Around the World in Eighty Movies - number 3

Country: America

Title: Five

Director: Arch Oboler

Cast: William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubes, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin, Earl Lee

Year: 1951

Running time: 93 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

Notable for: Being the earliest example of post-apocalyptic cinema

As well as writing, directing and producing the first full colour 3D movie, Bwana Devil (1952), Arch Oboler, who worked on radio, stage, TV and the big screen, performed the same duties on the post-apocalyptic Five. Shot in Glendale, California and in and around Oboler's Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Malibu, California during the early days of the Cold War, Five is the bleak story of a handful of survivors left after worldwide atomic warfare. Whereas many of the 50s Science Fiction films that came out of the US were flag waving, barely concealed anti-Communist tracts masquerading as alien invasion adventures Five was a downbeat, philosophical and humanistic film more in keeping with the modern post-apocalyptic vision of John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2009).

Pre-figuring The Night of the Living Dead's random survivors holed up together scenario so memorably used by George A. Romero by 17 years, Oboler's screenplay covers racial and gender politics, communal living, the madness of mutually assured destruction and the existential angst of living in a 'dead' world. Even after the population of the planet is reduced to four men and one woman, violence, bigotry, sexual tension and political ideology still rule the roost in Oboler's stark portrayal of the remnants of society. Visions of the apocalypse and its aftermath are a staple of contemporary cinema, from the action oriented Mad Max (79,81,85) series via Steve De Jarnatt's under appreciated Miracle Mile (1988) to Roland Emmerich's Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Lars Von Trier's recent Melancholia (2011), but Five, with its eschewing of effects laden action, oppressive atmosphere and savage critique of the folly of war and social attitudes is as potent as any of them. Hundreds of films and dozens of directors could, rightly, have represented America in this series but Oboler's low key vision of the end of the world, not as championed, critically fawned over or technically ground-breaking as the films of Griffith, Welles, Cassavetes or Scorsese deserves its spot on the list for tackling its subject matter in such an uncondescending, fearless fashion.

Five can be viewed for free in full here -

http://www.archive.org/details/Five_1951

The Big Picture - new article

Over at The Big Picture magazine we have an ongoing section called Screengem - which features iconic objects from film history. My latest addition to the series is the bucket of pig's blood as seen in Brian De Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's début novel Carrie. All horror movie fans will know this scene like the back of their hands and it's rightly enshrined as one of the most iconic sequences in the history of the horror genre. Follow the link at the end of this article and celebrate this bloody marvellous moment.

http://tinyurl.com/6b9nucx

Watched - no 19 - The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971)

Jerry Schatzberg's The Panic in Needle Park, newly released in a widescreen version, is one of countless gems to come out of America in the 70s, the decade that for me was Hollywood's real 'Golden Age'. This fruitful period gave us The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Conversation, Chinatown, Deliverance and Badlands to name but a handful. Schatzberg's realist junkie drama, which deserves to be mentioned alongside those other films, features a performance of such eye catching intensity from a young Al Pacino that it landed him the plum role of Michael Corleone in Coppola's The Godfather. Banned in the UK on its initial release due to the stark portrayal of narcotics abuse, including the first scenes of actual drug injections to be seen in a mainstream movie, The Panic in Needle Park is a tough, unsanitised and fittingly bleak representation of a wretched way of life.

Pacino stars as Bobby, a charismatic small time hustler and hopeless addict alongside Kitty Winn as Helen, the unsettled and impressionable country girl who falls for Bobby's dubious charms. This is no ordinary love story though, with Heroin an added ingredient making for a decidedly unstable and increasingly abusive menage-a-trois. Shot in a verite fashion by Schatzberg and cinematographer Adam Holender in and around 'Needle Park', the nickname at the time for the area covering Verdi and Sherman Square in New York's Upper West Side, the movie unfolds as a series of loosely constructed narrative vignettes charting the lovers' disintegrating relationship. With no soundtrack to manipulate audience emotions, or to distract from the unrelentingly squalid events shown onscreen, Schatzberg's artistic decisions are fully justified as the resolutely unvarnished images speak for themselves. Pacino, a riveting, roller-coaster mixture of nervous energy, wisecracks, melancholy, violent outbursts and increasing desperation is the undoubted star of the piece, though Winn's depiction of Helen's slide into addiction, prostitution and betrayal is well worthy of a mention. The other 'star' of the movie is New York itself, captured as it is in the faux-documentary style that the cinema- verite style evokes. New York in the 70s may have been an artistically creative hotbed but as Schatzberg's movie clearly shows it was also a run down, economically ravaged concrete jungle; over-populated, garbage strewn and inhospitable.

As Bobby and Helen collapse into mutually dependent self-destruction Schatzberg allows for no easy resolution or liberal conscience salving respite. The final images of The Panic in Needle Park, in which the fresh out of jail Bobby hooks up with Helen, whose informing put him there, leaves the viewer in no doubt that the pair are about to climb right back on board the train that will lead to more misery, more abusive bust ups and eventually death for either or both of them. Where Trainspotting brought humour to drug addiction and Pulp Fiction brought an air of stylised glamour, The Panic in Needle Park brings realism, and what a grimy, unpalatable vision it is. Recommended.

Rogue Cinema review - September

This month's review for Rogue Cinema is of the low-fi,

independently financed documentary The Death of Andy Kaufman.

Follow the link at the bottom of the post to check it out.

http://www.roguecinema.com/article2869.html

Watched - no 18 - Buried Alive (Frank Darabont, 1990)

Before Frank Darabont became something of a household name after directing The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999) he began his feature length directorial career with this 1990 TV movie. One of a large number of movies to revolve around the ghastly fate of being interred whilst still very much alive, which notably include the Roger Corman adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Premature Burial (1962), George Sluizer's chilling Spoorloos (1998) and Rodrigo Cortes' thriller Buried (2010), Buried Alive is due for release on DVD for the first time on the 17th of October. Tim Matheson stars as regular Joe Clint with Jennifer Jason Leigh as his unhappy and unfaithful wife Joanna, a city girl who has grown increasingly desperate to get away from their quiet small town existence and live a life of pampered luxury with her lover, local doctor and scenery chewing sleaze-bag Cortland (William Atherton). Coerced into poisoning Clint by Cortland, with a large life insurance policy payout as added bait, Joanna's botched deed leaves Clint in a state of paralysis with his vital signs undetectable...and you can guess the rest.

Buried Alive is deadly dull, never once appearing as anything other than the cheap TV movie that it is, and not even the usually entertaining presence of Jason Leigh can disguise the fact. The chills are run of the mill, the acting broad and the entertainment value sparse. The low budget, exposition heavy dialogue, signposted plot-line and B-movie cast (Jason Leigh apart) make for an inauspicious début for the man who would go on to direct the much loved prison set Stephen King adaptations as well as The Mist(2007), another, hugely underrated, King adaptation. With his recent firing from the highly popular TV series The Walking Dead, which he developed from the comic book series of the same name, the headstrong Darabont has seemingly once again managed to alienate himself from the money men. His steadfast refusal to alter the downbeat ending of The Mist led to limited studio funds being made available for the film's marketing and advertising budget, condemning the movie to a limited theatrical run on far fewer screens than it deserved. Buried Alive on the other hand has done well to garner a DVD release as only the die-hard or easily pleased horror fan will be able to take much from this paltry sub-Hitchcockian, Allen Poe influenced misfire.

Watched - no 17 - Kaboom (Gregg Araki, 2010)

http://youtu.be/Xu9NkMCElMk - trailer

After confusing critics, fans and detractors with his polar opposite, oeuvre redefining films Mysterious Skin, a mature exploration of abuse and its consequences, and Smiley Face, a cheesy stoner comedy, Gregg Araki is back on more familiar ground with his latest movie, Kaboom. Familiar ground to Araki, however, is a strange, messy and provocative place. Having established himself as a cult director of anarchic, sexually outré, youth obsessed movies such as Totally Fucked Up, Nowhere and The Doom Generation, defined by their day-glo colour schemes, outrageous set pieces, pop culture heavy scripts and nihilistic edge, Araki now presents us with a movie perfectly summed up in one review as 'Twin Peaks 90210'.

Araki's riotous tale centres around sexually confused student, Smith (Thomas Dekker) and his offbeat collection of campus friends, including his Adonis like room-mate Thor (Chris Zylka), promiscuous London (Juno Temple) and wisecracking Stella (Haley Bennett). When bizarre and sinister incidents begin to occur around him Smith is plunged into a paranoid world that threatens not just his existence but that of civilisation as a whole. Taking in a mysterious death cult, attackers in animal masks, comedic exchanges, a typically guitar heavy soundtrack and an increasingly acid-fried plot-line, plus copious amounts of nudity, Zeitgeisty dialogue and oblique, at times almost nonsensical sequences Kaboom will annoy as many as it excites. I'm in the latter camp and fell for it hook, line and sinker. Araki has conjured up an effervescent, genre defying slice of entertainment that is neither multiplex or arthouse fodder, straying as it does between crypto-philosophical musings, science fiction themed sub-plots and porno-lite sex scenes all within a cheesy, teen- soap style visual palette.

There's no doubting that Kaboom is wafer thin, peopled as it almost exclusively with impossibly beautiful characters, hipster fashions and an apparent disregard for a tightly constructed narrative, but that's exactly why it works. Araki is no fool, and love him or hate him, he's an assured director who has chosen to put Kaboom together in this fashion. It's a blackly comic reflection of the ADHD infused entertainment culture we live in - a contemporary society of plastic, tech heavy gadgets, sound-bites, violence, promiscuity and generation gaps as much as it is its own insular tale of conspiracy, youth, sexual awakening and a fast approaching Apocalypse.

Competition week 2

This week's documentary up for grabs courtesy of Dogwoof is Chris Smith's 'Collapse'. The director of the wonderful American Movie (1999) turns his camera on controversial 'author, radical thinker and investigative reporter' Michael Ruppert. The former police officer's views on 9/11 and energy issues have seen him labelled a paranoid 'conspiracy theorist' by his detractors. To win this eye opening look into Ruppert's divisive views just email me the answer to this question -

Who directed this year's Oscar winning documentary Inside Job?

Send your answers to - neil.mitch1972@googlemail.com no later than midnight on Saturday the 9th.

Watched - No 9 - Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)

After a Twitter conversation with a fellow film lover on the subject of writer/director Paul Schrader, I was inspired to seek out and revisit his 1978 directorial debut Blue Collar, which he co-wrote with his brother Leonard. Schrader, whose subsequent writer/director credits include Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Affliction (1997) and Auto Focus (2002), is best known for providing the screenplays for Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Blue Collar, starring Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto as a trio of rust belt factory workers at a Detroit car production plant, conforms to Schrader's career long fascination with troubled males as well as taking a savage swipe at racial tensions and Union practices in the States, a hot topic at the time. This gripping snapshot of the American 'working class' features Richard Pryor's strongest onscreen performance, a fitting blues rock soundtrack, a provocative narrative taking in corruption, murder and betrayal and, as to be expected from the pen of Schrader, a sharp,punchy script.

Pryor's Zeke and Keitel's Jerry, overworked, underpaid family men struggling to make ends meet, and Kotto's party loving ex-con Smokey, all sick of the innefectual and tight knit Union bosses, seek to end their financial woes by robbing a safe in the Union's offices. Against the resolutely unglamourous, industrialised landscape, peopled by low paid, tough talking Average Joes, Blue Collar flies off into darker, more subversive territory after the casual, lightly comic set up leading up to the robbery. Finding a paltry amount of cash, but a damning notebook containing a detailed record of illegal loans possibly involving the mob, the three friends find themselves knee deep in suspicion, paranoia and deceit after trying to blackmail the Union bosses with the threat of national exposure. The Schrader brothers pull no punches in slamming corrupt Union practices, going so far as to include a death (shrugged off by the bosses as an accident but strongly implied as a murder) as sinister as it is memorably unique. Rather than being anti-Union, Blue Collar is anti-corruption and pro-the 'little guy' but spares none of its leads the savage consequences of both their and their bosses dubious actions and underhand practices. It is in the fallout after the robbery and the magnitude of the situation the co-workers find themselves in where the narrative makes its mark. Driven initially by a common bond, Zeke, Jerry and Smokey's friendship is torn apart by individual circumstance, Union and FBI machinations and the threat of prison.

Rough around the edges, overtly subjective and uneven in tone it may at times be, but Blue Collar is as hard hitting today as it was on its release, and its pointed commentary, shown through one fictional incident, resonates with the ongoing struggles of the 'working man', corruption in high places and the deep seated inequalities seen across the globe in all areas of society to this day.

Watched - No 7 - Gasland (Josh Fox,2010)

http://tinyurl.com/23p42ht

There's no doubt that we are living through a Golden Age for the documentary film, and for investigative, awareness raising film-makers in particular. Ever since arch prankster/careerist Michael Moore took the Palme D'or at Cannes for Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) an explosion of citizen journalists, activists, campaigners and agitators have graced the big screen. The exposes of Governmental subterfuge, industrial farming, animal cruelty, war and oppression have come thick and fast as production,equipment and editing costs have fallen. Add to that the rise of social networking, alternative platforms for the spreading of information and an air of Global disaffection and the time is ripe for the documentary film.

The latest eye catching expose comes in the form of Josh Fox's Gasland, which utilises all of the recognisable traits of both the traditional and contemporary documentary forms - to-camera monologues, voiceover narration, onscreen titles and graphics, archived and present day footage,interviews and an intervensionist, subjective director - to shed light on the practice of Hydrolic fracturing, or 'Fracking'. The process, essential in releasing the enormous quantities of natural gas hidden underneath vast stretches of the US, involves wells being drilled thousands of feet deep into the earth before water, sand and chemicals are injected into the shale to crack it open and let the gas escape, a huge profit making concern for powerful energy companies. After being offered around $100,000 to allow a company acces to his land to drill a hole, the concerned Fox investigated the process and discovered a mind boggling array of deceit, potentially fatal incidents, extreme health risks and environmental damage. By finding households and sometimes whole towns with poisoned water supplies, which are in no doubt related to the fracking process despite the protests of the energy companies and their lobbying groups, Fox accidentally stumbled on a shocking example of the 'little guy' suffering at the hands of big business. Needless to say he kissed the money goodbye.

The amiable, thoughtful and wryly humourous Fox guides us through an increasingly murky moral and ethical minefield in a film that bares all the hallmarks of a conspiracy thriller that reaches the highest echelons of American officialdom. The familiar and depressingly predictable figure of Dick Cheney and his assorted cronies raise their heads amidst a dizzying melange of statistics, counter-arguments, corporate and political negligence and rapacious profiteering that is foolish at best and downright criminal at worst. The almost total refusal of any of the energy companies and politicians to grant Fox an interview for the film simply adds to the weight of the damning evidence laid out. Any potential dis-engagement for audiences outside of the US is brought into stark relief by the revelation that Europe is the next potentially huge market for natural gas extraction before other parts of the world are drawn into this hugely controversial practice. Gasland and many other similar documentaries run the risk of preaching to the converted ecologially aware and anti-capitalist masses, but that in no way diminishes the need for these films to be circulated, debated and acted upon. Recommended.