wombat-56 Reviews

Mephisto (1981)

What is an actor but a hollow vessel?

[8/10 · 21 March 2005]

I originally saw this film in theaters when it came out, and enjoyed it greatly. A few years later, I saw a dubbed version and was very disappointed. Hoefgen's voice had been dubbed by someone who injected an arch and sarcastic tone, whereas in the original German version, his voice sounded so simple and innocent. (And, of course, the Mephisto sequences lost a great deal in translation).

To be brief, the contrast between Hoefgen's ready protestations of innocence, and the evil that he is supporting are meant to make us ask how we can judge the quality of a man's actions. If we cannot rely on our impression of his honesty, then we must use the consequences of the actions as our yardstick.

It may not be coincidence that this study of an actor's facile slide into fascism came out early in the Reagan administration. Reagan professed his astonishment over Iran-Contra, protestations that were laughable, as he had all but announced what his government was doing. His act wore thin, but not before it reduced the American presidency to a joke; how else can one explain the reelection of Bush II, all hat and no brains, to a job for which he has proved himself incompetent on a daily basis?

Targets (1968)

It's two films, really, and both of them work

[7/10 · 18 March 2005]

It's ironic that Bogdanovich's first feature film would be so cynical about the creative process. And it would be hard to believe that it did not spring to some degree from his own experience; he stars in it as a film director.

The DVD has an interview with Bogdanovich where he discusses the making of the film, which goes a long way towards explaining why it is the film it is, and not something else. Roger Corman asked Bogdanovich if he wanted to make a film. He told him that Boris Karloff owed him two day' work, and mentioned that he had a lot of out takes from an earlier film, The Terror, and that he could probably put together something from that, with some additional material.

Wisely, Bogdanovich relegated the Terror material to a brief film screening to set up the Karloff plot line. Karloff delivers a brilliant performance as the retiring horror star. The second plot line is loosely based on Charles Whitman, a sniper who killed 16 people and wounded more than 30 in 1966. Karloff's fictional horror pales by comparison to the terrors of the real. And Karloff's character, a warm and decent human being who portrays monsters, contrasts with the sniper, a monster who in public, portrays a warm and decent human being. That contrast is basic to the structure of the plot.

The two plots intersect briefly at the outset of the film (the sniper is buying a rifle, and draws a bead on Karloff who's standing across the street from the gun shop), and then develop separately. The tempo increases as the film proceeds, with skillful editing of transitions between the two plots. This heightens the tension, as they intersect again at the climax of the film.

Overall, not a great film, but a very good first effort. The sharp-eyed will be rewarded by a glimpse of a youthful Jack Nicholson in the out takes from The Terror, shown at the beginning of Targets.

State of Siege (1972)

A great film!

[9/10 · 18 March 2005]

I agree that this film should be released on DVD. It is a great companion piece to Z and Missing.

Costa-Gavros managed to produce a stinging indictment of US involvement in South American politics, without drawing his villains as caricatures. His characters, policemen and revolutionaries, come off as profoundly human, flawed but not themselves monsters, though they are involved in monstrous acts. The torture scenes are grueling, and were probably as responsible for the film's official reception.

I saw this at the age of 15, when it was in the theaters. I confused it with the Eric Ambler novel of the same name. It had a profound personal influence on me. I was able to rent it once, about 15 years ago but haven't run across it since.