jduke Reviews

Man's Search for Happiness (1964)

A well-made film of rigid ideology

[12 August 2011]

This film is extremely well-produced, and explains very coherently through deftly rendered visuals the LDS creation myth and basic ethos and worldview. It bleeds a particular variety of values. Many will be horrified by how limiting the vision of 'ideal' life appears. The audience for whom it was made, older generations of the mormon church, will probably view it nostalgically, an artifact from a 'less-complicated' era. Anyway, it's interesting to watch, but for most of us will be educational only in how narrow a view some people take of life and what it means.

Also, I own this film, and I found that projecting it backwards while playing 'Dark Side of the Moon' produces an astounding result. If you don't believe me, check it out on youtube. I uploaded it.

The Patriot (2000)

Egotism, Jingoism, and all that cal

[4/10 · 22 August 2005]

There really is little else to say other than the subject line. This movie is pretty much Braveheart during the revolutionary war. A Mel Gibson film starring Mel Gibson as the ultraviolent, vengeful hero, who's life is warped by atrocities committed by the English to the point where he goes nuts killing people and seeking revenge. Scotland has a parliament now, but this movie has absolutely nothing to show for its existence. I was surprised that The Passion of the Christ didn't star Mel Gibson as Jesus himself fighting off English troops.

In summation, this movie has an extraordinarily tenuous relationship with history and with reality, and even offers little entertainment value beyond a few scenes of bloodshed. It's Mel Gibson once again in the formulaic good vs evil battle where evil is the English and good is Mel's hero. Let's just forget about this one and get on with our banal lives.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)

A beautiful non-linear vacillation of perspective, color, and emotion.

[9/10 · 27 March 2004]

*spoilers* Being a good ole malchik brought up in the prevailing culture of the Americas, this film seemed extraordinarily strange to me. At least, the village rituals and rites were appropriately foreign to me. I couldn't help but chuckle at these things that seemed almost surreal in my eyes. What I could deeply appreciate about this film is the astounding quality of cinematography, editing, and overall filmmaking. Parajanov used some of the most brilliantly disturbing effects I have ever seen in a film. Even through the language and culture barriers that seemed so overbearing, I was awestruck by the intensity of the movie's emotion, culminating in Ivan's death scene. Parajanov quite literally sent chills down my spine. He conveyed his narrative with a string of long, jerky, disjointedly surreal takes, and it sent my mind into regions heretofore unexplored. I recommend this movie to those of us who are feeling bored and lazy, not those in chipper moods. The bored ones will be energized with a newfound sense of awe, whereas the previously happy ones will be deeply disturbed.

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Weird, funny - obscenely and side-splittingly so.

[8/10 · 8 November 2003]

Satire of most forms is totally absent from this comedy. Usually this totally dooms its chances of apealing to my pretentious, monty python loving side, but this movie ran the perfect fine line between irreverence and stupidity. It ran the tight rope all the way across to the finish and i was laughing almost entirely throughout. The absurdity of its gags was presented in such a way that it just breeds laughter like rabbits. Maybe it's just me, but when a can encourages a man to be unashamed of his sexuality by admitting that it can suck its own dick and likes to do it... a lot... I cannot contain my laughter in the least. I encourage anyone to see this movie. Either it will disgust you and make you feel more justified and comfortable in your judgmental arrogance, or it will be good for one of the better, more relaxing laughs you've had in recent memory.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Visual masterpiece with Thompson's message intact and strong as ever.

[10/10 · 5 September 2002]

I have read countless reviews of this movie that have derided it for everything from glorifying drugs to being unchristian to being boring. Maybe my mind works very much like director Terry Gilliam's (I loved 'Brazil' and '12 Monkeys'), but the last thing I would do to this movie is deride it. It is a brilliant adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's generation-defining book of the same name - it stays very faithful to the events in the book.

First of all, this movie literally glows with Gilliam's eye for detail that he has consistently displayed throughout his career. The sets are so elaborate, one could never take in all the scenery from any number of viewings without slowing it down and watching very closely. The bombardment of the bright, flashing lights of Las Vegas and the bizarre camera angles, as well as surreal sets make for an interesting and entertaining presentation regardless of a lack of coherency and taste. What we have here is a movie riddled with black humor and a horrifying satire of the American dream. I'll admit it takes a very `unchristian' viewpoint to laugh at the `straight economics' of allowing policemen to gang-f**k a girl for $30 a head. Therefore, people bound by a constricting sense of morality should never have watched this movie in the first place. It is for people like me who enjoy living a very un-stoic life (at least vicariously through movies) by having radical ideas and perspectives forced upon them. Fear and Loathing is the embodiment of such a perspective - it is a gruesomely accurate depiction of the bi-product of the often-glorified 60's drug culture. And one thing that countless critics seem to carelessly omit in their analyses is the constant references to the `American Dream.' Johnny Depp (Raoul Duke/Hunter Thompson), in his verbose verbal narrations, makes quite a few references to a desparate hunt for reason behind the madness of not only this `American Dream', but the drug culture as well - "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson (displayed before the opening scene). The problem with the waning popularity of this movie is simply that its design was not meant to appeal to the buttoned-down mainstream. People that want to laugh and cry in a movie theater and then get the hell on aren't the type of people that would enjoy seeing an unjustified drug-induced frenzy on Las Vegas. This movie has everything a critic should be looking for in a masterpiece - magnificent cinematography, lovely acting, shock value, provocation of thought, and a meaning behind it all. To freaks like me it also has immense entertainment value as well. This work will be one of my favorite movies of all time.