is said and done Warner / D.C.'s magnum opus should break even with a little bit to spare. Just putting that one out there for those who can't get let go of the concept that a film's box office determines it's ultimate worth. But that's a discussion for another day.<br />
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As for general attitude / intent with "On The Contrary" here's a quick little excerpt from that previous THE DARK TOWER intro where we expressed how the position of <i>"I don't care"</i> regarding another's like or dislike of a film (or certain things in life in general) can sometimes be the most healthy outlook one can have:<br />
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<i>"I don't care" simply means one's opinion concerning what one likes and dislikes is based upon one's own decision making process and / or (for whatever random reasons in that infinitesimal universe) one's predilections, tastes and what fires / triggers one's own imagination regardless of the tastes, predilections et al of everyone else out there, ... or even Rotten Tomatoes' (they themselves admit) unscientific aggregate scoring process. That kind of positive "I don't care" mentality (as opposed to the negative and often self destructive kind) is not only "okay", I've always thought it downright necessary. </i><br />
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<i> What many just can't seem to fathom however is that this doesn't mean my take is "right" while someone else's is "wrong", ... or vice versa. It just means (for whatever reason) my take is MY take, and I enjoy that take just as another should enjoy THEIRS without caring what I think or feel about it, or why. That said, this isn't any kind of "review" or "apology" or "debate bait" concerning summer 2017's film adaptation of THE DARK TOWER as directed by Nikolaj Arcel and based upon the series of novels by Stephen King. As I said, I really don't care whether you liked it or not, ... which isn't the same as "I don't care that you have an opinion". It's important and necessary that you do. Now, as long as we're all clear and cool on that ...".</i><br />
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So, fast fowarding to the present, <i>are</i> we all cool with that?<br />
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<i> </i>Alright then!<br />
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<i> </i>By the way, for those familiar with how we do things here, you know we tend to believe the scientific principle that nothing happens in a vacuum. And as such not only do we explain <i>what</i> our observations, dissections, opinions and such are concerning a film, but <i>why </i>and <i>how </i>those viewpoints have (as with any POV on any art form) been shaped both internally via one's own past experiences as well as externally by the context of the time in which the film was made and released. For those however who wish to "opt out" of what some may consider that "psycho-babble bullsh*t", feel free to scroll down to the JUSTICE LEAGUE review proper which comes just after the white line page separator not far below the pic of Jason Mamoa standing in the wind, and just above Gal Gadot brandishing the sword. We won't be offended in the slightest.<br />
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<i>Scroll away. We'll give you a moment ... </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)</td></tr>
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For those who hung around for this part (or came back to it later) - speaking of Stephen King, in one of those many wonderful forwards to his short story and other collections (and NIGHT SHIFT still rules as the greatest of 'em all, though THE BACHMAN BOOKS comes in a really close second) he delves into the wonderful (albeit murky) psychology of how and why something will appeal to one person while not being worth a hoot in hell to another. And he does so with the analogy of the screen-like mesh. According to King (and that sounds like the beginning of some GAME OF THRONES type yarn, doesn't it?) everyone's mind is a screen / mesh, and the size of the spaces between the strands comprising that screen / mesh vary from person to person.<br />
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Daily life, with it's generally considered unimportant or random experiences and such, is the wind or water which continually passes through the mesh. And various bits of "junk", "artifacts", "leaves" and more will pass through or get caught up in said meshes depending upon the size of the spaces between the strands. So, what may just simply pass through the mesh of one person will get caught up in that of another. And <i>Padow! </i>- that's King's "Reader's Digest" version (if you will) of why one person's favorite color will be green while another's is blue, or why one will swear by the jazz of Thelonious Monk, and can't stand Kenny G., while for another the exact opposite will be so.<br />
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As such <i>our </i>take / conception of JUSTICE LEAGUE, and why we feel it works, is part based upon the mesh of how in our childhood years comic books in particular became the gateway into the world of the arts in general, and partly how later down the line we'd come to integrate a love of other artforms into that mental mesh-palooza. For others it may have been an English Lit class or piano lessons or other kind of artistic / creative entree, but for us the "Stargate" of entry and highly subjective opinion was the Marvel and D.C. comics of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, then various novels and films.<br />
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Some have taken notice that on our personal social media pages we've made numerous postings of late about those "big and loud" types of genre films, and not in a negative way. But don't assume too much. (Forgive us for sounding a tad arrogant here - we all succumb to it at one time or another, but) we're fairly certain there are more beloved obscure, classic, independent, foreign and even "whacked-the-f**k-out" experimental films on our shelves and stacked on the floor in the hall over there than many folks have ever seen or maybe even heard of. So, yeah, we love those too. The last couple'a months however have seen us involved with a few projects which quite simply have been kicking our asses pretty good. Which is not to say we aren't enjoying those projects. Uh, uh! A couple of 'em are just tough, that's all. And we call that the "pick & shovel" / non sexy aspect of the creative process.<br />
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One story in particular is a challenging juggling act of a real life contemporary group of people doing a job of which many in the general public have never heard. So, there's the flipping plates and frisbees in the air aspect of making people aware of that job, explaining why these people do it, and remaining faithful and accurate to the true-ness of things (y'know, getting the facts correct) while also remaining faithful to the needs of drama, characterization in the way of arcs and such, a narrative surprise or two, and even instilling a little humor to keep things from getting too tonally burdensome. And you want to do all of that without dropping any of those plates or frisbees. So, it's a process which is longer and harder than anticipated - and isn't that always the way? But every day we get up from the desk and say, <i>"Damn, that came out pretty good"</i>. During those at times "non-sexy" moments of artistry we all have our means of "escape", ... our way of "releasing the valve" or "loosening the 'ol fiddle strings" for a few hours. In this respect our's has always been to remind ourselves why we wanted to do the script writing thing in the first place as a child. And as said, for us the entree was comic books, which lead to novels and music and more.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Clockwise): THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #101 (Oct. '71), JUNGLE ACTION #19 (Jan. '76),<br />
THE HOT ROCK film (1972), THE HOT ROCK novel (1970) </td></tr>
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Back then we'd see a movie at the drive in with mom and dad and our brothers, then we'd spend the weekend drawing a 25 page comic book version of it. And <i>that </i>made us want to learn all we could about those movies, so we began perching at the local library like a hawk on the look-out for neighborhood pigeons - waiting for and devouring every new issue of Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and more for their movie reviews (and even ripping a few pages out from one or two of those publications to take home - <i>and yes, today we feel guilty as hell about that!</i>). Eventually, having gotten into the habit of scouring the New York Times Book Review, we struck upon the idea of, if a movie was to air on TV on a Saturday or Sunday night, and they had in the library the book upon which it was based, we'd often sign out the novel and spend the day reading the entire thing so we could compare it with the movie version the next day.<br />
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We particularly remember one Saturday at age 12 where we read Donald E. Westlake's THE HOT ROCK, then watched Peter Yates' and William Goldman's film version into the wee hours of Sunday. <i>That </i>was an early education in film and writing one couldn't get in a semester of film class, ... at least not at age 12.<br />
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From Donald Westlake and Michael Crichton (introduced to us via 1973's WESTWORLD and Robert Wise's 1971 film version of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN), we then branched into both the literary and cinematic worlds of Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Edgar Rice Burroughs, which in time lead to "mainlining" the classics by Twain, Hemingway, Bradbury and Asimov, and we even managed to find our way into Elmore Leonard, Stephen King <i>and freakin' Voltaire and Giraudoux no less!</i><br />
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Around this same time those movies (and their scores and soundtracks) lead us into a budding life long love affair with all kinds of music - from classical to jazz, R&B and funk to rock, to folk and (having developed a taste for it via film) various indigenous syles from around the globe.<br />
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The "writing and illustrating our own comic books" part of the equation lead us for a time (before realizing we were more interested in the writing, and less in the illustrating, aspects) to the Art Institute of Philadelphia where we became close friends with photographers and fashion designers; and their worlds lead us to a greater appreciation of <i>movie </i>cinematographers and costume and production designers, etc. So, in a very real way ALL OF THAT was born from a love of "those damned (what some would call) dumb-assed comic books" as a child. Oh yeah, and as so many of those "dumb assed" comics back in the 1960s - 80s were also uber political, some of them became our first introduction into social awareness and the concept of social responsibility, and when necessary, the need for social protests and action. All of this to say that to this day we'll have words with those who dismiss comic books (and their filmic adaptations) as "crap", "empty headed" and "juvenile". Well, ... <i>some </i>of them certainly are.<br />
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We mean, c'mon, we're not gonna pretend Pam Anderson's BARB WIRE (1996) has the same sub-strata social-political significance of Bryan Singer's X-MEN or Ryan Coogler's BLACK PANTHER, right? But you're not going to find any different kind of "popcorn movie" vs. "classic movie" or "gem of a film" vs. "sh*t of a film" ratio within the comic book film adaptation arena than that you'll find with westerns, love stories, dramas, religious movies and more all based on various other kinds of source material. So, <i>whew!</i>, with all the "mesh" perception / perspective stuff outta the way ...<br />
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We truly dig JUSTICE LEAGUE. We dug it more than we thought we would upon first viewing on that IMAX screen. And after watching it at home earlier this week we find ourselves liking it even more. We'll even cite very "film craft" reasons here as to why we feel it works like gangbusters. Many have made note of how it's a little lighter in tone (as well as in it's look) than the earlier films in Warner / D.C.'s expanded cinematic universe - MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V. SUPERMAN. But we <i>really </i>love those two films as well, especially BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, which ("No, horsesh*t, Jack") shakes the pillars of our personal Little China to make our list as one of the ten best comic book movies ever made, right up there with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, DICK TRACY and ROAD TO PERDITION - which everyone forgets (or didn't realize) <i>was </i>based on a comic book. Oh, sorry, ... we mean based upon a "graphic novel".<br />
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But that's our point. We don't hold with the foolish but widely accepted notion that all comic book movies should be "light" and "fun". They should be enjoyable and engaging, absolutely! But JAWS and THE EXORCIST are enjoyable and engaging too, but no one would really classify them as "light", would they?<br />
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You wouldn't demand that all movies based upon stage plays be the same in tone and feel just because THE KING AND I or RENT had a certain tone or feel, would you? And one wouldn't have the narrow-minded bias and hubris to say DEATH OF A SALESMAN or THE ICEMAN COMETH sucked because it was darker than OKLAHOMA, right? Well, it's the same with <i>any </i>source material and / or genre of film sprung from that source. Some westerns are light, and some are dark as hell. Some are character studies, actioners, or more comedic, or are social treatises. Some are even combos - like say Richard Brooks' THE PROFESSIONALS (1966) or Sydney Pollack's THE SCALPHUNTERS (1968), both of which are rollicking mash-ups of action and comedy.<br />
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While many genuinely seem to have a hard time wrapping their noggins around the fact, it's the exact same thing / the exact same way with comics. For proof keep in mind that not only are the usual suspects - IRON MAN, THOR, BATMAN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, WONDER WOMAN, SUPERMAN, BLACK PANTHER et al based upon comic books, but so is THE WALKING DEAD, MEN IN BLACK and the aforementioned ROAD TO PERDITION, along with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, GHOST WORLD, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT, ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL and others. The source material "Well Of The Souls" of comic books is as vast and eclectic and deep a well as any other. So, let's stop pretending otherwise just because we personally may not want to acknowledge that "those" kinds of films and film sources deserve to sit in the front of the bus every bit as much as other more traditionally respected ones.<br />
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Even within the <i>superhero</i> sphere of the comic book world so many of the most culturally iconic and popular heroes - among them SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN and BATMAN - have been rebooted and retrofitted so many times (darker during the Depression years, inspirational during WW2, lighter in the 1950s, downright spoofish and cartoony in the 1960s and 70s, more violent and serious in the 1980s and 90s, then more globally reflective in the post 9/11 era) that when accusing a new film or series of films of breaking canon one has to realistically ask, <i>"Well, to <u>which</u> canon are you referring?"</i>. All of this to say, we very much like the darker more serious, post 9/11 tone of MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V. SUPERMAN.<br />
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Oh, and one more thing about Snyder's much maligned first two D.C. entries - for those who accuse those films (especially in their depiction of Superman) of being dark and non-heroic, please re-watch them while setting aside preconceived notions, and note how the characters of Batman and Superman are very much the same as they <i>ever </i>were. While Henry Cavill's "Clark Kent" is certainly a more realistic, middle America far cry from Christopher Reeve's endearingly bumbling depiction, his Superman <i>is absolutely not!</i> It's the world <i>around </i>him which has drastically changed since Richard Donner's 1978 film. And <i>that </i>is the thematic crux of MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V. SUPERMAN - whether or not the idealism and / or life mission of those characters back in the 1940s through the 1970s still applies today (or is even possible) in a western society where most outsiders in general are viewed with a great deal of suspicion, and often greeted with violence.<br />
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In those films the exact same Superman who was welcomed with open arms forty or fifty years ago now exists in a xenophobic world where the general "play it safe" philosophy is to "not trust them" but to deal with outsiders with a "necessary at times?" forceful intergalactic / interdimensional "vetting process". In this regard, and with this view towards Superman, Ben Affleck's Batman of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN becomes the living embodiment of Harvey Dent's warning expressed in Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT - in how <i>"You either die as a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"</i>. Snyder / Affleck's Bruce Wayne / Batman - who has been battling evil for decades - indeed <i>does </i>become the villain in his obsessive attempt to destroy the Man of Steel because he believes his arrival on earth to be <i>potentially </i>dangerous to human kind. We delve into this in detail in our GullCottage <a href="http://www.gullcottageonline.com/MarvelVs.DCcomicsFilms2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">"Inherent Power Of Genre" review of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE</span></a>. Give it a look-see when you get the chance. At any rate …<br />
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In the lighter JUSTICE LEAGUE, Batman, moved by Superman's ultimate act of self sacrifice at the climax of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, has his faith rekindled just in time to unite with a group of "meta beings" whom not long ago he very likely would have sought to do away with every bit as much as he wanted to do away with Superman. This new character arc works incredibly well for Affleck's Bruce Wayne in the current film. So, continued kudos to those first two films for having the balls to not brush those darker post 9/11 xenophobic concepts under the carpet for the sake of "making things lighter and more fun", and to sell more toys.<br />
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Capra didn't kowtow to that sensibility with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. And we believe years from now more will come to appreciate the "torn from the headlines" approach, and (so-called) "darkness", of MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V. SUPERMAN as more honest and accurate "time capsules" granting necessary insight into life in the early 21st century - that sort of thing which genre films can often do better than their more "serious minded" movieland counterparts. Heroes should be bigger and better than the worlds they inhabit. And maybe years from now when we evolve into a more humane society our superhero comics and films can once again take place against more pastel colored backdrops. But keep in mind that right now it's more <i>our</i> darkness against which Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman's idealism has been struggling the last five years on the big screen, ... <i>not their own.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzYZM8uz_5vUDarbTMTDX6Qf-9reGxNWh8rM5fVfTXzELwBOVPU7TtAkwboClau3854wP6V2Yk4hj7077viXE5067UvCNP4aqeRN7NbdBtdaMg1soMi_zJmN32UZi91HmF_WbpzXv7tA/s1600/j911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzYZM8uz_5vUDarbTMTDX6Qf-9reGxNWh8rM5fVfTXzELwBOVPU7TtAkwboClau3854wP6V2Yk4hj7077viXE5067UvCNP4aqeRN7NbdBtdaMg1soMi_zJmN32UZi91HmF_WbpzXv7tA/s1600/j911.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Post-9/11 world of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016)</td></tr>
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That said, the slightly lighter tone of JUSTICE LEAGUE <i>is</i> a nice tonal change up, and it serves the story well. Kind of how the darker STAR TREK: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK ('84) was followed by the lighter THE VOYAGE HOME ('86), and the intense espionage of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE ('63) gave way to the more playful adventure of GOLDFINGER ('64), but we can accept and enjoy 'em all. Sorry, MOONRAKER doesn't count! (insert comedic drum and cymbal - <i>Baduum Tissss!</i>)<i> </i><br />
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There's perhaps a bit <i>too much </i>CGI in the new film, and that sort of thing always tends to take one out of the immediacy of the proceedings. But that's less a problem with this film in particular, and more a problem with most films today in general. Yes, including those small scale dramatic non-genre ones - y'know, where there's a little <i>too </i>much effort put into making Toronto look like L.A., New York or Pittsburgh, and it becomes noticeable when you should be paying attention to the conversation two people are having on that park bench. What JUSTICE LEAGUE gets and does right however, it gets and does <i>very </i>right.<br />
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We love it's script's structure. Bringing together numerous characters in <i>any </i>kind of crossover endeavor (even something like that Shondaland SCANDAL / HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER ratings slam dunk) is by its very nature "unrealistic" and "forced". The trick is to make the "forced"-ness go down a little easier by smoothing it over with something familiar and identifiable to the audience. We refer to this as the "narrative tour guide". For example, <i>after </i>the release of the film TITANIC many became aware of the whole classism thing of the upper decks being occupied by the rich while the lower class immigrants were crammed into steerage. But before the opening of James Cameron's 1997 film a great percentage of the general film going public had no idea about this interesting historical tidbit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmet9snRjMBIGJH_24X1M3fzcq_VrXM4pOm6zXOMdyXTSR1i9zxC6WZPsP6M_P2NDv_r_OxzH0ajCUntAEjTJ9TzmaEYF_XeJfgpa4C0tXomYiJjsv2lNmX_muyguuTIKz40H7KluEYo/s1600/JTitanicUnderworld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmet9snRjMBIGJH_24X1M3fzcq_VrXM4pOm6zXOMdyXTSR1i9zxC6WZPsP6M_P2NDv_r_OxzH0ajCUntAEjTJ9TzmaEYF_XeJfgpa4C0tXomYiJjsv2lNmX_muyguuTIKz40H7KluEYo/s1600/JTitanicUnderworld.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ROMEO & JULIET as "narrative tour guide" through unfamiliar cinematic worlds:<br />
(L) Lower class "Romeo" and upper class "Juliet" in the historical / romance TITANIC (1997);<br />
(R) Lychan "Romeo" and vampire "Juliet" in the action thriller UNDERWORLD (2003)</td></tr>
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So, Cameron (we feel quite wisely) chose to pour the historical elements of his story into the familiar-to-the-audience "narrative jello mold" of ROMEO & JULIET - this because <i>every</i>one, even if they've never read Shakespeare's classic tragedy, or even seen any film rendition, knows the gist of that famous story: two lovers from warring families defiantly cross drawn lines in order to be together. So, ROMEO & JULIET becomes the audience tour guide for TITANIC. In a similar manner JUSTICE LEAGUE clevery uses the first book of J.R.R. Tolkein's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, as <i>its</i> "narrative tour guide" to bring together the contemporary "fellowship" of Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Flash (and later Superman, of course). The film's backstory is even right out of Tolkein.<br />
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JUSTICE LEAGUE opens with arguably the greatest sequence of any comic book movie ever. And the brilliance is in how simple and low budget it is. The world has been reeling for a couple of years since the sacrificial death of Superman. And the new film opens with amateur camera phone video footage taken by a couple of kids who happen to catch Superman in a candid moment after he's completed a herculean act of derring do. They ask him about the "S"-like symbol on his chest, and he informs them that on his home world it's not an "S", but is rather the symbol for hope. He then tells them how his father once said that <i>"Hope can be like your car keys - easy to lose, but if you fish around you can often find them again"</i>. And that becomes the theme of the new film - the world, as well as loner individuals like Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, Victor Stone, Arthur Curry and Barry Allen, is / are thrust into a dangerous adventure to find its / their lost hope. And the five titular individuals find it in the last place any of them expect - in league with others, ... in league with <i>each </i>other.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ciarán Hinds as the D.C. supervillain Steppenwolf</td></tr>
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The Tolkein element? As JUSTICE LEAGUE progresses we go back in time to a backstory where D.C.'s classic intergalactic villain Steppenwolf (in the film portrayed - with a little makeup and CGI assist - by Ciarán Hinds, best known from films like MUNICH, and as Gaius Julius Caesar in HBO's ROME) attempts to invade earth. And just as in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, where the lords of Elves, Dwarves and Men are each given Rings of Power, then have to band together to repel the invasion of the Dark Lord Sauron, so too (according to JUSTICE LEAGUE) did earth's Amazons (Wonder Woman's ancestors), Atlanteans (Aquaman's people) and humans (<i>oh, and if you look quickly you'll also notice some Olympian gods and members of the Green Lantern Corps in there too</i>) unite to defeat Steppenwolf. Rather than "Rings of Power" however, each of the three races are given one third of what comes to be known as the "mother box" - an all powerful device sought by Steppenwolf, which can fold, bend and manipulate time and physical matter. After Steppenwolf is repelled each race then hides their third of that "mother box" device presumably for all eternity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three long hidden pieces to a puzzle propels JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)</td></tr>
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Centuries later in the present day, when the existence of Amazons and Atlanteans have to humans become the stuff of myth, ... and where humans themselves are divided and at war with one another, Steppenwolf is revitalized and returns to the only world which ever defeated and drove him and his armies back across the cosmos. He in turn steals the "mother boxes" from the Amazons and Atlanteans, and as he goes after the box hidden eons ago by the race of man, a new "fellowship" must be forged by the representatives of those former allies; this new fellowship in the form of Wonder Woman and Aquaman representing their races, and Batman, Cyborg and the Flash representing humanity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHcrjpQmqN0l42mhMbpooy6qrnTJFhWo_QgoMIop-iNEv7LB5pC0ML9lRkf8FAut8wngfCLhYtwk6uIgX2QTWykJygX0S9iuw17rnPbZd7VXYhDLyWmy9q1qXGU4FzJDfht363E7NoK0/s1600/jsnyder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHcrjpQmqN0l42mhMbpooy6qrnTJFhWo_QgoMIop-iNEv7LB5pC0ML9lRkf8FAut8wngfCLhYtwk6uIgX2QTWykJygX0S9iuw17rnPbZd7VXYhDLyWmy9q1qXGU4FzJDfht363E7NoK0/s1600/jsnyder.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director Zack Snyder</td></tr>
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That’s a very nice classic structure to bring the diverse "metas" together. And we also very much enjoy the "finding three parts of a whole" structure which is the narrative engine which moves the film's 2nd Act along.<br />
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Over the years this has personally become one of our favorite 2nd Act "mechanisms" when done right. And two of the best ever examples of “done rights” are surely seen in Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966) - with each of the three main characters in possession of one part of the location / map to a Civil War gold box, and in Ray Harryhausen's THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973) - where there is a race between Sinbad and the villainous sorcerer Koura to find three hidden pieces of a golden tablet, which when all are brought together form a map to a long lost "Fountain of Destiny and Untold Riches").<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGPfzT2Hy4kaaIo3Z6w-pbyEyoB-VppVtdUD0wfzFtgwYU5TwDDnnCeG8tuwer9IRtzGxDxZp6P30N7ToQIXWmmujrpdTrJwslD2KCXObCMBUUNMTpN233mEH-emLTxhhDe7hfElIEmc/s1600/jGoodSinbad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGPfzT2Hy4kaaIo3Z6w-pbyEyoB-VppVtdUD0wfzFtgwYU5TwDDnnCeG8tuwer9IRtzGxDxZp6P30N7ToQIXWmmujrpdTrJwslD2KCXObCMBUUNMTpN233mEH-emLTxhhDe7hfElIEmc/s1600/jGoodSinbad.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three long hidden pieces to a puzzle propels THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY (1966)<br />
and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)</td></tr>
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In JUSTICE LEAGUE the “three pieces to one whole” 2nd Act mechanism is impressively realized in Steppenwolf’s efforts to bring the three "boxes" together to form the intergalactic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb which can allow beings from one end of the cosmos to pour, H.P. Lovecrat-like, into another. Very nice indeed! And as a simple exercise in well wrought script structure it's a masterpiece of efficient elegance - the spine / narrative central nervous system from which a great many themes and characters branch.<br />
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Film craft stuff outta the way, in the garden variety level of plain old fashioned enjoyment JUSTICE LEAGUE delivers as well. In spite of that aforementioned little bit of too much CGI, the narrative is fast and contains action set pieces which are slick, memorable and a helluva lotta fun. Danny Elfman’s musical score is a big orchestral welcome return wonder for the ears - he integrating elements of John Williams’ original SUPERMAN motifs, Hans Zimmer & Tom Holkenborg (aka “Junkie XL)’s MAN OF STEEL theme and electro-tribal Wonder Woman rift from BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, along with his own BATMAN theme from the Tim Burton films and a plethora of new material - our personal favorite of which is the magical / other-worldly / pseudo “math based” musical I.D. for The Flash.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZ4pD8FH-k3p-XmgxXNkDXuEgY7IZRv2Udx6HWHbCjc5xXtt2Gt0Y6axmQHdPp-Xknfp1TrLGvK5rWeEclCw2DnsYn10X2BnxGAxSjCY_zYlb2eDLhOab7cjHhmIWBT42hpWPEzvOP64/s1600/Jelfman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZ4pD8FH-k3p-XmgxXNkDXuEgY7IZRv2Udx6HWHbCjc5xXtt2Gt0Y6axmQHdPp-Xknfp1TrLGvK5rWeEclCw2DnsYn10X2BnxGAxSjCY_zYlb2eDLhOab7cjHhmIWBT42hpWPEzvOP64/s1600/Jelfman.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Composer Danny Elfman</td></tr>
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Character-wise the script (credited to Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon) doesn't skimp on giving the iconic superheroes and superhumans a few <i>very human</i> blemishes. We always loved how Patty Jenkins' WONDER WOMAN painted the title character as sincere, brave and compassionate while far from perfect. In that film Gal Gadot's Diana was also naive, a little too self-assured and even selfish when she comes to realize the corruptibility of mankind. In fact so much that she at first decides to leave mankind to blow itself to hell in war. And it's only the self-sacrifice of Steve Trevor which causes her to rethink things and ultimately act otherwise.<br />
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In JUSTICE LEAGUE she and Bruce Wayne philosophically go head-to-head when debating an action with the potential to be either positive or <i>extremely </i>negative in an AGE OF ULTRON sort of way! During these moments another brittle layer in Diana's emotional armor is exposed just as within Bruce there is exposed a hidden layer of seemingly unforgivable guilt.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8tuaAqq1BzNL1FYVWzUpo2f-fwV64OojfDmim-e7gEL30PJiAtj_2p45nYzni5bhPAZPUQPvH6NmMB6TMldtxvC-sOSkv2jViJybMX0tfOSKmy0lUy6W3aCVS5dATD4FuH2Vim96Z2vE/s1600/j5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8tuaAqq1BzNL1FYVWzUpo2f-fwV64OojfDmim-e7gEL30PJiAtj_2p45nYzni5bhPAZPUQPvH6NmMB6TMldtxvC-sOSkv2jViJybMX0tfOSKmy0lUy6W3aCVS5dATD4FuH2Vim96Z2vE/s1600/j5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amy Adams as Lois Lane</td></tr>
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Take heart though. Those aspects don't cloak entire portions of the film in any kind of <i>"Oh woe is me; behold mine angst!"</i> neuvo-Morrissey manner. It's pretty much relegated to one powerful scene - the results of which are in time worked out in a couple of later scenes. Just enough dramatic imperfections to make the characters identifiable and a little more interesting, but not enough to bog down the proceedings, take away from the lighter tone, and (<i>thank the Cinema Gods!</i>) not elongate the film's running time - which here comes in at a lean and mean 120 mins.<br />
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We mean, let's face it, as much as we want our money's worth (especially with IMAX prices these days) there's very little reason - outside of perhaps the <i>good one</i> of being a climactic entry in a series, or the <i>bad one</i> of having an inflated opinion of it's own importance - for a genre series entry to stretch into a 2 1/2 hr. (and sometimes near 3 hr.) running time. And yeah, we're talkin' you PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, TRANSFORMERS and even HARRY POTTER here. We love 'ya, but come on!<br />
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Gadot, Affleck and Cavill are good, ... in fact <i>damn </i>good! But the ribbon this time around goes to the new kids on the block. With very little time to be introduced to audiences, and to make an impression worthy of his character standing alongside D.C.'s "big three" heroes, stage actor Ray Fisher gives perhaps the least known D.C. icon here - Victor Stone (aka "Cyborg") - a tragic humanity which is palpable. It's a remarkable (and genuinely subtle) achievement within the context of a 2 hr. film with so much else and so much other techno fire and fury on it's plate. Ezra Miller you may remember from THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and TRAINWRECK. But here as Barry Allen (aka "The Flash") he hilariously steals every frame of every scene he's in with his own real life wiriness and hyped-to-the-max demeanor which totally befits a character with an extremely accelerated physiology / metabolism.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXP5cj-VjGm591uhD7hbpY6ON2QNhFm45lAh8l3me3Z8YryxYWeYCYoWaJiVMZpcPBZU0d15v5XXAOcYGes3sB8IvixluCNuTDNcPjZRYEqbbe353RoVAeUxa6RExVvezYgni-kXZhcA/s1600/jcyborg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXP5cj-VjGm591uhD7hbpY6ON2QNhFm45lAh8l3me3Z8YryxYWeYCYoWaJiVMZpcPBZU0d15v5XXAOcYGes3sB8IvixluCNuTDNcPjZRYEqbbe353RoVAeUxa6RExVvezYgni-kXZhcA/s1600/jcyborg.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ray Fisher as Victor Stone (aka "Cyborg")</td></tr>
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Certainly the most stylistically removed from the original depiction in the comic books is Jason Mamoa as Arthur Curry (aka "Aquaman") - who in JUSTICE LEAGUE is just a straight-up bad-ass. By the way, did you know that Mamoa was a marine biology major in college? Rather fitting, huh? Having recently completed filming late last year, his standalone AQUAMAN film (directed by INSIDIOUS and FURIOUS 7's James Wan) is slated for release in December 2018, and it has already begun generating extremely positive buzz within the industry based upon viewings of its presently-in-the-editing-bay footage.<br />
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All in all JUSTICE LEAGUE is what anyone interested in not just a comic book adaptation, but a damn good night at the movies (or in front of the TV, sound cranked up, with the family) could want. Lots of action, characters with whom you fall in love, a little pathos, some humor, restored hope, ... <i>and a whole lotta kicking of bad guy ass!</i> In an odd way, in spite of its script's structural indeptedness to THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, every time we re-view it now we come away with it reminding us of kinda / sorta more of the same feeling we have after re-watching Aldrich's THE DIRTY DOZEN - y'know, only without having most of the characters killed off at the end!<i> </i>Like we said, JUSTICE LEAGUE is considerably lighter than that.<i> </i>Ultimately though, taking someone's mind and childlike soul back to memories of enjoying THE DIRTY DOZEN, ... we mean, hey, that's not such bad filmic company to be in, is it?<br />
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<i> Why </i>does JUSTICE LEAGUE remind us of that World War II classic?<br />
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Hell if we know. That's just the way things process within our own personal mental mesh. And, while that may not be good enough for some, it's damn well more than enough for us. Because, just as that rag tag group of World War II screw-ups learned, so does a <i>new </i>rag tag group of meta-humans come to discover the greatest truth in all of adventure movie cinema ...<br />
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<i>You can't save the world alone.</i><br />
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After such an enjoyable cinematic ride, why would you ever want 'em too?<br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-85320995807547181342017-12-27T05:59:00.000-05:002019-04-05T14:11:38.063-04:00ON THE CONTRARY: "THE DARK TOWER" (2017) IS REALLY A DAMNED GOOD FILM! HERE'S WHY ... - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #e69138;">THE DARK TOWER (2017)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. - Nikolaj Arcel</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim Jackie Earle Haley, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Katheryn Winnick</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Screenplay - Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Based on THE DARK TOWER novels </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">by Stephen King</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Music - Tom Holkenborg</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dir. of Photograpy </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">- Rasmus Videbaek</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Edited by - Alan Edward Bell, </span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dan Zimmerman</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Running Time: 95 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Release: 7/28/17</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Dist.: Columbia / Sony </span><br />
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<span style="color: #f6b26b;">GullCottage rating</span><br />
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VAULTED TREASURES: MOVIES AND MORE YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT, YOU FORGOT, ... OR FORGOT TO LOVE THE FIRST TIME AROUND. IT'S OKAY, WE'LL FORGIVE YOU!</div>
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And speaking of "forgive", forgive <i>me</i> if this sounds a tad arrogant. It isn't, <i>I swear!</i> It's more a matter of <i>"I just really don't care!"</i>. Now, "Is that any better?" you may ask. Hell yeah, it is! Arrogance is self-aggrandizingly insufferable. <i>"I don't care"</i> simply means one's opinion concerning what one likes and dislikes is based upon one's own decision making process and / or (for whatever random reasons in that infinitesimal universe) one's predilections, tastes and what fires / triggers one's own imagination regardless of the tastes, predilections et al of everyone else out there, ... or even Rotten Tomatoes' (they themselves admit) unscientific aggregate scoring process. That<i> </i>kind of positive "I don't care" mentality (as opposed to the negative and often self destructive kind) is not only "okay", I've always thought it <i>downright necessary</i>.<br />
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What many people just can't seem to fathom however is that this doesn't mean my take is "right" while someone else's is "wrong", ... <i>or vice versa</i>. It just means (for whatever reason) my take is MY take, and I enjoy that take just as another should enjoy THEIRS without caring what I think or feel about it, or why. That said, this isn't any kind of "review" or "apology" or "debate bait" concerning summer 2017's film adaptation of THE DARK TOWER as directed by Nikolaj Arcel and based upon the series of novels by Stephen King. As I said, I really don't care whether you liked it or not, ... which isn't the same as <i>"I don't care that you have an opinion"</i>. It's important and necessary that you <i>do</i>. Now, as long as we're all clear and cool on that ...<br />
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I picked up THE DARK TOWER on Blu-ray the other day, and did a rewatch earlier tonight. Twas the night after Christmas, and all through the house, Craig had been so exhausted from the previous days activities he fell asleep on the couch. <i>Hey, that rhymes! </i>He awoke, popped the Blu into the player, cranked the sound (an awesome 5:1 mix) and actually liked it <i>even <u>more</u></i> now than he did when he saw it theatrically - which is saying something because he really dug it back then too. Now, for those who say, <i>"It isn't Stephen King's DARK TOWER books!"</i>, well, yeah, no sh*t Sherlock! Oh, and this part <i>is</i> a little arrogant - fair warning. The first DARK TOWER novel "The Gunslinger" (which King envisioned as a cross between Tolkein's LORD OF THE RINGS stories and Leone's "Dollars" trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns) was published in 1982 before some of you out there reading this were even born. So, re-phrasing Danny Glover in LETHAL WEAPON,<i> "I was familiar with THE DARK TOWER before (some of) you were even an itch in your Daddy's pants"</i>. Always loved that line.<br />
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At any rate, the film was never intended by Stephen King, producer Ron Howard, producer / screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and dir. Arcel as a literal adaptation. Even if it had been blessed with a $400 + million budget (which it wasn't - it was produced for a much more reasonable $60 million, which is considered a pittance by today's standards) it would have still been impossible as there are to date nine novels in THE DARK TOWER series (well, technically eight novels, a short story and a few comic books) which collectively consist of nearly 5,000 pages of numerous characters, timelines, subplots and more. No, the intent of all involved in this film (<i>yes, King included!</i>) was to fashion an all new "introductory story" - actually a sequel of sorts for "those who came in late" - which takes the audience from contemporary New York to parallel "Midworld" then back again, and to along the way integrate elements of the novels. Then in various later TV mini-series to go back and examine / focus / turn the microscope on those "integrated elements" by then literally adapting the individual books utilizing the aforementioned TV mini-series (or limited series) format so popular today with outlets such as Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access and others - these outlets more conducive to the kind of long form, multi-location / multi-era / multi-character storytelling one tends to find in a series of such detailed novels. Just so you know, the plan was to do that rather than vainly attempt to trim and cram nine books into a single film or even a film trilogy. That said ...<br />
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Even critics who don't care for this introductory DARK TOWER filmic chapter acknowledge that Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey and young Tom Taylor are great as (respectively) "Roland - The Gunslinger", "Walter - The Man In Black", and "Jake - The Pure Shine". And if those who can't get around the fact that <i>"this and this and this wasn't in the movie"</i> can have a little patience, wait for those later TV incarnations, and get passed years of preconceived notions which arguably <i>no</i> film could realize, they'll discover more than a few precious cinematic gems in director Arcel's (let's call it) "extrapolation" of King's legendary multi-dimensional adventure yarn.<br />
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The growing father / son relationship between Roland and Jake is particularly engaging, extremely touching and (yes, while it may sound weird in the context of discussing a fantasy story) very real. Tom Holkenborg's epic orchestral score is a magnificently heroic wonder for the ears and the heart. The cinematography and production design are "old-school" painterly gorgeous. And the special FX are impressive (especially the virtual landscapes of "Midworld") without being distracting. For those more taken by action, the battle sequences are sufficiently bad-assed in both staging and execution. And Elba truly emerges as a towering new brand of mythic action hero.<br />
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For those familiar with King and the powerful subtext which runs through the thematic central nervous system of soooo many of his stories - the one wherein young people who are abused, bullied, and / or who lose parents through divorce, death, abandonment and more, then respond, rebel and fight back (sometimes in a positive manner / sometimes in a negative one) against a cruel adult society ... . Well, yeah, you'll notice that recurring "save the children" motif is just as powerfully at the core of this film every bit as much as it is the narrative and character fulcrum of CHRISTINE, FIRESTARTER, THE BODY (aka STAND BY ME), IT, CARRIE, CUJO, CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF (aka SILVER BULLET), THE TALISMAN, THE SHINING (along with it's recent sequel novel DOCTOR SLEEP) and others.<br />
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Well, let's maybe say it's at least there for those who can see around the fact that their favorite scene from THE DARK TOWER books maybe didn't make it into the narrative cut of this introductory chapter. Me personally, I'll take the subtext, characters and thematics (as that's what truly makes King "King") over the monsters and interdimensional bells and whistles any day of the week, ... as much as I DO happen to love all of those bells and whistles in and of themselves. At any rate ...<br />
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Plans are still on for the TV continuation, and Elba and Taylor are at present slated to reprise their roles. That could change of course depending upon how long, and under what circumstances, the TV incarnation takes to get into gear. And while McConaughey didn't commit beforehand to return as The Man In Black (time and contractual matters will later determine such), he <i>was</i> mentioned as a favored candidate by some to portray "Randall Flagg" (an earlier physical representation of the "Man In Black" character) in the still-in-development big screen version of King's THE STAND.<br />
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Oh, and in keeping with the Leone western parallels, McConaughey's character is a deliberate (albeit satanic) knock-off of Lee Van Cleef in opposition to Elba's "Eastwood / Man With No Name" - right down to both McConaughey and Van Cleef always being decked out from head to toe in black. For those familiar with King's 1984 "medieval" fantasy novel THE EYES OF THE DRAGON, you'll recall that "Flagg" is the central villain of that one too. And in keeping with the more Joseph Campbell-like mythic crossover elements within THE DARK TOWER (hints of which also even pop up in Stephen King and Peter Straub's novel THE TALISMAN, by the way), we also know that the Gunslinger's pistols are fashioned from the metal of Arthur's Excalibur sword. Yeah, there's a lot of inter-connectedness going on here.<br />
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Speaking of such - there's a prize of serious "Grade A" braggin' rights to anyone who catches the many Stephen King Easter Eggs (visual references to CHRISTINE, CUJO, THE SHINING, IT, 1408 and more) scattered throughout THE DARK TOWER film.<br />
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At any rate for these reasons <i>and more</i> THE DARK TOWER is a film which gets better, and damned more impressively deep, with each viewing. And, as stated at the opening of this piece, I really don't care what you say, ... though I'll respect it. But then that's how it should always be anyway, right?<br />
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Think I'll do yet another early A.M. viewing. In the meantime ...<br />
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<i>"Never forget the Face of Your Fathers". </i>And ...<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-32619483113642850762017-04-24T17:24:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:11:55.735-04:00REFLECTIONS ON MANHOOD. LADIES, CHECK OUT 10 MOVIES THAT MAKE YOUR MAN CRY - by CEJ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">"Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence and manhood, </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">there should be sharp lines drawn with tests, deaths, feats, rights, </span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;"><i>stories, songs, and judgments"</i> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;"> - Jim Morrison</span></div>
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One of those classic "Movies That Make Men Cry", STAND BY ME, just started up after the Sunday evening news. And, while I planned on turning in at a decent hour tonight, I'm now here for the duration, ... and off on another one of these damned tangents too because, even if you own STAND BY ME, and have watched it a million times, if you're a guy you just can't <i>not </i>watch it again. Kind of like devout folks who can't bring themselves to turn off a movie about Jesus during Easter weekend. STAND BY ME is one that just gets us all.<br />
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Something of a thematically revolutionary film when it opened in the summer of 1986, Rob Reiner's coming-of-age film adaptation of Stephen King's 1982 novella "The Body" arrived at the tail end of an intriguing year at the movies. It was the year IRON EAGLE, TOP GUN, HIGHLANDER, COBRA, RAW DEAL, BAND OF THE HAND, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON, LET'S GET HARRY and other testosterone-fueled films (all of which, with the exception of maybe HIGHLANDER, I have to admit I sill enjoy) were kinda / sorta telling young guys what real crotch-scratching, ass-slapping, butt-kicking, hairy-chested manhood was all about. But by '86 there was also a growing filmic blowback to some of this.<br />
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It was still the era of the "ass kicker action hero" of MISSING IN ACTION, RAMBO and (right around the corner) COMMANDO and PREDATOR and more to come. And the wave of "smart guy heroes of the 90s", in films like JURASSIC PARK, ID4, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE FUGITIVE and others, was still a ways off.<br />
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But there seemed to be a fulcrum shift going on in '86 with a handful of "alternately themed guy-centric" releases from studios. With titles like LUCAS, THE BOY WHO COULD FLY, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, SPACECAMP, and even Walter Hill's CROSSROADS and Wes Craven's DEADLY FRIEND, there was a (for lack of a better term) flip-side to Mr. John Q Ass-Kicker going on - with films featuring somewhat "sensitive young guy" protagonists. <i>Grown</i> men weren't exactly yet allowed to show the more mental and emotional side, but mainstream Hollywood <i>was </i>willing to ease into it gently by slowly permitting younger versions of guys on screen to, little by little, eschew the more grab-ass nature of PORKY's-type fare in favor of allowing more intellectual and emotional characterizations to begin seeping through the cracks of commercial filmdom.<br />
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The only problem with many of the "young guy" depictions of the day? Well, as refreshing as they were, many of them were also kind of cloying and wimpy. Yeah, the characters of Ferris, and Eugene from CROSSROADS, maybe had a <i>little </i>edge to them, but the others were still very much the guys who, as much as you respected and loved them up there on the screen, when the lights came up they were still gonna be the last ones chosen for the kickball team, and the losers with no dates for the school dance. Sorry, but that's just kind of how it was. Don't get pissed at the messenger here. I'm just sayin'. To me STAND BY ME on the other hand was the breakthrough film that finally "got it right".<br />
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At the climax of that one, when Will Wheaton stands up for himself and his friends (his three put-upon surrogate brothers if you will) , and draws down on psychotic knife-wielding bully Kiefer Sutherland, <i>this </i>was the childhood "coming of age" drama I could personally relate to, as it reminded me of a life-changing showdown with a psychotic-assed bully named Nicholas (he and his brother) in a housing project our family lived in many years ago. And as such STAND BY ME seemed to be the springboard which finally allowed the "smart guy" hero to, not just come of age, but to grow up and command a certain degree of respect.<br />
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For better and worse film has always been a mirror reflection, an attendant adjunct, of / to the society in which the film is made. And around the time of STAND BY ME a new breed of (call 'em) "X-Men" were evolving into popular culture, and by extension popular cinema. And this evolving breed came to possess the "super power?" of psychological introspection (without tipping over into Woody Allen-like nebbishness), and the ability to feel pain, remorse, suffering, rejection and regret, while also eventually whupping the bad guy, getting the girl, gaining respect and even saving the day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjidHyKqQZo1Vqu-_Ub8S8JSSh_4BbhtEtWnLfkFzcajXIaUEe8-dXUxuTHy0NUDC3BTnfW17jSJ09iuczwkSZDeNkQTcIARkVEOVjv2poPsZ2148sYokI2jf10kHb5xMmx_V-EIFtTHA/s1600/LucasLogan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjidHyKqQZo1Vqu-_Ub8S8JSSh_4BbhtEtWnLfkFzcajXIaUEe8-dXUxuTHy0NUDC3BTnfW17jSJ09iuczwkSZDeNkQTcIARkVEOVjv2poPsZ2148sYokI2jf10kHb5xMmx_V-EIFtTHA/s1600/LucasLogan.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">30 year heroic evolution from LUCAS (1986) to LOGAN (2017)</td></tr>
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Over the next twenty years three overlapping generations of men would watch this evolution unfurl on screen, and they'd relate to it. And at times they'd relate to it <i>so much </i>in reminiscence to their own pasts it would break their hearts and bring tears to their eyes. Not that many of you dear ladies would ever know about it. But it was a long transitionary road from the Teflon coldness of Stallone's COBRA to the internally tortured hero that is Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. Your guy totally "got it" and still "gets it" though. And watching this stuff on screen over the last few decades has torn him up inside because, larger than life aspects notwithstanding, it's reminded him at times of painful episodes from his own maybe "<i>not </i>larger than" life, ... though he probably hasn't allowed you to see or even know about any of this. But that's always been something of the norm between men and women, hasn't it? Now ...<br />
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This bit is going to sound sexist to some, <i>but I promise you it actually isn't</i>. In fact I'm certain many women agree. Most women don't know shit about men, ... though they believe they do. No, they absolutely <i>know </i>that they do. As an example, I live in a South Philly neighborhood where women outnumber men almost 2 to 1. Good 'ol fashioned matriarchal moms and grandmoms of every ethnic and religious diversity. Young single mothers, married ladies, gentlewomen, chicks, broads, everyone. Just like your neighborhood I'd imagine.<br />
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And the one thing they all (<i><u>warning</u>: a blanket statement coming here - but the generalization is to make a point; and you'll get it, and it'll make sense, ... it really will!</i>) seem to have in common is a predilection for letting you know how you should be living your life. This runs the gamut from how to find the "right woman", to the best way to prune your trees or even walk your dog. And as such every now and then I've found it necessary to politely but firmly remind one or more, when they tend to unknowingly cross that "good neighbor" line, and get a little <i>too </i>comfortable offering sincere (if irritating) "life hacks", that a) <i>"I realize you're a woman, which means you think you know everything"</i>, and b) if they're the older matriarchs, <i>"... I also realize that as an older woman you think you have a right to <u>say</u> anything"</i>, but c) "<i>... You don't, and you don't"</i>. <br />
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Now, I honestly believe this benign, well-meaning, encroachment is because many women - be it at work, school, the supermarket checkout line, bus stop or wherever, have a tendency to treat, or at least relate to, other men in the same way they treat and relate to the men in their own personal lives - be they brothers, sons, students, boyfriends, husbands, etc. Okay, blanket generalization now over.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">"Bones heal, pain is temporary, ... </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">... And chicks dig scars" </span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;"><i> </i>- Evel Knievel</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRblX9Tu6qIEqiHPWK33ZCbePMDIdElcwByQbHbgS1-epSVRJcVMY-WNgPgvHkTgGa4ynpNamLY1lVNk7VhHhJcvANzj5a3dIovAV2qUh6YLAbfm3liWtbx9puEND7XlO8NiMHNWxA_vw/s1600/HeShe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRblX9Tu6qIEqiHPWK33ZCbePMDIdElcwByQbHbgS1-epSVRJcVMY-WNgPgvHkTgGa4ynpNamLY1lVNk7VhHhJcvANzj5a3dIovAV2qUh6YLAbfm3liWtbx9puEND7XlO8NiMHNWxA_vw/s1600/HeShe.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Equal time to "the guy's point of view" in the underrated HE SAID, SHE SAID (1991) <br />
from the husband / wife directing team of Ken Kwapis & Marisa Silver</td></tr>
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Now, many women will say,<i> "Well, guys don't know shit about women either; and that's for damn sure!"</i>. And yeah, you're absolutely right! The big difference however is that the vast majority of men realize and admit this, and tend to chalk it up in that, <i>"Oh, well, some things (and people) in this universe are just unfathomnable"</i> column. In fact there's a wonderfully accurate publication I've seen in novelty shops (and even some bookstores) with thousands of pages; the title of which is WHAT MEN KNOW ABOUT WOMEN. <i>And every page is blank</i>. Brilliant! But this is absolutely not intended to be one of those old-as-the-hills-and-twice-as-grey, and "so old it farts dust" <i>He Said / She Said</i> battle of the sexes things. They're a waste of time and energy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6p18qHUr1b-wK_6KLkdcK11Whfvs81CXXXkp0ARuqNQ-HnrLoQh7ToDLGHCPyX8wB50oiH_P2nABKUSTIpGiRjN3oop2aQvLYv-tuDIidb6nawj9p0qBQolsiothHX8tpy0B8nHZQX0/s1600/FailLaunch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6p18qHUr1b-wK_6KLkdcK11Whfvs81CXXXkp0ARuqNQ-HnrLoQh7ToDLGHCPyX8wB50oiH_P2nABKUSTIpGiRjN3oop2aQvLYv-tuDIidb6nawj9p0qBQolsiothHX8tpy0B8nHZQX0/s1600/FailLaunch.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arrested developmentals Demo (Bradley Cooper) and Tripp (Matthew McConaughey)<br />
in the more "guy-centric" rom-com FAILURE TO LAUNCH (2006)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Uh, uh! The point with this one is to try to build a little bit of a bridge between the genders. And I think one of the best ways to do that is to open up one of the doors to the proverbial "private room" which we all have, and which we generally tend to not allow others to peek into. For so many of us guys I believe many women would be surprised to realize that the room (akin to what Matthew McConaughey's father, Terry Bradshaw, calls his "Naked Room" in the guy-centric romantic comedy FAILURE TO LAUNCH) isn't filled with porn, but rather with movies which make us cry like little-assed kids.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcP1SVfU_MViUEJVGf9XwcV8gxFLKYsI2RWSkxAdTlio3rLrvVknWhOOQN6QgVW7LSKte22Rz8bOu-7nmL7YwnDLimzTFKvniHE31EyaVSJLLM1U0avGezmyZwqWre48OL9zumULdWyQ/s1600/CASABLANCA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcP1SVfU_MViUEJVGf9XwcV8gxFLKYsI2RWSkxAdTlio3rLrvVknWhOOQN6QgVW7LSKte22Rz8bOu-7nmL7YwnDLimzTFKvniHE31EyaVSJLLM1U0avGezmyZwqWre48OL9zumULdWyQ/s1600/CASABLANCA.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why we drink. Why we love. Why we long for what we can't have. Why we make war. <br />
Why we keep it all bottled up inside. CASABLANCA (1942) - the ultimate men's "secret room" movie.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Years ago in a restaurant, I waited on a group of about 20 female teachers in town for a convention. And when they asked my opinion on why men tend to do certain things, ... as well as why we <i>don't</i> do certain things, my response was to give them a key to the "private room" by saying, <i>"Read Hemingway's short story 'The Three-Day Blow', and rewatch CASABLANCA, ... and really pay attention. Everything you ever need to know about men is summed up perfectly in those two"</i>. As teachers they appreciated the Hemingway "homework assignment" as much as they were all also surprised that none of them had ever read that particular short story. I wish at the time I'd also mentioned STAND BY ME and / or Stephen King's novella "The Body" on which it was based, because that's another spot-on "what makes us guys tick" piece which has it down pat. So, if any of those teachers are reading this, here's what we DIDN'T get into that night ...<br />
<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/" target="_blank">FIELD OF DREAMS</a></u></b> (1989)<br />
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Arguably always and forever at the pinnacle of that list of "Movies That Make Your Man Cry" is Phil Alden Robinson's story about the never-ending love / hate relationship between fathers and sons, ... but which cleverly masquerades as a baseball movie. Catch your fella in an extremely honest mindset one evening (or get his ass drunk), and you'll be surprised to learn he's got huge segments of dialog from this movie memorized the way religious scholars know and can rattle off sacred ancient text. He does "Dueling FIELD OF DREAMS" lines with other guys when you're not around, you know.<br />
<br />
<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110322/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">LEGENDS OF THE FALL</a></u></b> (1994) and <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105265/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT</a></u></b> (1992)<br />
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Hey, brothers are freakin' crazy. It's a weird relationship, but an incredibly important one to every man, ... even if (<i>especially </i>if) he claims to absolutely hate his brother. So realize that, if your significant other has a brother or brothers, then these two films (if he's seen them) eat him up alive on the inside, as they perfectly capture the primitive <i>"I'll hate my brother all I want, but if you or anyone else ever harms a hair on his head, I'll burn down the whole world to get to you"</i> link between male sibs which all brothers just innately understand at birth. It's an unspoken (often unrealized as even existing until it explodes to life) ironic and lovingly psychotic <i>"blood is thicker than water"</i> inborn oath of the marrow which will damn well give Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills character in TAKEN a recurring case of fearful diarrhetic shits if he ever became the obsessive object of a brother bent on vengeance. Yeah, that's one <i>loooong</i> sentence there. But it's the short version of what'll happen if you ever wrong a man's brother. Fair warning has been given.<br />
<br />
Oh, and along those same thematic lines - two other films which perfectly nail that "certain something" about brothers? Honorable cinematic shout-outs to (believe it or not!!!) Marvel's THOR and the ending of the original RED DAWN - where the two brothers decide to die together at the playground were they used to go to as children. Yeah, man! We still get misty at that ending. And the whole Thor / Loki thing perfectly sums up the love / hate / rivalry / protection aspect we were talking about. This theme is a very trenchant one to men even if it's presented in a somewhat fanciful and larger than life manner, which, of course, THOR and RED DAWN certainly do. As for RED DAWN, say what you will about the rest of the film, but that ending is one of the truest depictions of brothers you'll ever see. Go figure, huh?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #ffd966;">"... The American ideal of masculinity. This ideal has created cowboys and indians,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><i>good guys and bad guys, punks and studs, tough guys and softies, butch and faggot, </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><i>black and white.</i></span><i style="color: #ffd966;">It is an ideal so paralytically infantile that it is virtually forbidden </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="color: #ffd966;">- an unpatriotic act - </i><i style="color: #ffd966;">that the American boy evolve into the complexity of manhood."</i><span style="color: #ffd966;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"> - James Baldwin </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><br /></span></div>
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* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105211/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">RADIO FLYER</a></u></b> (1992)<br />
<br />
Sorry, can't spend too long on this one because, based on David Mickey Evans' (then) unpublished novel "The King Of Pacoima", RADIO FLYER's an emotional killer. Just say the title of this film to your fella, and sit for half a minute. If he's seen it, he'll get really <i>really </i>quiet. Last year we did a podcast show with RADIO FLYER writer / THE SANDLOT writer - director Evans. And my co-host, Jim Delaney, recalled how every night, while working as a theater usher when this film opened, he'd see men of every ethnicity and economic strata, exiting the theater and making a beeline straight for the men's room while wiping their eyes. Powerful stuff!<br />
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<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108002/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">RUDY</a></u></b> (1993) and <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">HOOSIERS</a></u> </b>(1986)<br />
<br />
Same writer (Angelo Pizzo), director (David Anspaugh), and composer (Jerry Goldsmith) on both films. On every list of "All Time Greatest Sports Films" these two frequently come in at the very top. But they're actually less about sports and more about family, and about believing in yourself when no one else does. Oh, they're also very much about f**king up your past, and about grabbing a second chance to get your shit together and make things right when the opportunity presents itself. And hey, what man can't relate to that?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnt06fL_QVVclLrOUiTVEMmqRiZJGBRMv5aen_bLHL3Cm6kjQdfDhYgGktMZ2BO5JILITqJtnfO5bNAM-ggc3UwQ2pIAgHfZW9GPYTh-cUvZUMIFV_xGnqnHlW2MW3pQUxetpVik7gO2E/s1600/HOOSrudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnt06fL_QVVclLrOUiTVEMmqRiZJGBRMv5aen_bLHL3Cm6kjQdfDhYgGktMZ2BO5JILITqJtnfO5bNAM-ggc3UwQ2pIAgHfZW9GPYTh-cUvZUMIFV_xGnqnHlW2MW3pQUxetpVik7gO2E/s1600/HOOSrudy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L) Gene Hackman & Steve Hollar - HOOSIERS (1986),<br />
(R) Sean Astin & Charles S. Dutton - RUDY (1993)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124315/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">THE CIDER HOUSE RULES</a></u></b> (1999)<br />
<br />
Essentially John Irving's New England update / combo of Homer's "Iliad" and Dickens' "Oliver Twist", every guy, regardless of how cool, how suave, how in-power / in-control and sophisticated he may be, or how "together" he may appear to have things, totally <i>gets </i>the CIDER HOUSE themes of stumbling through life in order to find yourself; and that yin and yang between needing to break away from your parents, and never wanting to stop having parents. Hard to watch this one and not get choked up, especially when Michael Caine (as Homer's surrogate father, Dr. Larch) dies while Homer's away. Yeah, there's a lot more of that FIELD OF DREAMS "Dad stuff" going on here.<br />
<br />
And oh, if we just gave away a plot spoiler, ... <i>screw you!</i> I mean, c'mon, this movie's been around for 18 years, ... and Irving's novel for 32. And if you haven't seen one or read the other by now, then it's not our responsibility to tip-toe around things. Don't worry though, there are still plenty of ripe narrative apples we haven't touched upon in what very well may be one of the most perfect tragio-comedies (not unlike life itself) ever made. Particular kudos to Caine's Oscar winning performance (one of the greatest of his illustrious career), Irving's Oscar winning screenplay adaptation of his own novel (which does the impossible in trimming things down while retaining the emotional guts of the book), and Rachel Portman's heartrendingly lyrical (and now legendary) Oscar nominated music score. A class act every which way. And deserving of every tear it draws from every man in the audience. <br />
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<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">APOLLO 13</a></u></b> (1995) and <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/?ref_=nv_sr_4" target="_blank">INDEPENDENCE DAY</a></u></b> (1996)<br />
<br />
<i>WHAT!?!?</i> Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. But, before you make that face, hear me out. I wouldn't necessarily say these two movies "bring tears to guys eyes", but each has <i>one </i>key sequence where I've heard many guys say, with a lump in their throats, <i>"Yeah, I totally GET that"</i>. The sense of agonizing eternal longing in APOLLO 13 when Tom Hanks glances down at the lunar surface through the window of the Command Module, and he finally admits with his voice nearly cracking, <i>"We've lost the moon, gentlemen"</i>. And in ID4, just after Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum blast into space aboard the captured alien craft, and Smith, who was turned down multiple times for NASA astronaut training, gazes out the window and, pretty much whispering to himself, says <i>"I've dreamed about this my entire life"</i>.<br />
<br />
Men are dreamers. From childhood we want to do great things in life. It's all we ever think about while growing up (<i>yes, much more than that other thing you gals are so fond of referencing!</i>). It's part and parcel of our psychological, emotional and spiritual DNA. The Hanks and Smith characters in these two films represent finally reaching the threshold of one's lifelong desire - and seeing one heartbreakingly dashed, and the other heartliftingly realized. These are two great emotional sequences to which <i>every </i>guy relates.<br />
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<br />
And, of course, that which started this whole thing ...<br />
<br />
* <b><u><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">STAND BY ME</a></u></b> (1986)<br />
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<br />
Maybe a handful of novelists throughout history have simultaneously oh-so-accurately / oh-so-precisely captured <i>to the proverbial "t"</i> that combination of larger-than-life magic and equally deep-seeded dark emotional trauma that is childhood. And I'm talking childhood remembered <i>accurately</i>, and not necessarily as we'd have maybe wished it had been. We may have all wanted THE BRADY BUNCH, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, COSBY SHOW, or hell, even THE MUNSTERS or THE ADDAMS FAMILY. But the more lucky ones among us, even though there may have been a great deal of love, also grew up in that which was considerably more messy, confusing, and at times downright more painful than anything depicted in those renditions of family. I'd say some of the best writers at accurately capturing both the light and the deep dark of childhood have been Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, John Irving and J.K. Rowling. But the Heavyweight Championship Belt goes to Mr. Stephen King.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbn3ROoB4hlHa8-4NhYy1mQJ-DWimKOeUabPIJEvg2MJ8utvxWhZKJzFulEUvDv-SqKVc7lLQ9xRF_DKazJm6e3eDQyfXipePp8CaSKJSYQ0Tefg6pxLPTAUReEzAelP679Um38hvD8go/s1600/IT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbn3ROoB4hlHa8-4NhYy1mQJ-DWimKOeUabPIJEvg2MJ8utvxWhZKJzFulEUvDv-SqKVc7lLQ9xRF_DKazJm6e3eDQyfXipePp8CaSKJSYQ0Tefg6pxLPTAUReEzAelP679Um38hvD8go/s1600/IT.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The young heroes of Stephen King's IT (1990 TV miniseries)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Stephen King is a great big f**king liar, because he often pretends his stories are about one thing when they're really about something else - usually those everyday dysfunctional family / dysfunctional society things of which we're all so familiar and to which we all can relate. Below the surface of THE SHINING is a more-terrifying-than-the-ghosts story about alcoholism and physical abuse. DELORES CLAIBORNE covers some of that same territory too. CARRIE is about bullying and Columbine-style school violence, ... and it <i>was so</i> long before that sort of thing was acknowledged as even existing by the mainstream news. IT is about missing children, sexual abuse, homophobia, racism, and how these evils grow when normally decent people "look the other way" and "just want to mind their own business, and not get involved". SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (sorry, the original novella's title is too damned long!) is about spending our lives attempting to escape the prison we've constructed around ourselves. And STAND BY ME (as mentioned earlier based on the novella "The Body") is, for all intents and purposes "Hemingway remembering what it was like to be a 12 year boy".<br />
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I remember first reading "The Body" (one of the four novellas in King's 1982 collection DIFFERENT SEASONS - which also included SHAWSHANK and APT PUPIL) and, no b.s., crying my eyes the hell out. And it wasn't (to borrow a hilariously un-P.C. phrase from comedian Dave Attell) one of those <i>"Fat girl 'We're all outta ice cream' kinda crying jags"</i>. It was one of those "silently wailing from the deepest regions of your gut" experiences, where you felt years of <i>every</i>thing (including shit you swore as an adult had no more significance or power in your life) regurgitating from the belly, into your heart, then finding escape through the eyes - in this case those (rain spattered) windows of the soul.<br />
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I remember having to kinda keep to myself for a few days after reading "The Body" because (and this is where the power of those "stories that make men cry" comes from) I was still in the liberating slipstream of that catharsis of <i>"Jeez, all these years I thought I was the only one who ever went through that or felt that way!". </i>When I later saw the film version, STAND BY ME, I was wise enough to first see it opening weekend <i>alone</i>. Y'know, just in case. And that was the right move. Hey, call me an emotional pu**y on this one, but I believe most men, same as I, personally knew <i>EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE FOUR GUYS</i> from STAND BY ME while growing up. They were our closest friends. And more than a few of us were Gordy. We just lived in towns and cities other than Stephen King's fictional Castle Rock is all. And we had different names. Other than that we were all exactly the same as Gordy, Chris, Teddy and Verne. Their pain was ours. Their victories too. And the fact that someone else felt the same things we did, and came out winners in the end, still to this day jacks us all the righteous f**k up inside, ... but in the very best of ways.<br />
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We'd be much obliged if you'd understand that, dear ladies. It's not something we can always (nor should we) talk about. But the fact that we want, or may need, to keep it to ourselves doesn't mean we don't feel it, or that you aren't important enough to us to share it with you. There are some things which are just <i>YOURS</i>, and which must be treated sacredly as such. And to expose them to someone else, even someone close, is akin to exposing a cherished, preserved and priceless heirloom found in a hermetically sealed temple, to the modern air, then watching as it suddenly oxidizes and decays. Some things we just can't do. <br />
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Make no bones about it, guys can be complex too; just a different <i>kind </i>of complex than you, ladies. Get to know the real us. Maybe read the Hemingway short story, maybe see CASABLANCA again. And maybe even catch a few of the films on this list. And, just like I reminded the teacher conventioneers that night, <i>really pay attention</i>. You just may end up surprised at what you see, ... which actually was always already there the entire time. Anyway ...<br />
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STAND BY ME just ended, and one of those "Bosley Hair Restoration For Men" mini info-mercials just came on. <i>WTF!!!</i><br />
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We're just a <i>bit </i>more interesting than that. I promise 'ya.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">"But men are men; ...</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #ffd966;">... The best sometimes forget"</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;"><i> </i>- William Shakespeare</span></div>
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CEJ<br />
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<br />Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-22659708444491870942017-03-29T17:47:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:12:13.988-04:00BRUNDLEFLY, "FUZZ", ... AND THE CREATIVELY DANGEROUS ART OF THE ADAPTATION - by CEJ<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">FUZZ (1972) </span></span> </h2>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;">Dir. - Richard A. Colla</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Cast: Burt Reynolds, </span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Rachel Welch, Jack Weston, </span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Tom Skerritt, Yul Brynner</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Screenplay - Evan Hunter </span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">From "Ed McBain"'s novel</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Music - Dave Grusin</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Dir. of Photography - Jacques Marquette</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Edited by - Robert L. Kimble</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Running Time: 92 mins.</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Release: 7/14/72</span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">Dist.: United Artists</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ffd966;">GullCottage rating </span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">(***1/2 on a scale of 1 - 5)</span><br />
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It's amazing how a "nothing" film can ... what? <i>"Take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?"</i>. Ehhh, no! That was a good one. But we were gonna say <i>"... can surprisingly leave a life-long indelible impression"</i>. Ultimately it's unfair to label <i>any</i> film as "nothing". So forgive us for using that word when more accurately what we're talking about is a film which perhaps in the context of cinema history ends up "slipping between the cracks" of most of the world's notice, and in time becomes either a cult title to a small group of admirers, a personal fave to an individual, or a long sequestered "guilty pleasure" - something one is almost mortified to admit to others that you not only like, but actually <i>love</i>. And which you treat with an almost "watch it in the wee hours", "hide it on your hide drive where no one can find it" stigma of something akin to hentai torture porn. Hey, remember waaay back when it was considered un-cool to dig Dino De Laurentiis' FLASH GORDON? Well, add Dino's KING KONG, DUNE and THE WHITE BUFFALO to that list for us. But try not to despise us for the confession. Anyway .. <br />
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A film which certainly doesn't rate as a "guilty pleasure", but which does cover <i>both </i>sides of the aforementioned street for us personally (the one of leaving a life-long creative mark, and the other of falling between the cracks of celluloid history) was / is 1972's FUZZ - directed by Richard A. Colla. And if Colla's name just seems somehow familiar, but you can't quite put your finger on where you've heard it, it's because you've actually seen it a bazillion times over, even if it never consciously registered. He's the former DAYS OF OUR LIVES soap opera actor who went on to become one of the most popular and ominpresent directors in all of 1970s and 80s TV-dom, helming (among many others) multiple episodes of MacGYVER, HUNTER, MURDER SHE WROTE, MIAMI VICE, and (of course) that venerable fan-boy fave, the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.<br />
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Oh, and if this written mash-up of FUZZ personal commentary <i>in particular</i>, and commentary on the art of filmic adaptation <i>in general, </i>seems vaguely familiar to a handful of people out there, that's because the inspiration to "flesh out", do an "extended" or "director's cut?" (ha! ha!) version of a few thoughts banging around inside the noggin, was born upon making a couple of responses on the Facebook page thread of writer Paul Rowlands earlier today, where a few folks got into a social media discussion concerning FUZZ. As it would be extremely rude (or even worse - "<i>very uncool"</i> - there's that phrase again!) to Bogart the thread with <i>EVERY</i>thing the discussion triggered within us, we figured it would be more apropos to just blog it out here where anyone who wishes can read it at their leisure - all at once or in pieces. And chop it up, chew it up, and digest or spit out whatever suits or doesn't suit 'em as they wish.<br />
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If you get the chance though, you definitely need to check out Rowland's incredible <a href="http://www.money-into-light.com/?view=magazine" target="_blank">MONEY INTO LIGHT </a>online film magazine which includes a fascinating and informative collection of essays and articles by the man himself, as well as a veritable film school's worth of interviews with cinema legends the likes of Mark Pellington, Alex Proyas, John MacNaughton, George Armitage, Nancy Allen and more. Anyway ...<br />
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Based on Ed McBain's titular 1968 novel (one of his long series of "87th Precinct" mystery / crime thrillers featuring Detective Steve Carella and crew), the main plotline / conflict of 1972's FUZZ concerns the efforts of Carella (portrayed by Burt Reynolds) and his team (which includes Rachel Welch, Tom Skerritt and Jack Weston) to unravel an extortion plot designed by "The Deaf Man" - the criminal mastermind who appears in six McBain novels to date, and in the film is essayed by the forever cool, sophisticated, and here <i>surprisingly funny</i> Yul Brynner. This time around "The Deaf Man" threatens the assassination of a number of high ranking city officials if a predetermined ransom isn't paid by his deadline. And while racing against time (and bureaucracy) to prevent the murders, a couple of other subplots to divide the attention of Carella and his team include a string of neighborhood park robberies and sexual assaults, as well as a disturbing wave of arson attacks carried out against the homeless - a subplot which would kinda / sorta be borrowed / lifted in 1995's similarly toned MONEY TRAIN.<br />
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We remember first (sort of ) seeing FUZZ at the drive-in. "Sort of" because it was the third of three features that evening, and, as was usually the case at that young age, we fell asleep not long into the film. We first saw it in it's (edited) entirety a couple of years later when it debuted on the ABC Sunday Night Movie. Anyone else out there old enough to remember that weekly TV staple? At any rate, to this day we love Ed McBain's 87 Precinct novels. We grew up on them. And realizing that FUZZ was based on a series of them is one of the reasons we came to do so. We remember later discovering with delight that the gritty, pulp-centric McBain, and the more "legit" and literary-praised Evan Hunter (the author of the acclaimed STRANGERS WHEN WE MET, THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, THE PAPER DRAGON, and the screenplay to Hitchcock's THE BIRDS) were one and the same.<br />
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As far as a love of the creative arts goes, FUZZ would also be one of the first film scores we ever noticed front and center. <i>And that opening Main Title cue on the El train is still of the utmost musical bad-ass-ed-ness to this day!</i> The film's score was by Dave Grusin, who we'd then learn had written the themes to some of our favorite TV series over the years including IT TAKES A THIEF and THE NAME OF THE GAME; and who, over the next three successive years, would bang out some of our favorite alternately jazz / orchestral / funk-influenced film scores such as THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE ('73), THE MIDNIGHT MAN, THE NICKEL RIDE and THE YAKUZA (all '74), and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR ('75). An interest in Grusin in particular would lead us to a wider interest in his non-film jazz works, which in turn would then lead to an even wider and greater love of jazz and other musical genres in general. So yeah, in the end 1972's FUZZ held (and still holds) a great deal of creative-world nostalgia for us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FUZZ composer Dave Grusin: (clockwise) THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973),<br />
THE YAKUZA (1974), THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975)</td></tr>
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But we're not gonna pretend either. The fact is FUZZ is a film which on the whole was pretty much dismissed (and even dissed) by many critics at the time, ... although Roger Ebert went against the grain as he found it surprisingly charming and engaging because of the three-dimensional nature of it's characters. It remains a film which oddly still doesn't get a whole helluva lotta love from contemporary cineastes - perhaps most damningly so from those McBain fans who see it as an erroneously too comical perversion of the original source material; they feeling this way even though "McBain's" novel was adapted into screenplay form by none other than "Evan Hunter" himself. Personally we think many of those feelings are themselves erroneously based upon a nostalgic love of McBain's novels in general, and less on the merits and / or demerits of the filmic version of FUZZ in and of itself. Try this on for size ...<br />
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In 1969, during an interview with the New York Times Book Review, author James M. Cain was asked about his opinion on the variable quality of "What Hollywood had done" to his books throughout the 1930s and 40s - among them THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, MILDRED PIERCE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY. And Cain's now legendary (and quite common-sense) response was ...<br />
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<i> "People tell me, don’t you care what they’ve done to your book? I tell them, they haven’t done anything to my book. It’s right there on the shelf". </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0Td2IYMp-HEzE5XWpfhTlmep3ZgLlGm8XDxiGx68V6TSgMQKLOSAEEs4OrBPSZJ7k_95HRyANiuqaQJixzsXjBrLp7ngl3Xh6Ou1fbdLSfrbEgyRAadnHZ61rUAqM5q4SUrQuaeD3nw/s1600/TrioCainMED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0Td2IYMp-HEzE5XWpfhTlmep3ZgLlGm8XDxiGx68V6TSgMQKLOSAEEs4OrBPSZJ7k_95HRyANiuqaQJixzsXjBrLp7ngl3Xh6Ou1fbdLSfrbEgyRAadnHZ61rUAqM5q4SUrQuaeD3nw/s1600/TrioCainMED.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James M. Cain's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946),<br />
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), MILDRED PIERCE (1945)</td></tr>
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And therein lay our opinion on the film version of FUZZ ... and general filmic adaptations on the whole. While a film should certainly remain faithful to the core "central nervous system" of the novel (or other source material) on which it's based, we also have to realize that films, books, graphic novels, plays and more are all <i>very </i>different mediums with their own strengths and weaknesses in and out of their preferred environs. For example, while it's wonderful to <i>read </i>a play, it works best before a living, breathing and <i>interactively responding</i> audience. As such an actor may alter / adapt his or her performance in said play from day to day in response to the reaction of that audience. Also as such sometimes a film version of something will by necessity also be a literal "adaptation" in the truest sense of the word - wherein changes must be made in order for it to survive in an environment into which it was not originally born, nor in which it was initially intended to thrive.<br />
<br />
If a story was originally written for radio, for example, the challenge for film is to now make the narrative visual rather than aural. And with a novel, where much of the character motivations are internal, a film must now seek to somehow explain in an externally visual manner why those characters are doing what they are doing, as you can't always have their thoughts projected to the audience in convenient "voice over" narration. In such instances this may at times (often to the extremely vocal chagrin of some) predicate that the novel become a mere "jumping off point" from which something totally new and "all it's own" must be created, ... but which will still incorporate the (for lack of a better term) "DNA" of that original source material.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OX7T1SUbxQJVxLHzegoxeT6nqjt8P96M8zsD9cN0EWSLDLr-9c5dOvjLrMxiplBd2ILW0eJ108ofOPvrsOSm9J4ItaqQ9v-QrSblVrvIbCZMH5hvpAoAPboOxvUN9OlSFNq3FMdyc3I/s1600/CronFly2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OX7T1SUbxQJVxLHzegoxeT6nqjt8P96M8zsD9cN0EWSLDLr-9c5dOvjLrMxiplBd2ILW0eJ108ofOPvrsOSm9J4ItaqQ9v-QrSblVrvIbCZMH5hvpAoAPboOxvUN9OlSFNq3FMdyc3I/s1600/CronFly2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Cronenberg and "Brundlefly" friend: THE FLY (1986)</td></tr>
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Sometimes this works out wonderfully and artistically as with David Cronenberg's remarkable 1991 adaptation / reworking of Burroughs' genuinely<i> </i>un-filmable NAKED LUNCH. Realizing Burroughs' original 1959 novel (actually less a "novel", and more a collection of loosely connected short stories and vignettes meant to be read in <i>any </i>order - as the main character is a junkie writer who astrally - or maybe even physically - leaps from locale to locale) was impossible to faithfully translate to film, Cronenberg decided to treat it as (his own word here) "Brundlefly".<br />
<br />
Those who recall Cronenberg's 1986 reworking of THE FLY realize the big difference between the "man and fly exchanging heads" scenario of the original 1959 film, and Cronenberg's mid 80s era take, is that, within the telepod in Cronenberg's version, man (in the personage of Jeff Goldblum's scientist Seth Brundle) and fly don't <i>"exchange"</i> anything. The DNA of both are rather <i>combined. </i>And what eventually emerges over time (revealing itself not unlike the slow onslaught of cancer or AIDS consuming the body) is a hitherto non-existent creature / combination of the two. In like fashion Cronenberg's treatment of Burroughs' NAKED LUNCH takes the character, tonal, thematic and some narrative elements (or "DNA" strands if you will) of the original book, then splices them into another wholly other "DNA" sequence: this new sequence being an original Cronenberg narrative which includes the genes of those personal themes for which his films have always been famously known - chief among those themes the notion that the mind and the body are inexorably connected. And that if there is any pronounced change in the one it will majorly effect the other.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05RHK2U1M1EHz5KNtlvvmdd0J8fo7WXXv62PQctECYZePjVeipuh7UNUW1L11Y8ZkS2ATzrPWAaCPCl15uRhr7v-Oiro49ID-ZUD9GEnVbQYp3IXThS7IGl2sPDx2pdRfjJ0xVK10-nc/s1600/CronLunchMED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05RHK2U1M1EHz5KNtlvvmdd0J8fo7WXXv62PQctECYZePjVeipuh7UNUW1L11Y8ZkS2ATzrPWAaCPCl15uRhr7v-Oiro49ID-ZUD9GEnVbQYp3IXThS7IGl2sPDx2pdRfjJ0xVK10-nc/s1600/CronLunchMED.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) David Cronenberg with "Brundlefly"-esque friend, and Peter Weller: NAKED LUNCH (1991)</td></tr>
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If one does a quick mental review of the director's previous RABID, THE BROOD, VIDEODROME, SCANNERS and even THE DEAD ZONE, then fast-forward ahead to his yet-to-come DEAD RINGERS, M. BUTTERFLY, CRASH, eXistenZ, and even A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and EASTERN PROMISES, one sees this to perhaps be the predominate single thread thematic truism of this director's entire career. So, NAKED LUNCH the film becomes 50% Burroughs and 50% Cronenberg. And while some purists may not have dug that ratio, William Burroughs himself sure as hell did! He loved the film.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-8fFXuPS0wXGdopKBWH57x0LUPQSqC-s1CMv0g6hiiHMRE1kRlTVZ42K6FcHU1a5LS74n6WANF132_5JRGQ6IDE0gr0mPaNYl9U4u1MDC_Vpltv4tEsdePc64nYRkBsmUtLkwCf_5mRE/s1600/SPACEodysseyMED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-8fFXuPS0wXGdopKBWH57x0LUPQSqC-s1CMv0g6hiiHMRE1kRlTVZ42K6FcHU1a5LS74n6WANF132_5JRGQ6IDE0gr0mPaNYl9U4u1MDC_Vpltv4tEsdePc64nYRkBsmUtLkwCf_5mRE/s1600/SPACEodysseyMED.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanley Kubrick's Arthur C. Clarke "Brundlefly" gene splice - 2001 (1968)</td></tr>
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Other adaptations which have also successfully done the "Brundlefly", 50 / 50, source material / film maker cinematic telepod gene splice, include John Sturges' big screen version of Paul Brickell's THE GREAT ESCAPE, and even Stnaley Kubrick's adaptation / Borg-like assimilation of Arthur C. Clarke's original story "The Sentinel" into what eventually became 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. This kind of creative genetic manipulation doesn't always end happily ever after however. On occasion the 50 / 50 "Brundlefly" fusion can create a <i>"What the f**k where they thinking?"</i> deformed monster of a mess. And for proof of this one we point to the fact that one probably isn't going to find too many who disagree that 1992's film version of Stephen King's THE LAWNMOWER MAN, or Roland Joffe's 1995 "rethink" of Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER, are among the best worst examples out there. Hell, even Stephen King himself has never been shy in vocalizing his personal disappointment with Kubrick's adaptation of his THE SHINING, which, while a fantastic and intense film, certainly is more "Kubrick" than it is "King".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6sWpga5AutojOi8weotDLW2LCVPXZ7mGWE7QfxegoXhG3EQ3qi3z2XANyatRkyq8bQUKZ6GZVBNsUhPWLo7KyymRmLMoJNbVND-jnyI8n1-w5V8LPjYJBztwDu6wyd51wFzpIc_gRJWk/s1600/LawnmowerMED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6sWpga5AutojOi8weotDLW2LCVPXZ7mGWE7QfxegoXhG3EQ3qi3z2XANyatRkyq8bQUKZ6GZVBNsUhPWLo7KyymRmLMoJNbVND-jnyI8n1-w5V8LPjYJBztwDu6wyd51wFzpIc_gRJWk/s1600/LawnmowerMED.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brett Leonard's Stephen King / "Brundlefly" gene splice - THE LAWNMOWER MAN (1992)</td></tr>
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We think it's fair to say that FUZZ falls somewhere in the middle. It's not a brilliantly unique reworking of McBain's original material, but, contrary to the social media trollings of some, it's far from an irredeemable piece of cinematic crap. So get that out of your head. With FUZZ (once again in particular), and adaptations (once again in general) it's also very important to remember and consider the era in which the film was / is made. During the late 1960s / early 1970s Hollywood was in a very uncomfortable state of trying to find it's "new self" after the formerly successful studio system had recently crashed, burned, and imploded with the force of a collapsed star, after massively budgeted, career destroying box office failures such as DOCTOR DOLITTLE, CLEOPATRA , HELLO DOLLY and PAINT YOUR WAGON triggered an industry-wide outbreak of commercial and creative self-doubt.<br />
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During this same time American film makers were becoming hugely influenced by the French New Wave: that rough-and-tumble, often hand-held, "on the fly" visual style created in the 1950s, but later popularized around the world with films like Truffaut's JULES & JIM. This wave would even have an impact on Orson Welles, who (forward-thinking craftsman he always was) in 1958 borrowed the still-nascent Euro-born visual aesthetic in remarkable fashion, and to great success, for use in his own TOUCH OF EVIL.<br />
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Meanwhile "back at the ranch" (so to speak) the U.S. film industry of the late 60s / early 70s had also fallen under the spell of gritty "youth centric" films such as EASY RIDER, FIVE EASY PIECES, THE GRADUATE and WILD IN THE STREETS. And films such as FUZZ (and M*A*S*H and THE HOSPITAL and MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED) were made in the slipstream of this era. It's a fair bet that studios and film makers at this juncture were very concerned that a "straight ahead" Ed McBain-like police procedural might not be accepted by the new young audience which at the time was plugging into an extreme counter-culture vibe. So with FUZZ it isn't a far stretch to understand how a decision may have been made to stress more of McBain's iconoclastic and (at times disturbingly) quirky elements to the point of those elements (admittedly) now and then perhaps being stretched a bit too broadly for the film's own good. No, we never said FUZZ was perfect, or what some might consider a classic. But it <i>is</i> a solid film.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) M*A*S*H (1970), THE HOSPITAL (1971), MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED (1976)</td></tr>
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As iconoclastic social satire, M*A*S*H and THE HOSPITAL, by the very nature of their life-and-death setting / scenarios, allow a bit more thematic "elbow room" to be surreal. As a result a degree of deliberately larger-than-life absurdity works in those films, predicated on the fact that the intense pressure-cooker situations in which those films' characters find themselves have induced a degree of mental madness within those characters. 1976's MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED (starring Bill Cosby, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Welch, and set within the high stress, life-and-death world of ambulance drivers), and Sidney Lumet's now-classic NETWORK, both also allow for this bit of surreal "mental madness" elbow room. And while the theme of "urban cops in the field" is surely capable of inducing a degree of mental imbalance within those characters (and this is touched upon in Robert Aldrich's 1977 adaptation of Joseph Wambaugh's THE CHOIRBOYS), the uber real world scenario and tone of FUZZ proves an at times tenuous fit with that M*A*S*H / THE HOSPITAL sense of "over the top"-ness. But don't unfairly beat up on FUZZ. Because it's maybe / maybe not balancing act of molding and bending material to appeal to the sand-shifting nature of the industry at the time, wasn't unique. Numerous books, plays and other narrative material of the day did the same.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xsV7cowp8RHUjigI8H8e9DExQ7lKJMQ_K3HJ-YQTCFHR4DaVavcpWPuv5OWQ8m74FaENpOM8uV7mokVaHaxD81vLw-9idDQLTGIHxl1Zcn3e5sqbGnymVyOM7PDNLSP6Z_lxu9pVxFw/s1600/SUPERSTARmed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xsV7cowp8RHUjigI8H8e9DExQ7lKJMQ_K3HJ-YQTCFHR4DaVavcpWPuv5OWQ8m74FaENpOM8uV7mokVaHaxD81vLw-9idDQLTGIHxl1Zcn3e5sqbGnymVyOM7PDNLSP6Z_lxu9pVxFw/s1600/SUPERSTARmed.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973)</td></tr>
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Certainly sci fi films like THE OMEGA MAN (a VERY 70s-ish rendition of Richard Matheson's classic novel I AM LEGEND), and "Rock Operas" like JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and GODSPELL (both trippy new versions of the biblical Christ story) did so, as did others. And some of those films have survived the great litmus test of time while others have not. We therefore once again think it fair to say that FUZZ fell (and continues to fall) somewhere in the middle ground.<br />
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FUZZ sure as hell isn't a perfect film. But, taken within the era-shifting context of that always-challenging "Brundlefly" adaptation conundrum, we feel Richard Colla's alternately rollicking, suspenseful, disturbing, <i>and damned funny</i> slice of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct "shared universe" is a filmic Vaulted Treasure deserving of a bit more retrospective <i>respect</i> than it's ever truly received. And we're hoping to place a few more bricks on the "Respect" side of that scale. Anyway ...<br />
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Such is our opinion. And we're fairly certain "The Deaf Man" wouldn't have a problem with that. If on the other hand you <i>do</i>, ...<br />
<br />
... then we recommend you tell him yourself. <i>Heh, heh!</i><br />
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CEJ<br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-56227527327571558712016-10-30T19:44:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:23:07.371-04:00CRITICS VS. AUDIENCES: WITH RON HOWARD'S TOWERING "INFERNO" THE AUDIENCE WINS! - by CEJ<div style="text-align: left;">
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #f1c232; font-size: large;"><i>A "no spoilers" review and more</i> </span></h2>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;">GullCottage rating </span><br />
<span style="color: #ffd966;">(**** on a scale of 1 - 5)</span><br />
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Now running neck-and-neck with David Yates' THE LEGEND OF TARZAN and Antoine Fuqua's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Ron Howard's INFERNO immediately shoots to the front of the pack as one of our favorite film-going experiences of 2016 ... <i>thus far</i>. Oh, and please keep in mind we said a <i>"favorite"</i> film, and not necessarily <i>"best"</i>, <i>"most important"</i>, <i>"most artistically / brilliantly realized"</i> or other fifty-five dollar "Oscar / Golden Globe wannabe" catch-bait phrase. That's important.<br />
<br />
Well, as 'ol Ferris Bueller once said, <i>"That's it - why are you still hanging around?"</i>. <br />
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Because from here on it's just us explaining <i>why </i>we feel that way. So, if you want you can skip the rest of this, save your time, and go back to social-media-dueling over Hillary and The Donald, emails, grabbin' pu**ies, and other infinitely more important things. Have at it. But if you wanna maybe step outside of yourself for a few minutes, lend an ear, light a smoke, and maybe even tip back a brewski or a glass of vino or whatever, we think by the end of this you may come away with a wee bit of a grin on your face, ... and maybe even (hopefully) a little more good 'ol fashioned healthy circumspection in regards to outside influences and opinions (in the form of critics) in general; and more confidence in one's own assessment ("gut response" or "educated opinion") of what constitutes the "good", "bad", "ugly", "important" or otherwise in particular. And hey, thinking for oneself, and making up one's own mind independent of the ever-swirling media and social media maelstrom, really isn't such a bad habit to get into during an election year anyway, is it? But that's entirely up to you.<br />
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INFERNO (2016): Official Trailer</div>
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Hmmm? You still seem to be hanging around (<i>and thanks for doing so, it means a lot!</i>), so here goes ...<br />
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>ANTON EGO AND COMPANY</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfTI_dPczJD1T4mZcWLUoEOK8FnSg1NAPgdnKOuwu80IIEuudKIAhl07_Bhf4AdDU7ac8uunqTq4ji2UPTdxTqz0yOqNfCLPC_WRwL5PBG7KbIAjpr4jEdIEIkvvPhfSWaO5EW7i712vc/s1600/EGO3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfTI_dPczJD1T4mZcWLUoEOK8FnSg1NAPgdnKOuwu80IIEuudKIAhl07_Bhf4AdDU7ac8uunqTq4ji2UPTdxTqz0yOqNfCLPC_WRwL5PBG7KbIAjpr4jEdIEIkvvPhfSWaO5EW7i712vc/s1600/EGO3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RATATOUILLE's "lordly" food critic Anton Ego</td></tr>
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We don't get it. If you read reviews, or at least follow aggregate sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and others, you'll see a great many critics don't seem to dig INFERNO. And that's okay. I mean, many literary critics don't exactly dig Dan Brown's source material novels either. ANGELS & DEMONS, THE DA VINCI CODE, THE LOST SYMBOL and INFERNO have all been called "preposterous" and worse. They've been said to be too dependent on deliberate malapropisms: y'know, when the mispronunciation or reading of a word or phrase (like "flamingo" / "flamenco") leads to deliberate audience misdirection and interpretation. And Brown's prose style (though many don't feel he has any) has more than once been ridiculed. And, hey, while some of these digs at Mr. Brown may have merit, we say ... <i>"So what?"</i>.<br />
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The man's not trying to cure cancer here, or the common cold, or even come up with a logical explanation for the existence of cockroaches or the Anophthalus Hitleri (the Blind Cave Beetle of Slovenia - considered by many to be the world's most useless insect, ...<i> and named after Adolf Hitler! - we kid you not!</i>). No, he (and director Ron Howard) are just unspooling an ALADDIN-like magic carpet ride if you want to hop aboard is all.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaL3omljqDL2b6nWl5VF0fJmsA7xzOCp7FGFNDPxQKPXm7TbY48ia5Zb7YCfcK8Hom_F4iKd-K-sfJtB2kq4d_8B7enziEAXEaU1GBAuWARQokyQTG80Xy82J2z1DvUe7Pk6Xm-MJBeA/s1600/InfernoCrewRe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaL3omljqDL2b6nWl5VF0fJmsA7xzOCp7FGFNDPxQKPXm7TbY48ia5Zb7YCfcK8Hom_F4iKd-K-sfJtB2kq4d_8B7enziEAXEaU1GBAuWARQokyQTG80Xy82J2z1DvUe7Pk6Xm-MJBeA/s1600/InfernoCrewRe.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R): Dan Brown, Omar Sy, Felicity Jones, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard</td></tr>
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Now, while we're in no way championing mediocrity (there's far too much of that in every corner of the arts these days), let's remember that over the years the literary elite has often leveled a lot of the same Dan Brown-like criticisms against other popular (and populist) writers such as Irving Wallace, Michael Crichton and even F. Scott Fitzgerald - as if popularity or "commercial" automatically equates with "selling out" or being devoid of artistic merit. And that just isn't so. Hell, Fitzgerald's final completed novel, TENDER IS THE NIGHT, which he personally felt was his best work, received a <i>considerable </i>drubbing from the literary "arbiters of good taste" of his day. And, since we're a film blog, we can't get away from the fact that some now-considered-classic films weren't spoken of too kindly during their initial runs either.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5eo0WzvyJc25c4R5UUM2GwIqIRBAT53RBi8h-xt8szzYjLEuOmmUXh48pWFXgZeO4RFObcG90CmtycmHTdeTtcoM-E7l_Zab4EqmxOK5oIF7DVsOlDGg7Cl8z0eoKgU9s2ILBoWFbdcU/s1600/INFERNObladeThing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5eo0WzvyJc25c4R5UUM2GwIqIRBAT53RBi8h-xt8szzYjLEuOmmUXh48pWFXgZeO4RFObcG90CmtycmHTdeTtcoM-E7l_Zab4EqmxOK5oIF7DVsOlDGg7Cl8z0eoKgU9s2ILBoWFbdcU/s1600/INFERNObladeThing.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1982's legendary critical and financial "disappointments" (top to bottom) BLADE RUNNER and THE THING</td></tr>
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The first two which personally come to mind for us are BLADE RUNNER and John Carpenter's THE THING - both of which opened on the same day (June 25th, 1982), and which were so savaged by critics, and overlooked by audiences in a summer crowded with other cinematic options such as E.T., POLTERGEIST, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, TRON, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, FIREFOX and AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, they both tanked at the box office.<br />
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Many at the time called BLADE RUNNER "dark and nilhistic" and an exercise in "style over substance", and THE THING "dark and nilhistic" and "style over substance, ... <i>and needlessly gory</i>". And word spread so quickly about both films (this long before the advent of social media), they financially crashed and burned so completely we were able to catch both a mere week later as a double feature for one price. <i>Go figure!</i> But long before there was also the critically lambasted, then later lauded, BRINGING UP BABY, as well as FANTASIA, David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO and most Kubrick films of the late 60s - early 80s. Yes, including 2001, BARRY LYNDON and THE SHINING. They're all considered classics now, but many critics didn't care for them back then. And the list goes on. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZBQUYaEYJ4cwI-1lCwWcQZKe3T0dD_BuAlalBXzvvV3wfNfmMi2wGYHaHSOLmO-MyFOcvfKmie_CYwennbigCdwfIcAaxX637h4PYm82p12JPe64atLnVhnIDktwe-KQkkQQYMG5eGo/s1600/InfernoQuadRE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZBQUYaEYJ4cwI-1lCwWcQZKe3T0dD_BuAlalBXzvvV3wfNfmMi2wGYHaHSOLmO-MyFOcvfKmie_CYwennbigCdwfIcAaxX637h4PYm82p12JPe64atLnVhnIDktwe-KQkkQQYMG5eGo/s1600/InfernoQuadRE.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pub. (clockwise) 2000, 2003, 2013, 2009</td></tr>
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Dan Brown's Robert Langdon novels (and Ron Howard's film adaptations of them) are essentially the literary and filmic versions of solving a puzzle with 1200 pieces on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Oh yeah, while simultaneously watching a two-part episode of the original MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE tv series, and trying not to get lost doing either. Which is to say on the one level they're great and entertaining mental exercises (you <i>do </i>end up talking to yourself, and find yourself pulling data from the personal mental rolodex of remembered high school history classes), but on another level, upon finishing the Langdon books and films, you kind of grin to yourself at how ultimately pointless it all was. And once again we say, ... <i>"So what?</i>".<br />
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They're great fun - the admitted egghead's <i>"We paid attention in English and History Class" </i>version of a ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION serial or an afternoon watching RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Fun for it's own sake need not, and need not be equated, with "unintelligent", "selling out" or "devoid of artistic merit". If that's so then such films as KING KONG, THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE STING, THE FUGITIVE, STAR WARS, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and more must, when lined up against others like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, SCHINDLER'S LIST and MALCOLM X, be jettisoned and tossed onto the ash heap of "dumb and preposterous cinematic crap". All of this to say if you dig the "intelligent fun" kind of thing, or at the very least can approach things with such a mindset (something of which many critics seem perplexingly incapable), we think you'll dig INFERNO in particular, and the Langdon films in general - which we feel, not unlike George Miller's original MAD MAX series, are just getting better and better.<br />
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For any series (in book, TV or filmic form) to continue to succeed, every now and then the latest installment must be a different <i>kind </i>of story from that to which we've become accustomed. You know, how within the hard sociopolitical sci fi parameters of STAR TREK, or the fear and paranoia of THE TWILIGHT ZONE or OUTER LIMITS, one was occasionally treated to an episode devoted to flat out comedy or romance, etc. And with the last two Langdon thrillers, THE LOST SYMBOL (not yet a film) and INFERNO, Brown has thematically made them a breed apart from the first two, ANGELS and DA VINCI, and their (for lack of a better term) <i>"Let's beat up on the church"</i> narratives. For while ANGELS and DA VINCI do bring to the fore, and cleverly addresses, some pertinent issues dealing with contemporary (and institutionalized) religion, dogma, and the battle between faith and science, ... as well as pondering the fascinating conundrum <i>"Does there need to be a battle between the two?"</i>, that kind of thamatic territory can get really old (and really dead) really, <i>really </i>fast if beaten incessantly like a baby seal on the high tundra. Sorry for the image there. But you get the idea.<br />
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THE LOST SYMBOL uses as it's "puzzle box" the history of the Freemasons in America, and INFERNO spins and aligns it's "Rubic's Cube" narrative from the life of Dante Alighieri and his DIVINE COMEDY - that legendary work not only later influencing Milton, Chaucer and Tennyson, but emblazoning upon the global consciousness the most generally accepted conception and depiction of biblical hell. So yes, with Dante and INFERNO there's a great deal of intriguing raw material to turn into a nifty high tech puzzle. And Howard and company do it up right like nobody's business.<br />
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>OF PAINTERS & PLUMBERS: THE ART OF CRAFTING AN "INFERNO"</b></span><br />
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The novels THE DA VINCI CODE and ANGELS & DEMONS come in at approx. 500 - 550 pages each, with their film versions clocking in at approx. 2 1/2 hrs. Howard brings INFERNO (the book exceeding 600 pages) in at a lean and mean / fast-and-furious-as-all-hell 121 mins. ...<i> including end credits</i>. And this is perhaps the film's greatest single asset among many. Film aficionados know how years ago Hitchock famously explained his "bomb theory" - differentiating cinematic shock from the more prolonged (and perhaps even more unbearable) suspense. And within the first seven minutes of INFERNO Howard tosses <i>both </i>into the audience's lap - wasting no time on voluminous verbal exposition, but rather starting things with a bang as an assassination attempt is made on Langdon (Tom Hanks)'s life while he lay in a hospital bed.<br />
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Not long after the opening credits have finished rolling, and the audience is barely comfortable with their popcorn after watching 15 minutes of coming attraction trailers, bullet pings suddenly reverberate across the Dolby Surround Sound-theaterscape, tubes rip (<i>Eccchh!</i>) from Hanks' body, and he and Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones of THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING and ROUGE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY) tear serious ass into a twisty-turvy cineamtic yarn which never lets up for the whole of the film's running time. As we said ... a<i>ll of this beginning within the film's first seven minutes!</i> Just like Hanks' character, unaware of what he's suddenly tumbled into, the audience too now has to just catch up (and keep up) with him - figuring things out from strategically placed "breadcrumb"-like clues as they go along for the ride.<br />
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Interestingly however, while the story is indeed an appropriately rip-roaring yarn which would make Indiana Jones do a <i>"WTF!!!"</i> double-take, as film craft geeks since childhood we were particularly blown away by INFERNO's technical / artistic bravado.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) Cinematographer Salvatore Totino, Editor Dan Hanley, Editor Tom Elkins</td></tr>
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The cinematography of Salvatore Totino (ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, THE MISSING) is a visual wonder to behold. Yes, many films, <i>maybe even too damned many films,</i> have been shot on location in Europe, and look great. But Florence, Italy, and (especially) Venice and Istanbul, Turkey have never looked so gorgeous - especially on that sprawling IMAX screen. The sequences inside Hagia Sophia (formerly the St. Sophia Mosque, and now a museum), and within the subterranean Basilica Cistern (both a combination of actual locations and set reproductions) are particularly breathtaking. Editors Daniel Hanley (who has been Howard's cinema-artistic partner in crime since NIGHT SHIFT way back in 1982) and the young Tom Elkins (best known to date for horror films such as ANNABELLE and THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT) deserve an Oscar nomination, particularly for the film's climax - which differs considerably from the novel, by the way (we think the film's version of events makes more sense than that of the book, but you decide), and which plays (and feels) like a high tech bio-terror mash-up of Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (replete with a concert and orchestra) and THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) Sidse Babett Knudsen, Omar Sy, Irfan Khan, Ben Foster</td></tr>
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From a performance POV, Hanks and Jones are laudable. But the WWF belt this time around goes to the remarkable supporting cast. Ben Foster (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, LONE SURVIVOR) is genuinely both enigmatic and creepy as the mysterious biotech oligarch Bertrand Zobrist. And Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen is rock solid as WHO (World Health Organization) agent Elizabeth Sinskey. But the "steal the film" prize goes to both Omar Sy (THE INTOUCHABLES) and Irrfan Khan (LIFE OF PI) - both of whom were pretty much wasted in the silly yet enjoyable JURASSIC WORLD. Here they both slow-burn the screen with equal parts intelligence and old-fashioned bad-ass-ed-ness as two international operatives whose modus operandi (and motives) isn't / aren't always clear. And Khan deserves some kind of award simply by his delivery of what arguably might be the best filmic line of 2016, <i>"Young people are disappointing; they don't become tolerable until 35"</i>. Though you may have to be over 35 yourself to appreciate the sentiment and humor of that one. Far and away however (Ha, ha! Howard fans will get <i>that </i>one) the biggest artistic surprise is the film's score by legendary composer Hans Zimmer (BLACK RAIN, THE LION KING, GLADIATOR).<br />
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>COMPOSING AN "INFERNO" </b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Composer Hans Zimmer</td></tr>
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Having established the musical "voice" for the world of Robert Langdon in Howard's THE DA VINCI CODE and ANGELS & DEMONS (our <i>"wins by a chin"</i> favorite score of the trilogy), Zimmer here refuses to merely regurgitate the thematic paradigm of the previous two films in but another "narrative octave" as it were. And we have to admit at first we were a little disappointed by the lack of this. Until, that is, we realized what (at least we <i>believe</i>) he was doing. INFERNO opens with a bloodied and terrified Langdon in a hospital, with a head wound and a degree of retrograde amnesia - he the apparent victim of an accident and / or kidnap attempt gone awry. His mind a jumbled mess, during the first third of the film he experiences horrific visions of an inner city hell (a modern urban rendition of Dante's "Inferno") were it's denizens go about daily life in excruciating pain, yet somehow also resigned to the fact that they're chopped in half, burning, and / or possess heads twisted violently backwards atop their torsos.<br />
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These are images which would give THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE's Leatherface bad dreams. And during the first first third of INFERNO Zimmer's score in some respects sounds (and feels) like an electro-horrific something which might not seem out of place in a Rob Zombie directed horror outing like THE DEVIL'S REJECTS or HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CORPSES. Interestingly (and fascinating) however, there is still a (for lack of a better term) "mathematic organization" beneath, ... even "holding together" ... the "disjointed musical chaos". This (as far as we can ascertain) is because, even while his mind is a stir-fried mess, Langdon's very essence is that of an extremely organized thinker. He's very much like Sherlock Holmes in this regard. And Zimmer's score reminds us of this.<br />
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As the story progresses, and Langdon's memory and full mental resources slowly return, and as he begins to unravel the "whys" and "wherefores" of the labyrinthine conspiracy with which he finds himself enmeshed, slowly, imperceptibly the score begins to morph into a more traditionally thematic structure, and the ever popular "Da Vinci Code" theme - which we've been pining for the entire film (and which over the course of three cinematic adventures has become Langdon's defacto theme) begins to resurface not unlike someone slowly emerging from the depths of the sea where they've been lost for far too long. Most tenderly and powerfully we return to full blooded thematic traditionalism in the scene where a piece of Langdon's personal (romantic) history is revisited. And, the power as such comes from a delicate reading for piano and (sampled?) woodwinds of the Langdon / DaVinci Code theme.<br />
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"Elizabeth"- INFERNO score (H. Zimmer)</div>
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For those wishing to cue this up on the INFERNO soundtrack, the cut is #14 "Elizabeth" - a heartachingly gorgeous and emotionally rich piece of musical yearning realized in the most minimalist of manners. It's surely a film score highlight of the entire year - <i>for us at least</i>. And from that point onward Zimmer then plunges us into full throttle mode with the energy and power of our still favorite Langdon score to date, ANGELS & DEMONS; and perhaps supersedes it with the near Herrmann-esque scope of the Basilica Cistern climax. This "atonal to tonal" bit of musical prestidigitation is an elusively tricky thing to accomplish because, if not executed properly, one runs the risk of emotionally distancing the audience from the characters and narrative earlier in the film. But when done well ..., <i>"Oh mamma!"</i>. <br />
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Take a look at, and give a listen to, Jerry Goldsmith's LOGAN'S RUN, Maurice Jarre's ENEMY MINE, David Arnold's CASINO ROYALE, and Alberto Iglesias' EXODUS: GODS & KINGS. LOGAN'S director Michael Anderson famously recalled how, until Goldsmith's score was added to his now legendary sci-fier, he was unaware that what he had filmed was an old fashioned love story. And think about it. The first half of LOGAN'S RUN takes place within the sterile confines of the domed city - where the population has lived since an unnamed worldwide catastrophe (war, disease, whatever) brought civilization to a near end. The music as such in this setting is electronic, at times cold, and very often atonal - with very faint vestiges of (what will eventually become) the "Love Theme" interpolated when Logan and Jessica meet for the first time. At the film's halfway point - after the couple escapes the domed city into the raw and untamed outside world, the music becomes fully orchestral acoustic, and the "Love Theme" becomes the dominate emotional anchor for the remainder of the narrative.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evolving themes: (L to R) Goldsmith's LOGAN'S RUN (1975), Arnold's CASINO ROYALE (2006)</td></tr>
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Arnold does a similar thing with CASINO ROYALE - creating a "defacto Bond theme" (wittily titled "You Know My Name") to carry the entire film, and only using disguised and subtle snippets of the famous "James Bond Theme" here and there - this hinting to the audience as to what the "legendary spy in the making" will eventually evolve into. At the film's climax, when Daniel Craig finally utters the iconic words <i>"The name's Bond, James Bond"</i> - only then does a full rendition of the JB Theme explode in all it's big band and full orchestral splendor, because now <i>and only now </i>has Bond become <i>the </i>Bond we know and love. The same with INFERNO and the Langdon / Da Vinci theme. When Langdon has very much returned to his Sherlockian self, and Dr. Sienna Brooks finally says, <i>"It's nice to have you back again, Professor"</i>, we feel the same way, and Zimmer's score echoes our sentiment. Composer Gary Chang once opined that to be a decent film composer one must equally be a good painter (encompassing the artistic) and a good plumber (with a mastery of technical and mechanical craft). And with his score to INFERNO maestro Zimmer continues to prove he's very much all of the above. It's a subtly stunning and impressive piece of cine-musical work every bit as masterfully woven (emotionally, intellectually and technically) as the entire film itself.<br />
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In the end critics may say what they will (and we guess in some regards we're acting as such right now too). But ultimately it's the paying audience which determines the worth of a film, book, album, TV series or whatever over time, and not those critics who see movies for free, ... <i>and even get paid to do so</i>. Sweet gig, huh? In the end there's something unique and special and irreplaceable about gathering with a few hundred like-minded individuals from across the societal spectrum. There's something genuinely remarkable - unable to be duplicated at home, even with the damnedest 4K TV and sound system, or even in a theater with a chosen preview audience - about gathering with a mass of others with whom you may otherwise have absolutely nothing in common; and you all find yourselves laughing and cheering and gasping and cowering and crying all at the same exact times.<br />
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While it may sound corny, preposterous and hopelessly old school, in the end isn't that what we go to the movies to experience - that group psychology where we all find it within us at the same time to hiss Michael Myers, scream when JAWS appears, cheer Rocky Balboa as he goes the distance, applaud Kirk when he slyly lowers Khan's shields, and shout like banshees when Han Solo returns during the Death Star battle, proving what we knew all along, that he was more than just a mercenary out for a quick buck? <i>Yeah, baby!</i> <i>Git it, Han!</i> You see, this is <i>our </i>purview here. And while the critics may not always dig 'em, we kinda think so far Dan Brown, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks and the rest of the gang have the right idea with INFERNO in particular, and the Langon adaptations in general.<br />
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In the end, when it comes down to the audience vs. the critics, this weekend at least ...<br />
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<i> The audience wins!</i><br />
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CEJ <br />
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Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-21796188549320784242015-06-08T11:36:00.000-04:002019-04-05T14:24:01.284-04:00"SLOGGERS": THE HISTORY OF FANZINES, STEVE VERTLIEB, AND THE MEN WHO SAVED THE MOVIES by CEJ <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>CINEMACABRE's Steve Vertlieb & FAMOUS MONSTER's "Forry" Ackerman</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A long time ago, in a land not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> far away - during an infinitely more primitive time before high speed social media, video journals, TMZ, ACCESS HOLLYWOOD and DISH NATION, if a film fan wanted to know more (and maybe even own just a teeny weeny bit - in the way of behind the scenes stills and / or trivia) of their favorite movie, well, ... the "fanzine" was the be-all and end-all king. Generally considered the first two such publications, both PHOTOPLAY (edited by James R. Quirk - </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not to be confused with that Starship Captain guy)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and MOTION PICTURE STORY, bowed in 1911, and within their first few issues were pulling in staggering circulation totals in excess of 200,000 per month.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Essentially covering the broad spectrum of film news - from behind-the-scenes insider production stories to good 'ol fashioned star gazing (regular contributors to PHOTOPLAY included Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell), the fanzine became more specialized ("niched" if you will) during the 1950s with the arrival of two of what would come to be considered the "grandaddy's" of the medium, CONFIDENTIAL - that citadel of gossip, scandal and expose' journalism launched in December 1952, and the more family friendly FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND - established in 1958.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Launched by publisher James Warren (EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA) and edited by Forrest J (“Uncle Forry”) Ackerman, FAMOUS MONSTERS would go on to become </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> quintessential genre fan magazine, over the years inspiring young sci fi (a phrase Forrie himself claims to have coined, by the way) and horror aficionados such as Peter Jackson, John Landis, George Lucas, Richard Edlund, Steven Spielberg and Stephen Sommers to ultimately become film makers as adults. While also inspiring the late 1970s - 80s rise of similarly themed genre publications such as STARLOG, FANGORIA, VIDEO WATCHDOG and the revised CINEFANTASTIQUE, FAMOUS MONSTERS' high-flyin’ heyday surely was the ten year span between the mid 1950s - 1960s, when many of the aforementioned future directors, film techs and others (born in the mid 1940s) were in their teen years, and enjoying many of the films discussed in the pages of the magazine on television.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> During the late 1960s genre films (and even once popular genre themed television such as LOST IN SPACE and THE OUTER LIMITS) fell out of public favor in lieu of the increasingly more popular and cynical "youth culture" cinematic craze - embodied by films such as EASY RIDER, THE GRADUATE and GOODBYE COLUMBUS, and the hard edged socio-politically aware cinema of the 70s - represented by titles such as THE FRENCH CONNECTION, SHAFT, NETWORK and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Steve Vertlieb with dear friend, Ray Harryhausen (1920 - 2013)</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> During this time even the once legendary Ray Harryhausen (creator of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.) saw his lovingly realized dinosaurs-in-the-old-west Willis O'Brien homage, VALLEY OF GWANGI, discarded and dumped by its own studio, then buried into the purgatory-ish filmic distribution world of the grade "B" second run drive-in movie circuit. It wasn't until Lucas' STAR WARS and Richard Donner's SUPERMAN (1977 and 1978 respectively) reignited the fantasy film box office, that the genre fanzine, as well as the films they covered, would once again prove popular and profitable endeavors.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Those who have been following the production progress of our STEVE VERTLIEB: THE MAN WHO "SAVED" THE MOVIES documentary over the last two years know a theme which originally quietly arose in the background, then over time asserted itself to the fore, is the question of "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Constitutes Film Archivism?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">". Is it, as some attest, preserving for posterity only </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">physical</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> memorabilia such as the original 1933 KING KONG puppet armature, the “granny” dress of Norman Bates mother, or one of the aerodynamically slick pod cars from LOGAN'S RUN? Or is it also preserving for future generations of film fans and filmmakers-to-come the memories, stories and firsthand recollections of those legends of fantastic cinema and literature; and how and why they came to create those classics in the first place? Those classics which continue to enthrall audiences, and now also serve as an endless franchise catalog – a box office “Well Of The Souls” if you will, for studio producers.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND - RAY HARRYHAUSEN ISSUE (#21 / 1963)</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In an era where, film-wise, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everything old is new again</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”, and where schools, students and online cinema “historians” go gaga over the latest Scorcese / Tarantino references to classic genre films (you know Scorcese’s SHUTTER ISLAND is his homage to the films of Val Letwton, right?), it’s a heartbreaking reality of passing time that the list of surviving members of that elite cadre, who created this rich cinematic and literary history, is diminishing every year. Think about it, within the last seven alone we've lost not only "Uncle Forry" Ackerman and Ray Harryhausen, but Ray Bradbury (THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES), Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND, BID TIME RETURN, DUEL, STAR TREK, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN), ALIEN / NECRONOMICON artist H.R. Giger and many more.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> During that high-and-dry period between the mid 1960s and 70s, before the post STAR WARS resurgent popularity (and profitability) of the genre film and fanzine, a small group of men would "carry the Olympic Torch" if you will, keeping it burning through the cold, and often at the expense of personal financial ruin and professional ridicule as they, from their own pockets, lovingly funded, wrote and distributed a handful of genre themed publications (many of them originally mimeographed – some of you “under 30-ers” will have to Google that word) which many would disparage as being indicative of an irresponsible sense of arrested development. At times lambasted and (no exaggeration, we get into this in our film) disowned by their own families, these "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">old men who refused to grown up and face the real world</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">", would in the long run prove to be true heroes of filmic archivism - their work and preservation of the letters, technical drawings and first hand "how it came to be" recollections of some of the most revered names in genre history, now considered a "Lost Ark" treasure trove which, if they'd kowtowed to popular opinion at the time, and “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">grown u</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">p”, would now be lost forever.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Everything old is new again - literally: (top L&R) Howard Hawks' HATARI (1962) /<br />Steven Spielberg's THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997)</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> One of the most respected of these (until now) unsung “Olympic Torch bearers” is the titular subject of our film - Steve Vertlieb. In the late 1960s he, along with George Stover (those of you familiar with the films of John Waters will recognize that name as part of the cult director's stable of performers) and the late John Parnum, in various capacities supervising the creation, editing and publication of the fanzines BLACK ORACLE and CINEMACABRE. Becoming more than fanzines, ORACLE and CINEMACABRE offered such learned, in depth and perceptive articles by these men and others, as to garner (in Steve's case alone) the respect, admiration, and in many cases personal years-long friendships, with such legendary filmic figures as Peter Cushing, Miklos Rozsa, Jerry Goldsmith, Richard Matheson, Buster Crabbe, Veronica Carlson, Philippe Mora, Vincent Price, Paul Clemens and Robert Bloch. Then, in more recent years, the veneration and friendship of composers Lee Holdridge (tv's MOONLIGHTING, SPLASH, INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS) and Mark McKenzie (THE GREATEST GIFT, THE ULTIMATE MIRACLE, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE), writer / director Nicholas Meyer (THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION, TIME AFTER TIME, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN) and many more.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It’s been an, at times, tough slog for Mr. Vertlieb and the others. In Steve's case alone, while </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> respected by many, his desire back then to "save" the movies - as in preserving those letters, technical drawings, photos, memorabilia and personal stories for posterity (this at a time when the definition of success was the Gordon Gekko-like religion of a huge payday by any means necessary), would come at great personal cost, including the loss of his own marriage and career, near bankruptcy, and deep emotional depression. But amazingly and maybe even (for those with active imaginations and / or souls which just refuse to “roll over and play dead”) magically, those films – many with their near spiritual / Utopian-inspired messages and subtext, would in-turn reciprocate the favor and "save" Steve during those dark times; both he and those revered classics waiting patiently until now finally enjoying a 21</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">st</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> century Renaissance of sorts. Those films serving as the inspirational basis for current blockbusters such as JURASSIC WORLD, and Steve enjoying a personal "franchise reboot" of his own with, among other recent developments, a new life love in the luminous Rochelle Trust, as well as feature length documentary being filmed about his long, colorful, and ultimately inspiring life and times.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Spending the afternoon talking film with writer / dir. Nicholas Meyer (THE DAY AFTER / STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN) and writer / dir. Frank Capra <br />(IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT / IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) </span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> For those who have been following and supporting our film's progress, we thank you. Admittedly at times there may seem to be long stretches of "no updates", but rest assured production ever continues. As those who've ever been involved in any kind of independent filmic endeavor can attest, sometimes there are long stretches of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">apparent </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nothing-ness going on while the foundation is being poured, leveled and solidified for the next all important phase. And in our case, part of that "foundation laying" sometimes falls under the very un-sexy and uninteresting-to-most category of the financing of said vision. Some of you will get this analogy. And for those who don’t, … well, consider yourself at present very lucky. It’s kind of like being a homeowner who doesn't have unlimited pockets, and who must renovate his / her house over a much longer period of time than the person who just say calls in a contractor, then puts it all “on the card”.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The not-necessarily-financially-flush, but oh so dedicated, home owner will save up a few paychecks in order to do a Saturday at Lowes; then they’ll spend the next week completing one or two household renovations. In another month (or two or three) they save up enough to do it again, and again and again. The important thing however is to keep moving. This is what we've always referred to as the "pick and shovel work" aspect of things, or what others might think of as the "boring" part. Such is the life of a truly independent film project. And hey, sorry to burst the bubbles of those who dream of completely financing via crowdfunding, then hitting all the major festivals and scoring a massive distribution deal. While yes, it </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">does</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> now and then happen, for many a (shall we call ‘em) “blue collar” film maker, the non-sexy “slogging one day at a time” method is often the manner in which these things sometimes progress.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-size: small;">Film scores by Steve's beloved friend & mentor Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) include<br />BEN-HUR (1959), SPELLBOUND (1945) and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Interestingly, timing-wise, Steve has recently been the subject of two lushly realized (what else?) contemporary fanzine publications. In the latest edition of Gary and Susan Svelha's near coffee-table-book-like MAD ABOUT MOVIES (#9 / Nov. 2014), Steve recounts his childhood fascination with TV's legendary series ROUTE 66, and how (after learning the production crew and stars were coming to his hometown of Philadelphia, PA to film) this fascination lead he and his brother, Erwin, to cut school, visit the crew at a local hotel, then ultimately receive an invitation by series star George Maharis to witness the episode's climactic shoot atop the dizzying heights of the city's Benjamin Franklin Bridge. In our MAN WHO "SAVED" THE MOVIES documentary we pay homage to both that December 1961 ROUTE 66 episode, "The Thin White Line", and how it lead to young Steve's desire for a career in film journalism, by shooting adult Steve (on a particularly brisk and windy morning) retracing those childhood steps up the pedestrian walkway of the same Benjamin Franklin Bridge, he recalling and recounting that influential day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ow7gu8y0j_Y_DHPQgNVaBXYOn049hyphenhyphenPNs2IdBjf72NtmqzGCHxpB5MFAjmiWas0s7y-ACVZJxHG0mcEHir6X-IhHHqRChy0-QDJmX-gFyD6caxw7rGqTzPtrqvyhu04I2823rzWK9NQ/s1600/ZINEroute66.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Ow7gu8y0j_Y_DHPQgNVaBXYOn049hyphenhyphenPNs2IdBjf72NtmqzGCHxpB5MFAjmiWas0s7y-ACVZJxHG0mcEHir6X-IhHHqRChy0-QDJmX-gFyD6caxw7rGqTzPtrqvyhu04I2823rzWK9NQ/s1600/ZINEroute66.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">ROUTE 66; "The Thin White Line" (1961) / MAN WHO "SAVED" THE MOVES (2014)</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Then just weeks ago, Richard Klemensen's much acclaimed LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS MAGAZINE (now amazingly entering its 42nd year as an actual printed periodical - </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WOW!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), not only featured Steve, George Stover and others in its tribute to the art form of the fanzine, but also dedicated the entire issue to our beloved “Man Who ‘Saved’ The Movies”. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And, as if </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> wasn’t enough (and talk about synchronicity), we also recently received an invitation to preview our film, in a polished work-in-progress version, at this upcoming August’s <a href="http://reeleastfilm.org/" target="_blank">REEL EAST FILM FESTIVAL</a>, to be held in Oaklyn, N.J. Just last year the much talked about feature length documentary, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE POPCORN, debuted at Reel East in a similar “work-in-progress” state. And one of our all time favorite writer / directors, John Sayles’, screened his GO FOR SISTERS there. So, needless to say, we’re rather excited. As such the next month and a half will be spent picking up a bit more "guerilla style" footage, then spending endless hours at the editing desk in preparation. As mentioned in one of our earlier postings, in this biz (that of independent film making) one has to be willing to live by the adage, "How do you eat an entire elephant? ... </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One bite a time</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">".</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Is it a helluva slog? You bet! But if Steve Vertlieb, John Parnum, George Stover and the others could save the movies for us, it’s the very least we can do in return to honor them, wouldn't you say?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">STEVE VERTLIEB: THE MAN WHO "SAVED" THE MOVIES </span></div>
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<br />Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869183131928427332.post-63658105741062824132015-02-26T12:31:00.000-05:002019-04-05T14:24:16.431-04:00ONE LITTLE INDIAN (1973)<span style="font-family: inherit;">A DECADE BEFORE DISNEY OFFICIALLY "GREW UP" WITH THE FOUNDING OF TOUCHSTONE PICTURES, IT ALREADY HAD WITH WHAT IS <u>STILL </u>ONE OF IT'S MOST DARING AND INTRIGUING FILMS</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span class="userContent"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="userContent">VAULTED TREASURES:<br />
HARD TO FIND FILMS</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="userContent"></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="userContent">WORTH SEEKING OUT</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Biology tells us the evolution of an organism
is a series of sometimes traumatic and even painful mutations over time which, <i>if
said organism survives</i>, in the end crystallizes it into a stronger, more
advanced version of its earlier state. In the 1980s and 90s, econophysicist
Doyne Farmer (stay with us, we promise this is about movies) popularized the notion of the "Edge Of Chaos", espousing
that the most (and most healthy) evolution of this sort takes place within a
tense-but-not-too-<i>intense</i> state of environmental "yin and
yang". Namely, that if there is <i>not enough</i> change to the organism's
surrounding environment (nothing to encourage it to grow and change) it will
stagnate and eventually die off; whereas if there is <i>too much</i> environmental
change at once, it won't be able to adapt quickly enough, and will (well, like
we said) cease to exists, "die", "croke", "push up
daisies", you choose the colloquialism. If there was ever
broadsweeping proof as to the veracity of this "econo-evolutionary"
theory, it was surely the film industry of the late 1960s / early 70s. <br />
<br />
The "out of left field" successes of THE GRADUATE (1967) and EASY
RIDER (1969), in coincidental conjunction with a cinematic obituary list of
mammothly budgeted 60s era failures from major studios, among them CLEOPATRA,
PAINT YOUR WAGON, DOCTOR DOOLITTE and STAR! - all geared towards older
audiences, caused a sudden (some would say "panicked" and
"survival based") industry-wide paradigm shift towards a more gritty,
European New Wave-influenced, and (most importantly to studio CEOs)
"micro-budget"-inspired string of films aimed at an emerging youth
and urban demographic market. HELLO DOLLY was out, and THE MINI-SKIRT
MOB, "IT'S ALIVE!" and SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG were in. The
death knell had sounded for the end of the grand scale Cinemascope "Road
Show" epic. And in order to survive this film industry "<i>Age </i>Of
Chaos" one had to adapt, change and grow ... or ultimately fade
away. Nowhere was this harsh new reality felt with more brutal impact
than at the Walt Disney company. A haven of good ol' timey middle-American
family values splashed across the screen of the local Bijou since its inception
(as the "Laugh-O-Gram Studio") in the 1920s, a literal "death
chime" would plunge "The <i>Mouse</i> House" into its own search
for evolutionary survival in the age of the <i>grind</i>house. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">
<br />
One of the most heartrending moments towards the end of the superlative (though
little seen) 1995 documentary, FRANK AND OLLIE, occurs when legendary Disney
Studios animators (and near life long BFFs) Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson -
two of Disney's iconic "Nine Old Men", that core group which worked
on classics such as CINDERELLA, PETER PAN, SLEEPING BEAUTY and more, reminisce
about that fateful day two weeks before Christmas in 1966, when studio founder
Walt Disney, creative surrogate father to them all, unexpectedly passed away
while they were working on the animated feature THE JUNGLE BOOK. One of
the last projects to bear Walt's personal stamp, the public's box office
response to the musical / comedy take on Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories would
help determine the studio's future.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> THE JUNGLE BOOK pulled it off. A financial success, it granted Disney
time to adapt to the present industry-wide environmental shift. But that
evolution would, as is also often the case in the biological world, be
traumatic and painful. Over the next few years the studio, for a<span style="font-family: inherit;">while </span>under the leadership
of Walt's brother and business partner, Roy O. Disney<span style="font-family: inherit;">; then with R<span style="font-family: inherit;">oy's son / Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney, at the helm,</span></span> cranked out a series of
films - among them THE LOVE BUG, THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES (starring
recurring young Disney star Kurt Russell), THE ARISTOCATS, and BEDKNOBS AND
BROOMSTICKS, all of which closely adhered to Disney cinematic tradition.
And while financially successful, they came to carry a surprising (and not so surprising,
in the era of SHAFT, THE GODFATHER, DEATH WISH, and ENTER THE DRAGON) stigma of
the "corny 'G' rated kiddie film" which audiences came to be
embarrassed to admit that they'd seen. This perception phenomena backed
up on the studio and came to color it in the eyes of many as the industry's
version of the once great ballplayer now become an anachronistic has-been
unable (or unwilling) to face the realities of the modern era.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIoUIOVHS4GU6vadL47UaliwnfblpxROlMD-rJ3m0qFFo78LL9XYyjBSzsc-G95AAZaujwxnrkt37AEelmHqwyJ5ItYG6aokSs8s0ZD894eHj-lhilkOm0A9UzaK47YFp2qN2oBGC04g/s1600/InDisExecsRe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIoUIOVHS4GU6vadL47UaliwnfblpxROlMD-rJ3m0qFFo78LL9XYyjBSzsc-G95AAZaujwxnrkt37AEelmHqwyJ5ItYG6aokSs8s0ZD894eHj-lhilkOm0A9UzaK47YFp2qN2oBGC04g/s1600/InDisExecsRe2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(L to R) Roy O. Disney, Roy E. Disney, Card Walker, Donn Tatum, Ron Miller</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> T</span>he fate of the Disney empire over
the next decade fell primarily into the hands of four men - the aforementioned Roy E.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Disney, along with </span>Card Walker, Donn
Tatum and Ron Miller<span style="font-family: inherit;">. Miller was Walt's</span> son-in-law, and perhaps best
known to many as the producer of PETE'S DRAGON, the original ESCAPE TO WITCH
MOUNTAIN and FREAKY FRIDAY, then much later THE BLACK HOLE, NIGHT CROSSING, TEX, TRON<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and THE BLACK CAULDRON</span>. While the
quartet certainly managed to keep the company's head financially above water,
without Walt's personal vision, over time a creative stagnation <span style="font-family: inherit;">began to</span> set in, leading
to a slew of admittedly enjoyable, but ultimately redundantly puerile titles
such as SNOWBALL EXPRESS, THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS, GUS, HERBIE GOES TO
MONTE CARLO and THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE dominating <span style="font-family: inherit;">the</span> release slate.
Even the studio's animated features of the 1970s, such as ROBIN HOOD, while
lauded for technical craft, were critically derided for what many
perceived as a lack of creative spark.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy44SF0GPnz2v69lLHHXfJwQIW3afitl2SgUJXuVbFWiUXN0I32oF4zr52PPTc9_WxJAqMfNUxcVSl_k-04plhSOiwZ4iYsYou_xCVEsoz9UfEfgMLJCH_kWUpendl4mAGUDlUcaLQ5B8/s1600/InAnimatorsRe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy44SF0GPnz2v69lLHHXfJwQIW3afitl2SgUJXuVbFWiUXN0I32oF4zr52PPTc9_WxJAqMfNUxcVSl_k-04plhSOiwZ4iYsYou_xCVEsoz9UfEfgMLJCH_kWUpendl4mAGUDlUcaLQ5B8/s1600/InAnimatorsRe2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">70s era Disney "rejects" (L to R): Don Bluth, Brad Bird, Henry Selick, Tim Burton</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Disney's artistic cred (and attendant stock market standing) would bounce back
considerably in the early 1980s with the founding of Touchstone Pictures and
it’s more adult oriented titles such as SPLASH, RUTHLESS PEOPLE, and DOWN AND
OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS. But in the meantime it's 70s era stagnation -
anathema to an organism's survival, led to the departures of not only some of
the studio's best and brightest new talent; among them animators Don Bluth
(who'd go on to found his own company with THE SECRET OF N.I.M.H. and AN
AMERICAN TAIL), Brad Bird (later of THE IRON GIANT and THE INCREDIBLES), Henry
Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, CORALINE) and Tim Burton, but also to
the resignation of Roy E. Disney himself, who'd later return in the early 80s
("<i>in the knick of time</i>" as it were) with a consortium of "white
knight" investors to save the studio from a hostile takeover attempt.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br />
<i>Common </i>knowledge says the 1970s was the era of the Disney studios' great
creative "malaise"; and that it truly didn't mature into the
risk-taking creative juggernaut we now know it to be until those early 80s
titles such as SPLASH, NEVER CRY WOLF and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
jolted it from a self-induced near comatose slumber. But years before the
studio officially "grew up", it <i>already had</i> with a one shot
cinematic "hail mary" pass; in retrospect perhaps it most daringly
original film of the decade. Not a financial hit, it would go into
hibernation for over 30 years, sporadically poking it's head out of the
darkness to make an appearances on Disney TV then for a short time on VHS,
before vanishing back into the shadows of its winter cave, only to be
rediscovered in that vast treasure land known as late nite cable TV. <br />
<br />
In that same 70s era, when many legends of classic Hollywood (both in front of
and behind the lens) where considered "out of vogue", this same film,
along with a handful of other "forgotten" Disney vaulted treasures,
would help to keep those cinematic gems "in the creative loop" until
the next rotation of thematic trend - the retro fad days following the release
of STAR WARS, once again made them and their brand of old school films and film
making technique popular and profitable. The aforementioned film would be one
of the first from a major studio to question Hollywood's mostly up-till-then
"pure white" (both literally and figuratively) depiction of American
history's treatment of its Native Americans. And it would also offer
cloaked commentary on the then controversial war in Vietnam. Yeah,
seriously, a Disney movie! And oh yeah, it would also manage to be a
nift-i-ly enjoyable big screen / big sky western adventure, integrating into its
narrative one of the most amusingly obscure parts of true life American
military history. It was 1973's ONE LITTLE INDIAN.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Now THAT's one hell of an intro! And well
deserved for a film which deserves far greater exposure. For, as we’ve stated
before, streaming is wonderful, but many cinematic gems (for various reasons)
have yet to make the leap to NetFlix, Hulu, Blu-ray or even DVD. In fact some
have never been released in ANY home video format. And many which DID have long
since gone out of print and become high priced collectibles. For this reason,
in this age of streaming, we not only saved those DVDs, but old school VHS
tapes / players and DVD burner; and love to return "to the vaults" to
relive old faves.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> In the post Civil War American west, a military
prisoner with hands bound behind his back – U.S. Calvary Corporal Clinton Keyes
(MAVERICK and THE GREAT ESCAPE’s James Garner), attempts escape on horseback
before he’s recaptured by Sgt. Raines (western stalwart Morgan Woodward),
roughed up, then brought to Fort Dorado where he’s to face the hangman’s noose
for mutiny and desertion. Keyes crime,
it is later learned, is that he turned on his own platoon and sought to help
Native American women and children who were being indiscriminately cut down by
U.S. soldiers during November 1867’s infamous “Battle On The Red Fork” – one of
the darkest episodes of history’s “Great Sioux Wars”. As the institution of the reservation system
continues under General George Crook, various Cheyenne are also herded into the
fort – one of them at first believed to be a young Indian boy. But when it is discovered that he is in fact
a white child (frequent John Wayne co-star Clay O’Brien) taken in and raised
years prior by the Cheyenne, he is baptized and given the name “Mark” by the
chaplin, who’s task it is to oversee the lad until arrangements can be made to
deliver him to an orphanage.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Determined to make it back home to his Cheyenne
mother, Mark escapes Fort Dorado in the dead of night, then ventures into the
harsh desert valley where the next day he encounters Keyes, who’s also taken
flight from the compound, using as his escape “vehicles” two camels (<i>yes, camels; stay with us!) –</i> a mother named
“Rosie” and her calf, because of it’s ironic and constant pursuit of water,
dubbed “Thirsty”. Unable to send Mark on
his way (if the posse pursuing Keyes find the boy, he may be forced to tell
them in which direction Keyes is heading), but also unable to escort Mark to
his Cheyenne village home, Keyes agrees to take his new young traveling companion
with him towards a new life south of the border in Mexico. En route they engage in a series of hair
breathed escape adventures while eluding Raines’ relentless posse, and they
cross paths with widowed homesteader, Doris McIver (PSYCHO’s Vera Miles) and
her young daughter, Martha (a ten year old Jodie Foster), the two of whom may
alter not only Clint and Mark’s traveling plans, but their life course as well<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>On the surface a mash-up of tried-and-true
Disney filmic (even formulaic) traditions – a combo of the studio’s nature
films (a’la THE LIVING DESERT and THE VANISHING PRARIE), animal / friend yarns
(OLD YELLER, THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY), and live action retro adventures (TREASURE
ISLAND and SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON), the “Mouse House” would, with ONE LITTLE
INDIAN – cleverly scripted by (most times) horror scribe Harry Spalding (of THE
DAY MARS INVADED EARTH and CURSE OF THE FLY), take a nod from other recent
iconoclastic genre outings such as 1969’s sci-fier PLANET OF THE APES (a deliberate
genre parallel to McCarthyism and the Civil Rights Movement) and Robert
Altman’s 1970 war satire M*A*S*H (set in Korea but analogous to Vietnam). As with those two earlier films, ONE LITTLE
INDIAN would use its pulp story format as a mask, then launching pad, from which to
make comment on current social issues and concerns of the day. As for the camels? … </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> A nifty piece of obscure American military
history. In 1855, a pre Civil War
Jefferson Davis (future President of the Confederate States of America), after
being appointed Secretary of War by U.S. President Franklin Pierce, assigned
army Major Henry Wayne to travel to various nations along the Mediterranean /
Mid East in order to procure 33 camels and return them to the U.S. for usage in
desert warfare – the animals being much more hardy pack beasts than
horses. While partially successful in
the Southwest, the experiment was abandoned a few short years later because a)
the camels constantly spooked the military horses, b) they could be
temperamental at the most inappropriate of times, and c) the outbreak of the
American Civil War caused such experiments to be viewed as extraneous
extravagances.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> In ONE LITTLE INDIAN, Keyes, familiar with the
camel corps, takes Rosie and Thirsty as his pack animals when he’s unable to
access a pair of horses under guard in the stables. The growing bond between him, Mark, Rosie and
Thirsty (from desperate need to grudging respect to bonafied family) forms the
emotional core of the story, which in time also comes to include the possible
familial additions of both Doris and Martha<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> One of the most surprising and impressive
aspects of this “before it’s time” / more grown-up Disney adventure is how, as a
“conscientious objector” to what he perceives to be an “unjust war” against an
indigenous population, Garner’s Clinton Keyes is a period stand-in for the 60s
/ 70s Vietnam War protestor: more than a bit of him taken from inspirational
sources as varied as real life boxer Muhammad Ali (who refusing the draft in
1966 famously stated, “<i>I ain’t got no
quarrel with them Viet Cong; no Viet Cong ever called me Nigger</i>”), </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">to the
fictitious returning Vietnam vet turned freedom fighter BILLY JACK in <span style="font-family: inherit;">a</span>
series of four popular films from 1967 – 1977.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLzEFMRP9t4aG0sC26m6dnB37DRH1jAjyzkAgQiacwuM85reQrFQA9FhIepj-qkGNpfWgHT23zcgQfiuY2H6XSGuBKAbfZPXLC7gE405KLSVQuLA24qJqZwZ5lohvNtCZzaG9PHbC04ts/s1600/In14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLzEFMRP9t4aG0sC26m6dnB37DRH1jAjyzkAgQiacwuM85reQrFQA9FhIepj-qkGNpfWgHT23zcgQfiuY2H6XSGuBKAbfZPXLC7gE405KLSVQuLA24qJqZwZ5lohvNtCZzaG9PHbC04ts/s1600/In14.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ONE LITTLE INDIAN's setting: the institution of the reservation system under U.S. Gen. George Crook</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> As with the BILLY JACK series, hugely popular at the time
of ONE LITTLE INDIAN’s production, so would Disney’s latest draw inspiration
from one of the most lauded publications of the day – Dee Brown’s 1970 treatise
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE<span style="font-family: inherit;">. While actually taking it's lead from Helen Hunt Jackson's A CENTURY OF DISHONOR (origi<span style="font-family: inherit;">nally published in 1881, then </span>briefly reprinted in<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 1964), WOUNDED KNEE - a</span> </span>comprehensive history of Native Americans </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">in
the American West of<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>the 19th century, would, for all intents and purposes, come to be <span style="font-family: inherit;">regarded by</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">the modern wor<span style="font-family: inherit;">l<span style="font-family: inherit;">d as </span></span>that which for </span>the first time<span style="font-family: inherit;"> told the history of the "American Indian Wars" </span>from the
Native American perspective<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> A <span style="font-family: inherit;">social and political powderkeg<span style="font-family: inherit;">, it's publication, coinciding with the American Civil Rights and Black Panther movements, </span></span></span>would </span></span></span></span>fly in the face of decades of “James
Fennimore Cooper”-<span style="font-family: inherit;">esque</span> film and TV depictions of American Indians as “savage<span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span>barbaric raiders” in need of Christian conversion<span style="font-family: inherit;"> (that conversion <span style="font-family: inherit;">ofte<span style="font-family: inherit;">n coming</span></span> </span>at the end
of a gun barrel<span style="font-family: inherit;">), <span style="font-family: inherit;">throw fuel onto <span style="font-family: inherit;">the already smoldering discontent of a younger generation's<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;">mistrust of it's leade<span style="font-family: inherit;">rs, and </span></span></span></span></span></span>help balanc<span style="font-family: inherit;">e</span> the scales of public opinion<span style="font-family: inherit;"> by</span> bringing to light the
(hitherto <span style="font-family: inherit;">unknown to many)</span> injustices
inflicted upon America’s original indigenous<span style="font-family: inherit;"> citizens</span> by an ever encroaching
invading populace <span style="font-family: inherit;">which firmly believed</span> in it’s self-fulfilling prophecy of “Manifest
Destiny”.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Published three years after the founding of AIM (the
American Indian Movement) – established to address American Indian sovereignty
and leadership, as well as issues of racism and police brutality against Native
Americans, WOUNDED KNEE (both the book and the 1890 massacre which inspired
it’s title) would in turn inspire the near two and a half month “Occupation of
Wounded Knee” standoff in early 1973 between members of AIM and U.S. Marshalls:
the occupation in protest of the failure to impeach Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation President Richard Wilson.
Wilson was accused of corruption and the violent mafia-like “silencing”
of political opponents. And members of
AIM felt their protests to the U.S. government, concerning Wilson’s abuses, had
fallen upon deaf ears.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hpLMaaZ18obyDDcuAAhv2cLBOhXdnTHuxmhEg4tlYAEXjaffKmRkTlZPqhP1uCTKAz0vVdw7sK7n3Rc96u3fmM2PAJdZSFNOBj-Ns2wRMeUNQQ7J5KbfZT-IUCfwKwV9xYFth3ZqyLY/s1600/In1890-73re.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hpLMaaZ18obyDDcuAAhv2cLBOhXdnTHuxmhEg4tlYAEXjaffKmRkTlZPqhP1uCTKAz0vVdw7sK7n3Rc96u3fmM2PAJdZSFNOBj-Ns2wRMeUNQQ7J5KbfZT-IUCfwKwV9xYFth3ZqyLY/s1600/In1890-73re.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wounded Knee, South Dakota: (Left) December, 1890 (Right) April, 1973</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Rallying in
support behind AIM’s occupation were public figures as varied as Johnny Cash,
Marlon Brando, ACLU Civil Rights lawyer William Kunstler, and political
activist / feminist Angela Davis. In
fact, Brando – the Oscar favorite to take home the Best Actor trophy for THE
GODFATHER, in protest refused to attend <span style="font-family: inherit;">the 45th Academy Awards</span>
ceremony in March of that year<span style="font-family: inherit;">;</span> he instead giving his invite to Apache actress
Sacheen Littlefeather, who, while collecting his award, gave an impassioned
speech in favor of AIM, and against Hollywood’s, mostly up to that time,
depiction of Native Americans in popular film and television. </span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_JbJq__rUr43FP0XASDorFcND9KrVLm-dC04n_ZeTKdJBJ_n6cjKTTYEY09NMewbtESo2Ng90tHoqS3McjAQsUyBRmvuhccDIsMdX15QhRh9h6HC_6tsgKs0cKBBv4qLmo75bYIU6BDM/s1600/In13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_JbJq__rUr43FP0XASDorFcND9KrVLm-dC04n_ZeTKdJBJ_n6cjKTTYEY09NMewbtESo2Ng90tHoqS3McjAQsUyBRmvuhccDIsMdX15QhRh9h6HC_6tsgKs0cKBBv4qLmo75bYIU6BDM/s1600/In13.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">45th Academy Awards / March 27th, 1973</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Three months after both the end of the Wounded Knee
standoff and Sacheen Littlefeather’s Oscar speech, the already completed ONE
LITTLE INDIAN, with its serendipitous and up to date analogies to WOUNDED KNEE
and Vietnam, debuted on <span style="font-family: inherit;">June 20th, 1973.</span> More serendipitous than perhaps intended as,
at the time of the 1970 publication of BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, the
parallels between the atrocities carried out by some military personnel during
the “Plains Indian Wars” and those by American military in Vietnam were brought
to the fore of the evening news during the court-martial trials of 14 U.S.
officers convicted in the premeditated mass killings of 350 – 500 unarmed
Vietnamese women and children in what has come to be called the “My Lai
Massacre”.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ot22lyEu3scrCgFoYp4etKOvlFlGJLVEQ4DpVT03Iq7RBKDS-gzXlhb7jpydO1212473aT0DUWXMtYMvAMBvrgXZ8XEv2zA4KfsxZu3rRAwjr47sDTzTTzUdAy3uJLZ5hzENc6qqQ1s/s1600/In3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ot22lyEu3scrCgFoYp4etKOvlFlGJLVEQ4DpVT03Iq7RBKDS-gzXlhb7jpydO1212473aT0DUWXMtYMvAMBvrgXZ8XEv2zA4KfsxZu3rRAwjr47sDTzTTzUdAy3uJLZ5hzENc6qqQ1s/s1600/In3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Of the 14 officers tried, only one, 2LT William L. Calley
Jr., was convicted. His original “life
sentence” was commuted to “house arrest” two days later by then U.S. President
Richard Nixon, and he was later granted parole on the grounds that he was
“merely following orders” in the "My Lai" actions in which he was involved. Telford Taylor, an American military lawyer
involved in the WWII Nuremburg trials, and who also opposed Senator Joseph
McCarthy, stated that paroling Calley based on the defense that he was
“following orders” flew in the face of precedents firmly established during
both the Nuremburg and Tokyo War Crimes tribunals<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>This same “My Lai” double standard would be examined in the
1974 film sequel THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK, wherein Billy, a “conscientious
objector” soldier of the same Company C, 1st </span><span style="line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none;">Battalion</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">, </span><span style="line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none;">20th Infantry
Regiment</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">, </span><span style="line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none;">11th Brigade</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the 23rd</span>
Infantry Division</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> at "My Lai", exactly like Clinton Keyes in
1973’s ONE LITTLE INDIAN, turns on his own platoon then later faces military
charges because of his actions. In an
era where it was surrounded by more innocuous Disney releases such
as THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE (1971), NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON’T (’72), THE
WORLD’S GREATEST ATHLETE (’73 - a wonderful film, by the way!), HERBIE RIDES
AGAIN (’74) and THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD (’75), ONE LITTLE INDIAN would
stand out as arguably the studio’s (while perhaps thematically cloaked behind western pulp
adventure) most socio-politically daring offering before or since<span style="font-family: inherit;">;</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">i</span>t to this day remaining a fascinating, <i>and
fascinatingly good</i>, head-scratcher of a “<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">H</span>ow did this ever get made?</i>” piece of
film making.</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkon39Zky3FQtF4cobXvyC1e-YhXJr5s4lItAb0ax7oOfPBeHtUw7XlFEDbc2ZhrhsbIxFHvyUuhgyjKCZSopBtyTXMDZw4aNTfRqy-tOwDNDwZeqWWGt-pYAwYOiz6mzDAbd_rwwh_s/s1600/InPoBig+Soldier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkon39Zky3FQtF4cobXvyC1e-YhXJr5s4lItAb0ax7oOfPBeHtUw7XlFEDbc2ZhrhsbIxFHvyUuhgyjKCZSopBtyTXMDZw4aNTfRqy-tOwDNDwZeqWWGt-pYAwYOiz6mzDAbd_rwwh_s/s1600/InPoBig+Soldier.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vietnam's "My Lai" Massacre and it's fallout revisited in the early 70s Western: LITTLE BIG MAN / SOLDIER BLUE (both 1970)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Born into a dynasty of classic Hollywood film makers, ONE
LITTLE INDIAN’s director, Bernard McEveety (1924 – 2004), was the brother of
Emmy winning director Vincent McEveety (tv’s THE UNTOUCHABLES, STAR TREK,
GUNSMOKE, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., MURDER SHE WROTE) <span style="font-family: inherit;">and 2nd</span> Unit
Director Joseph McEveety (SON OF FLUBBER, MARY POPPINS, THAT DARN CAT!),<span style="font-family: inherit;"> as well as</span>
the uncle of producer Steve McEveety (IMMORTAL BELOVED, BRAVEHEART, THE PASSION
OF THE CHRIST). Primarily known as a TV
director on shows such as CHARLIE’S ANGELS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, EIGHT IS
ENOUGH, KNIGHT RIDER, and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, he’s perhaps best<span style="font-family: inherit;"> remembered</span> as
one of western tv’s most prolific helmers on classics such as THE BIG VALLEY,
BONANAZA, RAWHIDE, WILD WILD WEST and GUNSMOKE – a background which would serve
him well when making the leap to the big screen on films such as Walt Disney’s
live action animal adventure NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA (starring a young Michael
Douglas and child star Jodie Foster) then ONE LITTLE INDIAN. </span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtukejUzmCCVxpVXd96X3rmO6CytdhOczg4fbDb17gnT8_iXl3XB0_oQfc6FKM8oukQSky4_pII-kAZlidil-kXbU962v22cgDdUc7vERuDg4SStuSqel6SCJMh7t2_lYwS8s6Mz46o9k/s1600/InPoJack+Wales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtukejUzmCCVxpVXd96X3rmO6CytdhOczg4fbDb17gnT8_iXl3XB0_oQfc6FKM8oukQSky4_pII-kAZlidil-kXbU962v22cgDdUc7vERuDg4SStuSqel6SCJMh7t2_lYwS8s6Mz46o9k/s1600/InPoJack+Wales.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Vietnam's "My Lai" Massacre and fallout revisited in the early 70s Western: THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK (1974), THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976) </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> After the earlier mentioned industry wide “paradigm shift”
- where the smash successes of lower budgeted youth and urban oriented films signaled (what many at the
time believed to be) the “death knell” for practitioner / artists of “old
school” cinema, a few small studio based “reservations” (if you will) for the
newly displaced populace of older actors, directors, writers and composers
began to spring up<span style="font-family: inherit;">. T</span>he two most popular “grazing grounds” of the day <span style="font-family: inherit;">were</span> 1)
Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson’s “American International Pictures” -
producers of, among many genres, the lush period set Roger Corman / Edgar Allen Poe films starring elder statesmen Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and <span style="font-family: inherit;">Vincent </span>Price alongside young Turk
“method” actors like Jack Nicholson and Mark Damon. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> And 2) Walt Disney Pictures, which, in addition to providing non-TV work
for displaced stars such as James Garner<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and</span> Vera Miles (who’d co-star with Garner a
second time in Disney’s THE CASTAWAY COWBOY – 1974), also became a 70s era film in<span style="font-family: inherit;">dustry </span>roos<span style="font-family: inherit;">ting place of a sort for </span>others such as Ray Milland (ESCAPE TO
WITCH MOUNTAIN), <span style="font-family: inherit;">David Niven</span> (CANDLESHOE), <span style="font-family: inherit;">Ha<span style="font-family: inherit;">rry Morgan</span></span> (THE APPLE DUMPLING
GANG) and B<span style="font-family: inherit;">ette Davis</span> (RETURN TO WITCH MOUNTAIN)<span style="font-family: inherit;">. <span style="font-family: inherit;">The "Mouse House"</span> w</span>ould also prove a haven for
classically trained and award winning music composers, who, e<span style="font-family: inherit;">lsewhere,</span> now found their brand
of orchestral accompaniment supplanted by pop tune soundtracks, <span style="font-family: inherit;">and themselves often forced</span> back into the realm of television<span style="font-family: inherit;"> - </span>where many of them had originally begun
their careers.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n4LBx4fQXOBk093KsffkurSlRQMn3oefj6D25vhLdBGmwIDFOLnDQeSanVN80hRFUuo3WUvi4ezhBxSORn1PzmdZP4cMCUb4_JAFjmOOw-SV-F_OnNmk1ybVdCpZ6hQtpNT07-3wqhA/s1600/In31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n4LBx4fQXOBk093KsffkurSlRQMn3oefj6D25vhLdBGmwIDFOLnDQeSanVN80hRFUuo3WUvi4ezhBxSORn1PzmdZP4cMCUb4_JAFjmOOw-SV-F_OnNmk1ybVdCpZ6hQtpNT07-3wqhA/s1600/In31.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Jodie Foster (center) and Vera Miles (far right)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> While the bulk of Disney film scores during the 70s (and
into the very early 80s) were the estimable results of studio music department
“Go-to Guys” George Bruns (101 DALMATIONS, THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR, THE
JUNGLE BOOK, THE LOVE BUG) and Buddy Baker (THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG, THE SHAGGY
D.A.,THE FOX AND THE HOUND), a handful of features would “step outside the gene
pool” in search of a more edgy tone and vibe not usually associated with the
Disney banner. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> At a time when Oscar
winning composer Maurice Jarre (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO)’s most
prestigious work was for TV on mini-series such as JESUS OF NAZARETH and
SHOGUN, Disney would seek his “grand escape to other civilizations” sound for
their lost world saga ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974) and Robinson
Crusoe-like update / retrofit THE LAST FLIGHT OF NOAH’S ARK (1980). The legendary stylings of PINK PANTHER, PETER
GUNN, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S maestro Henry Mancini would lend an air of
sophistication to the spy spoof CONDORMAN (’81). And composer Wendy Carlos (A
CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE SHINING) would give an “electro classical” sense of
otherworldliness to 1982’s trendsetting adventure TRON.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDyfzVSZzgVlS_-zxjiKmRKo5vHbTY1-m1G2n9_3ECv37tM6_Wkc7Hw_q-yflfU24IIUjL8cJbd8NTM1gZmmAzLbCSVRoYVRGHzS-48VNkRRMuVdp-llQMupPEGB75X-zDiflI2Svdzg/s1600/InGoldsmith1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDyfzVSZzgVlS_-zxjiKmRKo5vHbTY1-m1G2n9_3ECv37tM6_Wkc7Hw_q-yflfU24IIUjL8cJbd8NTM1gZmmAzLbCSVRoYVRGHzS-48VNkRRMuVdp-llQMupPEGB75X-zDiflI2Svdzg/s1600/InGoldsmith1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jerry Goldsmith (1929 - 2004)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> One of the most distinctive cine-musical voices to emerge
from the 1960s was that of composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929 – 2004). Known amongst both film music aficionados and
“casual” movie fans for classic scores such as PATTON, PLANET OF THE APES,
CHINATOWN, COMA, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, ALIEN, POLTERGEIST, GREMLINS,
HOOSIERS, RUDY and AIR FORCE ONE, he began his career with the early TV series
CLIMAX, PLAYHOUSE 90, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DR. KILDARE, PERRY MASON and THE MAN
FROM U.N.C.L.E., then became particularly renowned throughout the decade of the
60s for a series of scores to popular westerns the likes of RIO CONCHOS, HOUR
OF THE GUN, BANDOLERO!, 100 RIFLES and the 1966 remake of STAGECOACH. As did Maurice Jarre, so did Goldsmith, during
the days of 70s era “youth oriented cinema”, find his most prestigious work to
be in the new idiom of the mini-series (or “novel for television” as they were
originally called) on projects such as QB-VII and MASADA.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLu-5xlMzIigchyphenhyphenBgui-bthh98VsyxMTYZytXkjdiU08DLOPs5EkTb2805UAMdBe0Q4bqaZShOVORUVfuLHqHptnCdhkBaxYOJG3aoTHIyk-mZvxGc7cpq0fwoSs7pUOuG8-8X-HrA6kw/s1600/In27redo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLu-5xlMzIigchyphenhyphenBgui-bthh98VsyxMTYZytXkjdiU08DLOPs5EkTb2805UAMdBe0Q4bqaZShOVORUVfuLHqHptnCdhkBaxYOJG3aoTHIyk-mZvxGc7cpq0fwoSs7pUOuG8-8X-HrA6kw/s1600/In27redo.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pat Hingle</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Seeking that more “edgy tone” removed from the standard
Disney sound of Buddy Baker (who was actually one of Goldsmith’s music
professors at L.A. City College), ONE LITTLE INDIAN’s producer Winston Hibler (KING
OF THE GRIZZLIES, ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD) and director Bernard McEveety
(who’d teamed earlier with the composer on the 1971 Peter Falk / Vic Morrow TV
movie caper film A STEP OUT OF LINE) brought Goldsmith on board INDIAN in the
hope of capturing a rawness, less like the Copland-esque vibe Elmer Bernstein
had given to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and TRUE GRIT, and more akin to the jagged,
sun-blasted energy with which Goldsmith had infused RIO CONCHOS, RIO LOBO and
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ttfSg14r1eA3-V_Wj0b2kqAprRRMOAKk3Zoabmp_-r0nCrkwQ2xh1maA_0CWZI2Bx2JUdgR69m9V-RCGVKu6woVxiJgjWJrxNYqU3xHQ1GQ7cwz5A_Nxy7PDhrDvzzYUu52sjPkBxXI/s1600/In37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ttfSg14r1eA3-V_Wj0b2kqAprRRMOAKk3Zoabmp_-r0nCrkwQ2xh1maA_0CWZI2Bx2JUdgR69m9V-RCGVKu6woVxiJgjWJrxNYqU3xHQ1GQ7cwz5A_Nxy7PDhrDvzzYUu52sjPkBxXI/s1600/In37.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morgan Woodward</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Not only would ONE LITTLE INDIAN become a “reservation” for
old school talents such as Goldsmith – who within a few short years would
return to big screen glory with THE OMEN, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, THE SECRET OF
N.I.M.H., STAR TREK, and FIRST BLOOD, but also for acclaimed Director of Photography
Charles Wheeler (DUEL AT DIABLO, SILENT RUNNING), Production Designer LeRoy
Deane (ROBIN AND THE 7 HOODS, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER), and a powerhouse
cast<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Joining acting s</span>talwarts Garner, Miles and Woodwar<span style="font-family: inherit;">d<span style="font-family: inherit;">, ONE LITTLE INDIAN features performances by </span></span>character
actor favorites Pat Hingle (HANG ‘EM HIGH, THE GAUNTLET, NORMA RAE, Tim
Burton’s BATMAN) as Fort Dorado’s world weary commanding officer Gapt. Stewart,
John Doucette (TRUE GRIT, PATTON) as Sgt. Waller, Bruce Glover (DIAMONDS ARE
FOREVER, CHINATOWN) as Schrader<span style="font-family: inherit;">, and</span> THE LONE RANGER’s Tonto himself, Jay
Silverheels, as tracker Jimmy Wolf<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span> </span></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f4OSVksM2nerSAVSswyBoeilWpnIqAj0zzkJH26znyIvwdufXUN6gZqmo_wAAwNeSfsYm5Y8aRBRw02ex-spocX0oBFjs-TzQ_qYcdrBLJOYcFyvx6LTT_zbQukncxo1nxkF2o-u1-M/s1600/In35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f4OSVksM2nerSAVSswyBoeilWpnIqAj0zzkJH26znyIvwdufXUN6gZqmo_wAAwNeSfsYm5Y8aRBRw02ex-spocX0oBFjs-TzQ_qYcdrBLJOYcFyvx6LTT_zbQukncxo1nxkF2o-u1-M/s1600/In35.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jay Silverheels</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Andrew Prine (GUNSMOKE, WAGON TRAIN,
BANDOLERO!) <span style="font-family: inherit;">would appear</span> as Chaplin John Kaplan<span style="font-family: inherit;">. <span style="font-family: inherit;">B</span></span>udding child star Jodie Foster
(Disney’s NAPOLEON AND SAMANTHA, FREAKY FRIDAY and CANDLESHOE) <span style="font-family: inherit;">would make one <span style="font-family: inherit;">of her earliest appearances as</span></span> Martha McIver<span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span>daughter of Vera Miles’ widow character, Doris McIver<span style="font-family: inherit;">. A</span>nd Clay O’Brien (THE
COWBOYS, CAHILL: U.S. MARSHAL) would star as the titular “One
Little Indian” himself<span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span>Mark. An actual cowboy since childhood, O’Brien would
eventually leave film to return to <span style="font-family: inherit;">that first</span> love<span style="font-family: inherit;">. T</span>o date he <span style="font-family: inherit;">continues to </span>hold the unbroken
record of most Team-Roping Championship wins<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Shot by D.P. Charles Wheeler mostly on location in Kanab,
Utah, in a gorgeously encompassing 1:85:1 apsect ratio (one wonders what the
exteriors would look like converted to today’s IMAX), ONE LITTLE INDIAN is
(with the exception of a few seconds of embarrassingly dated processed “close
ups” of Garner and Woodward at high gallop) a technical tour de force. While esthetically not as violently “revisionist”
as that era’s Peckinpah outings - THE WILD BUNCH and PAT GARRETT & BILLY
THE KID, or Ralph Nelson’s SOLDIER BLUE (it <i><span style="font-family: inherit;">is</span></i> a Disney family film after all),
INDIAN is thematically, and impressively, very much of a kind with Arthur
Penn’s earlier LITTLE BIG MAN (1970) and Clint Eastwood’s later THE OUTLAW
JOSEY WALES, often erroneously cited as two of the first major Hollywood studio
films to take a more fair handed look at America’s historical treatment of its
indigenous citizenry. More correctly they were amongst THREE of the first, with
the release of ONE LITTLE INDIAN sandwiched between them in 1973. </span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhCSYAp6PF5l54sD1sMv_nBk9qKTJSJJEHo3j1Dl3dDrM3PX86zVkOkwMq1XkTn0ITrRTlCV8E62PqrUHR6H2SgvPR18qX8QQeQKvw8ojBRGZEY3uIk0biZpm65TD8rgEzLbGFte0wYQ/s1600/In24redo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhCSYAp6PF5l54sD1sMv_nBk9qKTJSJJEHo3j1Dl3dDrM3PX86zVkOkwMq1XkTn0ITrRTlCV8E62PqrUHR6H2SgvPR18qX8QQeQKvw8ojBRGZEY3uIk0biZpm65TD8rgEzLbGFte0wYQ/s1600/In24redo.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Prine</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Released on <span style="font-family: inherit;">June 20th</span>, 1973, and surrounded on
all sides by box office behemoths such as THE EXORCIST, LIVE AND LET DIE, PAPER
MOON and DEATH WISH, the modestly promoted ONE LITTLE INDIAN didn’t make as
much noise as hoped at theater cash registers that summer. Three years later it would be split into two
parts and aired over consecutive weeks as part of the WALT DISNEY’S WONDERFUL
WORLD OF COLOR tv series. Then it would
disappear, not showing up on any home video medium until it’s “pan & scan”
VHS debut in 2000 courtesy of the Starz! / Anchor Bay label. Over the next few years, while occasionally
airing late nights on the newly rebranded basic cable “Disney Channel” of the
day, the only way to catch a <i>commercial
free / widescreen</i> broadcast of the film was via airings on Showtime
Networks’ “The Movie Channel”, which at the time had recently cemented a deal
with Disney for “sub-runs”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> -</span> the airing of theatrical versions of films which
had already experienced standard network or syndicated <span style="font-family: inherit;">play</span>. <span style="font-family: inherit;">Via a DVD recorder t</span>his is how we obtained <span style="font-family: inherit;">our </span>copy of what was then an<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>unobtainable Buried Treasure.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> In 2004 however, Disney released a digitally remastered
series of “first time on DVD” titles – among them SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY
COMES, THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS, ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD, THE BLACK
HOLE, and ONE LITTLE INDIAN<span style="font-family: inherit;">. And w</span>hile not “frame by frame” restored, they were taken
from the best film and audio elements available and transferred into stunningly
realized presentations. Some Blu-rays
don’t look as good. Many of those same titles, INDIAN among them, have also
very recently been made available for streaming (both in standard and HD
versions) via Amazon Instant Video and other outlets.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Between 1982 – ’83, under Ron Miller’s leadership, Disney’s
first <i>official</i> “breakthrough” films
in its evolution towards capturing older audiences via more mature thematic
content, were TRON, TEX, NEVER CRY WOLF, RUNNING BRAVE, SOMETHING WICKED THIS
WAY COMES, and the comedic mystery TRENCHCOAT.
And it’s corporate (and creative) evolution and rebranding would be <i>officially</i> cemented with the 1984
founding of the studio’s Touchstone Pictures distribution arm with titles such
as SPLASH and RUTHLESS PEOPLE. <i>Unofficially</i> however, its first foray into “mature territory” was over a decade prior with the still impressive
western adventure / drama ONE LITTLE INDIAN.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjihMjAkDA0GziI4GN1W8l047x51tmgVpQ9-cLzEpfs12LNz8gdnRI4GXSO-r5eHNiDT7ny0hYrR2xxdNaS689NM4-INUN-sEVap9_CWIY66aIOShXbYtQpOltlB3dqpow8ZBSkBOYnWAM/s1600/In26redo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjihMjAkDA0GziI4GN1W8l047x51tmgVpQ9-cLzEpfs12LNz8gdnRI4GXSO-r5eHNiDT7ny0hYrR2xxdNaS689NM4-INUN-sEVap9_CWIY66aIOShXbYtQpOltlB3dqpow8ZBSkBOYnWAM/s1600/In26redo.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Now, don’t get us wrong, don’t come away from this thinking
ONE LITTLE INDIAN is a dark, dour, uber serious and self-important
socio-political treatise on Native American relations in post-Civil War
America. It isn’t at all. It’s rather a light hearted, engagingly pulpish,
family friendly outdoor adventure with a handful of laughs and just as many
heart tugging moments. You might say, it’s “tried and true Disney fare”. And <span style="font-family: inherit;">this "creat<span style="font-family: inherit;">ive subterfuge"</span></span> is, to us at least, what sets it
apart from other <i><span style="font-family: inherit;">actual </span></i>“tried and true Disney fare” of the day. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> In the same way say the original PLANET OF THE APES can simultaneously be viewed <span style="font-family: inherit;">by</span> a child
as an enjoyably fanciful sci fi adventure, <span style="font-family: inherit;">yet also by</span> an adult as an
intriguingly clever commentary on the current state of social affairs, so does ONE
LITTLE INDIAN carry off this same act of cinematic / thematic sleight of
hand. With each viewing one discovers
more and more hidden subtext, until one day you watch it while cooking dinner,
and when Woodward stands before Capt. Stewart, and gives as his excuse for his
obsessive actions in hunting down Keyes that he “… <i>was merely following
orders</i>”, you suddenly realize, … “<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Good Lord</span>! It’s the 'My Lai' court
martial!</i>”.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> That sort of thing is what <span style="font-family: inherit;">tak</span>es a merely “fun” film and transplants it to the land of the true cinematic Buried
Treasure. <span style="font-family: inherit;">W</span>ell worth the
effort to find and unearth<span style="font-family: inherit;">, ONE LITTLE INDIAN, is no longer the "missing" (and fo<span style="font-family: inherit;">r<span style="font-family: inherit;">gotten) </span></span>link in the Disney studio's evol<span style="font-family: inherit;">ution to filmic maturity. It's an important part of the studio's <span style="font-family: inherit;">cinematic</span> genome. </span></span>Give a look-see. We think you'll agree. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="userContent"><span class="text_exposed_show">Copyright © 2015 Craig Ellis Jamison. All rights reserved. </span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent"></span>Craig Ellis Jamisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396912853879194544noreply@blogger.com0