Snow White & the Huntsman

Be warned, this is not your familiar cute and cuddly, sugar coated Disney version of the well-known fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). If you have ever read an original classic fairy tale, you know they are not so heartwarming and loveable. Fairy tales were intended as serious morality fables meant to warn and instruct us, especially children, about the darker side of human nature. This dire and more sinister action adventure version of Snow White reminds us of the power that the original Brothers Grimm tales still have over us.

When the queen of a kingdom dies shortly after giving birth to a beautiful daughter who has 'skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as a raven’s wings', the King is grief-stricken and must raise his daughter alone. Years later he finds and marries another woman who turns out to be a wicked, deceitful witch, killing the King soon after their wedding, and plunging the kingdom into darkness.

Like most folk tales, this story was meant as a cautionary tale for children and adults, warning against overprotecting children, making them unprepared for the real world and easily deceived by others when they have to fend for themselves and cope with danger. It can also be seen as a coming of age tale as daughter competes and comes in conflict with her mother for the affections of a father and husband. 

The vain witch Queen, Ravenna, has the power to prolong her life and stay beautiful by eating the hearts of birds and consuming the youth of women. She consults a magical mirror and perceives the slain King’s daughter as a threat to her power when the mirror tells her that Snow White is the fairest in the land. She decides to lock her up in a tower in order to one day consume her heart.

This movie accurately depicts the brutal primitive time period of legendary Dark Age Europe with creepy dark forests, medieval castles, Tree Trolls, enchanted forests full of fairies and woodland creatures, and the seven dwarves as wild woodmen. Visually, the movie is a mix of Ridley Scott’s Legend (1986) and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings (2001), filmed in scenic locations around Scotland, Wales and England, that give it a natural and believable look. Even some of the more fantastic elements of the story are grounded in reality, making the experience very immersive and authentic. 

When Snow White escapes her castle prison, the envious Ravenna hires a huntsman to find her in the dark forest. The original story is quite grim and gruesome as the cannibalistic Queen demands that the huntsman cut out Snow White’s heart and liver as proof of her death, which she then intends to eat, believing it will rejuvenate her by absorbing the essence of Snow White’s beauty. 

The wicked step-mother Queen is played brilliantly by Charlize Theron with a show stealing performance. Her beauty is matched only by her sadistic envy. Snow White, as played by Kristen Stewart from the Twilight series, is not the passive, submissive homemaker of the original folktale. In this more exciting and emotionally satisfying tale of sorrow and longing, Snow White grows into a strong and determined warrior princess who leads an army of loyal men, in a brave attack on the wicked Queen to regain her father’s throne. She looks at times to be a Joan of Arc type of strong female presence and reflects a more contemporary role model for young girls today.

I thought the film captured the power and essence of the original Brothers Grimm tale quite well, while adding elements from other fairy tales into the mix. This movie may be too scary for young children but adults will definitely enjoy this diabolical and sinister take on an old favorite fairy tale. For those who grew up with the Disney cartoon and have never read the original tales, I highly recommend reading them. They're much gloomier and creepier but also more interesting.

JP

Apocalypse Now and the Vietnam War film

The Vietnam War was a chaotic hallucinogenic haze of Huey helicopters and jungle warfare. Young and frustrated American G.I.s lost and exhausted in a densely forested hostile environment, fighting a cunning enemy no one could see let alone shoot. This is the war that Apocalypse Now (1979) brings to stunning and shocking life in one of the first major films to be made about Americans fighting in Vietnam.

Loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and personal accounts from soldiers who had recently returned from the war, the movie was originally conceived and written by John Milius and George Lucas, who intended to direct it. But because of delays, Lucas began preparing to film his space opera Star Wars (1977), and it eventually fell to his good friend and mentor, Frances Ford Coppola to direct it. Francis Coppola was already a successful filmmaker with The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather – Part II (1974), and used his own money to finance the new film.

Inspired by Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), and filmed entirely on location in the Philippines, Apocalypse Now is the story of an obsessed Special Forces marine, Captain Willard played by Martin Sheen, looking for a suicide mission. He is eventually entrusted with a top secret operation to find and terminate a rogue Colonel, played by Marlon Brando, who has set himself up as a warlord, fighting his own war in the jungles of Cambodia without any military authorization. Taking control of a group of young inexperienced soldiers, the Captain sets off in a gun boat that will take them on a journey up the Mekong River into the unknown regions, where the rebel Colonel Kurtz is believed to be hiding. Along the way, the group comes across all manner of surreal and hellish sights that comprise the Vietnam War experience.

The movie is stunningly filmed in epic style with dissolving montages, grand scale battle scenes and a psychedelic soundtrack of popular Doors tunes of the time, giving the move a surreal nightmarish feeling. It’s one of the most personal films by director Francis Ford Coppola who took his family to the Philippines and spent more than a year there while filming and writing the movie. During this time his wife filmed a great deal of behind the scenes footage about their experiences and eventually released it as an acclaimed ‘making of’ documentary called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991).

A longer re-edited version of the film with deleted scenes restored was released in 2001, adding an additional 49 minutes to the film and was retitled Apocalypse Now Redux. This longer and more complete version is well worth seeing and was praised for improving on a film already considered a masterpiece by many and Frances Coppola’s magnum opus.

Considered to be one of the most iconic war films of all time and a masterpiece of unforgettable images depicting the horrors of war, it’s a visceral cinematic experience that was as chaotic and difficult to make as the chaos depicted in the film and set the standard for later films about Vietnam like Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Hamburger Hill (1987), The Hanoi Hilton (1987), 84 Charlie MoPic (1989) and Casualties of War (1989).

The Vietnam War was the first highly visible war being covered by the media in graphic detail on television news, and films about Vietnam have become a popular subgenre within the war film genre. Well know master filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma all weighed into the Vietnam War experience with their own films in the 1980s. As more details of the brutality of that war began to surface, filmmakers became interested in exposing the post war trauma suffered by returning service men in movies like Birdy (1984), Jacknife (1989) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

JP

Star Wars: Episode VII – Disney & Lucasfilm join forces to make more films

Star Wars will finally be in the hands of a new generation of filmmakers who actually grew up and were largely influenced by the original trilogy of Skywalker films.

George Lucas the creator of the series has done fans a great favor by selling the Lucasfilm companies to Disney. Lucas has always admired the Disney brand and modeled his own company after the Disney standard of high quality family entertainment, so the Lucasfilm sale to Disney seemed a natural fit.

Lucas has stated that he will continue as creative consultant on any future films and he has passed on his story treatments for possible future story ideas in the Star Wars universe to his successor Kathleen Kennedy, who he hired to head Lucasfilm when he retired back in May. Kennedy is a longtime associate of Steven Spielberg, who is a good friend of Lucas, and will continue as President of Lucasfilm under Disney.

   

As Disney writers are already in the process of writing possible story ideas for the next Star Wars films, there is now much speculation about who will direct the next episode in the Saga. Some names that have come up are obvious choices who are well known fans of the series such as J.J. Abrams, Star Trek (2009) Super 8 (2011), and Jon Favreau, Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011). Jon has also been involved as a voice actor in the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Both would be great choices to direct the next films.

Gore Verbinsky is another great director who is associated with both Disney, as director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and Lucasfilm, as director of ILM’s Rango (2011). I think he would be a natural choice to continue the Star Wars series as he has the sense of humor and experience with Disney and Lucasfilm properties. The incredible Brad Bird is another great choice, having come out of the Disney animation school and directing some of Pixar’s best films.

As far as the plot goes, it’s well known to all Star Wars fans that Lucas has taken great pains to honor the integrity of the Star Wars timeline, making sure that there are no lapses in continuity. All of the existing expanded universe material must fit somewhere into the Star Wars continuity and cannot contradict anything that has already been created elsewhere. Any future Star Wars projects, especially movies, will respect and be able to draw from any existing adventures created in the books and comics.

Episode VII will most likely continue sometime after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) as this was always the plan. The question now becomes where in the timeline will the new films likely take place? The good news is that since all the original principal cast members are still alive, they can all be used to recreate their original characters if they weren’t killed off in Episode VI. The bad news is that favorite characters like Yoda, Darth Vader, The Emperor, Jabba the Hutt, and Boba Fett all died in the last film and Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams are in their 60s and 70s now, so for them to reprise their roles, the new movie would have to take place at least 40 years after the events of Episode IV to match their real ages. This would place the new films in the Legacy of the Force era of the timeline, which deals with the children of Han, Leia, Luke and Lando.

The stories that have already been written in this era of the Star Wars timeline are recounted in the Legacy of the Force novels written by Aaron Allston, Karen Traviss and Troy Denning. They tell of the adventures of Jaina and Jacen Solo, and their cousin Ben Skywalker who become embroiled in a family blood feud when Jacen Solo is consumed by the dark side, forcing his own family to turn against him. It’s also revealed that Lando Calrissian has a child nicknamed Chance. These new characters will carry on the legacy of the of the Star Wars universe.

I for one am excited about the possibilities that can be explored in future Star Wars movies and the immense expanding universe that has been created by George Lucas and passed on to Kathleen Kennedy.  May the Force be with her.

JP

The Burmese Harp

Remembering our war dead at this time of year also means remembering the sacrifices made by those who survived the horrors of war. Many war and holocaust films have inspired us with one or more people’s determination to survive during incredible hardship in times of war. These inspirational films follow the hero as he endures unspeakable ordeals and survives to tell about it, or not. 

Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp (1956), which didn’t arrive in the US until 1967, is a heartfelt and hopeful Japanese W.W. II story about a platoon of singing Japanese soldiers in Burma (now Myanmar), who surrender three days after the end of the war. While kept in a British prison camp, one of the soldiers, Private Mizushima, volunteers to help the British convince a hold-out Japanese platoon, who has barricaded themselves in a mountain, that the war is over and that they must surrender or die. He climbs into the mountain and is never seen again. 

Loosely based on a popular Japanese fairy tale for adults, which tells of an unusual singing army regiment returning from Burma after the war with tales of one member of their company who refused to return home, this is one of the most moving and inspirational war tales I have ever seen and actually has very little violence in it. The story is beautifully told through stunningly calm scenes of the aftermath of war, which are gorgeously composed and photographed in black and white. The visually breathtaking shots of Burmese landscapes clearly show the director’s early talent as a painter and animator. 

Unable to convince the fanatical Japanese troops to surrender, they all stubbornly go out in a hail of bullets and bombs. When the dust clears, Mizushima, badly wounded, climbs out from under the rubble and attempts to return to his regiment. After recovering from his wounds in a Buddhist temple he continues his trek through the Burmese mountains to find his fellow army comrades, but during his journey he’s traumatized by horrific scenes of dead bodies littered over the bomb scorched countryside. Wracked by guilt, he decides to dedicate the remainder of his life to making a spiritual quest of redemption by burying all the dead and decaying corpses in the guise of a Buddhist monk.

It’s a unique antiwar story that reinforces the importance of compassion and our humanity to each other. No matter what one’s past, we can succeed in overcoming our darker nature and be respectful of all life. I was moved by this movie because of its spiritual message in the face of great violence. One of the most captivating and serene tranquil images in the film, is that of the soldier monk with his head shaved sitting near a jungle temple with a parrot on his shoulder while playing a Burmese harp.

When he later runs into his army colleagues, who think that he died in the mountain attack, they almost don’t recognize him dressed as a Buddhist priest. From behind the fences of the British holding camp, they are never really sure of the monk’s identity and continue to call to him for any signs of recognition. The monk/soldier however is unable to bring himself to acknowledge his old war buddies or he will risk revealing himself as a Japanese soldier and be sent back to Japan. He has now rejected the soldier’s life for one of peace and feels he must sacrifice his past to stay on this path.

Don’t miss this unforgettable inspirational and artfully made classic war film that pays homage to both the fallen and survivors of war. Other inspiring war films to see include: Das Boot (1981), The Killing Fields (1984), Platoon (1986), Life is Beautiful (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Black Hawk Down (2002), The Pianist (2002), Fateless (2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2007), Days of Glory (Indigenes) (2007), The Counterfeiters (2007), Defiance (2009), CHE (2009) and In Darkness (2011).

JP