After the Fact: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
When we watch a movie we, hopefully, see a complete story about a character. In a good film by the end we know all we need to know about that character. But what about the other characters? What happens to them?
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THRID KIND: At the end of the film Roy Neary is chosen by the aliens to ride along in their spaceship. Most people would feel it’s something of a happy ending. A man overcomes great personal obstacles to follow his calling, his reward a celestial journey to see things no one from this planet has ever seen. But what about his family?
At the onset of the story Roy is married to Ronnie and they have three kids Brad, Toby, and Sylvia. During the film as Roy becomes more obsessed with Devil’s Tower it causes a lot of dysfunction in the family. With no way to justify his behavior Ronnie takes the kids and leaves Roy. We see the tension take its toll not only on Ronnie but, also the kids. Roy goes off for his date with fate and is never seen from again.
It’s doubtful that the government would reveal what really happened that night. Even if someone was able to dig up records of the event would there be any mention of Neary? There was a crew of men and women who prepped to go into space, but Neary was chosen even though he was not part of the program. The only way to prove what happened to Roy would be from eyewitness accounts. Assuming no one involved in the operation said anything there are only two people who could shed some light on the subject.
During his journey to Devil’s Tower, Roy is detained by the military. After an interview he is placed on a helicopter with a group of people who were compelled to travel from all over the country to be there. Before the helicopter takes off Roy makes a run for it, joined by two others: Larry and Jillian. As they make their way around the mountain the Army starts dusting with a sleeping agent. Larry succumbs and doesn’t make it to see the big show. If interviewed he’d only know part of the story. Jillian is the key but would she talk?
Jillian makes it with Roy to the landing area for the spaceships arrival. But where his journey is just beginning, hers ends as her missing son emerges from the starship. All she ever really wanted was to get her boy back, once that happens she fades to the background to watch what happens. One important fact: she has a camera and she is not shy about using it. Would the Army find it and confiscate it? If she published the pictures would anyone believe her?
If the Neary family did some research and was able to track Roy’s adventure to Wyoming it would be Jillian who would be able to tell them what happened. I think she would, her and Roy clearly shared a bond and I think she would want them to know what happened.
Most likely Roy would be declared missing and then presumed dead. The Neary family’s last memories of Roy would that he was going insane. Obsessed with flying saucers and building and replicas of a national monument. Until one day, for seemingly no reason, he disappeared. As hopeful and uplifting as Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is, it’s also a dark tale of how one man lost his family, job, and possibly his insanity to pursue an obsession.
Movie Review: Teachers
Growing up in the early eighties movie choices were somewhat limited. VHS was just catching on and new releases were sometimes difficult to come by. But we could always count on HBO to entertain us.
The only problem is they ran the same movies over and over. Most movie geeks who grew up in that time probably remember movies like Midnight Madness being played on a seemingly continuous loop. One of these films, Teachers, was a favorite of mine. But would it hold up after all these years?
Alex Jurel (Nick Nolte) is a popular Social Studies teacher at J.F.K. High School. He seems to be so popular because he treats the students as people instead of kids. After many years as a teacher he seems to have been worn down. We get hints that in his early years he was pretty idealistic, now he seems to be coasting through life.
The central conflict of the movie is what will Alex say at an upcoming deposition? A former student is suing the school on the grounds that he was given passing grades he did not deserve. The lead attorney for the plaintiff is Lisa Hammond (Jo Beth Williams). After a coordinated lack of cooperation on behalf of the school district, Hammond decides to hold depositions at the school. Of course she has other motives, not only did she graduate from the school, but she has also had a lifelong crush on Jurel. So the question becomes will the formerly idealistic teacher do the right thing and testify against the school or will he tote the company line?
It seems like that alone would be enough for one movie, not the case here. Other sub-plots are added. Some are meant to be funny, like the story of the mental patient (Richard Mulligan) who impersonates a substitute teacher. Others are meant to showcase what issues big city schools face; violence, teen pregnancy, and general apathy. Very ambitious but in the end there is more drama at this school than in a soap opera.
One might mistake it for a soap opera. While there is a talented cast (Nolte, Williams, Mulligan, Judd Hirsch, Laura Dern, Ralphh Macchio, Crispin Glover, etc) does their best to deliver the overexaggeratedd dialog with a straight face but much of the dialog comes off as cheesy. Throw in several dramatic moments punctuated with “inspirational” 80’s rock and you have a recipe for melodrama.
Despite the heightened dramatics there is still a lot to like in Teachers. Jurel’s do the right thing or take the easy path of compliance works very well. The characters themselves are mostly likable and sympathetic. Many issues addressed in the film still feel relevant today. While the movie itself may not be AS good as I’d remembered it to be, it’s still an enjoyable watch.
*** out of *****
Movie Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats
“All things considered
He’s not bitter
He’s not mean (and he’s not done)
All things considered, what he’s telling us
Isn’t hurting anyone”
“All Things Considered” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) has reached a point where life as a newspaperman has become not so rewarding. After his wife leaves him and a co-worker dies at work Bob feels the call to do something with his life. But what? After a strange interview he decides to head to Iraq to cover the start of the war.
Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) was lost too, except it was back in the eighties when he joined the U.S. Army looking for direction. Fortunatley for him Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) already found his own path in the Army, the path of the Jedi. Django set out to create “The New Earth Army”. A group of soldiers that would use all sorts of psychic abilities to become a group of warrior/monks.
If you’ve seen the trailers for The Men Who Stare At Goats you know the rest. Wilton decides to write a story about the Jedi after meeting Cassady. The two go on an adventure together filled with danger and many laughs. The movie is goofy and funny and profound in a couple of unexpected ways.
The story is something of an homage to the original Star Wars films, not only sharing a few themes but also commenting on the a what eventually happened to the franchise. One of the soldiers in the program is an opportunistic jerk named Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey). Where Django is more about growth and spiritual balance, Hooper is much more manipulative. He likes to agitate and use these abilities for personal power. Eventually he forms his own business and becomes a contractor for the military in it’s war on terror. Thus taking something that filled people with joy and exploiting it for cash. Mirroring how many people felt about the Star Wars prequels.
But the central issue is by far the more interesting one. The Men Who Stare At Goats is filled with people searching for a greater meaning. Cassady even reflects that he never felt like he fit in anywhere until he was training to be a Jedi. The movie shows many instances where these people are attempting to use their abilities. But the fun thing is we’re generally not sure if they are crackpots or the real deal.
The beautiful part is it doesn’t matter. It’s not important if they can really walk through walls or stop a goat’s heart with through willpower. These are simply people searching for meaning and finding it. What could be more meaningful than that?
**** out of *****
Popcorn Panel Update
My P.P. review of INVENTION OF LYING is currently up at the Joliet Herald News website. Each week after a new set of reviews are added the oldest one falls off, so surf on over and check it out!
Popcorn Panel: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/entertainment/movies/index.html
Also, Josh Larsen is the driving force behind the Popcorn Panel, he allows us armchair critics to see our name in print thus making us instant celebrities amongst our family and friends. Josh is a good guy and a talented writer. Head over to his site, www.larsenonfilm.com and read some reviews!
Now, the Popcorn Panel reviews that are no longer on the Herald News site.
Inglorious Basterds
Every scene in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS has an undercurrent of danger flowing underneath it. A prime example occurs about halfway through in a scene set in basement tavern in Nazi occupied France. A group of saboteurs are to meet a contact in the bar. The group is shocked to find their informant playing drinking games with a table of SS soldiers. Every time the group seems to get comfortable, Director Quentin Tarantino expertly reveals a previously unseen layer of danger to the mix. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is suspenseful, shocking, bloody, and fun. Get out and see this one right away.
Funny People
Funny People is what the title says, a group of people simply being funny. But when the laughs stop, the film derails. The funniest moments come when the movie is smartly riffing on the stupid comedies that are predominant in film and television. These scenes are especially funny since Adam Sandler is basically having fun at his own expense. Since the film is so smart it is confusing that the third act would descend into the same type of material it is making fun of. It is the film’s unevenness that makes it a funny, but ultimately disappointing mess.
Public Enemies
Every bio-pic takes liberties with it’s source material, the goal is to entertain, not teach. But if PUBLIC ENEMIES does teach anything at all, it’s that John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) only spoke in sentences written for movie trailers.The film follows the famed bank robber and the ‘G-Man’ (Christian Bale) assigned to catch him. Filled with dialog and scenes that are laughably bad or implausible, what could have been a fascinating thriller quickly becomes tiresome as the movie is unable to create any tension or excitement. For a better example of the genre, stay home and watch THE UNTOUCHABLES instead.
Whiteout
A friend of mine has a theory: more can be learned about how movies work by watching a bad film rather than a good one. This makes Whiteout not simply a bad film, but an educational one. Based on the comic, it’s interesting to see how differently the same story can be told. The comic is a smart and character driven mystery that never questions the reader’s intelligence. The movie is boring, cliched, and never trusts the audience to understand what is happening. Take the money you would have spent on this dud and seek out the graphic novel instead.
Make sure to check out the P.P. in the coming weeks for reviews of Where The Wild Things Are and Amelia.
The Xbox Ordeal Part Two: The Long Dark Hold Time of The Soul
If you have not read Part One of this you can do so here.
Durning my travels the next day I stopped at a Target and bought a can of compressed air and a CD/DVD/Video Game laser lens cleaner. Maybe I could fix this thing myself. After returning home I powered up the xbox and opened the disc tray. Sprayed air in, put a disc in and crossed my fingers. No luck. Okay, that’s what the lens cleaner is for. Per the directions I squirted cleaning solution on the little white parts on the disc. Popped it in to work it’s magic. This particular cleaning disc is also a CD. It plays music while it’s cleaning, during the process it was reading the disc. It read the disc! I was happy, this is going to work! (Insert the “You Lose” music from The Price Is Right here) Time to call xbox customer support (gulp).
When you call the Customer Support Center of course you get a computer operator. You have to wait for a prompt you can respond to. So I listen to the whole thing, make my selection and it hangs up on me. WTF? At first I’m pissed but then I remembered it’s Microsoft and the system is probably windows based. I call back, go through it all again and finally get a live operator. After explaining that my unit had the Red Ring Of Death I sent it in, waited about three weeks and got a refurbished unit back and it will not read discs, I wanted a new unit. The won’t do it, it’s not policy. After some anger on my behalf I’m transferred to a “resolution specialist”. Repeating the story and my request for a new xbox I’m told it won’t happen. What they will do is give me expedited shipping on the shipping box which I’ll get in 24-48 hours. At this point I’ve been on the phone for an hour, I reluctantly agree to this. They take the info, enter the service request and give me a reference number.
Before hanging up,I told him to write the following in the notes for my account, “I’ve been playing video games for over 20 years, not once have I ever had a problem with a console, let alone have to call a manufacturer. But after the way Xbox has sold bad units and not repaired them properly for so many years when the time comes to buy the next generation of systems you can be sure I won’t buy the xbox one. Also, Xbox is taking all the joy OUT of video gaming”.
This was a Friday night when I called them, I knew it wouldn’t get the box Saturday night or at any point on Sunday. Monday was possible but doubtful, Tuesday was the day I expected it to be delivered. Tuesday came and went, no box. Wednesday, no box. I meant to call then but I’m in school had homework and studying to do. Finally it’s the FOLLOWING Friday and my schedule cleared up. I waited all day just to be sure I didn’t get it that day to call. Finally I went into “Popeye” mode (I’ve had all I can stands and I can’t stands no more).
I call get to a person and explain what happened and they should put me through to a supervisor or R.S. right now. I get put on hold and a couple of minutes later I get a supervisor. I begin to talk and…. click. Hung up on! Oh. My. God. 20 minutes to get hung up on. I call back, get to a person and tell her there is nothing she can do for me, I need to talk to superior. She tells me she has to verify my account first and asks me info including my home address. I answer the questions. She says there is wait, they are all supervisors are busy at the moment. She asks me what address the box was supposed to be mailed to I tell her again! She puts me on hold, comes back on thanks me for waiting then asks one more time for my address! I tell her again put on hold. She comes back on, asks me again for my address, I’m screaming it into my phone. I tell her that is the fourth time I’ve given it to her. I ask if it’s on her computer screen? She says yes, then I’m like why do you need it again. I’m told to verify the shipping address is correct! I said if they don’t have it in the system by now they never will.
Before she transfers me she makes a comment that the service order is in but the box never shipped and it is most likely UPS’ fault. This sounds really fishy to me. Finally I get a supervisor and this guy seems okay, the first one I’ve talked to that actually seems like he can not only help, but also cares about resolving this. He tells me the reason I didn’t get a box is because the “system” does not have an option for expedited shipping. The bastards lied! I reiterate, I want a new unit. When told it’s not policy I reply, ”So selling faulty systems for over four years, when one is sent for repair you send a broken one back, then when the customer calls to sort it out he is lied to and hung up on, that is policy?”.
So after another hour-and-a-half of being o what ends up happening is we’re back to square one. I’m told they will send me a box via next day air, which I actually got. The unit goes back to the service center, in Texas, it’s there now, and I wait. I’ve been thinking about what to do when it comes back. I did some research and found that according to a recent survey by Game Informer magazine the Xbox 360 has a 54% fail rate! As soon as this thing gets back I’m making sure it works and trading it in for a PS3. I’m done with Xbox.
The Xbox ordeal: Part One
The first video game system I ever owned was an Atari 5200. We never had a 2600 and by the time we could get a system the 5200 was out. Of course several years later I had an NES. Every few years a new generation of systems would be released and I usually got them; Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation, N64, Playstation 2, and Xbox. I wasn’t always the first one to have them but I usually got one eventually and had fun with all of them.
But in Nov. of 2005 the Xbox 360 was coming out and decided I’d get one right off the bat. I put down a deposit at the local video game store to ensure I’d get one right away. A week before release I went in to confirm and pay off the unit, that’s when the raping began. I was told that while I was assured I’d get a unit I might not get one out of the first batch. The only way to be sure to get one would be to buy an accessory. Alright, I plunked down some cash for an extra controller, I’d need one any way. In hindsight I should have pulled the plug on the whole thing.
So opening night I go to the launch event at the store. It was actually pretty cool, the store was in the mall and it was all closed up. Security lined us up in the food court and it was neat to be in there while everything was dark and locked up. I get my Xbox, buy a couple of games go home and hook it up. Everything was fine, had a lot of fun.
The problems began a few months later. At the request of a friend I picked up Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare. It’s a great game to play online. Basic third person shooter/military game, you form up teams and have several maps to chose from. If everyone is wearing headsets you can communicate with teammates. Here is the problem, 90% of the Xbox live users ARE ASSHOLES. First there are the snobs, in G.R.A.W. you can play ranked games. But to get ranked you have to play ranked matches. The snobs won’t play with low ranked players. So how is a player supposed to get ranked if he can’t play in ranked games? Online game playing is overrated. Secondly, Xbox Live is populated with the usualy band spawn campers, hackers, and obnoxious middle school kids.
So things were fine for about a year-and-a-half. I’d been hearing about people getting the “three red lights of death” for a year and a half I was lucky. When it did happen I called Xbox, they told me my one year warranty has expired and that if I wanted it fixed I’d have to pay. I told them that was unacceptable, with some colorful expressions of course. They wouldn’t budge. Later on they would extend the red light warranty. I never sent that box in. I had a PSP to satisfy my gaming needs, it was fun but not like having a console.
After a couple of years I broke down and bought a new Xbox, the unit was made in Jan. ‘08 and I bought it in April of ‘08. Things were fine for, yeah thats right: a year and a half, but then I noticed it would freeze up from time to time. Finally I got the three red lights. Now this time Xbox had a three year warranty on the red lights problem, a year for each light? So after a few weeks of procrastination and being pissed I got online and had them send me the labels. I went to the UPS store, bought a box and shipped it out.
After about three weeks it came back and was actually excited. I was surprised at what I found, a letter saying that they didn’t actually fix my unit, they sent me another one. I looked on the back of the unit and found a “serviced on” date. So instead of fixing mine and sending it back, they shipped me refurbished box. Included was a card for a free month of Xox live, which actually worked out. Normally I just subscribe for a year, but while the box was gone I got emails saying my account expired and for some reason they couldn’t auto renew. So I figured I’d just use it for my first month when back up and running.
I went out that day and traded in some games and got Madden football ‘10 and NHL ‘10. Came home, hooked up and put in Madden, played one game and decided it was hockey time. I put NHL ‘10 in and the unit wouldn’t read the disc. WTF?!? Ok, so I thought maybe, just maybe, I got a bad disc. Grabbed the disc, the case, and the receipt and headed back to the store. Gave them my tale of woe and said I just wanted to exchange for another disc. They gladly obliged and I was back home twenty minutes later. Put the disc in the Xbox…. FAIL! SHIT!
Okay, I thought lets try a few things. First I put Madden back in, guess what won’t load now? Put Ghostbusters in, it seemed to load. Hmm, perhaps I need an update. Maybe this won’t turn into a big deal. Yeah right. For some reason I can’t use my DSL with the computer and the Xbox. If I want to hook up to Xbox live I have to disconnect the computer. Don’t know why but thats how it is. So I do that and try to hook up, tells me my account is suspended.
Knowing my debit card is about to expire I figure I’ll use that pre-paid card and get my free month. I type in the activation code, won’t work until I sort out this account business. I look at my debit card info and it say that my card expired THREE YEARS AGO! What the Hell? If that was the case how did it auto-renew the last three years? I change it and save it. Doesn’t take. I call Xbox and start arguing. After a bunch of haggling and problems accessing my account, they can’t, they offer me a free year of Xbox live. I get off the phone after over a half hour and hook the DSL back up to the computer and get online. After snooping around I find the problem. On the back of the cards now they have this three digit “security” code. It doesn’t even appear in the field box. After typing it in the problem is fixed. I just did their job for them, where is my mad Microsoft money?
I fix the problem and it all seems to work now, I can access everything and have my free year. Sure enough it says I need an update and it downloads it. Cool, I’m an optimistic guy, this is going to work and I’ll be playing hockey in a few minutes. With controller in hand I insert the disc and get ready to play. No dice, won’t read the damn disc. I try a DVD, nope. It’s late now and I’m tired of messing with it. I’ll work on it more tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED….
Getting Ruthless
“This could very well be the stupidest person on the face of the earth. Perhaps we should shoot him.”
Ken and Sandy (Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater) are what you would describe as “good” people who are pretending to be ruthless. Barbara (Bette Midler) can be ruthless, when she want to be. Carol and Earl (Anita Morris and Bill Pullman) are not too bright, but they’re trying to be ruthless. Sam (Danny Devito) IS ruthless, in fact, he’s a complete bastard. Take all this ruthlessness and stupidity, mix it together, and you get a madcap comedy called Ruthless People.
Sam can’t stand Barbara, in fact he absolutely hates her. The problem is she’s his wife. He even tells his mistress he has plans to kill her. So imagine his delight when he arrives home and finds his wife has been kidnapped. The kidnappers ask for $500,000, which Sam has no intentions of paying. Adding to the chaos a videotape the mistress has her boyfriend record. Expecting to find Sam murdering Barbara the boyfriend records a different, yet equally, disturbing event. How all involved juggle the cops, and each other drives the story into some pretty hilarious places.
The 1980’s have a well deserved bad rep for turning out some really bad movies. Based on the concept Ruthless People sounds like it could fit in on that list. But some nice screenwriting makes this film a real diamond in the rough. Characters are fleshed out just enough. It doesn’t take long to meet everyone and understand who they are. There is no useless exposition or back story. We learn everything about these people from their words and actions.
Structure-wise the script is pretty tight. The kidnapping is the genesis of the story. Every scene builds logically on the the previous scene. That may sound like a pretty basic screenwriting concept. But check out almost any comedy at the multiplex and it becomes apparent it’s a quality that is sorely lacking. The filmmakers don’t throw out good storytelling just because they are making a comedy.
Despite some bad 80’s fashions, clothing and hair, the movie is very much worth the 90 minute running time. It’s not often a movie has multiple directors but, when those directors are Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker (Airplane, Police Squad/The Naked Gun) you can rest assured these guys know funny.
**** out of *****
Rambling about THE ICE STORM
One of the top villains in pro wrestling right now is C.M. Punk. His character is that he lives a “straightedge” lifestyle, meaning he doesn’t drink, smoke, do drugs, or have promiscuous sex. What makes his character great is he comes out and lectures the crowd. Telling them what failures they, and by proxy the other wrestlers, are because they don’t subscribe to his lifestyle. The interesting thing is that a great deal of what he says is true but, the fans boo him anyway. The characters in The Ice Storm would boo him too.
Set in 1973 the movie follows two well off Connecticut families during Thanksgiving weekend. These families deal with their mundane suburban lives by giving in to vice. Two of the parents are having an affair and the older kids are drinking and smoking pot in hopes of having affairs. When the younger kids aren’t blowing up toys or playing with a bullwhip, they’re learning about sex while wearing Richard Nixon masks.
So why do these characters make these choices? With the kids it’s pretty easy to understand. They’re growing up and discovering things in ways they shouldn’t. At a dinner party wine is spilled on Ben’s pants but it is Janey, his mistress, who ties to clean it up while her teenage son watches. It is obvious to all what is going on.
For the adults it’s a bit more complicated. Elena’s shoplifting is easy to figure out. She knows her husband is cheating on her, but instead of anger she seems to feel like life has lost it’s luster. She longs to be free again and shoplifts some makeup in an attempt to recapture her youth. The other adults reasons seem to fall somewhere between boredom and conformity. It is the hedonistic 1970’s and “key parties” seem to be all the rage. So yeah, I guess if everyone else jumped off a bridge, these characters would jump too.
The perplexing part of the movie is everyone is aware of how wrong their behavior is. A few characters have the will power to do the right thing. After the key party Elena and Jim, who are now aware of their spouses marital indiscretions, try to do the same. But neither can bring themselves to do it. The pair are united in their pain, but apart because of their morality. It takes a tragedy to open the eyes of a few of the others.
So what kind of film is The Ice Storm? Is it a dark comedy with a twist of 70’s nostalgia? Is it an indictment on declining family values, set in an earlier time so that we may reflect on how our role models molded our teenage, years which in turn molded us? Filled with great actors (Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Maguire, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Joan Allen, etc) and a story that is equally challenging, funny, depressing, yet always entertaining I think it’s a mixture of both.
A few to watch out for!
The Informant (Sept. 18)
Big Fan (Out in limited release, expanding soon)
Where The Wild Things Are (Oct. 16)
The Men Who Stare At Goats (Nov. 6)
The Great Hat Trick of 1997
By the early nineties my life as cine-phile was blooming. I’d starting working and for the first time had disposable income that was actually mine and not borrowed from a family member, usually my mom. I was also fortunate to own my car so I had money and wheels and a love of going to the movies. There was nothing to hold me back, if I wanted to drive over an hour away to see a flick that would never play anywhere near me, I could, I did.
It was also a time when film, especially independent film was on a rise. Studios were learning that gifted filmmakers were out there out who can turn out films that were not only well received but also profitable. This was such a boon for me. I was at that point where I was trying to figure out what exactly the difference between a film and a movie was.
In 1994 the movie on everyone’s lips was Pulp Fiction. I was already considering myself a big Quentin Tarantino fan after Reservoir Dogs. The movie was stylish and hip and bloody all at the same time. Throw on top of that his script for True Romance and Tarantino was quickly one of my new Hollywood heroes. Of course nothing would ever top Pulp Fiction, his masterpiece and the one he’s still remembered most for today.
That same year I started reading about Kevin Smith. There wasn’t an internet then, at least not for me, so news travelled through magazines and Friday/Sunday newspaper articles. It seemed like the talk about Smith and his film Clerks was all the rage on the festival circuits, it was a great story. The young store clerk maxed out his credit cards and funded the movie on his own dime. It became a hit and the dude’s been working steady ever since.
I think it’s fair to say that for better or worse there have been two hugely influential movies in my life. The first, Star Wars, came out when I was six-years old. To say it rocked my young world would be an understatement. It would begin a life long obesession that started out as playing with the toys and evolved into thinking and talking about it all the time with friends.
Clerks would have a similiar effect on me. They say if you watch enough movies eventually you have to see your story up on that screen. Clerks may not have been my personal story, but it was the collective story of just about every friend I had at the time. A movie that spoke about the things we spoke about in ways only the most creative voices could. It dealt with the same issues we were, the characters shared the same passions we did. To this day I still quote the film with friends even though we’ve all moved on to places the characters in the movie seemingly never would.
So that brings us to the magical year of 1997, the year it seemed to all come together. First George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars in the Special Editions. Say what you will about the changes he made to them, it was incredibly exciting to see them on the big screen again. I hadn’t seen the first one in a theater since I was a kid. Yet here we were 20 years later and that six-year old in me was back in that theater. Seeing the Lucasfilms logo and hearing the fanfare in the theater still gives me goosebumps. Yet as cool an experience as that was it was later in the year that would shape another golden age of film.
April saw the release of Chasing Amy. Kevin Smith’s third film and his strongest script yet. Somewhat a departure of his previous works, Chasing Amy told the story of a man who falls in love with a lesbian and what happens when she loves him back. It was funny like his films but the love story was a complex one, heading to places that couldn’t have been guessed. For Smith it was the next step in his growth as a filmmaker.
That summer was a huge at the box office with such blockbusters as Men in Black, Air Force One, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Face/Off, Batman and Robin, Contact, Con Air, and The Fifth Element. As the summer wound down so did the fanfare at the theater. Smaller and quieter fare was coming out. One of these smaller films was generating a signifigant buzz.
Boogie Nights seemed to come out of nowhere. Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about the porn industry has the most amazing energy in every frame. So many fun scenes; Shooting the first porno scene, the adult movie awards, the Brock Landers/Chest Rockwell scenes, and the awesomeness in the recording studio. But it all builds to one scene, THE scene. The drug deal at Rahad Jackson’s place. The greatest single scene filmed in the last 15 years. Simply amazing use of music in the scene, as well as the rest of the film. It’s one of the few film where I wonder what these characters are doing all these years later.
This all lead to Christmas day and the release of Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch, the film was Q.T.’s long awaited followup to Pulp Fiction. A heist film that’s more about the people involved than the event itself. One of the many great scenes is the heist itself. Instead of bogging the story down by keeping track of three sets of characters during the heist, Tarantino shows us the same scene from each perspective. It’s not so much who gets away with what, by why they’re doing it in the first place that makes it matter.
Three great films from three diverse filmmakers, all in one year. Of course there were many other great films released that year, but none feel as important as Chasing Amy, Boogie Nights, and Jackie Brown. Three character driven films about some very unique people thrust from their mundane lives into some very bizarre situations. Three great stories, three great movies. Does it get any better than that?
This Weeks DVD Releases
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Archives
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (2)
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