Here’s a couple of embroidered vintage patches from my collection. The Star Wars one was a special offer to Official Fan Club members in 1981. It is based upon Ralph McQuarrie’s original design for Star Wars in 1975. It features the figure of Luke holding a lightsaber against the backdrop of Yavin. The second patch ‘Vader In Flames’ – also only available to Fan Club members at the time – is a reproduction of the actual crew patch worn by the production crew on their parkers during the Finse Norway shoot for The Empire Strikes Back in 1979. And here’s a production still of director Irvin Kirshner with Mark Hamill, sporting one of these parkers with the Vader In Flames patch prominently displayed (pic courtesy starwars.com).
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD
The new wave of Ozploitation fun continues.
Reviewed on Tuesday 27th January 2015
Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. Written by Kiah Roache-Turner & Tristan Roache-Turner. Starring: Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey, Leon Burchill, Keith Aguis and Berryn Schwerdt. Running time: 98 mins.
Similar in tone to humorous splatter-fests such as Dead Snow and Undead, this debut feature by Sydney-based filmmaking brothers Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner is imbued with a gleeful exuberance which more than makes up for its meager indiegogo-financed budget. Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead is a fast-paced zombie apocalypse actioner incorporating design elements from Mad Max 2 – resulting in a fun film which wears its 70s and 80s Ozploitation roots proudly on its bloody sleeve.
Set amidst a zombie outbreak (brought about by an airborne virus which has arrived via a shower of meteorites) Wyrmwood follows a trio of unaffected and heavily-armed survivors on the east coast of Australia – as they set out to rescue a young woman from the clutches of a crazed scientist. While Kiah Roache-Turner displays a flare for directing comprehensible action and generating suspense, the real strengths of this film can be found in the screenplay – with the brothers bringing fresh new ideas to an otherwise rapidly stagnating zombie apocalypse genre. The idea of this cosmic event affecting gasoline – so it becomes effectively useless overnight; while at the same time causing zombies to biologically begin producing a gas which can be harnessed to power vehicles, is borderline ludicrous if you think about it too hard – and yet refreshingly inspired. Luckily the film is so fast-paced and treats this concept in such a good-humored way (while doggedly adhering to the internal logic it sets up) that we willingly go along for the ride – never once thinking about the inherent sillyness of this central conceit. Another idea utilized in the film which hasn’t really been seen in previous zombie movies (although a similar concept was originally planned for Re-Animator – but ultimately discarded) – is the idea that Brooke develops (as a result of the experiments which she is subjected to) – an ability to telepathically control zombies.
The cast of mostly unknowns do well with their roles and there is a nice sense of camaraderie between the three guys in the truck. And it’s also nice to see an indigenous actor (Leon Burchill as Benny) have such a prominant part to play in an Aussie genre film. While relative newcomer Bianca Bradey (as kick-ass zombie whisperer Brooke) is clearly an exciting new talent on the rise. Zombies aside, the creepiest character in the entire film is undoubtedly the mad scientist (played by Berryn Schwerdt). Dressed in a bright yellow hazmat suit, he’s a truly bizarre individual with a penchant for shaking his booty to 70s disco (K.C. & The Sunshine Band’s ‘Get Down Tonight’) – while gleefully conducting his gruesome experiments and terrorizing the captive Brooke.
The twenty-strong makeup effects team headed by Gavin Kyle do a terrific job with the zombie makeups; giving each zombie a distinctive look. The CGI blood effects, however, are less convincing – but thankfully they are kept to a minimum. My only real quibble with the film is to do with the cinematography. The shallow depth of field used throughout too often draws undue attention to itself and becomes quite annoying at times. It’s unclear whether or not this is a deliberate stylistic choice, but hopefully (if it isn’t intentional) it’s something the brothers can be aware of in their next production.
Featuring plenty of larrikin Aussie humor, beautifully-edited action sequences and lashings of zombie mayhem, Wyrmwood is enormous undemanding splattery fun.
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead will be released in Australian cinemas and in the US on February 13th.
3.5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Viewed at the Palace-Nova Eastend Cinemas, Adelaide, January 27th 2015.
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
RED PLANET
Great looking Martian survival story lacks emotional investment.
A US-Australian co-production. Directed by Antony Hoffman. Screenplay by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin, story by Chuck Pfarrer. Starring: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker, Benjamin Bratt and Terence Stamp. Year of release: 2000. Running time: 106 minutes.
Red Planet is a sci-fi survival tale set in the year 2056 when Earth has been ravaged by pollution and overpopulation and the biosphere is on the verge of collapse. The only hope for humanity to continue as a species is to get off-world and colonize the planet Mars. In order to do so, Mars first needs to be made habitable – which is why an automated terraforming project has been underway for the past fifty years. Nuclear detonations have melted the planet’s polar ice caps; releasing huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere; allowing oxygen-producing algae introduced from Earth to flourish. Just recently however there has been a mysterious and alarming drop in the production of oxygen and so a manned mission is sent to Mars in order to ascertain why this has happened. Upon arrival in Mars orbit, the spacecraft is severely disabled during a solar storm; forcing mission commander Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) to launch the rest of her crew in the lander vehicle to the planet’s surface while she remains behind to manually ensure successful separation. While Bowman battles zero gravity fires aboard the ship, her five compatriates: Gallagher, Burchenal, Chantilas, Santen and Pettengil crash land on the surface of Mars and find themselves marooned with no apparent means of return. Making matters worse, head scientist Chantilas (Terence Stamp) reveals he has sustained severe internal injuries during the crash and will most likely not survive. Once the solar storm has passed and Bowman has restored power to the ship, she re-establishes contact with Houston and is told she only has enough fuel to remain in Mars orbit for a further thirty-one hours before she will be forced to make the return journey back to Earth, leaving her crew behind. Meanwhile, the remaining four members of the landing party make their way to an abandoned terraforming shelter (known as HAB 1) which reportedly has enough supplies of air, food and water to last 26 months. Arriving at HAB 1, and with their oxygen supplies almost exhausted, the four men discover to their horror – the shelter has been completely destroyed.
SPOILER WARNING – the following paragraph contains major plot details of the film’s second half. So if you haven’t seen Red Planet and do not wish to have it spoiled for you – skip over the next paragraph.
All seems lost until Gallagher (Val Kilmer) removes his helmet, only to discover – he can breathe! It appears Mars does indeed have a thin oxygen atmosphere after all. But with the oxygen-producing algae noticeably absent – how is this possible? The landing party re-establish contact with Bowman by jerry-rigging a transmitter aboard an old NASA probe located nearby and a plan is formulated to get them off Mars. Gallagher and the others only have a limited time to trek a distance across the Martian terrain to reach an abandoned Russian lander (which may still be operational) hot-wire it and use it to launch themselves into orbit in order to rendezvous with the spacecraft, before Bowman leaves for Earth. Along the way, however, the landing party find themselves stalked by a rogue military robot (thought to be lost in the crash) – which begins to pick them off one by one.
Red Planet was one of two Mars themed films released in the summer of 2000 – the other being Brian De Palma’s (more financially successful) Mission to Mars. In comparing the two, and despite its flaws, Red Planet definitely has a lot more going for it than De Palma’s ludicrous and annoying mess. In terms of treating its subject matter with a degree of scientific accuracy and respect, comparisons can also be drawn between two other examples of Hollywood’s poles-apart approach to science with Deep Impact and Armageddon in 1998 and Dante’s Peak and Volcano in ‘97. Sadly, it seems, serious-minded scientific accuracy is no match for deliberately dumbed-down spectacle when it comes to popularity.
While the screenplay by ex-special forces Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer (Navy Seals, Virus) is commendable in endevoring to adhere to scientific principals; the thin characterizations do little to make us care much about the fate of most of the characters (aside from Carrie-Anne Moss). And this really is the crux of the problem with Red Planet: the fact that the characters’ apathetic acceptance of their own demise never rings true – when any real person caught in these circumstances would be freaking out when staring death in the face. These guys don’t appear to be all that concerned or even miffed about it (like it’s a mild inconvenience). Perhaps this pragmatic stoicism in the face of adversity is something Pfarrer drew from his own experiences as a Navy SEAL – but it does little to instill any sense of tension in the viewer. If these characters seem so blissfully unconcerned about their own fates; then why should we as an audience become emotionally engaged? Even the score by the always effective Graeme Revell (The Crow, Dead Calm) can’t compensate for the feeling of disengagement and general lack of vigor which oddly permeates the film.
I’ve never been particularly enamored by Val Kilmer as an actor and he does little here to change this view. Terence Stamp on the other hand has always been enjoyable to watch; particularly when given good material to work with. But here he is pretty much wasted as the first character to be bumped off. Carrie-Anne Moss though is really very good here as Commander Bowman and it’s nice to see a female in a leadership role for a change.
Perhaps due to its poor box office performance upon release, Red Planet remains the only feature helmed by South African-born commercials director Antony Hoffman. Which is something of a shame as – despite the film’s flaws – he does demonstrate a certain degree of visual flare. On the positive side, the cinematography by David Cronenberg’s resident DP Peter Suschitzky (who also lensed The Empire Strikes Back) gives Red Planet a gorgeous look and may well be reason enough to see this film. And the South Australian outback locations (located not far from those seen in that other South Australian-lensed sci-fi from 2000, Pitch Black) are well utilized in conveying the otherworldly desolation of Mars. The production design by Owen Paterson (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) gives the film’s future tech a distinctive look which seems inspired by the pulp aesthetic of 50s sci-fi (particularly with the retro design of the space suits; one of which seen later in the film appears to have been an obvious precursor to the suits seen in Prometheus). And I see Adelaide VFX company Rising Sun Pictures (Gravity) are listed in the credits among a slew of companies who provided visual effects for the film. Although I’m unsure exactly what Rising Sun contributed. But the CG effects overall are servicable for the most part.
While there isn’t anything offensively awful to make Red Planet unwatchable, sadly (aside from the cinematography) – there isn’t all that much here to recommend it as essential sci-fi viewing either.
2.5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
ALTERED
Payback time.
Directed by Eduardo Sánchez. Screenplay by Jamie Nash, story by Jamie Nash & Eduardo Sánchez. Starring: Adam Kaufan, Catherine Mangan, Brad William Henke, Michael C. Williams, Paul McCarthy-Boyington and James Gammon. Year of release: 2006. Running time: 88 minutes.
Four friends who were abducted and experimented upon by aliens when they were teenagers are reunited for one night following the capture of one of their tormentors.
Altered is director Eduardo Sánchez’s long-awaited follow-up to his feature debut The Blair Witch Project – the over-hyped indie darling which took the box office by storm in 1999 (and subsequently kickstarted the enslaught of ‘found footage’ horror fare which has plagued multiplexes ever since). Thankfully eschewing the increasingly stale found footage format for traditional filmmaking techniques with Altered, Sánchez has fashioned an effectively creepy little sci-fi shocker which turns the alien abduction trope on its head by reversing the roles normally associated with the genre; with a lone alien now the abducted at the hands of a group of humans seeking payback.
Adam Kaufman plays Wyatt – one of the four friends; living as a virtual recluse in a stronghold in the woods; fearing the eventual return of the visitors who abducted him. When his three buddies: Duke, Cody and Otis arrive unannounced with a live alien they have captured (the creature is chained and wrapped in a tarp with a welder’s mask covering its face) – with the intent of torturing it, Wyatt tries to sway them from doing so; as he fears that harming the creature will trigger an all-out attack by the aliens – thus decimating the entire human race. Tensions escalate between the captors; as their differing opinions on what to do with the creature erupt into threats of violence amongst themselves.
While the film’s premise of grown men seeking retribution for childhood torment recalls the second half of Stephen King’s It, and the single location setting (taking place over a single night) recalls Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, the tension and interplay between the various characters mostly brings to mind John Carpenter’s The Thing. Here Sánchez displays a natural flare for staging well-directed ensemble scenes with actors, which wasn’t necessarily evident in his feature debut. And with a scant running time of just 88 minutes, the film never outwears its welcome; as it opens mid-stride and never lets up in its pacing.
And while the film becomes viscerally gruesome at times (with one character succumbing to a flesh-eating virus contracted from the creature; while another is disembowelled) – the careful building of suspense and the escalation of tension are the things which work best here. Some performances are admittedly better than others, however, the characters overall are interesting and well-drawn, with expositional dialogue (revealing the characters’ backstories) kept fairly natural and non-intrusive. And the unsettling and atonal score by Tony Cora and Exiquio Talavera also does much to heighten the tension. While nothing we haven’t seen before; the practical creature and makeup effects by Spectral Motion are low-key yet well-realized.
All in all Eduardo Sánchez’s sophomore feature is an enjoyably tense indie shocker which offers a fresh approach to a well-worn sub-genre and I very much look forward to seeing more of his work.
3 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
OUTLAND
High Moon
Written & directed by Peter Hyams. Starring Sean Connery, Frances Sternhagen, Peter Boyle and James B. Sikking. Year of release: 1981. Running time: 112 minutes.
Prior to helming his fourth feature Capricorn One in 1978, Peter Hyams was no stranger to space exploration; having worked for eight years as a producer and TV anchorman for CBS News; covering NASA’s manned space program during the 1960s. In 1970 he moved to Hollywood where he penned his first screenplay T.R. Baskin – filmed a year later and starring Peter Boyle and Candice Bergen. He would also pen the Charles Bronson-starring conspiracy thriller Telefon in 1977 and co-wrote the Steve McQueen thriller The Hunter in 1980. It was during the release of his fifth feature as director; the Harrison Ford-starring WW2 romantic drama Hanover Street in 1979; when Hyams first saw the initial batch of photographic images from the Voyager I space probe’s encounter with Jupiter and its moons; that he decided upon the setting for his next film: the gritty outer space western, Outland.
Sean Connery stars as Federal District Marshal William T. O’Neil, a lawman with integrity and a strong sense of duty; charged with maintaining order at an isolated mining colony on Jupiter’s moon Io. When a rash of psychotic behavior and suicides begin to befall the mine workers, O’Neil uncovers a sinister drug ring involving Shepherd (Peter Boyle) – the General Manager, who, with the sole aim of increasing productivity, has been supplying his workers with a super strong synthetic stimulant; knowing full well the terrible impact it is having on his employees. When Shepherd finds he is unable to buy O’Neil’s silence on the issue, he arranges for a couple of company hit men to arrive on the next shuttle to deal with the troublesome lawman. Realizing Shepherd’s nefarious plan, and finding that his own deputies have been paid off to step aside and offer no assistance, O’Neil reluctantly accepts help from the colony’s alcoholic physician Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen) in taking down the hitmen when they arrive.
While critics of the day took great delight in denigrating Outland as nothing more than a sci-fi knock-off of the classic 1952 Gary Cooper-starring western High Noon, Hyams himself never publicly admitted it was an inspiration. Interestingly these very same critics didn’t seem to take issue with Roger Corman’s space opera western Battle Beyond the Stars (released the previous year) – being a virtual beat-for-beat re-telling of The Magnificent Seven. Perhaps it was just something they’d expect from Corman. If truth be told, it is really only the second half of Outland which plays out like a replay of High Noon – with the first half being more like a conspiracy crime thriller from the 70s.
While the pacing may seem a little too ‘slow-burn’ for contemporary audiences, there are still a number of brilliantly-staged and suspenseful sequences to be enjoyed. The scene where one of the mine workers (clearly high on drugs) voluntarily enters the mine elevator (without wearing his pressure suit) and descends into the mine to face what will surely be a certain and horrible death – while his co-workers can only look on in horror – is extremely well done (due in no small part to Jerry Goldsmith’s incredibly tense and visceral score during this sequence). Another standout sequence is the scene where Connery attempts to negotiate with a drug-crazed worker (Steven Berkoff) who is terrorizing a hooker with a knife. The film editing during this sequence beautifully showcases the talents of editor Stuart Baird (The Omen, Superman The Movie, Lethal Weapon) especially in terms of escalating the tension and the building of suspense. Amusingly, Baird disallowed Hyams from sitting in on the editing of the picture – which says much about Hyams’ faith in Baird’s ability; that he was happy to take a back seat and allow the master to do his work.
Although it could be argued Hyams seems to have been inspired by the gritty industrialized look of the future world depicted in Ridley Scott’s Alien, Hyams insists this is not the case – instead citing real life industrial frontiers such as the Panama Canal, the Alaskan pipeline and offshore oil rigs as his inspiration. As Hyams described to journalists Blake Mitchell and Jim Ferguson in the August 81 issue of Fantastic Films magazine, “Outland uses the future as a location rather than the prime subject. It is a film based on feasibility. It talks about what we’re going to be doing and why we’re going to be out there in space as opposed to the traditional ‘expanding the horizon of the species premise.’ The United States built the Panama Canal for a specific reason. We settled the West for a reason. The people who inhabited the Panama Canal building site, the people who inhabited Dodge City, the people who inhabit the offshore oil rigs, the people who built the Alaskan pipeline, are the same people who inhabit Outland, and by and large they’re not explorers.” Hyams sums it up best in the production notes on the DVD, “These are places which attract people with suspect pasts, who have little to lose and are out for as much gain as possible in the shortest amount of time.” In accordance with this, it’s interesting that Hyams refers to the look of the mining colony in Outland as ‘industrial malice’ – meaning; that nothing is designed for the comfort of the people who inhabit Con-Am 27.
Incidentally, it’s interesting to note that the name of the mining company featured in Outland – Consolidated Amalgamate (Con-Am) – appears to be a favoured moniker which Hyams has used several times in his films. It first appears in his screenplay T.R. Baskin (as the name of the company Peter Boyle works for) and pops up again in Capricorn One (as the name of the aero-space firm who manufactured the faulty life support system which leads to the aborting of the Mars flight).
Despite Hyams’ insistence to the contrary, there is no denying the similarities with the industrialized look and feel of Alien. They are so similar in fact that Outland could indeed be considered as taking place in the same universe as Scott’s film (an idea strengthened by Hyams’ use of Alien costume designer, John Mollo, and model builders Martin Bower and Bill Pearson).
The moody and atmospheric anamorphic widescreen cinematography shot by Hyams himself (credited to Stephen Goldblatt) – with his use of smoke-filled sets; lit for the most part by practical lighting built into them; creates a terrific sense of verisimilitude. And this sense of realism also extends to Hyams’ use of extras – particularly in the workers quarters scenes. As Hyams revealed to Fantastic Films, “I had the extras stay in the workers quarters for days. I put them in bunks and put dirty magazines around, all sorts of things. And I just wouldn’t let them out. They would just sit there for hours. After a while I saw some really strange things begin to happen. First there was a kind of lethargy. The guys started to cluster around and play cards. The way guys would move around themselves. It became real. I’m not smart enough to have placed a bunch of guys in there and say drape yourselves this way and that. What I did was to just have people get in there and live in that place so long that it became real.” It should also be noted: the immersive Oscar-nominated sound by John Wilkinson, Robert W. Glass Jr., Robert Thirlwell and Robin Gregory; with its abundance of environmental and industrial ambience; also contributes enormously to the realism of not just the workers’ quarters – but the entire world of Con-Am 27.
And re-watching it this time around, I was struck by just how little the notoriously raunchy leisure club scenes have dated. Usually with future world building; when entertainment is depicted, it usually dates a movie pretty severely; as it is nigh impossible to predict what future pop trends might be (based purely on projecting what seems cutting edge at the time – as with Elmer Bernstein’s disco music used as source in Saturn 3 for example). With the leisure club in Outland, with its exotic dancers (naked bodies painted entirely black; undulating in the throws of simulated sex acts beneath cones of pulsing blue laser light; to the throbbing pulse of 90s style euro-trash electronica) – this actually still feels surprisingly prescient.
Sean Connery gives what is perhaps the best performance of his career in Outland. As Federal Marshal William O’Neil, he is called upon to reveal a vulnerability not seen in any previous film role; particularly during a scene where he becomes openly tearful during a long-distance video call with his estranged wife and son. As Hyams told Fantastic Films; it was an emotionally intense scene to shoot in which, “Sean had to expose parts of himself that I don’t think have ever really been exposed on film before. You could see it in him, it was like a horse before the race. That kind of strain. You could see him like start to paw the ground. The day before, he just sat around, and got very quiet, which wasn’t like him. I asked if he’d like to do the close up before the master? He said okay. And you knew, somehow or other, he would put it down on the first take, you just knew it. Sometimes you can just sense it, I guess it’s just part of your job. I had a feeling that there was going to be a special kind of intensity. Sean sat down and did it. When he got done, there were camera operators and grips crying. People applauded. It was a really special moment.” Connery gives such an incredibly moving performance during this scene, it’s such a shame the child actor who plays his son (on the video monitor) is so unconvincing. Thankfully, this is the only misstep as far as casting is concerned – as the rest of the cast are uniformly excellent. The semi-serious banter Connery shares with the acid-tongued and curmudgeonly company physician Lazarus (played by Frances Sternhagen) is particularly endearing. And Peter Boyle is also terrific in his role as the chief villain Shepherd; passively menacing; so in charge he never has to raise his voice. And despite the fact we are meant to find his attitude abhorrent, he still remains a character whose motivations we clearly understand (which is more than can be said for most villains we see in contemporary films these days).
Interestingly (as was the case with Ripley in Alien), Lazarus was originally written as a man. However, once Hyams had finished the screenplay he decided to change the character’s gender without changing a line of dialogue – as it was an opportunity to place a woman in a strong role that was not limited by the sexuality of being a woman or a man, “It is a character in fact that has no underlying sexual motivations” Hyams told Fantastic Films, “She’s not there as a love interest, she’s there as a person. And I made no concessions. It’s a real friendship between Sean and this woman, one of great intelligence … even though she drinks too much. I wanted very much for one of the leading characters in this movie to be a woman but not play a woman, simply to play a role. You’re dealing with the future. You can’t possibly deal with the future without having women assume the positions that they ultimately must assume. If you went to the present day Soviet Union, you’d see that it wouldn’t be uncommon to go into that hospital in the Soviet Union and to see a woman surgeon.” With all the talk recently about good female roles drying up for actresses above a certain age, perhaps Hyams’ decision to cast Frances Sternhagen in Outland could be viewed as a successful precedent for casting more women in roles traditionally written for men.
Much has been made of the scientific inaccuracies scattered throughout Outland, but little has been said about what Hyams got right. The moving weather bands on Jupiter we see in the opening moments of the film are scientifically accurate – as is Jupiter’s single ring (yes, believe it not – Jupiter does in fact have a ring; something which Hyams again depicted in 2010 three years later). However, the glaringly obvious scientific inaccuracies seem to have overshadowed these details and invaribly raise the ire of the factually pedantic. The first being the effect depicted when a person is subjected to the extremes of zero pressure atmosphere. There are several times where people swell up like balloons and violently explode – which isn’t what really happens at all (in reality, a person would merely suffocate, before freezing in the 700 below zero extreme cold of space). It seems unlikely, with Hyams’ interest in space exploration, that he did this out of ignorance and seems more likely he did it for dramatic effect. Also, during the opening expository preamble we are told the gravity on Io is 1/6 of Earth’s gravity and yet everyone is walking around like it’s normal. Yeah, okay – but that’s cool (after all – it would be ridiculous having everyone moving around like Thunderbirds puppets). But then, we are also shown a scene where a felon is held in a zero gravity jail cell – suspended in mid-air. Okay – so it’s scientifically impossible, but it’s not enough to seriously derail the film. There is an unwritten rule with sci-fi that states that as long as you only bend or break one rule of physics per movie – you can get away with it (but no more than one). And yes, okay, so this film breaks more than one rule – but as I said – it’s not nearly enough to ruin one’s overall enjoyment of the movie. And after all, iconic sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke was reportedly an admirer of both Hyams’ Outland and Capricorn One – which would later lead to their close collaboration on the 1984 film version of Clarke’s novel 2010: Odyssey Two (filmed as 2010).
The in-camera wizardry of Introvision.
In order to gain as much production value from the $16 million dollar budget as possible, Hyams hired fledgling visual effects company Introvision to incorporate actors into the impressive Jovian vistas and mine colony exteriors, using an advanced patented version of front-screen projection. Developed by former stage magician Joe Eppolito, Introvision (as the technique was christened) was essentially a large box-like housing mounted on front of the camera; containing half-silvered mirrors and mattes, coupled with a transparency projector, which enabled actors on an empty sound stage to appear to be inside whatever image (be it a matte painting or photographic element) was projected on the huge Scotchlight screen behind them. The beauty of the system was that it allowed actors to appear and disappear behind elements which weren’t physically present on stage – thus negating the need to build expensive sets. Also advantageous was the fact the director could look through the camera viewfinder and see exactly how the shot would appear. As the completed shot was composited entirely ‘in camera’ at the time it was filmed, the usual two weeks it would normally take to see a result using blue screen and photo-chemical compositing was also negated, so the completed FX shot could be viewed as part of the rushes the following day. Between 40 and 50 such shots were completed for Outland and even today people would be hard-pressed to spot them. While the Introvision technique had the potential to revolutionize the visual effects industry back in the day, due to the poor box office performance of Outland and Megaforce (Introvision’s follow-up project), coupled with Introvision being perceived as a threat to the monopoly held by other established visual effects companies at the time, meant the company sadly found difficulty in gaining a foothold in the market (the last substantial use of the Introvision process was in 1992 on Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness – before the company folded with the advent of digital compositing).
There isn’t a great deal of action to speak of in Outland – aside from a show-stopping foot chase half way through. And what an amazing sequence it is. This has got to be one of the most thrilling, visceral and kinetic foot chases ever put to film (right up there with the extended foot chase from Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break). It begins with Connery; alerted to a drug deal on the surveillance monitors; rushing to confront the dealer in the workers’ quarters – where the five minute chase ensues; the fluidly mobile camera keeping pace with the frenzied pursuit every beautifully-staged step of the way; up and down catwalks; leaping across gaps between floors; before spilling out into connecting corridors and finally climaxing in a crowded cafeteria; where a viscious tussle between Connery and the dealer in the kitchen finally culminates with O’Neil getting his man. This beautifully-paced and tightly-edited sequence again highlights the incredible talent of editor Stuart Baird and again shows why composer Jerry Goldsmith is in a league of his own when it comes to heightening the intensity of action sequences.
While Outland happens to have been produced in the early 80s, it is nonetheless very much a product of Nixon-era 70s paranoia and distrust of authority (Hyams had, after all, previously produced the ultimate conspiracy thriller Capricorn One) – which may have been part of the reason why it struggled to find an audience in the year it was released (this was the dawning of the Reagan era after all; with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman II being the big hits of that particular summer).
Remarkably Outland has dated very little over the years; with its prescient theme of corporate greed at the expense of workers’ well-being being even more telling today. Hymas’ compelling screenplay and assured direction; coupled with a perfectly-realized setting and Sean Connery’s finely-tuned performance makes Outland essential viewing for lovers of gritty, intelligent, adult-oriented sci-fi.
(Screencaps courtesy of the Science Fiction Cult Classics facebook page)
4.5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
For the record – I saw 28 features in the theater this year, purchased 19 DVDs and Blu-rays, watched 64 movies at home and wrote 48 reviews. Theatrically, it’s been a surprisingly good year for good movies – particularly in the indie scene, but more surprisingly; there have been some excellent studio films too.
As there have been so many great films released this year, I’ve had to expand my list of favorites from five to ten. These are my faves mostly because they were the films which stayed with me for days or weeks after seeing them. Also, as the indie film scene has been so strong this year, I’ve decided to divide best film into two categories – best indie film and best studio picture. So here (in no particular order) are my top ten for 2014:
Top Ten Favorite Films Of The Year:
(in no particular order)
Noah
Fury
Gone Girl
Nightcrawler
Charlie’s Country
Under The Skin
Only Lovers Left Alive
Edge of Tomorrow
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge 3D
Honorable Mentions: Blue Ruin, Predestination, These Final Hours, 20,000 Days on Earth, Jodorowsky’s Dune
Most Fun I’ve Had At The Cinema In 2014: Edge of Tomorrow
This latest Tom Cruise sci-fi vehicle is a classic case of marketing gone awry. The theatrical trailers depicted the film as being nothing more than just another stodgy run-of-the-mill marines vs aliens sci-fi actioner (along the lines of Battle Los Angeles) – oddly neglecting to give any inkling of the humor inherent in the film. Perhaps if more attention were given to relaying just how much fun this film really is – then maybe more people would have gone to see it. Even those who aren’t necessarily fans of Cruise will find much to enjoy from his unconventionally comedic performance and his comic timing is spot on. Highly recommended.
Most Underrated Movie Worthy Of More Attention: Divergent
I feel it’s unfair to judge a film adaptation based purely on its premise being implausible – when that premise is lifted straight from the source material (in this case the best-selling young adult novel of the same name). No one seemed to have a problem with the central premise of Luc Besson’s Lucy being brazenly ludicrous. And to compare Divergent with The Hunger Games is also incredibly unfair – sure, it’s another dystopian female-driven young adult adaptation – but so what? Divergent is an extremely well made and entertaining film and one which deserves to be considered on its own merits – without immediately leaping into the hysterical knee-jerk accusation of – ‘Rip Off!’
Most Unfairly Maligned Movie Of 2014: Transcendence
Much like last year’s After Earth and The Lone Ranger (and Sucker Punch and John Carter before it) – it seems almost everybody had their knives out for Wally Pfister’s directorial debut. It’s almost as if he were being punished for having the gall to depart from his long-term collaboration as cinematographer with Christopher Nolan and strike out on his own as a director. Granted – this film has its problems. But they are primarily script-related and have nothing to do with Pfister’s actual direction – which is solid. I know I am going to be chased off the internet by enraged Nolan fanboys for saying this – but Pfister’s direction displays a real flare for pacing and evoking authentic emotion; aspects which were sorely missing from Nolan’s latest film. Sure, this isn’t the greatest movie ever made – but it’s not nearly the dog it has been made out to be by the bandwagonist critical fraternity.
Most Audacious Movie Of 2014: Under The Skin
Jonathan Glazer’s third feature has fearlessly polarized audiences like no other film this year; his incredibly precise ‘pure cinema’ visual style drawing absolutely justified comparison to the late Stanley Kubrick. It appears Glazer has essentially attempted to make a film from an entirely alien perspective; in other words; it is a film made BY aliens – FOR aliens and therefore nothing needs to be explained. The audaciousness of this film lies in the way Glazer effortlessly crafts a remarkably coherent story without any exposition whatsoever. Under the Skin is also a film whose imagery and tone haunted me for weeks after seeing it, and indeed – continues to do so.
Worst Movie Of 2014: Two-way tie: I, Frankenstein, The Monuments Men
While the premise of Monuments Men is undoubtedly intriguing (a small band of Americans infiltrate Nazi Germany during the final days of WW2 – in an attempt to recover priceless works of art before they are destroyed by the Nazis) – it is the film’s languid pacing, structural issues and complete lack of tension which culminate in an experience which is ultimately dull and uninvolving.
And while I, Frankenstein and Monuments Men are poles apart as far as execution and genre, the one thing they do have in common is they are BORING – which is the worst thing a film can be. Sure be moronic, be dumb, be infuriating – but at least treat your audience with some damn respect! To be boring is a complete and utter waste of everybody’s time.
Which leads me to …
Most Disappointing Movie Of 2014: Interstellar
What can I say about Interstellar, that I haven’t said already? Without going into a spoiler-filled diatribe – not much – except to say I wasn’t expecting 2001: A Space Odyssey or even Gravity for that matter. But I was hoping to see a film which was at least coherent, well-directed and one which instilled a sense of wonder and awe. Disappointingly Interstellar, for me, was none of these things. And contrary to popular belief, I didn’t go in with high expectations – nor did I go in scheming to hate on it (as I have been accused). I don’t have an issue with people liking this film – or even loving it (why would I?). But what I do have an issue with is being personally attacked for having a differing opinion (not attacked on this blog I must stress – but elsewhere). It’s just that I PERSONALLY had a really bad time with every single aspect of this faux-emotional, jarring and tedious mess – SO DEAL WITH IT!!!
Best Performance Of The Year: Four-way tie: David Gulpilil – Charlie’s Country, Sarah Snook – Predestination, Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl, Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Honorable Mention: Emma Watson – Noah
All five of these actors were incredible in their roles and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Rosamund Pike is at least nominated for a gold statue in the coming months. I’d also love to see David Gulpilil receive an Australian film industry best actor gong – to place alongside his Cannes best actor award in the new year.
Best Cinematography: Divergent
Despite all the hate this film received, there is no denying that Alwin Küchler’s cinematography is simply gorgeous.
Best Visual Effects: Weta Workshop – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Weta’s flawless work on this latest Apes movie truly takes motion capture to a whole new level.
Best Motion Capture Digital Performance: Two-way tie: Andy Serkis – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Toby Kebbell – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Please please, will the Academy just recognize the incredible contribution of these guys with a special Oscar gong this year? It’s not too much to ask.
Best Editing: Edge of Tomorrow
With all the constant cutting back and forth in time which constitutes the bulk of Edge of Tomorrow, it would be easy to get lost in the narrative. But thanks to razor sharp editing by James Herbert and Laura Jennings – this never becomes an issue – and instead becomes a driving factor in generating much of the humor woven throughout.
Best Production Design: Fury
While I would usually give the design nod to a sci-fi or fantasy film, this year the look of pretty much all of the films in these genres have been somewhat uninspired and generic to say the least – and nothing we haven’t seen before (although I did very much enjoy the look of Aronofsky’s ark in Noah). So this year I’d like to give this nod to David Ayer’s WW2 tank battle drama and the work of production designer Andrew Menzies and the art direction of Phil Harvey and Mark Scuton for evoking such an authentic-looking and highly-detailed period setting for Ayer’s film.
Best Sound: Fury
The immersive quality of David Ayer’s film owes much to the incredible sound design by Oscar-winning sound designer Paiu N.J. Ottoson (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker). Truly impressive.
Best Original Music Score: Brett Aplin, Amy Bastow and Ricky Edwards – James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge 3D
Best Screenplay: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Utilizing subtitles, screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver & Mark Bomback have created a unique and believable vernacular for the apes, which deepens our understanding of and sympathies for these non-human characters.
Best Direction: Darren Aronofsky – Noah
Visionary director Aronofsky again demonstrates why he is one of the most original and exciting voices working in cinema today. Taking a musty old bible story like this and putting his own unique idiosyncratic spin on it results in a truly epic and at times breathtakingly beautiful ‘re-imagining’ which confidently weaves the director’s own world view and commentary on the human condition into large scale world-building without the personal ever becoming lost in the spectacle.
Best Indie Film Of 2014: Under The Skin
What more can I say about this amazing film? Other than it’s my pick for reasons already covered in the ‘Most Audacious Movie’ category.
Best Studio Picture Of 2014: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Matt Reeves’ follow-up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes is everything a big summer blockbuster should be; incorporating spectacle and big action set-pieces and visual effects in the service of character and story – never losing sight of delivering an emotionally engaging cinema experience – something which many of the other big summer movies this year didn’t come even close to achieving. This new Apes series is lovingly crafted with a clarity of vision and I for one eagerly anticipate the next installment.
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES
Bad-ass James Woods kicks vampire butt.
Directed by John Carpenter. Screenplay by Don Jakoby, based on the novel ‘Vampire$’ by John Steakley. Starring James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith and Maximillian Schell. Year of release: 1998. Running time: 108 minutes.
It’s no great secret that John Carpenter has always wanted to make a western. Indeed, Carpenter himself would argue that westerns have been what he’s been making along – albeit in the guise of different genres (Assault on Precinct 13, Escape from New York and Ghosts of Mars being the most obvious examples). Carpenter would even cast spaghetti western icon Lee Van Cleef in a supporting role in Escape as an unabashed homage to Sergio Leone. While both Precinct 13 and Ghosts are clearly retellings of Carpenter’s most beloved western: Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo, the closest he’s ever come to making a bona fide western was co-writing; along with Tommy Lee Wallace and Bill Phillips (and executive producing) the 1990 HBO Anthony Edwards-starring cable TV movie El Diablo (directed by Peter Markle) – Carpenter’s long-time passion project; which he himself had hoped to helm for the big screen (with his pal Kurt Russell in a major role) – after completing work on The Fog in 1980. As Carpenter revealed to journalist Tony Crawley at the time, “It’s like The Searchers. A revenge story with some gothic elements. A traditional western.” Much to Carpenter’s disappointment, the project was shelved indefinitely following the release of Escape from New York – due to the production company EMI deciding against Carpenter’s casting of Kurt Russell. It’s a real shame this project wasn’t ultimately realized the way Carpenter had envisaged – as the spectacular native cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde National Park would have featured prominently in the film. And from all accounts, Carpenter’s original vision for El Diablo was a lot darker in tone to the version which was eventually filmed.
Fast forward sixteen years, and Carpenter finally gets the opportunity to make the western he always wanted (albeit under the pretense of being a vampire movie). There are several stylistic nods to Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West in Vampires, (particularly in his use of back-to-back reverse-angle zoom shots) and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (the group shots of Crow’s team approaching the farmhouse nest). In fact, Carpenter himself describes Vampires as “The Wild Bunch meets Vlad The Impaler.” There are also nods to Carpenter’s hero Howard Hawks scattered throughout – particularly in the relationship between Baldwin and Woods, which is a direct nod to Hawks’ Red River.
Adapted from John Steakley’s 1990 novel Vampire$ by Blue Thunder and Invaders from Mars co-writer Don Jakoby, the movie departs quite considerably from the source material (the dollar symbol in the book’s title, incidently, is a reference to the mercenary nature of the vampire hunters; who go by the name Vampire$ Inc – renamed Team Crow in the movie). The screenplay had been in development for some years (with at least two different drafts by two different writers in existence). However, for whatever reason, it wasn’t until Carpenter came on board that the film was finally produced. Carpenter had been firmly ensconced in preproduction on The Mutant Chronicles at the time – but the sudden collapse of that project left Carpenter free to make Vampires. From what I understand (not having read the novel) – the opening nest infiltration scene and Valek’s subsequent attack on the team in the motel are indeed in the novel, but from then on it pretty much departs from the source material – with Carpenter introducing The Black Cross of Berziers as the McGuffin which would allow Valek and his vampire horde to survive in daylight. In a letter posted on his website shortly after visiting the set in 1997, Steakley stated his position on the changes to his story, “I am only disappointed in John’s script in the sense … well, if I’d have wanted to write that story …. I would have written that story. Yet, I do, rather more than a little, like Carpenter’s version of vampire hunters.” If truth be told the title Vampires is actually something of a misnomer, as Carpenter’s film is less about the fanged bloodsuckers themselves and more about the slayers who are hunting them.
Carpenter’s film tells the story of a bad-ass band of vampire hunters who are secretly in the employ of the Vatican; charged with systematically wiping out hidden vampire cells operating within the United States. After a successful raid on a vampire nest in New Mexico, Team Crow (as the slayers call themselves) – under the leadership of grizzled veteran Jack Crow (James Woods) – are in a motel room partying with hookers when they come under attack from an all-powerful 600 year-old master vampire named Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) – seeking payback for the decimation of his clan. With virtually the entire team wiped out within minutes, Crow narrowly escapes, along with his right hand man Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and a hooker named Katrina (Sheryl Lee). Realizing Katrina has been bitten by Valek during the attack, thus giving her a psychic link to the master vampire before she turns into a fanged bloodsucker herself, Crow decides to take advantage of this link in a bid to track down Valek and take him out before the vampire is able to recover an ancient Vatican relic which will enable him to walk in the daylight – thus becoming virtually invincible.
With the exception perhaps of The Fog, The Thing and Prince of Darkness (which are more ensemble pieces) – Carpenter’s films have, more often than not, featured disenfranchised loners as heroes: Napoleon Wilson in Assault on Precinct 13, Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, the titular Starman, Nick Halloway in Memoirs of an Invisble Man, John Nada in They Live. And Vampires is no different – although James Wood’s Jack Crow is perhaps the most outwardly aggressive of all of Carpenter’s leading men.
Genre fave James Woods (Videodrome, Contact) gives one of his most memorable performances – his acerbic jibes and put-downs (mostly improvised on set) very much recalling his character from Michael J. Fox-starring action comedy The Hard Way. Carpenter made a deal with the actors that if they gave him one take reciting the dialogue as written, then he would give them a couple of additional takes to improvise their lines. Which is why we end up with so many terrifically humorous asides in the movie. The most memorable being the following from James Woods when he is describing vampire lore to his new recruit Father Guiteau (Tim Guinee) – “Well first of all, they’re not romantic. Its not like they’re a bunch of fuckin’ fags hoppin’ around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents, all right? Forget whatever you’ve seen in the movies: they don’t turn into bats, crosses don’t work. Garlic? You wanna try garlic? You could stand there with garlic around your neck and one of these buggers will bend you fucking over and take a walk up your strada-chocolata WHILE he’s suckin’ the blood outta your neck, all right?”
Much was made in the press at the time of the film’s release of the apparent misogyny of Baldwin’s and Woods’ characters – especially with regards to their rough treatment of Sheryl Lee’s character. Carpenter responds to his critics on the commentary track, “I think Woods’ character Jack Crow is an equal opportunity abuser – he abuses priests, women, other men, vampires – everybody. He doesn’t pick or choose. I feel as long as he’s fair to everyone – there’s nothing wrong with it.” The criminally underrated actress Sheryl Lee (best known for her role as the troubled Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks) here plays Katrina. As evidenced by her incredibly sassy, sexy and movingly sad performance in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – she is not only very talented – but she is also fearless when it comes to putting herself out there. She really does give it her all in this part and completely sells it. Carpenter cast Sheryl Lee as she is able to play both tough and vulnerable and switch effortlessly between the two. Lee gives a truly remarkable and convincing performance here; particularly during the scenes where she is reacting to visions due to her psychic link with Valek. As an aside, this psychic link between Katrina and Valek is remarkably similar to a concept found in an early Carpenter script called Eyes (which was eventually lensed – heavily rewritten – by director Irvin Kershner as The Eyes of Laura Mars) – in which the heroine has the ability to see through the eyes of a killer. It’s interesting that Carpenter has employed the same idea here.
Vampires absolutely has the unmistakable signature look, sound and feel of a John Carpenter movie (more so than say Memoirs of an Invisible Man or Village of the Damned or even the earlier Starman for that matter) – the staging of the mayhem which ensues, for example, during Team Crow’s infiltration of the vampire nests, is very reminiscent of scenes in Carpenter’s The Thing. While the anamorphic widescreen cinematography by Gary B. Kibbe – perhaps the DP’s best work on a Carpenter film – truly captures (for the first time) the classic Carpenter look of the director’s earlier films established by Dean Cundey. There are also many other stylistic flourishes which make their first appearances here. Carpenter’s use of slow motion and dissolves for instance. The dream-like quality of Valek’s attack on the slayers during their post-raid party in the Sun God Motel was shot at 36 frames per second (just enough to slow the action down slightly) and employs dissolves between shots in order to give the impression that Valek can be everywhere at once and is virtually unstoppable.
Then of course there’s the indispensable Carpenter score. As the members of Team Crow consider themselves rock stars (albeit away from the public eye) – with their predilection for hard drinking and whoring; it makes sense that Carpenter should infuse his music with a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility. And the eclectic R&B-centric score composed by Carpenter himself (his 16th score) is one of his most memorable; featuring southwest blues influences, with contributions from Donald ‘Duck’ Dunne on bass and Steve Cropper on guitar (both members of legendary 60s R&B Funk band Booker T. & The M.G.’s and later The Blues Brother’s Band) – who, together with Carpenter on rhythm guitar, Jeffrey ‘Skunk’ Baxter on electronic guitar and dobro, Bruce Robb on the hammond B3 and Rick Shlosser on drums; gave themselves the moniker The Texas Toad Lickers specifically for the film. As Carpenter candidly remarks in the liner notes of the Intrada release of the soundtrack album, “I got to play with legendary musicians. I also got shit-faced drunk with them one night. It wasn’t pretty.” One of the tracks on the album – ‘Stake And Burn’ – also features heavy guitar riffs by Carpenter’s godson Daniel Davies (son of legendary frontman Ray Davies from UK band The Kinks). I should also make mention of just how good the overall sound design is for this film. Carpenter regular John Dunn again excells himself here; particularly in his use of creepy atmospherics during the nest sequences; greatly heightening the general unease.
This is perhaps Carpenter’s most gruesome film in terms of blood-letting (even more so than The Thing) – particulary evident during the ‘stake and burn’ sequence where Woods stakes and decapitates his dead compatriots in the aftermath of the motel massacre. And the massacre itself contains the single most gruesome image ever seen in a Carpenter film – where one of Crow’s team is literally ripped in half from crotch to shoulder – amid gouts of spurting blood (Carpenter again employs KNB Effects to carry out the gruesome practicals). As well as being the most graphically violent of Carpenter’s films, Vampires is also perhaps his most overtly sexy. The scene where Valek bites Sheryl Lee on the inner thigh has to rank as one of the most sensual scenes ever in a Carpenter movie – a scene which Carpenter gleefully states on the commentary track as being a real hit with the ladies. To Carpenter’s credit, he chose not to use any CG effects whatsover in Vampires – even going so far as to employ old-school in-camera tricks – such as moving painted backdrops behind actors to create a sense of foreground movement (as in the elevator scene towards the end) and, in the same sequence, even reusing the ‘hanging beneath an elevator’ gag (where the actor is laying horizontally on a hidden support) – which he employed in his very first film Dark Star. Thanks to the talent of Carpenter’s regular editor Edward A. Warshilka these effects shots blend seamlessly so as to be entirely unnoticable.
If I have a single issue with Vampires, it is that the vampires themselves aren’t particularly scary. Carpenter could easily have gone with portraying the titular creatures as being monstrous and beastly, but instead opted for a more classical Victorian portrayal of them as being alluring and sensual. While I understand his decision to steer away from using prosthetics on the vampires (which, with films like Fright Night and The Lost Boys, had become something of a genre convention by then) – giving his vampires superhuman strength and the ability to punch their fists through victims’ chests and decapitating people with their finger nails isn’t necessarily scary in itself and was perhaps something of a miscalculation on Carpenter’s part.
Being a product of 60s hippie counter culture, Carpenter has always harbored a healthy disdain for authority. And if They Live (perhaps his most subversive film to date) is his commentary on the rising cult of consumerism and how it relates to the systematic dumbing down of society and Escape from LA is his commentary on the inherent dangers of merging of church and state, then Vampires is clearly an expression of his distrust and contempt for the self-serving nature and blatant hypocrisy of The Vatican (something which was less overt, but still clearly present, in Prince of Darkness). This disdain is clearly evident not just in the way Crow continually belittles and mistreats Father Guiteau – but also in the reveal that his boss Cardinal Alba (Maximillian Schell) has been concealing a hidden agenda all along with regards to the Vatican’s pursuit of Valek.
There are some who feel that 1988’s They Live marks the last truly great John Carpenter movie he has made and that everything after this basically sucks. Sure, the period following They Live contains a few of my least favorite Carpenter films: Escape from LA being the one I have the most issues with. But films from this later period such as Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Ghosts of Mars are still worthy entries in their own right. And after the bland mediocrity of Village of the Damned and the ridiculous goofiness of Escape from LA, Carpenter here demonstrates with Vampires a hugely entertaining and fun return to form.
3.5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
DUEL
Spielberg’s arrival still remains an impressive achievement.
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Richard Matheson, based on his published short story. Starring Dennis Weaver. Years of release: 1971, 1973. Running times: 74 minutes (TV) 90 minutes (Theatrical)
I first saw Duel at the drive-in with my parents way back in 1973, when I was eight years old and it has stayed with me ever since. So what better way to celebrate my 100th film review this week than to honour the movie which sparked my fascination with filmmaking all those years ago.
Essentially an extended 90 minute chase sequence, Duel tells the story of David Mann (Dennis Weaver) a hen-pecked everyman who finds himself on the open highway during a routine business trip – only to be indiscriminately targeted and terrorized by a homicidal truck driver hell-bent on running him off the road.
Duel was originally published in 1971 as a short story in Playboy magazine; inspired by an actual incident which was experienced first-hand by the story’s author; noted genre writer Richard Matheson (The Shrinking Man, I Am Legend) – on the day President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Matheson and a friend found themselves tailgated and ultimately forced off the road by an angry truck driver who, Matheson surmised, may well have been enraged over Kennedy’s death.
The one thing people most remember from watching Duel is the fact we never see the truck driver’s face. We only ever see his hands on the wheel, shifting gears or tugging on the air horn cable – which is the way it is described in Matheson’s screenplay. Matheson’s idea of concealing the truck driver’s identity does two things. Firstly, it creates the disturbing notion that evil needs no rhyme nor reason or backstory to exist – it just is. Essentially there is nothing to be gained from knowing the driver’s motivation for doing what he’s doing. As in life – bad shit just happens for no reason. This technique of concealing the antagonist’s backstory is something John Carpenter would employ to great effect with Michael Myers in Halloween (and something which Rob Zombie seems to have completely misunderstood with his Halloween remake). It’s so sad that today’s audiences seem to view ambiguity and mystery as being a sign of weakness and demand to have everything explained. Although to the canny observer, there are indeed clues which hint to the truck’s backstory. The half dozen car number plates fastened to the bumper could be seen as the trophies of past victims; hinting at the idea this homicidal rampage has been on-going and nation-wide in scope. And the grimy, bug-spattered, weather-beaten look of the truck itself also alludes to the idea this campaign of terror has been in progress for some time; perhaps even years.
The second thing the concealment of the truck driver’s identity does is it allows the truck itself to take on its own persona. With its belching smoke stack, elongated snout and the word FLAMMABLE painted ominously on its rear (like the markings of some dangerous animal) there is no denying the look of the vehicle is menacing in itself. But under Spielberg’s direction, this belligerent metal predator also appears to be consciously ‘aware’ of what it is doing. The way it lies in wait, engine growling, taunting Mann into action; before lashing out – horn blaring – makes it one of the most complex and terrifying non-human antagonists ever portrayed on screen.
SPOILER WARNING: the following paragraph contains details of the film’s ending. So if you haven’t seen Duel and do not wish to have the ending spoiled for you – skip over the next paragraph.
This concept of personifying the truck as a living creature reaches its natural conclusion at the film’s climax; where Mann jams his briefcase on the gas pedal of his overheated car and leaps out at the last second – as the truck careens into it and plummets over a cliff; the sounds of crunching metal becoming a baleful, almost bestial death cry; as it crashes down in slow motion amid great plumes of dust into the desert valley below. As the dust finally settles (and a jubilant Mann looks on) – we see an eerie series of dissolves of the mangled wreckage; revealing the final death twitches of the truck; a dashboard fan in the cabin; the drip drip of diesel from a severed fuel line (the life blood of the beast) and finally a turning wheel gradually slows to a stop; while shots of the truck driver’s body are noticeably absent.
Actor Dennis Weaver (best known to auds at the time for his title role in the popular TV series McCloud) gives an impressive, virtually solo performance here as the harried David Mann. Initially Weaver wanted to play the role in a more aggressive, take charge and heroic manner from the beginning. But Spielberg persuaded him to downplay to begin with – leaving room for him to reach that point towards the finale. As events escalate over ninety minutes, Weaver’s gradual transformation from vulnerable ineffectual victim to eventual victor is beautifully realized thanks to Weaver’s pitch-perfect performance.
Prior to helming Duel (at the age of twenty-four) Spielberg had cut his teeth in network television; having famously directed Joan Crawford in her television debut in the pilot episode of Rod (The Twilight Zone) Serling’s Night Gallery anthology series (Spielberg was just twenty at the time), as well as helming episodes of Marcus Welby MD and Columbo, among others. Spielberg was the youngest television director working for Universal (most of the other directors were in their mid-forties) having signed a seven year contract, but desperately wanted to make the leap into feature films. Duel was his first telemovie and he would subsequently direct two more, Something Evil and Savage, before finally getting his first fully-fledged big screen directing gig with the unfairly-ignored Goldie Hawn vehicle The Sugarland Express in 1974. But it is Duel which rightfully garners (even today) the most praise of all of Spielberg’s offerings during these seminal years of his career.
As the sheer scale of location shooting was unprecedented for an American network telemovie at the time (it would in fact be the first telemovie shot entirely on location), the studio bosses were sceptical that Spielberg could achieve his vision within the allotted ten day shooting schedule. The studio (being mindful of the looming air date) preferred that Spielberg shoot all the car interiors on a sound stage using front-screen projection plates as backgrounds, but Spielberg (and rightly so) argued that the artificiality inherent in process photography would cast an unnecessary layer of unreality to the on-screen action and therefore dissipate the audience’s suspension of disbelief. The studio nervously acquiesced on the proviso that if Spielberg were to go even one day over schedule, he would have to shoot the car interiors back in LA. As it transpired, Spielberg did eventually go over schedule by several days, but the studio bosses were so impressed with the caliber of his footage, they happily granted the young director the extra time he required in order to complete the film the way he envisaged. Spielberg’s dogged determination to shoot everything for real is one of the reasons why Duel is such an immersive experience for the viewer. We actually feel like we are in the car with Dennis Weaver – thus heightening the whole experience. The austerity of the Southern Californian desert locations (primarily along Route 14 and Soledad Canyon Road) also creates a palpable sense of isolation – particularly in the film’s final moments. And the uniquely atonal and percussive score by Billy Goldenberg (which, remarkably, the composer only had two days to write) also perfectly heightens the tension. The climactic sequence where Mann is relentlessly pursued by the truck up a steep incline while his car overheats has got to be one of the most intensely nerve-racking sequences ever.
In order to acquire the necessary variety of shots and angles to maintain excitement while adhering to the schedule, Spielberg was meticulous in his planning – using multiple cameras and even going so far as to having a gigantic mural created depicting the action of the entire film from a bird’s eye’s perspective – which took up most of the wall space of his motel room for the duration of the shoot. Using this overhead plan, Spielberg was able to map out exactly where he was to position his cameras to gain the extensive coverage he required. By virtue of having so many cameras running simultaneously, Spielberg ended up with over 20,000 feet of footage, which was well beyond the normal 8,095 feet usually acquired for an average ninety minute feature at that time. With only three and a half weeks from the end of principal photography till the network air date, a team of five editors were charged to work simultaneously with the task of putting the film together.
All telemovies prior to Spielberg’s Duel (Duel being the 169th made up to that point) were essentially ‘movies’ in running time only; being mostly blandly-directed and flatly-photographed melodramas; with virtually zero cinematic qualities whatsoever. The enthusiastic viewer response to Duel, however, paved the way for subsequent theatrical-quality telemovies; including Brian’s Song, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Sybil; demonstrating that made-for-television didn’t necessarily have to mean bland and mediocre.
Two years following the initial air date in the US (as ABC’s Movie of the Week on November 13th 1971) fifteen minutes of additional footage was shot in order to expand the running time of Duel from 74 minutes to 90 – in preparation for its international theatrical release (the film wouldn’t have an official US domestic release in cinemas until a revival in 1983). The additional scenes include the opening title sequence where we see a POV shot taken from the front of Mann’s car – as it leaves his home, negotiates the streets of LA and turns onto the freeway, before hitting the open road. Another added (and admittedly superfluous) scene is a phone conversation Mann has with his wife – from her end. Spielberg initially objected to the addition of this scene (penned by the film’s producer George Eckstein) but shot it anyway – as it meant the film would be guaranteed a theatrical release. The standout addition though is the railway crossing scene; where Mann suddenly finds himself being nudged by the truck into the path of an oncoming freight train – arguably one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film.
Duel was screened theatrically across Western Europe, Japan and Australia (which is how I originally got to see it) and made $7 million during this initial run of engagements (which, on a budget of $450,000, was a fairly sizeable return, much to Universal’s complete surprise). More tellingly though, Spielberg was immediately hailed by the European film establishment as a visionary filmmaker and potential successor to Alfred Hitchcock – as there are indeed aesthetic and tonal similarities between Duel and the celebrated crop duster sequence in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest – particularly in the meticulous building of atmosphere and the escalation of tension and suspense in broad daylight. Spielberg had initially hoped to have virtually no dialogue at all; relying almost entirely on telling the story via camera, sound and editing. But the studio baulked at this. The young director acquiesced, but did manage to pare down the dialogue in Matheson’s script quite considerably – so there are no more than forty or so lines of dialogue in the entire movie. It is partly this ‘pure cinema’ aspect which impressed the Europeans. Italian critics in particular also loved what they saw in the film as political allegory of the class struggle between the down-trodden masses and the all-powerful establishment; social commentary which Spielberg consistently denied was ever intended. Spielberg himself always saw the film (as did Matheson) as the straightforward tale of an ordinary man – numbed by the comfort of a safe suburban life – who is forced to rediscover his primal instincts in order to survive. This idea of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances (also a favoured theme in Matheson’s stories) would become a constant in Spielberg’s subsequent films; most notably in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and to a lesser degree, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
There is a youthful exuberance to Spielberg’s initial theatrical output; from Jaws to Close Encounters to 1941 and Raiders and it is also clearly in evidence here. Spielberg has since conceded that the youthful vigour of Duel is most definitely a result of the age he was when he made it and that he would be hard-pressed these days to imbue the film with the same reckless abandon if he were to make it today.
Spielberg’s Duel is a remarkable film in many ways (and not just on a technical level). It is a simple tale well told and a truly immersive and visceral experience which is profoundly involving; which is why it remains my favourite of Spielberg’s films and indeed one of my favourite films of all time.
5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
HANNA
Unique blend of kick-ass action and modern day fairy tale results in something refreshing and new we haven’t seen before.
A US-German co-production. Directed by Joe Wright. Screenplay by Seth Lochhead and David Farr, story by Seth Lochhead. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng and Cate Blanchett. Year of release: 2011. Running time: 111 minutes.
In a secluded fairy tale cabin nestled in the woods near the Arctic Circle, sixteen year old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) hides out with her ex CIA operative father Erik (Eric Bana) who has trained his daughter in survival skills and martial arts. With Hanna’s training as a super assassin complete, she and her father must now go their separate ways, in order for Hanna to fulfil her purpose in exacting revenge on the CIA operative (Kate Blanchett) who murdered her mother.
First up, it must be said, thanks to the lensing by German cinematographer Alwin Küchler (Divergent, Sunshine) this is one gorgeous-looking film. Directors Danny Boyle (Sunshine) and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Gravity) were reportedly attached to the project prior to the hiring of Joe Wright, but it’s difficult to imagine whether or not the resulting movie under the helm of either of these visionary directors would’ve ended up nearly as breathtakingly beautiful as it does here.
The talented young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan as Hanna embodies the perfect balance of intelligence, naivety and kick-ass fighting skills. Although she has an encyclopedic knowledge of the larger world (facts and figures taught to her by her father) Hanna has virtually zero practical experience of how the outside world actually operates; having spent her entire young life isolated in the snowy wilderness. When she embarks on her continent-spanning quest, the film quickly shifts into the classic fish-out-of-water, innocent abroard scenario; creating many endearing instances of levity as Hanna is faced with everyday situations and technologies which are commonplace to the viewer – but seem utterly new and alien to her. An amusing example of this is a scene in a Moroccan hotel room, where Hanna’s curiosity of various home appliances; a television set, ceiling fan, and electric water jug – ends with all these things going terrifyingly berserk as she is unable to figure out how to switch any of them off.
Affable Australian actor Eric Bana (here sporting a convincing German accent) gives a nicely understated performance as Hanna’s father and mentor. While fellow Aussie Cate Blanchett is suitably menacing as Marissa, the CIA operative who is responsible for the death of Hanna’s mother; determined to capture the young assassin at any cost. And British thesp Tom Hollander as über-creepy strip club owner cum CIA henchman Isaacs (who whistles while he works) is also disturbingly sinister.
British director Joe Wright (best known for less vigorous romantic fare as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice) seems at first an odd choice to helm such an action-centric film, but demonstrates here he more than has the action chops to take on such material. There are many memorable, nicely-staged action sequences incorporated throughout the film; beginning with a special ops night-vision assault on Hanna’s snow-bound cottage. And the fight choreography in particular (supervised by veteran stunt co-ordinator Jeff Imada) is spectacular in its execution – most notably during a standout dockside sequence, set amid a maze of stacked shipping containers – where Hanna is set upon by Isaac and his skinhead henchmen. Likewise, a beautifully choreographed four minute single-shot steadicam sequence, during which Bana single-handedly takes out a bunch of assassins in hand-to-hand combat in a Berlin subway is simply astounding in its staging and execution. Interestingly, Wright has cited surrealist David Lynch as an inspiration for his handling of this particular material; with Marissa’s pursuit of Hanna mirroring the pursuit of Laura Dern in Wild at Heart by her mother Diane Ladd. There is also a callback to a scene in Wild at Heart (where a crazed Diane Ladd paints her entire face red with lipstick) – where Marissa obessively brushes her teeth with an electric toothbrush until her gums bleed. While the dwarf in Isaac’s strip club is clearly another quirky Lynchian flourish, there is ultimately little stylistic comparison between the two – other than perhaps in the way Lynch incorporated fairy tale references to The Wizard of Oz in Wild at Heart.
And speaking of fairy tale references; there are numerous allusions to fairy tales woven throughout Hanna, giving the film its own unique flavor. Hanna herself is the classic fairy tale heroine; an innocent forced to leave the sanctuary of her childhood in order to face the adult perils of the outside world. While Erik Bana’s character is very much (not least in appearance) the benign ‘woodsman’ character from classic folk lore. And Cate Blanchett’s Marissa is indeed the embodiment of the wicked witch or wicked queen from countless fairy tales.
Although the pacing tends to sag a little in the middle, when Hanna hitches a ride with a young British family holidaying in Morocco and Spain, the tempo does pick up once she gets to Berlin for the final showdown with Marissa. And while the driving synth score by UK dance duo The Chemical Brothers can be a little distracting at times, it does well in sustaining momentum during the various action sequences. Minor pacing issues aside, Joe Wright’s Hanna is still hugely entertaining. And, as there has never been (tonally at least, with its fairy tale allusions) anything quite like this film; it is this aspect (along with its kinetic action sequences) which definitely makes it well worth a watch.
Viewed on Blu-ray.
3.5 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
NIGHTCRAWLER
Unflinching satire turns a voyeuristic lens on the glorification of success obsession.
Reviewed on Tuesday 2nd December 2014
Written & directed by Dan Gilroy. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton. Running time: 117 mins.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, an aimless loner living in LA who is unable to connect empathetically with others who, after a chance encounter with a freelance cameraman and ambulance-chaser Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), decides he has found his one true calling in life and a profession he is perfectly attuned to do. Things soon get out of hand however when Lou’s unbridled enthusiasm gets the better of him and he goes far beyond just being a passive observer and recorder of late night crime and car wrecks; becoming a fully-fledged instigator and manipulator of events.
Gyllenhaal is quickly establishing himself as one of the most versatile and gifted actors of his generation and his performance in Nightcrawler is a testament to this. With him being in virtually every scene; this is very much a first-person perspective movie; perhaps the most challenging for any actor; as it is their performance alone which ultimately carries the entire film. But Gyllenhaal so effortlessly inhabits this character; with his gaunt appearance, wide-eyed stare and goofy enthusiasm; that it is easy to believe we are watching a real person. And it says something of his beguiling performance that we are so easily able to find such a reprehensible character oddly compelling; and dare I say it; disturbingly endearing even – so much so in fact that we are more than willing to go along for the ride (as morally bankrupt as it gets).
Comparisons have been drawn elsewhere between Gyllenhaal’s character and the character Christian Bale plays in American Psycho. Lou in Nightcrawler, however, isn’t so much as maliciously evil (as Patrick Bateman is) – as he is almost blissfully unaware of how his actions affect others. Which isn’t to say his actions could be in any way condoned – or he’d be someone you’d want to hang out with; just that he isn’t necessarily motivated by the compulsion to harm others. Other comparisons people have drawn are the Travis Bickle character in Taxi Driver, and Daniel Day Lewis’ character in There Will Be Blood, although there’s no sign of Bickle’s pent-up rage in Lou’s character or the narcissistic self-obsession of Day Lewis in P.T. Anderson’s film. Having said that, there’s no denying Gyllenhaal’s character is somewhere along the scale of this particular psychological spectrum.
Every self-respecting sociopath requires a whipping boy; someone to lord it over and control. And here that role falls to Lou’s camera assistant and general lackey Rick (Riz Ahmed) a down-trodden homeless guy Lou pulls off the streets and constantly berates and exploits and belittles with his superior knowledge of business acumen. Having dealt with my own fair share of sociopaths over the years; these scenes between the two have an unsettling ring of truth about them which is quite unnerving. Indeed Rick could be seen as the most sympathetic character in the entire movie – which has much to do with Ahmed’s perfectly-pitched performance. Likewise, in a role specifically written for her by her director husband; Rene Russo also shines here as Nina Romina; news director for LA’s lowest-rating local TV news service, who is one ratings loss away from losing her job, and who happily turns a blind eye to Lou’s increasingly diabolical transgressions in order to save her own professional skin. Russo has been relatively under-utilized of late and it would be fantastic to see her offered more meaty roles in the future as a result of this.
Much has been made of the film as media satire; particularly in the way it brings to light the role of TV news and current affairs; with its escalating preoccupation with upping the fear factor (Nina is quite prepared to manufacture the threat of urban crime spreading into the suburbs – when no such thing is happening). But, more importantly, Nightcrawler also shines a light on society’s unhealthy encouragement of the success-obsessed sociopath (the glorification of which last year’s Wolf of Wall Street was charged with in certain quarters). Nightcrawler, however, can never be accused of the same thing – as we are never in any doubt that Lou Bloom’s behaviour is ruining lives and ultimately reprehensible and nothing to aspire to.
On a directorial level, Gilroy has crafted a perfectly-realized and assured piece of work and never once do we get a sense it is his first time out of the gate. Indeed, based on this piece alone, I would even go so far as to already place him in the same league as David Fincher. From the film’s opening moments, I was also reminded of David Cronenberg’s Crash – particularly in the way James Newton Howard’s score (very reminiscent of Howard Shore’s score for the Cronenberg film) lulls us into accepting this nocturnal urban underbelly as being somewhat, if disturbingly, alluring and sexy. Likewise, Robert Elswit’s reflection-filled lensing (again, reminiscent of Peter Suschitzky’s gorgeous work on Crash) perfectly captures the noirish ambience of a sleeping city during the wee hours.
Nightcrawler is a hugely entertaining, thought-provoking and involving thriller; featuring an incredible central performance and is an impressive first feature from an emerging filmmaker who is definitely one to watch.
4 stars out of 5
Star ratings: 1 – poor / 2 – below average / 3 – good / 4 – excellent / 5 – unmissable
Viewed at the Event Cinemas Megaplex Marion, Adelaide, December 2nd 2014.
Greg Moss is a film school graduate with a background in directing music videos and is currently seeking representation as a screenwriter. He likes creative people, feeding the cat and watching genre movies. Greg can also be heard on the Blu-ray commentary track for the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, out now from Scream Factory.
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