The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I write about a lot of films that are unfamiliar to most viewers, so in an effort to engage more people in making comments or engage in a discussion, I decided to review a film that most people have seen, or at least few people haven’t seen. But also a film that is hated as much as it is loved. So it would have to be an older film and a controversial film that has a cult following but one that everyone has an opinion about.

Which film would fulfill all these criteria? I think that the one film that qualifies as a well-known cult classic that is loved and reviled or at least misunderstood in equal parts is The Rocky Horror Pictures Show (1975). I know I was completely baffled and appalled by this film when I first saw it and didn’t know quite what to make of it. It was certainly bold but who would make such a crazy film? I saw it as part of a University Cult Night film festival that also included a Monty Python film And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), and A Clock Work Orange (1971) that I was invited to back when I was around 17 or 18 years old. 

I’m glad that I was older when I first saw these films because I was a little shocked upon the initial viewing, never having seen anything like it before and it certainly made a big impression on me.  I later learned to appreciate these films for the powerful allegorical artistic expressions that they were.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrates the uniqueness and passions of misunderstood misfits that are ostracized by society. Using the Frankenstein story structure and Rock n Roll musical genre to illustrate the grotesque outcast as lonely and tortured individuals with deep feelings, a conservative straight laced couple, stranded and seeking refuge in a haunted house full of sexual deviant outcasts, overcome their initial fear of the unknown when they find they are not so different from them in their desire for acceptance and respect. This is a fun and outrageous film with great sing-a-long music.

This film may actually be more poignant today than ever. Even though we seem to be more accepting today of different cultures, religions and life styles, there is more division between the rich and poor, the working class and the privileged, the cyclist and the SUV driver, people who are motivated by a passion for their craft and people who are solely motivated by profit, or the hoarding of wealth. Part of the problem is that we as a society encourage and reward bad behavior.  We have been taught by society to do anything as long as it makes a lot of money; that whatever you do is not worth doing unless it makes you rich. So now we have a lot of unhappy, lonely people who are working in unfulfilling jobs and we have become a society of people who allow greed for profit to always take priority over any other humane or moral obligations.

If you look at the Occupy movement that is happening in many major cities in the world, these marginalized people are being characterized as a bunch of hippies, commies, junkies, freeloaders, you name it but in fact these are people from all walks of life and from all age groups who are victims of our society’s greed for profit.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is about the persecution of those who are different; the marginalization of people who chose not to follow the mainstream and the fear we have of anything that is strange or unknown. We must respect and know that everyone has a unique ability and can make an important contribution to our society.  

JP

SENNA

SENNA is an engrossing documentary that has all the drama and suspense of a cinematic movie. Even if you have never heard of the Brazilian race car driver Ayrton Senna, or have no interest in Formula One racing, you will still be captivated by the singular genius talent of a young passionate and driven individual who could live no other way than where his heart lead him. This was his greatest strength and also his greatest weakness and ultimately led to his fatal, untimely end.

I saw this film just after the recent fatal tragedy involving two time Indy 500 champion Dan Wheldon, who was killed in a 15 car crash during a race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, making this movie seem even more topical and poignant now. 

You will be captivated by the personality of this engaging young man with an unbelievable passion for driving since he was only thirteen years old and competing in go-kart races in South America. The producers of the film had the complete support and co-operation of the Senna family and had access to some amazing home video footage of Senna during his early days of racing.

The producers of this documentary clearly felt extremely passionate about bringing Senna’s story to the screen and doing it full justice, which was instrumental in getting the support of Senna’s family and also the full backing and co-operation of the Formula One organization, who provided unlimited access to  previously  unseen archival behind the scenes footage.

We get to see Senna’s whole career as a driver with intimate family video and narrated by everyone who was a part of his racing life including his mother, father and sister and many drivers who raced with him. Allowing the film footage to tell Ayrton’s story from his own perspective and using his voice gives the film the feeling of a personal drama.

We also get amazing footage from the driver’s seat of Senna’s Formula One cars while he is racing in all of his most important races, including the one he met his fatal destiny in. The camera footage from inside and outside the cars are absolutely engaging and provide such an important immersive dimension to the film, that you forget that you’re watching a documentary.

Highly engaging in its story as well as its subject, this film and the personality behind it will stay with you long after the chequered flag waves and will give you the feeling of having known intimately, someone extraordinary. And even though we know what happened to Ayrton, after getting to know him as a person, seeing exactly how and why it happened is heartbreaking and emotional. 

It’s an inspired documentary for an inspirational personality. Don’t miss it.

JP

The Eagle

Based on the 1954 historical adventure novel for children The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff and directed by the Scottish documentary film maker Kevin Macdonald, who directed such excellent films and documentaries as Touching the Void (2003), The Last King of Scotland (2006), State of Play (2009) and Life in a Day (2011), which has just been released on Blu-ray and DVD, this new adaptation of the famous historical epic, that takes place in 140 AD Roman occupied Britain, is a labor of love for both the director and producer as they had both read the book in their childhoods and still had very fond memories of it.

As a documentary filmmaker, authenticity was of the utmost importance to Kevin Macdonald and it clearly shows in this visually stunning realistic portrayal of a Roman Legion soldier, whose father and an entire 5,000 man Legion disappeared 20 years earlier, must now travel alone with his slave into barbaric and dangerous unknown northern Celtic territory to find the lost Eagle standard of the title and restore his family’s honor.

Filmed by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, the visual style and stunning beauty of the raw natural environments is what you would expect from the person who won an Academy Award for his work in Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

The story is in the same epic quest adventures of courage style as Gladiator (2000), Beau Geste (1939) and Apocalypto (2006).  A warrior soldier is captured by or must infiltrate enemy territory, to retrieve or find a lost item that will restore his family honor. But don’t expect the grand scale of those previous CG heavy movies mentioned above. This movie has done an amazing job of looking big scale but on a much smaller budget, without all the CG effects.

Filmed on locations in Scotland and Hungary, the costumes and settings are historically accurate and you get a feeling of being immersed in a well-researched genuine world in a time of our past. The Roman Empire was clearly the most civilized nation of its time and even a slave’s life in a Roman city was more civilized than a life outside of the Empire.

There is a great relationship between the two main characters of a master and his slave, where both men have something to prove by helping the other. The solid performances keep you hooked into the story of two men from different worlds, who both have very strong moral codes but are tied to each other against their will, and must somehow see past their differences to stay true to their convictions.

Since the film is dealing with primitive Celtic tribes of the British Isles only English actors were used to play the early Celtic tribes and American actors portray the Romans. This makes good sense as America is more closely associated today with the strong military power that Rome was at the time. 

This movie will stimulate your appetite and curiosity about this period in Europe’s history and will be very enjoyable if historical epic adventure is your thing.

JP

Cowboys & Aliens

A visually realistic, traditional Western with a twist, this movie is a serious integration of alien abduction sci-fi film with the classic Old West.  It’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) meets True Grit (2010) but it’s so much more. The story is a unique concept based on a comic book that has people from a small gold mining town being abducted by aliens and then going out on a rescue mission to save them from the 'demons'. On their side they have a posse that includes an abductee who has recently escaped without any memory of it, a brave ex-Civil War colonel, a kid and his dog, Apache indians, a group of outlaws and a woman with a secret.

The critics were not kind to this film but after the hype died down I finally went to see it in an almost empty theatre and was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn’t suck. Half way or more through the film I thought, this is actually a damn good story and a well done film.  I was impressed by the gripping storyline, the characters were realistic and well played by an excellent cast, the aliens and alien ships are very realistically rendered into the action and there are plenty of surprises. 

Both Westerns and Sci-fi films are what Hollywood does well and here they have nicely blended the two using Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones) and Daniel Craig (James Bond) as the two main characters in a large ensemble cast of lesser known but excellent talent including the wonderful Sam Rockwell, recently from Moon (2009) and Conviction (2010), who provides some comic relief.

Director Jon Favreau, who is no stranger to Sci-fi films as he is a big Star Wars fan and directed the two Iron Man movies, depicts both genres with a realism that is respectful of both. With Steven Spielberg producing and ILM doing the majority of the Special Effects the movie spares no expense to make it look great.

What’s funny is that the aliens, when they abduct people, they do it like cowboys on horses when they rope in their cattle with lassos. The aliens also use a sort of lasso while flying, that ropes in the people and snatches them up. The shoe is now on the other foot; the cowboys are now cattle being roped in by aliens in spaceships.

If it sounds fantastic, it is, but don’t be put off by the high concept and mediocre reviews; most people will thoroughly enjoy this film.

JP

CHE - part 1 & 2

Oct. 9, 2011 will mark the 44^th anniversary of the death of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia where he was captured and executed by Bolivian armed forces who were assisted by the CIA.

The Steven Soderbergh movie CHE (2008) is presented in two parts, the first part called The Argentine is about the Cuban campaign and the role that Che Guevara played in the Fidel Castro led revolution against the corrupt Batista dictatorship. The second part called Guerrilla is about Che’s guerrilla campaign in Bolivia where he was killed.

Based on Ernesto Che Guevara’s diaries and the book “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life” by Jon Lee Anderson that includes seven years of research, director Steven Soderbergh, who also directed Contagion (2011), Traffic (2000), Erin Brockovich (2000), Solaris (2002), The Good German (2006) and The Limey (1999), uses a style of filming that is well suited to this type of biographical material.

This movie is stunningly photographed in remote locations, using a high performance digital cine camera with the quality of 35mm film mixed up with some black and white footage that gives the film a documentary feel, and in fact, the movie feels more like a diary of Che’s experiences during his time fighting in the mountains of Cuba and Bolivia. The films feel like a docudrama on how to conduct a revolution and guerrilla warfare tactics against a superior government armed force, while helping the peasant country folk, who they depend on to survive.

As a document on the hardships and problems of creating a revolutionary rebel force while living off the land in remote locations with little food or shelter, and educating the peasant class while recruiting soldiers to defend them against an uncaring government, the films succeed beautifully. But don’t expect an exhaustive portrait of the life of Che Guevara. There are no details about his personal life here; we only see parts of his revolutionary life in Cuba and Bolivia.

I, like most people, knew of Che Guevara; had seen his image and knew what he represented but never really knew how and why he became such a powerful icon of rebellion. This film answers some of those questions but what this film also does, is instill a sense of curiosity about the man and his extraordinary drive and passion to make the world a better and more humane place to live in for everyone. 

Throughout the film, you see him trying to treat everyone fairly by taking away privileges from the few and sharing them with everyone, making sure that everyone gets treated equally and without prejudice. Che is kind of like a Robin Hood figure, trying to give to the poor what the state has denied them because of greed and because they are seen simply as worthless. Because Che was a doctor, he could offer a valuable service to his soldiers and to the remote village people who normally don’t have access to medical expertise. Using this expertise freely, he was able to win over the guerrilla soldiers he commanded and the common people in the countryside. The message he brings is ‘the privileged beware because the people who you marginalize will rise up against you.’

Other excellent movies come to mind while watching CHE; like the recent Carlos (2010) which was also about a revolutionary fighter.  I am Cuba (1964) which is a Russian film about the Cuban revolution and some of the photographic style of that movie is also evident in CHE, and The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) about Che’s early life in Argentina and South America.

Benicio del Toro, recently from The Wolfman (2010) and 21 Grams (2003), gives a fantastic and very realistic performance for which he won a best actor award at the Cannes film festival. Most of the cast are unknowns to me except Catalina Sandino Moreno form Maria Full of Grace (2004), and Love in the Time of Cholera (2007). I was surprised that Matt Damon and Lou Diamond Philpps also made cameo appearances.

JP