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rkbyers
Reviews
Company Business (1991)
Company Business goes bankrupt
One of the delightful sides of Company Business is that it shows some of the seedy side of the espionage game, especially when things are being run as games within games and by people with whom you not only could never identify, but you are unsure as to what they really are representing. The theme is simple: People are born on one side or another and become part of the turmoil, long after the ideals have been laid to rest. This was certainly done better in various Jon Le Carre' books, but the result is the same. This was a movie about how time was bypassing the Cold War. I was surprised to read that Mikhail Baryshnikov hated this movie and would do no publicity for it. While he didn't do such a great acting job in it, he did remind one of the characters he was playing, jailed, nervous, and unsure of where he was going. Hackman's acting was much lower key than normal, his ability to deliver short bursts of power and that machine gun forced laughter notwithstanding. He gave you the image of an over-the-hill agent who couldn't resist another shot at the action. I especially liked the idea of them escaping from both sides, back to the universal idealistic dream. My only great criticism is how silly it is to portray being shot in such an insouciant manner. The fact that a country might not have extradition, also, isn't really an issue for the CIA, KGB or even the Columbian drug czar. The scenery is beautiful in Berlin and I howled at them being in one of the clubs which made Berlin famous. Paris was also beautiful and the Eiffel Tower scenes were majestic, especially the Eiffel Tower elevators. Geraldine Danon was hauntingly beautiful, especially when she shows up at the café to meet Hackman. I am disappointed that she did not show up in any other Hollywood movies.
Vanishing Point (1971)
The Point Beyond Existence
Others have suggested that the only symbolism worth mentioning, in this movie, is in the title. What is the point beyond which it is pointless to exist? Our hero, Kowalski, is trying to find out. He makes piecemeal efforts at existing and only succeeds in self-destructing. Clearly, his life once had promise and meaning, but the death of his girlfriend haunts him. Kowalski asks the question of God: "Why?" The response is like a Samuel Beckett play. Kowalski is just existing, biding his time, waiting for life to give him one more thing to which he can react. He has lost his will to be pro-active. He has lost his will to live.
Each time I watch this movie I am stunned with the degree of nihilism and anti-authoritarianism it represents. Freedom is almost described as "doing one's own thing" as opposed to selling out to the establishment. In truth, freedom is a good deal more difficult and a great deal quieter. It isn't the person who goes down in a blaze of glory who is the hero as much as it is the one who has the courage to carry on in life.
The thrill of speed was unparalleled in those days, but that requires some explanation. No one who drove quickly in the 60's and 70's could fail to remember the sound of the big 440 Mopar when the secondaries kicked in. The 440 was such a torque monster that it was difficult to run away from it, even in those big boxy sedan bodies. Cars didn't handle nearly as well as they do now and the tires were considerably worse. If you were traveling 125 mph in a street car, you were traveling very quickly. In fact, most times, it bordered on insanity.
The 440 cop cars, by the way, could top out at around 140. The light bar added a lot of drag on the top end and you could pull away slightly above 100, if your car was so disposed. The Challenger had an advantage, to be sure being smaller, lighter and more aerodynamic, but not nearly as much as one would think. Even the vaunted 426 Hemi wouldn't have made a lot of difference in this case. Despite what one might suspect would be a tremendous speed advantage, on an open and straight road, it's doubtful that a better engine and better car would run away from a cop. The tricks from this movie usually resulted in someone turning his car over. The State Highway Patrol, at very least, knew how to handle those cars pretty well.
I am impressed at how well the movie turns Kowalski into a hero and the law into Nazis. We all like Kowalski: he is a decent guy, even helping the queers when their car broke down. (By the way, at the time, that scene served as great comic relief.) But the larger question is this: who pushed Kowalski into this corner? In reality, how would you like your son or daughter killed because some guy was racing his car on the street just on a bet?
He is a likable character for whom life has gone very wrong. Kowalski doesn't like that life is as hard and apparently nasty as it is. I hope we all share that with him. However, Benzedrine isn't a way of seeing clearly: it's a way of obscuring the reality with a rush. It really does give one the feeling of invincibility and superiority. It exacts a terrible price on the body and mind. The "Vanishing Point" is that point at which life ceases to be of value to oneself. One might argue that Kowalski had already reached that point before the chase began. Suicide isn't the lack of options in one's life as much as it is the failure to recognize that there are viable options.
God might have had something else in mind for the Kowalskis in this life, but they may choose not to listen, or, worse, no longer be able to listen. The Christian symbolism throughout the movie seems anti-climactic in some ways. In several ways, it is man's involvement with God's word that gets in the way of God's own message. The humans who call themselves Christians in this movie don't seem much better of than Kowalski is and maybe even a bit worse. It looks like Christianity is in opposition to what people find pleasing in this world. Mark Twain made roughly the same point in Letters from the Earth. When God does not make life the way we want it, then we aren't going to play by His rules. Each of has this choice, as Camus said in the opening lines of The Stranger. Kowalski gives up because he is hurt. Each of us has been there. Dealing with things our own way usually leads us to ruin. Kowalski is hurting too much to see any other options. The pain is too great for him to stand. Giving in to God seems like giving in to everything else, like giving up. He sees that going out in the blaze of glory as the only honest thing left to do. Frankly, I hope viewers see that as a drug-infused (excuse the pun) cop out. It's a lot harder to live than it is to die.
The Last Run (1971)
A Race to the End
Subtlety is everything in understanding the Last Run. It is a movie about lost dreams and lives that didn't turn out quite like things were planned. The protagonist is not old Harry Garmes, retired and living the good life, a beautiful spot in seaside Portugal. If anything, Harry is the antagonist: he is the one who made it past all the danger only to be caught up in the real web of life. Harry thought life would be perfect, but it isn't. He wakes up at the beginning of this film and discovers he has nothing, despite having almost everything he thought he wanted. As others have said, this is existential, to be sure, but so beautifully sublime, I could only wish more movies were made like this, replete with beautiful cars for those who know, in contrast to the flashy but horrid handling boats like the bloated 428 Mustangs.
The protagonist is the car, the exquisite BMW 503. Harry comes back to the car, not all the other things surrounding the plot. He resurrects the car along with himself. Watch the careful way he sets the floats, listens to the engine the old way, with a rubber tube. He does it carefully, step by step dusting himself off at the same time. he does it with devotion and love. Harry knows that things aren't as important as living and he only feels alive when driving the car. Harry comes alive when he is driving "her" and he is only too happy to make one more run for his old employer's friends. He wants to feel again, something that the pain of life has beaten out of him slowly. Remember, Harry retired 9 years before;he knows he's a dinosaur, just like his car. He knows he is dying, albeit of complacency and scar tissue, and wants a chance at life... one more chance to be alive. He wants to dance with someone he loves. His driving mirrors real life. His love is really the car, the only thing he has left of which he is capable of loving, Trish Van Devere's underwear notwithstanding. To any car buff, the sound of the supercharger engaged in this car is a thrill beyond measure. There are no fat tires, no suspensions on the ground, no huge engines. In fact, the 503, cum supercharger wasn't even all that fast in its day. In 1971, the XJ6 with a 4.2 liter engine would have made a good match for the old Beemer. Tony Musante is perfect in the guise of the young action oriented hit-man who can only have fun by hurting and killing things. It's a perfect scenario of the modern world steamrolling art. When you add the scenery and a gorgeous Trish Van Devere, who I think later married George C., Colleen Dewhurst, whose acting is stunning, how can anyone think of a better action movie? Subtlety in art is better than flash and tinsel. Nevertheless, maybe it would lose in a ballot to what passes for art these days.
A Christmas Without Snow (1980)
A Christmas with Transcendence
In many ways, this wonderful movie shows its age, especially in its very hip portrayal of how modern people, albeit of the late 70's, should be acting. Fortunately, there is a great deal of traditionalism which is left standing, although one guesses that it is just as a warm fuzzy. As in the modern world, the people of the movie are overwhelmed with the difficulties of life. Perhaps, though, like the majestic pipe organ itself, the movie demonstrates how our being requires a complete overhaul, climbing out of the dirty reality of life into the beautiful world of the spirit.
The star of the movie is the music and it is warm and grand and as wonderful an occasion as one can possibly imagine. The movie itself is a wonderful enigma: it traces the sometimes empty and disillusioning physical reality of daily life and lackluster choir practices and somehow results in the very symbol of Christmas, much like that of the birth of Christ Himself. As He was born into this world, filled with sin and suffering, yet so we can transcend our physical reality into the spiritual reality of the greatest beauty. Handel wrote this wonderful music when he was almost unknown, didn't even become famous for it, and these unassuming, ordinary people perform it. There are always two levels to life and the movie lets you see them both.
I dislike how Zoë treats Henry and Muriel is certainly somewhat of a caricature. However, no one could imagine how difficult it must be to grow up as a pastor's son or daughter and the strain is something we should think about. Yet ultimately, we hear the glory of the music and we are raised to another level, despite Houseman's constant outward bitterness and overly irritating grousing at every corner. As in daily life, you often have to see beneath the surface to find the prize.
In the end, I felt sorry for Henry, Muriel and even Mrs. Burns. Their lives were, at the end of the movie, somewhat empty... except for the beauty of the music in which at least two of them were a part, singing glory to God and peace on earth. Even though the Messiah was first performed at Easter, one can't help feeling the Christmas spirit through Handel. This is a must-see for anyone who loves Handel and Christmas. God bless us everyone!