High Noon

 Year: 1952

Director:  Fred Zinnemann

Screenplay:  Carl Foreman, based on the short story "The Tin Star" by John W. Cunningham

Starring:  Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney, Henry Morgan

Running Time: 85 minutes

Genre:  Western

Hadleyville, New Mexico, 1800s:  Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) is getting married to Amy Fowler (Kelly).  The next day he is due to retire.  However, no sooner has the marriage ceremony concluded, than Kane hears that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw who Kane put away for murder, has been pardoned and is heading into town on the noon train, and there are three other gunslingers who are waiting for him at the station.  A devout Quaker and pacifist, Amy pleads with Kane to leave town, but Kane refuses.  However, when Kane tries to get help from the townspeople, no-one is willing to step forward.

High Noon is one of the classic Westerns and one of the classic American films.  It takes place largely in real time, and there is a sense of impending dread as Kane goes from place to place, trying to round up volunteers to fight with him, but finding no-one willing to help.  Intercut with Miller's three desperadoes waiting at the station, and low angle shots of the ominous, looming railway tracks, and clocks ticking off the minutes to noon.  Gary Cooper is good as Kane, as he becomes increasingly haggard and bitter at the lack of help he receives.  He also gives Kane an element of vulnerability.  When he gets hurt, it feels real, and he doesn't just brush it off in the next scene.  Grace Kelly appears in an early role, as Amy, Kane's new Quaker wife, and she is good, but the nearly 30 year age difference between Cooper (born in 1901) and Kelly (born in 1929) seems a little questionable today.  Also in the cast are veterans such as Otto Kruger and Lon Chaney, who is possible best known for his horror films such as The Wolf Man (1941), and it also marks the screen debut for Lee Van Cleef, as one of Miller's gang.  The film maintains a tense atmosphere throughout and the climatic gunfight is exciting.  It was very successful upon release, but also very controversial, particularly the final scene where the townspeople gather around Kane and Amy as they prepare to leave, and Kane silently throws his tin star into the dust with contempt.  John Wayne called Hugh Noon "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life," and made Rio Bravo (1959) with Howard Hawks, in which Wayne's marshal rejects several offers of help, as a riposte to it.  However, the film did become popular with several American presidents.  Bill Clinton screened the film 17 times at the White House, and Ronald Reagan, himself hardly known for his liberal leanings, cited High Noon as his favourite film.  High Noon remains a gripping and intelligent film to this day, which is more of a thriller and a drama about morality and courage, rather than just a straight shoot-em-up oat opera.  

Gary Cooper in High Noon

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Year:  2022

Director:  Richard Linklater

Screenplay:  Richard Linklater

Starring:  Milo Coy, Glen Powell, Zachary Levi, Jack Black

Running Time:  98 minutes

Genre: Coming-of-age, animation

Houston, 1969:  Nine year old Stan (Coy) lives with his family near the NASA complex, and, like everyone else, is fascinated by the impending Apollo 11 Moon launch.  As lift off approaches, Stan imagines himself as an astronaut travelling to the Moon.

Loosely based on the childhood of writer, director and producer Richard Linklater, the film interweaves a warmly nostalgic look at being a child in 1969 with a fictional story of a nine year old boy who is persuaded by NASA to be the actual first person on the Moon, because they made the space capsule too small for an adult.  Narrated by Jack Black as an adult Stan looking back, the film is at it's best in it's look at Stan's daily life in 1969 and the hype surrounding the Moon landing, which is ever present.  Stan's family live in the shadow of NASA, and his Dad works on the Apollo 11 mission, and most of Stran's friend's parents work at NASA at some capacity.  It does acknowledge some of the troubles in America at the time: protests, assassinations, riots and the constant presence of the Vietnam war.  It also touches on the fact that the Moon landings were controversial, a lot of people thought that it was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.  Also there is the fact that Stan's world is quite dangerous.  There is frequent corporal punishment, from teachers, parents and friend's parents, and the kids live a kind of carefree existence where they are exposed to risks that would be unthinkable to 21st century parents.  However, for the most part, it depicts the world of the 1960s as an idyllic time.  The film is animated in a technique called 'rotoscoping' where scenes are shot with live actors and then the animation is traced over the footage.  Linklater had previously used the technique in Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). The animation is particularly effective in the frequent clips from movies and TV shows, as well as news footage.  The performances are good, and, mixing the historical with the personal, the film is a warm look at a very particular time and place.

 

Milo Coy in Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

 Year:  1987

Director:  John Hughes

Screenplay:  John Hughes

Starring:  Steve Martin, John Candy

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

Uptight advertising executive Neal Page (Martin) is desperate to get from his business meeting in New York City to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Chicago.  However, when his plane is diverted to Wichita, Kansas, Neal embarks on a race against time, packed with disasters and misadventures.  To make matters worse, he is in the company of good-natured, but very irritating, salesman Del Griffith (Candy).

Writer/director John Hughes made his name with teen films such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and this was seen as something of a change of pace, but the plot and structure are fairly similar, in many ways, to National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), which Hughes wrote, and which also deals with a disastrous road trip.  The film starts off with a very realistic and relatable situation.  Steve Martin as Neal Page is desperate to get back to Chicago from New York, but the business meeting is running frustratingly long due to his indecisive client, then he has to get to the airport, but the streets of New York are chockablock with people trying to get away for their Thanksgiving weekends, and then when he finally does get on to the plane, which is delayed, he s downgraded from first class to coach, and has to sit next to overly friendly salesman Del Griffith, and the plane is diverted to Wichita due to a snow storm in Chicago.  Then the situations become ever more absurd and farcical as Neal desperately tries to get back to Chicago by any means necessary before Thanksgiving, which is three days away.  Also he is unable to shake off Del, who both helps and hinders his efforts.   This is a road movie and, like most road movies, is very episodic, but the jokes and comical situations come thick and fast, even if they don't always land, enough of them do to make it consistently funny.  Steve Martin and John Candy were both great comedians and they bounce off each other very well.  Martin has a fine line in seething, buttoned down frustration, and Candy, of course, is the chatty slob who is lovable, but who you know would drive you to distraction after awhile.  The film has it's silly moments, which don't really sit with the more realistic tone of the earlier scenes, but it still works, and the inevitable friendship that springs up between Martin and Candy is well drawn and quite believable.  While it may not be a classic, it is a fun comic romp.  Kevin Bacon has a cameo early in the film as a businessman racing Steve Martin for a taxi.  

Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

 Year:  2022

Director:  Tom Gormican

Screenplay:  Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Action, comedy

Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage is struggling with his career, and is becoming increasingly estranged from his ex-wife (Horgan) and teenage daughter (Lily Sheen).  Reluctantly he accepts a lucrative assignment to travel to an island off Mallorca and appear at the birthday party of a billionaire super-fan, Javi (Pascal).  Shortly after he arrives, however, Cage is contacted by CIA agents Vivian (Haddish) and Martin Etten (Barinholtz) who inform him that Javi is an international arms dealer, who is behind the kidnapping of the teenage daughter of a prominent politician.  The CIA want Cage to act as a spy for them.

Nicolas Cage has had a strange and eclectic career.  Making his name with such films as the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona (1987), Moonstruck (1987) opposite Cher, and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), to action hero turns in The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997) and Face/Off (1997), and an Oscar-nominated performances in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Adaptation. (2002), and after a series of small, straight-to-video films, he has had something of career resurgence in recent years with cult horror films such as Mandy (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019), and finding critical success with Pig (2021).  Cage has also had a strange form of cult celebrity appearing in numerous internet memes and his face appearing on things such as mugs, clothes and even cushions, due to his eclectic career choices, his often flamboyant style of acting (which Cage himself described as "nouveau shamanistic") and his distinctive look and drawling voice.  In this film Cage doesn't just play a version of himself but also an imaginary version of his younger self, digitally de-aged and credited under his birth name of "Nicolas Kim Coppola", who crops up to give the older Cage advice or insults. Here he reminds us once again that he can still deliver a great performance and has a real gift for comedy.  Here he pokes fun, not only at his own career, but at his public image and even his financial troubles.  Pedro Pascal is funny and charismatic as the possible arms-dealer and Nicolas Cage super-fan, with whom the actor bonds.  Great comedy actors such as Sharon Horgan and Tiffany Haddish are a little underused in the supporting cast, but it is really the Nicolas Cage show.  Neil Patrick Harris also appears in a small role as Cage's agent.  The story turns into a fairly average buddy action film and it runs out of steam a little by the end, but the action scenes are well staged and there are consistent laughs throughout.  The performances elevate the film, and the concept of Nicolas Cage playing himself gives the film an extra dimension of fun.  

Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Tarantula

 Year:  1955

Director:  Jack Arnold

Screenplay:  Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley, from a story by Jack Arnold and Robert M. Fresco, based on the television episode "No Food for Thought" written by Robert M. Fresco from Science Fiction Theatre 

Starring:  John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll

Running Time:  80 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

When a strangely deformed man is found dead in the Arizona desert, Dr. Matt Hastings (Agar) investigates the laboratory of the respected Professor Gerald Deemer (Carroll), who has been working on a new nutrient to help feed the world's rapidly growing population, however, in it's unperfected state it causes rapid, uncontrolled growth, and exposure to it was somehow responsible for the deformity and death of the man found in the desert.  Things go from bad to worse when a tarantula Deemer had been experimenting on breaks out and goes on the rampage, as it keeps getting bigger and bigger, and hungrier and hungrier.

This is one of the better examples of the giant bug movies that were crawling all over American screens in the 1950s.  Science and particularly scientists were often depicted quite ambiguously in American film in the 1950s.  While science promised the brave new world of numerous gaudily printed science-fiction magazines, it also unleashed the horrors of the atomic bomb.  Even when the scientists were essentially benevolent and well-meaning, as in Tarantula, when the eggheads inevitably make a complete mess of things it is time for them to step aside and let the US Air Force blow everything to kingdom come. The film used quite advanced and complex special effects for the time, with blown up images of real animals used to depict the giant animals.  Most of the sequences of the tarantula itself use a real tarantula superimposed on to the footage, with model effects used for close-ups of it's fangs, and for the film's climax.  They may look unconvincing today, but the special effects were deemed convincing for the 1950s.  Also a lot of people are terrified of tarantulas anyway.  Jack Arnold was one of the great directors of B-movies, and has a solid cast of veterans, including Leo G. Carroll, who appeared in several Alfred Hitchcock films, as the avuncular professor who is unwittingly responsible for the whole mess.  John Agar, who appeared in a number of John Ford Westerns, plays the square jawed hero, and Mara Corday, who really doesn't have much to do as Carroll's assistant and Agar's love interest.  The film has an interesting script, adapted from a 1955 episode of the TV anthology series Science Fiction Theatre.  Tarantula's lasting legacy in popular culture is probably being name checked in the lyrics to "Science Fiction, Double Feature" the opening song for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): "And Leo G. Carroll/ was over a barrel/ when tarantula took to the hills."  You may also recognise the Air Force pilot at the end of the film as it is a very early, uncredited appearance by Clint Eastwood.

Tarantula

Chinatown

 Year:  1974

Director:  Roman Polanski

Screenplay:  Robert Towne

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Huston

Running Time:  134 minutes

Genre:  Crime, mystery, drama

Los Angeles, 1937:  Cynical private investigator Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to investigate a seemingly simple case of suspected marital infidelity.  However, he soon finds himself drawn into a murderous criminal conspiracy over water rights. As he pursues his investigation, Gittes uncovers secrets far darker than he could have suspected.

Inspired by the real life "California water wars", a series of disputes in the early 20th century over the rights to supply water in Southern California, this is one of the classic American films of the 1970s.  Film noir was a subgenere of American film which flourished during the 1940s and 1950s.  Literally translated as "black film",  film noir featured dark, cynical and bleak stories with often stylish, shadowy cinematography.  Chinatown is an example of "neo-noir"in that it came after the period of film noir, but still hearkens back to it in terms of plot and style, albeit with an updated sensibility. The darkness of the film's content is somehow complemented by mostly taking place in bright sunshine.  Jack Nicholson gives one of his best performances as the cynical detective Jake Gittes, charismatic, tough and sometimes dangerous, but with a moral centre.  Faye Dunaway gives a powerful, complex performance as the brittle femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, who turns out to be more of a tragic victim.  Legendary director John Huston plays the courtly, avuncular, fabulously wealthy and thoroughly evil Noah Cross, who is terrifying because he is so friendly and polite.  Roman Polanski has a cameo as a henchman who slices Gittes' nose in a memorable scene.  The screenplay by Robert Towne is superbly crafted, with every element fitting together like clockwork, although Polanski apparently rearranged some scenes, and also wrote the film's bleak conclusion.  Polanski, ghastly human being although he may be, was a great filmmaker, and this is one of his finest moments as director.  Despite the title, only the film's final few minutes are set in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles, although it is mentioned in several places that Jake was a policeman in Chinatown, and something terrible happened there which is never revealed, but which made him leave the force and seemingly left him with lasting trauma,  and so Chinatown in the film is less a physical place than a state of mind, as after the devastating climax, which is still shocking even after several viewings, Gittes' partner in his detective agency delivers the film's classic closing line:  "Forget it, Jake.  It's Chinatown."

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown

King Kong

Year:  1933

Directors:  Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Screenplay:  James Creelman and Ruth Rose, from a story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper

Starring:  Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy, horror

Wildlife filmmaker Carl Denham (Armstrong) leads an expedition to a mysterious, remote island.  Among the party is Ann Darrow (Wray), a woman who Denham encountered in New York and convinced to accompany him in order to play the female lead in his film.  Shortly after they arrive on the island, Ann is captured by local villagers who sacrifice her to their god, Kong, a giant gorilla who lives in the thick jungle behind a giant wall which protects the village from the horrors in the jungle.  The rest of the expedition set out to rescue Ann only to find a nightmarish "lost world" is the jungle populated by prehistoric beasts.  Meanwhile Denham decides that instead of bringing film of Kong back to America, it would be a much bigger money-maker to bring back Kong himself.

This is one of the most influential and beloved films ever made, and still possibly the definitive monster movie.  The film has dated somewhat over the past ninety years, it's pretty suspect today in the way that the local indigenous people on the island are treated, and also the male characters are extremely sexist (the film opens with Denham, the ship's first mate (Bruce Cabot), skipper (Frank Reicher) and a theatrical agent (Sam Hardy) discussing how much they do not want a woman on their journey, like a bunch of little boys who don't want to let girls into their club, however Denham reluctantly maintains that they need a woman to make their film more commercial).  Also there are the technical limitations of early sound recording, which required the actors to stand near a microphone to record their voices.  The special effects developed by Willis O'Brien, are notable for their use of "stop motion" animation (basically with stop motion a posable model is put into the required position and a photograph is taken, the model is then moved very slightly and another picture is taken, then it is moved slightly again  and another picture is taken and the process is repeated again and again and again, and eventually when the pictures are run together it should look like the creature is moving, it's very painstaking and time-consuming but can be very effective).  When Kong moves you can see his fur moving in strange ways due to the fingerprints of the animators moving the model.  Kong is a terrifying, savage force of nature.  In his island home he really is "King" Kong, defeating several dinosaur  adversaries, including a memorable battle with a Tyrannosaurus (which took seven weeks to animate).  However, when Kong is captured and taken to New York, where he is put on display in chains, it is hard not to feel sympathy for his rage, bafflement and fear, and you can't really blame him when he breaks out and goes on a rampage.  It is his fascination with Ann, who he treats with surprising tenderness, that brings about his downfall, culminating in one of the most iconic scenes in all of cinema where Kong is at the top of the Empire State Building (the tallest building in the world at the time) being gunned down by planes which he tries to swat like flies.  The film's true villain is the reckless Carl Denham, who at the very least is criminally irresponsible, in the risks he exposes others to in order to make his film, he puts his entire crew at risk, as well as Ann, and happily sacrifices the lives of the villagers on the island, as well as bringing Kong to New York in the first place.  However he is given the film's final line, surveying Kong's body in front of the Empire State Building a character comments "Well, the airplanes got 'im".  Denham replies "No, it wasn't the airplanes.  It was beauty that killed the beast."

  

It Came from Outer Space

Year:  1953

Director:  Jack Arnold

Screenplay:  Harry Essex, from a story by Ray Bradbury

Starring:  Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush

Running Time:  80 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

Writer and amateur astronomer Frank Putnam (Carlson) and his schoolteacher girlfriend Ellen Fields (Rush) witness what seems to be a meteor crashing in the Arizona desert.  When they discover, they discover that it is, in fact, a large spacecraft.  Of course, nobody believes them, but then local people begin acting very strangely.

This is one of the finest moments of the 1950s science-fiction craze.  To modern audiences the alien creature may be more likely to provoke giggles than screams, and the film's low budget is very obvious in places, however under celebrated science-fiction director Jack Arnold, it still conjures up some memorable images, and the desert landscapes are evocative.  Based on an original screen treatment by legendary science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, and scripted by Harry Essex, the film is well written with intelligent dialogue.  Unusually the film's shape-shifting aliens are not malevolent, all they want is to repair their ship and leave.  Richard Carlson gives a strong performance as the increasingly stressed astronomer, even if Barbara Rush is a little underused as his loyal girlfriend.  Charles Drake plays the town's aggressive sheriff who is also Putnam's rival for Ellen's affections.  The film was originally shown in 3D which is why so many objects are thrust at the camera.  

It Came from Outer Space

The Northman

 Year:  2022

Director:  Robert Eggers

Screenplay:  Sjón and Robert Eggers

Starring:  Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe

Running Time:  137 minutes

Genre:  epic, action, drama

895 AD: After King Aurvandill War-Raven (Hawke) is murdered by his brother Fjölnir (Bang), who carries off Queen Gudrún (Kidman), Prince Amleth (Skarsgård) swears to avenge his father and save his mother.  As years pass, Amleth plans to pose as a slave in Fjölnir's stronghold, and prepare for his revenge with the help of sorceress Olga (Taylor-Joy).

The film is based on the medieval Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which also inspired William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  However, if you are not into the Bard, you don't need to worry about this being Hamlet, it is basically more like a Viking version of Gladiator (2000), or a plot line from Game of Thrones (2011-2019).  Eggers, who has made his name with cerebral so-called "elevated horror" films such as The Witch (2016) and The Lighthouse (2020), may not seem like the obvious choice for making a blood-and-thunder action film, but the action is staged very well, even though it can be difficult to tell one hairy. bearded, mud-caked Viking from another.  The film is well-designed and it is a pretty bleak, unsympathetic worldview, even anti-hero Amleth seems more than happy to raid and pillage villages.  Alexander Skarsgård is good as the snarling, steely-eyed Amleth, Nicole Kidman is good as the sinister queen, and Anya Taylor-Joy, who made her name with Eggers' The Witch,  provides the film's conscience as the mystical, nurturing Olga.  The film has a semi-supernatural aspect with Olga's magic, and Amleth's frequent hallucinatory visions, as well as a magical sword.  Even though it is quite a long film, there is too much going on for it to ever get dull.  It's been a while since there was a proper musclebound sword and shield historical action film like this, so it is quite welcome.  It also comments on the price to be paid for vengeance on both sides.

Alexander Skarsgård is The Northman

The Remains of the Day

 Year:  1993

Director:  James Ivory

Screenplay:  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Harold Pinter (uncredited), based on the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Starring:  Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Peter Vaughan, Hugh Grant, Michael Lonsdale, Tim Pigott-Smith, Lena Headey

Running Time:  134 minutes

Genre:  Period drama

The late 1950s:  Stevens (Hopkins), the butler of the large English stately home Darlington Hall, looks back on twenty years of devoted service to the disgraced Lord Darlington (Fox) and, in particular, reflects on his relationship with housekeeper Miss Kenton (Thompson).

Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Merchant Ivory Productions (producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) were the undisputed champions of handsomely mounted, serious period dramas.  This faithful adaptation of the celebrated 1989 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro is one of their best known productions.  Unfolding mostly in flashback while Stevens takes a journey by car over several days to visit Miss Kenton, the film mostly takes place in the late 1930s.  Stevens is a man whose entire life is devoted to serving his master, and he is responsible for ensuring that everything in this world runs like clockwork, that everything is immaculate and in it's proper place.  He is also a tragic figure, deeply repressed and unable to open up about his true feelings.  It is never blatantly expressed, but pretty clear that Stevens is in love with Miss Kenton, and she seems to have feelings for him, but their relationship goes no further than her bringing him flowers for his little parlour, at no point in the film fro they even refer to each other by their given names.  Anthony Hopkins gives an immaculate performance as Stevens, in a very difficult role having to express a lot with very little.  He is very straightlaced,  very buttoned down, and expresses a lot with a look, or the flicker of an expression.  Emma Thompson is wonderful as the kindly Miss Kenton, who sometimes finds herself conflicted between her secure employment and her principles, and appears to harbour unspoken feelings for Stevens.  James Fox plays Stevens' employer Lord Darlington, who falls into disgrace due to his Nazi sympathies in the 1930s, although he is portrayed as more misguided and ignorant than being a true fascist.  Christopher Reeve, best known for Superman (1978) and it's three sequels, plays the new American owner of Darlington Hall in the 1950s.  Veteran actor Peter Vaughan, best known for the TV comedy seres Porridge (1974-1977), plays Stevens' father, also a butler at Darlington Hall.  There are also early appearances for Hugh Grant and Game of Thrones (2011-2019) star Lena Headey.  The film is about regret, change, loss and ageing. Late in the film Miss Kenton remarks that "for some people the evening is the best part of the day."  The "remains of the day" can also refer to the years left.  Stevens is left in the evening of his life with little left to show.

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thomson in The Remains of the Day

Total Recall

 Year:  1990

Director:  Paul Verhoeven

Screenplay:  Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Gary Goldman, from a story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and John Povill, based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick

Starring:  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox

Running Time:  114 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, action

In a future where humans have colonised other planets of the Solar System, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) who lives on earth with his wife, Lori (Stone), is plagued by recurring dreams of a mysterious woman (Ticotin) on Mars, which is under the dominion of industrialist dictator Cohaagen (Cox).  Quaid visits an agency called Rekall, Inc. which implants realistic fake memories.  Quaid chooses an "Ego Trip" package where he can have a memory of visiting Mars under the guise of being a secret agent. However, during the implant procedure Quaid suddenly starts lashing out, revealing that he has already had his memory suppressed by a shadowy organisation.  Soon Quaid finds himself on the run, pursued by gunmen, lead by Richter (Ironside), Cohaagen's chief henchman, as he learns that his entire life as Douglas Quaid was an illusion, and Lori and his friends are all spies sent to watch him.  Searching for his true identity, Quaid travels to Mars, and makes contact with the underground resistance against Cohaagen's tyranny.  However, as Quaid's investigation progresses, dreams and reality become harder to distinguish.

Total Recall began as a short story called "We Can remember It for You Wholesale" by prolific science-fiction author Philip K. Dick.  The project spent a long time in development, at one time acclaimed horror director David Cronenberg was attached to direct, his vision of the film stuck close to the short story, in which Quaid, called Quail in the original, was a timid, weedy, little clerk.  Cronenberg wrote twelve drafts of the script, but the producers were unhappy with his cerebral take on the material, because they wanted, in producer/writer Ronald Shusett's terms "Raiders of the Lost Ark go to Mars".  Eventually Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who had had a hit with RoboCop (1987), was given the director's job, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was chosen to star.  Obviously, Schwarzenegger is no-one's idea of a timid, weedy little clerk, as the film moved further away from the Philip K. Dick short story.  At the time, Total Recall was one of the most expensive films ever made, and it remains one of the iconic science-fiction and action films of that era.  Verhoeven was good at lacing fast paced, lurid action and carnage with  often quite subversive satire (here Cohaagen is the ultimate evil capitalist who has even privatised the air supply).  The special effects are showing their age, but mostly still stand up, particularly the vast alien complex where the film's climax takes place, and the Martians, who are mutated due to the use of cheap, inadequate protective domes, are memorable.  The film moves along at a good pace, it's funny, there is plenty of action, and very graphic violence, although the pulpy plotting often becomes very silly.  Although, one of the most interesting aspects of the film is the possibility that the whole thing is  Quaid's fantasy, which makes the daftness and weirdness make more sense.  The film leaves the question open, and there are hints in the film either way.  The performances are pretty good, including Sharon Stone in her first major role, but everything takes second place to Arnie and the action.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is basically Arnold Schwarzenegger, doing what he does best, he handles the action well and delivers the odd quip. Quaid himself comes across more as a gleefully violent anti-hero in his quite callous attitude, probably a lot of civilians get caught up in the crossfire in this film  (in the film's most controversial scene he points a gun at Lori who says: "You won't shoot me, will you?  After all, we're married."  Quaid shoots her point blank in the head and quips: "Consider that a divorce.").  One of the movies incidental pleasures is the future world, including self-driving taxis, with irritating robot taxi drivers, called "Johnny Cabs", although some of the future world looks charmingly dated now.  This is the kind of film that as it goes on, you get caught up in it, and it is a fun action packed ride.  Later you start picking holes in it.  It is flawed, but I enjoyed it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall

The Saragossa Manuscript

 Year:  1965

Director:  Wojciech Has

Screenplay:  Tadeusz Kwiatkowski based on the novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki

Starring:  Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembryzńska, Joanna Jędryka

Running Time:  182 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy 

In the Spanish town of Saragossa, during the Napoleonic Wars, two soldiers from opposing sides seek refuge from a battle in an abandoned inn.  They find a large, lavishly illustrated book which one of the soldiers recognise as being written by his grandfather, Alfonso von Wordon (Cybulski), a captain in the Walloon Guard.  The scene moves to Alfonso's story, as he makes his way through the dangerous Sierra Morena Mountains, encountering various bizarre characters including two seductive princesses, a mystical hermit, a possessed man, a cabalist, a rational philosopher, the forces of the Inquisition and groups of travellers and brigands.  All have their own stories to tell.

Based on the 1815 novel by Jan Potocki, this Polish film contains stories within stories within stories, which connect and branch out in unexpected  narrative pathways making it a labyrinth of tales.  The film is beautifully designed, with every frame full of details, and the use of fluid camera movements and skewed angles.  Despite it's forbidding length it never seems to drag. It depicts a beguiling, fairy-tale world where the rational sits cheek by jowl with the supernatural. A world of foolish nobles, charming rogues, bewitched lovers, spirits, demons and clever tricksters.  Some of the stores are creepy, some are exciting, some are dark, some are funny (and this is a very funny film, it has several jokes throughout and there are some very good bits of physical comedy).  When it was released in the USA and Britain it became something of a cult film, even though it was heavily cut.  Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead, referred to it as his favourite film, and surrealist director Luis Buñuel, who rarely wanted to see any film more than once, liked The Saragossa Manuscript so much he watched it three times.  Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola both helped to restore and re-release the film.  Other fans include David Lynch and Neil Gaiman.  It is a demanding film, with it's length and complex, puzzle-box structure, but if you go along with it, it is a delightful, frustrating, entertaining film.     

Zbigniew Cybulski and Joanna Jędryka in The Saragossa Manuscript

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

 Year:  1949

Director:  John Ford

Screenplay:  Frank Nugent and Laurence Stalling, based on the stories The Big Hunt and War Party by James Warner Bellah

Starring:  John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr.

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Western

1876: At Fort Starke, a remote US Cavalry post, Captain Nathan Brittles (Wayne), six days away from retirement, is heading out for his last patrol: to prevent a new war between the Cheyenne and Arapaho  and the white colonists following the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  However, Brittles' task is complicated by a second order: to deliver his commanding officer's wife, Abbey Allshard (Mildred Natwick), and niece, Olivia Dandridge (Dru), to an eastbound stagecoach.  To make matters worse, two of the soldiers in the patrol are vying for Olivia's affections, causing tensions among the patrol.

Named for a popular US Army marching song,  She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was the second film in director John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" following Fort Apache (1948) and concluding with Rio Grande (1950).  Ford originally didn't want John Wayne for the lead, partly due to the fact that Wayne would be playing a character about twenty years older than he was at the time, and partly because he didn't think that Wayne had the acting skill to play the role.  However, Ford changed his mind after seeing Wayne in the film Red River (1948), which caused Ford to exclaim "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!"  Wayne himself considered She Wore a Yellow Ribbon as one of his best performances.  While the film has plenty of broad humour (Victor McLaglen as the stereotypical drunk Irish soldier), it has surprisingly little of the action you might expect from a film like this, although there are a few battles between the cavalrymen and the Native American braves, they are brief and far between. The film has aged pretty badly with it's attitude towards the Native Americans (although there is a sympathetic and layered Native American character, Pony-That-Walks played by Chief John Big Tree), it's sympathetic attitude towards the Confederacy, Victor McLaglen's comic relief Irish character, and also the blood-and-thunder militarism.  The film also gets bogged down in the love triangle subplot between the two soldiers (John Agar and Harry Carey Jr.) , who are pretty much indistinguishable except one has dark hair and one is blonde, and Olivia.  However, the film has a strongly elegiac tone, as Brittles, a lifelong soldier and widower, contemplates a life away from his beloved Army.  John Wayne is at his best here, delivering an unusually thoughtful performance, and Joanne Dru is good, although she really isn't given much to do.  As always in John Ford Westerns, the locations in Monument Valley look spectacular.  

John Wayne and John Agar in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
 

Oedipus Rex

Year:  1967

Director:  Pier Paolo Pasolini

Screenplay:  Pier Paolo Pasolini, based on the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Starring:  Franco Citti, Silvano Mangano, Alida Valli, Julian Beck, Carmelo Bene, Ninetto Davoli, Luciano Bartoli, Ahmed Belhachmi

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:  Drama

As a baby, Oedipus (Citti) is abandoned on a mountain slope, but is rescued and raised by King Polybus (Belchami) and Queen Merope (Valli) of Corinth.  Now an adult, Oedipus suffers strange nightmares and leaves home to visit the Oracle at Delphi to learn what the dreams mean.  However the Oracle tells him that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother.  Horrified, and unaware that Polybus and Merope are not his biological parents, Oedipus decides not to return to Corinth.  However, as much as he tries to avoid the prophecy, he can't cheat his fate.

Oedipus Rex is one of the most famous of the Ancient Greek tragedies, with it's portrayal of a man who as he tries to avoid his fate, inadvertently brings it about, and brings tragedy down on himself and everyone around him.  Pier Paolo Pasolini gives the classic tragedy his own unique spin.  Bookended by sequences set in 1920s, in which a child is born to a wealthy woman and an Army Officer who resents him, and 1960s Bologna, in which blind Oedipus wanders the bustling streets playing his flute.  The rest of the film was shot in Morocco, with the cities made up of 15th Century buildings, and a mixture of African, Aztec and European style in the props and costumes, with the score made up of Romanian, Japanese and Indonesian folk music.  It depicts a world that is familiar and yet very much it's own.  Pasolini added autobiographical elements, stating that he was the child in the prologue, his father was. military officer and his mother was a teacher.  As with a lot of Pasolini's "historical" films, the loose, handheld camera work, and use of non-professional and often very unconventional looking performers, makes the film look like a strange documentary from another world.  Franco Citti gives a powerful performance in the lead role, and the film, while being quite a demanding watch, has a unique power if it's own.

Franco Citti in Oedipus Rex

Drive My Car

Year:  2021

Director:  Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Screenplay:  Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, based on the short story "Drive My Car" by Haruki Murakami

Starring:  Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tōko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, Satoko Abe, Masaki Okada

Running Time:  179 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Actor and theatre director Yūsuke Kafuku (Nishijima) is married to television scriptwriter Oto (Kirishima), who conceives her stories during sex and tells them to Yūsuke in bed, and he repeats them to her the next morning, by which time she has forgotten them.  Returning earphone day, he witnesses Oto cheating on him, however he leaves before either of them are aware of him, and never brings it up with her.  Shortly afterwards Oto dies of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.  Two years later, a still grieving Yūsuke is hired to direct a production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya for a theatre festival in Hiroshima.  When he arrives, Yūsuke discovers that he is not allowed to drive and is forced to turn over the keys of his beloved old Saab to a taciturn young woman, Misaki Watari (Miura), who will act as his chauffeur for the duration.  During the casting session for the play Yūsuke is shocked to see that one of the cast is a disgraced former TV star, Kōji Takatsuki (Okada), who Yūsuke suspects was once Oto's lover.

Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami from his 2017 collection Men Without Women, and incorporating elements from a couple of other stories from that collection,  Drive My Car won, among many other awards, Best International Feature at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Academy Awards, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  It also won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.  A three hour long film about coming to terms with grief may not seem like an attractive proposition, but it is more than that, and it is a mesmerising film.  It's full of small details, which can almost pass you by when they first come up, and then pay off later.  It's beautiful, heartbreaking and sometimes joyful.  The film's imposing length is as long as it needs to be to tell the story.  We spend a lot of time with Yūsuke and Oto, whose untimely death occurs about 40 minutes into the film, so we have had a chance to get to know them as a couple, and Yūsuke's loss has some real weight.  Hidetoshi Nishijima gives an incredible performance as Yūsuke, who is on screen for much of the film, and shows a real sense of grief and loss beneath his stoical facade.  Tōko Miura is impressive as the quiet driver, Misaki, who has her own troubled past, and their shared sense of grief, loss and guilt connects her and Yūsuke.  The way the film is structured is around the rehearsals for a theatre production of Uncle Vanya, and the development of the production in way mirrors the development of the characters in the film.  Yūsuke has a very strong relationship with the play, he was acting in a performance of the play at the time Oto died, and while in the car, he constantly listens to a tape recording of the play that Oto made for him to help his rehearsals.  The visual style of the film has a quiet beauty.  The film is laced with ambiguity, particularly the closing moments.  I was almost sorry when the closing credits rolled, because I wanted to see more of this story, and these characters.

     Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tōko Miura in Drive My Car

 

Jane Eyre

 Year:  2011

Director:  Cary Joji Fukunaga

Screenplay:  Moira Buffini, based on the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Starring:  Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins

Running Time:  120 minutes

Genre:  Drama, romance

19th Century England:  A tearful Jane Eyre (Wasikowska) runs away from Thornfield Hall, and lost, cold and hungry, she eventually collapses on the moors.  Jane is rescued by St. John Rivers (Bell) and his two sisters, Diana (Holliday Grainger) and Mary (Tamzin Merchant), who nurse her back to health.  As she recuperates, Jane remembers her unhappy childhood, as an orphan, treated cruelly by her aunt Mrs. Reed (Hawkins) and cousins, and later the brutal conditions at Lowood School for Girls. When she leaves school, at the age of 18, Jane gets a job as a governess at Thornfield Hall, and finds herself increasingly drawn to her brooding, enigmatic employer, Edward Rochester (Fassbender).

There have been many screen adaptations of Charlotte Brontë's beloved classic novel,  and this version, scripted by Moira Biffini and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga is, more or less, a faithful adaptation.  However, while the book tells it's story in a linear fashion, the film opens with a scene that occurs late in the book and much of the story unfolds as a flashback.  Also a lot of sequences of the book, necessarily, had to be cut, this is notable in the scenes in Jane's childhood that seem kind of rushed, and the ending which feels quite abrupt, I was quite surprised when the end credits rolled because I was sure there was at least another scene to go.  Although I am saying that as someone who is a huge fan of the novel, it's one of my favourite books.  The film includes most of the book's important plot points and characters, and the omissions didn't spoil the film as far as I was concerned.  It is beautifully made, with the moods of wild, unforgiving nature; gothic gloom and mystery; as well as sun dappled romance all being perfectly conveyed.  Mia Wasikowska gives a great performance as Jane, capturing Jane's strong will, and conveying a lot with a passing look or the way she carries herself.  Michael Fassbender makes for a magnificently brooding Rochester.  It is an impressive production, and should satisfy devoted Brontë fans, as well as those unfamiliar with Jane Eyre.

Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre