Amazing Grace

At the time of its release, Amazing Grace gained notice as the feelgood sleeper-hit of the year. It's one of those good-vibes dramas that grew in popularity as buzz got generated mostly by word of mouth, and it's also an altogether slick historical production that feels relevant and is accessible to modern audiences.

Amazing Grace is the story of William Wilberforce, a 17th century English politician who relentlessly campaigned for the abolition of slavery within the British Empire. The structure of the film flits between the two stages of his life spent fighting against this injustice. At first it jars a little but eventually it makes dramatic sense, and Ioan Gruffudd (as consistent and underrated as ever) gives the film an appropriate sense of scale without going over the top. The film itself also manages to treat the subject with a dignity that many American films fail to grasp, opting to focus on the details and characters rather than sensationalising the plight of African slaves or presenting the issues of the day anarchronistically, and - most importantly - avoiding the boredom factor (something Steven Spielberg's Amistad failed to do).

An array of familiar British character actors (Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell) add a suitable amount of colour to the proceedings, and Albert Finney puts in a moving extended cameo (give the man a bloody Oscar already!) as the repentent slave trader John Newton (writer of the song, 'Amazing Grace'). I really enjoyed this film, and I was terribly relieved that it didn't all go massively Hollywood or send me to sleep. To paraphrase one of the film's characters, it's a nice slice of history that reminds us that not all great people are warriors or men of war, and as a tribute to William Wilberforce and his tireless campaigning for human rights the film is a huge success.

DIRECTOR: Michael Apted
WRITER/SOURCE: Steven Knight, based on the life and times of William Wilberforce.
KEY ACTORS: Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Swift, Youssou N'Dour

RELATED TEXTS:
- A film about Newton (the historical figure played as an old man by Albert Finney in Amazing Grace) was also produced and released in 2006, called The Amazing Grace.
- Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (played in this film by Benedict Cumberbatch) also features in the film The Young Mr. Pitt and The Madness of King George.
- Steven Spielberg depicted the beginnings of the American abolitionist movement in the prestigious and rather sleepy film Amistad.

Watch on the Rhine

"The world has changed... and some of the people in it are dangerous"

I guess you could call this high brow American war propaganda film a companion piece to Mrs. Miniver, in that both are homefront war dramas that scooped up an Oscar or two in their campaign to win hearts and minds on American soil in WWII. Beginning with a pre-amble that the film itself was made by people in shock at the state of Europe, and with a dedication to the heroes who knew that the war was coming, The Watch on the Rhine feels somewhat stodgy today and betrays its roots as a stage play all too easily.

The plot concerns German engineer Kurt Muller (Paul Lukas, in his Oscar-winning role), and his American wife Sara (Bette Davis) escaping wartorn Europe to make a new life in the U.S. Once they arrive they find themselves trying to adjust to a new life in a very different country, and at the mercy of one Teck de Brancovis (George Coulouris), a cadish gambler whose faults see him forced into spying for the Nazis. It transpires that Kurt is actually a freedom fighter, and his mission to destroy the Nazis overrides any other considerations he might have... it also places his family in a lot of danger despite their relocation to America, and so a dance of suspicion ensues as Kurt and Teck size each other up.

This is a film about the importance of standing up for what's right in the face of tyranny, touching on themes of fear, bullying and freedom vs. fascism. Of course, being a propaganda tool made by Americans for Americans, there is a heavy emphasis on how great America is in comparison to Europe. This is depicted through the comparison of German and American culture that comes via the impressions of the Muller children as they arrive in America... the way they compare their oppressed and disciplinarian upbringing with the freedom-loving free-speaking Americans (exemplified by Lucile Watson as the happily tactless and curmudgeonly matriarch of Sara's family). Europe is alluded to as a crumbling world of relentless tragedy weighed down by its own history, whilst America is very much a new world of idealism - clean and yet to understand the true ugliness of war.

The film actually goes into some dark and edgy territory from here, it's a rare case of a Hays Code-era film where a character is allowed to get away with murder. The film's justification of this is very much a part of its overall message - it dares the liberals of America to take up arms for their beliefs. It's essentially telling the Americans of 1943 to put their money where their mouth is, and to go off to Europe to fight facism. This is also where Bette Davis' lead role as Sara comes in, it's her job to lecture the audience on selflessness and to basically tell the wives of American soldiers to accept that their husbands may die and that if this happens it's for the greater good. Sara is a very capable figure, for the most part she's calm in the face of the threat posed by Teck - every bit the wife of an underground freedom fighter. Davis doesn't have centre stage at first but by the end of the film her sermonising became a bit too much for me and it's easy to see why audiences at the time responded more to Paul Lukas' understated role as her husband, Kurt.

Lukas' portrayal of a displaced European is a lot more accurate than the usual Hollywood characterisations of the 1930s and 1940s. He doesn't over-emote, but he's also not too disant. Kurt is a man who has devoted his life to fighting fascism, he's battered and quietly heroic, and Lukas gives a masterclass in the effectiveness of underplaying such a character. The rest of the cast acquit themselves without too much fanfare (except for maybe Lucile Watson, who gets all the best lines). Although it's a heavily politicised film that's very much an extension of WWII, there's still some relevance in its message of standing by one's convictions and picking a side in times of turmoil. But even with this, and Lukas' Oscar-winning performance, it's not a film that will continue to stand the test of time as a 'classic' due to its all-too-apparent origins as a stage-bound play... it drags a bit because of this, so I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone seeking out great war films or classic Hollywood movies in general.

DIRECTOR: Herman Shumlin
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Dashiell Hammett, based on the play by Lillian Hellman.
KEY ACTORS: Paul Lukas, Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lucile Watson, Beulah Bondi, George Coulouris

RELATED TEXTS:
- The 1941 play Watch on the Rhine.
- Mrs. Miniver, a film about an English wife on the home front during WWII.
- For another Lillian Hellman play-turned-film, see The Little Foxes (also starring Bette Davis), in which another character seems to get away with murder despite the strict rules of the Hays Code at the time.
- More American home-front propaganda pieces: Confessions of a Nazi Spy (also featuring Paul Lukas), Black Dragons, Secret Enemies, The Fallen Sparrow, The Stranger and Man Hunt.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Actor (Paul Lukas). Nominated for Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Lucile Watson) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Golden Globes - won Best Actor (Paul Lukas)

Tomorrow When the War Began

One of Australia's highest grossing home-made films (in terms of domestic box office), Tomorrow When the War Began exploits a popular and much-loved teen novel to create the kind of 'big' action storytelling that can compete with American product. Notable as the first conscious attempt at an Australian-made film franchise, Tomorrow When the War Began walks a tightrope in realising the novel's aims whilst appealing to the widest possible demographic. So with this in mind, it looks a bit like hi-definition Home and Away (for any American readers out there, this is an Australian TV soap) but it's also a straight-shooting adaptation of the novel - uncomplicated, easy to follow, and successful at capturing all the big moments.

Ellie (Caitlin Staisey) and her friends are 17 year old country kids who decide to go camping one weekend. They find a remote and idyllic spot nicknamed 'Hell' by the locals, and spend a fun few days there. Whilst sleeping under the stars, Ellie notices a lot of aircraft flying overhead. Upon returning to the town of Werriwee they find all their homes abandoned, and a stealth mission into the town's fairground reveals that Australia has been invaded by Asian soldiers. After narrowly escaping with their lives they come to the realisation that they only have three options - hide in the bush and wait for the war to end, try to rescue their parents and risk capture, or fight back. I'll leave it up to you to guess which option they go for. Suffice to say, the harsh reality of the situation will test their mettle and reveal their true characters.

It should be a familiar concept to anyone who's seen Red Dawn, and the eight main characters can be more or less boiled down to certain stereotypes - there's the gutsy heroine, her rather bland best friend, the Aussie bloke, the token Asian who's there to remind us that not all Asians are bad, the naive princess, the bad boy who turns out to be the most capable of them all, the Christian girl, and the stoner.

As in the case of the novel, the use of such clearly defined (and two-dimensional) characters is a neccessary evil that allows the viewer to get on with processing the story rather than worrying too much about who's who. My only real criticism of this is that as it's a home-grown, grass roots-driven approach to a highly speculative concept, it needs a high degree of realism in order to be effective and convincing. Casting soap stars and young models as a bunch of country teenagers doesn't really achieve that. I can see that they wanted to make Tomorrow When the War Began as appealing to a young demographic as possible, but I think it also would've benefitted from actors and actresses chosen less for looks and more for acting ability. Whilst we're on the topic of audience demographics - all of the female characters have rather clipped accents that make them sound British. I'm assuming this was a conscious decision to help give the film international marketability, and I suppose the fact that it's meant to be set in Western Australia (not that the film makes much reference to this) means that they probably thought they could get away with it. A lot of Australian viewers will probably find this annoying.

The novel of Tomorrow When the War Began is written in the first person, so Stuart Beattie (the writer-director) made the decision to have Ellie narrate the film via a home camera. I can understand that he probably used this device as a way to remain as close to the novel as possible (I guess that's one of the problems with adapting such a popular text) but I don't think it was really neccessary, nor is it especially filmic. One technique that he does use to good effect quite early on in the film are some brief moments of montage. They don't really move the film forward all that much, but they exist as an energetic piece of shorthand that gives the audience a feel for the characters without having to slow the film down too much. It's also an excuse to use a wide range of Australian pop-rock songs, which helps set the youth-orientated tone.

I did find it a little unbelievable that a bunch of 17 year olds would go camping without adult supervision and not drink any alcohol. Other than that the characterisations are mostly on the mark (if a little poorly acted at times). I think the film's glossy look sometimes works against it, when Ellie and her friends return to Werriwee it could've been a bit more atmospheric and spooky. On the other hand, Beattie's handling of action sequences and visual effects is highly impressive, so I guess the gloss-factor is excusable. In this respect the film is above and beyond most Australian films in terms of production quality and execution. So, as patchy as my review of this film is, I did actually like it a lot, and I'd be very happy to see any sequels. As someone who read the book a while ago, I think it's as good an adaptation as could be expected, and you don't need to have read the book to be able to enjoy it.

DIRECTOR: Stuart Beattie
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Stuart Beattie, based on the novel by John Marsden
KEY ACTORS: Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lincoln Lewis, Deniz Akdeniz, Phoebe Tonkin, Andy Ryan, Chris Pang, Ashleigh Cummings, Colin Friels

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden. This is actually the first book in a series of seven (or ten if you count the sequel series, The Ellie Chronicles).
- For a more famous film about an unexpected invasion on Western soil, see Red Dawn, in which Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen fight a guerilla war against Russian and Cuban soldiers that invade America.
- The invading army in Tomorrow When the War Began is most likely Indonesian (though it's never said explicitly). For a factually-based film about Indonesian invaders see Balibo.

AWARDS
AFIs - won Best Sound. Also nominated for Best Film, Best Editing and Best Production Design

The Golem's Eye

The Golem's Eye is the second book in the much-acclaimed Bartimaeus trilogy; a trio of teen-aimed fantasy novels that exist as a kind of antidote to the wide-eyed idealism of the Harry Potter series. In Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy we see a class of magicians who rule over Britain as imperialistic tyrants... treating the non-magician underclass as little better than slaves. In Stroud's vision of an alternate magic-wielding human race we see that all power corrupts, without exception.

We rejoin Nathaniel, the 'hero' of The Amulet of Samarkand, some two years later. He is now firmly ensconsed in the British Government, working his way up from the lower ranks and investigating the existence of a resistance force peopled by commoners. The British Empire is now also waging war on two fronts - with the declining rival Czech empire and with the rebellious American colonies - so they can't afford to be fending off terrorist attacks within their own borders. Nathaniel finds he must call upon his one-time slave, Bartimaeus, in order to make some headway. Suffice to say, the facetious and sarcastic demon is not impressed with being summoned once again...

Stroud does a good job on expanding his world here... whereas in The Amulet of Samarkand we only really got a few hints about what the world outside England is like, here we actually get to find out the nature of Britain's Empire and how the commoners live. A third central character, Kitty, is also introduced... she represents the non-magic-practicing commoners and we get to find out some details about the resistance (the resistance was featured in the previous book but only in a peripheral manner). It doesn't take long for Kitty to become the most sympathetic character in The Golem's Eye... Nathaniel, previously the protagonist, becomes less-likeable as he gains more power. Bartimaeus's sequences are every bit as much a delight to behold as they were in the first book, but with the addition of Kitty he doesn't really get to feature as much as I would've liked. Rest assured, the final book in the trilogy more than makes up for this.

My favourite thing about The Golem's Eye would have to be the action. It's not often that I'm impressed by action sequences in books... they usually fall completely flat for me because they live and die with what the reader can picture in their mind, and often I get a little lost when authors describe lengthy sequences about jumping from one place to another or things like that. Stroud is absolutely on the money with his action sequences... the bits that feature the demon Honorious would have be my most favourite parts in all three of the novels, he's such a memorable and well-written character and he really came right off the page and into my mind.

Anyway, this is a really fun book and does a great job of improving and expanding on the first novel. When I finished The Golem's Eye I had to go straight into the final book, Ptolemy's Gate. The Bartimaeus trilogy is a really entertaining and satisfying trio of books. Read them now!

The Magnificent Ambersons

Once upon a time there was a guy named Orson Welles, and everyone thought he was fabulous (including himself). His reputation had grown so much through his theatre and radio work that he was given free reign to make his first film. The result was Citizen Kane, often now regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Unfortunately, this film was also a thinly veiled account of the life of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, something that Hearst did not appreciate. Welles narrowly escaped a complete bollocking, but his film career was virtually scuttled as a result. His follow-up to Citizen Kane was The Magnificent Ambersons, another ambitious opus of progress and loss that might've been every bit as impacting as Citizen Kane had the powers-that-be given him the same free reign he had enjoyed for his first film. Alas, The Magnificent Ambersons was cut down substantially by parties other than Welles, re-edited and even partially re-filmed, and Welles would never be given creative control ever again. He flew too high and his wings melted.

The Ambersons of the title are a 19th century upper class family whose fortune comes from familial and class-based wealth. George Amberson (Tim Holt) is the spoilt and selfish grandson of Major Amberson (Richard Bennett), and much of the film focuses on him. Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotton) is an early automobile entrepeneur and inventor who once attempted to court George's mother, Isabel (Dolores Costello), in their youth. The film introduces us to this backstory before moving to the 1900s, where Eugene's daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter), becomes the object of affection for Isabel's rotten son, George. It's a complicated film to explain beyond that, it's basically about this courtship but it's also about the relationship between Eugene and Isabel and a lot of it is an allegory for the changing times.

Welles' narration and his masterful knack for editing, composition and deftly handled rhythm allows for a wonderful series of opening scenes where he examines the changing fashions and trends of a bygone era, calling to mind a slower time when such thngs could be enjoyed and time wasn't so precious. The automobile motif builds on this further, demonstrating the ways in which early cars were an instrument for change and how the world changed due to the increased mobility and opportunities this afforded. Welles also darkens the corners of the screen for the film's prologue, alluding to the silent film era to evoke this earlier time, and introduces the main characters via a chorus of gossiping townsfolk (the mass media of the 19th century), with the camera placed in amongst their heads as if the viewer is one of the crowd.

The film is full of brilliant little touches like this... such as preluding a scene by focusing on a running, groaning tap and then switching to George and his uncle talking in the bathroom as the uncle runs a bath. The camera lens also closes in after a car as it chugs off into the distance, as if the film is consciously acknowledging the vehicle's success as the end of an era. Another great sequence that comes to mind is where some characters walk from room to room, and the camera pulls back in front of them as it anticipates where they'll walk. Another is of the image of Major Amberson's broken, unsure face as offscreen characters can be heard asking him questions, his face fading away under flickering firelight as he talks confused nonsense. The film is full of great and inspired scenes like this, and it's sad to think how much more was lost when it was cut to shreds by the studio.

Basically, the story of The Magnificent Ambersons is of a son's selfishness and it's ultimate cost. George is a horrid character, embodying the privilege of the privileged, and his downfall seems to be an indictment of the class-based wealth of the 19th century. But even as we watch the Ambersons go from riches to ruin, we don't really feel better for it. The film moves from the joyous to the depressingly eerie, touching on themes like the cost of progress, unrequited love and forgiveness as it evokes a tone of melancholic bittersweetness. As a tale of the nouveau riche vs. old money, you couldn't really ask for a finer and more elegant example. It's a shame that the intended director's cut of this film will never be seen though, and that the studios never allowed Welles to continue his exploration of these themes.

DIRECTOR: Orson Welles
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Orson Welles, based on the novel by Booth Tarkington.
KEY ACTORS: Joseph Cotton, Tim Holt, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Richard Bennett, Orson Welles

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. It's actually the second book in a trilogy of novels that looked at the social and economic upheaval experience by America's aristocratic class between the Civil War and the early 20th century. The other two novels are The Turmoil and National Revenue.
- Remade as The Magnificent Ambersons, a 2001 TV movie
- As mentioned, Welles' previous film was Citizen Kane, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in.
- Another film that looks at the industrialisation of America in the early 20th century is There Will Be Blood.
- Booth Tarkington's works have also been adapted as the films Clarence and Alice Adams.
- The Royal Tenenbaums is almost a modern-day take on the Amberson family.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Fun, fun, fun. Anyone who bags this film out without seeing it is afraid of fun. I can't even remember being all that impressed with the first film, but this one just picked me up and twirled me around from beginning to end, and all with a goofy grin on it's face.

Right from the James Bond-style opening, it's clear that this film wants nothing more than to make you smile. It's so cheesy, and funny, and sexy, and jumping around-y... it's just awesome. It never takes itself seriously, and it never gets dull. There's more than a few surprising cameos, a suitably large amount of female bottoms in close-up, film homage/send-ups, and plenty of over-the-top action sequences to keep even the most dull-witted individual interested. At times it even seems slightly perverse (EG. Diaz sneaking into the male toilets for 'Number ones'), but it's all so tongue-in-cheek that you can't help but smile.

Yes, I really enjoyed this film, overwhelmingly so in some sequences, so I'm not about to fault this film on anything. Even Demi Moore didn't seem that annoying (probably because they keep her in the background for a lot of the move) and I wasn't even that annoyed that Bernie Mac had replaced Bill Murray, in fact, I think Bernie Mac fits in better. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is just so over-the-top and tongue-in cheek, so concerned with only having fun, that there's no reason to fault it on anything else, because it succeeds admirably in providing some great eye candy and cheesy all-action entertainment.

HIGHLIGHTS: Even Crispin Glover returns as 'the Thin Man' from the first film. He doesn't really do much, but his hair fetish is still funny in a 'isn't that messed up?' kind of way.

DIRECTOR: McG
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by John August, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley. Based on the television series created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts.
KEY ACTORS: Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, Bernie Mac, Crispin Glover, Justin Theroux, Robert Patrick, Demi Moore, Shia LaBeouf, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, John Cleese, Robert Forster, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, John Forsythe, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Bruce Willis

RELATED TEXTS:
- The 1970s television series, Charlie's Angels.
- This film is the sequel to the first film based on the television series, which was simply called Charlie's Angels.

Utu

There have been a couple of attempts in New Zealand cinema to address the corrosion of Maori culture, the most notable of which are Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider. The New Zealand film industry has only really stood on its two feet since the early 1980s, so the earliest parallel one can find to these films is Utu, a one-of-a-kind historical film based around the New Zealand Wars of the mid-19th century. Utu seeks to document the troubled attempts by Britain to colonise New Zealand and assimilate the Maori people, and simultaneously comes across as a fairly traditionalist adventure film. One reviewer on IMDB.com describes it as part western, part war film, part revenge movie and part black comedy... I think that's a pretty accurate summation.

'Utu' is a Maori concept that equates to a balancing of order through justice. A simplicifcation of this would be to call it justified revenge... the events in Utu are loosely based on Te Kooti's War, a conflict in colonial New Zealand where a Maori named Te Kooti led a prison revolt and then harried and attacked colonialist forces over the course of 4 years. In Utu, Te Wheke (Anzac Wallace) is a Maori tracker in the employ of the British army who turns against them after discovering the massacred remains of his village. From here he embarks on a mission of vengeance that broadens into a full scale war, though his endless thirst for revenge seems to drive him mad and kicks off further cycles of violence where other parties begin to seek their own utu against him.

I don't want to say that this is a complex film, because it isn't, but if you're completely unfamiliar with New Zealand history then you may have some trouble following it as certain things aren't always made clear. At the end of the day it's no different to certain historical assumptions that an American or British film may make in the expectation that their audience has enough background knowledge to understand certain things. One thing that may confuse international viewers is the use of the word 'Pakeha', which is a Maori word for non-Maori New Zealanders. There are a lot of different characters and factions in Utu, and the film offers a complete and balanced view of colonial New Zealand - featuring 'good' and 'bad' characters on both sides of the conflict (Te Wheke goes from being a folk hero to an absolute monster, whereas Scott [a Pakeha soldier] is portrayed as a conscientious man seeking a peacable solution).

Utu goes some way towards deconstructing the colonialism that first subjugated the Maori, showing the ways that religion is used as a controlling tool to bridge the gap between Maori and Pakeha culture, and the institutionalised rape and murder that was allowed under British rule. The character of Colonel Elliot (Tim Elliot) in particular is of interest, he's very much a symbol of the corrupt and evil nature of colonial authority. He acts with little regard for the Maori and towards the end of the film it's even implied that he's a pedophile (metaphors don't get much more blatant than that... a figure of authority misusing his power in the worst way possible). There are also several other scenes that feature corrupt British/Pakeha soldiers exploiting their fellow Pakeha and Maori alike. On the flipside, the Maori are also shown to reject British culture and the trappings of 'civilisation' that come with it, perhaps at its most obvious in the scenes where Te Wheke and his men destroy crockery and a piano in a farmer's house.

Despite the seriousness of these themes, Utu manages to be quite funny at times in a typically dark New Zealander manner. Whether it's the scene where Te Wheke sermonises his fellow Maori in a church whilst brandishing a vicar's disembodied head, or the rueful exclaimation of a disguised Maori warrior, "I've only been a Pakeha for one minute and I already hate you Maori!" The character of the farmer Williamson (Bruno Lawrence) also threatens to tip the film into exploitation territory, he's a forlorn and heartbroken man on a mission of revenge who gradually grows wilder and crazier as the film goes on, even eventually making his own four-barrelled shotgun (!)

The climax of the film; a full-scale assault that goes awry and leads to a showdown in the forest where all the principal characters discuss how best to distribute utu, manages to bring the film full circle to a purpose after a lot of freewheeling scenes of wanton violence and imperial injustice. If I had to categorise the film I'd say it was the New Zealand equivalent of a western (perhaps the only one), and certainly worth watching as an antipodean companion piece to films like Zulu or Broken Arrow.

HIGHLIGHT: One scene that sticks in my mind is a night sequence where sparks of shotguns can be seen in the darkness as Te Wheke's men advance across the moor to attack the Colonel's stronghold. It's one of those great iconic moments you sometimes find buried in obscure films.

DIRECTOR: Geoff Murphy
WRITER/SOURCE: Geoff Murphy and Keith Aberdeen, loosely based on real events in 1870s New Zealand.
KEY ACTORS: Anzac Wallace, Bruno Lawrence, Tim Elliott, Kelly Johnson, Wi Kuti Kaa,

RELATED:
- Reference is repeatedly made to Shakespeare's Macbeth.
- For an Australian perspective on indigenous anger check out The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
- There's also some tonal similarity to the Australian western Mad Dog Morgan.
- Geoff Murphy's other two major New Zealand films are Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth. All three also feature Bruno Lawrence.
- Other films that deal with colonialism and oppression include Zulu, Zulu Dawn, The Battle of Algiers, Quiemada! and Khartoum.
- For films that specifically deal with post-colonial Maori life and culture in New Zealand, see Once Were Warriors, The Piano, Whale Rider and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.

The Smiling Madame Beudet

This surreal silent film is one of the earliest supposed 'feminist' films. It remains influential for its sympathetic female lead and her less than appealing husband, subversive dark humour, and a rather downbeat and unexpected ending. Director Germaine Dulac (what is it with feminists and the name 'Germaine'?) plays with the visual boundaries of what could be achieved in film during the early 1920s to push her film into fantasist realms of psychological impulses, achieving a heady mix between standard storytelling and open-ended artistry that would come to be recognised by film historians as 'French impressionist cinema' and one of the earliest examples of avant garde film-making.

The Madame Beudet (Germaine Dermoz - another Germaine!) of the title is anything but smiling. She is the reserved housewife of Mr. Beudet, a boorish grime-toothed man who delights in frequently joking about commiting suicide by placing an empty revolver aginst his head and laughing in an uproarious manner. She finds him repugnant and takes solace in the beauty of music and literature. One day, she grows so weary of him that she places a real bullet in his gun, but is soon wracked with guilt as she waits for the horrific moment to arrive.

Madame Beudet's actions are extreme to say the least, her husband doesn't actually do anything to her other than behave in an obnoxious manner that irritates her. It's hardly justification for pre-meditated murder, but I think you have to look at this film as a work of far-fetched black humour. Even though the bullet seems like an extreme measure our sympathy remains firmly on the woman's side as her husband is such an awful cartoon of a man that he's hard to take seriously. Simply put, Madame Beudet is a woman who hates her husband - and the film's greatest strength (and feminist message) is that her feelings are never depicted in an exagerrated or unjustified fashion. Germaine Dermoz never comes across as vindictive or hateful, she's just sad and trapped in a loveless marriage of 'habitude' (as the film puts it).

The psychological depth of Madame Beudet's motivations are achieved through several visually arresting techniques. Various camera tricks are used to convey the guilts, waverings, feints and fancies of the mind... whether it's the image of her husband's soul being dragged off by a tennis-playing version of himself or a hyponotic slow motion vision of him cackling and leaping through a window, the ambiguity of such asides help create a more 'open' story to perhaps assuage our judgment. The film also occasionally takes on an eerie atmosphere of clarity as it focuses on singular images - a man playing the trombone, a gun being loaded, or Mr Beudet's grotesque face stretched out of proportion. You might not always immediately understand what the message being conveyed is, but the end result is quite an intriguing little film and easily taken as an important cornerstone of cinema that thinks 'outside the box'.

DIRECTOR: Germaine Dulac
WRITER/SOURCE: Andre Obey, based on a play by Denys Amiel.
KEY ACTORS: Germaine Dermoz, Alexandre Aquilliare, Jean d'Yd

RELATED TEXTS:
- The Smiling Madame Beudet originated as a play written by Denys Amiel in 1920.
- Germaine Dulac's other major film was The Seashell and the Clergyman, a further foray into the realm of cinematic surrealism made five years after The Smiling Madame Beudet. She also continued her exploration of cinema in Invitation to a Journey.
- For more early avante-garde cinema see also An Andalusian Dog

The A-Team

Look, no one should really have high expectations of a film based on The A-Team... I think the bar has been set so low on action films and TV-to-film reboots that a movie like The A-Team really doesn't have to do much to come out on top. Just get some colourful actors, chuck in some jokes, and point the camera at the action so we can see all the cool stuff as it explodes. So with this criteria in mind, The A-Team is like the Oscar-winning Best Film of shitty action movies. It's actually a really fun and satisfying movie without straying too far from what you would expect from it.

Liam Neeson rides high on his recent career transformation into a silver screen hard man (Taken, Unknown) as Hannibal, the team's hardened leader and brains. He's joined by Bradley Cooper as Face (the smartarsed prettyboy), Sharlto Copley as Murdock (the crazy one) and Quinton Jackson as B. A. Barracus (the Mr. T one). Loosely following the format of the TV show, the 'A-Team' are a small crew of former U.S. rangers forced to turn rogue when they're set up and betrayed by a shifty CIA agent named Lynch (Patrick Wilson).

It's the usual 21st action film story where honest down-to-earth, wisecracking American soldiers find themselves pitted against evil and treacherous pen-pushing CIA types (see Related Texts). This is set up quite early in the film when one of the 'good' characters makes a quip about Patrick Wilson's CIA-styled black ops guy usually "Installing a dictator or overthrowing a democracy" somewhere. The other major subtext that's quite easy to pick up is the film's weird pro-violence message in regards to the character of B. A. Barracus... it's a message that might be offensive in a lot of other films, but as this movie is so far off the planet in terms of realism it almost seems like a good-natured joke. The A-Team is larger than life, it doesn't even pretend to be attached to reality - the laws and rules of this film all pertain to a 'genre reality' that's endemic to action films. Hannibal even ironically refers to one of the bad guys as "a thug, a cartoon character".

Joe Carnahan and his editor keep all their plates spinning from start to finish, the film never sits still long enough to get boring or monotonous. It manages to keep its pace up for the full duration, which shouldn't be sneezed at (most action films try the same thing and fail). Carnahan employs a film trailer-styled approach to editing that makes information very easy to assimilate for modern audiences with short attention spans... I don't think this is neccessarily a bad thing either, it's a good way to go about pacing and structuring an action film if you're savvy enough to pull it off. I also loved how the big and ingenious action set pieces were all designed around the main characters working as a team (such as the scene where one of them launches a rocket into a skyscraper just before another abseils down into the hole it makes). Some people will inevitably dislike this movie for being exactly what it aims to be - big, brassy and not too serious, but if you enjoy action movies then you should definitely check this one out.

DIRECTOR: Joe Carnahan
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Joe Carnahan, Brian Bloom and Skip Woods, based on the television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo.
KEY ACTORS: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, Brian Bloom, John Hamm

RELATED TEXTS:
- The mid-1980s television series The A-Team, which ran for five years.
- The recent comic-to-film adaptation The Losers is almost beat-for-beat the exact same movie as The A-Team, only not as fun or enthusiastically-acted.
- The trope of the 'honest' team of practical but specially-trained soldiers going up against dodgy CIA types who want to betray America seems to have seeped into action films a lot in the last couple of years... examples include The Losers, Red and The Expendables. It seems to have risen partially due to a shift of emphasis from lone action heroes (such as your typical Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis films from the 1990s) to team efforts, perhaps reflecting the positive attention given by the American media to their own rescue services and armed forces in the post-9/11 era.
- Joe Carnahan previously directed the films Smokin' Aces and Narc.

The Amulet of Samarkand

The Amulet of Samarkand is a couldn’t-put-it-down instant classic of recent children’s fantasy fiction. Don’t like Harry Potter but are still a fan of fantasy? Maybe this one is for you… it’s kind of like the Anti-Harry Potter!

This is an alternate version of our own world... a modern-day British empire ruled over by magicians. The British class system is very much alive still, the magicians are the elite and they occupy every position in government whilst the plebian class of non-magic practicing peoples below them toil away in their service. Britain is at war with the Czechs, another magic-practicing empire, and a highly powerful magical artefact - the Amulet of the title - has recently gone missing. This doesn't bode well for the British government.

Whereas Harry Potter shows the wizarding world as a mostly uninterfering and democratic group, the magicians here are a uniformly right-wing and fascistic bunch who take advantage of their powers almost purely for self-gain. It's an interesting set up. The story is also told from two perspectives... the first is Nathanial, a young boy sold into the service of a magician to be trained as an apprentice for the government. He is treated poorly by his master and is shown little love by anyone in particular. His aptitude for magic is beyond what anyone suspects. The other perspective featured is that of Bartimaeus (whom the trilogy is named after - oh yeah, I forgot to mention this book is the first in a trilogy).

Bartimaeus is a the moderately-powerful djinn that Nathaniel summons as his servent. You see, the way magic works in this world is that the magicians don't actually have any magical powers - their powers are restricted wholly to the summoning and control of various demons from a nether realm known simply as the 'Other Place'. These demons, Bartimaeus included, hate their masters and are forever trying to find ways to break their summoning spells so they can wreak havoc on their enslavers. It's a scenario that sets up the balance of power somewhat precariously and gives the book much of it's unique charm.

Nathaniel's sequences are the basis of the plot. He is humiliated by both his master and one Simon Lovelace, a high-profile government magician, and decides to exact revenge upon them with the help of Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus's sequences are what really sell the book though - told in the first person, his dry and facetious views of humanity and Nathaniel are hysterical and are what propel the book along in such an entertaining fashion. I'd like to say that both sides of the story are as important as the other (and, to an extent, they are), but for the entire trilogy I kept wanting to get back to Bartimeus's bits because they were just so damn enjoyable.

Anyway, this is a classy and very witty piece of children's fantasy. Don't be put off by the fact that it's in the children's section - it's a lot more original than a lot of adult's fiction, and it's one of the most entertaining adventure stories I've read in a while. The entire trilogy goes in some pretty surprising directions as it goes on too.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Part of me groans a little when I see Disney adapting well-known tales like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or more recently, Rapunzel). It just seems lazy or uninspired, and with Disney you always know what you'll inevitably get - something that's neutered or boiled down to be as family-friendly and 'safe' as possible. Coming towards the end of a period when Disney was experience a renewed vigour and golden age for animated feature films, The Hunchback of Notre utilises a cutting edge combination of traditional and computer-assisted animation and sets about telling a familiar story as faithfully as possible. It results in one of the darkest animated films that Disney have ever made, and one that manages to address quite a varied scope of themes contained in the original novel.

Quasimodo (Tom Hulce) is a deformed and hunchbacked individual brought up in the care of a pious city official named Frollo (Tony Jay). Frollo keeps Quasimodo captive in the city's belltower and tells him it's for his own good, though he doesn't really have Quasimodo's best interests at heart. Quasimodo yearns for freedom, and when this gets the better of him he sneaks out to enjoy a day of festivity in the town square. It ends badly for him though, and the townsfolk turn on him and humiliate him when they realise he is deformed. He is saved by Esmerelda (Demi Moore), a feisty gypsy woman, and the two become friends despite Frollo's ongoing persecution of the local gypsies.

There are some aspects of The Hunchback of Notre Dame that are certainly quite brutal and disturbing for a Disney film - such as Quasimodo's humiliation at the hands of the townsfolk, the murder of his mother right before our eyes, and scenes that allude to hangings. Disney are able to largely offset this by modifying the character of Quasimodo... sure, he's deformed, but his voice and mannerisms are very much those of a regular Disney hero. More importantly, he is given a predominantly positive attitude - a wise decision that plays down the self-pitying angle in order to spare the audience's empathy from the worst dimension of the story (being the inhuman treatment of Quasimodo). Most of all, Quasimodo wants acceptance, and it's hard not to cheer for a character of this nature.

The nature of the villain, Frollo, is also a lot more complex than the standard villain seen in Disney's animated output - he's racist, highly religious and uses deception to manipulate Quasimodo at every chance. He's also the worst kind of villain; a man who believes in what he is doing. It's a far cry from the usual cartoonish Disney villains motivated by greed or vanity, and veteran voice artist Tony Jay does a sublime job of portraying the character's internal integrity.

The production team wisely use a muted colour palette for the film's look, calling to mind its historical setting and the more serious nature of the story. There's a good sense of space and movement, especially in scenes where Quasimodo runs and climbs across the city's rooftops, and the highly detailed backgrounds are some of the best I've seen in 1990s animation. Like a lot of Disney films, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is highly musical, but here the songs are very much of a sombre nature or in a key that matches the overall tone of the film, which only serves to reinforce the sense of reverence it seems to have to its subject material. It's a real stand-out in Disney's back catalogue.

DIRECTOR: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White and Jonathan Roberts. Based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo.
KEY ACTORS: Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Mary Wickes, Charles Kimbrough, Jason Alexander, David Ogden Stiers

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, written by Victor Hugo in 1831.
- There have been several film versions of the story, most notably a silent version starring Lon Chaney in 1923, and a Universal film starring Charles Laughton in 1939. Other adaptations include a 1956 version starring Anthony Quinn and a 1982 version featuring Anthony Hopkins.
- The story has also been adapted into a television series and a radio series.
- Disney drectors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise previously worked together on another French-set Disney film, Beauty and the Beast, and teamed up again a third and final time for Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Music.
Golden Globes - nominated for Best Original Score.

Coming Home

It's official, Coming Home has the greatest soundtrack of all time. I don't know how much money was spent in securing these songs for use in the film, but I doubt you will ever see such a soundtrack assembled for a film ever again... for example, Beatles song are notoriously expensive to use because Michael Jackson owns the rights, and the executives of Jimmi Hendrix are very particular about what kinds of films they allow his music to be used in. Anyway, check out this great soundtrack...

• "Hey Jude" Performed by The Beatles
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" Performed by The Beatles
• "Call On Me" Performed by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin
• "Once I Was" Performed by Tim Buckley
• "Expecting to Fly" Performed by Buffalo Springfield
• "For What It's Worth" Performed by Buffalo Springfield
• "Time Has Come Today" Performed by Chambers Brothers
• "Just Like A Woman" Written & Performed by Bob Dylan
• "Save Me" Performed by Aretha Franklin
• "Follow" Performed by Richie Havens
• "Manic Depression" Performed by Jimi Hendrix
• "White Rabbit" Performed by Jefferson Airplane
• "Out of Time" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "No Expectations" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "Jumpin' Jack Flash" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "My Girl" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "Ruby Tuesday" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "Sympathy For The Devil" Performed by Rolling Stones
• "Bookends" Performed by Simon and Garfunkel
• "Born To Be Wild" Performed by Steppenwolf

All perfect choices to represent the late 60s/early 70s (in others words, the Vietnam War era). The movie itself isn't bad either, and features some excellent performances from Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern.

Released at the same time as The Deer Hunter, these two very different films about the Vietnam War duked it out at the 1978 Oscars, and almost all the major awards went to one or the other. I think it's fair to say though that The Deer Hunter is probably the better film and has stood the test of time somewhat longer by taking a less reactionary stance against the war. Jane Fonda had the gall to suggest The Deer Hunter was the Washington/pro-war version of events (and she said this in the same breath she used to admit that she hadn't seen it), but I think the main distinction to make between these two films is that The Deer Hunter takes a more complex view of the war and opts not to take the easy route of just saying "War is bad, mmmmkay?" (like, say, Coming Home tends to do). To say that Coming Home take a lazier angle by not actually showing the war in any capacity is probably missing the point though, so as I'm feeling charitable I'll let in slide in favour of looking at this movie as more of a character piece than the anti-war propaganda that Jane Fonda wanted it to be.

With this in mind, there are three main things that I think elevate this film above dreary melodrama, and I'll list them to round this review off...

1. The awesome soundtrack. Also, the decision to run these songs at mid to low-volume almost completely through the film whilst crosscutting between scenes lends the film a terrific sense of continuity and atmosphere that it probably would've otherwise been unable to achieve. The use of the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil in particular comes to mind, it really helps build the film's momentum.

2. Jon Voight. This guy is one of the unsung screen legends, and he won a Best Actor Oscar for his work here. Whilst his contemporaries (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, etc) all went from strength to strength and gained cult icon status to varying degrees, Voight eventually faded from the public consciousness and never achieved such success, and slums it now out as the guy people call when Christopher Walken is too busy. The sad thing is, he has a bigger range than either De Niro or Pacino, but audiences never latched onto him in the way they did with those guys, and Voight's films (whilst sometimes acclaimed) aren't the huge classics or blockbusters that, say, The Godfather, Scarface or Tootsie are.

3. Hal Ashby's underplayed direction and slick editing. I wouldn't really say Ashby is a subtle director but he definitely isn't one to overdo it, and his unassuming style goes a long way towards lifting this film out of telemovie territory. It's heavily rumoured that his editing helped reign in Voight's performance (particularly in his speech scene towards the end).

DIRECTOR: Hal Ashby
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt and Rudy Wurlitzer. Based on the novel of the same name by George Davis.
KEY ACTORS: Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Robert Carradine, Robert Ginty

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel Coming Home, loosely inspired by George Davis' real life experiences in the Vietnam War.
- Born on the 4th of July owes quite a lot to this film.
- The other big Vietnam War films of the late 70s were The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. Later important (and unimportant) films about the Vietnam War include Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Forrest Gump, The Odd Angry Shot, Jacknife, Casualties of War and We Were Soldiers.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Actor (Jon Voight), Best Actress (Jane Fonda) and Best Adapted Writing. Also nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Bruce Dern) and Best Supporting Actress (Penelope Milford).
Cannes Film Festival - won Best Actor (Jon Voight). Nominated for Palme d'Or.
Golden Globes - won Best Actor - Drama (Jon Voight) and Best Actress - Drama (Jane Fonda). Also nominated for Best Film (Drama), Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Bruce Dern).

A Personal Journey With Martin Scorcese Through American Movies

This was a documentary put together by Scorsese as part of a Century of Cinema series that looked at the cinema of different countries. I vaguely remember there being a British one, some European ones, an Australian one and a New Zealand one by Sam Neill called Cinema of Unease. I think Scorsese's representation of America's contribution to cinema is interesting because he doesn't look at it in a linear fashion, opting instead to focus on America's three home-grown film genres - the western, the film noir and the musical - and to look at American film from a very subjective point of view.

America is arguably the biggest and most important contributor to the shape and form that most modern cinema takes, so any documentary that seeks to encompass this history completely is going to fall short of the mark. Scorsese sidesteps this altgoether by making the documentary almost like an autobiography of his own personal influences as a filmmaker, and his take on the mission is unashamedly subversive and spoiler-heavy as a result. Yep, there are lots of spoilers about the plots of the films he looks at... the dilemma is: do you watch it and let him spoil all these films for you, or do you not watch it and not get to find out about many lesser-known films you may never have even heard of before? Scorsese shines a light on many forgotten and under-represented filmmakers, predominantly focusing on films and directors that were before his own time as a director (the only real exception to this rule is his singling out of Barry Lyndon, which was made in the 1970s).

The documentary is broken up into three parts and runs for about four hours, but the time flies by. It's broken up into sections such as 'The Director's Dilemma', 'The Director as Storyteller', 'The Western', 'The Gangster Film', 'The Musical', a section on directors from the silent era, 'The Director as Smuggler' (which looks primarily at film noir and the then-controversial themes often hidden in these films), 'The Directors' and 'The Director as Iconoclast'. We're shown extended clips of various films as Scorsese offers partial commentaries; essentially acting a lecturer for film students. It's good teaching though, he's enthusiastic about the subject (film is his life in every way) so it carries over to the viewer, and you don't really need to be a huge film buff to appreciate it.

As expected, Scorsese is also very much an adherent to the cult of the director. Little is said about actors and nearly nothing is mentioned about writers. The whole thing is geared towards auteur theory and Scorsese's acceptance of it is inviolable (you need only look at the predominance of the word 'director' in each of the documentary's chapters to see that). He doesn't argue aggressively in favour of auteur theory, he just presents the documentary as if it's an unspoken fact, and as he's one of the great living and still-working directors I guess I can't really begrudge him his beliefs. My only real criticism of this fascinating documentary is the lack of titles for the interviewees and film excerpts - it would've been helpful to know who and what I was watching at certain points.

SIDENOTE: There are also a lot of interviews with old directors sprinkled throughout this documentary, lots of whom wear eyepatches. I think I counted at least four seperate famous directors with eyepatches!

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, Michael Henry Wilson
WRITER/SOURCE: Martin Scorsese, Michael Henry Wilson

RELATED TEXTS:
- Amongst the films examined and showcased are: Duel in the Sun, The Red House, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Muskateers of Pig Alley, The Furies, The Power Play, Regeneration, I Walk Alone, Force of Evil, Meet Me in St. Louis, My Dream is Yours, Bandwagon, All That Jazz, Cabiria, The Ten Commandments, Intolerance, Seventh Heaven, The Big House, Leave Her to Heaven, Some Came Running, Land of the Pharoahs, Cat People, Point Blank, I Walked With a Zombie, Shock Corridor, Letter From an Unknown Woman, Detour, Outrage, Gun Crazy, T-Men, Raw Deal, Kiss Me Deadly, All That Heaven Allows, Bigger Than Life, The Scarlet Empress, Lolita, Forty Guns, Barry Lyndon, Two Weeks in Another Town, America America, Hell's Highway, Wild Boys of the Road and Heroes for Sale.
- Among the directors featured, interviewed or paid tribute to are: F. W. Murnau, Josef Von Sternberg, Douglas Sirk, Erich Von Stroheim, Ida Lupino, Samuel Fuller, Billy Wilder, Cecille B. DeMille, Budd Boettticher, John Cassavetes, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent Minelli, Elia Kazan and King Vidor.

Paths of Glory

"If those little sweethearts won't face German bullets they'll face French ones!"

This Stanley Kubrick classic was controversial at the time of its release for showing war in such a cold realistic light, pushing the boundaries by depicting people who were very afraid of being killed or of never seeing their wives again, and having soldiers casually discuss the best ways to die in battle. On top of that, the entire point of the film seems to be to show the fallibility of the military - something that remains a big no-no in most films even today, and ensured the film a somewhat dicey reputation amongst European countries and more right-leaning viewers.

Paths of Glory concerns itself with an isolated incident in WWI where four French soldiers were executed by the French army for being representatives of a wider act of supposed cowardice. This charge of cowardice came about when an entire division of soldiers found themselves unable to move forward to take German-held territory due to heavy enemy fire. It's a war film where the biggest enemy of the common soldier are their own commanding officers... Paths of Glory (with its ironic title) depicts an unreasonable situation and the resultingly absurd court-martial that saw the hypocrisy of the commanding stratum writ large.

Kirk Douglas plays Dax, the colonel and criminal lawyer who throws his career prospects away in order to defend those condemned to die. It's a futile battle, as he is essentially challenging his superiors - men cushioned from the realities of battle in ornate high-ceilinged military offices, hypocrites motivated by their own ambitions to climb the promotional ladder. They're represented by General Mireau (George Macready), an old school glory-hound with a cavalier attitude to the lives of his men, and General Broulard (Adolph Menjou), a charming but powerful man who puts on an air of reason despite his intrinsic role as one of the authoritarian elite. Mireau in particular is quite reprehensible... when his own men are pinned back by German artillery fire during their suicide mission his greed for victory and frustration sees him order them to be fired on by their own troops as motivation to move forward!

As you might expect, it's a very dark film - a less satirical precursor to Kubrick's later war films, Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket, but no less effective. The cinematography and camera work looks a million dollars, there's a great pair of scenes in the film that really make Paths of Glory pop in a big visual way. The first is when Geberal Mireau is striding through endless trenches as the camera pulls back ahead of him, a staccato of military drums matching the spring in his step as he exemplifies military pride and pompous glory. Every now and again he stops to greet soldiers and muster their fighting spirit as bombs rain down overhead. The sequence goes on until he stops at a man who is clearly shellshocked, and the spell breaks as he berates the man for being a coward, "There's no such thing as shellshocked!"

This scene is later mirrored by Kirk Douglas on the eve of battle, as he walks through trenches lined with human fodder, their faces all eagerly peering at him in fear and hope as he prepares to lead the charge amid a cacophony of shelling. It's absolutely frightening, and it shows up the previous sequence as a parody. Through this comparison we see the unarguable reality of war - it's fear and death and the last thing on the minds of these poor men is pride and glory; they leave that for the Generals as they sip tea in their chalet.

Paths of Glory will remain a timeless classic of the war genre for breaking such new ground. War films are often unafraid to explore the ugly reality of war these days, but few are willing to be so thorough in their comdemnation of the commanding elite. As a film made in the 1950s, Paths of Glory isn't quite at the point where actual cowardice in war is an acceptable or explorable position (Colonel Dax's defence of his men hinges on unreasonable orders and dishonourable command decisions rather than the idea that it's okay for soldiers to be too afraid to do their duty). But this film is an important step in the right direction, in terms of deconstructing war it does a brilliant job of exposing the mechanics of command and the hypocrisy and shortcomings of officers motivated by their own self-interest.

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson and Calder Willingham. Based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, which was in turn based on real events.
KEY ACTORS: Kirk Douglas, Adolph Menjou, George Macready, Ralph Meeker, Timothy Carey, Wayne Morris, Richard Anderson, Joe Turkel

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb.
- For other french-focused WW1 films, see A Very Long Engagement and Grand Illusion.
- Other films about military miscarriages of justice during war include Breaker Morant, The Execution of Private Slovik, King and Country and The Life of Emile Zola.
- The psychology and tragedy of WW1's trench warfare is also examined in the films Hedd Wyn, Journey's End and Beneath Hill 60.
- See also the British sitcom Blackadder Goes Forth, which makes some references to Paths of Glory.
- As mentioned in the review, Stanley Kubrick made two further films about war - Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket.

AWARDS
BAFTAs - nominated Best Film.

Thor

A lot of comic fans did a double-take when it was announced that Kenneth Branagh would be helming the film adaptation of Thor. Known primarily for his acclaimed work in bringing Shakespeare to the big screen in the 1990s, Branagh isn't the first person most would think of when it comes to norse god-superheros and their mighty hammers, but on closer inspection (and a viewing of the film itself) he is revealed to be quite a natural choice given the nature of the script and the way it brings Marvel's Thor mythos to the screen.

The film Thor has two missions - the first is to introduce audiences to the character of Thor and to have him engage in a suitably spectacular adventure for our entertainment, and the second is to put the character on track for the upcoming Avengers film (which will team up the Marvel superheroes Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America). The Avengers stuff isn't quite as intrusive here as it was in Iron Man 2, at least not in the sense that it seems to be stealing screentime from the film's main plot-strands. In fact, the film does quite a deft job of juggling the Earth-set sequences and the perilous Asgardian brink-of-war stuff back on Thor's homeworld, without either coming across as a 'main' plot to the other part's 'subplot'. And if it wasn't lumbered with being a set-up for The Avengers, we would have a surprisingly self-contained superhero story that could stand apart quite confidently from its peers. Even with The Avengers foreshadowing, it's still quite a decent movie.

Branagh's familiarity with Shakespeare actually makes a lot of sense in the context of this story. In Thor we have a hero with a fatal flaw - much like Othello had jealousy and Hamlet had indecision, Thor has arrogance. The jealous and slippery, silver-tongued nature of Loki also makes him a villain very much in the style of Iago and Polonoius; the villains to the aforementioned Shakespearean heroes. Add to that the way the film very naturally segues back and forth between the more humourous and grounded Thor-on-Earth stuff and the high drama of the Gods back on Asgard, and you have the bones of a story that isn't all that far removed from the all-encompassing tragedies of Shakespeare. Of course, this being a Marvel superhero film, it can't exactly end with the hero's death - but there is certainly a sense of melancholy in the coda that suggests Branagh's confidence in marrying these low and high culture forms of storytelling together.

The Asgard sequences look amazing, a lot of the design work is a lot more inspired than anything I was expecting. Chris Hemsworth is actually the standout of the entire cast, he's charismatic and quite funny when Thor is put amongst the mortals... it made me only wish there had been more sequences exploring his interactions with everyday humans, but I can also appreciate the balance that Branagh and the creative team were going for and I guess it doesn't hurt for them to leave us wanting more.

DIRECTOR: Kenneth Branagh
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne. Based on the Thor characters created by Stan Lee (which are even more loosely based on Scandanavian myth).
KEY ACTORS: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Rene Russo, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Jeremy Renner, Josh Dallas

RELATED TEXTS:
- The Thor comics created by Stan Lee, Larry Leiber and Jack Kirby.
- Thor has appeared in several animated series and animated films. He also made a live action appearance in The Incredible Hulk Returns.
- Thor is part of an extended storyline set up by Marvel films in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. This follow through Captain America and into the superhero team-up film The Avengers.

Lord of the Flies

It's some unspecified time in the near future. A plane-load of schoolboys have crashlanded on a remote island. Their pilot is dead. There are no teachers to look after them. The boys must fend for themselves. Power struggles ensue.

William Golding's allegorical tale of armageddon on an island is yet another classic I'm going to wax lyrical on for a few paragraphs. There's a doom-laden sense of foreboding to the precedings here that infects the prose with an apocalyptic feel... as if we are witnessing the end of the world in microcosm. The descent of the boys into savagry and madness seems far too realistic for the reader to remain comfortable, and the ending - whilst simplistic and an obvious way to end the story - is perfect and probably the only way to resolve it all satisfactorily.

We start the story with the boys trying to assemble themselves into some kind of order. Ralph is initially voted leader by the boys and represents democracy. By his side is Piggy, a chubby bespectacled boy who does Ralph's thinking for him - he represents reason, logic and bureaucracy. Things go well for a while but eventually another boy Jack, jealous of Ralph, decides to take leadership for himself. He represents right wing rule... under him the boys run riot and fairness goes out the window. Under him, the path of their survival leads to ruin and bloodshed.

It's all the more shocking because the characters are young boys... their cruelness and innocence is easy to imagine and it taps into the fears of adults everywhere - that our children aren't equipped to exist on their own. It taps into this and utilises it to explore notions of authority and government, an exploration that would probably otherwise seem heavy-handed. Whereas here it seems natural - stripped back to it's barest basics.

The Lord of the Flies of the title is (the way I saw it anyway) a pig's head on a stick at the top of the island... a representation of evil, an altar for the flies to worship at... an offering the boys make to an imagined beast that terrorises them. Satan himself.

I find this book terrifying, a real horror piece. Ghosts, monsters, vampires - whatever, they aren't real. They don't really do anything for me in the scare department. I find horror to be more effective when it's based in real situations. And here, well, one gets the impression that the boys may never be the same again... their innocence is dashed away from them. I find that really unsettling.

I read this at school in year 10 I think, and it's probably one of the best books we ever got to read.

American Comedies of the 21st Century Part 3

This continues on from Part 1 and Part 2.


Foot Fist Way
Jody Hill's directorial debut is a low-budget low-key affair about taekwondo that acts as a prototype for his later successes with Observe and Report and the TV series Eastbound and Down. Danny McBride walks a fine line between Baron Sacha Cohen-levels of mockumentary and a depressingly realistic take on loserdom. The film isn't without its laughs but some aspects are so deliberately uncomfortable that the minimalistic style and almost documentary-like production doesn't do it any favours. It's got cult classic written all over it but Hill hasn't perfected the brilliantly bleak and funny tone that would become his trademark with the future aforementioned products. Also, watch out for Hill in a rare onscreen role as a taekwondo expert who appears to be some sort of unspecified sex offender.

DIRECTOR: Jody Hill
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Ben Best, Danny McBride and Jody Hill.
KEY ACTORS: Danny McBride, Ben Best, Marie Jane Bostic, Jody Hill
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Along Came Polly
Stiller follows up his Meet the Parents success with another protracted study of neuroticism and social awkwardness. This time the character's social issues are writ large and confronted by an opposites-attract storyline. The capacity for change makes for an engaging dramatic angle even if some of the jokes (mostly of the grossout variety) seem a little overcooked. Look out for Philip Seymour Hoffman mixing the lowbrow and the absurd in a role that seems to have been written for Jack Black and no one else (and Hoffman does a great Jack Black impression by the way). Jennifer Aniston gets to play the comedic opposite of her character from Friends, though it's sometimes hard to believe she would ever fall for someone as needy, embarrassing and neurotic as Stiller's jilted protagonist. Entertaining if a little formulaic.

DIRECTOR: John Hamburg
WRITER/SOURCE: John Hamburg
KEY ACTORS: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown, Debra Messing, Alec Baldwin, Hank Azaria
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Old School
Whilst not quite as old school as I had hoped it to be (the presence of a fun-hating dean was good, but where were the nerds dammit!), this is still a great re-envisioning of 1980s college comedy. It had prankery, nudity and laughs - so what else can you ask for? I can't really fault it too much based on it meeting those requirements more than adequately. Will Ferrell steals the show (he was clearly warming up for the superstardom that would come with his next film, Anchorman) and Vince Vaughn is great as everyone's slightly-shifty mate (his usual role). The use of slightly-older than normal characters in a teen-aimed comedy is inspired, it puts a more unique spin on what could've been another run-of-the-mill Road Trip/Van Wilder wannabe (and let's face it, neither of those films were trailblazers either). Old School harks back to the campus comedy adventures of the 80s, it could've been a little more 'old school' but hey - it's still pretty funny.

DIRECTOR: Todd Phillips
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Todd Phillips and Scott Armstrong, partially inspired by Frat House, a documentary that Phillips had previously made.
KEY ACTORS: Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Jeremy Piven, Ellen Pompeo, Juliette Lewis, Seann William Scott, Snoop Dogg, Andy Dick
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The Longest Yard
It's weird to see this familiar story given the Adam Sandler lowbrow treatment, I think this would've been better if it was made as a more realistic-toned comedy ala the UK version, Mean Machine. The casting of Chris Rock in a supporting role is always welcome, but it could've done without the more cartoonish aspects like prison guards taking pills from canisters marked 'Steroids' in big bold letters. It also has an uneven tone - the big emotional moments seem at odds with the rest of the movie, a problem set up by the fact that it wants to be both a fairly faithful remake and an over-the-top modern comedy. Also, it repeats the Colonel Sanders joke from Adam Sandler's other football movie, The Waterboy, and Sandler completely phones in his performance.

DIRECTOR: Peter Segal
WRITER/SOURCE: Albert S. Ruddy and Sheldon Turner, based on the 1974 film of the same name.
KEY ACTORS: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds, Nelly, Terry Crews, David Patrick Kelly, Tracy Morgan, Nicholas Turturro, Edward Bunker, Rob Schneider, James Cromwell, William Fichtner, Kevin Nash, Steve Austin, Cloris Leachman
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Super Troopers
A refreshingly funny and original comedy about a group of enthusiastic and easily excited highway patrolmen battling a nearby police department over area-duristriction. And when they're not going head to head with their competition they're looking for a good time, often at the expense of civillians. I love this movie to pieces, I think it's probably the best comedy of the last 10-15 years. Each member of the Broken Lizard team crafts their respective character in equal shades of amusing, quirky and endearing, and their style of comic interplay seems so natural and perfectly judged that it's more like laughing yourself silly with your friends rather than watching some needy performers. Watch out for the character of Farva (Kevin Heffernan), one of the all-time classic comic creations, and a great supporting turn from legendary character-actor Brian Cox.

DIRECTOR: Jay Chandresekhar
WRITER/SOURCE: Jay Chandresekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme and Eric Stolhanske (Broken Lizard)
KEY ACTORS: Jay Chandresekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Eric Stolhanske, Brian Cox, Daniel Von Bargen, Marisa Coughlan
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50 First Dates
A jewel amongst Adam Sandler's formulaic comedies, this film recreates the "aw shucks" chemistry of Sandler and Drew Barrymore from The Wedding Singer and puts it in an inventive Groundhog Day-like scenario. The introductory scenes for characters (or scenes where they form first impressions of one another) are frequently a film's opportunity to surprise the audience or explore an actor's potential for variety... 50 First Dates exploits this opportunity over and over again to give us a thoroughly original take on the romantic comedy. Sandler wisely surrounds himself with the usual colourful characters (standouts include Sean Astin's steroid-leprachaun and Rob Schneider's put-upon layabout) and a colourful location (the lush mountains and beaches of Hawaii) to shoot a goal with one of the more personable and re-watchable films of his career.

DIRECTOR: Peter Segal
WRITER/SOURCE: George Wing
KEY ACTORS: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Lusia Strus, Blake Clark, Dan Aykroyd, Amy Hill, Allen Covert
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The Hot Chick
Rob Schneider is pretty much the low-rent version of Adam Sandler (one guy I know calls him a "poor man's Pauly Shore", ouch!) His films frequently plumb the 'high concept' depths that Sandler's films dare not to swim - and that's saying something. The Hot Chick has Schneider playing a petty criminal who accidentally swaps bodies with a spoilt cheerleader (played by Rachel McAdams in one of her earliest film roles). It's basically one awful joke stretched out over 100 minutes... if you can stomach the image of Schneider in a tight pink croptop as he yearns girlishly for the love of a teenage boy, well, then maybe there's something wrong with you! Astonishingly enough, this isn't even Rob Schneider's worst film (I'd reserve that dubious honour for The Animal). McAdams is especially fun in the scenes where she plays Schneider's grubby thief-character, but she only features peripherally. Also look out for Adam Sandler in a cameo as a dreadlocked pothead.

DIRECTOR: Tom Brady
WRITER/SOURCE: Tom Brady and Rob Schneider
KEY ACTORS: Rob Schneider, Rachel McAdams, Anna Faris, Adam Sandler
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Zoolander
Amazingly, this film flopped upon release. This was due to the unforseen circumstances of 9/11, shortly after which the film was released - and America didn't exactly feel like laughing yet. Ben Stiller's brilliantly crazy parody of an imagined world of male supermodels has grown to become quite popular in the years since its release. Not a single aspect of the film aims to be taken seriously, this is one of Stiller's occasional 'all-comedy' films (as opposed to his more dramatic comedies ala Along Came Polly and Meet the Parents). It's chockful of great jokes, ridiculously broad characterisations and has one of the best visual comedy sequences ever (Mugatu's Manchurian Candidate-like "kill the Malaysian prime minister" hypnosis routine - a scene that saw the film actually get banned in Malaysia!) Incredibly rewatchable and soon to spawn a sequel (which should have no trouble outperforming the first film at the box office), Zoolander combines the ridiculous world of fashion with an outlandish assassination plot and an all-star cast of budding superstars.

DIRECTOR: Ben Stiller
WRITER/SOURCE: Drake Sather, Ben Stiller and John Hamburg
KEY ACTORS: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Christine Taylor, Milla Jovovich, Jerry Stiller, David Duchovney, Jon Voight, Alexander Skarsgard, Andy Dick, Jennifer Coolidge, David Bowie, James Marsden, Patton Oswalt, Vince Vaughn
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Envy
Ben Stiller and Jack Black teamed up for this incredibly bad straight-to-DVD movie. I initially greeted its production with excitement... at the time I was quite fond of Jack Black's antics and the presence of Christopher Walken was a good sign too, but by the time I had finished watching the damn thing my opinion of all involved had dropped somewhat. The central premise (a spraycan that disintegrates dog poo) is idiotic, the dialogue and jokes are flat and unfunny, and the cast are so energetic in what appears to be a complete waste of time that it's like they're inanely waving their arms about while they drown. Avoid at all costs!

DIRECTOR: Barry Levinson
WRITER/SOURCE: Steve Adams
KEY ACTORS: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz, Christopher Walken, Amy Poehler
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Stuck on You
The Farrelly Brothers have built a hit and miss career on possibly offensive scenarios infused with surprisingly heartwarming messages. They perfected their formula with There's Something About Mary and have been riffing on variations of it ever since. Stuck on You takes an unlikely conjoined twins-premise and delivers a somewhat charming tale of brotherhood and the realisation of one's dreams. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play the brothers, who travel to Hollywood so that one of them can pursue a career in acting. Damon in particular is affecting as the quieter brother, though the film's somewhat bubblegum view of conjoined twins may invite some scorn from anyone not prepared to suspend their disbelief in the name of a good comedy-drama. Cher co-stars as herself, displaying a strange mix of self-parody and egotism in the role.

DIRECTOR: Farrelly Brothers
WRITER/SOURCE: Farrelly Brothers, Bennett Yellin, John August, Charles B. Wessler, David Koepp
KEY ACTORS: Greg Kinnear, Matt Damon, Eva Mendes, Wenn Yann Shih, Cher, Seymour Cassel, Meryl Streep