To compensate for last week's deprivation, yesterday became Marathon Sunday -- but even I drew the line at four films. And what a mixed bunch they were:
Two from 1951: That's 55 years ago says PPP proving she can still do arithmetic and two that I've not seen previously, although "The Steel Helmet" has been on my "must-see" list for a long time. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller (and just about anything he has done is loaded with interest), I should have hated this war movie (my least favourite genre), but it was brilliantly conceived and held up very well after all these years. Always a low-budget auteur, this Korean war tale was shot in a local L.A. park with a minor cast and starred Gene Evans, who is not exactly a well-known name. He plays a sergeant, the only survivor of his regiment, who is rescued by a Korean youngster and who meets up with the stragglers from other decimated platoons; these include a tough by-the-book officer played by Steve Brodie, a black medic, an Asian-American and various other oddballs. Like all war movies, not everyone survives the attack on the Buddhist temple where they are holed up, but the dialogue and emotion felt very real and the total futility of war manifest. The second 1951 flick was more of a potboiler, but at least I have now seen it. Called "The Second Woman", it stars Robert Young in a late movie role as an architect with a secret. His fiancee has been killed on the eve of their wedding, and after he meets new love interest Betsy Drake (once married to Cary Grant, but a strangely anaemic actress), bad things happen -- his horse goes lame, his dog and his rosebushes are poisoned, his house burns down, he loses the big contract he's been chasing. We're meant to believe he is a "paranoiac" as claimed by the local doctor and that he is responsible for all of these things, but we the audience know that nice Mr. Young is incapable of bad behaviour. The obvious villains turn out to be red herrings and the least likely culprit is eventually revealed. But by then you will have ceased caring.
Mean Creek (2004): This was a beautifully done coming of age film from writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes with an underlying sense of unease to keep the viewer on the edge of his seat. Young Rory Culkin is being bullied at school by fat misfit Josh Peck; Culkin's elderbrother and his two mates decide that Peck must be taught a lesson and invite him to join them, Culkin and the latter's young girlfriend, Carly Schroeder, on a birthday outing on the river. They plan to humiliate Peck to teach him a lesson, but young Millie (the moral voice of the group) dissuades them -- and indeed Peck does not appear to be as much a monster as he seemed; his agression stemming from his own insecurities, as is so often the case. However a tragedy ensues and the youngsters do not know how to deal with it -- do they cover it up or face the music? They are unable to agree unanimously and the film does in fact stop quite abruptly without spelling out the various results. It could have done with a lot more closure.
Wedding Crashers (2005): It's not difficult to see why this was a big surprise hit at the box office since its likeable leads, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, are amusing company. They're best friends and business partners, but their main downtime activity is crashing weddings (of all faiths and hues) where they are always remarkably popular and always manage to entice a female or two into bed -- which is the point of the exercise from their point of view. They come unstuck when they crash the reception of Christopher Walken's eldest and become involved with his two younger daughters. They are roped into a house party which includes a gay brother, a nymphomaniac wife (a real rotten part for Jane Seymour), and the swarmy yuppie fiance of the daughter that Wilson fancies. It's by and large good-natured fun, although I could have lived without meeting Vaughn's original mentor played by an uncredited Will Ferrell who has now taken to crashing funerals. That's really not funny.
2 comments:
Didn't Mean Creek come at a time when loads of ex-child stars were into indie films - breaking out of the mould (in more ways than one). I think the editors had a few different endings - they just chose the duff safe one, and left the best, the one that would have really happened, on the cutting room floor to avoid reprisals. Stephen King would have got the body to raise from the ground. You could get Robert Englund in - he'd know what do do. What if the dead boy's parents had been relieved becuase they'd wanted to get rid of him too, and they actually paid off the group like it had been planned all along?
The opening shot of 'The Steel Helmet' where the hero's helmet only is seen above the top of a slope before slowly rising to show his eyes does show that
Fuller had an eye for filmic detail which raised him above the mediocre, does it not?
'The Second Woman' struck me as very much a contract obligation film with a very far-fetched plot coupled with acting from the beginners' class.
'Mean Creek' was better than I expected though I am still bemused by the failure
to take the obvious action rather than something which is going to lead to more
trouble as here. Possibly this is only a plot device but it is annoying at times.
Post a Comment