I'm loving the renaissance that is happening with Australian films at the moment. Our films have never looked crisper or more powerful. It's been a long journey through the cultural cringe-factor... Australia's waves of filmmaking have travelled through exploitation, high-brow drudgery, parody, and derivative adherance to tried-and-tested formulas. Now it feels as if the country has come full circle and can just make great films without feeling the self-conscious need to always be aware of our cultural standpoint as filmmakers. It's becoming okay to make a piece of artistically-sound cinema that also entertains... the prevelance of torrent and other filesharing technologies (and the internet in general) now means that people all over the world can have access to films that were previously restricted by their geography. This means that Australian films like The Square, The Loved Ones, Animal Kingdom, etc, can be easily watched by American or British film fans when they read a recommendation for such films on websites like aintitcoolnews.com. As much as Australia bemoans the rise of piracy as a nail in it's film industry's coffin, I think it actually helps amplify word-of-mouth as a force for getting the attention of critics and distributors, and in the long run can be quite beneficial to grassroots and genre filmmaking.Animal Kingdom is a cold, bleak operatic film noir that builds on the promise of previous Aussie crime drama The Square. It starts out by juxtaposing the reality of suburban life with the grottiness of the criminal underworld in a suitably low-key fashion, depicting the film's tight-lipped 'hero' J (James Frencheville) as he calmly calls his aunt to inform her that his mum has just died of a heroin overdose. Meanwhile, his mum lies cold and prostrate on the lounge while a gameshow plays on the telly. Soon enough, Animal Kingdon's credits roll and stirring, mournful music swells over screenshots of armed robbers captured on CCTV footage. This pretty much sums up the film; the sublime and the seedy merging as one. It's a beautifully shot movie that examines the lowest echelons of our society - much like a documentary that seeks to objectively chronicle the predators of the animal kingdom in all their violent nature.
After the death of his mum, J goes to live with his aunt Janine (Jacki Weaver) and her sons, the Cody boys. The eldest of these sons is Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn), currently in hiding due to his role as ringleader in a series of armed robberies. The Codys are helped by their friend and 'colleague' Barry (Joel Edgerton), who becomes a kind of substitute father-figure to J. In J we see this family of career criminals through the eyes of a newcomer - his monotonous, unsensationalised narration serves to further highlight the documentarian aspects. Things have been getting harder for the Codys, these guys have gotten so far with what they do, defying the law of probability by staying alive and uncaptured. Barry knows their time is up - the odds are against them if they continue their lives of crime, so he's trying to break the cycle. It's not a moral choice, more a case of simple survival - the Codys are like great leopards stalked by careful hunters (the police), and if they're to survive they need to change their spots (and as the adage goes, leopards generally aren't great at that). This metaphor couldn't be any clearer than in one slow-motion scene where Pope and his younger brother wrestle playfully on the couch, pawing each other like a pair of cubs.
It can be hard adjusting to the idea of J as the protagonist... as far as heroes go he's positively non-existent, led through the film by other characters like a numb cypher. He's characterised by the apathy of youth that - in reality - sees many kids fall into lives of crime. He's directionless and without a moral compass. More importantly, he doesn't seem to have the predator instinct of his cousins, so his chances of survival aren't as strong. Guy Pearce rounds out the film as the film's counterweight - a laidback detective and family man who might just be J's salvation. His role in the film is relatively small but important, and Pearce does a good job of grounding the character with a realistic level of machismo and weariness.
The other key points in the cast are Edgerton, Weaver and Mendelsohn. Edgerton is great but also understandedly underutilised. Jacki Weaver shines as the matriarch of the family, bringing a subtle and disturbing Oedipal touch to her relationship with her sons, and coming into her own in the film's last act. Mendelsohn absolutely steals the film as Pope... there are echoes of his memorable role in the mid-90s film Idiot Box, but Pope has a bit more presence and depth. He's like a coiled snake, poised to strike and with the hooded eyes of a cobra. There's an undertone of ever-present menace to his performance that matches the film's themes... the ideas of a predator's instinct, survival, and that a life of crime is always accompanied by a fluctuating level of fear. It's Mendelsohn's performance that unexpectedly drives much of the film... the last half an hour or so plays like a strange combination of tense and relaxed. It's a realistically eerie feeling that put me on the edge of my seat. A large part of this is also down to the nongratuitous depiction of criminal violence - the acts of violence in this film are often sudden and unglamourised. The film doesn't swim with blood, but when something happens you feel it all the more due to the illusion of realism.
Animal Kingdom is definitely a must-see.
DIRECTOR: David Michod
WRITER/SOURCE: David Michod
KEY ACTORS: Ben Medelsohn, Jacki Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frencheville, Dan Wyllie
RELATED TEXTS:
- As mentioned above, there are more than a few thematic and structural similarities between this film and Joel Edgerton's crime opus The Square. - The character of the dodgy lawyer Ezra White (played by Dan Wyllie) was previously featured in the short film Ezra White, LL. B. also directed and written by David Michod.
- The melbourne criminal underworld that forms the basis for Animal Kingdom also inspired the smash-hit Australian TV series Underbelly.
- Animal Kingdom can be viewed as the latest and most sophisticated entry in the subgenre of modern Australian crime films - a wave that can be traced back to the more humour-based Two Hands and Idiot Box. Other notable films in the genre include Gettin' Square, The Hard Word (also starring Joel Edgerton and Guy Pearce), The Combination, Cedar Boys, Noise, Dirty Deeds and Chopper.
AWARDS
Won a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival.
Funny can be very subjective, so save yourself the trouble - if you don't find one of these guys funny, I get it, I know there's no accountability for taste. These are just 10 film characters that crack me it and make me lose it.
Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) Wayne's World, Wayne's World 2
What began life as a sketch-comedy character on SNL would be immortalised in film forever with the Wayne's World movies - two of the most pop-iconic films of the 1990s. Part meek-sidekick, part headbanger, and part mad scientist, Garth's interjections into the Wayne's World films are awkward gems of false bravado.
QUOTE (whilst playing with his food): Hey Mr. Donut Man, who's trying to kill ya? I don't know but they better not!
Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) Napoleon Dynamite
I realise Napoleon has been done to death and almost quoted into oblivion, but nothing will ever change the impact he had on me the moment I first saw him. Napoleon is a mixture of all the weird kids you ever met at school... kids unaware of things like embarrassment or the difference between 'cool' and 'uncool', kids who live in their own little world and deal with almost everything in an inappropriate manner. The collision of Napoleon with the real world is all too familiar for me, and I can't help but laugh with every 'GOSH' and 'IDIOT!'
QUOTE: You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I'm pretty good with a bo staff. 
Grim Reaper (William Sadler) Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
One of the greatest characters of all time! Everything the Grim Reaper says and does pretty much cracks me up. At first he seems relentless, playing game after game against Bill and Ted in order to claim their mortal souls, but after losing too many times in a row he resigns himself to being in their power. He spends the rest of the film as their sidekick... at first unwillingly so, but then he gets into the swing of "being excellent to one another" and eventually he even joins their band on bass duties. The Grim Reaper (or Death, as Bill and Ted sometimes refer to him) so desperately wants to be cool that it's hard not to both pity and mock him.
QUOTE (on his contribution to the building of 'good robots' Bill and Ted): Don't forget me, I made the wigs.
Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Making an unlikely film debut here (he would seldom do comedy roles again) as class clown and all-round stoner Spicoli, Sean Penn steals nearly every scene he's in. He's the epitomy of the likeable stoner, and every smartarse answer he delivers seems so buzzed out and sincere that you can't help but smile. The right kind of school-days nostalgia.
QUOTE (asked the reason why he is late to class): I just couldn't make it on time. 
Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell) Anchorman
Moments before he got his own successful comedy vehicle (The 40-Year Old Virgin) Steve Carrell was scene-stealing his way through Will Ferrell's own blockbuster, Anchorman. As the borderline-retarded weatherman Brick Tamland, Carrell's various unpredictable replies to fairly straight-forward questions continue to amuse me time after time when I watch this film.
QUOTE: Where'd you get those clothes from, the toilet store? 
Johnny 'Spit' Spitieri (David Wenham) Gettin' Square
David Wenham's portrayal of gentle junkie Johnny Spitieri is just about the best thing in this Australian Lock, Stock-style gangster film. His memorably derro-fied delivery of lines, bewildered slack-jawed look, and snazzy thongs-and-stubby combos indented the character onto the consciousness of a country - even to the extent of winning the AFI award for Best Actor. Spit's court-appearance would have to go down as one of the funniest scenes ever committed to celluloid in Australian film history.
QUOTE: Your honour, who's gonna pay for my busfare?
Rodney Farva (Kevin Heffernan) Super Troopers
In a film chock-full of hilarious characterisations, Farva would have to be the biggest standout. The film builds up to Farva's appearance for the first half hour or so, eventually yielding to show us one of the biggest dickheads to ever get himself a police badge. We're told that Farva is on suspension for something involving a busload of school kids, and when his state trooper duties are finally reinstated they last all of a brief few hours. Despised by his colleagues, Farva throws away every chance to be liked, always taking things too far and always ready to act like a real prick.
QUOTE: Just cleaning out the old locker, she stinks like ass but I'll sure miss her... I guess you could say that about all my girls. 
Otto (Kevin Kline) A Fish Called Wanda
Kline holds his own against two of the Python lads in this classic 80s comedy-crime caper. Otto is an intellectually-insecure glorified-thug amongst the Brits, an over-sensitive bully, imbecile, and all-round American egomaniac. Whilst it's not an entirely new feat, Kline's winning of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his inspired work here is nevertheless a vindication of great comedy-acting everywhere. Like most of the turns mentioned here, this is another scene-stealer.
QUOTE: You are the vulgarian, you fuck. 
Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) Borat
No doubt there are some groans from some people reading this right now, but Cohen's comic creation is too good to pass over. I've been laughing myself silly at Borat's interactions with the public since I first saw him on an Ali G DVD more than six or seven years ago, and this film had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Borat brings out the worst in dumb rednecks everywhere, rampaging across America, poking fun at stereotypes and going where no comedian has dared go before. A-plus stuff!
QUOTE: Look, there is a woman in a car! Can we follow her and maybe make a sexy time with her?
Withnail (Richard E. Grant) Withnail and I
Richard E. Grant's breakthrough role remains one of his best. As the title suggests, Withnail drives a lot of this film and shines in every scene he is in (which is pretty much every scene). In this meloncholy comedy of displaced debauchery, Withnail is the comedy to the protagonist's (the 'I' of the title) meloncholy. A drug-addled, alcohol-fuelled, scene-chewing and cowardly force of nature... Withnail is one of the best characters to ever grace the screen, and one of my favourite things about one of my favourite films.
QUOTE: I have a heart condition. If you hit me, it's murder.
And that's 10!
Feel free to talk about your own funniest characters.
Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford star in this bizarre and peverse work of supreme irony by early horror maestro Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks). Alonzo (Chaney) is an apparently armless knife-thrower in a Spanish gypsy circus who yearns after the ringmaster's daughter, Nanon (Crawford). In reality howevere, he's some sort of murderous criminal who must pretend he has no arms in order to disguise his distinguishing (and weird) double-thumb. Malabar, a good-natured strongman (played by Norman Kerry), also doggedly pursues Nanon, but she has a near-pathological hatred of being touched by hands (originating from her experiences of men 'pawing' over her). This is ideal for Alonzo's armless disguise, and as he starts to get closer to Nanon it leads him to take rather drastic measures.
The Unknown is a short, tight and twisted fairytale. The way the film uses and builds suspense is quite accomplished, though anyone squeamish about wilful amputation may want to avoid it altogether. The sense of anticipation and dread made me feel quite sick as the action that Alonzo takes is quite shocking. The subsequent scenes where he realises he has made a big mistake is superbly played out upon his face - the ambivelance couldn't be clear or more excruciating to watch. Lon Chaney is absolutely mesmerising in this role, his face is so controlled or convincing. He also cuts a memorable figure as the armless villain, gliding around in a dark cape and almost always accompanied by his strange, dwarven sidekick.
This is a silent-era classic that combines romance and horror in an effortless and entertaining fashion. A strange and unique film.
DIRECTOR: Tod Browning
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Waldemar Young from a story by Tod Browning, titles written by Joseph Farnham. Based on a book by Mary Roberts Rinehart
KEY ACTORS: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Norman Kerry, Nick De Ruiz, John George
RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel K, written by Mary Roberts Rinehart in 1915 is considered to be the inspiration for The Unknown.
- Director Tod Browning and Lon Chaney also made London After Midnight the same year that they made The Unknown. It's a silent vampire film and has been considered lost since 1965.
- Tod Browning's later film, Freaks, also concerns carnival folk.
I have to admit that there was very little about this film that appealed to me. The idea of a big-scale disaster blockbuster starring John Cusack does not excite me in any way whatsoever, so the film had an uphill battle to fight just to get me interested. It lost.
Basically, the year is 2012 (meaning that the Mayan calendar is ending... why this would be of relevance to anything isn't exactly clear) and so the world is ending in th most cataclysmic of fashions. The Earth cracks open and tsunamis start destroying everything. John Cusack is Jackson Curtis, a pulp writer tho forsaw a similar scenario, and he must escort his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their children to safety aboard some government-sanctioned arks in the himilayas that will preserve the surviving members of the human race. Hi-jinks ensue.
Director Roland Emmerich pretty much just remakes his earlier film, The Day After Tomorrow, a film that didn't really need making let alone remaking. Emmerich continues to cement his position as the modern day Irving Allen (The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, The Swarm) - a master of disaster movies. Like Allen, he's also responsible for a more than acceptable share of lame and laughable epics that are high on spectacle and melodrama, and low on substance and audience-engagement.
Firstly, 2012 is overlong. Secondly, there's not nearly enough scenes of hectic destruction. I also couldn't give two craps for the characters... Jackson Curtis is set up for a noble, redeeming death but Emmerich doesn't have the balls to follow through. Instead, the film conveniently does away with his romantic rival, Kate's live-in boyfriend Gordon (Thomas McCarthy) - a man whose corpse is barely cold when Curtis sleazily slips back into his old place as head of the family. Boring!
That just about sums this movie up actually - it's boring and contrived. And at two and a half hours you'll wish the world really would end.
DIRECTOR: Roland Emmerich
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Roland Emmerich and Harold Kloser, inspired by a book by Graham Hancock.
KEY ACTORS: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, George Segal.
RELATED TEXTS
- Emmerich previously made The Day After Tomorrow, a similar film about the world ending and those who survive it.
- 2012 was largely inspired by the non-fiction book Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock.
- A television series follow-up was planned, to be titled 2013, but failed to get to the pilot stage.
- Films, television shows and documentaries about the end of the world are a dime a dozen... look up 'disaster movies' on wikipedia for more information.
AWARDS
Nominated for a handful of special effects and sound design awards at various genre awards ceremonies.
The Glass Key is the fourth of seminal crime writer Dashiell Hammett's five oft-celebrated novels. Written in 1931, it is often said to be the peak of his work as a writer and was believed by Hammett to be his best novel. Hammett is probably best remembered for writing the novels The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, both memorably adapted for film in Hollywood's golden era. Even today, more than 70 years later, The Glass Key remains a snappy and indelibly modern piece of hardboiled detective fiction.
Ned Beaumont (always referred to in the text by his full name, whilst other characters are referred to either by their first or last names), is the right-hand man of a corrupt political boss named Paul Madvig. Madvig has pretensions towards the big time, and is heavily involved with the family of Senator Henry (he is backing the senator politically and intends to marry the senator's daughter). When the Senator's son, Taylor Henry, is found dead in the street by Ned Beaumont, it begins to look bad for Madvig... Beaumont refuses to acknowledge that his boss could be responsible for the murder though, and sets about investigating it in his own laid-back and deceptively careless manner.
In Ned Beaumont, Hammett creates a memorably cynical and sickly (and unlikely) hero. Ned Beaumont gambles, drinks, mocks, takes a few beatings, and uses unscrupulous means to get what's owed to him. But underneath it all ticks an undying loyalty to his friend and boss, Paul Madvig. Despite the novel's seedier elements of casual corruption, crime, and manipulation, Hammett is telling a story of honour amongst thieves - Ned Beaumont retains an inner goodness despite the world he lives and operates in, and the lengths he goes to for his friend speaks volumes about what Hammett places importance on. It's a dirty world we live in, but we can hold a little brightness in it despite our sins and the sins of others.
The Glass Key really impressed me... I was surprised when I learnt how long ago it had been written, the dialogue and prose is really quite crisp and sharp and it seems miles away from other novels of the era (ala The Great Gatsby). It's the sort of novel that defines the word 'hardboiled', and it's easy to see why Hammett was such an influence on his contemporaries (EG. Raymond Chandler). I didn't really see any of the various twists coming, the novel has a kind of elliptical feel to it as Ned Beaumont goes about his everyday business, chasing up seemingly unconnected subplots and shrewdly bumbling from punch to punch. This is a good piece of left-field detective fiction, I really enjoyed it and I look forward to reading Hammett's other novels.
TRIVIA: The Glass Key awards are named after this novel. The awards are based in Scandanavia and have been going since 1992, the award is an actual glass key and is presented to a different nordic writer each year for the best crime novel.
I think Blade Runner is at least important in terms that it pretty much defined what a Director's Cut can be. The controversy surrounding the way Ridley Scott's new cut changed the meanings behind the film still reverberates amongst critics, students, fans and even the cast (Harrison Ford still disputes any notions that his character might be a replicant). That aside, Blade Runner also remains a highly seminal piece of sci-fi film noir, and still looks great some thirty years after its production.
Deckard (Ford) is a semi-retired 'Blade Runner', a detective/bounty hunter-like figure who tracks down and 'retires' rogue replicants. Replicants (derogatorily referred to as 'skin jobs') are human-like artificial life forms (it isn't 100% clear if they are purely robotic or not) with a lifespan of just four years. Sometimes they develop a more than cursory self-awareness and approach human levels of emotional maturity, which can lead them to abandon their designated jobs in favour of free will. This is where Deckard comes in, and in this case he must track down a gang of four replicants who seek a 'cure' to their short lifespans - a mission that will bring him face to face with the enigmatic replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).
There's a lot to consider in Blade Runner. On one level it's a shadowy, gritty film noir with more than a few stylistic nods to the genre... Deckard is a Hammettesque hero in a shabby overcoat, Sean Young plays a femme fatale-ish character complete with 1940s hairdo, and Ridley Scott (for the most part) wisely opts out of futuristic fashion designs in favour of more endurable 'style'-based clothing in order to hit those film noir notes that help keep the tone serious. The future is given a neo-Tokyo look, with Asian diners and multi-level streets. In this sense Blade Runner uses a contemporary but forward-thinking landscape (the real Tokyo) as a template for a realistic-looking future (see Related Texts section at end of review for similar examples). Harrison Ford is also just the right person to keep such a potentially lofty or arthouse experience firmly grounded (witness the sequence where he impersonates the 'morality committee').
Beyond this, Blade Runner also examines the relationship between science and nature. This is a world where animals barely exists (real snakes are said to be ridiculously expensive). Into this gap steps the replicants - the progeny of humankind and the next step in evolution (not the use of the word 'nexus' throughout the film). To make the point clearer, Roy Batty even howls and moans like a distraught wolf at one point.
Then there's the idea that Deckard might be a replicant himself... we're never really told anything about his past, his family photos look downright inachronistic for some unexplained reason, and then there's all that stuff with the unicorn (nevermind the fact that one of the other characters challenges his ability to determine if someone is a replicant or not, quote "Did you ever take that test yourself?") The line is further blurred via the relationship between Deckard and Roy Batty in the respective hero and villain roles. Deckard is shown unheroically shooting a female replicant in the back as she tries to escape from him - she never tries to kill him, and her only crime is to be an escaped replicant. The line is further muddied in the final scenes, with the film reversing the trope where the hero is shown saving or trying to save the villain. Deckard is left confused by the film's climax - it's less a man finding his humanity and more a case of someone who had their very existence shaken to the core. In my mind, Deckard is clearly a replicant.
So why did Ridley Scott stop making films like this in favour of more by-the-numbers productions with widespread appeal (EG. Robin Hood, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven, etc, etc)? His impending return to the Alien franchise doesn't seem to be a very promising indication of any kind of creative renaissance. Blade Runner however is a beautiful piece of exciting science fiction that ruminates on mortality, playing god and identity. There aren't many other films that approach the same level of synthesis between legitimate mainstream thriller and intelligent sci-fi concepts. It's quite simply one of the best science fiction films ever made.
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, based on a book by Philip K. Dick.
KEY ACTORS: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah, M. Emmet Walsh, William Sanderson, Brion James, James Hong
RELATED TEXTS:
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the novel on which the film is based.
- The design of the futuristic cityscape (and it's basis on a real, existing city - in this case Tokyo) and the influence of cutting-edge Japanese modern culture is something that would also be used as a template for William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. The more recent sci-fi film Code 46 does a similar thing by using the already futuristic-looking Chinese city of Shanghai as a backdrop.
- The combination of a strong, pre-existing film genre (film noir) with heavy sci-fi concepts is a clever way of packaging that would also be used for Christopher Nolan's Inception (which combines the heist film with metaphysical sci fi-based concepts).
- Roy Batty's menace, intelligence, elegance and self-awareness echoes the creature from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Both Blade Runner and this book are used for comparative studies in the Australian-NSW Year 12 school syllabus.
- I imagine Luc Besson wrote his first draft of The Fifth Element not too long after seeing Blade Runner for the first time - the way Earth is portrayed in The Fifth Element (hovercars, grubby multi-level cities, Asian food merchants) leans very heavily on the look of Blade Runner.
- J.M.'s (William Sanderson) replicant-workshop can also be seen as an influence behind all sorts of telefantasy... two that come to mind are Heroes (the puppet-guys lair in Season 3) and Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (the store room full of half-broken robot clowns).
AWARDS:
Nominated for two Academy Awards (best visual effects and best art design).
Nominated for 8 BAFTAS (almost all editing and design-based awards), of which it won three awards (cinematography, costume design and art design).
Nominated for a handful of awards with other ceremonies (primarily for cinematography).
This is the first film version of the popular semi-fictional 1940s novel. It might be a bit more fondly remembered if it hadn't been eclipsed by The King and I, the classic musical version made 12 years later. As it stands, Anna and the King of Siam is an entertaining piece of character-play about cultural difference and notions of civilisation. It's by no means a masterpiece, but it's still an interesting film nonetheless and fans of golden age Hollywood will find it appealing.
Partially based on real events, the film follows Anna (Irene Dunne), a teacher and a widow who travels to Siam in the 19th century after being hired as a governess to the children of King Mongkut (Rex Harrison). Upon arrival she finds that the King is too busy to see her, and doesn't remember promising a house for her to live in. Anna is a somewhat stubborn woman of principle though, and rather than leave she decides to stick it out until the King learns a valuable lesson in following through on his promises. This struggle is just the tip of the iceberg though, and the two lock horns again and again, with Anna becoming teacher to the King as well as his children.
I wasn't really sure how to take this film at first - I mean, is it about cultural differences or enducating savages? The film seems to start out as a piece on cultural misunderstanding, but the presence of Rex Harrison in yellowface and Irene Dunne's indominitable spirit seems to imply a lesson in successful colonialism at the expense of South-East Asian culture. I think it's pretty safe to say that there wont ever be a resurgence of interest in this film due to the yellowface and shades of imperialism, though the film isn't actually as backwards as you might think. Anna and the King of Siam looks at the ways that less 'advanced' countries must adapt and modernise to survive the onslaught of european colonialism. The film examines a time when Siam was threatened by expanding European interest, and lays it sympathies firmly within the King's court. However, there's still something patronising about the concept of Anna coming to teach children but ending up with the King as a student as well - especially when as Rex Harrison with an affected Thai accent and his eyes taped up to look Asian.
Dunne plays Anna as a headstrong woman out of her depth in a strange foreign land. She clings to her morals for lack of any other anchor, but also knows when to embrace a helping hand. Much of the film plays out the clash of wills between the petulant childlike King and this educated, independent woman. It ups the ante with the fact that "women do not exist here". The role of women in this society is something approaching a slave-caste, and Anna clashes with the King's favourite wife as a result - though Dunne does a good job of not overdoing it too much, perhaps mindful that the audience's sympathy is a somewhat grey area in a film like this. Lee J. Cobb however (a tall and burly character actor better known for playing bullies) is a ridiculous choice as the Siamese Prime Minister - he does his best but he's grossly miscast. Rex Harrison, despite the politically incorrect nature of his performance, is highly entertaining as the king. He's characterised as two men, a traditional king of Siam as well as a new world man of learning who seeks to modernise his country in order to save it. It's almost safe to say that the only reason to watch this film is due to Harrison's presence.
HIGHLIGHTS: The King's interaction with European emissaries at a dinner party is hilarious ("she is very ugly").
LOWPOINTS: Unfortunately, this film contains one of the most drawn out, overly dramatic death scenes ever.
I was never really that much of a fan of the original Clash of the Titans, I always preferred the 70s Sinbad films or Jason and the Argonauts. So I can't say I really got all that excited about this CGI-heavy reimagining of the original film. With that in mind, it's probably also the reason why I wasn't too disappointed by it as I had fairly low expectations. It's pretty mindless stuff, but I can see how it might be of enjoyment to people who have an interest in Greek mythology or just like to watch monsters getting smashed and things like that. However, having said that, there is still a lot wrong with this movie.
Perseus (Sam Worthington) is the an orphaned fisherman's son. His adoptive family are all killed when the god Hades (Ralph Fiennes) rains down a violent wrath upon a blasphemous Greek city. An ultimatum is issued to the city by Hades - the king must sacrifice his daughter or they will all die at the hands of a mighty monster called the Kraken. When it is revealed that Perseus is actually the half-mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), the cityfolk look to him to lead a quest that will enable him to defeat the Kraken. Mythological adventure ensues.
I think the main problem with Clash of the Titans is the overload of CGI... the continuing appearances of an endless parade of monstrous friends and foes renders a lot of the spectacle rather unspectacular. Some of the designs are quite interesting (the witches and the Kraken come to mind) but overall I just found it all a bit too charmless. It's high on action, but low on just about everything else. Sam Worthington, with his anachronistically shaven head, looks like he just stepped off the set of his previous movie and couldn't give a stuff. It also doesn't help that the overly dramatic dialogue often comes off as awkward and self-conscious... note the scene where Perseus refuses the call to adventure, "I mend nets, not wield a sword". It's delivered so seriously that you can practically hear the screenwriter smugly tapping away at his keyboard ("That's our soundbite for the trailer!") despite how awkward it sounds. It would've been infinitely better the other way around, "I don't wield a sword... I mend nets!" as an incredulous exclamation befitting a more realistic character - as opposed to a lazily-designed big 'hero' moment.
That brings us to Worthington himself . As Perseus, he makes for a boring and uninspiring hero. It's a shame because his pre-Hollywood roles in Australian films like Sommersault, Macbeth and Gettin' Square were pretty damn good. He's yet to deliver on the promise of these performances on the world stage though, so it's easy to understand why most viewers might find him a bit of a non-event. He's supported by a cast of interchangeable supporting heroes with interchangeable beards, who could be played by just about anyone. Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson provide memorable-enough God-duties as Hades and Zeus respectively, with Fiennes working hard to distance himself from his work as similar fantasy villain Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. I guess I can't really hold a grudge against anyone too much as no one is really watching this film for the acting. It was good to see Pete Postlethwaite with a few lines.
There's some stuff about man rebelling against the tyranny of the Gods that might've made for interesting commentary on the role of religion in society, but the film isn't much interested in being anything other than a straightforward adventure. It might've had a bit more bite if the writers and director had decided to add some dimension to it, but for all my criticism I think it's easily as good as the original Clash of the Titans. That's not saying this is a great film, but if you like watching things like a bunch of guys chucking spears at giant scorpions, this is a pleasant enough way to pass the time.
DIRECTOR: Louis Letterrier
WRITER/SOURCE: Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, based on the screenplay of the original film written by Beverley Cross.
KEY ACTORS: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng, Pete Postlethwaite, Elizabeth McGovern, Danny Huston.
RELATED TEXTS:
- Closely based on the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, fondly remembered as the last film special effects god Ray Harryhausen worked on.
- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was another adventure film based on Greek mythology also released in 2010.
- Force of the Trojans is an unmade sequel to the original film that was proposed in 1984.
- Jason and the Argonauts is another classic Ray Harryhausen film that deals with Greek mythology.
Lord of Misrule is a revised and expanded new edition of Christopher Lee's prevous autobiography, Tall, Dark and Gruesome. The first autobiography was written in the late 70s when Lee was almost into his 60s. The guy is now about 88... I guess he never expected to have achieved so much in the autumn years of his life. He doesn't seem to be letting up either, in the last decade he has become more famous than ever (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), reaping the rewards of a long and celebrated career in horror and cult films with several big name directors honouring his achievements by enlisting his talents for a whole new generation to enjoy.
Lee starts off his story by examining his noble roots (Lee is descended from a line of Italian Counts) but doesn't shy away from the more scandalous aspects of his upbringing (his parents seperated when he was fairly young, something that wasn't really done in it's day, and he never really knew his father as a result). Lee also talks of his time as an officer in World War II, where he served in the Special Operations Executive (a kind of Special Intelligence arm of the military). Lee took a long time to turn to acting, and his height and gaunt features often held him back, but eventually - through perseverance and a willingness to act in non-English speaking films - he managed to gain a footing in the business and carved out a niche for himself. The rest of the book deals with his various adventures in the screen trade, the multitude of strange films and places he has found himself in, and his various achievements outside of the cinema (when Lee gets a hobby, he doesn't do it by halves!)
Lee is a gifted writer. There's no denying this... he's obviously an incredibly intelligent man with a vast array of accumulated knowledge at his command. At times, he can seem a little pompous or arrogant (and let's face it, if anyone has earned the right to be full of themselves - it's probably Christopher Lee), but he offsets this with an affected self-depreciating tone which is at once both endearing and amusing. He's also quite frank and unafraid to broach certain subjects that most other actors would be shy about it - at one point he even sheepishly discusses how he lost his virginity!
And just to show you why Lee is such an amazing guy, here's some quick bits and pieces...
- He holds the record for appearing in the most films (well over 200).
- He's a classicly-trained singer (in the opera mode) and has done guest vocals for an Italian power metal band.
- He's related to Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.
- He can speak eight languages!
- He reads Lord of the Rings once a year, and has met J.R.R. Tolkein
- He holds the record for the most swordfights on screen.
- He is an honorary member of at least three stuntman unions.
- He is counted as one of the best amateur golfers in the world.
- The Guinness Book of Records cites him as the 'Tallest Leading Actor'.
- He is a big fan of the American power metal band Manowar.
- He has played Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Mummy, Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Moriarty, Fu Manchu and the Jabberwocky.
If Christopher Lee couldn't write for crap, or if this book had been ghost-written, it would still be an amazing book due to the diverse and eclectic nature of Lee's career. But, as it stands, it's also amazingly well-written - probably the best writing I've ever read by an actor - so that makes this a must-read for film fans. The guy's a goddamned legend.
Based on a famous unfinished play by German playwright Georg Buchner, Woyzeck is the third of five collaborations between director Werner Herzog and crazed acting powerhouse Klaus Kinski. The play's fragmentary nature (due to being unfinished) lends itself quite well to Herzog's style as a director - his enigmatic emphasis on tone and feeling ensures that it comes across as a finished, self-contained film, helped in great spades by Kinski's disturbingly realistic performance.
Woyzeck (Kinski) is a military rifleman in a serene 19th century European town that sits on the shore of a small lake. He is mistreated by just about everyone - his superiors overwork him and bait his intellect, the academically-aspiring town doctor experiments on his diet by making him eat only peas for an entire year, and his wife is having an affair with the army's dashing drum major (she says to Woyzeck, "I'd rather have a knife in my body than your hand on me"). Woyzeck is a simple, poor man just trying to hang on, but when he is confronted with his cuckolded nature it begins to look like he won't be able to take it anymore, and the disembodied voices he hears in his head start to get louder.
At first I wasn't quite sure what to make of Woyzeck, a lot of it consists of characters philosophizing about the meaning of life, morality, God, fidelity, sanity, etc. It's not a very long film, Herzog keeps it relatively tight in terms of scope and length but also lets the plot and characters breathe via the wandering, reflective dialogue. It's not a boring film by any stretch of the imagination - a lot of the viewer's attention is attracted to the bizarre magnetism of Kinski's astounding performance. Woyzeck is a harried, preoccupied creature... so incapable of coping with the barrage of casual mistreatment he recieves that his stress renders him strangely absent. From the very outset he's fighting a losing battle with his sanity... an effect achieved by Kinski and Herzog thanks to an exhausting shooting schedule.
The film was shot in just 18 days, with minimal takes, and was also made immediately on the back of their previous film, Nosferatu, at Kinski's insistence. Ever the method actor, Kinski also asked for the rough treatment seen in the film's opening moments to be 100% real - allowing the other actor to kick and beat him for the sake of getting inside this abused character. There's a point in the film where the drunken drum major tries to fight Woyzeck in the alehouse (around the 51 minute mark) and for one brief moment it seems as if Kinski is literally trying to escape into the camera, suggesting a level of method acting that has become so pure that the real Kinski might disappear altogether. When Woyzeck cracks (and we know it's coming for the majority of the film), it's simply amazing. Herzog lets the restorative incidental music return after a long absence and shows Woyzeck's brutal actions in beautiful slow motion - a shocking and cathartically abrupt change of pace from the film's otherwise realistically languid tone, and one that allows for the horror and trauma on Kinski's face to be captured and stretched across time.
That's another great thing about this film - the wheezing, robust European folk music during the opening credits. It comes back again at certain points, and it swells the film in such unexpected ways. It's very memorable. Herzog keeps his camera fairly still and unobtrusive for much of the film, choosing instead to linger on prophetic and symbolic moments such as a trained monkey in a soldier's uniform, or Woyzeck vacantly clasping an abused cat to his chest. I imagine this film would reward a lot on repeat viewings, especially in regards to Kinski's performance - a lot of which can be summed up in a quote taken from Woyzeck himself, "Every man is an abyss - you get dizzy looking in".
DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog
WRITER/SOURCE: Based on a play by Georg Buchner, adapted by Werner Herzog.
KEY ACTORS: Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, Wolfgang Reichmann, Willy Semmelrogge, Josef Bierbichler, Paul Burian
RELATED TEXTS:
- Woyzeck has been adapted many times - as an opera, as plays, puppet shows, songs (Tom Waits), ballet, musicals, and various films. Werner Herzog's version is unarguably the most famous film adaptation - the other most prominent film version was made in 1994. An english-language student film was also made in 2009.
- Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog made four other films together - Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde. At least two or three of these also deal with a descent into madness.
- Herzog also made a documentary about his explosive relationship with Kinski during the making of these films, called My Best Friend.
- Herzog has also made several other films that deal with the line between madness and sanity, including Signs of Life and Stroszek.
AWARDS:
Eva Mattes won an acting award at Cannes for her work in the film. Herzog was nominated for Best Director at the same film festival.
The film won two other awards at minor European film awards festivals (best director for Herzog, and best actor for Kinski).
Let's face it, a nostalgic all-star action megamix movie was bound to happen sooner or later. Echoing the autumnal dream team-ups of once-big names in films like The Professionals, The Wild Bunch and Wild Geese, Sylvester Stallone attempts here to recapture the glories of 80s action epics like Commando and Rambo: First Blood Part II by assembling a who's who of ego-heavy muscle-men. The result could've been a pointless mess ala Righteous Kill, but Stallone's genre-experience in front of and behind the camera ensures a level of dedication and know-how to help make such an audacious project a success.
Barney Ross (Stallone) leads the Expendables, a mercenary team who get hired to do all the dirty jobs in a variety of tyrannical and lawless third-world countires. After a routine mission in Somalia sees one of the team dismissed (Gunner, played by Dolph Lundgren), and some reconnaissance on the South American island of Vilena doesn't go exactly to plan, Ross begins to have doubts about his lifestyle and the role of the Expendables. Urged on by Ross' inner demons, it isn't long before the team decides to head back to Vilena to overthrow the corrupt government and rescue the girl he has fallen for, with typically explosive results.
The plot is almost ridiculously straight-forward: action heroes are sent on mission to kill and destroy an ex-CIA man (Eric Roberts) and his puppet dictator (David Zayas, best known for his role as a latino gang boss in the TV series Oz). But hey, no one is watching this film for it's plot, are they? The emphasis is on the larger-than-life cast of characters, cheesy dialogue, and over-the-top action. It's knowingly paint-by-numbers, Stallone has purposely avoided a complicated plot (or any kind of plot at all) because he knows exactly what this film is about. It's camp in exactly the right way... lots of tongue-in-cheek male posturing, some great lines, and a bunch of cool set pieces strung together by some quieter character moments. The action is fun, inventive and very visceral - there are some shocking moments of incredible violence that highlight this film's intentions as an exploitative throwback. No one will watch this film expecting realism or responsible ethics, and Stallone is smart enough to realise this - he goes all out to give the fans exactly what they want. It's no coincidence the Stallone-starring hit hatrick of The Expendables, Rambo, and Rocky Balboa also all happen to be films that the actor also wrote and directed. For the first time in a long time he's now in complete creative control of his films, and The Expendables is the exciting culmination of this.
It's not a perfect film - I think it could've taken the concept a whole lot further, but it's certainly a firm step in the right direction. The time is ripe for a return of these kind of tongue-in-cheek, big event action films, and I'm excited to hear that Stallone has begun prep-work on an Expendables sequel. Aside from Stallone, The Expendables features entertaining turns from Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts and Jet Li, as well as a now-infamous and very entertaining scene that puts Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis all on the screen together. Rumour has it that Willis will have a larger role in the next film, and here's hoping that Stallone can rope in some more fading big action names like Chuck Norris, Steven Segal, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan or Jean-Claude Van Damme into the next film. I guarantee at least one of those guys will show up, and it will be glorious.
DIRECTOR: Sylvester Stallone
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Sylvester Stallone and David Callaham.
KEY ACTORS: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Coutere, Eric Roberts, Jet Li, Steve Austin, David Vayas, Charisma Carpenter, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Daniels.
RELATED TEXTS:
- The team-on-a-mission action film subgenre was pretty much started by The Dirty Dozen, and is echoed in films as diverse as The Wild Bunch, Inglourious Basterds, Wild Geese, Kelly's Heroes and The Delta Force.
- The film also owes a close stylistic debt to 1980s and early 1990s action films such as Commando, Predator, Missing in Action, Die Hard, The Specialist, Lethal Weapon and a whole host of others.- Machete is another nostalgic/exploitative action film made at the same time as The Expendables, and also featuring an almost unbelievable all-star cast.
It's got a cheesy look about it, and it's clearly a supposedly 'whacky comedy' much in the vein of those late 70s/early 80s madcap chase films like Cannonball Run or the 60s comedy opus It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The plot is simple - various people from all sorts of walks of life are sent on a cross-country race to claim a prize of $2 million. There isn't much more to it than that, each 'contestant' comes across various obstacles on the way whilst a Las Vegas tycoon (John Cleese) and his rich cronies hold bets on who will win. It's an ensemble piece in the most classical sense, being that no character is particularly given any more screen time than another, and that no character is any more or less sympathetic than another (with the possible exception of the Cleese character being an absolute scumbag).
I'm not gonna bag out this film (though it would be quite easy to do) because I think it's great to see that films like this can still be made. The cast features a great cross-section of talent (including Seth Green, Rowan Atkinson, Wayne Knight [Seinfeld's Newman], Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Lovitz) and they all fulfil their roles more than adequately. The jokes don't always work, but it's a style of comedy that doesn't get much of a run these days, so most of the time it's at least amusing as opposed to out-and-out hilarious.
Basically, it's a fun ride. Be entertained by the witty collection of characters and what they come up against.
HIGHLIGHTS: Personally, I found the busload of I Love Lucy fans to be a crackup. John Cleese also stands out as the flippant and greedy money-man.
The Van is the third and final book in Roddy Doyle's much-acclaimed Barrytown trilogy, a sequence of entertaining books (starting with The Commitments and The Snapper) that focus on the Rabbitte family - a characteristically motley Irish family who live on the outskirts of Dublin. Like the previous book in the trilogy, The Snapper, this novel pretty much focuses on the father of the family, the gruff but loveable Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. Also like The Snapper, reading the other books in the trilogy isn't really required to enjoy this cautionary tale about going into business with a close friend.
The Van introduces us to a post-job Jimmy, reduced to reading library books and mowing the lawn in light of his recent retrenchment. He's had to swallow his pride some, and does his very and most cheerful best in the face of running a large family on welfare. When his best friend, Bimbo, finds himself out of work too he suggests to Jimmy that they get a van and run a fish and chip shop out of it.
Like Doyle's other Barrytown novels, it reads like an engaging conversation with your best mates - time flies and you'll be finished before you know it and then you'll be sorry that it's over. Doyle stretches his use of prose here, breaking even further from his initial all-dialogue style and adding depth to his characters. Jimmy is as entertaining a protagonist as ever, and the supporting cast are very well-rounded too. The Van has a slightly more melancholy touch than Doyle's previous Barrytown books and it can be a bit downbeat at times, but this just makes the laughs in the upbeat parts all the bigger. It's a shame there are no further books featuring the Rabbittes, I was very sad to say goodbye to Jimmy and his family. He really is one of my all-time favourite literary characters.
The Van was shortlisted for the Booker prize, marking a real step towards critical recognition for Doyle and the astonishing good work he was doing in literature. Never has a 'serious' literary work been so entertaining, moving and laugh-out-loud funny and I find it very reassuring to know that so-called 'low' art can sometimes be appreciated for it's value by those who often claim to be in the know about this kind of thing. Go read this book... you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll laugh.
A deadset certified gangster classic... Angels with Dirty Faces definitely deserves it's 'classic' status. Of all the pre-70s gangster films I've seen, this is probably the best. Starring James Cagney (who had become a superstar by the time this film was made) and Pat O'Brien, this film also featured a supporting turn by Humphrey Bogart and was directed by Michael Curtiz (who would go on to make Casablanca).
Rocky (Cagney) and Jerry (O'Brien) start their respective paths to adulthood as slum-kids and would-be mugs, getting up to mischief in their local neighbourhood. One day they decide to rob a railroad car and they get sprung... the two young friends run for their lives, but Rocky gets caught. Fast forward a decade or so later and Rocky has become a bonafide gangster, a reform school veteran, ex-con, scourge of the police and hero to the poor kids in his old neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Jerry has become a priest, fighting to keep the same kids off the street in the hope that they won't choose lives of crime.
Rocky has just finished a three-year stint in gaol, and he comes back to the old neighbourhood to collect some stolen loot he left with his crooked lawyer. Rocky meets up with his old friend Jerry, and Jerry encourages the ex-con to help him save the kids - in particular the six young hooligans who have fallen in behind Rocky, hoping to learn the ropes from this gangster they idolise. Meanwhile, Rocky's aforementioned lawyer, Frazier (Bogart, suitably shifty), has grown wealthy off the money Rocky left with him, and has no intention of giving it back. How deep will Rocky fall back into a life of crime to get "what's owed to him"? And will Jerry succeed in breaking the cycle of crime that sees gangsters give rise to each successive generation? There are no easy ways out in this movie, and it's all the better for it.
Perhaps showing it's roots as a play, Angels with Dirty Faces is more plot-driven than the usual rise and fall gangster stuff of the 1930s, playing on themes of reform and hero-worship to highlight a more specific message than just "being a gangster will get you killed". It's more morally-complex than that, going deeper than any gangster film before. It utilisises it's message as a sincere and integral part of the story - rather than something just tacked on to please the censors (EG. Scarface). It also happens to be a really good film - full of action, laughs, engaging characterisation (especially the six young hoodlums) and memorable pathos.
Cagney brings his immense charisma to the role of Rocky, his screen presence perfectly matched to that of a gangster idolised by kids. His last small 'heroic' act of redemption - whilst not as brave a cinematic move as it could've been - is still a shocking and memorable piece of film history. Part of me was annoyed at how tame the film was in it's unwllingness to show screen legend Cagney as he cries and begs for mercy, but the stark and minimalist way in which it was treated conjured up some pretty powerful images in it's place.
A real classic, ranks up there with the best.
Cult films are almost always a mixed bag by definition. I first watched Empire Records hoping for another Dazed and Confused and felt rather (inevitably) disappointed when it was nothing of the sort. Now, a few years later, I watched it again remembering the good bits, but alas it still doesn't sit quite properly with me...
You can't get too critical about this sort of thing, a film like Empire Records isn't meant to be analysed in such a way, so it would be a moot point to start whinging about lack of development regarding themes or characters or anything along those lines. I think what stops me from either loving or hating the film is the delicate balance it manages between it's strengths and weaknesses... for instance, there's some really cliched, bad direction but the odd flash of great dialogue and effective casting kind of saves the film from this. They sort of work against one another, one always threatening to eclipse the other but never quite getting there. Some bits of the film are embarrassingly cheesy, but the director seems to know this, it's almost as if he's trying to recreate an 80s John Hughes film and doesn't really care if he succeeds or not. Each to his own I guess.
There's a great selection of up-and-coming actors and actresses to be seen in Empire Records; Renee Zellwegger, Liv Tyler, Robin Tunney (who's career seemed to have petered out as quickly as it peaked) and Brendan Sexton III (an odd yet underrated young actor who can also be seen in That Thing You Do and Can't Hardly Wait). Anthony LaPaglia also does a great job as the older-brother/father figure to the rest of the characters. As I said before, I think this one’s a mixed bag - equally hit-and-miss, for every good or hilarious moment there's one that makes me cringe and want to switch it off. But that's just me - some people really love this film.
TRIVIA: 80s punk band GWAR guest star as themselves in a terrifyingly funny scene involving 'special recipe' brownies.
The film was originally set over the course of two days and subsequently edited to appear as one. As a result, 40 mins of footage (and three characters) were removed from the film.
DIRECTOR: Allan Moyle
WRITER/SOURCE: Carol Heikkinen
KEY ACTORS: Anthony LaPaglia, Maxwell Caulfield, Debi Mazar, Rory Cochrane, Robin Tunney, Johnny Whitworth, Renee Zellweger, Ethan Embry, Brendan Sexton III, Liv Tyler
RELATED TEXTS:
- This is very much a Gen X-styled coming-of-age film, and can be seen as a more comedic contemporary of Reality Bites. It also shares some similarities with the 70s-set 90s cult classic Dazed and Confused.
- The other obvious comparison is John Cusack's film version of High Fidelity, another cult film set in a record store.
Genre-splicing can be a tricky business. For every Douglas Adams or Ann McCaffrey there's probably a million wannabes out there peddling reams and reams of very bad, very awkward 'unique convention-busting' fiction. If I had had no prior knowledge of this book or it's author I would probably have been put off by the quotes on the back describing it as "crime fantasy Fawlty Towers style" and "a revolutionary black comedy. Spookily similar to Douglas Adams". Thankfully, this book is written by Red Dwarf co-creator Rob Grant - who seems to be growing more and more talented with each new foray away from the sci-fi show that he made his name on.
The basis for Incompetnce (you may have caught on that it's spelt wrong, yeah?) is that in the near-future our world might be governed by the maxim that no-one can be "prejudiced from employment for reason of age, race, creed or incompitence [sic]". This sets the scene for an alarmingly close-to-home future where idiocy, ignorance and stupidity run riot... even to the point where it is impossible to get anything done properly, or to even complain about it. And nothing works, ever.
Harry Salt (AKA Harry Tequila AKA Cardew Vascular) is an agent from a shadowy and secretive British government organisation. He is in Europe (now a singl, united nation) following a trail left by his recently-murdered colleague, desperately trying to figure out what he is investigating, why it happened, and what he can do about it. What makes this hard is the extreme levels of incompetence that hardline political correctness has led Europe into embracing. It is impossible to book a hotel room, make a phone call, catch a plane, hire a car, catch a train, etc, etc, without coming up against one hurdle or another. This of course lends itself to some laugh-out-loud funny situations where Harry must negotiate his way past imbeciles who are blissfully aware of their own stupidity or socially-detrimental disorders. At one point Harry must feign having no capacity for short term memory in order to catch a plane. I almost lost my stuff over this bit, and at more than a few other bits too... it's hilarious. Sometimes the situations our hero finds himself in go beyond belief, especially in the action-hero/death-defying moments, but for a novel as funny as this I'm always willing to up the ante on my suspension of disbelief.
As far as futuristic comedy detective-novels go, this is the easily the best I've read. It's good to see Rob Grant has well and truly broken away from Red Dwarf as it means we get interesting and hilarious novels like this (to date he has also written the novels Colony and Fat). Meanwhile, it's sad to think that his former co-writer, Doug Naylor, spent most of the past fifteen years pouring his creative talents into a Red Dwarf film project that never happened. The good news is... I got this book for $5. Super bargain. If you see it around, grab it and read it.
I'm a sucker for big sweeping historical epics, so it came as no real surprise to me that I enjoyed Khartoum immensely. Based on the Seige of Khartoum in 1880, Khartoum follows in the footsteps of Zulu as a tale of British colonial bravery in the face of endless hordes of enemy warriors. Charlton Heston stars as General 'Chinese' Gordon, the larger-than-life historical hero who pledges to defend the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the extremist armies of the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier), a fanatical conqueror claiming to be an Islamic messiah-like figure. The film details how Gordon came to face off against the Mahdist army, the strategies he used to prolong the seige, and his heroic stand in the face of probable defeat.
It's a marvelous adventure, and the film is suitably realistic about the events it's based on. Heston is perfectly cast as rogue general and all-round legend 'Chinese' Gordon, he has the natural presence to pull off such a big character without having to try too hard. Olivier gives a balanced portrayal of his historical personage too, suitably believable and low-key as the infamous religious nutter - he doesn't go over the top, and both Heston and himself have more than enough talent between them to anchor an epic like this quite splendidly. Khartoum has a cracking good pace, great location shooting, grand battles and plenty of interesting historical details. Well worth checking out.
TRIVIA: Burt Lancaster turned down the role of General Gordon.
DIRECTOR: Basil Dearden
WRITER/SOURCE: Robert Ardrey, based on real historical events.
KEY ACTORS: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Nigel Green, Ralph Richardson, Peter Arne, Alexander Knox
RELATED TEXTS:
- The Polish novel In Desert and Wilderness by Henry Sienkiewicz, a 1912 teen novel set around the same historical events.
- The novel The Four Feathers concerns the further military clashes between the British and the Mahdi in late 19th century Sudan. It has been filmed five times... twice as a silent film, again in 1939 (The Four Feathers - this is probably the most famous and successful version, and stars Ralph Richardson and John Clements), again for TV in 1977 (The Four Feathers starring Beau Bridges) and most recently in 2002 (The Four Feathers starring Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson).
- As mentioned earler, there is some thematic similarity between Khartoum and Zulu.
AWARDS:
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.
Nominated for Best Actor (Ralph Richardson) and Best Art Direction BAFTAs.
If there's one thing that eternally ticks me off in this life of film-watching, it's people who are ready to write off perfectly good films just because they're science-fiction. In 2006, Children of Men was one such film - managing to attract only one Oscar nomination (for Adapted Screenplay). As a result, there are probably stacks of people out there who will never watch this film... and that's a sad state of affairs as this is one of the best films of the last decade.
The year is 2027 and the human race has been infertile for 18 years... nearly every country bar Britain is in ruin, and England has kept it's borders shut to refugees for 8 years now. The human race appears to be doomed and Britain exists under a climate of fear induced by a severe right-wing government and random terrorist attacks. These terrorists are known as the Fishes, and they seek equality between British citizens and immigrants. Theo (Clive Owen) is a disaffected, faithless bureaucrat and one-time political activist who finds himself drawn into a secretive Fishes plot by his former wife Julian (Julianne Moore)... it transpires that they have a pregnant refugee named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) amongst them and they need Theo to escort her to safety. Only it doesn't turn out to be that simple... certain elements of the Fishes want to use Kee for political purposes. Meanwhile the armed forces are closing in on the Fishes, and a refugee uprising also seems to be on the cards.
In our increasingly neo-conservative western world it seems a film like this is all too timely, adding itself to the ranks of more recent dystopian literary works like The Handmaid's Tale and Underground . Using a novel by crime novelist P.D. James as his source material, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron creates a gritty and highly believable vision of London twenty years from now, a frightening glimpse at an infertile and impotent human race struggling for hope in a climate of hatred and fear. Clive Owen lends his magnetic screen presence to the role of Theo... and Cuaron was so impressed with Owen's contribution that he took him on as a co-writer for the film rather early on in the project. Michael Caine, Julianne Moore and the underrated Chiwetel Ejiofor all lend their exceptionable talents to the proceedings as well, with Michael Caine particularly memorable as Theo's friend Jasper, a political cartoonist-turned-drug-dealing hippy.
Anyway, this isn't just your stock-standard cautionary science-fiction tale... it also happens to a heart-stopping piece of action-packed and envelope-pushing cinema. Some of the special effects are so seamless that you barely even notice they're special effects, and Cuaron's direction is astounding. Some of the action sequences, including one amazing and continuous tracking shot from inside a car, are breathtaking in their audacity. The uprising in the ghetto during the film's last third is also just as impressive. It's a frighteningly real and visceral experience and I think it would be a rather duff film fan who watches this and doesn't find it in the least bit exciting. It's brilliant film that combines the best of cinematic innovation with socially-conscious science fiction. The ending is powerful and I cried (but, to be fair, I cry in almost every film I watch). It has a great soundtrack too. Go see it!
