Dune vs Avatar

The Best Films of 1985

This is my second year of giving recognition to films that were made 25 years ago. Last year the top award was shared by Amadeus and Once Upon a Time in America, both of which scored 8.4 at imdb.com.

This year I have tightened my criteria slightly - I have decided to only include films that have had 10,000 votes or more at imdb, including the all important "dud of the year".

And so on to the awards. First place goes to:

BACK TO THE FUTURE - 8.4

Strange as it may seem, Back to the Future is a film that lasts. At the time it was the highest grossing film of 1985 and was recognised with a single Oscar (Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing). Yet despite being a popular film it has managed to tap into the emotions and other things of people who have watched it. The film was paced well, had some great characters and was able to use the theory of time travel without confusing the audience. My (distant) memories of the film include the moment Marty begins playing "Johnny B. Goode" which then segues into heavy metal distortion, leading Marty to explain to the 1950s audience that "their kids will love it". The film was certainly not one of my favourites, but it is for many others.

Second place goes to:

RAN - 8.3

Ran was Akira Kurosawa's last great masterpiece. Although he made three more films before his death, Kurosawa's Ran was ambitious in its grandeur and reminded movie buffs everywhere (especially in Japan) that his genius had not faded away. Based loosely upon King Lear, Ran follows the story of an aged medieval Japanese warlord who devolves his power to his three sons, only to be betrayed and then hunted down by two of them. In many ways the aged warlord Hidetora is Kurosawa himself, who reigned over the Japanese film industry for nearly 30 years before being snubbed and insulted by them. And just as Hidetora finds acceptance with his youngest son, so did Kurosawa regain his honour and respect with a younger audience from the 1980s onwards. A brilliant (if long) film.

Third place goes to:

BRAZIL - 8.0

This mixture of social satire, black comedy and dystopian nightmare came from the recesses of Monty Python member Terry Gilliam's brain and is still regarded as his masterpiece. Fusing together a bleak fictional world and the fantasy world of his aimless protagonist was always going to be difficult, and the film was both dogged by off-screen politics and on-screen plot problems. Brazil is a rough diamond, but it is a diamond nevertheless. Memorable moments include Robert DeNiro's guerilla repairman fixing a heating system, Michael Palin's cheery and yet disturbing torturer, Ian Holm's bumbling and stressed functionary and a rich, gaudy plastic surgeon played by future Oscar winner Jim Broadbent. Co-written by Tom Stoppard, Brazil won some serious respect from film critics as well as two Oscar nominations - a pity it grossed less than $10 million. My favourite film.

Here are the other results:

The Breakfast Club - 7.9

I never really liked this film when it came out, so consequently my memories of it are hazy and somewhat negative. I suppose I didn't like it because it was so obviously The Big Chill for Generation X, where teenagers can talk about their problems and through this process become better people. It was probably the last film I ever saw Molly Ringwald in.

The Colour Purple - 7.7

I only saw this film about 5 years ago and I thought it was quite impressive. True to form, the film was nominated for 11 Oscars and won none. It was the beginning of Whoopi Goldberg's career, and also introduced the world to Oprah Winfrey.

Witness - 7.6

A memorable film that turned Harrison Ford from being a mindless action star to a serious dramatic actor. Introduced the world to the Amish.

The Purple Rose of Cairo - 7.6

Kiss of the Spider Woman - 7.5

The Goonies - 7.5

After Hours - 7.5

A Room with a View - 7.5

3 Oscar wins (Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium)

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MISSING IN ACTION:

OUT OF AFRICA - 7.0

Out of Africa was 1985's Academy Awards blockbuster, winning 7 oscars from 11 nominations, including best director (Sydney Pollack) and best film. It also provided Meryl Streep with one of her 16 Oscar nominations. While gaining a mark of 7.0 at imdb is nothing to sneeze at, it is not a mark of an enduring work of art. In other words, it was a good film but not a great one, and great films are what Academy Award victories are supposed to indicate.

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DUD OF THE YEAR:

RED SONJA - 4.3

Arnie was having a good few years: Conan and The Terminator had brought him fame as the stereotypical Hollywood action hero. His character in this film was linked to his two roles as Conan, but in Red Sonja he had another name so it wasn't a case of Conan meets a red-headed Amazonian warrior although that was obviously what the film-makers were aiming to do. The film flopped and Brigitte Nielsen had the indignity of winning the "Worst New Star" award at the 6th Golden Razzie Awards. Fortunately Arnie starred in Commando later in the year, which allowed him to keep his tough guy image going. Nielsen then appeared in Rocky IV with Sylvester Stallone, who she later married and divorced.

By the way, although there were plenty of other films in 1985 that were pretty bad, none of them were voted on by 10,000 or more people at imdb. If we count 1,000 votes or more, the clear "loser" is, in fact, Final Justice with 1.6, which was apparently a favourite of Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Note: If I apply the "Dud of the Year" criteria to last year's award, then the worst film with over 10,000 votes was Children of the Corn (5.2), while the worst film with over 1,000 votes was Ator l'invincibile 2 (1.8). Bolero still has to be punished somehow.

2012 and the problem of taking real threats seriously

2012 is a new film about the end of the world starring John Cusack. It is directed by Ronald Emmerlich - the same guy who destroyed the world in Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. The choice of the title, the year 2012, is due mainly to the idea that the Mayan calender predicts that the end of the world will occur in 2012 (apparently, if read and interpreted in a certain way). No doubt the film will also highlight the 2012 phenomenon, which Wikipedia says is "a range of beliefs and proposals positing that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur in the year 2012."

So the idea is that you have 2012 the phenomenon, and you have 2012 the film, which is based very loosely upon that phenomenon.

Aang finally defeats the evil Fire Lord, but at what price to humanity?

Apparently the film has received all sorts of bad reviews. I think that's a good thing. I personally think that the entire 2012 phenomenon is going to be a load of rubbish and people will look back upon it in the same way as other apocalyptic scenarios that never happened (eg Comet Kohoutek; The Montanists and their New Jerusalem).

As a believer in Peak Oil and Global Warming, though, I do believe that the world is heading towards some sort of economic and social disaster that will take a long time to recover from. Annoyingly, apocalyptic films like 2012 end up misinforming people as to the nature of the problem and any potential solutions. When global warming and the whole "Greenhouse effect" was first touted as a serious problem back in the 1990s, Hollywood decided to use good science as the basis of a particular film, and in the process threw science out the window.

Not a denialist.

2012, from what I can gather, is just another Emmerlich destroy-the-world pic. Aliens did it in Independence Day, Godzilla did it in some film I can't remember the name of, and global warming did it in The Day After Tomorrow. 2012 just continues the theme, except it's based on wow weird Mayan prophecy (you know, the same people who didn't prophesy the Spanish conquest of South America).

For Hollywood, the premise can be weird, it can be spiritual, it can be scientific - what matters is what the result looks like on the big screen. So for the consumers what we have is a simple conclusion - the world can end through weird prophecy, through monsters, through global warming and through alien invasion. And all are fictional.

Just another bad Hollywood screenplay.

The reality is that both Global Warming and Peak Oil are threats to our world, but they are threats which are grounded in science, not fiction. Will there be some major threat to our world which appears in 2012? There might just be, but it won't be on the scale of 2012 the film. And even if nothing of consequence occurs in 2012 it may occur later. When it comes to being a futurist, the what is more important than the when - we don't exactly know when things will get worse, we just know that they will.

Societal collapse is the danger we face when we take into account the dangers posed by Global Warming and Peak Oil. History is replete with examples of societal collapse, from the Great Depression to the Black Plague.

I'm not dead yet!

What we have learned from societal collapses in the past is that it is never the "end of the world", and that some areas are worse hit than others. Some collapses are localised or regionalised. Other collapses are mild while some are severe and last centuries.

What we do know is this: Peak Oil advocates believe that the world's oil output will begin to steadily and irreversibly drop, forcing our society to find alternatives to motorised transport and suburban living, a process which will result in a lengthy period of economic stagnation. Global Warming advocates believe that mankind's pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution has led to a warming effect upon climate, and will eventually lead to rising sea levels. The climate change caused by this process will result in low-lying areas of the world being permanently inundated by seawater, as well as causing droughts in food producing areas as well as floods and increased threat of hurricanes and cyclones in tropical regions. This is enough to measure potential deaths in the millions. It will not be the "end of the world", but it will be the end for many.

To conclude, don't watch 2012. It's silly. Don't worry about Hollywood threats to the world - but do worry about threats that have a sound scientific basis.

The Best films of 1984

I really like films that stick by you - ones that may not hit you when they arrive but show staying power.

Since all sorts of awards ceremonies are around, I thought I'd do my own - the 25 year awards. Now that it is 2009, it would be good to examine just how great some films released in 1984 were.

I'm basing this upon imdb ratings. Anything over 7.5 is a decent film. Anything over 8.0 is a classic. To be counted, the film must have been first released in 1984.

• Amadeus - 8.4
• Once Upon a Time in America - 8.4
• Love Streams - 8.1
• Kaze no tani no Naushika (Warriors of the Wind) - 8.1
• The Terminator - 8.1
• The Killing Fields - 8.0
• This is Spinal Tap - 8.0
• Paris, Texas - 7.9
• Blood Simple - 7.8
• Rok spokojnego slonca (The Year of the Quiet Sun)- 7.7
• Ghost Busters - 7.7
• Before Stonewall - 7.7
• Un dimanche à la campagne (A Sunday in the Country)- 7.7
• Stranger than Paradise - 7.5

And then, of course, there are the duds:

• Bolero - 2.4
• Where the Boys Are '84 - 2.0
• Slapstick (Of Another Kind) - 1.6

And these are my recommended 1984 films (ie they are in my collection):

Birdy

• The story of two young men who become unlikely friends. Al (Nicholas Cage) is popular and good looking while "Birdy" (Matthew Modine) is introverted and obsessed with birds. Both are injured during the Vietnam War - Al with a burned face while Birdy ends up in an asylum. This is a "male friendship" film which shows just how loyal men can be to one another when things get bad. The ending is completely unexpected.
  

Dune

• The much maligned David Lynch version is confused, departs from Frank Herbert's storyline in many ways and suffers from bad editing and some rather strange acting. Once you accept these shortcomings, the film is highly entertaining and has become a cult classic as a result. The presence of Sting in a major role is both fitting and hilarious.
  

Repo Man

• Alex Cox is a director whose works are very rough diamonds. Otto (Emilio Estevez) is a young punk who ends up becoming a Repo Man. Along the way there are aliens, the CIA and a glowing green 1964 Chevy Malibu. An intense film.
  

The Terminator

• Who would've thought that this film would last? At the time it was a violent action film starring an indecipherable and relatively unknown Austrian actor (Arnie) playing a cyborg sent back into the past to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Ignored at the time, the film's popularity took off during the video revolution and has resulted in fame for Arnie, cash for James Cameron (writer and director) and permanently changed the science fiction genre (The Matrix for instance)
  

This is Spinal Tap

• The fictional "mockumentary" about a British Heavy Metal band touring the United States was so convincing to some that they thought it was real. Lawsuits against the film-makers by a number of bands who felt slighted by the film indicates the power of satire. Now a cult classic, Spinal Tap deserves to be turned up to eleven.
  

Sam Bottoms - "Lance" from Apocalypse Now - has died

In case you can't remember who he is:

Willard: "Lance on the forward 50's was a famous surfer from the beaches south of LA. You look at him and you wouldn't believe he ever fired a weapon in his whole life."

Lance: "I think we have to wait until the tide comes up!"

(radio) "...I can't get no... satisfaction..."

Lance: "Give me that dog!"

Lance: "Hey, you know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it."

Lance: "Purple haze!"

Willard: "Chief, tell them to hold fire. It's just little sticks. They're just trying to scare us."

Chief: "A Spear?"

Willard: "Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him."

Chef: "Ain't coming in there. Them bastards attcked us."

Willard: "Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway."

Kurtz: "The horror. The horror..."

LA Times Obit.

Munchausen

John Neville as Baron Munchausen

I have learned from experience that a modicum of snuff can be most efficacious.



Sting plays a soldier who is executed for being too brave.

This sort of behaviour is demoralizing for the ordinary soldiers and citizens who are trying to lead normal, simple, unexceptional lives. I think things are difficult enough as it is without these emotional people rocking the boat.



Eunuchs singing at the Sultan's palace.

Cut off in my prime... and surrounded by beautiful women... A eunuch's life is hard...



Berthold (Eric Idle) chases after a bullet heading for the Baron.

Is there a Doctor in the Fish?



The King of the Moon (Robin Williams) turns into a lunatic.

I'm back! I got lips again and I'm gonna use 'em, baby!



The Queen of the Moon (Valentina Cortese) rescues the Baron, Sally and Berthold from prison

If he discovers my head's with you - ooh! Quickly, quickly. Quickly! Climb into my hair.



Venus (Uma Thurman) arrives in spectacular style.

I am a goddess! I can do what I like!



Vulcan (Oliver Reed), Venus' husband.

And I am The God, so shut up!



The Baron finally succumbs to death.

...and that was only one of the many occasions on which I met my death. An experience I don't hesitate strongly to recommend.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Cloverfield - the map

Did you watch that monster movie Cloverfield? Are you not a New Yorker and wondered where all the events happened? Well, someone with a LOT of time on their hands put together a map showing where all the major events of the film occurred, including some educated guesses as to where Clover was when he drop kicked the head of the Statue of Liberty.

Click here.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

This new BBC music video of Joy Division playing Love Will Tear Us Apart is a real winner:

I'm also a big fan of Anton Corbijn's film Control (a biopic about Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division):

I have to admit that I have cried - twice - watching the end of the film. Curtis was a brilliant man. A brilliant, stupid, creative and destructive man.

A retarded film?

Ben Stiller is not my favourite actor. With the notable exception of Mystery Men and that stupid Return of the King Easter Egg, I own no DVD in which Ben Stiller is present. And I'm proud.

To me, Ben Stiller represents all that despise about Hollywood. He appears in films that I find turgid, desperate and mechanical - typical 21st century Hollywood cookie cutter comedies that are big on simplicity and small on sophistication. Call me an elitist if you wish, but I am certainly thankful that I don't have to look forward to the next instalment of Ben Stiller's terrible acting career.

Stiller's latest movie, Tropic Thunder, is one that I will probably never see. Any film with Stiller's presence automatically means that I won't view it (other actors whose presence means danger are Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas).

Tropic Thunder, however, is not looking like just another Ben Stiller picture. The film seems to be upsetting all sorts of people at the moment. Is this a good thing? Are people finally saying "no more" to Ben Stiller? No. They're annoyed at how the film treats people with intellectual disabilites and the usage of the "r" word - retarded.

In order to understand where these people come from, I have had to actually read some of the film's script and have even viewed a segment of the film that was deemed to be problematic. To be honest, watching Ben Stiller and listening to his dialogue was a more disturbing experience than, say, looking at actual war footage from the current conflict in Georgia. Nevertheless, I pressed on and this is what I found.

Tropic Thunder is about 3 method actors (Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr) in a war film. For whatever reason, the film's director decides to give them real guns and places them in a real conflict in some tropical area of the world where they are left to fend for themselves. All three actors are Prima Donnas - exactly the sort of actor everyone loves to hate. They are self obsessed, oblivious to the real world and demand all sorts of attention. Stiller's character, Tugg Speedman, had just played an intellectually disabled person in a previous film called Simple Jack. While walking along in the jungle, Stiller's character speaks to Downey Jr's character about the difficulties in playing "retards" on film.

It is that scene that has made people angry. In the Washington Post, Patricia Bauer argues that such a scene has done untold damage to intellectually disabled people in America. Bauer and others seem to believe that this dialogue will increase the proliferation of negative stereotypes and lead to difficulty in getting intellectually disabled people accepted into society.

The problem with Bauer and others is that they are aiming at the wrong target. Tropic Thunder, for starters, is hardly going to change community attitudes on anything (except reinforce the market for bad films and the career of Ben Stiller).

The use of the word "Retard" by Stiller and Downey Jr in the film is designed to be confrontational. It is a situation in which two people are using a negative word quite freely - a word that is not used much in today's conversations. The conversation is supposed to make the audience unsettled. Why? Because it highlights the vapid and closeted nature of the characters. In other words, the use of the word "retard" actually makes the Stiller and Downey Jr characters less likeable in the audience's mind. The joke is on them.

Imagine, if you will, a film in which racist behaviour in America's Southern states is a main theme. Imagine that we see a bunch of white men talking about "niggers". Of course, in a film like this we should naturally hear racial epithets being used as the characters depicted are trying to be faithfully recreated. The fact that racist attitudes and racial epithets are present in a film in which racism is a major theme should not surprise us.

In Tropic Thunder, Tugg Speedman and Kirk Lazarus (Stiller and Downey Jr) are two Prima Donna actors who have no idea that modern societal attitudes are different to theirs. They are blinded by their selfishness and by their self absorbtion. It is in that context that they refer to intellectually disabled people as "retards". The joke is upon them - they, not intellectually disabled people - are the ones being laughed at by the audience. Moreover, by these two being the butt of the joke, societal acceptance of intellectually disabled people is actually reinforced.

Tropic Thunder does not depict Moses or Jesus or George Washington referring to intellectually disabled people as "retards" - it depicts two obviously selfish, self absorbed individuals describing intellectually disabled people as "retards". Therein lies the difference - the usage of the epithet in the text is by characters that are depicted in a negative way. Thus, if there is any message from this part of the film, it is that only stupid and vacuous people call others "retards" - and that has to be a good thing.

(Note: I have worked with intellectually disabled people - I used to be a workplace trainer for a non-profit disability services organisation called House With No Steps)

AAAAAAAAA

A blog post with every single category marked (I'm doing this for scribefire)

Movie quotes

Mystery Man: We've met before, haven't we?

Fred Madison: I don't think so. Where was it you think we met?

Mystery Man: At your house. Don't you remember?

Fred Madison: No. No, I don't. Are you sure?

Mystery Man: Of course. As a matter of fact, I'm there right now.

Fred Madison: What do you mean? You're where right now?

Mystery Man: At your house.

Fred Madison: That's f*****g crazy, man.

Mystery Man: Call me. Dial your number. Go ahead.

[Fred dials the number and the Mystery Man answers]

Mystery Man: [over the phone] I told you I was here.

Fred Madison: [amused] How'd you do that?

Mystery Man: Ask me.

Fred Madison: [angrily into the phone] How did you get inside my house?

Mystery Man: [over the phone] You invited me. It is not my custom to go where I am not wanted.

Fred Madison: [into the phone] Who are you?

[Both Mystery Men laugh mechanically]

Mystery Man: [over the phone] Give me back my phone.

[Fred gives the phone back]

Mystery Man: It's been a pleasure talking to you.

Gilliam film to continue shooting despite Ledger's death

This is good news:

Jude Law will appear as Heath Ledger's character, along with Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell, in the unfinished film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Law's spokeswoman said today.

They will all play the role of Tony in the fantasy film Ledger had been filming before his death.

The 28-year-old Australian, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Brokeback Mountain, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on January 22, after an accidental overdose of six prescription drugs.

It was not immediately clear how the role will be reconstructed for three actors.

Shooting for the movie, directed by Terry Gilliam, had just finished in London and had moved to Vancouver, Canada, before it was suspended on the news of Ledger's death.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is described as a fantastical morality tale about a travelling theatre company which can control the imagination of others.

Law has a string of film credits to his name including the remake of Alfie, Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr Ripley.

Depp, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times, is attracting rave reviews for his role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Irishman Farrell has appeared in Pride and Glory, Veronica Guerin and American Outlaws.

Three actors replacing Ledger? Either they thought ledger was a legend or they jumped at the chance of being in a Terry Gilliam film.

Roy Scheider is dead at 75

His best known role was in Jaws, but I will always remember him in 80s trash film Blue Thunder and the unremarkable 2010.

Wikipedia article here.

Busey and Nolte

Gary Busey

(Lost Highway)







Nick Nolte

(The Thin Red Line)

Gary Busey or Nick Nolte?

A Gary Busey fan website explains all:

Gary and Nick are two totally different people. Nick Nolte is the oscar nominated star of Prince of Tides and 48 Hours who was People's sexiest man alive in 1992 and posed for the cover of Playgirl in 1979, and who now looks like this.

Gary Busey, on the other hand, smokes cigars.

Dang

Heath Ledger was working on a Terry Gilliam film when he died. The film has now been canned.

Terry Gilliam is my favourite director, so Ledger's death robs him of yet another film.

Bob Dylan

As played by Cate Blanchett.