talkbaktalk Reviews

Rumble Fish (1983)

Motorcycle Boy, latter-day Christ

[10/10 · 26 August 2022]

The Motorcycle Boy, latter-day Christ, who instead of preaching to sinners, merely smiles and shakes his head at people's foibles. Rusty-James (the real Jesus had a brother named James) is the younger brother-teenage wastrel who idolizes him. Everyone is magnetized by the aura the Motorcycle Boy gives off. The M. B's first words of dialogue are, "Is this another battle for the kingdom?" Another character says of him, "Isn't there anything he can't do?" His miracle in that scene: playing pool better than anyone. His poolroom opponent says, "He's a prince; he's like royalty-in-exile".

No one knows what the Motorcycle Boy is thinking. He wanders through the streets with Rusty-James in tow, Rusty-J wondering if his big brother is crazy - or is he the Pied-Piper?. At one point they stop by a huge clock while a cop (death) warns him to get out of town. Time is running low, and the Motorcycle Boy seems to know what's in store for him in the end. His one dream is to get people to stop hating & fighting one another (symbolized by Siamese fighting-fish at the pet store).

All this is filmed stylishly in film-time that seems to speed-up and slow-down, amidst fogs, steam and smoke, while humans drink, have sex, fight and preen their vainty. The film is not a bit preachy or holy, only if you watching for the similarities of the Christ-story does it "make sense". Or it can be simply a coming of age story if that's your thing. The images, sounds and music are almost perfectly matched to the incomparable visuals.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Nice Message, But Not Worth the Time.

[4/10 · 24 June 2018]

The Good: Some nice visuals of Saladin's siege of Jerusalem. A likeable hero-figure. Some attempt (for a typical Hollywood Product) at period authenticity. In the end, if you understand, the message of the film is correct.

The Bad: Makes the Crusades into a soap opera. They were much more complex than that. Most of the Crusaders who were nobles were in it for riches and lands to conquer. They were far tougher and better warriors than is shown in the film.

The poor were in it for salvation. The whole area had changed hands every 500 years previously, so anyone claiming to be the 'rightful owner' was in jeopardy. The Muslims were just the latest tide that had come in. Now the Crusaders wanted some of the action.

Kingdom of Heaven is an action movie at the beginning and the end, with the large middle section a lot of talking in dark rooms. The inevitable story of a commoner who becomes a prince and of course gets the girl who is a princess is shallow. The plot seems borrowed from Gladiator, and a few other classics.

Boogie Nights (1997)

Hollywood as Porn

[9/10 · 22 June 2018]

A first film in Paul Thomas Anderson's California Suite (all taking place in California). It shows that the director has studied Scorsese carefully: long tracking shots, period disco music, but the characters seem to come with the laid-back California lifestyle. More than that if conveys the mentality of the era.

What could be more interesting than a film about the porn industry; but it's really about the film industry, with it's star behavior, drugs, bored, behind the camera people going through the motions and its share of misfits hoping for a bit of glamour. Its a comedy until toward the end it isn't, and the butchers bill comes for people who play meat on camera.

The film skillfully evokes an era and a time (starting with the mid-seventies) when making porn was almost a family affair, and those who came to Hollywood seeking their fortunes find that paying the bills leads them to the productions of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in his best role) a pornographer. It'd a transitional period in which the standard sex scene are still played, not the hard core stuff that goes nowadays.

One of the best scenes shows Jack Horner's girlfriend, a porn performer, gets it on with a boy she really wants to make love to, and does it on camera right before Horner, who thinks it's a wonderful 'performance'.

Boogie Nights also interweaves the lives of dozens of characters, who try to communicate things they can't articulate, so that even the most obvious double-entendre is taken seriously. They're way over their heads, playing with fire, and don't know it.

Unless your older, you won't remember eight-track tape, HI-FI systems, bell bottoms, disco, Corvettes as status symbols, coke on everyone's coffee tables, or a dozen other period artifacts.

I think the film is great if you've not seen it before. I tried watching it a second time and fount it a bit confining, as almost all the action takes place at Jack Horner's home or a disco named 'Boogie Nights'. The few scenes that don't seem shoehorned in, and don't work.

If the acting seems bad, remember that the film wants the characters to be stupid... like the characters in a porn movie. The length of the film (you won't be bored) promises larger ideas than the film finally delivers, and that is that. No big message, and maybe that's a good thing.

I recommend it highly if you haven't seen it. Just remember this is deeply ironic and humorous film - don't take anything seriously and you'll have a good time.

The Great Sinner (1949)

Great film from the Golden Age

[10/10 · 20 June 2018]

Ava Gardner, Walter Huston, Melvyn Douglas, Ethel Barrymore, who not would want to see them together in a film. The screenplay written by Christopher Ishwood, based loosely on Dostoyevski's book, "The Gambler", but with elements of some of his other books thrown in.

I think this film is an improvement on Dostoyevski's book, "The Gambler", written to pay of the authors gaming debts. Besides the cast and dialogue, there's the philosophy of gambling. In the film, the spa of Weisbaden is also a casino and the author who visits the place (based on Dostoyevski) is after a woman he met on the train. But she is a symbol of Lady Luck, ready to give or take with equal measure.

Even Gregory Peck, usually such a log, is pretty good as the writer who turns to gambling to pay the debts of the woman he's mad about. At last, Peck goes to the casino to win back his love. This is the best part of the film, as Peck wins, he understands the sensual pleasure of winning large sums, and the feeling of invinceability it gives you. No film on gambling is better. The only false note is when the casino owner gives back some money that the writer loses.

Ava Gardener was in her prime at that time and she never looked or acted better than in this film. Walter Huston is good as the mountebank General, Ethyl Barymore his rich mother. Great film from the Golden Age.

Napoléon (2002)

A Napoleon on the side

[8/10 · 16 June 2018]

This is the first Napoleon epic where the chief speaks with a French accent; that is good. HIs words are his, many of the events are accurate. Because his life was crowded with events, all detail is left out except the love interest of Josephine.

This is a modern interpretation, so any glory of war is ruthlessly stamped out, to the point that great battles are always seen as useless slaughter with piles of corpses. Well, in part they are.

If you're looking for any of La Gloire, a big part of the period, you'll look in vain. The people rarely cheer Napoleon. We know his soldiers often shouted "Vive L'Empereur" as he passed. Instead, in the film, they barely notice him on the battlefield.

Isabel Rossellini as Josephine is seen too often, as (one of the) the women of his life. Murat stands in for all his Marshals, as a film can only pay so many actors. John Malkovich as Talleyrand is very good.

An interesting and intelligent film. Clavier plays the part of Napoleon well, although in the interests of covering all his life, he is a bit one dimensional. If you thirst for battlefield tactics, and scenes of battle, you'll be disappointed. Only one battle is covered in any detail is Austerlitz, his finest victory.

Napoleon was an extremely intelligent and relatively peaceful man. Most of the wars he fought were forced upon him by European nations in the pay of the English, who could not abide him. He was a better man than they were.

The Bounty (1984)

A Great Story - Not a great film

[4/10 · 14 June 2018]

'The Bounty' is a minor contribution to the famous Bounty mutiny lore. Obviously the real story caught the public's imagination from the start. Capt Bligh's own book about the affair has apparently never been out of print since 1795.

But this movie never catches fire, perhaps the only real thrill is when Bounty sails in the the Tahitian harbor and is greeted by semi-naked women clambering over the gunnels. The crew, who know what awaits them, thanks to tales of a previous voyage by Capt Cook, are still bug-eyed. Had they died and gone to heaven?

In the Britain of that 1792, if you were poor, you could be hanged for any of a hundred different crimes, including petty theft. Poverty and drunkeness were endemic. Sex could be had, but for sailors, only if you had the money to pay for it.

Compared to conditions back in England, this was indeed a paradise, for British sailors. (Actually, the Tahitians themselves believed in a wide variety of deities, many malevolent, and were often frightened by the thought of evil spells, witchcraft and the like). They weren't quite the vacant, carefree people we see on screen, and that was a snapshot in time. A hundred years later, their population would be reduced by 80% by the white man's diseases, it was a French colony, Christian missionaries has done their work, and it was like any other port-of-call in the Pacific.

To get back to the film itself: Anthony Hopkins is good as Bligh; he's a talented actor. Look for Daniel Day-Lewis in his first film role; but he has few lines. Mel Gibson seems to sleepwalk through his role. The scriptwriters gave him little to say, (his lines are 10 words or less) and his acting has no flair whatsoever. He's upstaged by every actor he has a scene with, including his Tahitian girlfriend. The Tahitian chief has more charisma than Gibson.

Hopkins as Bligh comes out of this as the star, a somewhat priggish English gentleman of that day. The film implies that Bligh has a crush on Christian (Gibson), as we see cuts between Bligh in his sweaty bunk on the Bounty and Gibson having a ball on Tahiti, and this begins a rift between the two men. If this were so, it would not be unknown for that period, as the long voyages of those days with no women on board were known for such things.

The real Bligh might not have been such a wonderful character. While Governor of Australia in the early 1800s, his subordinates put him under house-arrest for two years.

If you see this film, unless you are an out-and-out Navy freak, it is Hopkins' performance that shines. Otherwise the film is a pedestrian walk-thru of no particular account.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Magnificent Black Comedy

[10/10 · 4 May 2018]

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

A black comedy about the British Victorian era, with it's aristocrats, those hoping to be aristocrats, snobs, hypocrites, rich capitalists, high-minded idealists, outrageous women's headgear and a photographer is there too. A British film, it combines class-consciousness and Victorian societal wit and manners with the peculiarly British taste for murder in a comedic context. The first 15 minutes are frankly boring, setting up the scenario for all that comes later. A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.

The British flare for satire and irony is never better displayed. Alec Guiness plays the part of eight members of an aristocratic family, each one a different character, and pulls it off. The protagonist, Dennis Price, by turns charming, calculating, ironic, plays the poor relation, determined to get to the top. Valerie Hobson plays the good woman, Joan Greenwood, in her best film performance, plays the bad. She steals every scene with nothing more than her sultry voice. Dialogue, acting, even set design are all superb. This is the kind of film that Hitchcock tried to make all his life, and only succeeded a few times.

Basquiat (1996)

Artis bio directed by an artist

[8/10 · 16 April 2018]

One of the better film bios of an artist. Maybe because directed by an artist - Julian Schnabel. Understated. Perhaps a bit of an hagiography, but in a good cause. Jeffrey Wright is suberb, and I don't know that his acting career after this film was as good as it should have been, but he radiates intelligence. Good supporting cast, script, dialogue. The scene where he first sees the tires in his apartment is superb. An good art film about an artist, wish there were more of them