Right backkkkkk to the movies, and this time its not a heavy duty drama, this time I've went for a lighter toned comedy film, one of my favourites in recent years, Sideways, about two old college buddies going on a week's excursion into the wine country in California. So so so let's have a look at it...
The flick starts with Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) who is a middle school English teacher, who goes to pick up his former college room mate, Jack Cole (Thomas Haden Church), who is an actor, who is to be married, and the two of them go on a road trip through the wine country in Carlifornia. And while Miles just wants to chill out, taste wine (as he is a wine lover) and play a bit of golf, Jack wants to get laid one last time before he get's married. They soon encounter Maya (Virginia Madsen) who works as a waitress up at Mile's favourite restaurant, the Hitching Post, and also meet up with Stephanie (Sandra Oh) who works at a local winery. Jack sets up a double date between them, however prior to the date, Jack tells Miles that his ex-wife is coming to the wedding, who remarried, which devastates Miles, who wasn't aware of this, but despite that they carry on with the dinner date. After dinner all four of them go back to Stephanie's place, where Jack and Stephanie get it on, while Miles and Maya click with one another, Miles misses his window by not reacting to Maya's advances. However Jack continues his affair with Stephanie, where he admits he is crazy about her and that he might even consider calling off his wedding, which Miles can hardly believe.
Later on, Miles meets up again with Maya, as do Jack and Stephanie for another date, and this time Miles and Maya consumate their fledgling relationship. However the next day, Miles unwittingly reveals that Jack is getting married, which infuriates Maya, who suddenly breaks it off with Miles, and tells Stephanie who attacks Jack in public, with her motorcycle helmet, leaving him with a broken nose. Also at this time Miles enquires about his book, which he has been putting around publishers, and he hears that another publisher has turned it down, which causes him to make a scene in a winery, when he grabs the wine dregs bowl and pours it over himself. After Jack get's out of hospital (now wearing a big bandage over his nose!) he and Miles go to a local steak house, where Jack chats up a woman who works there and he heads back to hers. Later that night at the motel where the two men are staying, Miles is woken up by Jack who is at the door, naked, having revealed that the woman he hooked up with, has a husband, who burst in on him while he was having sex with her. Jack however also reveals that he has left his wallet with his wedding rings inside them at the woman's house and he tearfully begs Miles to help him get it back, to which Miles eventually agrees, who sneaks into the woman's house and grabs the wallet, while the woman and her husband are having sex, he bolts it out the door, followed by the big naked guy, he get's away in the car just in time!
Before Miles and Jack go back home, Jack suggests they make his nose look like it was the result of a car crash, so they crash the car into a tree. Miles then drops Jack back home, and they soon meet up for the wedding, where Miles is the best man, but afterwards, Miles meets up with his ex-wife again, who has remarried and is also pregnant, which leaves Miles even more depressed. This results in Miles going back to his apartment to grab his prized bottle, a 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc, which he drinks from inside a coffee cup in a fast food restaurant. On going back to the normal routine of his life, one day he receives a message on his answering phone from Maya, who says she read his book (which he gave her his manuscript of to read) which she loved, and she would like him to visit sometime. This pre-empts the end of the film where Miles travels to Maya's apartment and knocks on her door in the final scene.
As a comedy, Sideways is something of a breath of fresh air, as it takes the idea of wine tasting and using it as a theme for comedy, and in the past I'm always reminded of some of these cheesy wine programs such as the ones on the BBC which the over enthusiastic Jilly Goolden always did! But here the characters are really nicely drawn out, as the director/writer, Alexander Payne, seems to delight in writing rich dialogue and combining it with characters who are in love with wine. The exception to this of course is Jack, who basically wants to get his end away before he get's married and its quite funny how every winery he goes to and every wine he samples he says "I like it!" or "it seems pretty good to me!". Personally I wouldn't have much of an idea about wine myself or differentiating the various types you can get, although I do like a fine red wine myself, whether it be a Shiraz, Cabarnet, Sauvingon Blanc, or even yes a Merlot!
Cast wise, the performances are pretty much top drawer here, especially from the two leads, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. Giamatti's Miles comes across as being a slightly snobby, yet at the same time likeable and sympathetic, as he really does appear as a downtrodden figure, especially as he is depressed since his marriage fell apart, and his ex-wife was also a wine afficiando. Giamatti of course get's some great lines in the film and the best and most memorable is of course where he is on the double date, and Jack says "you are going to go in there, and if we are going to order Merlot, we will drink Merlot!", to which Miles replies "that's it! If they order Merlot, I'm leaving, I am NOT drinking any fuckin Merlot!". And strangely enough the impact of that line had a negative one on the sales of Merlot wines in British wine stores after it was released! Personally I think Merlot is a perfectly nice wine, but I guess Miles's taste buds must be finer tuned than all ours put together! That and the scene where he's at a lesser winery and samples a wine which he has no like for, and says "it tastes like the back end of a high school bus, they also probably didn't destem, and they probably mixed up with leaves and ashes, to turn it into this shit!". I also like the scene where he gives Jack a lesson in how to taste wine, and at the end he looks at Jack warily and says "are you chewing gum??!".
Thomas Haden Church is also great as Jack, the horny actor, who wants to get laid before he ties the knot, even though his character is basically a dick, and he is doing the dirty on his fiance, and mucking poor Sandra Oh about. But in the end he get's what he deserves when Stephanie beats the crap out of him with her motorcycle helmet, and then some when he mistakenly has sex with the female steak house employee, and he runs out the house just as her husband comes home! This pre-empts one of Haden Church's best lines when he makes it back to the motel and he says "I had to run through an ostrich farm, those fuckers are mean!". And there is no doubt that Jack's behaviour is pretty disgraceful, especially as he is due to get married, yet he foolishly at one point is even thinking of calling it off when things start going so well with Stephanie. But on the other hand he is also looking out for Miles too, as he clearly wants him to get over the grief of his ended marriage, and get back on the horse, by setting up the double date with Maya, he is trying to kick start him into a relationship again, which is something. I also like the scene where Miles refers to Maya as being married, when they are at the restaurant and he says she has a rock, but later Jack says "oh by the way, she's not married. I saw her hand earlier, it was a sans rock!". Then there is the moment at the double date, where Miles gets drunk and goes off to call his ex-wife, after he's spoken to her, he comes back looking very unhappy, and Jack says "did you drink a dial????".
The two ladies in the film are also really good, Virginia Madsen is very much appealing (and very nice!) as Maya, who comes across as being sweet and easy going, with no ideas of snobbery, and she has a great love for wine as well. And she and Giamatti have a nice pleasant chemistry on screen together, although you have to say that she is punching way below her weight with a guy like Miles! (no offence Paul or Miles!). Sandra Oh is also really good in the film and I particularly like the scene where she attacks Jack and then get's on her bike and screams at Jack "fuckface!", and then to Miles "You too!", and Miles replies "Me????!". Another moment I liked is the scene where she pours some sample wines for Miles and Jack, and Jack eyes her up saying "you are a bad girl, Stephanie", and she replies "yeah I know, I should be spanked!".
Direction wise, Alexander Payne also does a terrific job, as he keeps the film moving along at a nice leisurely pace, and he also adapted the screenplay from the novel, Rex Pickett, and throughout he keeps just the right amount of humour and drama going. And unlike his previous and utterly depressing film, About Schmidt (starring Jack Nicholson) Payne makes Sideways a pleasure to watch, and the drama in it is very low key. Not to mention the film itself is beautifully shot out in the Santa Barbara County Wine Country, and all those scenes of wine vineyard tends to get me into the mood for a wee glass or two! (alkie!).
So that's it for Sideways, its one of my favourite comedies in recent years and if you haven't seen it, then well DON'T read this post, because its just ruined it, and give it a go instead.
And that is it!
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Doctor Who: roll up roll up roll up!!
OK after some posts on some rather heavy dramatic flicks such as the Godfather Trilogy and Shawshank Redemption, I thought I would go back to another look at an old Doctor Who classic story, which is one my favourites from the Jon Pertwee era, Carnival of Monsters, which was originally broadcast back in 1973. So so so let's gie it a look shall we?
The story starts with the Doctor (Pertwee) and his assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning), who make a trip in the TARDIS to what the Doctor hopes to be Metebelis 3 (this turns out to be their first trip since the Doctor has been given back his freedom by the Time Lords). However when they look around at their surroundings, they appear to be on a large cargo ship, which turns out to be SS Bernice, which as it turned out was a famous ship that went missing in the Indian ocean back in 1926. The Doctor and Jo however keep getting repeteadly caught as stowaways by the crew, and on escaping they get caught again, only to find the crew have no memory of the Doctor or Jo. However the Doctor and Jo soon manage to find a white hatch in the floor of the ship, which none of the crew members can see, which they escape through, only to find themselves inside what appears to be a giant machine circuit board, which they try and navigate their way through to find a way out. On breaking through a part of the wall of the machine, the Doctor and Jo find themselves in a marshland which is populated by deadly creatures called Drashigs, which the two of them have a close call with, but they escape back into the machine's circuit again.
And the Doctor soon twigs what has happened as he realises they are inside a miniscope, which keeps inhabitants in a miniaturised form, within their own habitats. And the miniscope itself belongs to a travelling showman, Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and his assistant Shirna (Cheryl Hall) who have arrived on the planet Inter Minor, and are looking for a permit to work there, however they are suspected as spies by the planet's tribunal panel members, Pletrac (Peter Halliday), Kalik (Michael Wisher) and Orum (Terence Lodge). Regardless of this though, two of the tribunal members, Kalik and Orum quietly express their discontent at the present power situation on Inter minor with the current president, and on learning about the drashigs, Kalik is intruiged by them, and plans on releasing them from the miniscope to wreak havoc and force the president to resign. Before Kalik can do this however, the Doctor eventually finds his way out of the miniscope and eventually reverts to his full size (as people and object return to their normal size when they are taken out of the miniscope's compression field). The Doctor expresses his disgust and concern about the miniscope and he insists that he try and rescue Jo and the people inside and return them to their proper places in time and space. And as the Doctor goes back inside the miniscope to rescue Jo, Kalik outside opens the panel to let the drashigs out, who soon emerge into Inter Minor to cause chaos and destruction, and its up to the Doctor to rescue Jo and get out of the miniscope before its too late.
This is a nice leisurely Doctor Who story from the Pertwee era, and for me one of the most enjoyable things about it is that its tone is so lighthearted, despite the threats and plottings of Kalik and the dangers of the drashigs (not that they are that menacing!). But the story itself, written by Robert Holmes is also very creative and intelligent, and once again the veteran Doctor Who writer provides some great ideas, the main one being the miniscope itself, and how it allows people to be within their own miniaturised environments. Although the one thing that does at times threaten to bug the narrative is the repetition of the events on board the SS Bernice, as the ship crewmembers keep seeing the Doctor and Jo time and time again, but they have no recollection of them, and each time they lock them up, after they escape again, they forget who they are again. But it also neatly shows that clearly the miniscope environments only last for a short period of time before they repeat themselves again, and that's the whole point after all.
Cast wise by this time, Jon Pertwee had easily grown into his role as the Doctor, as he plays him as well as he could ever, and he get's some great lines of dialogue, especially when he get's out of the miniscope, and Pletrac keeps calling him a hostile creature, to which the Doctor replies "please refrain from calling me the creature, or I will become increasingly hostile!". Katy Manning as Jo Grant also by now has comfortably settled very well into her part, and she and Jon Pertwee always made a great team, and you can see their fondness for each other on screen is apparent. One of Katy's best scenes with Jon in fact is where the Doctor and Jo are trapped inside a storeroom, and the Doctor says "if only we had a key", to which Jo produces a large bunch of keys, which she pick pocketed earlier, "allow me, Doctor!".
The supporting cast are also very good, especially Peter Halliday as the neurotic Pletrac, who is so concerned with procedures and going by the book. I also particularly like his reaction when he asks what Vorg and Shirna do, to which Shirna replies "we put on a show" and she does a little dance, "you see?" she says, and he replies flatly "No!". Michael Wisher is also excellent as Kalik, the conspiratorial tribunal member, who wants to have a revolution in order to overthrow the president of Inter minor. Leslie Dwyer is also a good laugh as the showman Vorg, who wears one of the most garish costumes in the history of the show, which would probably give anyone a migraine just to look at it! Dwyer's funniest moment in the show comes when he is trying to repair the miniscope, and he asks Shirna to touch a wire, and she get's a shock, and he says "yes, that must be positive terminal!".
The story is also notable for the cast of the SS Bernice crew, as we see Ian Marter, make a good impression in his first appearance in the show as Lt Andrews, one of the naval officers onboard the ship (who is not entirely dissimilar to Harry during the Tom Baker era). Tenniel Evans also gives a neat performance as Major Daly, as does Jenny McCracken as his daughter Claire. And they have a nice scene together at the end of the story, once the Doctor has restored all the occupants of the miniscope to their proper places in time, that Claire tries to remember something about the journey, but she can't quite think what it is, and she says "don't you think this has been a really long journey???", before she shrugs it off.
So overall its alot of fun, although there are of course one or two snags here and there, the main one being that the drashigs, as monsters are pretty laughable, as they are just puppets, and Barry Letts, the producer once again shows his over enthusiam for CSO to show how naff they look superimposed over a background. This is especially apparent in the scene where the drashigs break out of the miniscope, leaving Vorg to shoot them with a disintegrator gun. The repetitive nature of the narrative, especially with the crew of the SS Bernice also does threaten to become tiresome pretty quickly, but Robert Holmes just about manages to keep it moving it along well enough so it doesn't too much. And the sub plot about Kalik wanting to overthrow the president by using the drashigs is also pretty silly, especially as Vorg manages to kill them off with the disintregator gun. Its just a pretty naff excuse to release the drashigs out of the miniscope, and you get it doesn't have much relevance or bearing to the proceedings other than that.
But despite all that, Carnival of Monsters remains a very entertaining and light hearted story from the Jon Pertwee era, and one that is worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.
And so with that, that's it!
The story starts with the Doctor (Pertwee) and his assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning), who make a trip in the TARDIS to what the Doctor hopes to be Metebelis 3 (this turns out to be their first trip since the Doctor has been given back his freedom by the Time Lords). However when they look around at their surroundings, they appear to be on a large cargo ship, which turns out to be SS Bernice, which as it turned out was a famous ship that went missing in the Indian ocean back in 1926. The Doctor and Jo however keep getting repeteadly caught as stowaways by the crew, and on escaping they get caught again, only to find the crew have no memory of the Doctor or Jo. However the Doctor and Jo soon manage to find a white hatch in the floor of the ship, which none of the crew members can see, which they escape through, only to find themselves inside what appears to be a giant machine circuit board, which they try and navigate their way through to find a way out. On breaking through a part of the wall of the machine, the Doctor and Jo find themselves in a marshland which is populated by deadly creatures called Drashigs, which the two of them have a close call with, but they escape back into the machine's circuit again.
And the Doctor soon twigs what has happened as he realises they are inside a miniscope, which keeps inhabitants in a miniaturised form, within their own habitats. And the miniscope itself belongs to a travelling showman, Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and his assistant Shirna (Cheryl Hall) who have arrived on the planet Inter Minor, and are looking for a permit to work there, however they are suspected as spies by the planet's tribunal panel members, Pletrac (Peter Halliday), Kalik (Michael Wisher) and Orum (Terence Lodge). Regardless of this though, two of the tribunal members, Kalik and Orum quietly express their discontent at the present power situation on Inter minor with the current president, and on learning about the drashigs, Kalik is intruiged by them, and plans on releasing them from the miniscope to wreak havoc and force the president to resign. Before Kalik can do this however, the Doctor eventually finds his way out of the miniscope and eventually reverts to his full size (as people and object return to their normal size when they are taken out of the miniscope's compression field). The Doctor expresses his disgust and concern about the miniscope and he insists that he try and rescue Jo and the people inside and return them to their proper places in time and space. And as the Doctor goes back inside the miniscope to rescue Jo, Kalik outside opens the panel to let the drashigs out, who soon emerge into Inter Minor to cause chaos and destruction, and its up to the Doctor to rescue Jo and get out of the miniscope before its too late.
This is a nice leisurely Doctor Who story from the Pertwee era, and for me one of the most enjoyable things about it is that its tone is so lighthearted, despite the threats and plottings of Kalik and the dangers of the drashigs (not that they are that menacing!). But the story itself, written by Robert Holmes is also very creative and intelligent, and once again the veteran Doctor Who writer provides some great ideas, the main one being the miniscope itself, and how it allows people to be within their own miniaturised environments. Although the one thing that does at times threaten to bug the narrative is the repetition of the events on board the SS Bernice, as the ship crewmembers keep seeing the Doctor and Jo time and time again, but they have no recollection of them, and each time they lock them up, after they escape again, they forget who they are again. But it also neatly shows that clearly the miniscope environments only last for a short period of time before they repeat themselves again, and that's the whole point after all.
Cast wise by this time, Jon Pertwee had easily grown into his role as the Doctor, as he plays him as well as he could ever, and he get's some great lines of dialogue, especially when he get's out of the miniscope, and Pletrac keeps calling him a hostile creature, to which the Doctor replies "please refrain from calling me the creature, or I will become increasingly hostile!". Katy Manning as Jo Grant also by now has comfortably settled very well into her part, and she and Jon Pertwee always made a great team, and you can see their fondness for each other on screen is apparent. One of Katy's best scenes with Jon in fact is where the Doctor and Jo are trapped inside a storeroom, and the Doctor says "if only we had a key", to which Jo produces a large bunch of keys, which she pick pocketed earlier, "allow me, Doctor!".
The supporting cast are also very good, especially Peter Halliday as the neurotic Pletrac, who is so concerned with procedures and going by the book. I also particularly like his reaction when he asks what Vorg and Shirna do, to which Shirna replies "we put on a show" and she does a little dance, "you see?" she says, and he replies flatly "No!". Michael Wisher is also excellent as Kalik, the conspiratorial tribunal member, who wants to have a revolution in order to overthrow the president of Inter minor. Leslie Dwyer is also a good laugh as the showman Vorg, who wears one of the most garish costumes in the history of the show, which would probably give anyone a migraine just to look at it! Dwyer's funniest moment in the show comes when he is trying to repair the miniscope, and he asks Shirna to touch a wire, and she get's a shock, and he says "yes, that must be positive terminal!".
The story is also notable for the cast of the SS Bernice crew, as we see Ian Marter, make a good impression in his first appearance in the show as Lt Andrews, one of the naval officers onboard the ship (who is not entirely dissimilar to Harry during the Tom Baker era). Tenniel Evans also gives a neat performance as Major Daly, as does Jenny McCracken as his daughter Claire. And they have a nice scene together at the end of the story, once the Doctor has restored all the occupants of the miniscope to their proper places in time, that Claire tries to remember something about the journey, but she can't quite think what it is, and she says "don't you think this has been a really long journey???", before she shrugs it off.
So overall its alot of fun, although there are of course one or two snags here and there, the main one being that the drashigs, as monsters are pretty laughable, as they are just puppets, and Barry Letts, the producer once again shows his over enthusiam for CSO to show how naff they look superimposed over a background. This is especially apparent in the scene where the drashigs break out of the miniscope, leaving Vorg to shoot them with a disintegrator gun. The repetitive nature of the narrative, especially with the crew of the SS Bernice also does threaten to become tiresome pretty quickly, but Robert Holmes just about manages to keep it moving it along well enough so it doesn't too much. And the sub plot about Kalik wanting to overthrow the president by using the drashigs is also pretty silly, especially as Vorg manages to kill them off with the disintregator gun. Its just a pretty naff excuse to release the drashigs out of the miniscope, and you get it doesn't have much relevance or bearing to the proceedings other than that.
But despite all that, Carnival of Monsters remains a very entertaining and light hearted story from the Jon Pertwee era, and one that is worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.
And so with that, that's it!
Monday, 24 September 2012
The Godfather Part III: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!
Right now I'm onto the final part of the Godfather trilogy posts, as this post will of course be about The Godfather Part III, the final act in the story of the Corleone crime family, so let's have a look at it.
So starting with the obligatory lengthy plot summary (well OK I will try and not make this one too long!) the film start in 1979, with Michael (Al Pacino) now an older man, nearing 60 years old, who he is now trying to put his life of crime behind him. Michael having sold his interests in the casinos, he has also put his criminal investments in the hands of local New York enforcer, Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), and in to make amends for evil past, he now gives help to charities. Michael is also made a commander of the order of St Sebastian, at a cathedral in New York, after which he holds a party inviting guests, and we see the similar format of the first two films were the Don has to deal with requests on the same day. Michael meets with his son, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio) who tells him he has quit law school to become a musician, and Michael objects, who wishes he would finish law school or work for the family business, but Anthony refuses. Kay (Diane Keaton) also attends the party, who by now is divorced from Michael, and she still resents him for his evil past, but she backs her son's choice to become an opera singer and musician and she warns Michael that Anthony knows about Fredo's death.
In the meantime, a young man named Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) attends the party, who is the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, and he has become involved in a row with Joey Zasa, who has involved the family in major drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum. Connie (Talia Shire), Michael's sister organises a sit down with Vincent and Saza, however Vincent having inherited his father's hotheaded nature, refuses to make peace with Saza and instead bites his ear, when Saza insults him by calling him a bastard. Later that night, Vincent has a one night stand with a journalist (Bridget Fonda) who grate crashed the Corleone party, who while at Vincent's apartment, she is surprised by two men who break in (wearing tights over their faces) and hold a knife to her throat. Vincent however manages to overpower one of the men, and grabbing the man's gun, he shoots him in the head, and asks the other who sent them, the other man reveals it was Joey Saza, after which Vincent shoots him dead as well. At a meeting the next day with Michael, Vincent tells him what happened, but Michael is worried about Vincent's temper, but he is impressed by his nephew's loyalty so he agrees to take him under his wing and learn about the family business.
Michael also is to set in play his biggest business deal yet, as he has bought large stocks of International Immobliare, which is a large international real estate company, to become its largest single shareholder. He then makes an offer to take the Vatican's 25% shares so he can be given controlling interest in the company, but in order to do this the deal must be ratified through the Pope, who is gravely ill at this point. And to complicate things further, Don Altobello (Eli Wallach) an old friend of the Corleone family, and also Godfather to Connie, tells Michael that he and his old partners want in on the Immobliarie deal as well. Michael refuses however as he doesn't want any Mafia involvement in the deal, but he does set up a meeting with the other Mafia bosses and arranges to pay them off with sales from his Las Vegas holdings. However Michael gives nothing to Joey Saza, who storms out angrily, and not too long after, a helicopter arrives overhead, and gunfire riddles the room, killing most of the bosses, but Michael escapes the room, with help of his former capo and bodyguard, Al Neri (Richard Bright) and Vincent.
Once back at his New york penthouse, Michael insists that Joey Saza had nothing to do with the attack, even Vincent is furious wants to take out Saza. Michael however at this point under stress, suffers a diabetic stroke, and is sent to hospital, where he is joined by Kay, his son Anthony, and his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). But while Michael recovers in hospital, this allows Vincent to take care of Joey Saza, whom he ambushes while at a street festival, as his men gun down Saza's men and Vincent shoots Saza dead, while posing as a mounted police officer. On hearing word of the hit, Michael is furious at Vincent and Connie, who gave the go ahead for it to happen. Also at this time Vincent also starts a relationship with Michael's daughter, Mary, much to the dislike of Michael himself, who warns him to break off the relationship as he could put his daughter in jeopardy.
Some time later, Michael, Kay and his family travel to Sicily to see Anthony make his debut performance in a production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. On the trip Michael also has some time alone with Kay, who becomes emotional and admits that she still loves him. However Don Altobello in the meanmtime, also has travelled to Sicily, and it is revealed that he was behind the attempted murder on Michael and the other bosses. Altobello also hires a local Sicilian assassin, Mosca (Mario Donatone) to kill Michael, on the night of his son's debut performance at the opera. Mosca on his travels also kills Don Tomassinno, Michael's old friend (who gave him refuge when he fled America back in the first Godfather film). On hearing this Vincent asks for Michael to give him the power to take over the Corleone family, to which Michael agrees as he feels he can no longer do it anymore. And at the night of the opera, this is where the whole chain of events unfolds in its bloody and, yes operatic climax.
While it certainly isn't in the same league as the first two films, the Godfather Part III still has a fair bit going for it, and the fact that so many of the original cast came back to the film also makes it worth watching alone. It is also interesting how Coppola decided to humanise Michael as a character, and as a man who repented for his sins, and no longer wanted to go back to his old life of crime, and instead busied himself with good acts of charity. And one of the main strengths of the film is how Michael is potrayed in a more human light, as a man who can laugh and smile and shows he can be playful (as seen where he pretends to be a chauffer to Kay in a limo, when they are in Sicily), unlike he was back in the first two films, where he was so serious and straight laced. And its also interesting how they shift the criminal focus from Michael now onto Connie, who acts like she is the Godfather (or Godmother really, in fact they should really have renamed it!) and the boss of the family, as she orders Vincent to make the hit on Joey Saza and kills off Don Altobello at the end (by poisoning him).
And as for the performances well there is alot of good stuff here, starting with Al Pacino as Michael, who is again great in the lead role. And as I said he succeds in bringing a bit more warmth and humanity to Michael, which was very much asbent from the first two films. He has quite a few highlights in the film, and one of his best moments is where he confides in a priest, when he's in Sicily about his sins and how he ordered the death of his brother, Fredo. And that is another theme that runs through the film, as we clearly see how much Michael regretted ordering the death of his brother, as it was a cardinal sin, and one he could never forgive himself for. Pacino also get's the film's most memorable line as he laments about his old life of crime coming back to haunt him "just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in!". Diane Keaton takes a front seat for a change in the film, as she features more prominently as Kay here, and she does an excellent job with her character, although I have to say she does get one of the cheesiest lines in the film where she says to Michael, "I don't hate you, I dread you". And her scene with Michael in Sicily where she confesses she still loves him is nicely played out. Talia Shire is also great again as Connie, and she also takes the front seat and becomes the substitute "Don" figure as she plots with Vincent to kill Joey Saza. And I like the scene where she meets with Michael after Vincent has been established as his enforcer and she says "Now they will fear you", and Michael replies "maybe they should fear you!".
Andy Garcia of course can't go without mention here and he is also very good as the suave by hot tempered Vincent, who takes control of the Corleone crime family by the end of the film. Although my favourite has to be where he confronts Saza at the start of the film in Michael's office, who insists he make peace with Saza, who mocks him for being a "bastardo", and Vincent bites his ear. And then there is Sofia Coppola, who was a very controversial choice for the part of Michael's daughter, Mary. And while I have to say that Sofia isn't the best actress in the world, she does well enough with her role, although in her last scene, where she is shot by the assassin Mosca, the way she falls down and says "Dad" doesn't quite work that well. But she does have a nice relationship and chemistry with Andy Garcia in the film, especially when they sit in the kitchen making food, and also she looks great in the moment where the break up. And finally Eli Wallach is good as the seemingly charming, yet sinister mob boss, Don Altobello, although it is fairly transparent that he is the bad guy.
Flaw wise though the film has a few, and it definitely is not as good as the first two films, and under the weight of expectations, after nearly 20 years it would be a bit much to ask that this film would exceed that expectations. And in trying make the film appear as epic and lengthy as the first two films, it falls flat in that regard, as Coppola pads the film out with some rather dull scenes, which could easily have been trimmed, such as when he meets with the Archbishop and the board of directors. There is also a kind of almost cringeworthy moment when we see Johnny Fontane come back into the film, 20 years later, as an older man at Michael's part at the start, but he's longer the young guy he was, and he doesn't have the same audience as he did. So when we see him sing to Connie, she is the only one being wooed, unlike the first film where he has screaming fans around him. It also messes up the timeline of the death of Pope John Paul I, who actually died I think in 1981, and not in 1980 when I think the film was based (although I could be wrong!). And the whole idea of the corruption in the church is less than interesting here, as the film's main strengths really lie in the trials and drama within the family.
However regardless of that though, Francis Ford Coppola overall does a fine job with Part III, and it was never an easy to task to try and follow up two of the greatest films ever made. And the film still has the same great photography from Gordon Willis, as he maintains the same tones from the first two films. And also worthy of note is of course the music score, this time by Carmine Coppola, as Nino Rota had passed away by this time. Coppola's score maintains the similar themes of the first two films and Rota's score, but Coppola introduces some excellent passages himself.
So that's it for the Godfather Part III, which is a solid end to the trilogy and while it wasn't the classic that we all hoped for, its still worth watching alone to see the original cast do their stuff.
So that wraps it up for the Godfather posts, it was fun doing them, and more will follow of another variety anon.
So starting with the obligatory lengthy plot summary (well OK I will try and not make this one too long!) the film start in 1979, with Michael (Al Pacino) now an older man, nearing 60 years old, who he is now trying to put his life of crime behind him. Michael having sold his interests in the casinos, he has also put his criminal investments in the hands of local New York enforcer, Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), and in to make amends for evil past, he now gives help to charities. Michael is also made a commander of the order of St Sebastian, at a cathedral in New York, after which he holds a party inviting guests, and we see the similar format of the first two films were the Don has to deal with requests on the same day. Michael meets with his son, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio) who tells him he has quit law school to become a musician, and Michael objects, who wishes he would finish law school or work for the family business, but Anthony refuses. Kay (Diane Keaton) also attends the party, who by now is divorced from Michael, and she still resents him for his evil past, but she backs her son's choice to become an opera singer and musician and she warns Michael that Anthony knows about Fredo's death.
In the meantime, a young man named Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia) attends the party, who is the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone, and he has become involved in a row with Joey Zasa, who has involved the family in major drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum. Connie (Talia Shire), Michael's sister organises a sit down with Vincent and Saza, however Vincent having inherited his father's hotheaded nature, refuses to make peace with Saza and instead bites his ear, when Saza insults him by calling him a bastard. Later that night, Vincent has a one night stand with a journalist (Bridget Fonda) who grate crashed the Corleone party, who while at Vincent's apartment, she is surprised by two men who break in (wearing tights over their faces) and hold a knife to her throat. Vincent however manages to overpower one of the men, and grabbing the man's gun, he shoots him in the head, and asks the other who sent them, the other man reveals it was Joey Saza, after which Vincent shoots him dead as well. At a meeting the next day with Michael, Vincent tells him what happened, but Michael is worried about Vincent's temper, but he is impressed by his nephew's loyalty so he agrees to take him under his wing and learn about the family business.
Michael also is to set in play his biggest business deal yet, as he has bought large stocks of International Immobliare, which is a large international real estate company, to become its largest single shareholder. He then makes an offer to take the Vatican's 25% shares so he can be given controlling interest in the company, but in order to do this the deal must be ratified through the Pope, who is gravely ill at this point. And to complicate things further, Don Altobello (Eli Wallach) an old friend of the Corleone family, and also Godfather to Connie, tells Michael that he and his old partners want in on the Immobliarie deal as well. Michael refuses however as he doesn't want any Mafia involvement in the deal, but he does set up a meeting with the other Mafia bosses and arranges to pay them off with sales from his Las Vegas holdings. However Michael gives nothing to Joey Saza, who storms out angrily, and not too long after, a helicopter arrives overhead, and gunfire riddles the room, killing most of the bosses, but Michael escapes the room, with help of his former capo and bodyguard, Al Neri (Richard Bright) and Vincent.
Once back at his New york penthouse, Michael insists that Joey Saza had nothing to do with the attack, even Vincent is furious wants to take out Saza. Michael however at this point under stress, suffers a diabetic stroke, and is sent to hospital, where he is joined by Kay, his son Anthony, and his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). But while Michael recovers in hospital, this allows Vincent to take care of Joey Saza, whom he ambushes while at a street festival, as his men gun down Saza's men and Vincent shoots Saza dead, while posing as a mounted police officer. On hearing word of the hit, Michael is furious at Vincent and Connie, who gave the go ahead for it to happen. Also at this time Vincent also starts a relationship with Michael's daughter, Mary, much to the dislike of Michael himself, who warns him to break off the relationship as he could put his daughter in jeopardy.
Some time later, Michael, Kay and his family travel to Sicily to see Anthony make his debut performance in a production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. On the trip Michael also has some time alone with Kay, who becomes emotional and admits that she still loves him. However Don Altobello in the meanmtime, also has travelled to Sicily, and it is revealed that he was behind the attempted murder on Michael and the other bosses. Altobello also hires a local Sicilian assassin, Mosca (Mario Donatone) to kill Michael, on the night of his son's debut performance at the opera. Mosca on his travels also kills Don Tomassinno, Michael's old friend (who gave him refuge when he fled America back in the first Godfather film). On hearing this Vincent asks for Michael to give him the power to take over the Corleone family, to which Michael agrees as he feels he can no longer do it anymore. And at the night of the opera, this is where the whole chain of events unfolds in its bloody and, yes operatic climax.
While it certainly isn't in the same league as the first two films, the Godfather Part III still has a fair bit going for it, and the fact that so many of the original cast came back to the film also makes it worth watching alone. It is also interesting how Coppola decided to humanise Michael as a character, and as a man who repented for his sins, and no longer wanted to go back to his old life of crime, and instead busied himself with good acts of charity. And one of the main strengths of the film is how Michael is potrayed in a more human light, as a man who can laugh and smile and shows he can be playful (as seen where he pretends to be a chauffer to Kay in a limo, when they are in Sicily), unlike he was back in the first two films, where he was so serious and straight laced. And its also interesting how they shift the criminal focus from Michael now onto Connie, who acts like she is the Godfather (or Godmother really, in fact they should really have renamed it!) and the boss of the family, as she orders Vincent to make the hit on Joey Saza and kills off Don Altobello at the end (by poisoning him).
And as for the performances well there is alot of good stuff here, starting with Al Pacino as Michael, who is again great in the lead role. And as I said he succeds in bringing a bit more warmth and humanity to Michael, which was very much asbent from the first two films. He has quite a few highlights in the film, and one of his best moments is where he confides in a priest, when he's in Sicily about his sins and how he ordered the death of his brother, Fredo. And that is another theme that runs through the film, as we clearly see how much Michael regretted ordering the death of his brother, as it was a cardinal sin, and one he could never forgive himself for. Pacino also get's the film's most memorable line as he laments about his old life of crime coming back to haunt him "just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in!". Diane Keaton takes a front seat for a change in the film, as she features more prominently as Kay here, and she does an excellent job with her character, although I have to say she does get one of the cheesiest lines in the film where she says to Michael, "I don't hate you, I dread you". And her scene with Michael in Sicily where she confesses she still loves him is nicely played out. Talia Shire is also great again as Connie, and she also takes the front seat and becomes the substitute "Don" figure as she plots with Vincent to kill Joey Saza. And I like the scene where she meets with Michael after Vincent has been established as his enforcer and she says "Now they will fear you", and Michael replies "maybe they should fear you!".
Andy Garcia of course can't go without mention here and he is also very good as the suave by hot tempered Vincent, who takes control of the Corleone crime family by the end of the film. Although my favourite has to be where he confronts Saza at the start of the film in Michael's office, who insists he make peace with Saza, who mocks him for being a "bastardo", and Vincent bites his ear. And then there is Sofia Coppola, who was a very controversial choice for the part of Michael's daughter, Mary. And while I have to say that Sofia isn't the best actress in the world, she does well enough with her role, although in her last scene, where she is shot by the assassin Mosca, the way she falls down and says "Dad" doesn't quite work that well. But she does have a nice relationship and chemistry with Andy Garcia in the film, especially when they sit in the kitchen making food, and also she looks great in the moment where the break up. And finally Eli Wallach is good as the seemingly charming, yet sinister mob boss, Don Altobello, although it is fairly transparent that he is the bad guy.
Flaw wise though the film has a few, and it definitely is not as good as the first two films, and under the weight of expectations, after nearly 20 years it would be a bit much to ask that this film would exceed that expectations. And in trying make the film appear as epic and lengthy as the first two films, it falls flat in that regard, as Coppola pads the film out with some rather dull scenes, which could easily have been trimmed, such as when he meets with the Archbishop and the board of directors. There is also a kind of almost cringeworthy moment when we see Johnny Fontane come back into the film, 20 years later, as an older man at Michael's part at the start, but he's longer the young guy he was, and he doesn't have the same audience as he did. So when we see him sing to Connie, she is the only one being wooed, unlike the first film where he has screaming fans around him. It also messes up the timeline of the death of Pope John Paul I, who actually died I think in 1981, and not in 1980 when I think the film was based (although I could be wrong!). And the whole idea of the corruption in the church is less than interesting here, as the film's main strengths really lie in the trials and drama within the family.
However regardless of that though, Francis Ford Coppola overall does a fine job with Part III, and it was never an easy to task to try and follow up two of the greatest films ever made. And the film still has the same great photography from Gordon Willis, as he maintains the same tones from the first two films. And also worthy of note is of course the music score, this time by Carmine Coppola, as Nino Rota had passed away by this time. Coppola's score maintains the similar themes of the first two films and Rota's score, but Coppola introduces some excellent passages himself.
So that's it for the Godfather Part III, which is a solid end to the trilogy and while it wasn't the classic that we all hoped for, its still worth watching alone to see the original cast do their stuff.
So that wraps it up for the Godfather posts, it was fun doing them, and more will follow of another variety anon.
Sunday, 23 September 2012
The Godfather Part II: I know it was you, Fredo!
OK so now onto part 2 of my posts on The Godfather trilogy, which strangely enough is about (wait for it!) The Godfather Part II, the follow up to the enormously successful original film, so let's have a closer look at the plot, etc, the usual basically. Here we go....
The film begins in flashback, when Vito Corleone was a 9 year old boy, who flees to America after his family are killed at the behest of a local Mafia chieftan, Don Ciccio (Giuseppe Sillato), because his father insult the Don. As the film progresses it follows Vito's rise as a young man (played by Robert De Niro) into the life of organised crime and how he created his crime family in New York. Living as a decent ordinary civillian in New York, Vito is approached by the neughbourhood crime figure, Don Fannucci (Gastone Mochin), who pesters him for money. Vito soon after follows Fannucci around the rooftops and waits for him outside his apartment, where he shoots Fannucci dead, and after this he makes a name for himself in his neighbourhood. And later in his life, he returns to Corleone in Sicily once he has established his Genco Olive oil business, looking for Don Ciccio's blessing. However its just an excuse for Vito to murder the Don and he escapes with his associate Tomassino, who is shot in the back, and later as we see from the first Godfather film, ends up confined to a wheelchair. These sequences are in part also seen as a reflection from Michael Corleone's memory. So the rest of this plot summary will be told from the modern day events.
Right so far the modern day stuff, the film begins in 1958, where the Corleone family have now moved to Nevada. Michael Corleone (Pacino) on the day of his son Anthony's confirmation, also holds an extravagant party, and deals with business requests at the same time, similar to how Vito does in the first film. During the day Michael speaks to Senator Pat Geary (GD Spradlin) who demands pay offs from Michael in turn for a state gaming license, and he also insults Michael and his family. Michael also receives a visit from a Sicilian mob associate, Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) who is connected to the Jewish crime boss, Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), who Michael is doing business with. Michael also on the same day has to deal with a rebellious Connie (Talia Shire), who is still angry at Michael for having killed off her former husband Carlo, and she now jetsets around the world with other men. And as well that, Michael also has to meet with Frankie Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), one of his caporegime's who is having trouble with a couple of mobsters, the Rosato brothers, who are backed by Roth, and he wants Michael to kill them off. Michael however refuses as he wants to do business with Roth and doesn't want it disturbed. Later that night after the party however, an assassination attempt is made on Michael at his home, as gunfire riddles his bedroom, however he survives as does his wife Kay (Diane Keaton). Later that night Michael takes leave of his family, leaving Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) in charge, as he travels to Miami to meet with Roth.
Once in Miami, Michael meets Roth at his home, and tells him that Frank Pentangeli tried to have him killed, and that he asks his consent that he orders Frankie's death, to which Roth doesn't object. Later, Michael returns to New York, where he meets with Frank (who now owns the Corleone's former house) and he angrily tells him about the attempt on his life, but he also tells him that Roth was behind the hit, and that he wants Frankie to sort out his troubles with the Rosato brothers, in order to make Roth think his relationship with him is still good. Frankie agrees although somewhat reluctantly as he meets with the Rosatos at a bar, but they instead try to kill him, by garrotting him, however they are interrupted by a passing policeman, and they are forced to leave the bar. Prior to this happening, we see Fredo (John Cazale), Michael's older brother, receive a phone call during the night from Johnny Ola, asking if Frankie will bring his men along to the meeting. Although it is not entirely clear Fredo had something to do with the attempted hit on Michael, he angrily tells Johnny Ola that he was lied to and not to call him again.
Michael shortly after his meeting with Frankie, travels to Cuba to meet up with Roth as they prepare to do a big business deal, however on travelling there, Michael witnesses a rebel suicide bomber, which makes him realise that rebels could overthrow the Cuban dictatorship. Fredo soon arrives with a suitcase of money, Michael's investment for the deal, and he and Michael go out for a drink together, where Fredo doesn't mention anything about his involvement in the attempt on his brother's life, but he does imply he feels guilty by saying he was angry at him. Michael then tells Fredo that he plans on killing Roth before the New Year is reigned in, and prior to this he meets with Roth and holds back on making his deal with him. Later that night, at a New Year's eve party, Fredo unwittingly let's his guard down by blabbing that he knew Johnny Ola (as he denied knowing him to Michael earlier on) to the others, which leaves Michael quietly devastated. Michael sends his bodyguard to kill Roth, who is at a hospital, and by this time he is in ill health from his heart. The bodyguard kills Johnny Ola, but is killed himself by Cuban police before he can kill Roth. Later at the party Michael confronts Fredo, grabbing him he kisses him on the lips, uttering the famous words "I know it was you, Fredo! You broke my heart!". After this revolution soon breaks lose as the Cuban rebels take down the dictatorship, and in the ensuing chaos, Fredo flees for his life, despite Michael's pleas to come with him.
Michael travels back to Nevada where he is told by Tom that Kay had a miscarriage, and also that Fredo got out and is possibly back in New York. Soon after this, a senate commission in Washington D.C. bring forward a witness that can corroborate Michael's links to his crime family, the witness being Frank Pentangeli, who by now is in the FBI witness protection program, where he is lives at an army barracks with FBI agents. At the trial, Michael denies all claims of his activities in the crime family, and he reads a statement in his defence to the committee. And on the day where Frankie attends the hearing, he is surprised to find his own brother Vincenzo Pentangeli, who was brought there by Michael to silence Frankie from talking. And indeed on being questioned by the committee, Frankie denies any knowledge of his links with Michael Corleone, or that he knew anything about the Godfather, as a result of this, the case is dismissed and Michael escapes prosecution.
However things are far from right for Michael, as he now has to deal with an angry and distraught Kay, who after hearing of his nefarious activities in court, and knowing them to be true, tells him she is leaving with his children. The two of them row, after which Michael calms down and tells her he will change, and that he knows she blames him for losing the baby, but Kay then reveals that she had a miscarriage as she had no intention of bringing another of Michael's sons into the world, which leads to a furious Michael smacking Kay, and shouting at her "YOU WON'T TAKE MY CHILDREN!!!". As a result of this Michael and Kay separate, and Michael cuts off her contact with their kids. Later on, Fredo finally returns to Nevada, at the same time when their mother is dying, and Fredo confides in Michael his involvement with Roth, and that he was angry at being passed over by his father, when it came to being the head of the family, but he swore he didn't know they were going to try and kill him. Michael coldly tells Fredo he wants nothing more to do with him or see him again, and after leaving he quietly tells his capo, Al Neri (Richard Bright) that he wants nothing to happen to Fredo while his mother is alive.
Once Michael's mother passes away, Connie at the funeral pleads with Michael to forgive Fredo, which he eventually agrees to, as he embraces Fredo at the funeral, he looks up to Neri intently. Michael then meets with Tom to decide on a plan of action to take out Roth, and while Tom is initially reluctant to go along with it, he agrees to help out. Tom then visits Frankie at the army barracks, and subtly implies to him, by using an example from Roman history that when plotters who plotted against the Emperor failed, they took their own lives, that if Frankie takes him own life, his family will be looked after. The film culminates with Roth being shot by Michael's capo, Rocco Lampone at an airport (who is in turn shot dead by the police), Frankie commits suicide by slashing his wrists in a bath tub, and Fredo is shot by Neri out on a boat while fishing. At the end of the film, Michael sits alone in his compound at his house in Nevada quietly reflecting on the past, and what he has lost, while having won the battle to wipe out his enemies, he has lost everything dear to him.
The Godfather Part II is a superb continuation from the first Godather film, and sees the themes being expanded from the first film. The scope of Part II is also far more ambitious as it incoporates the flashback sequences of Vito Corleone as a young man, making a name for himself and his rise to power, as well as the modern day themes and the troubles Michael endures. It also sees how Michael truly has become more manipulative and evil in running his family, he has ruthlessly taken control and again uses his power for his own ends. One such example is where he uses the Senator Geary, by framing him at a whorehouse, making it look like he had killed a prostitute, in order to get the senator into his pocket and help him get his gaming license. The film also introduces some new characters which we hadn't seen from the first film, such as Frankie Pentangeli, the wisecracking capo, who was once one of Michael's father's associates back in the olden days, but is now more of a hindrance for Michael, as he has his troubles with the Rosato brothers. And Hyman Roth is a mastermind criminal, who plays Michael, on one hand he appears to be a guru to Michael, but realistically he plots to get him out the way. And Michael appears to want to gain his trust and friendship until they go to Cuba, and its there we see Michael put his plan into motion to kill Roth.
Then there is of course the flashback sequences of the film, which tell the story of Vito's rise to power in New York, and as a young boy he escaped to America from Sicily. Although for the most part though in the flashback scenes, we see Vito as a decent honest man, who wants to earn for his wife and children, and its only really when Don Fannucci goads him into making payments to him, its when he seems to make that transition into the life of crime. Robert De Niro's portrayal of the young Vito is also terrific throughout, as he gets Brando's raspy soft spoken voice down to a T, and also keeps in with the theme of him being a good father and husband, and gentleman, but at the same time, a cold blooded killer. And the scenes where he follows Don Fanucci around the rooftops of New York and eventually kills him, and when he travels to Sicily to kill Don Ciccio are real highlights.
As for the other performances in the film, well there is much to appreciate, starting with Al Pacino, who is once again superb as Michael Corleone, and this time he has expanded on his performance of the crime boss. As Michael, Pacino still plays him with the same icy coolness, largely detached from emotion, but this time he does show Michael's emotional outbursts of anger when he is pushed or angered by someone. One of Pacino's best explosive moments comes when he comes back to Nevada and is told by Tom that Kay had a miscarriage, and he asks Tom if it was a boy, but Tom is unable to give him a direct answer, to which Michael explodes "CAN'T YOU GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER ANYMORE!! WAS IT A BOY????!!!". Pacino also brilliantly conveys his heartbreak over Fredo's betrayal in such a subtle manner, when Fredo unwittingly let's it slip that he knew Johnny Ola, Michael quietly puts his hand in his hands, covering his emotional devastation. And no doubt as a man, Michael Corleone has alot of sadness and grief inside him, especially as he loses so many members of his family, and again Pacino does a great job in always subtly showing his character's sadness. But at the same time, he also shows how twisted Michael is as well, once bitten, you will never bite him again.
As for the supporting cast there are some terrific performances, especially from Michael V. Gazzo, who plays the charismatic Frank Pentangeli, the caporegime in the Corloene family. Gazzo provides plenty of welcome moments of humour in the film as well, and I particularly like the scene where he is Michael's son's christening party, and he tries to get the band to play an Italian tarantella, but they end up playing "Pop goes the weasel". The scene where lies in front of the commission is also great, as the comission panel ask him where he stays now and he replies "I stay at an army barracks with the FBI guys!" and he proceeds to lie in front of the comission when he sees his Sicilian brother in the same room. And I also like the scene where he confronts Michael at the party, and insists he wants the Rosato brothers dead. Gazzo deservedly got an oscar for his superb performance as well, and he easily stands out as one of the best characters in the film.
Lee Strasberg is also great as the Jewish gangster, Hyman Roth, the wisened figurehead who appears to want to do business with Michael, but ultimately he plans to destroy him, and Michael vice versa. Strasberg who was reknown as a great acting teacher (who actually tought Al Pacino) has some great moments in the film, especially his scene where Michael asks him who gave the order on Pentangeli's hit, and Roth explains instead about how he once worked with Moe Greene, who turned up dead (at the behest of Michael's order in the Godfather). And rather than ask about it, Roth let it go, and he says to Michael "this is the business we have chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order! Because it had nothing to do with business!".
Diane Keaton also finally gets a meaty scene in the film with Al Pacino, where they row with each other about their marriage and how she intends to leave him. This scene is easily one of the best in the film, as both actors give their all in it, and we see from Kay, that she is actually a strong willed woman, who has finally had enough of Michael's lies and deceit. And the moment where she tells Michael that she had an abortion, we can even see Al Pacino's bottom lip tremble with sheer anger as she tells him what he doesn't want to hear. Talia Shire whilst she is largely sidelined in the film, also has a couple of nice moments with Al Pacino in the film, in their first scene where she is still angry with Michael and is somewhat sleazy, and in their last scene where she has gone back to being the sweet young sister, who has forgiven Michael. Robert Duvall once again does a great job as Tom Hagen, although he too also is partly sidelined in the film, but he does have some good scenes, especially where Michael confides with him to take charge of his house while he is away, and the scene where he speaks with Frank Petangeli at the end.
And finally one of the film's best performances comes from John Cazale, who is simply superb as the doomed Fredo, who has suffered the indignity of having been passed over by his own father when it comes to taking over as the head of the family. Cazale and Pacino were in fact best friends in real life, and their are some nice moments where their friendship actually does shine through, especially in the scene where they go out for a drink in Havana, and Fredo guiltily tells Michael how he wishes they had spent more time together. And his best scene comes when he tells Michael about his involvement with Roth, and how he thought there would be something in it for himself, and then he get's angry about how he was stepped over by his father. And Cazale succeeds in making Fredo one of the more sympathetic characters in the Godfather, as shows alot of remorse for his actions, as well as his impotency when it comes to handling difficult social situations, such as his floozy wife when she drunkenly flirts with a man at Michael's son's confirmation party.
Special mention also deserves to go to James Caan and Abe Vigoda who returned for their brief scene at the end of the film where Michael thinks back to a time when Vito had a surprise birthday party, and the family all meet together. Its a great scene as well, and James Caan reportedly ask for the same fee he got for the first Godfather film, which he received.
Once again Coppola's direction is near flawless, and keeps both narratives moving along nicely, although if I am being a bit critical, I have to say that I much prefer the modern day narrative to the historical one about Vito. There are certain scenes in Vito's narrative that are engrossing to watch, but there are also one or two that are a bit tedious as well. But as for the modern day narrative, Coppola never sets a foot wrong and it remains superbly compelling viewing. Gordon Willis also once provides stunning photography for the film, still keeping in tone with the first film, with the dark tones and the beautifully shot scenes in Sicily and Havana. Nino Rota's score is once again superb, and is as memorable as the first one, and I particularly like the passage he uses for when Michael visits Roth in Miami, which is alsothe main new plot theme in the movie for the modern day sequences.
Soooo that is it for Part II, its a superb film and a great completion of the events of the Godfather films of that time, before Godfather Part III was made nearly 20 years later, but more will follow on that next.
The film begins in flashback, when Vito Corleone was a 9 year old boy, who flees to America after his family are killed at the behest of a local Mafia chieftan, Don Ciccio (Giuseppe Sillato), because his father insult the Don. As the film progresses it follows Vito's rise as a young man (played by Robert De Niro) into the life of organised crime and how he created his crime family in New York. Living as a decent ordinary civillian in New York, Vito is approached by the neughbourhood crime figure, Don Fannucci (Gastone Mochin), who pesters him for money. Vito soon after follows Fannucci around the rooftops and waits for him outside his apartment, where he shoots Fannucci dead, and after this he makes a name for himself in his neighbourhood. And later in his life, he returns to Corleone in Sicily once he has established his Genco Olive oil business, looking for Don Ciccio's blessing. However its just an excuse for Vito to murder the Don and he escapes with his associate Tomassino, who is shot in the back, and later as we see from the first Godfather film, ends up confined to a wheelchair. These sequences are in part also seen as a reflection from Michael Corleone's memory. So the rest of this plot summary will be told from the modern day events.
Right so far the modern day stuff, the film begins in 1958, where the Corleone family have now moved to Nevada. Michael Corleone (Pacino) on the day of his son Anthony's confirmation, also holds an extravagant party, and deals with business requests at the same time, similar to how Vito does in the first film. During the day Michael speaks to Senator Pat Geary (GD Spradlin) who demands pay offs from Michael in turn for a state gaming license, and he also insults Michael and his family. Michael also receives a visit from a Sicilian mob associate, Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) who is connected to the Jewish crime boss, Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), who Michael is doing business with. Michael also on the same day has to deal with a rebellious Connie (Talia Shire), who is still angry at Michael for having killed off her former husband Carlo, and she now jetsets around the world with other men. And as well that, Michael also has to meet with Frankie Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), one of his caporegime's who is having trouble with a couple of mobsters, the Rosato brothers, who are backed by Roth, and he wants Michael to kill them off. Michael however refuses as he wants to do business with Roth and doesn't want it disturbed. Later that night after the party however, an assassination attempt is made on Michael at his home, as gunfire riddles his bedroom, however he survives as does his wife Kay (Diane Keaton). Later that night Michael takes leave of his family, leaving Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) in charge, as he travels to Miami to meet with Roth.
Once in Miami, Michael meets Roth at his home, and tells him that Frank Pentangeli tried to have him killed, and that he asks his consent that he orders Frankie's death, to which Roth doesn't object. Later, Michael returns to New York, where he meets with Frank (who now owns the Corleone's former house) and he angrily tells him about the attempt on his life, but he also tells him that Roth was behind the hit, and that he wants Frankie to sort out his troubles with the Rosato brothers, in order to make Roth think his relationship with him is still good. Frankie agrees although somewhat reluctantly as he meets with the Rosatos at a bar, but they instead try to kill him, by garrotting him, however they are interrupted by a passing policeman, and they are forced to leave the bar. Prior to this happening, we see Fredo (John Cazale), Michael's older brother, receive a phone call during the night from Johnny Ola, asking if Frankie will bring his men along to the meeting. Although it is not entirely clear Fredo had something to do with the attempted hit on Michael, he angrily tells Johnny Ola that he was lied to and not to call him again.
Michael shortly after his meeting with Frankie, travels to Cuba to meet up with Roth as they prepare to do a big business deal, however on travelling there, Michael witnesses a rebel suicide bomber, which makes him realise that rebels could overthrow the Cuban dictatorship. Fredo soon arrives with a suitcase of money, Michael's investment for the deal, and he and Michael go out for a drink together, where Fredo doesn't mention anything about his involvement in the attempt on his brother's life, but he does imply he feels guilty by saying he was angry at him. Michael then tells Fredo that he plans on killing Roth before the New Year is reigned in, and prior to this he meets with Roth and holds back on making his deal with him. Later that night, at a New Year's eve party, Fredo unwittingly let's his guard down by blabbing that he knew Johnny Ola (as he denied knowing him to Michael earlier on) to the others, which leaves Michael quietly devastated. Michael sends his bodyguard to kill Roth, who is at a hospital, and by this time he is in ill health from his heart. The bodyguard kills Johnny Ola, but is killed himself by Cuban police before he can kill Roth. Later at the party Michael confronts Fredo, grabbing him he kisses him on the lips, uttering the famous words "I know it was you, Fredo! You broke my heart!". After this revolution soon breaks lose as the Cuban rebels take down the dictatorship, and in the ensuing chaos, Fredo flees for his life, despite Michael's pleas to come with him.
Michael travels back to Nevada where he is told by Tom that Kay had a miscarriage, and also that Fredo got out and is possibly back in New York. Soon after this, a senate commission in Washington D.C. bring forward a witness that can corroborate Michael's links to his crime family, the witness being Frank Pentangeli, who by now is in the FBI witness protection program, where he is lives at an army barracks with FBI agents. At the trial, Michael denies all claims of his activities in the crime family, and he reads a statement in his defence to the committee. And on the day where Frankie attends the hearing, he is surprised to find his own brother Vincenzo Pentangeli, who was brought there by Michael to silence Frankie from talking. And indeed on being questioned by the committee, Frankie denies any knowledge of his links with Michael Corleone, or that he knew anything about the Godfather, as a result of this, the case is dismissed and Michael escapes prosecution.
However things are far from right for Michael, as he now has to deal with an angry and distraught Kay, who after hearing of his nefarious activities in court, and knowing them to be true, tells him she is leaving with his children. The two of them row, after which Michael calms down and tells her he will change, and that he knows she blames him for losing the baby, but Kay then reveals that she had a miscarriage as she had no intention of bringing another of Michael's sons into the world, which leads to a furious Michael smacking Kay, and shouting at her "YOU WON'T TAKE MY CHILDREN!!!". As a result of this Michael and Kay separate, and Michael cuts off her contact with their kids. Later on, Fredo finally returns to Nevada, at the same time when their mother is dying, and Fredo confides in Michael his involvement with Roth, and that he was angry at being passed over by his father, when it came to being the head of the family, but he swore he didn't know they were going to try and kill him. Michael coldly tells Fredo he wants nothing more to do with him or see him again, and after leaving he quietly tells his capo, Al Neri (Richard Bright) that he wants nothing to happen to Fredo while his mother is alive.
Once Michael's mother passes away, Connie at the funeral pleads with Michael to forgive Fredo, which he eventually agrees to, as he embraces Fredo at the funeral, he looks up to Neri intently. Michael then meets with Tom to decide on a plan of action to take out Roth, and while Tom is initially reluctant to go along with it, he agrees to help out. Tom then visits Frankie at the army barracks, and subtly implies to him, by using an example from Roman history that when plotters who plotted against the Emperor failed, they took their own lives, that if Frankie takes him own life, his family will be looked after. The film culminates with Roth being shot by Michael's capo, Rocco Lampone at an airport (who is in turn shot dead by the police), Frankie commits suicide by slashing his wrists in a bath tub, and Fredo is shot by Neri out on a boat while fishing. At the end of the film, Michael sits alone in his compound at his house in Nevada quietly reflecting on the past, and what he has lost, while having won the battle to wipe out his enemies, he has lost everything dear to him.
The Godfather Part II is a superb continuation from the first Godather film, and sees the themes being expanded from the first film. The scope of Part II is also far more ambitious as it incoporates the flashback sequences of Vito Corleone as a young man, making a name for himself and his rise to power, as well as the modern day themes and the troubles Michael endures. It also sees how Michael truly has become more manipulative and evil in running his family, he has ruthlessly taken control and again uses his power for his own ends. One such example is where he uses the Senator Geary, by framing him at a whorehouse, making it look like he had killed a prostitute, in order to get the senator into his pocket and help him get his gaming license. The film also introduces some new characters which we hadn't seen from the first film, such as Frankie Pentangeli, the wisecracking capo, who was once one of Michael's father's associates back in the olden days, but is now more of a hindrance for Michael, as he has his troubles with the Rosato brothers. And Hyman Roth is a mastermind criminal, who plays Michael, on one hand he appears to be a guru to Michael, but realistically he plots to get him out the way. And Michael appears to want to gain his trust and friendship until they go to Cuba, and its there we see Michael put his plan into motion to kill Roth.
Then there is of course the flashback sequences of the film, which tell the story of Vito's rise to power in New York, and as a young boy he escaped to America from Sicily. Although for the most part though in the flashback scenes, we see Vito as a decent honest man, who wants to earn for his wife and children, and its only really when Don Fannucci goads him into making payments to him, its when he seems to make that transition into the life of crime. Robert De Niro's portrayal of the young Vito is also terrific throughout, as he gets Brando's raspy soft spoken voice down to a T, and also keeps in with the theme of him being a good father and husband, and gentleman, but at the same time, a cold blooded killer. And the scenes where he follows Don Fanucci around the rooftops of New York and eventually kills him, and when he travels to Sicily to kill Don Ciccio are real highlights.
As for the other performances in the film, well there is much to appreciate, starting with Al Pacino, who is once again superb as Michael Corleone, and this time he has expanded on his performance of the crime boss. As Michael, Pacino still plays him with the same icy coolness, largely detached from emotion, but this time he does show Michael's emotional outbursts of anger when he is pushed or angered by someone. One of Pacino's best explosive moments comes when he comes back to Nevada and is told by Tom that Kay had a miscarriage, and he asks Tom if it was a boy, but Tom is unable to give him a direct answer, to which Michael explodes "CAN'T YOU GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER ANYMORE!! WAS IT A BOY????!!!". Pacino also brilliantly conveys his heartbreak over Fredo's betrayal in such a subtle manner, when Fredo unwittingly let's it slip that he knew Johnny Ola, Michael quietly puts his hand in his hands, covering his emotional devastation. And no doubt as a man, Michael Corleone has alot of sadness and grief inside him, especially as he loses so many members of his family, and again Pacino does a great job in always subtly showing his character's sadness. But at the same time, he also shows how twisted Michael is as well, once bitten, you will never bite him again.
As for the supporting cast there are some terrific performances, especially from Michael V. Gazzo, who plays the charismatic Frank Pentangeli, the caporegime in the Corloene family. Gazzo provides plenty of welcome moments of humour in the film as well, and I particularly like the scene where he is Michael's son's christening party, and he tries to get the band to play an Italian tarantella, but they end up playing "Pop goes the weasel". The scene where lies in front of the commission is also great, as the comission panel ask him where he stays now and he replies "I stay at an army barracks with the FBI guys!" and he proceeds to lie in front of the comission when he sees his Sicilian brother in the same room. And I also like the scene where he confronts Michael at the party, and insists he wants the Rosato brothers dead. Gazzo deservedly got an oscar for his superb performance as well, and he easily stands out as one of the best characters in the film.
Lee Strasberg is also great as the Jewish gangster, Hyman Roth, the wisened figurehead who appears to want to do business with Michael, but ultimately he plans to destroy him, and Michael vice versa. Strasberg who was reknown as a great acting teacher (who actually tought Al Pacino) has some great moments in the film, especially his scene where Michael asks him who gave the order on Pentangeli's hit, and Roth explains instead about how he once worked with Moe Greene, who turned up dead (at the behest of Michael's order in the Godfather). And rather than ask about it, Roth let it go, and he says to Michael "this is the business we have chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order! Because it had nothing to do with business!".
Diane Keaton also finally gets a meaty scene in the film with Al Pacino, where they row with each other about their marriage and how she intends to leave him. This scene is easily one of the best in the film, as both actors give their all in it, and we see from Kay, that she is actually a strong willed woman, who has finally had enough of Michael's lies and deceit. And the moment where she tells Michael that she had an abortion, we can even see Al Pacino's bottom lip tremble with sheer anger as she tells him what he doesn't want to hear. Talia Shire whilst she is largely sidelined in the film, also has a couple of nice moments with Al Pacino in the film, in their first scene where she is still angry with Michael and is somewhat sleazy, and in their last scene where she has gone back to being the sweet young sister, who has forgiven Michael. Robert Duvall once again does a great job as Tom Hagen, although he too also is partly sidelined in the film, but he does have some good scenes, especially where Michael confides with him to take charge of his house while he is away, and the scene where he speaks with Frank Petangeli at the end.
And finally one of the film's best performances comes from John Cazale, who is simply superb as the doomed Fredo, who has suffered the indignity of having been passed over by his own father when it comes to taking over as the head of the family. Cazale and Pacino were in fact best friends in real life, and their are some nice moments where their friendship actually does shine through, especially in the scene where they go out for a drink in Havana, and Fredo guiltily tells Michael how he wishes they had spent more time together. And his best scene comes when he tells Michael about his involvement with Roth, and how he thought there would be something in it for himself, and then he get's angry about how he was stepped over by his father. And Cazale succeeds in making Fredo one of the more sympathetic characters in the Godfather, as shows alot of remorse for his actions, as well as his impotency when it comes to handling difficult social situations, such as his floozy wife when she drunkenly flirts with a man at Michael's son's confirmation party.
Special mention also deserves to go to James Caan and Abe Vigoda who returned for their brief scene at the end of the film where Michael thinks back to a time when Vito had a surprise birthday party, and the family all meet together. Its a great scene as well, and James Caan reportedly ask for the same fee he got for the first Godfather film, which he received.
Once again Coppola's direction is near flawless, and keeps both narratives moving along nicely, although if I am being a bit critical, I have to say that I much prefer the modern day narrative to the historical one about Vito. There are certain scenes in Vito's narrative that are engrossing to watch, but there are also one or two that are a bit tedious as well. But as for the modern day narrative, Coppola never sets a foot wrong and it remains superbly compelling viewing. Gordon Willis also once provides stunning photography for the film, still keeping in tone with the first film, with the dark tones and the beautifully shot scenes in Sicily and Havana. Nino Rota's score is once again superb, and is as memorable as the first one, and I particularly like the passage he uses for when Michael visits Roth in Miami, which is alsothe main new plot theme in the movie for the modern day sequences.
Soooo that is it for Part II, its a superb film and a great completion of the events of the Godfather films of that time, before Godfather Part III was made nearly 20 years later, but more will follow on that next.
The Godfather Part I: I believe in America....
Right movie time again, I've decided to go for an epic trilogy this time, The Godfather trilogy to be exact, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which is based on the novel by Mario Puzo about the Corleone organised crime family. So here we go with the usual....
OK so the film begins back in 1945, the war has just ended, and the Don of the New York crime family, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) holds a wedding reception for his daughter, Connie (Talia Shire). On the wedding day, Vito's sons also attend, which include his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) along with his girlfriend, Kay Adams (Diane Keato), as well as his eldest son, Santino "Sonny" (James Caan), and his adopted son and consigliere (Italian for counsellor), Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). During this day, Vito also deals with requests from his associates and people who are friends of the family. One of the requests comes from Vito's godson, Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) who asks that Vito help get a star role in a new picture that is being filmed, but the head of the studio won't let get the part. After the wedding, Vito sends Tom to Hollywood where he speaks with the head of the studio, Waltz (John Marley), who is quite abrasive and refuses to accept Tom's request to give Fontane the lead role. However the next day, in a new infamous scene, Waltz wakes up in his bed to find he has blood over his hands, and on pulling back the sheets he finds to his horror, his prize Stallion's severed head in the bed.
At around Christmas time, Vito sets up a meeting with a drug baron, Virgil Sollozzo "The Turk" (Al Littieri), who is backed by one of the rival families, the Tittaglias, and asks for Vito's consent to make an investment with him, for which he will offer his protection. However, despite the potential to make alot of money, Vito refuses Sollozzo's request as he doesn't want to get mixed up in the drugs business, which later leads him to send one of his men, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) to spy on Sollozzo. But at a meeting between Brasi and Sollozzo, Brasi is garotted by Tittaglia's men, and soon after Sollozzo's makes an attempt on Vito, as he sends his men to gun him down in public. Sollozzo intercepts Tom Hagen and insists that he speak to Sonny, and his capos, Clemenza (Peter S. Castellano) and Tessio (Abe Vigoda) to make a deal with him, but it is soon revealed Vito survived the attempt on his life. On hearing on his father's attempted murder, Michael goes to the hosptial where Vito is being treated, and he moves him to another room, and then goes out front and stands waiting poised for Sollozzo's men (pretending he has a gun in his pocket), who drive past. Soon after this a police Captain, McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) arrives on the scene, who is in cahoots with with Sollozzo, and Michael confronts him about Sollozzo, but before he can be arrested, Tom arrives on the scene and takes Michael away.
By this time, Sonny has taken charge of the Corleone family, and they arrange another meeting between Sollozzo, but this time they want to speak with Michael, as they refuse to deal with Sonny, due to his hotheaded nature. The meeting is set up at a restaurant, and Michael says that if Clemenza can arrange to have a gun planted at the restaurant, then he will kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. At the meeting, Sollozzo insists he wants a truce, Michael then excuses himself to the bathroom, where he finds the planted gun behind an old toilet, and goes back and shoots both men dead. After this Michael is forced to leave the country and travels to Sicily, where he meets and falls in love with a beautiful local girl Appollina Vitelli (Simmone Stefanelli), and they both marry. In the meantime back in New York, Vito is brought home from hospital as he slowly starts to recover from him wounds. Sonny however is set on making war between the families and kills the son of the head of the Tattaglia family, Philip (the son being Bruno). While this is going, Connie is having domestic trouble with her abusive husband, Carlo (Gianni Russo), who has been hitting her, this provokes Sonny into beating up Carlo, and threatening to kill him if he touches again. However Carlo has yet another fight with Connie, and this pre-empts Sonny into confronting Carlo again, however on his way over, he is ambushed at a toolbooth and shot dead by several gunman, who take off. On hearing on the news of his son's death, Vito arranges a meeting with the heads of the other crime families to make peace and stop the war, especially with Tittaglia, who lost his son as well. Although one of the other crime bosses, Don Barzini (Richard Conte) does show some resentment over the fact that Vito has had so much power and has not been willing to share it, as he clearly wanted to get into the drug business. Regardless of this, the heads of the families agree to make a peace for now, but Vito also realises that it was Barzini that was behind the hit on himself and on Sonny.
Michael meanwhile in Sicily is still living happily with his new wife, Appollina, but this turns sour very badly when one of his bodyguards, betrays him, and plants a bomb in his car, with his wife at the wheel, she is killed instantly. Michael travels back to New York and rejoins his union with Kay, who intially is reluctant and hurt that she hasn't heard from him all this time, but they soon marry. By this time, Michael takes over as head of the family, with Vito acting as his consigliere, with Tom being temporarily ousted from the job. Michael travels to Las Vegas and meets up with his older brother, Fredo (John Cazale), who is the weaker and less brighter son of the family, who has set up a meeting with Moe Greene (Alex Rocco). Michael says he wants to buy out Moe's casino to take over the families stakes, however Moe refuses as he says he has spoken to Barzini and he can make a deal to keep his casino. Michael refuses to back down and insists that Moe make a price, which angers Fredo who says to Michael he can't talk to Moe like that, but Michael calmly says to him to never take sides with anyone against the family again.
Not long after this however, Vito dies from a heart attack in his garden, and at the funeral, Michael is set to meet with the heads of the five families, but at the meeting he will be assassinated. Michael has other ideas of course as he has his men murder the heads of the families instead, including Moe Greene as well. Michael during this stands godfather to Connie and Carlo's baby girl (actually played by Francis Coppola's daughter, Sofia) but shortly after the christening, Michael confronts Carlo about Sonny's death, and he get's him to admit that Barzini approached him. Michael then tells Carlo he will be expelled from the family business and is given a plane ticket to leave, but on getting into a car he is garrotted by Clemenza, whereafter Michael is confronted by a hysterical Connie, witnessed by Kay, who asks if it is true that he ordered Carlo's death, but he denies it. And at this time, Michael now stands alone and in charge of the most powerful crime family, but in doing he has become the very thing he swore never to be a part of as the film concludes.
There is no two ways about it, the Godfather stands as one of the greatest American films ever made, and it is the true definition of an epic saga. Francis Coppola who at the time of making the film met with tremendous resistance from the Paramount pictures studio, who were continually on his back about not meeting their time schedule, as he overran and they were never happy with what he showed them in rough cut footage. But like all great films from the 1970s, the Godfather really was made under the most difficult of circumstances, and despite it all, Coppola still managed to create one of the all time great films. The crime family themes are so brilliantly developed in the Godather as are the characters, as in previous crime films it was never really done from the point of view of the family, it was morely just gangsters in their gangs, guns and bullets, and molls and business. The fact that Coppola also included quite a few of his family members in the cast (his mother, young daughter Sofia, his sister Talia Shire, and even his father, Carmine, feature in the Godfather series) makes it even more like a genuine family affair.
In terms of the performances, well there is little to fault here, with Marlon Brando, you could however say his performance does remain somewhat hammy, but it also shows great creativity, as Brando at the screen test had already worked how Vito should have been played, by putting tissue paper into his cheeks and speaking like Vito had been shot in the throat, hence his raspy voice. Brando also has several highlights in the film (even if you can't always make out what he says!), such as the scene where he meets with the heads of the five families and insists "that if his son (Michael, who is still in Sicily at this point) is struck by a bolt of lightning then I am going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive!". His death scene is also quite poignant and nicely played as he carries on playfully with his grandson, playing hide and seek in the garden, before he collapses to the ground. And then there is the scene where he chastises Johnny Fontane who is in a bind with the studio head who won't give him the picture, as Fontane puts his hand in his hands saying he doesn't know what to do, after this Vito pounces out his chair and slaps him in his face. Vito then mocks him by saying "is this how you act, crying like a woman?! What I can do????! What can I do???").
Al Pacino is simply terrific as Michael, despite at the time of filming, the heads of Paramount where very unhappy with Coppola's decision to cast Pacino, they almost fired both of them off he picture. But Pacino plays Michael as perfectly as you could ever hope for, with a sense of icy cool, and at times he even appears completely emotionless (its almost like watching Ivan Lendl!), but early on there is also a genuine sense of care in him. But towards the end of the film, he turns from being a good man into an evil man, when he takes control of the Corleone family, he becomes corrupt as he wipes out his enemies. And despite his pretty emotionless demeanour, there are moments when Al brilliantly manages to convey subtly Michael's real emotions. He also has several highlights in the film, particularly the scene where he meets with Sollozzo, and the way where we see his eyes dart back and forth, waiting for his moment to kill the Turk, just as the sound of train screeches in the background. Another terrific scene is when he argues with Moe Greene at his casino, who storms out, and Fredo angrily says "Mike you don't come to Las Vegas, and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!!", to which Michael calmly replies "Fredo, you are my older brother, and I love you, but don't take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever".
Other cast membes are also terrific, James Caan as Sonny is great, playing him as a hot tempered man, who's temper and implusiveness eventually get's the better of him. Caan's best scenes include where he beats up Carlo in public, and threatens to kill him if he touches his sister again, and the scene where he ultimately is gunned down at the toolboth (where he was wired up with the most amount squib bullets in cinema history at that time!). He also makes Sonny, despite his temper, quite a strong family figure, as he loves his family and does his best to stay strong for them all, especially during the crisis of the war with the other crime families. This is especially shown where he defends Connie at the dinner table when Carlo tells her to shut up, and he says "don't you ever tell her to shut up, you got that?!". Robert Duvall is also superb as Tom Hagen, the family's consigliere, or lawyer, who unlike Sonny is more the brains of the family, even though he is an adopted son, he remains firmly loyal to the family. Duvall also has great moments, especially where he argues with Sonny, and the moment where he tells Vito that Sonny has been killed.
Talia Shire, who was cast by Coppola in the part of Vito's daughter Connie, is terrific also, and the fact that she is in a unhappy marriage makes her even more heartbreaking figure, especially at the end where she is hysterical after Carlo is bumped off. Her best scene is easily the one where she rows with Carlo, who beats her with his belt, and she screams at him "I HATE YOU!!!" to which Carlo replies "Good! Now I'll kill ya!". This scene was in fact devised by Coppola as the studio were concerned there wasn't enough violence in the film, and they were intending on bringing a violence director in, so went ahead and did this great scene before they could. Diane Keaton, despite having a rather short screen also makes an excellent impression as Kay, Michael's girlfriend and eventual wife, and her character would get even better in the Godfather Part II. John Cazale as Fredo, similarly isn't given much screen time, but he too is superb as the middle son, Fredo, who is mainly stepped over, given his rather meek nature, and his scene in Las Vegas with Moe Green is great. His scene where Vito is gunned down in public is great too, as he is powerless to do anything about it, where he sobs inconsolably in front of his limp father, yelling "Papa!!!!!". And finally Richard Castellano as the colourful capo, Clemenza, who proves invaluable in the time of crisis during the family war. Castellano he has several great scenes, the main one where he drives around with Paulie, whom is murdered at Sonny's order by a gunman, while Clemenza get's out the car to take a piss. After Paulie is killed, Clemenza goes back to the gunman, and delivers the famous line "leave the gun, take the cannolli".
Direction wise Coppola hardly ever puts a foot wrong here, and he deserves no end of credit for what he has achieved with this film, and the saga in general, especially given the pressures he was under in filming. And he went on and deservedly won the oscars for Best Picture, Director and adapted screenplay (along with Mario Puzo). Technically the film also looks superb, and Gordon Willis's moody, dark photography is stunning, from the darkly lit scenes at the start to the gorgeous bright scenes in Sicily. And one of the most notable parts of the film is Nino Rota's memorable score, especially the way it begins the film, with that sombre trumpet playing the unforgettable opening moments. The sets and period design are also second to nil, especially given its very modest budget of 6.5 million dollars, and the film easily looks a million bucks (or should I say 6.5!).
Soooooooooooo that's it for the first part, part 2 will follow soon.......
OK so the film begins back in 1945, the war has just ended, and the Don of the New York crime family, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) holds a wedding reception for his daughter, Connie (Talia Shire). On the wedding day, Vito's sons also attend, which include his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) along with his girlfriend, Kay Adams (Diane Keato), as well as his eldest son, Santino "Sonny" (James Caan), and his adopted son and consigliere (Italian for counsellor), Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). During this day, Vito also deals with requests from his associates and people who are friends of the family. One of the requests comes from Vito's godson, Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) who asks that Vito help get a star role in a new picture that is being filmed, but the head of the studio won't let get the part. After the wedding, Vito sends Tom to Hollywood where he speaks with the head of the studio, Waltz (John Marley), who is quite abrasive and refuses to accept Tom's request to give Fontane the lead role. However the next day, in a new infamous scene, Waltz wakes up in his bed to find he has blood over his hands, and on pulling back the sheets he finds to his horror, his prize Stallion's severed head in the bed.
At around Christmas time, Vito sets up a meeting with a drug baron, Virgil Sollozzo "The Turk" (Al Littieri), who is backed by one of the rival families, the Tittaglias, and asks for Vito's consent to make an investment with him, for which he will offer his protection. However, despite the potential to make alot of money, Vito refuses Sollozzo's request as he doesn't want to get mixed up in the drugs business, which later leads him to send one of his men, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) to spy on Sollozzo. But at a meeting between Brasi and Sollozzo, Brasi is garotted by Tittaglia's men, and soon after Sollozzo's makes an attempt on Vito, as he sends his men to gun him down in public. Sollozzo intercepts Tom Hagen and insists that he speak to Sonny, and his capos, Clemenza (Peter S. Castellano) and Tessio (Abe Vigoda) to make a deal with him, but it is soon revealed Vito survived the attempt on his life. On hearing on his father's attempted murder, Michael goes to the hosptial where Vito is being treated, and he moves him to another room, and then goes out front and stands waiting poised for Sollozzo's men (pretending he has a gun in his pocket), who drive past. Soon after this a police Captain, McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) arrives on the scene, who is in cahoots with with Sollozzo, and Michael confronts him about Sollozzo, but before he can be arrested, Tom arrives on the scene and takes Michael away.
By this time, Sonny has taken charge of the Corleone family, and they arrange another meeting between Sollozzo, but this time they want to speak with Michael, as they refuse to deal with Sonny, due to his hotheaded nature. The meeting is set up at a restaurant, and Michael says that if Clemenza can arrange to have a gun planted at the restaurant, then he will kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. At the meeting, Sollozzo insists he wants a truce, Michael then excuses himself to the bathroom, where he finds the planted gun behind an old toilet, and goes back and shoots both men dead. After this Michael is forced to leave the country and travels to Sicily, where he meets and falls in love with a beautiful local girl Appollina Vitelli (Simmone Stefanelli), and they both marry. In the meantime back in New York, Vito is brought home from hospital as he slowly starts to recover from him wounds. Sonny however is set on making war between the families and kills the son of the head of the Tattaglia family, Philip (the son being Bruno). While this is going, Connie is having domestic trouble with her abusive husband, Carlo (Gianni Russo), who has been hitting her, this provokes Sonny into beating up Carlo, and threatening to kill him if he touches again. However Carlo has yet another fight with Connie, and this pre-empts Sonny into confronting Carlo again, however on his way over, he is ambushed at a toolbooth and shot dead by several gunman, who take off. On hearing on the news of his son's death, Vito arranges a meeting with the heads of the other crime families to make peace and stop the war, especially with Tittaglia, who lost his son as well. Although one of the other crime bosses, Don Barzini (Richard Conte) does show some resentment over the fact that Vito has had so much power and has not been willing to share it, as he clearly wanted to get into the drug business. Regardless of this, the heads of the families agree to make a peace for now, but Vito also realises that it was Barzini that was behind the hit on himself and on Sonny.
Michael meanwhile in Sicily is still living happily with his new wife, Appollina, but this turns sour very badly when one of his bodyguards, betrays him, and plants a bomb in his car, with his wife at the wheel, she is killed instantly. Michael travels back to New York and rejoins his union with Kay, who intially is reluctant and hurt that she hasn't heard from him all this time, but they soon marry. By this time, Michael takes over as head of the family, with Vito acting as his consigliere, with Tom being temporarily ousted from the job. Michael travels to Las Vegas and meets up with his older brother, Fredo (John Cazale), who is the weaker and less brighter son of the family, who has set up a meeting with Moe Greene (Alex Rocco). Michael says he wants to buy out Moe's casino to take over the families stakes, however Moe refuses as he says he has spoken to Barzini and he can make a deal to keep his casino. Michael refuses to back down and insists that Moe make a price, which angers Fredo who says to Michael he can't talk to Moe like that, but Michael calmly says to him to never take sides with anyone against the family again.
Not long after this however, Vito dies from a heart attack in his garden, and at the funeral, Michael is set to meet with the heads of the five families, but at the meeting he will be assassinated. Michael has other ideas of course as he has his men murder the heads of the families instead, including Moe Greene as well. Michael during this stands godfather to Connie and Carlo's baby girl (actually played by Francis Coppola's daughter, Sofia) but shortly after the christening, Michael confronts Carlo about Sonny's death, and he get's him to admit that Barzini approached him. Michael then tells Carlo he will be expelled from the family business and is given a plane ticket to leave, but on getting into a car he is garrotted by Clemenza, whereafter Michael is confronted by a hysterical Connie, witnessed by Kay, who asks if it is true that he ordered Carlo's death, but he denies it. And at this time, Michael now stands alone and in charge of the most powerful crime family, but in doing he has become the very thing he swore never to be a part of as the film concludes.
There is no two ways about it, the Godfather stands as one of the greatest American films ever made, and it is the true definition of an epic saga. Francis Coppola who at the time of making the film met with tremendous resistance from the Paramount pictures studio, who were continually on his back about not meeting their time schedule, as he overran and they were never happy with what he showed them in rough cut footage. But like all great films from the 1970s, the Godfather really was made under the most difficult of circumstances, and despite it all, Coppola still managed to create one of the all time great films. The crime family themes are so brilliantly developed in the Godather as are the characters, as in previous crime films it was never really done from the point of view of the family, it was morely just gangsters in their gangs, guns and bullets, and molls and business. The fact that Coppola also included quite a few of his family members in the cast (his mother, young daughter Sofia, his sister Talia Shire, and even his father, Carmine, feature in the Godfather series) makes it even more like a genuine family affair.
In terms of the performances, well there is little to fault here, with Marlon Brando, you could however say his performance does remain somewhat hammy, but it also shows great creativity, as Brando at the screen test had already worked how Vito should have been played, by putting tissue paper into his cheeks and speaking like Vito had been shot in the throat, hence his raspy voice. Brando also has several highlights in the film (even if you can't always make out what he says!), such as the scene where he meets with the heads of the five families and insists "that if his son (Michael, who is still in Sicily at this point) is struck by a bolt of lightning then I am going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive!". His death scene is also quite poignant and nicely played as he carries on playfully with his grandson, playing hide and seek in the garden, before he collapses to the ground. And then there is the scene where he chastises Johnny Fontane who is in a bind with the studio head who won't give him the picture, as Fontane puts his hand in his hands saying he doesn't know what to do, after this Vito pounces out his chair and slaps him in his face. Vito then mocks him by saying "is this how you act, crying like a woman?! What I can do????! What can I do???").
Al Pacino is simply terrific as Michael, despite at the time of filming, the heads of Paramount where very unhappy with Coppola's decision to cast Pacino, they almost fired both of them off he picture. But Pacino plays Michael as perfectly as you could ever hope for, with a sense of icy cool, and at times he even appears completely emotionless (its almost like watching Ivan Lendl!), but early on there is also a genuine sense of care in him. But towards the end of the film, he turns from being a good man into an evil man, when he takes control of the Corleone family, he becomes corrupt as he wipes out his enemies. And despite his pretty emotionless demeanour, there are moments when Al brilliantly manages to convey subtly Michael's real emotions. He also has several highlights in the film, particularly the scene where he meets with Sollozzo, and the way where we see his eyes dart back and forth, waiting for his moment to kill the Turk, just as the sound of train screeches in the background. Another terrific scene is when he argues with Moe Greene at his casino, who storms out, and Fredo angrily says "Mike you don't come to Las Vegas, and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!!", to which Michael calmly replies "Fredo, you are my older brother, and I love you, but don't take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever".
Other cast membes are also terrific, James Caan as Sonny is great, playing him as a hot tempered man, who's temper and implusiveness eventually get's the better of him. Caan's best scenes include where he beats up Carlo in public, and threatens to kill him if he touches his sister again, and the scene where he ultimately is gunned down at the toolboth (where he was wired up with the most amount squib bullets in cinema history at that time!). He also makes Sonny, despite his temper, quite a strong family figure, as he loves his family and does his best to stay strong for them all, especially during the crisis of the war with the other crime families. This is especially shown where he defends Connie at the dinner table when Carlo tells her to shut up, and he says "don't you ever tell her to shut up, you got that?!". Robert Duvall is also superb as Tom Hagen, the family's consigliere, or lawyer, who unlike Sonny is more the brains of the family, even though he is an adopted son, he remains firmly loyal to the family. Duvall also has great moments, especially where he argues with Sonny, and the moment where he tells Vito that Sonny has been killed.
Talia Shire, who was cast by Coppola in the part of Vito's daughter Connie, is terrific also, and the fact that she is in a unhappy marriage makes her even more heartbreaking figure, especially at the end where she is hysterical after Carlo is bumped off. Her best scene is easily the one where she rows with Carlo, who beats her with his belt, and she screams at him "I HATE YOU!!!" to which Carlo replies "Good! Now I'll kill ya!". This scene was in fact devised by Coppola as the studio were concerned there wasn't enough violence in the film, and they were intending on bringing a violence director in, so went ahead and did this great scene before they could. Diane Keaton, despite having a rather short screen also makes an excellent impression as Kay, Michael's girlfriend and eventual wife, and her character would get even better in the Godfather Part II. John Cazale as Fredo, similarly isn't given much screen time, but he too is superb as the middle son, Fredo, who is mainly stepped over, given his rather meek nature, and his scene in Las Vegas with Moe Green is great. His scene where Vito is gunned down in public is great too, as he is powerless to do anything about it, where he sobs inconsolably in front of his limp father, yelling "Papa!!!!!". And finally Richard Castellano as the colourful capo, Clemenza, who proves invaluable in the time of crisis during the family war. Castellano he has several great scenes, the main one where he drives around with Paulie, whom is murdered at Sonny's order by a gunman, while Clemenza get's out the car to take a piss. After Paulie is killed, Clemenza goes back to the gunman, and delivers the famous line "leave the gun, take the cannolli".
Direction wise Coppola hardly ever puts a foot wrong here, and he deserves no end of credit for what he has achieved with this film, and the saga in general, especially given the pressures he was under in filming. And he went on and deservedly won the oscars for Best Picture, Director and adapted screenplay (along with Mario Puzo). Technically the film also looks superb, and Gordon Willis's moody, dark photography is stunning, from the darkly lit scenes at the start to the gorgeous bright scenes in Sicily. And one of the most notable parts of the film is Nino Rota's memorable score, especially the way it begins the film, with that sombre trumpet playing the unforgettable opening moments. The sets and period design are also second to nil, especially given its very modest budget of 6.5 million dollars, and the film easily looks a million bucks (or should I say 6.5!).
Soooooooooooo that's it for the first part, part 2 will follow soon.......
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Doctor who: never trust a man with dirty finger nails!
Right I thought rather than reviewing another movie, I would go back to looking at an old classic Doctor who story from Tom Baker's era, The Talons of Weng Chiang, which was the swansong of the great partnership of producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor/writer Robert Holmes. So let's give it a look!
So the story begins with the TARDIS landing in London back in the Victorian times, as the Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) emerge wearing Victorian clothes. The Doctor and Leela while they look around the local area, they hear a scream and they find a group of Chinese coolies who are attacking a cab driver. The Doctor and Leela fight them off, as they hear the sound of a police whistle they flee, and the Doctor trips up one of them, just in time for a Sergeant (David McKail) to find them and he asks them to come to the station. Meanwhile at the Palace theatre, a famous Chinese magician, Li H'sen Chang (John Bennett) is performing an extended run at the theatre, much to the delight of the owner, Henry Gordon Jago (Christopher Benjamin). Chang however was accosted by the cab driver earlier on and he accused him of putting his wife into some weird trance and since then she has disappeared. After this Chang is called to the police station where he is asked to be an interpreter for the coolie, the Doctor and Leela caught. Chang unbeknowst to the Doctor and Leela discretely gives the coolie a scorpion venom pill, which kills the coolie instantly. Chang denies that he did anything and wishes them good night, but on examining the dead coolie's hand, the Doctor sees a tatoo of the Tong of the Black Scorpion, who were a dangerous political organisation who worshipped the ancient god, Weng Chiang.
The Doctor and Leela then head to the mortuary where they find where they speak to Professot Litefoot (Trevor Litefoot) who is examining the bodies and tells the Doctor that the cab driver, was a man named Joseph Buller, who's with Emma Buller went missing, and this was just one of several girls that have gone missing in mysterious circumstances. The Doctor finds rat hairs on Buller's body, which suggests to him that he was killed by a large rat, and that the god Weng Chaing, was the master of abundance who could make things grow. On this hunch, the Doctor checks the sewers with Leela and they find a large rat, which advances on them, but they manage to escape just in time.
In the meantime we find out that Chang is actually a servant of the so called God, Weng Chiang, who is in fact a war criminal from the 51st Century, Magnus Greel (Michael Spice) who is stranded in this time, and he is desparately looking for the time cabinet he travelled in. However as a result of having used the time cabinet, which is based on an unstable form called Zygma energy, Greel is left hideously deformed and has to wear mask to hide his true features. It also is revealed that the girls who disappeared have in fact been captured by Chang and taken to Greel, who uses a distillation chamber to drain their life energies into his own body, in order to revitilise himself, as he dying from the effects of his time travel. Chang also in his task of trying to find the time cabinet is aided by a the small waxwork doll, Mr Sin (Roy Deep) which is in fact a homunculus (small robotic human) who came from the future with Greel.
And as things progress the Doctor and Leela eventually cross paths with Greel, as well as meeting up with Jago and Litefoot, who all pull their resources together to try and defeat the evil villain from the future, who if he finds the time cabinet again, it could have disastrous consequences for them all.
Talons is without a doubt one of the real highlights of the Tom Baker era, the scripts, sets and performances are all wonderful. Robert Holmes, who was the script editor during the Philip Hinchcliffe tenure, and also wrote the story, has crafted a terrific adventure, which is creepy, menacing as well as very entertaining. The story also succeeds in bringing together another partnership, with Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot, who in the story make an unlikely duo, but they ultimatley help each other and the Doctor in their fight against Greel. And the gothic themes that were seen to be running now and then through the Hinchcliffe era really come to the fore here, and in this story Holmes and Hinchcliffe find the perfect balance of drama and fun.
In terms of the performances there is much to enjoy here, especially Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago, the pompous theatre owner, who has a large vocabulary and likes to act big, but at the same time he's a coward, who would flee at any sign of danger, but towards the end he plays his part in fighting the baddies. He also get's plenty of great lines, one I really like is when he speaks to his stagehand, Casey, and says to him "I will look over those lugubrious leaniments at the crupuscular hour!" and Casey says "Eh???" to which Jago replies "See you in the morning!". Trevor Baxter is also excellent Professor Litefoot, as he plays Litefoot as a plucky character, who will stand up for a fight, and his scenes with Christopher Benjamin are great, and some of the highlights of the story. John Bennett is also very good as Li H'sen Chang, the enigmatic and mysterious magician, who obeys Greel blindly at first, but realises altogether a bit too late that Greel later deserts him. Bennett also has some excellent make-up to make look like a gent from the Orient, which looks very convincing (despite the fact he wouldn't be able to move his eyebrows!). Roy Deep also makes a noteworthy appearnce as the creepy Mr Sin, the dimunitive waxwork doll, that does Greel's evil bidding, and at the end the Doctor pulls out his "fuse". And finally we have Michael Spice as the villanous Greel, who we never see his face until the climax at the end of epsiode five where Leela unmasks him, and we see his twisted features. Spice plays a great villain, especially with his impressive booming voice, I can easily have seen him sending young kids cowering behind the sofa!
The regular cast are also in top form here too, with Tom Baker having grown effortlessly into his role now as the Doctor, and he provides his usual commanding, engimatic and humorous qualities. Tom Baker also get's his fare share of great lines, one of which is the title of this post, where he taunts Greel, who demands for the Doctor to hand over the time key for the cabinet, and the Doctor says "never trust a man with dirty finger nails!". I also like the scene where the Doctor participates in a magic trick for Chang at the theatre, where he gets inside a cabinet which Chang will slot swords into, but before he does we see the Doctor exit out the back door of the cabinet! Louise Jameson is also fine as Leela, and yep she does look pretty fine in that Victorian dress (although I miss her sexy leather skins!). Jameson also has quite a few impressive dramatic moments with Greel, as she swears she will hunt him down (calling Greel bent face!) and "put him through my agony a thousand times!". She also has an amusing scene where she eats with Litefoot at his house, but rather than use a plate, she sticks a carving into a cut of meat and starts eating it with her hands, and Litefoot feels obliged to join in. Although I think Leela probably needs a few more lessons in Victorian etiquette than Eliza Doolittle does! ;-)
As for any flaws, well its such a good story there aren't too many, even at 6 episodes, it moves along at a good pace, and doesn't fall foul to the some of the padded 6 parters in the past. One big flaw however that can be levelled at it is of course the inclusion of the giant rat, which is basically pretty silly, and is not menacing at all, as it just looks like a man in a mouse costume (which is pretty much what it is!). I was also never a fan of one line in the story, which came from Greel, and its the way in which Michael Spice says "Let the talons of Weng Chiang shred your flesh!" its just a bit OTT and makes me cringe when I hear it. But apart from that its pretty much all great stuff.
The story also has a notable score from Dudley Simpson, which is once again great, as Simpson, who by this time had been a real veteran score writer for the show virtually since it began (his first music score for the show was back in 1964 in the Hartnell era, Planet of Giants) and Simpson himself makes a cameo in the story as a conductor at the theatre. Simpson's score has plenty of dramatic passages throughout and I really like the use of some of the organ music, especially when Chang is negotiating the bowels of the theatre to reach the sewer to meet with Greel. Production wise, the giant rat aside, its pretty much top notch as the sets are all great, and the costumes, as always in BBC period drama as spot on. And one amusing fact about the making of the show was that for one of the scenes show on the streets, there was one shot where a modern car was in shot. However the production team where unable to contact the owner to have it moved, so they ended up covering it over with hay! You can spot it easily, as you see the shape of the car beneath!
So The Talons of Weng Chiang remains one of the great classics of the original show, and one of Tom Baker's finest stories. It was a shame that Philip Hinchcliffe decided to part company with the show at that point as his tenure on the series proved to be what quite a few fans called the Golden Age of the show. And some might even say that Doctor Who was never the same again.
Anyway that's it for now, until the next post, byeeee!
So the story begins with the TARDIS landing in London back in the Victorian times, as the Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) emerge wearing Victorian clothes. The Doctor and Leela while they look around the local area, they hear a scream and they find a group of Chinese coolies who are attacking a cab driver. The Doctor and Leela fight them off, as they hear the sound of a police whistle they flee, and the Doctor trips up one of them, just in time for a Sergeant (David McKail) to find them and he asks them to come to the station. Meanwhile at the Palace theatre, a famous Chinese magician, Li H'sen Chang (John Bennett) is performing an extended run at the theatre, much to the delight of the owner, Henry Gordon Jago (Christopher Benjamin). Chang however was accosted by the cab driver earlier on and he accused him of putting his wife into some weird trance and since then she has disappeared. After this Chang is called to the police station where he is asked to be an interpreter for the coolie, the Doctor and Leela caught. Chang unbeknowst to the Doctor and Leela discretely gives the coolie a scorpion venom pill, which kills the coolie instantly. Chang denies that he did anything and wishes them good night, but on examining the dead coolie's hand, the Doctor sees a tatoo of the Tong of the Black Scorpion, who were a dangerous political organisation who worshipped the ancient god, Weng Chiang.
The Doctor and Leela then head to the mortuary where they find where they speak to Professot Litefoot (Trevor Litefoot) who is examining the bodies and tells the Doctor that the cab driver, was a man named Joseph Buller, who's with Emma Buller went missing, and this was just one of several girls that have gone missing in mysterious circumstances. The Doctor finds rat hairs on Buller's body, which suggests to him that he was killed by a large rat, and that the god Weng Chaing, was the master of abundance who could make things grow. On this hunch, the Doctor checks the sewers with Leela and they find a large rat, which advances on them, but they manage to escape just in time.
In the meantime we find out that Chang is actually a servant of the so called God, Weng Chiang, who is in fact a war criminal from the 51st Century, Magnus Greel (Michael Spice) who is stranded in this time, and he is desparately looking for the time cabinet he travelled in. However as a result of having used the time cabinet, which is based on an unstable form called Zygma energy, Greel is left hideously deformed and has to wear mask to hide his true features. It also is revealed that the girls who disappeared have in fact been captured by Chang and taken to Greel, who uses a distillation chamber to drain their life energies into his own body, in order to revitilise himself, as he dying from the effects of his time travel. Chang also in his task of trying to find the time cabinet is aided by a the small waxwork doll, Mr Sin (Roy Deep) which is in fact a homunculus (small robotic human) who came from the future with Greel.
And as things progress the Doctor and Leela eventually cross paths with Greel, as well as meeting up with Jago and Litefoot, who all pull their resources together to try and defeat the evil villain from the future, who if he finds the time cabinet again, it could have disastrous consequences for them all.
Talons is without a doubt one of the real highlights of the Tom Baker era, the scripts, sets and performances are all wonderful. Robert Holmes, who was the script editor during the Philip Hinchcliffe tenure, and also wrote the story, has crafted a terrific adventure, which is creepy, menacing as well as very entertaining. The story also succeeds in bringing together another partnership, with Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot, who in the story make an unlikely duo, but they ultimatley help each other and the Doctor in their fight against Greel. And the gothic themes that were seen to be running now and then through the Hinchcliffe era really come to the fore here, and in this story Holmes and Hinchcliffe find the perfect balance of drama and fun.
In terms of the performances there is much to enjoy here, especially Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago, the pompous theatre owner, who has a large vocabulary and likes to act big, but at the same time he's a coward, who would flee at any sign of danger, but towards the end he plays his part in fighting the baddies. He also get's plenty of great lines, one I really like is when he speaks to his stagehand, Casey, and says to him "I will look over those lugubrious leaniments at the crupuscular hour!" and Casey says "Eh???" to which Jago replies "See you in the morning!". Trevor Baxter is also excellent Professor Litefoot, as he plays Litefoot as a plucky character, who will stand up for a fight, and his scenes with Christopher Benjamin are great, and some of the highlights of the story. John Bennett is also very good as Li H'sen Chang, the enigmatic and mysterious magician, who obeys Greel blindly at first, but realises altogether a bit too late that Greel later deserts him. Bennett also has some excellent make-up to make look like a gent from the Orient, which looks very convincing (despite the fact he wouldn't be able to move his eyebrows!). Roy Deep also makes a noteworthy appearnce as the creepy Mr Sin, the dimunitive waxwork doll, that does Greel's evil bidding, and at the end the Doctor pulls out his "fuse". And finally we have Michael Spice as the villanous Greel, who we never see his face until the climax at the end of epsiode five where Leela unmasks him, and we see his twisted features. Spice plays a great villain, especially with his impressive booming voice, I can easily have seen him sending young kids cowering behind the sofa!
The regular cast are also in top form here too, with Tom Baker having grown effortlessly into his role now as the Doctor, and he provides his usual commanding, engimatic and humorous qualities. Tom Baker also get's his fare share of great lines, one of which is the title of this post, where he taunts Greel, who demands for the Doctor to hand over the time key for the cabinet, and the Doctor says "never trust a man with dirty finger nails!". I also like the scene where the Doctor participates in a magic trick for Chang at the theatre, where he gets inside a cabinet which Chang will slot swords into, but before he does we see the Doctor exit out the back door of the cabinet! Louise Jameson is also fine as Leela, and yep she does look pretty fine in that Victorian dress (although I miss her sexy leather skins!). Jameson also has quite a few impressive dramatic moments with Greel, as she swears she will hunt him down (calling Greel bent face!) and "put him through my agony a thousand times!". She also has an amusing scene where she eats with Litefoot at his house, but rather than use a plate, she sticks a carving into a cut of meat and starts eating it with her hands, and Litefoot feels obliged to join in. Although I think Leela probably needs a few more lessons in Victorian etiquette than Eliza Doolittle does! ;-)
As for any flaws, well its such a good story there aren't too many, even at 6 episodes, it moves along at a good pace, and doesn't fall foul to the some of the padded 6 parters in the past. One big flaw however that can be levelled at it is of course the inclusion of the giant rat, which is basically pretty silly, and is not menacing at all, as it just looks like a man in a mouse costume (which is pretty much what it is!). I was also never a fan of one line in the story, which came from Greel, and its the way in which Michael Spice says "Let the talons of Weng Chiang shred your flesh!" its just a bit OTT and makes me cringe when I hear it. But apart from that its pretty much all great stuff.
The story also has a notable score from Dudley Simpson, which is once again great, as Simpson, who by this time had been a real veteran score writer for the show virtually since it began (his first music score for the show was back in 1964 in the Hartnell era, Planet of Giants) and Simpson himself makes a cameo in the story as a conductor at the theatre. Simpson's score has plenty of dramatic passages throughout and I really like the use of some of the organ music, especially when Chang is negotiating the bowels of the theatre to reach the sewer to meet with Greel. Production wise, the giant rat aside, its pretty much top notch as the sets are all great, and the costumes, as always in BBC period drama as spot on. And one amusing fact about the making of the show was that for one of the scenes show on the streets, there was one shot where a modern car was in shot. However the production team where unable to contact the owner to have it moved, so they ended up covering it over with hay! You can spot it easily, as you see the shape of the car beneath!
So The Talons of Weng Chiang remains one of the great classics of the original show, and one of Tom Baker's finest stories. It was a shame that Philip Hinchcliffe decided to part company with the show at that point as his tenure on the series proved to be what quite a few fans called the Golden Age of the show. And some might even say that Doctor Who was never the same again.
Anyway that's it for now, until the next post, byeeee!
Rolling the dice
Right this is another post that I've salvaged from my tennis crammed blog, back when I blended all sorts of posts together, so here it is, its a review on Martin Scorsese's crime drama, Casino. So the usual ahead, plot spoilers, ridiculously overlong plot summaries, and the usual sum up of my thoughts on how good a movie it all is. Enjoy!
Casino is based on true life events and starts back in the 1970s where Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a sports handicapper who is associated with the mob, is sent to Las Vegas and asked to run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by the Teamsters (the American labour union). At first Sam refuses but is soon persuaded into doing it by one of the mob's associates Andy Stone (Alan King). Once Sam takes over the casino he uses his expert innovations and experience in book making and gambling to double the casino's profits. The mob who are running the casino in the background, at the same time are doing a skim on the casino's profits, and the bosses send out Sam's friend and Caporegime Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his crew to Las Vegas, in order to protect the mob's interests in the casino. However as things progress Nicky lets himself known in town and around the casinos, and before he knows it, he is banned from the casino or any casino in Las Vegas. Meanwhile this happens Sam starts seeing a female hustler, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) whom he falls in love with, however Ginger doesn't feel that way about Sam. Regardless of that, Sam persuades Ginger into marrying him and promises to set her up for live by giving her a joint account where she will have over 2 million dollars to her name. After they marry however things start to crumble as Ginger still hangs around with her ex-boyfriend and pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods). On finding this out Sam sends Nicky's men to beat up Lester, which horrifies Ginger who then resents Sam for his actions, and she starts to confide in Nicky, although she isn't aware of his involvement in the incident.
While this is all going on, Sam although he is running the casino he hasn't officially filed for a licence, and he has been re-naming his job title in order to avoid attracting attention toward this. But soon after Sam fires one of his employees Don Ward for incompetence, Don's brother Patt Webb (L.Q. Jones) comes to see Sam about it and asks that he hire Don back, but Sam refuses. Webb though however is a county commissioner and he soon finds out through the newspapers that Sam has stated he is the boss of the Tangiers in Las Vegas, he then asks that an investigation take place to see if Sam has filed for a licence or not. This leads to further complications as on the day of Sam's trial hearing for presenting his case to petition for a licence, he is denied in the hearing, which leaves Sam outraged. Sam also soon after deliberately raises as much media attention about his case as possible by going on TV, with a live show from the Tangiers, which has guest stars etc. The mob realise that this is pissing off friends of theirs in business, send Andy Stone to talk to Sam, who tells him he should quit the job, but Sam insists he can't, but rather he wishes that Nicky would take a break and leave for a while. On hearing this, Nicky is furious and sets up a meeting out in the desert with Sam, where he confronts him and tells him "You're warned, don't you ever go over my fucking head again, you motherfucker you!!".
By this time, Nicky has brought alot of heat on himself with the Las Vegas police force who were once co-operative with the casino officials and mob associates, are now so pissed off they want to nail him for anything they can. Nicky is also determined to plant his own flag out in Vegas and to go after everything, the skim, the casino, his old bosses back home including Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano) who is the most powerful boss in the crime family. But Nicky in bringing heat on himself, he allows himself to become sloppy and disorganised, as he and his crew get all hopped up on drink and cocaine. Sam's relationship with Ginger has also deteriorated really badly as well by then, as by this time she has become an alcoholic. Ginger also goes to Nicky for help in order to try and get her money that she and Sam placed in the bank, and at this time they begin having an affair behind Sam's back. Sam however soon finds out, and is horrified as he knows if word of the affair gets back to the mob bosses, they will be all killed, as its bad for business.
As the film nears the end, events spiral even further out of control, as Ginger has a wild row with Sam at a restaurant after she has tied up their daughter at home. When they go home Ginger storms out on Sam, and comes back in the morning, ramming her car up the drive and screaming hysterically at Sam to come out the house to confront her. By then the police arrive and calm down Ginger, who asks to go in and get some of her stuff, but she actually goes in to get the key for safe deposit box at the bank, containing her and Sam's money. Ginger manages to get to the bank and takes some of the money from deposit box, but soon after leaving she is arrested by the FBI. And the film culminates with the FBI coming down on the mob associates, having gathered evidence through wire taps, making arrests on many of the crime associates and other people involved in the skim. The mob also make their own moves on "silencing" any one who has been arrested or may have skipped before being caught, which leads to the downfall of the mob's involvement with the casinos.
Casino is an even more ambitious film than Goodfellas is, however in terms of critical acclaim, Goodfellas has always remained the more lauded of the two, and it appears that Casino will always play second fiddle to Scorsese's first crime drama. But for me I really don't see it that way, and if anything is possibly even a better film, as it covers so much more ground and scope than Goodfellas did. It was always pretty much a well known fact that the mob had ties with the casinos back in those days, but despite being the obvious, as usual Scorsese takes this subject matter and turns it into a gripping and highly entertaining film. Like he did in Goodfellas, Scorsese heavily uses the narrative in the film here, and he constantly has Sam and Nicky narrate the film, and there is even a short passage with Frank Vincent narrating too (who plays one of Nicky's crime associates, Frank Marino). And it never hinders the film, in fact it really plays a crucial part in the film and keeps the story flowing nicely. And one of the neatest touches in the narrative is the scene where Nicky finally meets his demise in the cornfields at the end and as his crew mate Frank Marino hits him with a baseball bat, Nicky's narration cuts off with an "aghhh!". It also helps to have Pesci in the film right up until the end as he carries a fair amount of the film's energy, like he did in Goodfellas, so it was great that he is in it throughout.
Character wise, Casino rarely has any sympathetic characters in it at all, in fact they are all mostly fairly despicable, and Sam himself is such an arrogant obssessive control freak, that its hard to like him. However Sam is not without his redeeming qualities, as he clearly loved Ginger, and he wanted his marriage to work, and you do feel a bit of sympathy for him when he realises how he could never reach her, and how the weight of managing the casino takes it toll on him. Sam also comes across as a good father to his daughter, Sammie, and this is clearly shown in a couple of scenes. Ginger is even less likeable, as she too is massively self-absorbed in her own greed and marries Sam merely as a forced convenience so she can eventually get her hands on his money. And in a way that's probably one of the film's lesser aspects is that Sam and Ginger's relationship is a forced one, and Sam's love is very much unrequieted, unlike in Goodfellas where Henry and Karen Hill both loved each other as a couple, despite their differences. The character that is actually easier to empathise with is the one character you probably shouldn't and this is Nicky, and its probably morely because he is a married man with a family, and he has a son, little Nicky, and we see Nicky's humanity come out in certain scenes in the film, particularly where he makes breakfast for his son every morning, no matter what he was up to. As a bad guy, while he is pretty vicious, and he has his fair share of vicious scenes in Casino, Nicky also displays some shreds of decency, one being where he has one of the rival mob guy's beaten to a pulp, as the guy refuses to talk, Nicky has the man's head stuck in a vise, where he pleads with the man and says "don't make me do this, come on, don't make me be a bad guy". And that's difference between Tommy in Goodfellas and Nicky in Casino, you really don't give a shit about Tommy, as he is a bad seed, with no family, and he cares about no one or nothing.
Performance wise, Casino is pretty much top drawer, with Robert De Niro giving an excellent performance as Sam Rothstein, who was in reality based on Franky "Lefty" Rosenthal, who was a sports better for the mob. De Niro's take on Sam is that he is an arrogant twat, who bosses around everyone in the film, hires and fires staff at the drop of a hat, and while he is quite controlling of Ginger at times, you do realise he does lover her, and that he is driven crazy her. Sharon Stone also gives a really good performance as Ginger, and while she rarely suceeds in portraying Ginger with any sense of empathy or much in the way of likeability, (well you can't really), she does a great job in showing what a car wreck of a person Ginger is. In fact Sharon's best scenes in the film come when she shows Ginger's vulnerability, when confiding to Nicky (whereafter she blows him! ;-), and also her blind rage when confronting Sam near the end of the film, crashing her car out in their drive, she berates him and throws leaves and grass at him, which is great. I also particularly liked that scene because Sharon when she gets out the car, she slams the door and falls on the ground, but I'm not so sure if that was a mistake or not, but either way it works.
But the film's best performance once again is from Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro (based on real life capo Tony "The Ant" Spilotro), and Pesci does a superb job, playing yet another gangster, but with a different slant as I already said above, he isn't just a wild loose canon (well he is) but he also is a family man as well, which helps bring out some shades of humanity in his character. Pesci also has some great dialogue in the film, and he of course delivers some of the best lines, one of my favourites is when he speaks to a gambling loser at a bar who owes him money, and he says to him "You call yourself a man???? Do you know that you are a lying low-life motherfuckin gambling degenerate prick???!". He also bluntly and rather unflatteringly refers to Sam as the "golden jew" which in itself a real insult but he delivers the dialogue so well you just have to love it, as well as calling Arabs "sand niggers". And one of Pesci's best moments is at near the very end (PLOIT SPOILER AGAIN!!!) where he meets his fate and is brutally beaten near to death with baseballs bats and buried alive in a corn field, as he watches his brother being beaten to a pulp he breaks down and sobs, and its almost like he there and then wants to receive forgiveness for his sins. Its also the film's most uncomfortable and unpleasant scene to watch, and while it isn't quite apparently what happened in real life, as in real life, it was said that Tony Spilotro and his brother were in fact executed in a basement, and then buried out in a grave. The violence in the film itself is of course quite strong and bloody, but it is what you would expect from a Scorsese film, which is nothing too new in itself.
The supporting cast all excellent as well, and Don Riccles, a well established American comedian, puts in a fine performance playing the straight man for once, as Billy Sherbert the casino manager. Frank Vincent also does really well as Frank Marino, one of Nicky's main crime partners, and this time around after playing Billy Batts in Goodfellas, who get's brutally murdered by Joe Pesci's character Tommy, Frank gets revenge on Pesci's character Nicky, by being his own nemesis. James Woods is terrific in a small role too, as Lester Diamond, the lowlife pimp who Ginger can't seem to leave behind, and Woods himself delivers one of my favourite lines in the film, as he bitches to Ginger about her daughter Amy who winds him up, "I'm going to send this kid to Bolivia in a fucking box!!". And as usual even Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine Scorsese gets involved in the film, playing the mother of an incompetent mob boss, Artie Piscano (played by Vinny Vella), and the two of them almost have a little comedy duet going on, where she chastises her son for using bad language, and he keeps swearing.
Moving onto the music in Casino, which again plays a integral part of the film, and Scorsese makes great use of old classic tracks from bands such as The Rolling Stones, Devo, Roxy Music, Nilsson, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Crean and Otis Redding. My favourite use of a track in the film comes in the scene where Nicky kills off one of the mob's problems, a real-estate agent Anna Scott, and the track which I don't know the name of, is a cheery organ number, which offsets the murder scene itself. I also like the use of The Animals "House of the Rising Sun", which acts perfectly as a moral foreboding as the events of the film unravel at the end, with all the mob associates being arrested by the FBI, or being bumped off.
Soooooo after that pretty exhaustive analysis on Casino, I still rate it as one of my favourite films from American cinema in recent years, and it definitely deserves its place in the epic crime dramas from the last 30 or 40 years.
And I will it leave it there.
Casino is based on true life events and starts back in the 1970s where Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a sports handicapper who is associated with the mob, is sent to Las Vegas and asked to run the Tangiers casino, which is funded by the Teamsters (the American labour union). At first Sam refuses but is soon persuaded into doing it by one of the mob's associates Andy Stone (Alan King). Once Sam takes over the casino he uses his expert innovations and experience in book making and gambling to double the casino's profits. The mob who are running the casino in the background, at the same time are doing a skim on the casino's profits, and the bosses send out Sam's friend and Caporegime Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his crew to Las Vegas, in order to protect the mob's interests in the casino. However as things progress Nicky lets himself known in town and around the casinos, and before he knows it, he is banned from the casino or any casino in Las Vegas. Meanwhile this happens Sam starts seeing a female hustler, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) whom he falls in love with, however Ginger doesn't feel that way about Sam. Regardless of that, Sam persuades Ginger into marrying him and promises to set her up for live by giving her a joint account where she will have over 2 million dollars to her name. After they marry however things start to crumble as Ginger still hangs around with her ex-boyfriend and pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods). On finding this out Sam sends Nicky's men to beat up Lester, which horrifies Ginger who then resents Sam for his actions, and she starts to confide in Nicky, although she isn't aware of his involvement in the incident.
While this is all going on, Sam although he is running the casino he hasn't officially filed for a licence, and he has been re-naming his job title in order to avoid attracting attention toward this. But soon after Sam fires one of his employees Don Ward for incompetence, Don's brother Patt Webb (L.Q. Jones) comes to see Sam about it and asks that he hire Don back, but Sam refuses. Webb though however is a county commissioner and he soon finds out through the newspapers that Sam has stated he is the boss of the Tangiers in Las Vegas, he then asks that an investigation take place to see if Sam has filed for a licence or not. This leads to further complications as on the day of Sam's trial hearing for presenting his case to petition for a licence, he is denied in the hearing, which leaves Sam outraged. Sam also soon after deliberately raises as much media attention about his case as possible by going on TV, with a live show from the Tangiers, which has guest stars etc. The mob realise that this is pissing off friends of theirs in business, send Andy Stone to talk to Sam, who tells him he should quit the job, but Sam insists he can't, but rather he wishes that Nicky would take a break and leave for a while. On hearing this, Nicky is furious and sets up a meeting out in the desert with Sam, where he confronts him and tells him "You're warned, don't you ever go over my fucking head again, you motherfucker you!!".
By this time, Nicky has brought alot of heat on himself with the Las Vegas police force who were once co-operative with the casino officials and mob associates, are now so pissed off they want to nail him for anything they can. Nicky is also determined to plant his own flag out in Vegas and to go after everything, the skim, the casino, his old bosses back home including Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano) who is the most powerful boss in the crime family. But Nicky in bringing heat on himself, he allows himself to become sloppy and disorganised, as he and his crew get all hopped up on drink and cocaine. Sam's relationship with Ginger has also deteriorated really badly as well by then, as by this time she has become an alcoholic. Ginger also goes to Nicky for help in order to try and get her money that she and Sam placed in the bank, and at this time they begin having an affair behind Sam's back. Sam however soon finds out, and is horrified as he knows if word of the affair gets back to the mob bosses, they will be all killed, as its bad for business.
As the film nears the end, events spiral even further out of control, as Ginger has a wild row with Sam at a restaurant after she has tied up their daughter at home. When they go home Ginger storms out on Sam, and comes back in the morning, ramming her car up the drive and screaming hysterically at Sam to come out the house to confront her. By then the police arrive and calm down Ginger, who asks to go in and get some of her stuff, but she actually goes in to get the key for safe deposit box at the bank, containing her and Sam's money. Ginger manages to get to the bank and takes some of the money from deposit box, but soon after leaving she is arrested by the FBI. And the film culminates with the FBI coming down on the mob associates, having gathered evidence through wire taps, making arrests on many of the crime associates and other people involved in the skim. The mob also make their own moves on "silencing" any one who has been arrested or may have skipped before being caught, which leads to the downfall of the mob's involvement with the casinos.
Casino is an even more ambitious film than Goodfellas is, however in terms of critical acclaim, Goodfellas has always remained the more lauded of the two, and it appears that Casino will always play second fiddle to Scorsese's first crime drama. But for me I really don't see it that way, and if anything is possibly even a better film, as it covers so much more ground and scope than Goodfellas did. It was always pretty much a well known fact that the mob had ties with the casinos back in those days, but despite being the obvious, as usual Scorsese takes this subject matter and turns it into a gripping and highly entertaining film. Like he did in Goodfellas, Scorsese heavily uses the narrative in the film here, and he constantly has Sam and Nicky narrate the film, and there is even a short passage with Frank Vincent narrating too (who plays one of Nicky's crime associates, Frank Marino). And it never hinders the film, in fact it really plays a crucial part in the film and keeps the story flowing nicely. And one of the neatest touches in the narrative is the scene where Nicky finally meets his demise in the cornfields at the end and as his crew mate Frank Marino hits him with a baseball bat, Nicky's narration cuts off with an "aghhh!". It also helps to have Pesci in the film right up until the end as he carries a fair amount of the film's energy, like he did in Goodfellas, so it was great that he is in it throughout.
Character wise, Casino rarely has any sympathetic characters in it at all, in fact they are all mostly fairly despicable, and Sam himself is such an arrogant obssessive control freak, that its hard to like him. However Sam is not without his redeeming qualities, as he clearly loved Ginger, and he wanted his marriage to work, and you do feel a bit of sympathy for him when he realises how he could never reach her, and how the weight of managing the casino takes it toll on him. Sam also comes across as a good father to his daughter, Sammie, and this is clearly shown in a couple of scenes. Ginger is even less likeable, as she too is massively self-absorbed in her own greed and marries Sam merely as a forced convenience so she can eventually get her hands on his money. And in a way that's probably one of the film's lesser aspects is that Sam and Ginger's relationship is a forced one, and Sam's love is very much unrequieted, unlike in Goodfellas where Henry and Karen Hill both loved each other as a couple, despite their differences. The character that is actually easier to empathise with is the one character you probably shouldn't and this is Nicky, and its probably morely because he is a married man with a family, and he has a son, little Nicky, and we see Nicky's humanity come out in certain scenes in the film, particularly where he makes breakfast for his son every morning, no matter what he was up to. As a bad guy, while he is pretty vicious, and he has his fair share of vicious scenes in Casino, Nicky also displays some shreds of decency, one being where he has one of the rival mob guy's beaten to a pulp, as the guy refuses to talk, Nicky has the man's head stuck in a vise, where he pleads with the man and says "don't make me do this, come on, don't make me be a bad guy". And that's difference between Tommy in Goodfellas and Nicky in Casino, you really don't give a shit about Tommy, as he is a bad seed, with no family, and he cares about no one or nothing.
Performance wise, Casino is pretty much top drawer, with Robert De Niro giving an excellent performance as Sam Rothstein, who was in reality based on Franky "Lefty" Rosenthal, who was a sports better for the mob. De Niro's take on Sam is that he is an arrogant twat, who bosses around everyone in the film, hires and fires staff at the drop of a hat, and while he is quite controlling of Ginger at times, you do realise he does lover her, and that he is driven crazy her. Sharon Stone also gives a really good performance as Ginger, and while she rarely suceeds in portraying Ginger with any sense of empathy or much in the way of likeability, (well you can't really), she does a great job in showing what a car wreck of a person Ginger is. In fact Sharon's best scenes in the film come when she shows Ginger's vulnerability, when confiding to Nicky (whereafter she blows him! ;-), and also her blind rage when confronting Sam near the end of the film, crashing her car out in their drive, she berates him and throws leaves and grass at him, which is great. I also particularly liked that scene because Sharon when she gets out the car, she slams the door and falls on the ground, but I'm not so sure if that was a mistake or not, but either way it works.
But the film's best performance once again is from Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro (based on real life capo Tony "The Ant" Spilotro), and Pesci does a superb job, playing yet another gangster, but with a different slant as I already said above, he isn't just a wild loose canon (well he is) but he also is a family man as well, which helps bring out some shades of humanity in his character. Pesci also has some great dialogue in the film, and he of course delivers some of the best lines, one of my favourites is when he speaks to a gambling loser at a bar who owes him money, and he says to him "You call yourself a man???? Do you know that you are a lying low-life motherfuckin gambling degenerate prick???!". He also bluntly and rather unflatteringly refers to Sam as the "golden jew" which in itself a real insult but he delivers the dialogue so well you just have to love it, as well as calling Arabs "sand niggers". And one of Pesci's best moments is at near the very end (PLOIT SPOILER AGAIN!!!) where he meets his fate and is brutally beaten near to death with baseballs bats and buried alive in a corn field, as he watches his brother being beaten to a pulp he breaks down and sobs, and its almost like he there and then wants to receive forgiveness for his sins. Its also the film's most uncomfortable and unpleasant scene to watch, and while it isn't quite apparently what happened in real life, as in real life, it was said that Tony Spilotro and his brother were in fact executed in a basement, and then buried out in a grave. The violence in the film itself is of course quite strong and bloody, but it is what you would expect from a Scorsese film, which is nothing too new in itself.
The supporting cast all excellent as well, and Don Riccles, a well established American comedian, puts in a fine performance playing the straight man for once, as Billy Sherbert the casino manager. Frank Vincent also does really well as Frank Marino, one of Nicky's main crime partners, and this time around after playing Billy Batts in Goodfellas, who get's brutally murdered by Joe Pesci's character Tommy, Frank gets revenge on Pesci's character Nicky, by being his own nemesis. James Woods is terrific in a small role too, as Lester Diamond, the lowlife pimp who Ginger can't seem to leave behind, and Woods himself delivers one of my favourite lines in the film, as he bitches to Ginger about her daughter Amy who winds him up, "I'm going to send this kid to Bolivia in a fucking box!!". And as usual even Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine Scorsese gets involved in the film, playing the mother of an incompetent mob boss, Artie Piscano (played by Vinny Vella), and the two of them almost have a little comedy duet going on, where she chastises her son for using bad language, and he keeps swearing.
Moving onto the music in Casino, which again plays a integral part of the film, and Scorsese makes great use of old classic tracks from bands such as The Rolling Stones, Devo, Roxy Music, Nilsson, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Crean and Otis Redding. My favourite use of a track in the film comes in the scene where Nicky kills off one of the mob's problems, a real-estate agent Anna Scott, and the track which I don't know the name of, is a cheery organ number, which offsets the murder scene itself. I also like the use of The Animals "House of the Rising Sun", which acts perfectly as a moral foreboding as the events of the film unravel at the end, with all the mob associates being arrested by the FBI, or being bumped off.
Soooooo after that pretty exhaustive analysis on Casino, I still rate it as one of my favourite films from American cinema in recent years, and it definitely deserves its place in the epic crime dramas from the last 30 or 40 years.
And I will it leave it there.
Monday, 17 September 2012
Welcome to Shawshank
Right review time, another movie, this time its the public favourite from the 1990s, The Shawshank Redemption, based on the Stephen King novel and directed by Frank Daranbont. On its release Shawshank wasn't initially that much of a commercial success, it received good reviews and over time its become one of the most popular films within the public eye. So let's have a look at it.
The film begins in 1947 with Andy DuFresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is convincted of murdering his wife, who had an affair with a man, and is sent to Shawshank prison for two consecutive life sentences. In prison Andy finds it tough to adapt, however he soon befriends one of the inamtes, Ellis Boyd Redding, nicknamed "Red" (Morgan Freeman) who is the man "who can get things" from the outside for other prisoners. However Andy is forced to fight against the brutal inmates called "The Sisters", lead by Bogs (Mark Rolston), who try to gang-rape or beat him up any chance they get. This harrowing routines carries on for Andy for the next two years, however in the spring of 1949, the prison warden, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) orders the roof of the prison to be re-tarred, which allows a number of the prisoners to volunteer for the job, including Andy and Red. Whilst during the job, Andy listens in on a conversation between the head of the guards, the brutal Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) who talks about some money he has been left by his dead brother, but is annoyed at the government taxing it. Andy at the risk of his life offers Byron a way to get around this financial woe, who initially is reluctant to accept his service, but relents (and let's Andy live after nearly throwing him off the roof!). Soon after this Andy is attacked again by the Sisters, who very nearly beat him to death, as a result Bogs is sent to the hole for a week, and once he get's out, Byron is awaiting him in his cell, and beats the crap out of Bogs, leaving him disabled for the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Once Andy gets out of the infirmary he is soon approached by Norton, who assigns him to the prison library to help out one of the prison old timers, Hatlen Brooks (James Whitmore) who does his rounds delivering books to the inmates. Andy is also approached by one of the guards who asks him to set up a trust fund for his kids, and soon after this Andy starts to do the tax returns for all the guards at the prison as well as Norton's. In the meantime Brooks receives his parole to get out of prison, however on the outside he struggles to adjust to life in the world, after 50 years in prison, he hangs himself, however before he does he writes a letter he sends back to his prison mates, on reading the letter, Red sadly says "he should have died in here". After this Andy writes letter to the Government request funds to improve the decrepit library, who send him old books and sundry items, including records, one of which Andy finds is the Marriage of Figaro, which he puts on in Norton's office over the public speaker system, which pisses off Norton, who puts Andy in solitary confinement for two weeks.
After Andy is released he is soon involved in processing the profits of Norton's scams in using the prisoners in manual labour work, in which he makes a whole lot of money, and he has Andy launder the money, which he does under the alias of "Randall Stevens", so the IRS don't trace it back to him. As the years move on, in 1965, a young man, Tommy (Gil Bellows) is sent to Shawshank prison after a B & E charge (breaking and entering) and soon befriends the others. Tommy also seeks Andy's help in getting his high school qualifications, as he dropped out of school, who helps him in doing so. However after taking his exam, Tommy feels frustrated and scrunches up his exam paper and throws it in the bin, regardless, Andy retrieves it from the bin and posts it (we later find out that Tommy passed his exams). Tommy more importantly on hearing how Andy ended up in jail, is compelled to tell them that he knew a man in a previous stretch he did in another prison, who boasted that he broke into a home and killed a golf pro and a woman while they were having sex (this reflects Andy's circumstances as his wife was having an affair with a golf pro). On hearing this Andy goes to Norton and tells him the story, who refuses to accept the story, who obviously doesn't want him to leave the prison since he is making money off Andy, and instead sends him to the hole for a month. While Andy is in solitary confinement, Norton speaks to Tommy outside the prison compound and asks him if he is willing to testify his story in court, to which Tommy agrees. Norton then looks up and walks away as we see Bryon from above shoot Tommy dead with a rifle. With Andy still in confinement, Norton tells him of Tommy's death (playing it down as if Tommy tried to escape), and he insists that he will carry on helping him with his scams or he will do the hardest time there is, and he gives Andy another month in the hole "to think about it".
Once again get's out of confinement, he speaks to Red and says that he wishes for the dream of reaching a Mexican town on the pacific coast, Ziuhatanejo, and if Red ever get's out he is to try and locate a hayfield up in Buxton where they will be something for him. Red, clearly worried by how Andy is talking, has a sleepless night in his cell, and in the morning, the guards are stunned to find that Andy is missing from his cell. Norton angrily questions Red to see if he knows anything, which Red says he has no idea where Andy is. Norton then throws a small rock (from Andy's rock collection on the window sill) through the big picture of Racquel Welch on Andy's wall (as he over the years got Red to get him posters of different Hollywood starlets), which Norton rips off to find a big hole in the wall. Andy obviously having escaped from prison also sets things in motion to get his revenge on the warden, and sends evidence of his money laundering to one of the banks who sends it to the newspapers. Once Norton's scams are made public in the press (as well as Tommy's murder), on about to being arrested by the police, he shoots himself before they can take him. Red soon also receives his parole not longer after, and on getting out he goes to find that hayfield in Buxton, where something is waiting for him from Andy. (Wow that was a long one!).
There is no doubt that the Shawshank Redemption is very entertaining film, and its undoubtedly quite an uplifting one as well, as it offers so much hope in the face of such dispair in the hopelessness of prison life. Andy almost at times manages to transcend everyone else around him, and despite all the horrible beatings and treatment he receives in his time at Shawshank, nothing breaks his spirit, as he remains singularly determined to try and escape and live in hope. The characters in Shawshank prison are almost universally well drawn out and the inmates for the most part are almost quite endearing, especially as Red, and his other friends welcome Andy. But it is of course Andy and Red's friendship that is very much at the heart of the film, as the two men become close friends on the inside, and at the end andy gives Red hope in the prospect of a life outside prison.
Performance wise there is little to fault here, as Tim Robbins is terrific as Andy, as he plays him with a quiet sense of self assuredness, as well as a sense of determination to get through his sentence, and as Red at one point says to "crawl to freedom through a river of shit to reach the other side". Morgan Freeman is also simply superb as Red, who despite his crime, once as a young man, who committed murder, now lives in regret, and he is basically a decent man who once did a bad thing. Morgan also provides the voice over narration and he does it very well, and in doing so he delivers some of the film's best lines. The dialogue is also amusingly blunt at times, and Red's voice over when Byron gives the prisoners beers for their hard work is great as he says "the colossal prick even managed to sound magmanimous!". I also like the line where he refers to Tommy, when Andy helps him get his high school equivalency qualification saying "Andy got a thrill out of helping a youngster crawl off the shit heap".
The supporting cast is also excellent, with William Sadler, who plays Heywood, one of Red's prison buddies, who is at first a bit menacing especially as he delights in winding up new inmates into breaking down in tears, just for the sake of a bet, but as the film goes on he becomes a more endearing guy. Bob Gunton is also great as the corrupt warden, Norton, who makes money through laundering scams, and basically wants to keep Andy where he is, so he can get rich. And Clancy Brown also makes a notable performance as the brutal head of the guards, Byron Hadley, and he also get's some great lines, one of my favs is where he confronts one of the new prisoners who breaks down crying and he says "What's your malfunction you fat barrel of monkey spunk???!". James Whitmore also puts in a nice performance as the old timer Brooks, who spends most of his life in jail, and even has a bird, just like in The Birdman of Alcatraz. And finally Mark Rolston, who plays the part of Bogs, the vicious ring leader of the "Sisters", does very well with his performance as the loathsome and brutal rapist who lusts after Andy's ass (literally!). In fact Frank Darabont said he was really keen to cast Rolston in the part, as he loved him as Drake in Aliens!
Direction wise, Frank Darabont does a great job with Stephen King's novel, and the dialogue is really colourful (as I've already highlighted) and beautifully well written. The film also has stunning photography from the master cinemaphotographer, Roger Deakins (who filmed most of the Coehn brothers movies) and a terrific score from Thomas Newman, which is very poignant and elegant throughout.
And if you watch Shawshank Redemption its worth watching the 10th anniversary DVD edition, which also features a very enjoyable commentary from Frank Darabont, who's enthusiasm for the film is more than evident. And there is a funny moment in it where he says for the scene where the wartden shoots himself, that the bullet wound was positioned slightly off centre under Bob's at the time the film make-up was done, but in the 10th anniversary edition, they digitaly fixed the bullet wound to have it dead centre under Bob Gunton's chin. And Frank says he was glad to fix it as it was "bugging him for 10 YEARS!!".
The film itself doesn't have too many flaws although if it does have any, I would say the one sequence I'm not so keen is where Brooks tries to adjust to life outside prison, as I found it a bit heavy and depressing in a way, even though it is important in highlighting the dispair these men must feel after being so dependant on the inside. You could also argue the prisoners in the film are at times look like they are at a day camp, especially after such a stark opening sequence where Andy and the other new inmates are stripped naked and hosed down, soon after this it settles down into a pretty routine and almost leisurely life, as they laugh and joke around. Perhaps also the film is a little sentimental in its closure with Morgan riding the bus to the pacific coast off Mexico, and he says "I hope the pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams". Its trying to be a bit too precious at times. Although one of the film's most moving moments comes where Red sadly works in the prison grounds and looks up, after Andy has escaped, he realises "that some birds were not meant to be caged" and he narrates "I guess I just miss my friend".
But all that aside, the Shawshank Redemption justly remains a favourite in the public eye and to this day its still an uplifting movie that is bound to have a few people with a little something in their eye by the time its all over.
So with that I will leave it there.
The film begins in 1947 with Andy DuFresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is convincted of murdering his wife, who had an affair with a man, and is sent to Shawshank prison for two consecutive life sentences. In prison Andy finds it tough to adapt, however he soon befriends one of the inamtes, Ellis Boyd Redding, nicknamed "Red" (Morgan Freeman) who is the man "who can get things" from the outside for other prisoners. However Andy is forced to fight against the brutal inmates called "The Sisters", lead by Bogs (Mark Rolston), who try to gang-rape or beat him up any chance they get. This harrowing routines carries on for Andy for the next two years, however in the spring of 1949, the prison warden, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) orders the roof of the prison to be re-tarred, which allows a number of the prisoners to volunteer for the job, including Andy and Red. Whilst during the job, Andy listens in on a conversation between the head of the guards, the brutal Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) who talks about some money he has been left by his dead brother, but is annoyed at the government taxing it. Andy at the risk of his life offers Byron a way to get around this financial woe, who initially is reluctant to accept his service, but relents (and let's Andy live after nearly throwing him off the roof!). Soon after this Andy is attacked again by the Sisters, who very nearly beat him to death, as a result Bogs is sent to the hole for a week, and once he get's out, Byron is awaiting him in his cell, and beats the crap out of Bogs, leaving him disabled for the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Once Andy gets out of the infirmary he is soon approached by Norton, who assigns him to the prison library to help out one of the prison old timers, Hatlen Brooks (James Whitmore) who does his rounds delivering books to the inmates. Andy is also approached by one of the guards who asks him to set up a trust fund for his kids, and soon after this Andy starts to do the tax returns for all the guards at the prison as well as Norton's. In the meantime Brooks receives his parole to get out of prison, however on the outside he struggles to adjust to life in the world, after 50 years in prison, he hangs himself, however before he does he writes a letter he sends back to his prison mates, on reading the letter, Red sadly says "he should have died in here". After this Andy writes letter to the Government request funds to improve the decrepit library, who send him old books and sundry items, including records, one of which Andy finds is the Marriage of Figaro, which he puts on in Norton's office over the public speaker system, which pisses off Norton, who puts Andy in solitary confinement for two weeks.
After Andy is released he is soon involved in processing the profits of Norton's scams in using the prisoners in manual labour work, in which he makes a whole lot of money, and he has Andy launder the money, which he does under the alias of "Randall Stevens", so the IRS don't trace it back to him. As the years move on, in 1965, a young man, Tommy (Gil Bellows) is sent to Shawshank prison after a B & E charge (breaking and entering) and soon befriends the others. Tommy also seeks Andy's help in getting his high school qualifications, as he dropped out of school, who helps him in doing so. However after taking his exam, Tommy feels frustrated and scrunches up his exam paper and throws it in the bin, regardless, Andy retrieves it from the bin and posts it (we later find out that Tommy passed his exams). Tommy more importantly on hearing how Andy ended up in jail, is compelled to tell them that he knew a man in a previous stretch he did in another prison, who boasted that he broke into a home and killed a golf pro and a woman while they were having sex (this reflects Andy's circumstances as his wife was having an affair with a golf pro). On hearing this Andy goes to Norton and tells him the story, who refuses to accept the story, who obviously doesn't want him to leave the prison since he is making money off Andy, and instead sends him to the hole for a month. While Andy is in solitary confinement, Norton speaks to Tommy outside the prison compound and asks him if he is willing to testify his story in court, to which Tommy agrees. Norton then looks up and walks away as we see Bryon from above shoot Tommy dead with a rifle. With Andy still in confinement, Norton tells him of Tommy's death (playing it down as if Tommy tried to escape), and he insists that he will carry on helping him with his scams or he will do the hardest time there is, and he gives Andy another month in the hole "to think about it".
Once again get's out of confinement, he speaks to Red and says that he wishes for the dream of reaching a Mexican town on the pacific coast, Ziuhatanejo, and if Red ever get's out he is to try and locate a hayfield up in Buxton where they will be something for him. Red, clearly worried by how Andy is talking, has a sleepless night in his cell, and in the morning, the guards are stunned to find that Andy is missing from his cell. Norton angrily questions Red to see if he knows anything, which Red says he has no idea where Andy is. Norton then throws a small rock (from Andy's rock collection on the window sill) through the big picture of Racquel Welch on Andy's wall (as he over the years got Red to get him posters of different Hollywood starlets), which Norton rips off to find a big hole in the wall. Andy obviously having escaped from prison also sets things in motion to get his revenge on the warden, and sends evidence of his money laundering to one of the banks who sends it to the newspapers. Once Norton's scams are made public in the press (as well as Tommy's murder), on about to being arrested by the police, he shoots himself before they can take him. Red soon also receives his parole not longer after, and on getting out he goes to find that hayfield in Buxton, where something is waiting for him from Andy. (Wow that was a long one!).
There is no doubt that the Shawshank Redemption is very entertaining film, and its undoubtedly quite an uplifting one as well, as it offers so much hope in the face of such dispair in the hopelessness of prison life. Andy almost at times manages to transcend everyone else around him, and despite all the horrible beatings and treatment he receives in his time at Shawshank, nothing breaks his spirit, as he remains singularly determined to try and escape and live in hope. The characters in Shawshank prison are almost universally well drawn out and the inmates for the most part are almost quite endearing, especially as Red, and his other friends welcome Andy. But it is of course Andy and Red's friendship that is very much at the heart of the film, as the two men become close friends on the inside, and at the end andy gives Red hope in the prospect of a life outside prison.
Performance wise there is little to fault here, as Tim Robbins is terrific as Andy, as he plays him with a quiet sense of self assuredness, as well as a sense of determination to get through his sentence, and as Red at one point says to "crawl to freedom through a river of shit to reach the other side". Morgan Freeman is also simply superb as Red, who despite his crime, once as a young man, who committed murder, now lives in regret, and he is basically a decent man who once did a bad thing. Morgan also provides the voice over narration and he does it very well, and in doing so he delivers some of the film's best lines. The dialogue is also amusingly blunt at times, and Red's voice over when Byron gives the prisoners beers for their hard work is great as he says "the colossal prick even managed to sound magmanimous!". I also like the line where he refers to Tommy, when Andy helps him get his high school equivalency qualification saying "Andy got a thrill out of helping a youngster crawl off the shit heap".
The supporting cast is also excellent, with William Sadler, who plays Heywood, one of Red's prison buddies, who is at first a bit menacing especially as he delights in winding up new inmates into breaking down in tears, just for the sake of a bet, but as the film goes on he becomes a more endearing guy. Bob Gunton is also great as the corrupt warden, Norton, who makes money through laundering scams, and basically wants to keep Andy where he is, so he can get rich. And Clancy Brown also makes a notable performance as the brutal head of the guards, Byron Hadley, and he also get's some great lines, one of my favs is where he confronts one of the new prisoners who breaks down crying and he says "What's your malfunction you fat barrel of monkey spunk???!". James Whitmore also puts in a nice performance as the old timer Brooks, who spends most of his life in jail, and even has a bird, just like in The Birdman of Alcatraz. And finally Mark Rolston, who plays the part of Bogs, the vicious ring leader of the "Sisters", does very well with his performance as the loathsome and brutal rapist who lusts after Andy's ass (literally!). In fact Frank Darabont said he was really keen to cast Rolston in the part, as he loved him as Drake in Aliens!
Direction wise, Frank Darabont does a great job with Stephen King's novel, and the dialogue is really colourful (as I've already highlighted) and beautifully well written. The film also has stunning photography from the master cinemaphotographer, Roger Deakins (who filmed most of the Coehn brothers movies) and a terrific score from Thomas Newman, which is very poignant and elegant throughout.
And if you watch Shawshank Redemption its worth watching the 10th anniversary DVD edition, which also features a very enjoyable commentary from Frank Darabont, who's enthusiasm for the film is more than evident. And there is a funny moment in it where he says for the scene where the wartden shoots himself, that the bullet wound was positioned slightly off centre under Bob's at the time the film make-up was done, but in the 10th anniversary edition, they digitaly fixed the bullet wound to have it dead centre under Bob Gunton's chin. And Frank says he was glad to fix it as it was "bugging him for 10 YEARS!!".
The film itself doesn't have too many flaws although if it does have any, I would say the one sequence I'm not so keen is where Brooks tries to adjust to life outside prison, as I found it a bit heavy and depressing in a way, even though it is important in highlighting the dispair these men must feel after being so dependant on the inside. You could also argue the prisoners in the film are at times look like they are at a day camp, especially after such a stark opening sequence where Andy and the other new inmates are stripped naked and hosed down, soon after this it settles down into a pretty routine and almost leisurely life, as they laugh and joke around. Perhaps also the film is a little sentimental in its closure with Morgan riding the bus to the pacific coast off Mexico, and he says "I hope the pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams". Its trying to be a bit too precious at times. Although one of the film's most moving moments comes where Red sadly works in the prison grounds and looks up, after Andy has escaped, he realises "that some birds were not meant to be caged" and he narrates "I guess I just miss my friend".
But all that aside, the Shawshank Redemption justly remains a favourite in the public eye and to this day its still an uplifting movie that is bound to have a few people with a little something in their eye by the time its all over.
So with that I will leave it there.
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