Right its been a wee while since I've done a review on this blog (apart from blagging them from my tennis blog) so this time I'm going for a British classic comedy from the 1980s, Withnail and I, which has become a real cult favourite over the years, and also heralded Richard E. Grant's acting career. So without any further ado let's have a look...
OK so the format of this blog doesn't change much (boring as it might be, but that's the way I'm used to it, so deal with it! ;-)) as we start with looking at the plot. The film is set in London 1969, where two out of work actors, Withnail (Richard E. Grant in a career defining role) and "I" (or Marwood as he is named in the script, and that's what I'll call him from now on, played by Paul McGann) struggle with their daily lives as they live in a squalid flat in Camden. Withnail is flamboyant and arrogant, and is also a raging alcoholic, whereas Marwood is more sensible, but riddled with anxieties and insecurities. In order to escape the dreariness of their lives in London, they decide to take a week's break in the countryside, and they go and visit Withnail's uncle, Monty (Richard Griffiths), who is gay and is as equally as flamboyant as Withnail, and they ask if they can use his cottage out in the country, which Monty agrees to. Withnail and Marwood then travel out to the countryside, in their battered Jaguar (which has only one windscreen wiper working as well as one headlight!) and they eventually find the cottage. However they arrive in heavy rain and when they enter the cottage, they find it to be run down and dusty.
The next day Marwood goes out in search of the locales to try and find some food, but they are somewhat unfriendly, but he eventually manages to locate a local farmer, who get's them some food. Later that night the two men go to the local pub (The crow and crown) where they get sozzled and Withnail get's into an altercation with a local poacher (Michael Elphick) who threatens to wake him up with a live eel later on in his cottage! Withnail back at the cottage spends the rest of night in fear of the poacher's threat, as he refuses to sleep alone he get's into Marwood's bed (with a double barrelled shotgun!), and later on they hear noises of someone breaking in downstairs, which soon turns out to be Monty, who apologises for scaring them and says that his car had broken down and that he would have joined them sooner. The following morning Monty has brought a supply of food and wine, but he has designs on Marwood, as we later find out that Withnail has told Monty that Marwood is gay (which he's not). Marwood catches onto this pretty quickly as Monty flirts with Marwood and corners him while they make dinner. Later on that night, Withnail is once again totally pissed, and Marwood helps him up to bed, after which he tries to get away from Monty who imposes himself on Marwood later that night, as he breaks into his room and tries to have him "even if it must be bulgary!". In a last ditch effort to prevent Monty's inescapable advances, Marwood pleads with Monty to leave as he tells him that he and Withnail are having an affair, which has been going on for years, and that Withnail refuses to accept their relationship for what it is. Monty accepts Marwood's explanation and apologises for coming between them both, after which a furious Marwood confronts Withnail in his bedroom, telling him "how dare you told him I was a toilet trader!" and he takes Withnail's shotgun before going to his own bed.
The next day Monty has left the cottage and a note of heartfelt apology, which explains that he overheard Marwood's angry words with Withnail and he felt best to leave them both. At this point Marwood receives a telegram, which says he has been offered a part in a play, and Marwood decides to leave for London immediately. As the two men travel back to London, they take turns at the wheel (with Withnail even eating his dinner in his lap!) but again Withnail is steaming drunk and is pulled over by the cops, who take them to the station (where Withnail tries to get away with the urine test using a fairy liquid bottle filled with someone else's urine!). When they get back to London, they find, a local drug dealer, Danny (Ralph Brown), squatting in their flat with a friend of his, Presuming Ed (Eddie Tagoe), with whom they share a giant spliff with, while Danny spouts his philosophy about the end of an era as the 1960s are about to close. Marwood soon comes back after his audition and tells them he got offered the lead part in a play. Not long after, Marwood get's his long hair cut short, and he packs his bags and leaves, as Withnail accompanies him part of the way, as the two men say goodbye, Withnail stands in the rain, drinking a bottle of red wine (a 53 Margaux) and quoting a piece of Hamlet, before sadly walking off in the rain alone.
Withnail and I is without a doubt one of the best and funniest British comedy films from the 1980s, and it was a terrific debut from its writer and director, Bruce Robinson, who's script is wonderfully funny and has plenty of memorable dialouge throughout. And what drives the film so well is of course its two lead characters, as Withnail is an arrogant, selfish, anaemic alcoholic who can drink anyone under the table, yet he has a strange charm, which he only occassionally turns on, especially in the scene where is in the local bar in the countryside. Marwood is the sensible centre, or the straight man of the film if you like, who is riddled with neurosis, and he at least is smart enough to realise that he must escape from the squalid life that he and Withnail are stuck in.
Performance wise is where Withnail and I really shines, as the two leads are both superb, Richard E Grant kick started his career as Withnail, and he plays his character with a wonderful sense of arrogance and pomposity, but at the centre of it all he is a tremendous coward. He also pretty much ends up a victim of his own cruelty and by the end is left alone by Marwood. As Withnail, Grant get's pretty much most of the film's best lines, of which there are many examples, such as when he sees Marwood drinking coffee from a soup bowl, and he asks "Soup??? Why didn't I get any soup??!". And there is of course the legendary line "FORK IT!", which Bruce Robinson used as the single line that would determine whom he would hire for the part, as whoever could pull off that line would nail it, which Grant certainly did. Another favourite of mine from Grant is when Withnail and Marwood run out to catch up with the farmer in his tractor, and he says "could you help us??? We've gone on holiday by mistake!". And perhaps his best line, well for me anyway, is when he and Marwood visit a cafe in the village, both pished, they sit down and ask for cake, tea and fine wine, when the owner says they haven't got any wine, Withnail snaps "Balls! We want the finest wines available to humanity! We want them here and we want them now!". And there is of course the scene where Withnail drinks lighter fluid and cackles madly in front of Marwood "Have we got anymore??? You've got anit-freeze!" before being violently sick. Richard E Grant, who was and is teetotal to this day, was asked by Robinson to get drunk as part of the preparation of the part of Withnail, which he reluctantly accepted, and he was violently sick afterwards! And it has to be said you won't find a finer drunk act anywhere in cinema than Grant's in this film. And as a last note on Withnail another one of my favourite scenes is where he and Marwood go to a lake to do some "fishing", which is involves Withnail blasting his shotgun into the water to try and shoot the fish.
Paul McGann, while he isn't as flamboyant as Grant's character, delivers a great performance as Marwood, who is level headed but also deeply neurotic about life in general. You can also empathise more with Marwood as he is quite often the victim of Withnail's cruel streak, especially when Monty starts to make his move on him. One of my favourite scenes of his is where he goes off to the toilet in the Camden bar near the start of the film, and is called a ponce on the way by a thuggish customer, and as he stands in the bathroom he looks around at the graffiti and he sees the following on the wall "I fuck arses???? Who fucks arses??? Maybe HE fucks arses! Maybe he's written this in some drunken moment of sincerity!". I also like the scene where he and Withnail share the bed in the cottage, as they argue about Withnail holding a shotgun in bed, it goes off, and Marwood yells "you mad fucking bastard!!!" as throws the gun out the window.
Richard Griffiths as Uncle Monty is also terrific, Withnail's gay flamboyany uncle, who let's them use his cottage, only to have his eye on Marwood. Monty is also quite sympathetic as he is sentimental of his youth and lives a lonley life, and he too is manipulated by Withnail, by making him believe Marwood is gay, giving him some hope for a bit of nooky. Griffith's main highlight is of course his attemped seduction scene with Marwood, where he can't fight temptation to have him, which of course provides Griffiths with his best line where he says "I mean to have you even if it must be burgalry!".
The supporting cast are also excellent, particularly Ralph Brown as the stoner and drug dealer, Danny, who squats in Withnail and Marwood's flat. Danny is basically just a spacehead, but he get's some funny moments in the film as he philosophises about life in the 60s, and he says of hairdressers "that they are all in the employment of the government" and that "hair are your aerials!". I also like the scene where he dares Withnail to try one of his drugs and he says "If I medicined you, you would think a brain tumour was a birthday present!". And also in a smaller role the late Michael Elphick makes a memorable cameo as Jake, the poacher, who threatens Withnail and says "I've seen you prancing around like a tit! You need working on, boy!".
Direction wise Bruce Robinson does a great job, and his script is a wonderful piece of writing which is very funny and also quite poignant in places as well. Robinson is also seen in the film during the scene where Withnail is driving the Jaguar down the motorway, swerving left and right, as Robinson is driving the car (and that is his car!). Robinson also said he partly had based Monty's character on the director Franco Zeffirelli, whom Robinson was allegedly sexually harrassed by as younger man during the making of Romeo and Juliet. The part of Withnail was also based on Robinson's real life flat mate and fellow actor, Vivian McKerrell, whom Robinson said was the funniest person he had ever known. Vivian McKerrell later on died in 1995 from throat cancer (which apparently was in tiny part attributed towards not only his rampant alcohol abuse, but also consumpion of lighter fluid!).
So that's it for my review of Withnail and I, which is a still one of the great modern classics of British cinema, and if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favour and rectify that as soon as you can, as its superb stuff.
And I shall leave it there.
Thursday 31 January 2013
Thursday 17 January 2013
That was fuckin' trippy!!
I apologise for the language in the title of this post, but it was taken from one of my favourite Quentin Tarantino films, which is the subject of this entry on the ol blog. So yes this is another blagged entry from the tennis/other stuff blog, and I thought it earned its place here, so without further ado, here's my review on Pulp Fiction......
The film as we all know it features a big star-strewn cast which is lead by John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis, and this film definitely acted as a springboard for all four of these actors careers, particularly Travolta and Jackson. And we probably all know the plot, well those of us who have seen it, as it has a relatively complex plot, following the lives of two gangsters, a crime boss and his wife, and a boxer and his girlfriend, who in some way or another intertwine with one another at some point or another.
The main two stories of course features hitman Vincent (Travolta) who goes on a job with his partner Jules (Jackson) to retrieve a briefcase from some young kids who were stupid enough to rip off their boss Marcellus Wallace (played by Vingh Rhames). In the ensuing scene after they have killed the guys, Vincent accidentally kills one of their associates, Marvin, by shooting him in the head while Jules is driving. After that Jule's calls his local friend Jimmie for help (played by Tarantino himself) and Marcellus who sends one of his business associates Mr Wolf (Harvey Keitel), who "solves problems" and aids in cleaning up their mess for them. The other story being Vincent who is asked by Marcellus to take out his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) one night on the town while he is away on business. As the two of them have a good night out, and share a steak, burger, and take part in a twist contest, at a "wax museum with a pulse" 1950s style diner. But when they go back to Mia's place, Mia accidentally overdoses on Vincent's heroin baggie, thinking it to be cocaine. At this point Vincent in a panic takes the dying Mia over to his drug dealing buddie Lance (Eric Stoltz) from whom he bought heroin, which leads into the infamous "needle" scene where Vincent brings Mia round with an adrenaline shot.
The next big story is the "Golden Watch" with Bruce Willis as a boxer Butch Coolidge who is coming to the end of his career and is being forced to take a dive in his fight by Marcellus. But Butch has other ideas and ends up winning the fight, killing his opponent in the process (unintentionally of course) and plans to flee with his girlfriend and the winnings he made from the bookies who placed bets on him. But as Butch and his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) plan their departure, Butch notices that Fabienne neglected to pick up his precious golden watch, which was given to him as a present from a soldier (Christopher Walken) who was entrusted the watch given to him by Butch's dad, who later died of dysentary (from concealing the watch in his ass!). So as Butch goes back to his apartment to pick up the watch he proceeds to have the "weirdest fucking day of his life" as he rightly puts it.
Having watched Pulp Fiction many times in the past and having not seen it for a while, I really enjoyed seeing it once again. Although the film is heavily verbose, its almost at times like listening to one of Aaron Sorkin's screenplays, except with loads more swearing, and more blood and violence. But the characters are all really well written and you can get a sense of who and what they are about. Vincent as the main character in the film, is both dim and smart at the same time, as he holds a rather stubborn view of life, but at key moments isn't the brightest of sparks (especially leaving his machine gun outside the bathroom, in the scene where Butch faces off him with his gun).
Jules on the other hand is much brighter, cockier and smarter, and as he and Vincent face certain death at one point in the film, Jules is smart enough to realise that at this point, this probably isn't the life for him. And its most likely Jules decision after his dice with death that would go on to save him from a similar fate than Vincent's. In the final scene Jules also helps the two coffee shop robbers (from the opening scene) to escape unharmed, as prior to that he would have just killed them. Jules also gets some of the best dialogue in the film which is forever quotable "I'm a mushroom cloud layin motherfucker, motherfucker. Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Superfly TNT, I'm the Guns of the Navarone!" "Check out the big brain on Brad!" "The car hit no motherfuckin bump"! "Normally both your asses would be as dead as fuckin fried chicken, but you happen to be pullin this shit while I'm in a transitional period, so I don't want to kill I wanna help you".
Mia is also a really good character as she is nice and smart enough to know that her husband is protective of her, but she can look after herself. And Mia's close call with death also, provides a chance for Vincent to be the good guy and save her, although he wouldn't stand a chance in hell if she died on him. There's almost a fine line between Mia also flirting and going a step further with Vincent, but Quentin sensibly doesn't let it go that far, although in a later scene its implied they have been seeing each other behind Marcellus's back.
The film itself despite being 2 hours and 30 minutes, rarely drags, although I do admit the Butch and Fabienne scene does drag on a bit, and is the only fairly tedious scene in the film, especially with Fabienne wittering on, about wishing she had a pot belly like "Madonna did when she did Lucky Star!". You also get the sense that in Quentin's dialogue he loves to keep dropping in these nerdy references to where he might have been as its implied in Vincent's dialogue when he speaks on his travels to Amsterdam.
And one of the few things that does leave me slighly uncomfortable about Pulp Fiction is the somewhat racist element on the dialogue, especially in the scenes such as Lance the drug dealer saying to Vincent about his deals "Am I a nigger? Are we in Inglewood??" as well as Jimmie saying to Jules "when you pulled in here, did you see a sign on the front of my house saying dead nigger storage??". It does show an uncomfortable mix of humour blended in with racism, and it was the same in Reservoir Dogs where the gangsters talk about "how every nigger they know treats their women like a piece of shit". Also in the redneck scene where Marcellus is raped by one of the good ol boys, it does appear very stereotypical in its depiction of these characters and it almost like Quentin threw in the sodomy scene for shock effect.
But apart from that its a mighty impressive film, which is also great because not just the dialogue but also how the characters react and interact with one another, when there is no dialogue. And while Quentin was accussed of writing racist dialogue by Spike Lee when he did Jackie Brown, I think at that time he wrote it specifically for the black guys in the film, so it certainly wasn't racist then, and I guess he is also writing the dialogue from the point of view of the character's attitudes.
So on a final note if you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, I definitely think you should give it a go, I also have very fond memories of my first viewing of it back in my local cinema in 1994, where you literally felt like you were watching a live comedy show, with people laughing almost non stop. It also has a very cool soundtrack with some great tracks such as Dick Dale's "Miserlou" now unforgettable, and Kool n the Gang's "Jungle Boogie", Aretha Franklin's "Son of a preacher man" and plenty of others.
And with that, that's it.
The film as we all know it features a big star-strewn cast which is lead by John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis, and this film definitely acted as a springboard for all four of these actors careers, particularly Travolta and Jackson. And we probably all know the plot, well those of us who have seen it, as it has a relatively complex plot, following the lives of two gangsters, a crime boss and his wife, and a boxer and his girlfriend, who in some way or another intertwine with one another at some point or another.
The main two stories of course features hitman Vincent (Travolta) who goes on a job with his partner Jules (Jackson) to retrieve a briefcase from some young kids who were stupid enough to rip off their boss Marcellus Wallace (played by Vingh Rhames). In the ensuing scene after they have killed the guys, Vincent accidentally kills one of their associates, Marvin, by shooting him in the head while Jules is driving. After that Jule's calls his local friend Jimmie for help (played by Tarantino himself) and Marcellus who sends one of his business associates Mr Wolf (Harvey Keitel), who "solves problems" and aids in cleaning up their mess for them. The other story being Vincent who is asked by Marcellus to take out his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) one night on the town while he is away on business. As the two of them have a good night out, and share a steak, burger, and take part in a twist contest, at a "wax museum with a pulse" 1950s style diner. But when they go back to Mia's place, Mia accidentally overdoses on Vincent's heroin baggie, thinking it to be cocaine. At this point Vincent in a panic takes the dying Mia over to his drug dealing buddie Lance (Eric Stoltz) from whom he bought heroin, which leads into the infamous "needle" scene where Vincent brings Mia round with an adrenaline shot.
The next big story is the "Golden Watch" with Bruce Willis as a boxer Butch Coolidge who is coming to the end of his career and is being forced to take a dive in his fight by Marcellus. But Butch has other ideas and ends up winning the fight, killing his opponent in the process (unintentionally of course) and plans to flee with his girlfriend and the winnings he made from the bookies who placed bets on him. But as Butch and his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) plan their departure, Butch notices that Fabienne neglected to pick up his precious golden watch, which was given to him as a present from a soldier (Christopher Walken) who was entrusted the watch given to him by Butch's dad, who later died of dysentary (from concealing the watch in his ass!). So as Butch goes back to his apartment to pick up the watch he proceeds to have the "weirdest fucking day of his life" as he rightly puts it.
Having watched Pulp Fiction many times in the past and having not seen it for a while, I really enjoyed seeing it once again. Although the film is heavily verbose, its almost at times like listening to one of Aaron Sorkin's screenplays, except with loads more swearing, and more blood and violence. But the characters are all really well written and you can get a sense of who and what they are about. Vincent as the main character in the film, is both dim and smart at the same time, as he holds a rather stubborn view of life, but at key moments isn't the brightest of sparks (especially leaving his machine gun outside the bathroom, in the scene where Butch faces off him with his gun).
Jules on the other hand is much brighter, cockier and smarter, and as he and Vincent face certain death at one point in the film, Jules is smart enough to realise that at this point, this probably isn't the life for him. And its most likely Jules decision after his dice with death that would go on to save him from a similar fate than Vincent's. In the final scene Jules also helps the two coffee shop robbers (from the opening scene) to escape unharmed, as prior to that he would have just killed them. Jules also gets some of the best dialogue in the film which is forever quotable "I'm a mushroom cloud layin motherfucker, motherfucker. Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Superfly TNT, I'm the Guns of the Navarone!" "Check out the big brain on Brad!" "The car hit no motherfuckin bump"! "Normally both your asses would be as dead as fuckin fried chicken, but you happen to be pullin this shit while I'm in a transitional period, so I don't want to kill I wanna help you".
Mia is also a really good character as she is nice and smart enough to know that her husband is protective of her, but she can look after herself. And Mia's close call with death also, provides a chance for Vincent to be the good guy and save her, although he wouldn't stand a chance in hell if she died on him. There's almost a fine line between Mia also flirting and going a step further with Vincent, but Quentin sensibly doesn't let it go that far, although in a later scene its implied they have been seeing each other behind Marcellus's back.
The film itself despite being 2 hours and 30 minutes, rarely drags, although I do admit the Butch and Fabienne scene does drag on a bit, and is the only fairly tedious scene in the film, especially with Fabienne wittering on, about wishing she had a pot belly like "Madonna did when she did Lucky Star!". You also get the sense that in Quentin's dialogue he loves to keep dropping in these nerdy references to where he might have been as its implied in Vincent's dialogue when he speaks on his travels to Amsterdam.
And one of the few things that does leave me slighly uncomfortable about Pulp Fiction is the somewhat racist element on the dialogue, especially in the scenes such as Lance the drug dealer saying to Vincent about his deals "Am I a nigger? Are we in Inglewood??" as well as Jimmie saying to Jules "when you pulled in here, did you see a sign on the front of my house saying dead nigger storage??". It does show an uncomfortable mix of humour blended in with racism, and it was the same in Reservoir Dogs where the gangsters talk about "how every nigger they know treats their women like a piece of shit". Also in the redneck scene where Marcellus is raped by one of the good ol boys, it does appear very stereotypical in its depiction of these characters and it almost like Quentin threw in the sodomy scene for shock effect.
But apart from that its a mighty impressive film, which is also great because not just the dialogue but also how the characters react and interact with one another, when there is no dialogue. And while Quentin was accussed of writing racist dialogue by Spike Lee when he did Jackie Brown, I think at that time he wrote it specifically for the black guys in the film, so it certainly wasn't racist then, and I guess he is also writing the dialogue from the point of view of the character's attitudes.
So on a final note if you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, I definitely think you should give it a go, I also have very fond memories of my first viewing of it back in my local cinema in 1994, where you literally felt like you were watching a live comedy show, with people laughing almost non stop. It also has a very cool soundtrack with some great tracks such as Dick Dale's "Miserlou" now unforgettable, and Kool n the Gang's "Jungle Boogie", Aretha Franklin's "Son of a preacher man" and plenty of others.
And with that, that's it.
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Cape Fear: Speaking in tounges
And...... here's another blagged post from the tennis/other stuff blog, this time its Cape Fear (yes another Scorsese movie, one after the other, how about that??) the Martin Scorsese 1991 remake of the 1962 original. So let's gie it a looksee......
The film starts with Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a convict who has just been released from prison afer serving 14 years for rape, seeks out his lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and looks for revenge for Sam having put Cady away behind bars. Sam was his defence lawyer at the time back in Atlana in 1977, but during the case, on seeing what Cady did to his victim, a 16 year old girl, he decided to bury a report that came back saying the girl was promiscuous. And had Sam let this report be used, it might have seen Cady get off with a lighter sentence or be released. Of course Cady has since caught on to this, and that's his main reason he wants revenge, for the suffering and pain he endured in prison. So Cady starts a series of incidents to intimidate and get at Sam and his family, this starts with the Bowden's dog being mysteriously poisoned. Cady also meets with a girl, Lori (Illeana Douglas) who is a county court clerk, who works with Sam, whom he has been seeing behind his wife's back. Cady although appears to hit it off with Lori when they meet in a bar, he soon takes her back to his apartment where he brutally beats and rapes her. On hearing of the attack, Sam goes to hospital and talks to Lori, asking her to testify, but she refuses as she knows how the system works, and she doesn't want to explain herself to a jury in court about how she came to be in a bar with Cady and so on.
After having no success with the police, Sam decides to hire a private eye, Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) to follow Cady and maybe catch him in the act, although ultimately Cady makes Kersek at a local diner, and Kersek confronts him and tells him to leave town, but Cady refuses. Meanwhile Cady approaches Sam's daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) at school and tries to charm her around in his favour, in doing so he puts his hand around her, gets her to suck his thumb erotically, and he kisses her before leaving, Dani then panics and runs off. Soon after Sam gets Kersek to hire some guys to do a "hospital" job on Cady, involving two pieces of pipe and a bicycle chain, however during the attack, Cady turns the tables and viciously beats them. Cady then goes one better on Sam by hiring a top lawyer Lee Heller (Gregory Peck), who Sam shortly after the botched attack approaches to make an injunction on Cady, only to find that he was pipped to the post by his enemy. In court it is revealed that Cady recorded a conversation between himself and Sam, as Sam threatened Cady to leave town or he will be hurting like he never dreamed. As a result of the hearing, Cady gets a restraining order filed against Sam, and Lee petitions the ABA (American Bar Association) ethics comission to have Sam disbarred.
Sam now desparate turns to Kersek for help in trying to capture and kill Cady, Kersek suggests that Sam fake his flight out to his hearing, and instead steakout in the Bowden household for Cady to come in. However Cady is one step ahead again, and mysteriously makes his way into the house where he kills Kersek and the house maid Graciella (Zully Montero) by garroting them with piano wire (which he had taken from the Bowden's piano, also mysteriously! What is this guy??? A ninja???! ;-). Sam and his family then decide to flee to their houseboat and travel up to Cape Fear in hope of escaping Cady. However tenacious as ever, Cady follows them to their location by strapping himself to the chassis of the Bowdens' car. And soon enough on the houseboat, Cady confronts them for the last time, intent on exacting his full revenge on Sam and his family.
Most remakes of course fall flat on their face, but thankfully Cape Fear isn't one of them, with Martin Scorsese at the directorial helm, it certainly wouldn't do that. I also actually prefer it to the original version, as I think the Bowden family in the original version of Cape Fear where a bit too goody goody and clean cut. In the remake, they are a dysfunctional family, who have tried to make some amends, but Sam has had a past history of womanising, Leigh of course is the frustrated housewife and Dani is the shellshocked, lonely teenager. It doesn't make for a particularly happy image of the American family, but it certainly makes it more interesting to watch than a clean cut cardboard cut out family. What doesn't change so much of course is the depiction of Max Cady, as Robert De Niro plays in an not entirely similar but not disimilar way to Robert Mitchum, although Scorsese did say he use Mitchum's character from the Night of the Hunter as more of an influence. As Cady in the remake is more like a demented preacher at times than just an ex-con, and he regularly quotes passages from the bible to Sam in their various meetings. And by the end of the film Cady in his last moments (PLOT SPOILERSS ABOUND!!!) as he is about drown, with his leg handcuffed (or legcuffed??) to a part of the Bowden's crushed boat, he still babbles on, speaking in tongues, saying he will be "bound for the promised land". Its the ultimate irony, that in Cady's eyes that he thinks he is some sort of angel sent to do God's work, and at the end of it all, he thinks he will go to heaven, despite his brutal violent nature. Although if you think about it, in a strange way Cady was trying to save Sam from himself, with Lori for example, he exposed the fact he was seeing Lori behind his wife's back. If Cady hadn't intervened, Sam's deception no doubt would have carried on, but its almost like Cady is the moral adjudacator who prevents it from carrying on. It leads onto that bizzare but true line from Cady to Sam at one point when he says "You could say I'm here to save you".
Performance wise of course there is plenty to like about Cape Fear, Robert De Niro plays Max Cady as being charismatic, charming, devious and incredibly evil, and he is both funny and chilling at the same time. De Niro also get's some great dialogue as Cady, one of the my favourite lines is where he receives a threat from Sam to leave town and Cady replies "well I was thinking of relocating to somewhere where I would be more welcome. California perhaps, I could teach earthquake preparedness!". Nick Nolte is very good as Sam Bowden, who is tormented by Cady right from the start, and at the start you are somewhat wary of his potential womanising ways, although he doesn't actually do anything with Lori other than play squash. Jessica Lange is also fine as Leigh Bowden, Sam's long suffering wife, who at first appears to be on good terms with her husband, until Cady comes into their lives and turns them upside down. Joe Don Baker also gives probably my favourite performance of the film as Kersek, the private investigator, who is quite cocky and self assured in his ability to catch Cady, he also delivers most of the film's best dialogue such as "I'm sorry about that, Sam, that son of a bitch could survive a pre-emptive nuclear strike!!". And finally there is Juliette Lewis as Dani, which was her debut performance, and she is very impressive in the film, as she plays Danielle with a certain quirkiness and innocence. But she is of course very much alone in her life, and she in unable to deal with her parents when they continually row with one another. She also shares with De Niro one of the film's best scenes where Dani and Cady meet in the school theatre, where they discuss books such as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the pitfalls of adulthood and Cady almost tries to turn Dani against her father and nearly succeeds.
One thing however that does bug me it has to be said about the film though, and its not exactly a strict flaw, but it is something that should be pointed out is this..... get ready.... ok its no that exciting really. No, but to get to the point, its where Cady files a restraining order against Sam, and in the order Sam is not allowed to come within 500 yards of Cady. But regardless of this Cady still relentlessly persues Sam in his house and to their house boat on the river, so isn't he violating the conditions of his own restraining order by doing this???? As near the end of the film where Sam and Cady have their final fight on the shore of the river, and Sam hits Cady with a rock, Cady laughs dementedly and says "you forget about that restraining order, counsellor??? You're well within 500 yards!!". But Sam has spent all that time trying to get away from Cady, so obviously he isn't violating the restraining, its the other way round! But at this point all logic goes out the window, and it is a Hollywood film after all! Anyway its a small point, but an amusing one which I thought I'd like to make.
Anyway moving in terms of direction, Scorsese himself provides a great relentless pace and he employs the use of many quick cuts and close ups, to convey the frantic nature of the film, and the anxiety the Bowdens are going through. Although he probably does overuse the negatives when we see for example Leigh lie in bed post coitius with Sam, and we see her nasal hair in the negative image! But overall its another great technical film from Scorsese and you would expect nothing less. And finally a little bit about the score, which of course was orignally composed by the late great Bernard Herrmann, which was re-orchestrated by Elmer Bernstein who does a terrific job with Hermann's already great score, and there are plenty of great passages in there to choose from.
Sooooo that's it for Cape Fear, which is a very worthy remake and if you haven't seen it, its definitely worth a watch.
And that'll do it for now, more stuff to follow soon.
The film starts with Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a convict who has just been released from prison afer serving 14 years for rape, seeks out his lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and looks for revenge for Sam having put Cady away behind bars. Sam was his defence lawyer at the time back in Atlana in 1977, but during the case, on seeing what Cady did to his victim, a 16 year old girl, he decided to bury a report that came back saying the girl was promiscuous. And had Sam let this report be used, it might have seen Cady get off with a lighter sentence or be released. Of course Cady has since caught on to this, and that's his main reason he wants revenge, for the suffering and pain he endured in prison. So Cady starts a series of incidents to intimidate and get at Sam and his family, this starts with the Bowden's dog being mysteriously poisoned. Cady also meets with a girl, Lori (Illeana Douglas) who is a county court clerk, who works with Sam, whom he has been seeing behind his wife's back. Cady although appears to hit it off with Lori when they meet in a bar, he soon takes her back to his apartment where he brutally beats and rapes her. On hearing of the attack, Sam goes to hospital and talks to Lori, asking her to testify, but she refuses as she knows how the system works, and she doesn't want to explain herself to a jury in court about how she came to be in a bar with Cady and so on.
After having no success with the police, Sam decides to hire a private eye, Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) to follow Cady and maybe catch him in the act, although ultimately Cady makes Kersek at a local diner, and Kersek confronts him and tells him to leave town, but Cady refuses. Meanwhile Cady approaches Sam's daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) at school and tries to charm her around in his favour, in doing so he puts his hand around her, gets her to suck his thumb erotically, and he kisses her before leaving, Dani then panics and runs off. Soon after Sam gets Kersek to hire some guys to do a "hospital" job on Cady, involving two pieces of pipe and a bicycle chain, however during the attack, Cady turns the tables and viciously beats them. Cady then goes one better on Sam by hiring a top lawyer Lee Heller (Gregory Peck), who Sam shortly after the botched attack approaches to make an injunction on Cady, only to find that he was pipped to the post by his enemy. In court it is revealed that Cady recorded a conversation between himself and Sam, as Sam threatened Cady to leave town or he will be hurting like he never dreamed. As a result of the hearing, Cady gets a restraining order filed against Sam, and Lee petitions the ABA (American Bar Association) ethics comission to have Sam disbarred.
Sam now desparate turns to Kersek for help in trying to capture and kill Cady, Kersek suggests that Sam fake his flight out to his hearing, and instead steakout in the Bowden household for Cady to come in. However Cady is one step ahead again, and mysteriously makes his way into the house where he kills Kersek and the house maid Graciella (Zully Montero) by garroting them with piano wire (which he had taken from the Bowden's piano, also mysteriously! What is this guy??? A ninja???! ;-). Sam and his family then decide to flee to their houseboat and travel up to Cape Fear in hope of escaping Cady. However tenacious as ever, Cady follows them to their location by strapping himself to the chassis of the Bowdens' car. And soon enough on the houseboat, Cady confronts them for the last time, intent on exacting his full revenge on Sam and his family.
Most remakes of course fall flat on their face, but thankfully Cape Fear isn't one of them, with Martin Scorsese at the directorial helm, it certainly wouldn't do that. I also actually prefer it to the original version, as I think the Bowden family in the original version of Cape Fear where a bit too goody goody and clean cut. In the remake, they are a dysfunctional family, who have tried to make some amends, but Sam has had a past history of womanising, Leigh of course is the frustrated housewife and Dani is the shellshocked, lonely teenager. It doesn't make for a particularly happy image of the American family, but it certainly makes it more interesting to watch than a clean cut cardboard cut out family. What doesn't change so much of course is the depiction of Max Cady, as Robert De Niro plays in an not entirely similar but not disimilar way to Robert Mitchum, although Scorsese did say he use Mitchum's character from the Night of the Hunter as more of an influence. As Cady in the remake is more like a demented preacher at times than just an ex-con, and he regularly quotes passages from the bible to Sam in their various meetings. And by the end of the film Cady in his last moments (PLOT SPOILERSS ABOUND!!!) as he is about drown, with his leg handcuffed (or legcuffed??) to a part of the Bowden's crushed boat, he still babbles on, speaking in tongues, saying he will be "bound for the promised land". Its the ultimate irony, that in Cady's eyes that he thinks he is some sort of angel sent to do God's work, and at the end of it all, he thinks he will go to heaven, despite his brutal violent nature. Although if you think about it, in a strange way Cady was trying to save Sam from himself, with Lori for example, he exposed the fact he was seeing Lori behind his wife's back. If Cady hadn't intervened, Sam's deception no doubt would have carried on, but its almost like Cady is the moral adjudacator who prevents it from carrying on. It leads onto that bizzare but true line from Cady to Sam at one point when he says "You could say I'm here to save you".
Performance wise of course there is plenty to like about Cape Fear, Robert De Niro plays Max Cady as being charismatic, charming, devious and incredibly evil, and he is both funny and chilling at the same time. De Niro also get's some great dialogue as Cady, one of the my favourite lines is where he receives a threat from Sam to leave town and Cady replies "well I was thinking of relocating to somewhere where I would be more welcome. California perhaps, I could teach earthquake preparedness!". Nick Nolte is very good as Sam Bowden, who is tormented by Cady right from the start, and at the start you are somewhat wary of his potential womanising ways, although he doesn't actually do anything with Lori other than play squash. Jessica Lange is also fine as Leigh Bowden, Sam's long suffering wife, who at first appears to be on good terms with her husband, until Cady comes into their lives and turns them upside down. Joe Don Baker also gives probably my favourite performance of the film as Kersek, the private investigator, who is quite cocky and self assured in his ability to catch Cady, he also delivers most of the film's best dialogue such as "I'm sorry about that, Sam, that son of a bitch could survive a pre-emptive nuclear strike!!". And finally there is Juliette Lewis as Dani, which was her debut performance, and she is very impressive in the film, as she plays Danielle with a certain quirkiness and innocence. But she is of course very much alone in her life, and she in unable to deal with her parents when they continually row with one another. She also shares with De Niro one of the film's best scenes where Dani and Cady meet in the school theatre, where they discuss books such as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the pitfalls of adulthood and Cady almost tries to turn Dani against her father and nearly succeeds.
One thing however that does bug me it has to be said about the film though, and its not exactly a strict flaw, but it is something that should be pointed out is this..... get ready.... ok its no that exciting really. No, but to get to the point, its where Cady files a restraining order against Sam, and in the order Sam is not allowed to come within 500 yards of Cady. But regardless of this Cady still relentlessly persues Sam in his house and to their house boat on the river, so isn't he violating the conditions of his own restraining order by doing this???? As near the end of the film where Sam and Cady have their final fight on the shore of the river, and Sam hits Cady with a rock, Cady laughs dementedly and says "you forget about that restraining order, counsellor??? You're well within 500 yards!!". But Sam has spent all that time trying to get away from Cady, so obviously he isn't violating the restraining, its the other way round! But at this point all logic goes out the window, and it is a Hollywood film after all! Anyway its a small point, but an amusing one which I thought I'd like to make.
Anyway moving in terms of direction, Scorsese himself provides a great relentless pace and he employs the use of many quick cuts and close ups, to convey the frantic nature of the film, and the anxiety the Bowdens are going through. Although he probably does overuse the negatives when we see for example Leigh lie in bed post coitius with Sam, and we see her nasal hair in the negative image! But overall its another great technical film from Scorsese and you would expect nothing less. And finally a little bit about the score, which of course was orignally composed by the late great Bernard Herrmann, which was re-orchestrated by Elmer Bernstein who does a terrific job with Hermann's already great score, and there are plenty of great passages in there to choose from.
Sooooo that's it for Cape Fear, which is a very worthy remake and if you haven't seen it, its definitely worth a watch.
And that'll do it for now, more stuff to follow soon.
You talkin to me????
Right its blagging time on this blog, as I'm always keen to look at some of my reviews I posted in my overstuffed tennis blog, back when I incorporated everything into it, but now its time to make room for another review from it, and this time its the one on Taxi Driver. So let's have a look at it then....
The film starts with the film's central character, Travis Bickle (De Niro) taking a job as a taxi driver so he work long hours to help deal with his insomnia. Travis spends his nights alone, and usually frequents Porno movie theatres to try and help him sleep (as you do!). Whilst driving the streets he spots a beautiful young woman, Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) who does voluntary work for the Presidential candidate Senator Charles Pallantine (Leonard Harris). Travis soon goes to the office where Betsy works and asks her out, and Betsy is initially and accepts, and they go out for lunch. However on their second date, Travis unwittingly decides to take Besty to see a dirty movie at the Porno theatres, as those are the only films that he knows of, which sickens Besty who walks out of the movie and goes home alone. A few days after Travis repeatedly tries to contact Besty to no avail, he confronts her at the office, where berates her and says "you're in a hell! And you're gonna die in the hell like the rest of them!", before being lead out by Betsy's co-worker, Tom (Albert Brooks).
Now feeling more and more frustrated by his lack of direction and by the corruption and decadence he sees daily on the streets of New York with all the pimps, junkies, whores and low-lifes, Travis decides to make changes in life, through strict daily exercise. Travis also buys several guns from a travelling salesman, Andy (Steve Prince) with intent on defending himself from the scum on the streets. Travis also encounters a couple of indicents that have an effect on him, the first being where he shoots a robber at a local convenience store, who the store owner takes responsibility for. The second is a young girl who Travis has a fare one night, who wants to get out of the streets, but it turns she is a prostitute, and her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) comes along and pulls her out of the cab. Later one night, Travis nearly runs her car into her and stops just in time, he stares after her and drives off. The next day, Travis goes to the girl (Jodie Foster) looking for "action", and he speaks to Sport, the pimp, who mocks Travis for his unusual quiet manner, and winds him up for looking like a cop, but tells him the girl is only 12 years old, but she will do all sorts for you "but no rough stuff". Travis takes the girl to a room, but Travis isn't interested in sex, he wants to try and save her from Sport and from her sleazy life, the girl, who reveals her name to be Iris, is initially resistant to Travis's offer but she appreciates what he is trying to do for her, so they agree to meet again the next day for breakfast. Next day when they meet for breakfast, Travis becomes more insistent that he save Iris from her sleazy life, calling Sport a killer and that he is a real low-life. Travis then leaves her some money in an envelope for her to travel back home to her parents, and a note that says by the time she reads it he will be dead.
At this point Travis's paranoia and contempt for the city's lowlife inhabitants reaches its limits, as he then shaves his head into a mowhawk hairdo, and attends a rally for Charles Pallantine, intent on assassinating him, but before he can get the chance, secret agents spot him, and he quickly flees from the scene. Travis then turns his attention to go after Sport, in his mission to try and rescue Iris from her sleazy employer and the life that she has been thrown into. And this is where the film culminates in a very bloody climax.
Taxi Driver is without a doubt one of the best modern films in American cinema, and even 36 years on, its impact is still as relevant now as it was then. Travis Bickle is almost seen to be like the lone gunman figure, almost like a Charles Wittman, who suddenly snapped and went on a killing spree, except on a lower level. But Travis at the same time also sees just how sick and depraved the city has become, and he reasserts that to Pallantine in the scene where he drives the Senator in his cab and says that the city is like "an open sewer". And Travis in a strange way is almost like a moral avenger, as he clearly is a moralistic guy, as he wants to uphold the American dream, a better way of life, and has nothing but contempt for the elements that surround him. But at the same time Travis is as Besty also says "a walking contradiction", on one hand he wants to see Iris to leave her sleazy street life and go back home, but one the other he spends his nights watching Porno films in movie theatres. You also get that Travis is clearly a racist character as well, as he even gives his fellow cabbie, Charlie T, a look of contempt, as well as the pimps he sees on the streets, but again it doesn't make any difference to him who he takes as a fare in his taxi. Overall Travis is a rather complex character and while his morals appear clear, there is a great deal of conflicting emotions going on in his head as well.
On the performance side of things, Robert De Niro, undoubtedly gives one of his best performances here as the lonely insomniacal Travis Bickle, and he has so many memorable scenes and moments, as well as his infamous dialogue that he gives to himself in the mirror "you talking to me???? you talking to me??". The scene itself was naturally an improvisation that De Niro developed as part of his character, and it remains a scene that sticks in your mind.
The other performances are also similarly great, Cybil Shepherd is really good as the cool headed Betsy, who you get is a girl who wants to be wooed, and while she is amused by her work colleague Tom, she is more intruiged by Travis, until he blows his chances by taking her to the naughty film. Peter Boyle is also great as the veteran cabbie, Wizard, who tries to impart advice to Travis in their scene where Travis is clearly frustrated by his lack of direction in life, and Travis shakes off his advice by saying "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard!", and Wizard says "Well its not Bertrand Russell, but what do you want? I'm a cabbie!". Albert Brooks is also very good in his role as Tom, Betsy's co-worker, whom he has a good rapport with Besty, although Tom is basically in his own way trying to get into Betsy's knickers, by trying to impress her with his witt. Harvey Keitel is very good as Sport, the sleazy pimp and his scene with Travis is really good, as he banters with him and says "catch ya later, copper!". And while its a small part, Steve Prince as the travelling salesman, Andy, is also really good, and he has one of my favourite lines from the film, when Travis puts one of his guns in his jeans and checks it out in the mirror, and Andy says "ain't that a little honey???". And finally Jodie Foster, who at the time was already an experienced child actress, puts in an excellent performance as Iris, the precocious young girl who ends up leading a sordid lifestyle.
Direction wise, Martin Scorsese does pretty much a flawless job, and his use of the smoke filled streets, and the neon lights on the streets are used really well. He also does a great job with the bloody climax scene, where at the end when the cops break into the room we see an impressive 360 degree camera pan around the room, which was achieved by cutting a a circular shape out of the roof of the set, so the cameras could move. He too also puts in a very memorable and creepy performance as one of the Travis's fares, who tells him of his plan to kill his wife, and apparently Scorsese did the part to fill in for an actor that was unavailable, which was just as well, as its great scene in the film. The effects work on the film in the bloody climax are also worthy of note and really well created by the at the time Hollywood special effects make-up artist guru, Dick Smith. Apparently the violence of the scene with Travis going on his bloody crusade was considered by the MPAA at the time (the Motion Picture Association of America) to be so violent that they insisted that the colour in the scene be diluted, which is why the colour in the print looks so pale.
The film is generally very impressive and for me there are very few flaws in the film, although if there is one then for me its the reasoning behind Travis's motives to try and assassinate Pallantine. Its like he seems to want to kill off Pallantine on a whim, and you don't really get why all of sudden he would want to do it, as there appears to be no real reason or motive behind it. Perhaps maybe Travis had become so disillusioned by that point that he felt that not even Pallantine could do anything to clean up the scum off the streets, or that he was just another politician with empty promises (maybe the latter!).
Anyway I can't finish the post without mentioning the film's music score, which was by the late great Bernard Herrman, who at the time was in ill health, but agreed to write the score of the film based on the script that he read. Herrmann himself actually passed away the day after he had completed the score, on 24 December 1975. The score itself stands as one of the most memorable, moody, atmospheric and terrific scores that the great master composer ever committed to cinema, and its instantly recognisible as soon as you hear it.
Soooo that's it for my Taxi Driver analysis, its a great classic and remains one of the best films of the 1970s and one of the best films of the last 40 years.
And that's ittttttttttt!
The film starts with the film's central character, Travis Bickle (De Niro) taking a job as a taxi driver so he work long hours to help deal with his insomnia. Travis spends his nights alone, and usually frequents Porno movie theatres to try and help him sleep (as you do!). Whilst driving the streets he spots a beautiful young woman, Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) who does voluntary work for the Presidential candidate Senator Charles Pallantine (Leonard Harris). Travis soon goes to the office where Betsy works and asks her out, and Betsy is initially and accepts, and they go out for lunch. However on their second date, Travis unwittingly decides to take Besty to see a dirty movie at the Porno theatres, as those are the only films that he knows of, which sickens Besty who walks out of the movie and goes home alone. A few days after Travis repeatedly tries to contact Besty to no avail, he confronts her at the office, where berates her and says "you're in a hell! And you're gonna die in the hell like the rest of them!", before being lead out by Betsy's co-worker, Tom (Albert Brooks).
Now feeling more and more frustrated by his lack of direction and by the corruption and decadence he sees daily on the streets of New York with all the pimps, junkies, whores and low-lifes, Travis decides to make changes in life, through strict daily exercise. Travis also buys several guns from a travelling salesman, Andy (Steve Prince) with intent on defending himself from the scum on the streets. Travis also encounters a couple of indicents that have an effect on him, the first being where he shoots a robber at a local convenience store, who the store owner takes responsibility for. The second is a young girl who Travis has a fare one night, who wants to get out of the streets, but it turns she is a prostitute, and her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) comes along and pulls her out of the cab. Later one night, Travis nearly runs her car into her and stops just in time, he stares after her and drives off. The next day, Travis goes to the girl (Jodie Foster) looking for "action", and he speaks to Sport, the pimp, who mocks Travis for his unusual quiet manner, and winds him up for looking like a cop, but tells him the girl is only 12 years old, but she will do all sorts for you "but no rough stuff". Travis takes the girl to a room, but Travis isn't interested in sex, he wants to try and save her from Sport and from her sleazy life, the girl, who reveals her name to be Iris, is initially resistant to Travis's offer but she appreciates what he is trying to do for her, so they agree to meet again the next day for breakfast. Next day when they meet for breakfast, Travis becomes more insistent that he save Iris from her sleazy life, calling Sport a killer and that he is a real low-life. Travis then leaves her some money in an envelope for her to travel back home to her parents, and a note that says by the time she reads it he will be dead.
At this point Travis's paranoia and contempt for the city's lowlife inhabitants reaches its limits, as he then shaves his head into a mowhawk hairdo, and attends a rally for Charles Pallantine, intent on assassinating him, but before he can get the chance, secret agents spot him, and he quickly flees from the scene. Travis then turns his attention to go after Sport, in his mission to try and rescue Iris from her sleazy employer and the life that she has been thrown into. And this is where the film culminates in a very bloody climax.
Taxi Driver is without a doubt one of the best modern films in American cinema, and even 36 years on, its impact is still as relevant now as it was then. Travis Bickle is almost seen to be like the lone gunman figure, almost like a Charles Wittman, who suddenly snapped and went on a killing spree, except on a lower level. But Travis at the same time also sees just how sick and depraved the city has become, and he reasserts that to Pallantine in the scene where he drives the Senator in his cab and says that the city is like "an open sewer". And Travis in a strange way is almost like a moral avenger, as he clearly is a moralistic guy, as he wants to uphold the American dream, a better way of life, and has nothing but contempt for the elements that surround him. But at the same time Travis is as Besty also says "a walking contradiction", on one hand he wants to see Iris to leave her sleazy street life and go back home, but one the other he spends his nights watching Porno films in movie theatres. You also get that Travis is clearly a racist character as well, as he even gives his fellow cabbie, Charlie T, a look of contempt, as well as the pimps he sees on the streets, but again it doesn't make any difference to him who he takes as a fare in his taxi. Overall Travis is a rather complex character and while his morals appear clear, there is a great deal of conflicting emotions going on in his head as well.
On the performance side of things, Robert De Niro, undoubtedly gives one of his best performances here as the lonely insomniacal Travis Bickle, and he has so many memorable scenes and moments, as well as his infamous dialogue that he gives to himself in the mirror "you talking to me???? you talking to me??". The scene itself was naturally an improvisation that De Niro developed as part of his character, and it remains a scene that sticks in your mind.
The other performances are also similarly great, Cybil Shepherd is really good as the cool headed Betsy, who you get is a girl who wants to be wooed, and while she is amused by her work colleague Tom, she is more intruiged by Travis, until he blows his chances by taking her to the naughty film. Peter Boyle is also great as the veteran cabbie, Wizard, who tries to impart advice to Travis in their scene where Travis is clearly frustrated by his lack of direction in life, and Travis shakes off his advice by saying "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard!", and Wizard says "Well its not Bertrand Russell, but what do you want? I'm a cabbie!". Albert Brooks is also very good in his role as Tom, Betsy's co-worker, whom he has a good rapport with Besty, although Tom is basically in his own way trying to get into Betsy's knickers, by trying to impress her with his witt. Harvey Keitel is very good as Sport, the sleazy pimp and his scene with Travis is really good, as he banters with him and says "catch ya later, copper!". And while its a small part, Steve Prince as the travelling salesman, Andy, is also really good, and he has one of my favourite lines from the film, when Travis puts one of his guns in his jeans and checks it out in the mirror, and Andy says "ain't that a little honey???". And finally Jodie Foster, who at the time was already an experienced child actress, puts in an excellent performance as Iris, the precocious young girl who ends up leading a sordid lifestyle.
Direction wise, Martin Scorsese does pretty much a flawless job, and his use of the smoke filled streets, and the neon lights on the streets are used really well. He also does a great job with the bloody climax scene, where at the end when the cops break into the room we see an impressive 360 degree camera pan around the room, which was achieved by cutting a a circular shape out of the roof of the set, so the cameras could move. He too also puts in a very memorable and creepy performance as one of the Travis's fares, who tells him of his plan to kill his wife, and apparently Scorsese did the part to fill in for an actor that was unavailable, which was just as well, as its great scene in the film. The effects work on the film in the bloody climax are also worthy of note and really well created by the at the time Hollywood special effects make-up artist guru, Dick Smith. Apparently the violence of the scene with Travis going on his bloody crusade was considered by the MPAA at the time (the Motion Picture Association of America) to be so violent that they insisted that the colour in the scene be diluted, which is why the colour in the print looks so pale.
The film is generally very impressive and for me there are very few flaws in the film, although if there is one then for me its the reasoning behind Travis's motives to try and assassinate Pallantine. Its like he seems to want to kill off Pallantine on a whim, and you don't really get why all of sudden he would want to do it, as there appears to be no real reason or motive behind it. Perhaps maybe Travis had become so disillusioned by that point that he felt that not even Pallantine could do anything to clean up the scum off the streets, or that he was just another politician with empty promises (maybe the latter!).
Anyway I can't finish the post without mentioning the film's music score, which was by the late great Bernard Herrman, who at the time was in ill health, but agreed to write the score of the film based on the script that he read. Herrmann himself actually passed away the day after he had completed the score, on 24 December 1975. The score itself stands as one of the most memorable, moody, atmospheric and terrific scores that the great master composer ever committed to cinema, and its instantly recognisible as soon as you hear it.
Soooo that's it for my Taxi Driver analysis, its a great classic and remains one of the best films of the 1970s and one of the best films of the last 40 years.
And that's ittttttttttt!
Monday 7 January 2013
GTA IV Stories from LC: Gay Tony's ballad
Well time for another review and this time for a little change I'm going for a video game, and I thought I'd look at one of the Grand Theft Auto series, which is part of GTA: Episodes from Liberty City: The Ballad of Gay Tony. This is one of the expansion pack episodes, along with the Lost and the Damned, and as its part of the GTA IV universe, there are some crossover moments where we see some of the characters pop up from the main GTA IV game, such as the main character Niko Bellic, and some of the supporting characters such as Packie McReary. But let's have a look at the game more...
OK because of the length of the plot I won't (for once!) delve too deeply into the story of it, but basically to get a gist of what its all about. The game starts with its main character, Luis Lopez (Mario D'Leon) being held hostage as part of a bank robbery in Liberty City. In the aftermath of the robbery, Luis survives and is questioned by the police, and shotly after he meets up with his business partner, "Gay" Tony Prince (David Kenner), who runs two of the most prominent nightclubs in town, the Masionette and Hercules. However Tony is in serious debt with the clubs and owes money to various different people, one of which being Rocco Pelosi, who is a member of the Ancelotti crime family. Luis has other problems as well such as his mother, who has financial issues also, and she disapproves of his lifestyle. Luis also along the way meets up with other business associates, such as Yusuf Amir (Omid Djaili), who is a real estate dealer in Liberty City, through whom he does some crazy missions for such as stealing a tank, a military chopper, and even a subway carriage! Luis also meets Mori Kibbutz, a business enterpreneur, who is egotistical short ass, who bullies his younger brother, Brucie, and whom he also does some missions for. And eventually Luis does business with Ray Bulgarin, who is soon revealed to be the main antagonist in the game, who at the end of the game has a showdown with Luis and Tony at Tony's club.
The Ballad of Gay Tony is one of the most entertaining episodes from GTA IV, and in my opinion its more enjoyable that the full GTA IV game itself. As for me personally I felt the overall tone of GTA IV had become a bit too serious and sombre, with some rather heavy themes involving Niko Bellic's trek to Liberty City to seek revenge on a soldier who had betrayed him. In TBOGT (the abbreviation of the game title, saves many key presses! ;-)) the tone feels just right, as it makes a return to the fun of the series that was present in GTA Vice City and San Andreas. And what TBOGT also does well is inject a bit more variety into the series again, as GTA IV had a heavy reliance on gun missions. But in TBOGT Luis has the opportunity to do different things such as skydive (base jumping), go up in choppers (as I think GTA IV was all car orientated), steal tanks, play golf, and of course go into clubs and dance and shag women! And basically here the main character is expected to do a bit more than just try and survive a mission by point and shoot and running (although he does that of course).
The characters are all quite entertaining with Luis Lopez as the main one being quite a likeable guy, who is level headed and does what he can to try and keep himself and his boss, Tony above water, and Mario D'Leon gives a fine performance in the role. Luis's character is also rather amusingly portrayed as a ladies man, and he is seen in a few parts of the game, having casual sex with women in toilets, as well as one of the girls who works at the club, while you do the club management mission! (those bits are fun I have to say!) Gay Tony is an amusing character, voiced by David Kenner, who does a fine job in showing Tony's frantic neurosis, and actually resembles a gay equivalent of Ken Rosenberg from Vice City, as he is a drug addled wreck, who is up to his eyes in debt.
The supporting characters are also well catered for in the voice acting department, with Jeff Garner as Mori Kibbutz, the small man with the Nepolean complex and an ego the size of Australia. Mori is a big headed business enterpeneur who Tony owes money to aswell, and he gets Luis involved in racing among other things. Mori also bullies and goads his younger brother, Brucie, who in their last mission, snaps and punches Mori, who after his whole tough guy act, breaks down in tears. Ray Bulgarin as the main baddie is also well acted by Vitali Baganov, who has a bizarre habit of collecting rock memorabilia, and instruments such as guitars and drums, and he jams with his not so talkative henchman, Timur. And finally Omid Djaili steals the show (or the game) with his very funny performance as the ego-maniac, Yusuf Amir, although unlike Mori, he is more generous and likeable (as he ends up giving Luis the use of his military chopper as well as giving him one of his cars and a golden uzi). Yusuf also makes many racial slurs in the game such as "whatsup niggas!" to the general discomfort of Luis, and spends most of the missions also trying to impress his off-screen father, who is a respectable businessman.
Of course the game still unfortunately suffers from the somewhat frustrating flaws of GTA IV as it is still part of that series, the main one being the car control system which is generally very sluggish and annoying most of the time. This is mainly because steering and manoeverability of the cars aren't very good, and the breaks are also quite sluggish as it takes ages for quite alot of the cars to come to a halt, and especially when you want to make a u-turn. I also thought the police wanted rating system is still an annoyance as at times you can accidentally bump your car into a police car and all too easily you can pick up a wanted rating. Its also annoying that when you have a wanted rating, that when you try to lose the cops by going into the paint and spray garage, if the cops see you going in, you can't use the garage. But that's where Rockstar are trying to make the game a bit more realistic, as in Vice City and San Andreas, you could get away with that, but not now, but damn it, I prefer like that! ;-) I also think at times the game's targeting system can go a bit awry as you can easily try and aim at your intended target but it aims at another one instead. And finally when Luis is shot and killed or his health bar goes to zero, after he goes to the hospital, its infuriating how much money he loses, due to his healthcare bills, thanks to the cynical money grubbing US healthcare system! As he can easily lose about $8,000 every time he goes to hospital (probably based on how much money he has earned it can vary), which means you really have to reload your saved game so you can restart the mission again without having to lose all that money!
Soundtrack wise GTA IV overall wasn't as strong as its predecessors, and although there are still some good tracks to be heard, its more miss than hit here. Regardless there are still some good rock tracks to be found from such artists as David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, The Stooges, REM, Queen, Iron Maiden and The Doors. There are also some interesting tracks in there such as Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air", which I remember being used in the original Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, as well Jean Michelle Jarre's "Oxygene "Part IV" which you will recognise instantly, as well as Philip Glass's "Pruit Igoe" which is also recognisable and what also used in the ads for GTA IV when it was released. And there is of course a large selection of different genres such as funk, rap, indie, hip-hop, pop, electro, ambient, disco, reggae, hardcore and metal. The radio chat stations are also quite amusing again and an improvement on San Andreas, as we have Laszlow properly back with his show Integrity 2.0, although this time he's far more sweary than before. Public Liberty Radio, which features three different radio hosts, and We Know the Truth, which also features a brief cameo interview with Ricky Gervais.
Also I can't finish without mentioning the graphics in GTA IV and TBOGT, which are terrific as the series by then had been given a massive graphical revamp into the world of HD. And in GTA IV, Liberty City looks incredible, and it is especially impressive when we see for example Luis do a base jump from a helicopter and we see the panoramic view of the city. But overall from the cars, to the buildings and streets, to the actual character models, the game looks terrific and its a vast improvement on the crude character models we had seen from Vice City and especially San Andreas, and as its now in Full HD, its a big step up. In fact I look forward to seeing how good GTA V looks on its release.
So that's it for now on my review of GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony, which is a very entertaining episode from the series, and it saw it get back on track, with its lighter tone than the full game.
And that's it!
OK because of the length of the plot I won't (for once!) delve too deeply into the story of it, but basically to get a gist of what its all about. The game starts with its main character, Luis Lopez (Mario D'Leon) being held hostage as part of a bank robbery in Liberty City. In the aftermath of the robbery, Luis survives and is questioned by the police, and shotly after he meets up with his business partner, "Gay" Tony Prince (David Kenner), who runs two of the most prominent nightclubs in town, the Masionette and Hercules. However Tony is in serious debt with the clubs and owes money to various different people, one of which being Rocco Pelosi, who is a member of the Ancelotti crime family. Luis has other problems as well such as his mother, who has financial issues also, and she disapproves of his lifestyle. Luis also along the way meets up with other business associates, such as Yusuf Amir (Omid Djaili), who is a real estate dealer in Liberty City, through whom he does some crazy missions for such as stealing a tank, a military chopper, and even a subway carriage! Luis also meets Mori Kibbutz, a business enterpreneur, who is egotistical short ass, who bullies his younger brother, Brucie, and whom he also does some missions for. And eventually Luis does business with Ray Bulgarin, who is soon revealed to be the main antagonist in the game, who at the end of the game has a showdown with Luis and Tony at Tony's club.
The Ballad of Gay Tony is one of the most entertaining episodes from GTA IV, and in my opinion its more enjoyable that the full GTA IV game itself. As for me personally I felt the overall tone of GTA IV had become a bit too serious and sombre, with some rather heavy themes involving Niko Bellic's trek to Liberty City to seek revenge on a soldier who had betrayed him. In TBOGT (the abbreviation of the game title, saves many key presses! ;-)) the tone feels just right, as it makes a return to the fun of the series that was present in GTA Vice City and San Andreas. And what TBOGT also does well is inject a bit more variety into the series again, as GTA IV had a heavy reliance on gun missions. But in TBOGT Luis has the opportunity to do different things such as skydive (base jumping), go up in choppers (as I think GTA IV was all car orientated), steal tanks, play golf, and of course go into clubs and dance and shag women! And basically here the main character is expected to do a bit more than just try and survive a mission by point and shoot and running (although he does that of course).
The characters are all quite entertaining with Luis Lopez as the main one being quite a likeable guy, who is level headed and does what he can to try and keep himself and his boss, Tony above water, and Mario D'Leon gives a fine performance in the role. Luis's character is also rather amusingly portrayed as a ladies man, and he is seen in a few parts of the game, having casual sex with women in toilets, as well as one of the girls who works at the club, while you do the club management mission! (those bits are fun I have to say!) Gay Tony is an amusing character, voiced by David Kenner, who does a fine job in showing Tony's frantic neurosis, and actually resembles a gay equivalent of Ken Rosenberg from Vice City, as he is a drug addled wreck, who is up to his eyes in debt.
The supporting characters are also well catered for in the voice acting department, with Jeff Garner as Mori Kibbutz, the small man with the Nepolean complex and an ego the size of Australia. Mori is a big headed business enterpeneur who Tony owes money to aswell, and he gets Luis involved in racing among other things. Mori also bullies and goads his younger brother, Brucie, who in their last mission, snaps and punches Mori, who after his whole tough guy act, breaks down in tears. Ray Bulgarin as the main baddie is also well acted by Vitali Baganov, who has a bizarre habit of collecting rock memorabilia, and instruments such as guitars and drums, and he jams with his not so talkative henchman, Timur. And finally Omid Djaili steals the show (or the game) with his very funny performance as the ego-maniac, Yusuf Amir, although unlike Mori, he is more generous and likeable (as he ends up giving Luis the use of his military chopper as well as giving him one of his cars and a golden uzi). Yusuf also makes many racial slurs in the game such as "whatsup niggas!" to the general discomfort of Luis, and spends most of the missions also trying to impress his off-screen father, who is a respectable businessman.
Of course the game still unfortunately suffers from the somewhat frustrating flaws of GTA IV as it is still part of that series, the main one being the car control system which is generally very sluggish and annoying most of the time. This is mainly because steering and manoeverability of the cars aren't very good, and the breaks are also quite sluggish as it takes ages for quite alot of the cars to come to a halt, and especially when you want to make a u-turn. I also thought the police wanted rating system is still an annoyance as at times you can accidentally bump your car into a police car and all too easily you can pick up a wanted rating. Its also annoying that when you have a wanted rating, that when you try to lose the cops by going into the paint and spray garage, if the cops see you going in, you can't use the garage. But that's where Rockstar are trying to make the game a bit more realistic, as in Vice City and San Andreas, you could get away with that, but not now, but damn it, I prefer like that! ;-) I also think at times the game's targeting system can go a bit awry as you can easily try and aim at your intended target but it aims at another one instead. And finally when Luis is shot and killed or his health bar goes to zero, after he goes to the hospital, its infuriating how much money he loses, due to his healthcare bills, thanks to the cynical money grubbing US healthcare system! As he can easily lose about $8,000 every time he goes to hospital (probably based on how much money he has earned it can vary), which means you really have to reload your saved game so you can restart the mission again without having to lose all that money!
Soundtrack wise GTA IV overall wasn't as strong as its predecessors, and although there are still some good tracks to be heard, its more miss than hit here. Regardless there are still some good rock tracks to be found from such artists as David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, The Stooges, REM, Queen, Iron Maiden and The Doors. There are also some interesting tracks in there such as Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air", which I remember being used in the original Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, as well Jean Michelle Jarre's "Oxygene "Part IV" which you will recognise instantly, as well as Philip Glass's "Pruit Igoe" which is also recognisable and what also used in the ads for GTA IV when it was released. And there is of course a large selection of different genres such as funk, rap, indie, hip-hop, pop, electro, ambient, disco, reggae, hardcore and metal. The radio chat stations are also quite amusing again and an improvement on San Andreas, as we have Laszlow properly back with his show Integrity 2.0, although this time he's far more sweary than before. Public Liberty Radio, which features three different radio hosts, and We Know the Truth, which also features a brief cameo interview with Ricky Gervais.
Also I can't finish without mentioning the graphics in GTA IV and TBOGT, which are terrific as the series by then had been given a massive graphical revamp into the world of HD. And in GTA IV, Liberty City looks incredible, and it is especially impressive when we see for example Luis do a base jump from a helicopter and we see the panoramic view of the city. But overall from the cars, to the buildings and streets, to the actual character models, the game looks terrific and its a vast improvement on the crude character models we had seen from Vice City and especially San Andreas, and as its now in Full HD, its a big step up. In fact I look forward to seeing how good GTA V looks on its release.
So that's it for now on my review of GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony, which is a very entertaining episode from the series, and it saw it get back on track, with its lighter tone than the full game.
And that's it!
Thursday 3 January 2013
Bringing a knife to a gunfight
OK as this is my first post of 2013 on this blog I thought I would say a happy new year to everyone out there, and as this blog is primarily a review one, its time to start the new year with a review of another classic film. This time I've gone for Brian De Palma's action thriller, The Untouchables, made back in 1987, which has been given alot of acclaim over the years, so let's give it a looksee.
Starting with the obligatory plot synopsis, the film is set during the prohibtion era in Chicago in 1930, where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) reigns supreme and has most of the city under his control, and he supplies liquor at high prices. One of the bar's in the city however refuses to buy Capone's beer, and as a result the bar is destroyed in an explosion by Capone's men. Meanwhile, bureau treasury officer Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) who has been summoned to stop Capone, and he organsies a raid on Capone's warehouses, only to find that he has been set up as the warehouse crates contain japanese umbrellas. Humiliated in the press, Ness soon is met by the mother of a girl who killed in the explosion in the bar, who insists that he stop Capone now. Ness is then compelled to meet up with one of the tough beat cops, Malone (Sean Connery), whom he met on a walkway bridge the night before, he asks Malone for his help, but Malone refuses as he doesn't want to risk his life (which was the reason he walks the beat).
Ness however is soon met by Malone again who tells him he will help him get Capone, and they set about putting together a small team of men, which includes a bureau accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Anthony Smith) and police trainee and sharpshooter, George Stone (Andy Garcia). Together the men successfully launch a raid on one of Capone's warehouses, where they impound the liquor and arrest the men. As a result Capone, at one of his dinner parties, kills the manager of the warehouse in full view of his men, with a baseball bat. Capone then sends his main enforcer, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) to intimidate Ness, by sending him a friendly warning about his family. Ness then sends his wife and his daughter away from their home, and at the same time Malone arrives on the scene with news that of a big international shipment coming in over the Canadian border. Ness and his men travel to the border and with the help of the Canadian mounties they raid the liquor shipment. Ness kills one of Capone's men in self defence during the raid, and Stone is injured in the arm by a gunshot.
Ness also interrogates one of Capone's men, George (Brad Sullivan), who they captured, and initially refuses to talk, but Malone takes the dead man who Ness killed earlier and shoots him in the head, after which George panics and cooperates. On hearing the news of the raid, Capone is furious and orders Ness to be killed as well his men and his family. As a result Nitti smuggles himself into the Chicago police station, disguised as a police officer, he shoots Oscar and George dead in a lift. Enraged by this, Ness storms into Capone's hotel and confronts him on the stairs, but Malone restrains and takes him away, leaving Capone yelling abuse at Ness. After this the DA (Clifton James) whom Ness was using to prosecute Capone, decides to drop the case. Malone angry at Ness's defeat tells him to stall the DA as he will try and find out the location of Capone's bookeeper, Walter Payne (Jack Kehoe) with whom if they capture him, they can force him to testify against Capone. Malone meets with his police chief Mike Dorsett (Richard Bradford) whom leaked the info about the previous shipments, and forces him to reveal the whereabouts of the bookeeper. However before Malone can meet with Ness to tell him the info, Nitti sets up an ambush at Malone's whom and shoots him down with a machine gun. Ness soon arrives at Malone's apartment, and with his dying breath, Malone tells Ness that the bookeeper is a on train, after which he dies.
Ness with Stone then heads to the train station where he has a gunfight on the stairs of the station with Capone's men who guard Payne. Having killed the men, Ness and Stone take Payne and he is put on trial and testifies against Capone in court. On the day of trial Capone consults with Nitti, and Ness notices that Nitti is wearing a gun inside his jacket. Ness tells the court bailiff to escort Nitti outside the courtroom, where Ness searches him and takes away his gun, but Nitti reveals he has a permit for it, written by the mayor of Chicago. Ness however also takes a pack of matches from Nitti's jacket, which reveals the address of Malone's apartment, which leads Nitti to flee in panic, shooting the bailiff. Ness then chases Nitti up onto the roof where they have a climactic gunfight and Ness eventually corners Nitti, who was trying to escape by using a rope to break into a window below. Ness pulls Nitti up onto the roof, who taunts Ness by saying Malone died screaming like a stuck pig, and that he will get off with his murder, which then leads an enraged Ness to push off Nitti off the roof. Shortly after Ness goes back into the court where Stone tells him that he found a jury list from Nitti's coat, showing that jury members have all been bribed. In the last scenes Ness goes back into court and speaks with the judge and confronts him on Capone's actions, which leads into the film's final judgment.
The Untouchables was critically acclaimed on its release and its fairly easy to see why as it is a very solid, polished and highly entertaining crime thriller. There have been in the past before it plenty of crime films, but in the Untouchables we got a great mix of drama, action as well as moments of humour. Brian De Palma also adds very well to the proceedings with his very stylish visual sense, and trademark shots, as he like his use of putting an actor in the foreground with one in the background, as well using big overhead shots, like the one at the start of the film. De Palma also knows how to make a really good thriller as well, and he certainly excels at this in the Untouchables as the film has several suspenseful moments, especially the scene on the stairs at the train station where Ness helps a lady up the stairs with her baby in a pram, only to have a gunfight with Capone's men, leaving the pram to clatter down the stairs during the fight. And the film's climactic gunfight up on the rooftops between Ness and Nitti is also a real highlight of the film also, as is the raid on Capone's shipment at the Canadian border.
Performance wise the film is also very good, as Sean Connery puts in a terrific performance as the tough veteran cop, Malone, who helps Ness in bringing down Capone. And despite the lapses in his so-called Irish accent, Connery is great throughout and it would be tough not to feel for him in his final scene where he dies from his gunshot wounds from Nitti's ambush. Connery also gets the film's best dialogue, some of my favourite lines include where he raids Capone's warehouse and the manager asks him "Have you got a warrant???", to which Malone replies "sure, here's my warrant!" and butts him in the stomach with his shotgun, after which he says "How do you think he feels now?? Better or worse?!". I also like one of his final lines in the film where he confronts one of Capone's goons who tries to attack him in his apartment with a knife, where he turns around with his shotgun and says "isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gunfight!". Robert De Niro as Al Capone does a fine job as the infamous gangster, having gained 30lbs in weight for the part, and his scene at the dinner party where he talks about his love for baseball in front of his men, before bashing one of his men's brains in with a baseball bat, is a real highlight, as well as quite chilling. De Niro also gets one of the film's best lines where he is angered by Ness's successful raids, and he shouts "I want him dead! I want his family DEAD!! I want his house burned to the ground! And I wanna go in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!!!".
Andy Garcia also makes a good impression as George Stone, the young police cadet who becomes one of Ness's team and his best moment comes where he meets Malone, who accuses him of "being a lying member of a no good race!", after which Stone angrily points a gun at his face and says "its much better you, you stinking Irish shit pig!". Charles Anthony Smith as the accountant, Oscar Wallace is also very good in his part as the bookish bureacrat, who becomes one of the untouchables, although he does keep making the same agument about how they should prosecute Capone for income tax evasion! And finally we have Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, who to be honest is the weak link in the cast, as Costner is not the best of actors, and his performance is somewhat wooden at times, and he lacks the force and character that Ness really needs, and he delivers some of lines really lamely such as "you're not from Chicago" who he says to the Canadian mountie leader, who disproves of his methods. However Costner does have his moments and his best scene in the film comes when he is payed a visit by one of Capone's associates who tries to bribe him, but Ness tells him "you tell your master we must agree to disagree!!!" where he throws the bribe envelope at the associate and throws him out the office.
The film it has to be said also has some flaws, as for starters like quite a few Hollywood films, it heavily fictionalises the real life events behind Ness and Capone. As in the film it depicts Ness as almost single handedly bringing down Capone and successfully prosecuting him for income tax evasion. However in reality Ness had very little to do with Capone's actual prosecution in court as he had various grand jury cases before he was imprisoned. Another historical inaccuracy is the depiction of Frank Nitti in the film as Nitti is portrayed as more of a heavy than anything else, when in fact he was in acutally Capone's second in command and he headed the strong-arm and muscle operations, so while its possible he might have performed the odd hit, it seems unlikely he would have done it himself. Also Nitti in the film is killed by Ness, which is again fictional as in reality, Nitti died years later, after he took over control of Capone's organisation, he later took his own life in light of his downfall. In fact Nitti was portrayed more accurately in the crime film, Road to Perdition, 15 years later, by Stanely Tucci as a head business man and 2nd in command, rather than a heavy (at least I think!).
As for the film itself flaw wise I felt at times David Mamet's script somewhat overly simplified the events of the film, as he makes things happen rather quickly and simply. As an example in the scene where Malone takes Ness on their first liquor raid, they do it out of the blue, almost on a whim, rather than plan it out or make a choice, and Malone coveniently catches Oscar walking into the room, where he promptly hands him a gun, and before we know it, they go on the raid! I also didn't buy some of the scenes in the film, particularly at the end where Capone's defence lawyer decides to instantly change his plea from not guilty to guilty, simply because Capone shoves him! It just feels to me like Mamet rushed the script for the film, and in those moments it doesn't feel clearly thought out. In reality Ness also had a larger team of men with him, and not just four men, as in reality he had a team of 50 men which was eventually reduced to 11, and it seems very unlikely four men alone could bring down Capone's whole organisation! I also felt throughout the film that Oscar kept making his case that they could prosecute Capone for income tax evasion, yet Ness seems to ignore this until later, and its almost like Mamet is trying to remind us of this and throw it in our faces as to how they eventually prosecuted Capone! Yes I think we get it! ;-)
But despite all that the Untouchables is a highly enjoyable, suspenseful and engrossing thriller, and after 26 years its still as entertaining as it was on its release, and regardless of any of its flaws, De Palma and Mamet did a fine job in bringing the film to the big screen. And before I finish I can't leave without mentioning the superb music score by Ennio Morricone, and its title theme is one of the very best in recent years, with its eerie harmonica (synominous with Morricone!) piano and echoing drums.
So with that I shall finish there. Oh and happy new year! (again).
Starting with the obligatory plot synopsis, the film is set during the prohibtion era in Chicago in 1930, where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) reigns supreme and has most of the city under his control, and he supplies liquor at high prices. One of the bar's in the city however refuses to buy Capone's beer, and as a result the bar is destroyed in an explosion by Capone's men. Meanwhile, bureau treasury officer Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) who has been summoned to stop Capone, and he organsies a raid on Capone's warehouses, only to find that he has been set up as the warehouse crates contain japanese umbrellas. Humiliated in the press, Ness soon is met by the mother of a girl who killed in the explosion in the bar, who insists that he stop Capone now. Ness is then compelled to meet up with one of the tough beat cops, Malone (Sean Connery), whom he met on a walkway bridge the night before, he asks Malone for his help, but Malone refuses as he doesn't want to risk his life (which was the reason he walks the beat).
Ness however is soon met by Malone again who tells him he will help him get Capone, and they set about putting together a small team of men, which includes a bureau accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Anthony Smith) and police trainee and sharpshooter, George Stone (Andy Garcia). Together the men successfully launch a raid on one of Capone's warehouses, where they impound the liquor and arrest the men. As a result Capone, at one of his dinner parties, kills the manager of the warehouse in full view of his men, with a baseball bat. Capone then sends his main enforcer, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) to intimidate Ness, by sending him a friendly warning about his family. Ness then sends his wife and his daughter away from their home, and at the same time Malone arrives on the scene with news that of a big international shipment coming in over the Canadian border. Ness and his men travel to the border and with the help of the Canadian mounties they raid the liquor shipment. Ness kills one of Capone's men in self defence during the raid, and Stone is injured in the arm by a gunshot.
Ness also interrogates one of Capone's men, George (Brad Sullivan), who they captured, and initially refuses to talk, but Malone takes the dead man who Ness killed earlier and shoots him in the head, after which George panics and cooperates. On hearing the news of the raid, Capone is furious and orders Ness to be killed as well his men and his family. As a result Nitti smuggles himself into the Chicago police station, disguised as a police officer, he shoots Oscar and George dead in a lift. Enraged by this, Ness storms into Capone's hotel and confronts him on the stairs, but Malone restrains and takes him away, leaving Capone yelling abuse at Ness. After this the DA (Clifton James) whom Ness was using to prosecute Capone, decides to drop the case. Malone angry at Ness's defeat tells him to stall the DA as he will try and find out the location of Capone's bookeeper, Walter Payne (Jack Kehoe) with whom if they capture him, they can force him to testify against Capone. Malone meets with his police chief Mike Dorsett (Richard Bradford) whom leaked the info about the previous shipments, and forces him to reveal the whereabouts of the bookeeper. However before Malone can meet with Ness to tell him the info, Nitti sets up an ambush at Malone's whom and shoots him down with a machine gun. Ness soon arrives at Malone's apartment, and with his dying breath, Malone tells Ness that the bookeeper is a on train, after which he dies.
Ness with Stone then heads to the train station where he has a gunfight on the stairs of the station with Capone's men who guard Payne. Having killed the men, Ness and Stone take Payne and he is put on trial and testifies against Capone in court. On the day of trial Capone consults with Nitti, and Ness notices that Nitti is wearing a gun inside his jacket. Ness tells the court bailiff to escort Nitti outside the courtroom, where Ness searches him and takes away his gun, but Nitti reveals he has a permit for it, written by the mayor of Chicago. Ness however also takes a pack of matches from Nitti's jacket, which reveals the address of Malone's apartment, which leads Nitti to flee in panic, shooting the bailiff. Ness then chases Nitti up onto the roof where they have a climactic gunfight and Ness eventually corners Nitti, who was trying to escape by using a rope to break into a window below. Ness pulls Nitti up onto the roof, who taunts Ness by saying Malone died screaming like a stuck pig, and that he will get off with his murder, which then leads an enraged Ness to push off Nitti off the roof. Shortly after Ness goes back into the court where Stone tells him that he found a jury list from Nitti's coat, showing that jury members have all been bribed. In the last scenes Ness goes back into court and speaks with the judge and confronts him on Capone's actions, which leads into the film's final judgment.
The Untouchables was critically acclaimed on its release and its fairly easy to see why as it is a very solid, polished and highly entertaining crime thriller. There have been in the past before it plenty of crime films, but in the Untouchables we got a great mix of drama, action as well as moments of humour. Brian De Palma also adds very well to the proceedings with his very stylish visual sense, and trademark shots, as he like his use of putting an actor in the foreground with one in the background, as well using big overhead shots, like the one at the start of the film. De Palma also knows how to make a really good thriller as well, and he certainly excels at this in the Untouchables as the film has several suspenseful moments, especially the scene on the stairs at the train station where Ness helps a lady up the stairs with her baby in a pram, only to have a gunfight with Capone's men, leaving the pram to clatter down the stairs during the fight. And the film's climactic gunfight up on the rooftops between Ness and Nitti is also a real highlight of the film also, as is the raid on Capone's shipment at the Canadian border.
Performance wise the film is also very good, as Sean Connery puts in a terrific performance as the tough veteran cop, Malone, who helps Ness in bringing down Capone. And despite the lapses in his so-called Irish accent, Connery is great throughout and it would be tough not to feel for him in his final scene where he dies from his gunshot wounds from Nitti's ambush. Connery also gets the film's best dialogue, some of my favourite lines include where he raids Capone's warehouse and the manager asks him "Have you got a warrant???", to which Malone replies "sure, here's my warrant!" and butts him in the stomach with his shotgun, after which he says "How do you think he feels now?? Better or worse?!". I also like one of his final lines in the film where he confronts one of Capone's goons who tries to attack him in his apartment with a knife, where he turns around with his shotgun and says "isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gunfight!". Robert De Niro as Al Capone does a fine job as the infamous gangster, having gained 30lbs in weight for the part, and his scene at the dinner party where he talks about his love for baseball in front of his men, before bashing one of his men's brains in with a baseball bat, is a real highlight, as well as quite chilling. De Niro also gets one of the film's best lines where he is angered by Ness's successful raids, and he shouts "I want him dead! I want his family DEAD!! I want his house burned to the ground! And I wanna go in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!!!".
Andy Garcia also makes a good impression as George Stone, the young police cadet who becomes one of Ness's team and his best moment comes where he meets Malone, who accuses him of "being a lying member of a no good race!", after which Stone angrily points a gun at his face and says "its much better you, you stinking Irish shit pig!". Charles Anthony Smith as the accountant, Oscar Wallace is also very good in his part as the bookish bureacrat, who becomes one of the untouchables, although he does keep making the same agument about how they should prosecute Capone for income tax evasion! And finally we have Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, who to be honest is the weak link in the cast, as Costner is not the best of actors, and his performance is somewhat wooden at times, and he lacks the force and character that Ness really needs, and he delivers some of lines really lamely such as "you're not from Chicago" who he says to the Canadian mountie leader, who disproves of his methods. However Costner does have his moments and his best scene in the film comes when he is payed a visit by one of Capone's associates who tries to bribe him, but Ness tells him "you tell your master we must agree to disagree!!!" where he throws the bribe envelope at the associate and throws him out the office.
The film it has to be said also has some flaws, as for starters like quite a few Hollywood films, it heavily fictionalises the real life events behind Ness and Capone. As in the film it depicts Ness as almost single handedly bringing down Capone and successfully prosecuting him for income tax evasion. However in reality Ness had very little to do with Capone's actual prosecution in court as he had various grand jury cases before he was imprisoned. Another historical inaccuracy is the depiction of Frank Nitti in the film as Nitti is portrayed as more of a heavy than anything else, when in fact he was in acutally Capone's second in command and he headed the strong-arm and muscle operations, so while its possible he might have performed the odd hit, it seems unlikely he would have done it himself. Also Nitti in the film is killed by Ness, which is again fictional as in reality, Nitti died years later, after he took over control of Capone's organisation, he later took his own life in light of his downfall. In fact Nitti was portrayed more accurately in the crime film, Road to Perdition, 15 years later, by Stanely Tucci as a head business man and 2nd in command, rather than a heavy (at least I think!).
As for the film itself flaw wise I felt at times David Mamet's script somewhat overly simplified the events of the film, as he makes things happen rather quickly and simply. As an example in the scene where Malone takes Ness on their first liquor raid, they do it out of the blue, almost on a whim, rather than plan it out or make a choice, and Malone coveniently catches Oscar walking into the room, where he promptly hands him a gun, and before we know it, they go on the raid! I also didn't buy some of the scenes in the film, particularly at the end where Capone's defence lawyer decides to instantly change his plea from not guilty to guilty, simply because Capone shoves him! It just feels to me like Mamet rushed the script for the film, and in those moments it doesn't feel clearly thought out. In reality Ness also had a larger team of men with him, and not just four men, as in reality he had a team of 50 men which was eventually reduced to 11, and it seems very unlikely four men alone could bring down Capone's whole organisation! I also felt throughout the film that Oscar kept making his case that they could prosecute Capone for income tax evasion, yet Ness seems to ignore this until later, and its almost like Mamet is trying to remind us of this and throw it in our faces as to how they eventually prosecuted Capone! Yes I think we get it! ;-)
But despite all that the Untouchables is a highly enjoyable, suspenseful and engrossing thriller, and after 26 years its still as entertaining as it was on its release, and regardless of any of its flaws, De Palma and Mamet did a fine job in bringing the film to the big screen. And before I finish I can't leave without mentioning the superb music score by Ennio Morricone, and its title theme is one of the very best in recent years, with its eerie harmonica (synominous with Morricone!) piano and echoing drums.
So with that I shall finish there. Oh and happy new year! (again).
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