Made in the same year as Oliver Stone’s breakthrough “Platoon,” “Salvador” is arguably Stone’s best film. The late, great critic Pauline Kael described the directorial style of this film as someone putting a gun to the back of Stone’s neck and shouting “GO!!” That’s pretty much the long and short of it. The most exciting political thriller since Costa-Gavras’s “Z,” “Salvador” is like a Hunter S. Thompson story in hell.
James Woods gives his all-time best performance as sleazebag photographer Richard Boyle. Apologies to Paul Newman, but he should have gotten the Best Actor Oscar for “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Verdict,” or “Nobody’s Fool.” Sorry, Woods deserved the Oscar in 1987. If there was any role Woods was born to play, it’s Boyle. And the supporting performances, from James Belushi to Elpidia Carillo to Micheal Murphy to John Savage to Tony Plana are all magnificent.
This is political cinema as an action film. You can really see Kathryn Bigelow taking notes (Stone produced her 1989 thriller “Blue Steel”) for her later work on “Strange Days” and “The Hurt Locker.”
“The King of Comedy” was Martin Scorsese’s follow-up to his legendary Jake LaMotta biopic “Raging Bull.” “King” flopped with audiences and got mixed reviews from critics. However, I think it’s one of Scorsese’s best films and as I much as I admire “Raging Bull,” I would watch “King” before “Bull” any day.
This movie seriously rubbed many the wrong way, because “King” did not resemble the typical Scorsese film. (There’s no gangsters, rat-a-tat dialogue and editing, or violence.) And star Robert DeNiro, as obnoxious autograph hound and wanna-be comedian Rupert Pupkin, likely really repulsed people. Granted, Jake LaMotta and Travis Bickle were scary characters, but let’s be honest, people love scary characters. Pupkin is the delusional loudmouth that most people go out of their way to avoid, let alone avoid seeing a movie about. But DeNiro really brings it in this role, as well as Jerry Lewis as talk show host Jerry Langford and Sandra Bernhard as DeNiro’s arguably more demented cohort Masha. Berhnard’s “seduction” of Lewis’s character is absolutely hilarious and frightening.
But I think time has been really kind to “King.” Uncomfortable, queasy comedy (i.e. “Curb Your Enthusiam,” “Louis”) has attained a certain kind of cache and if you like Larry David and Louis C.K., you should really give “King” a chance. “King” is one of the most brutal critiques of celebrity culture / worship ever created. It’s extremely uncomfortable to watch, but also very darkly funny.
Arguably, the most revered Western of all time and voted 7th greatest film of all time in the esteemed British film journal Sight and Sound in 2012, “The Searchers” is my personal favorite among the 10 films selected. It was highly regarded by many of the New Hollywood directors of the 1970s and its influence can be seen most significantly in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore.”
“The Searchers” is about a woman (played as an adult by Natalie Wood), who is kidnapped as a young girl by Native Americans and her uncle’s obsessive search to find her. The uncle, played by John Wayne, is a Confederate Civil War veteran, on the outside of the law, and extremely racist. In his mission, he’s accompanied by his adopted nephew and the woman’s brother, played by Jeffrey Hunter, who is Native American by birth. Wayne’s character doesn’t consider Hunter to be part of his family and the two quarrel throughout the film. Wayne even reveals that his mission once he finds his niece is to kill her, because she’s likely been defiled by the tribe that kidnapped her. Yes, this is not exactly the most evolved film … but stay with me, please. Though, I’m going to reveal major spoilers, so if you don’t want to know what happens … STOP READING NOW!!
The first clip shows what happens when Wayne’s character eventually catches up with Wood. As he’s been saying, you expect Wayne’s character to kill her, but instead, he lifts her up and says “Let’s go home, Debbie.” This scene leaves me in tears every time I see it.
However, the saddest moment is yet to come. Wayne’s character carries Debbie back to her home and gives her back to his brother. Wayne’s nephew joins hands with the love of his life and enters the home. And then … Wayne turns around and walks off and the door closes behind him. The End.
Next week, Allen Hughes, one half of the dynamic filmmaking duo The Hughes Brothers, will be releasing his solo directorial debut “Broken City.” I don’t know if it will be any good, but if any of the Hughes Brothers’ prior films provide any indication as to “Broken City”‘s potential quality, it’s going to at least be interesting, if not, pretty damn good. At this time, I’d like to give a shout-out to their most underrated film.
“Dead Presidents” was the Hughes Brothers follow-up to their explosive debut “Menace II Society.” “Presidents” is an ambitious redux of “The Deer Hunter,” but from the African-American perspective. It was based on one of the stories from Wallace Terry’s groundbreaking oral history of the African-American experience in Vietnam, “Bloods.”
The movie did not get particularly good reviews and was only moderately successful when it was released. Even someone from the Criterion Collection, who released a terrific deluxe special edition laserdisc at the time, opined that it was a mistake to give the Criterion treatment to this film. Sorry, I have to cry “Bulls–t!” on all of that.
“Dead Presidents” is not a perfect film, but it’s pretty sensational nonetheless. It has great performances by Larenz Tate, Chris Tucker, and Keith David, has some extremely harrowing scenes that are hard to shake from one’s memory, and really conveys a strong sense of desperation and anger of the working class, post-Vietnam. The scope and depth of this film is truly magnificent. When you consider that this film was directed by 22-year-olds, you almost want to kick the a– of anyone who dismissed this back in the day.
This is an underrated masterpiece that deserves rediscovering.
Back when I was 12 years old or so and would be allowed to go off on my own at the local shopping mall, I used to spend a lot of my time at Walden Books. Every time I went, I used to peruse a huge book by Danny Peary called “Cult Movies.” For any of those who don’t know what this book is/was, it was the first major book to look at the phenomenon known as cult movies and examine these films from a critical, but non-judgmental viewpoint. Peary looked at a wide range of cult films, from the obvious (“Harold and Maude,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show”) to the classics (“Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane”) to … “Pink Flamingos.”
Peary included a lengthy synopsis of every film and the description of what happens in “Pink Flamingos” had me convulsing in laughter. The film is about two families competing to be “the filthiest people alive.” It’s about people who do all the wrong things and are defiantly proud of them. For someone who painstakingly always did the right thing, reading about this film and its characters made me levitate.
This film was like a holy grail for me for several years. The film was released on video in the early 1980s, but no video store located near me carried it. The local art house maybe showed it as a late night film only occasionally … but also had strict age requirements. It wasn’t until the summer before my last year of college that I finally found a video store that carried this and I rented it along with a lot of other Waters films that I had read about, but had never seen.
My initial reaction? Very disappointed, especially after all the build-up in my mind and not being able to see it for years. This isn’t a slam on the film. It’s just that nothing could have lived up to what I had expected this film to be in my mind. I actually preferred (and still prefer) Waters’ follow-up “Female Trouble.”
However, I saw it in a theater during its 25th anniversary in 1997 (when it was officially rated NC-17 for “for a wide range of perversions in explicit detail”) and finally appreciated it. “Pink Flamingos” is a film that works best watching it with lots of others, where you’re all sharing the collective embarrassment of seeing the most outrageous and disgusting human behavior together.
I still don’t think this is Waters’ best film, but it’s still pretty funny. This clip is one of my favorites. And while the characters are fully clothed, the language is pretty rough, so it’s definitely not safe for work. You gotta love those Delmarva accents.
The Pistols cover the Monkees. One of my all-time favorite covers and one of my all-time favorite Sex Pistols tracks. From “The Great Rock n’ Roll Swindle” soundtrack (though, for the life of me, I can’t remember where or when the song appeared in the film).
My favorite Woody Allen film is the thought-provoking, but despairing and chilling 1989 drama “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In a modern-day update of “Crime and Punishment,” Allen explores the same themes of Dostoevsky’s classic, but comes to some different conclusions. In the world of Allen’s film, guilt does not always provoke a man to do the right thing, shallowness wins out over earnestness, and tellingly, the film’s most decent character (a rabbi) gradually goes blind by the end of the film.
Martin Landau is arguably the film’s lead, but was nominated for Best Supporting Actor instead of Best Actor that year at the Oscars. As much as “Ed Wood” is one of my all-time favorite films, Landau should have gotten his Oscar for his role as the morally conflicted doctor in “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” instead of his role as Bela Lugosi in “Ed Wood.”
Even Allen doesn’t spare himself. He plays a variation on the sometimes lovable neurotic he’s played in countless other films, but removes the “lovable” part. His character is like someone who never matured beyond his college years and his character’s pathetic stabs at being meaningful are seen as petty and grossly naive and immature.
The scene at the attached clip is one of the pivotal moments of the film, when Landau’s character goes back to the house where he grew up and flashes back to an intense discussion during a seder about faith, the nature of evil, and whether God has any meaning.
While critically acclaimed at the time of its release, it doesn’t get much mention these days. This is one of the best films of the 1980s and is in serious need of rediscovering.
Here’s the punk version of Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music.” Wayne (now Jayne) County gives a special shout-out to one of the preeminent underground music clubs of 1960s-1970s NYC, as well as all of the NYC punk icons of the day: Patti Smith, the Ramones, the Talking Heads, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the New York Dolls, Pere Ubu (yes, they’re from Cleveland, but they deserve a shout-out), Lance Loud and the Mumps, Richard Hell, Television, Tuff Darts, etc. And no, the Backstreet Boys who backed Wayne up are not the barely pubescent, New Millenial bad-facial hair boys who want it THAT way.
This trailer is admittedly lame, but Luis Bunuel’s final film “That Obscure Object of Desire” is pretty awesome. This is a very infuriating film if you take it literally. However, if you groove on the subversive surrealistic groove that Bunuel is emanating, it’s very very funny. The film’s premise involves a middle-aged man (brilliantly played by Bunuel stalwart Fernando Rey) who meets an enticing young woman (played enticingly by both Carole Bouquet and Angel Molina … more on that below) who seems to be into the older man. However, the young woman’s affections run from hot to cold to hot to cold to hot … to cold … to … And, understandably, the older guy gets increasingly frustrated. Hilarity … frustration … violence … what have you … ensues.
I remember seeing this in a college film class and the men in the audience went completely bats–t crazy over the machinations of the female lead. When the older man (finally) fights back, the men in the audience erupted in thunderous applause. Words like “bitch” and maybe the c-word were heard bandied about in the auditorium. I can’t say I was that evolved as a human being when I saw the film, but even then, I felt a little weird sitting there with that going on. And yes, that sort of reaction works if you look at the film literally. But if you look at the film literally, you also have to admit that lead male protagonist is a complete putz and not worth defending on any level. The fact that the female lead is played by two different actresses only emphasizes the lead male character’s frustration about never really knowing the woman who is his obscure object of desire. Bunuel’s reason for casting two different women as the lead? One of the actresses had to bail halfway through filming and Bunuel had to hire another actress. However, based on the theme of the film, it totally works.
This is one of Bunuel’s best films and a wonderful cap to a splendid career of f–king with moviegoers.
“Crossing the Line” is a fascinating documentary about James J. Dresnok, a former U.S. soldier who defected to North Korea in 1962. Dresnok grew up on the short end of lot of misfortunes in his youth. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old, briefly lived with his father, and was then placed into foster care. He joined the Army at 17 years of age, got married soon afterwards, and then divorced his first wife after he found out she cheated on him with another man. Facing a court martial for going AWOL while stationed in South Korea, he cast his fate to the wind, elected to cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and defected to North Korea. Along with three other US soliders who defected to North Korea, Dresnok’s fortunes took a dramatic turn for the better, becoming an important part of the North Korean propaganda machine. He even became a movie star in North Korea, starring as an American villain in the 20-part North Korean film series “Unsung Heroes.”
In the film, Dresnok is unrepentant in his love for his adopted country. However, it’s worth noting that his success is in direct contrast to the fate of many North Koreans who have suffered under the repressive regimes of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il. While Dresnok expresses no regrets about his decisions, he also has health problems as the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking and smoking. It doesn’t take a Psych 101 student to conclude there may be a lot of internal doubt on Dresnok’s part about his choices.
“Crossing the Line” is a brilliant portrayal of what happens when a man sells his soul during a weak moment and the toll such decisions play on that man throughout his life.
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