A slick, stylized violence permeates Tony Scott’s Man on Fire, which is as much a story about rebirth as it is about revenge. The critics balked at the vigilantism of Denzel Washington’s John Creasy as he tears through a Mexican kidnapping cartel responsible for the death of a young girl, but this film is much more about a man’s abortive redemption than pleasure-seeking violence. Far from glorifying Creasy’s rampage, Scott imbues the narrative with a decidedly blunt and tragic trajectory. Man on Fire is less about retribution, and more about a damaged man falling apart one last time in service of his highest value.
Classic Review
A review of an older, classic film. Most likely based upon multiple viewings.
Criterion Blogathon – Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth” (1971)
Roman Polanski opens his film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth with an establishing shot composed of equal parts cold, light blue sky and dour, grey beach. The beach begins to fill the screen as a gnarled stick starts scratching out a circle in the sand. Thus Polanski introduces his version of the witches: one of the weird sisters places a noose in the hole, another places a severed forearm grasping a dagger, and the three bury these items in the sand. The final witch then pours a vial of blood on the sand, and the three chant: “Fair is foul and foul is fair, / Hover through the fog and filthy air.” Polanski begins the scene with this couplet (it traditionally closes the scene), and completely fabricates the weird sisters’ grisly rites. This is Polanski’s vision – a grim and visceral portrayal of The Scottish Play, fully realized on the big screen:
Classic Review Friday – Gary Ross’ “Pleasantville” (1998)
The strongest fantasy stories depict a world that is different from our own while telling stories which are fundamental to the human condition. In the case of Pleasantville, the idyllic 1950s town is an actual paradise where the high school basketball team never loses, the fire department merely has to rescue cats trapped in trees, and dinner is always ready when you come home. But perfection, safety, and comfort are not the default, and when two real-life children introduce new ideas to the sheltered town, Pleasantville transforms from black-and-white safe space into vivid real-life.
Back on the Big Screen: “Back to the Future Part II” (1989) and “The Iron Giant”(1999)
I am trying something new here on Plot and Theme: “Back on the Big Screen” will be a series of posts focused around familiar films that I had the opportunity to see screened in a theatre. Sometimes I will focus on a single film, but like today I will also use it as a way to comment on multiple films without delving into a full-on review. The first official Back on the Big Screen will showcase two films recently shown in theatres in the last month as a special occasion: The Iron Giant and Back to the Future Part II.
Classic Review Friday –George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck.” (2005)
Precisely every 23 minutes, the standard length of a half-hour of broadcast network television, Good Night, and Good Luck. is interrupted by a jazz song. This instills George Clooney’s Red Scare historical drama with a distinctly episodic feel, mirroring the drama that unfolds on screen. The story follows newscaster Edward R. Murrow as he and others at CBS confront Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of his anti-communist witch hunts. Shot in color but corrected to black-and-white, the film returns us to another time where paranoia ruled the nation, and where men capable of capitalizing on it rose to national prominence by fanning the fear. It also offers a biting condemnation of media outlets in general, and especially the corporate nature of television broadcasts.
Classic Review Friday – Scott Hicks’ “Shine” (1996)
Scott Hicks’ Shine is a brilliant film about the damage that can be done by a traumatic experience during childhood – whether a single devastating event or a prolonged poisonous relationship. The film tells the true story of David Helfgott and his struggle to celebrate his love of music despite the stifling instruction of his father Peter Helfgott, a Holocaust survivor intent on preserving the integrity of his family by all means possible. And as the desires of father and son square off, the result alternates between tragic and overwhelmingly uplifting.
Classic Review Friday – Miloš Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975)
Very few films are capable of eliciting the full spectrum of human emotions, but one of them is Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At times, we celebrate the joy of defiance as Randall P. McMurphy triumphs over Nurse Ratched. Other times, we feel frustration at the stifling institutional control. We even seethe with absolute anger. And ultimately, we weep at the tragedy inherent with the tethering of an individualist soul to an uncomprehending authority.
Classic Review Friday – Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003)
A sensual ennui permeates Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, imploring spectators from young adulthood through old age to respond to the budding relationship between Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) as the two navigate a foreign language, city, and feelings. At its heart, this is a film about confronting your insecurities and reveling in the warm feeling of a new romance and friendship. The hustling, neon beehive of Tokyo acts as the perfect setting for such a story, as the hyperactive assault on the senses that we see on the surface belies the quiet torture of that directionless feeling.
Classic Review Friday – “The Dark Crystal” (1982)
The very best fantasy films hypnotize with an aura of uneasy wonder, as though we are observing something foreign yet fundamentally familiar. The Dark Crystal from Jim Henson and Frank Oz is just such a film. Heralded as “the first live-action film with no human characters”, Henson and Oz weave a fabulous aphorism of the duality of human nature set on a scarred, alien world. The result is a piece of magic – a dark fantasy film for children that respects their intellects and emotions and thereby resounds as an absolute classic.
Classic Review Friday – Todd Field’s “In the Bedroom” (2001)
Todd Field’s In the Bedroom is a masterful exploration of how individuals cope with tragedy, both in their own mind and in the context of an established romantic relationship. The film is set in a quiet Maine community and glamorizes nothing, instead being comfortable with creating a realistic but vivid world, harsh edges and all. … Read more