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simon-harris20
Reviews
The Blacklist (2013)
Spader ages like fine wine !
A nice return to form for James Spader as Red Reddington, one of the FBI's Most Wanted, who for reasons known only to himself, walks into FBI Headquarters and surrenders himself. He has an offer - he will serve up the worlds current crop of super criminals - criminals he claims are so sophisticated the FBI are not even aware of their existence. The only caveat is that he gets to pick who he works with, and he picks Lizzie Keen (Megan Boone) a newbie fresh out of the academy. Sounds far fetched I know, but it works. Reddington is revealed to be manipulative and ruthless and he clearly has an agenda beyond what has been revealed, plus he's always a few steps ahead of the FBI. The agency realise only too well they have made a deal with the devil but, with Reddington on board, keep apprehending the most horrible line up of criminals you're ever likely to see in a t.v.series. The series was good enough to be watchable from the start, but Episodes Nine and Ten (Anslo Garrick) kick it into an even higher gear.
The Outfit (1973)
You think you're John Dillinger!
So says Mailer (Ryan), head of the Syndicate when he meets Macklin (Duvall) in a horse auction. Macklin has been robbing Mailer's operations, to make him pay compensation for the death of his brother, who the Syndicate had killed, because he and Macklin inadvertently hit a Syndicate owned bank. Mailer carries on " We take in $250 grand by noon on a good day" trying to make Macklin feel small and put his compensation demand into some perspective. "I don't care" shoots back Macklin "As long as you pay". Mailer doesn't pay of course, and sends hit men instead to kill Macklin, his partner in crime Cody (Joe Don Baker)and Macklin's moll, Bett (Karen Black). This movie is one of a series of great heist / mob / thriller movies that came out in the early seventies, and reminded me a lot of other classics such as Point Blank or Charley Varrick (incidentally another great role for Baker in that movie.)There are no over the top action scenes, rather everything is cut to the bare essentials. The scene where Macklin and Cody buy a car from hick brothers Chemey (Richard Jaeckel)and Buck (the wonderful Bill McKinney)is superb, with early seventies stalwart Sheree North accusing Cody of trying to rape her when he rebuffs her advances, in such a cool and laconic way I laughed out loud. There are guilty pleasures to be had too, when Cody lays out a female telephone operator with a single vicious punch. All the heists are carefully planned and executed and Macklin and Cody are the ultimate professionals, working calmly and coolly under fire, while Bett drives the getaway car. The movie culminates in an assault on Mailer's home, which is better protected than any bank. "Getting out's gonna be a bitch" observes Cody as they plan their next move. Duvall and Baker really play off each other well in this movie, and their camaraderie and banter is a pleasure to watch, and one of the reasons the film is so enjoyable. Macklin offers Cody the chance to cut and run before the final show-down, as a thank you for his support up to that point,and a recognition that neither of them might make it out alive. "Nah! Think I'll stick around. See how this thing turns out!" he replies without even thinking about it. A tough thriller / heist movie with some eminently quotable dialogue,two great leads, a fine supporting cast that includes a young Joanna Cassidy as Mailer's young squeeze, and a simple plot line, that most movie goers will recognise has been re-made several times under different names: see Point Blank(Lee Marvin) or Payback (Mel Gibson)for example. This film can easily stand alongside those movies, and in many ways might even be superior, as it manages to deliver all of the thrills without any of the violence of Payback, or the voyeurism of Point Blank. Hard to believe this movie will be forty years old next year, as it still stands up as a great thriller.
Malice (1993)
Welcome to the Game !
Andy Safian is a small town college dean, and his wife Tracey is a school teacher. They desperately want children, and we get the impression they have been trying for some time. Enter Jed Hill, new Doctor at the local hospital, who meets and befriends Andy. So much so that Andy offers him the opportunity to rent a room at his home until he can get settled. Jed accepts, and Andy and Tracey become his landlords. Andy is distracted as he is dealing with the fact that someone is raping and murdering young girls from his college. The Police are all over the case, and even Andy himself is not above suspicion, and he is doing all he can to protect his young students. Against this backdrop, Jed is out letting off steam one night, and is drunk in a local bar when his emergency beeper goes. Jed rushes into the hospital to find Tracey, his landlord and his best friend's wife on the operating table. Andy arrives within minutes and Jed has to speak to him and tell him he can save Tracey, but must remove her ovaries, as they are necrotic. Andy of course tells Jed to save Tracey's life, which Jed does. However, when Tracey wakes from under the anaesthetic and finds she cannot ever bear children the movie really gets going. Tracey sues Jed and the Hospital. Jed, it seems, when forced to make a judgement call, got it wrong and removed a healthy ovary. Andy is left alone, with Tracey too traumatised to speak to him, and in hiding while her lawyer gets in to the business of suing the hospital, ending Jed's medical career and getting her compensation for the loss of her ovaries. Andy is desperate to contact her, but doesn't know where to find her. Jed has resigned himself to moving out of the Safian home, and is quietly drinking himself to oblivion in a rented hotel room. Out of sheer desperation to see and talk to Tracey, Andy muscles his way into her lawyers office, and demands to see her. Her lawyer turns him down flat, on instructions from Tracey. Clearly she does not want Andy in her life at all at this point. Then, a small scrap of seemingly innocuous information is let slip by the lawyer: he has worked for Tracey before, when he did some work that involved Tracey's mother. This is news to Andy, who had always believed that Tracey's parents were long dead. In desperation, Andy tracks down Tracey's mother. The film steps up another gear at this point, and is well worth the effort of watching it. There are no weak spots in this cast, Pullman, Kidman and Baldwin are note perfect, but there is great support from such luminaries as George C Scott and the absolutely wonderful Anne Bancroft, who steals her one, pivotal, critical scene effortlessly. But that's not the end of it, there's also the fine Peter Gallagher, the lovely Bebe Neuwirth (who makes a great cop by the way), and in lesser roles, there's Tobin Bell (who became SAW, and shows his scary credentials here too) and finally a bit part for Gwyneth Paltrow as a surly student. The remainder of the film is full of surprises, and when the curtain is finally pulled back and the magician revealed, you have to marvel at the depth, scope and ambition of the plot. The movie easily bears multiple viewings, as you will undoubtedly spot things the second and even third times that failed to register on the first viewing. A clever, dark and intricate movie, with all the stars on top form. A last word about Alec Baldwin. His acting is out of the top drawer in this movie, and that is not meant to detract from the performances of Pullman and Kidman, who are also very very good. I guarantee you that you will watch the scene where Andy (Pullman)tracks down Tracey's mother (Bancroft) again and again. It is an absolute delight.
Kill List (2011)
Difficult to Digest!
This film seems to draw from so many sources it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It reminded me of Kill Bill as it is divided into labelled chapters, From Dusk 'TilDawn, as it starts as one thing then veers off to another, then Rosemary's Baby, Race With The Devil and Eyes Wide Shut sprang to mind as we comprehend the size, complexity, numbers and determination of the organisation that seems to be controlling things. Finally I was reminded of the Day of the Dead with its hyper aggressive and fast moving zombies with a definite reference to The Wicker Man as the whole mess ended with two Pagan rituals. As far as I can make out, ex-soldiers Gal and Jay, having retired from the Army after having seen active service in Kiev, are now putting their skills to good use by hiring themselves out as modern day hit men. There is a dinner party that is significant only in that it introduces us to a fifth character, Gal's new girlfriend Emma, a real looker whom Gal can't believe is interested in him. Characters three and four are Jay's wife Shell and son, Sam. So far so good. Gal approaches Jay with news of a lucrative job: three separate hits but good money. They both meet their paymaster, who does a very strange thing as they seal the deal. He slashes both his own and Gal's hand, so that their agreement, is sealed in blood. This is where the chapters kick in and the first hit is The Priest, which goes off smoothly. One short sharp bullet to the head. The second hit is referred to as The Librarian, but the material he controls is either kiddie porn or snuff movies (thankfully we are not shown which), what we are shown is Jay's reaction to the material: even he is aghast, and he reacts by torturing the Librarian before literally beating his brains in on the dinner table in one of the movies most violent and graphic scenes. Having extracted the information about who was making the films during the torture, Gal then feels obliged to go around to his home and beats him to death too. Presumably he does this out of a sense of civic duty, as we are led to believe he was not paid for this killing. The unexplained element of these killings is that when both men finally understand that they are going to die, they thank Jay. The Librarian, with broken knees and broken hands, even finds the resolve to tell Jay that he was pleased to have met him. The third chapter, the M.P, is last on their list, and this is where the film veers off the rails. The two killers scope out the M.P's house, a huge ancestral house in its own grounds in the country. They gain access through a series of tunnels, and spend the night in the woods. Before they can make their move they snap awake to find a coven of witches wandering through the woods in a procession with burning torches, some totally naked, others with wicker and pagan ritualistic masks on. Clearly the MP must be involved as all this is taking place at four in the morning on his land. They witness a young woman willingly hang herself, while the others applaud enthusiastically. Gal loses his composure and fires his automatic weapon into the gathered throng. Instead of running for cover, the coven run towards the two hit men, and actively pursue them back through the woodland and the tunnels while Gal and Jay literally pick them off one by one, like a demented zombie film. They are outnumbered in the tunnel system, and Gal is cut off and overwhelmed, and when Jay finds him, his intestines are hanging out. Both men know the wound is fatal, so Jay does the only thing he can and ends Gal's pain with a bullet. Jay finally manages to escape from the labyrinthine tunnel system unscathed and goes straight home to his family. Unsurprisingly, the coven has followed him, and at this point his wife Shell, whom we know very little about, takes up arms. She uses a silenced .45 and she is lethal with it, taking out coven members just as slickly as her husband did the night before. Ultimately, the coven numbers are too many, and the family are overwhelmed. Gal comes around from unconsciousness back in woodland and surrounded again by the coven, where he is forced to defend himself in a knife fight with what appears to be a hunchback in a pagan mask and draped in a white sheet. He wins, slashing and stabbing the creature until he realises it is his wife and son strapped together. Emotionless, he stands there, perhaps frozen at the realisation of what he has done. At this point their erstwhile paymaster steps forward, and "crowns" Gal as his dead son and wife bleed out on the floor before him. Emma, Jay's girlfriend from the dinner party also reveals herself. The only way any of this hangs together is if you look at it from the perspective of a movie such as Eyes Wide Shut or Race With The Devil, where the coven is all powerful and controls everyone they meet, with every character being part of the bigger picture and manipulating Gal towards this very moment. Why is never even touched upon. There are simply too many loose ends and unanswered questions to list here, and it would not surprise me for one moment to find that I have completely missed the plot on this one, as it certainly leaves the viewer to do all of the work. It needs to work out what it is, as currently it defies any genre, and needs a beginning, middle and an end. Asking film goers to commit to something this disjointed for so little reward is asking too much. Ben or Dennis Wheatley ?
The Shining (1980)
There ain't nothing in Room 237 !
Jack Torrance (Nicholson) takes on the job as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, as he wants to use the time to write a book. His wife and son Wendy and Danny are also part of the package, and will also stay at the hotel with him. There are a few tantalising facts thrown at us both before and after the Torrance's arrive, and are ultimately left alone at the Overlook. Firstly, in the interview for the job with the Hotel Manager Mr Ullman, Ullman feels it necessary to warn Torrance that some years before, at the beginning of the 70's a previous winter caretaker had lost his mind, and murdered his wife and two daughters. Torrance, laughs this off, cheerily telling Ullman that isolation and quiet is what he's looking for, and probably sealing the deal and getting the job with his well mannered and charming response. The second is that Danny is not a "normal" little boy. He internalises a lot, and has a special "friend" named Tony who lives in his mouth and shows him visions. This is The Shining of the title, an ability to see things that no one else can see. Unfortunately for Danny these visions are without any frame of reference, definition and vague to the point of frustration. All he knows (and we know because we see the visions along with him) is that they are disturbing, foreboding and scare him half to death. Another fact, which may go some way to explaining why Danny is as he is, is that we are made aware that Jack is a recovering alcoholic, who although hasn't touched the hard stuff for five months, is still trying to work off the debt with Wendy of having done semi-serious harm to Danny. Apparently Danny knocked over one of Jack's half written manuscripts, dozens of pages of carefully drafted work all over the floor, and in a fit of anger, Jack grabbed the boy a fraction too hard and broke his arm. Jack, we find out is angry that he did it, and even angrier that Wendy can't forgive him for it, or at least doesn't appear to have yet. Then, the Torrance's are left alone in the Overlook, and the film kicks into a higher gear. The sheer space available to the Torrance family is overpowering, and a building such as a hotel which is designed to be filled with people, is an entirely different proposition when it is completely empty, and there is no sound whatsoever, except the tip tap of Jack's typewriter as he gets stuck into his book. Can we really not have been aware of the precariousness of the situation ? We suddenly are, and it is uncomfortable. Jack's irritation, while almost certainly derived from his inability to come up with a good storyline, is being massaged and manipulated by the Overlook itself. Whether the Overlook itself is inherently evil, or whether some evil force dwells within it seems irrelevant at this point, and it is not long (one more confrontation with Wendy) before Jack's mind is hopelessly lost. There are many chilling scenes in the movie, and Kubrick is indeed a master at turning the Overlook into a very sinister place indeed. There are hundreds of empty rooms, and the building itself is very old, with a dubious history. What have these walls seen ? When inevitably Danny find his way to room 237 and then turns up shocked into silence displaying wounds on his arms Wendy assumes these can only have been inflicted by Jack, because the hotel is empty right? Depends entirely on your definition of empty. The scenes where Jack speaks to Lloyd and Grady are masterpieces of understated film making. It has been posed that Jack is simply talking to himself and these apparitions are simply manifestations of his damaged mind, but I prefer to think that these are simply tools that the Overlook is using to manipulate his already damaged psyche. The hotel, the very building itself, deep in its wood and brick has a hunger, and it wants Torrance and his family. So we in the audience already understand the nature of the danger that Wendy and Danny are in, but they do not. A second visit to the lobby, finds Jack's manuscript lying neatly on the table, and while we understand that Wendy must read it, we know there will be implications if she does. In a scene of unadulterated ratcheting freewheeling terror does she realise that her husband is lost to her forever. There must be 1000 pages of typed manuscript on the desk next to the typewriter, and every single line reads "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". It is written with the mechanical, thundering repetitive ferocity of a man whose mind has snapped. Suddenly realising she and her child are alone with a madman, Jack appears behind her. Some of the remaining scenes in the movie are even more terrifying as Jack loses all pretence of sanity, and sets about "correcting" his errant family, ably assisted by the hotel itself, spurring a host of ghostly apparitions, including an entire ballroom dance scene circa 1920's, and even when Wendy does manage to lay Jack low and lock him in the huge hotel's food locker, the ever malicious yet helpful apparition Grady turns up to free him so he can continue on his mission. Kubrick plays with the themes of isolation and claustrophobia as a virtuoso plays the violin. Sure there are hundreds of rooms and corridors and kitchens and basements for Wendy and Danny to hide in, but where can they really go ? Jack smashes the radio. More tension. Jack rips the engine out of the snowmobile, More tension. The use of the Steadicam creates an atmosphere of something always behind you, creeping, waiting, biding its time. I recommend this film to all horror fans although surely most people have seen this terrific movie by now ?
Sinister (2012)
Lawn Work With Mr. Boogie
To appreciate a good horror film, you must watch a lot of bad ones. While the same is true of movies as a medium, it is particularly true of horror movies which can quickly become, at best unfrightening and predictable, and at worst parody or even comedy. I have watched a lot of horror films, and Sinister is as solid, frightening, disturbing and unsettling as the best the genre has to offer. Crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Hawke) scored a major hit a decade ago with his real life crime novel "Kentucky Blood". Unfortunately since that one best seller, more recent novels have not sold as well, and he has become a driven man searching for another best seller. He relocates his family, (wife Tracey and son and daughter Trevor and Ashley) to a small town in Pennsylvania to research and write his new novel, which he naturally hopes will revive his reputation and bank balance. He neglects to tell his family that he has actually moved them into the very property where the grisly murders he is researching took place. No sooner has Ellison and his family moved into the house, than the tension starts to build. We learn that Ellison is researching a murder where all of the family were murdered, and the youngest child abducted. Ellison finds a portable movie projector and some rolls of super 8 film in the attic, and the footage shows not only the murder he is currently researching in graphic detail, but a series of other grisly murders that stretch through a number of different states on both the west and east coasts dating back to the 1960's. He is both horrified and exhilarated by what he has found, as it suggests the pattern of a single minded and hitherto unnoticed serial killer, whose has been active since the 60's and who is clearly still active. His book could explode onto the best seller lists with this material, and he knows it. The pattern is always the same with the murder of all family members in truly horrific ways, with the exception the youngest child who is taken and never found. What Ellison establishes to ratchet up the tension very early on in the movie is that the killer must have returned to the house he and his family now occupy after the murders but before their arrival, and placed the box in the attic for the next incumbent to find. We know this because when the Police combed the house after the murders, the attic was photographed, and it was totally empty. As if the thought of a successful and elusive serial killer having the mindset to return to the scene of a crime and leave live footage of his murderous exploits is not enough unsettle even the most hardened of horror film goers, the film then takes a clever, but not totally unexpected turn into the possibility of something else, an entity or presence at the house, which unsettles both Ellison and the audience, as he reacts to unexplained noises,an infestation of scorpions and snakes, and a haunted film projector which insists on switching itself on, to replay the murder footage over and over again, and always at night. Aside from the "things that go bump in the night" approach, the tension steps up a notch again when Ellison downloads the Super 8 film from the original movie reels onto his laptop computer. Repeated viewings of these graphic and unsettling home movies, clearly shot by the killer in grainy and wobbly hand held images, start to reveal two things to Ellison, a drawn symbol that repeats itself at all of the murder scenes and even more disturbingly, a hidden and masked character that appears to be looking on as the murders take place. To say any more about the plot development would spoil what is a genuinely frightening movie. There are some jump out of your seat moments, and the movie works so well because the further Ellison's investigations and research take him, the more he realises he is into something that may in fact consume both him and his family, and if it were possible, is undoubtedly far worse. I think this one will spawn a Sinister II, as when the eventual puppet master is revealed, it is clear that apprehension by any law enforcement agency is unlikely. The brilliant Vincent D'Onofrio has a supporting role, and even though we only see him on a computer screen, he is always a pleasure to watch and adds some gravitas to the film. Hawke is also good as the determined author looking for a last shot. Suspenseful, eerie and disturbing, this one will be scaring people for some time to come. So infrequently does a good horror film come along, if you like scares, you must watch this one; it won't leave you wanting and just might make you think what's looking out at you from your laptop screen.
The Godfather (1972)
It's not personal. It's business.
This is a masterpiece of modern film-making. Coppola has managed to make his audience care about a Mafia crime dynasty, as we follow the inevitable transition of power from the venerable Don Vito Corleone (Brando) to the youngest of his three sons Michael (Pacino). This was something that the ageing Don never wanted for Michael, wanting to see him legitimised as a Senator or a Governor, but fate and the violent nature of their chosen profession steps in. Impulsive and violent eldest son Sonny (Caan) is duped and gunned down in a drug war, and middle son Fredo is overlooked as he is just not Don material. Michael, however, is his father's son, and his path into the family business is partially forced on him after an attempt on his father's life. Humiliated and beaten by the New York Chief of Police (who is in the pocket of a rival mafia Family), his life changes when he makes a character defining decision to take revenge on both the Police Chief and a rival narcotics trafficker named Sollozo, who, having made the attempt on the Don's life, must now see it through or forever be a marked man. Michael completes the task with a steely eyed determination, and murders both men in a chilling scene in a family restaurant. Michael is then forced to flee the USA to hide in Sicliy under the protection of a friendly Mafia family. His character is further developed after he falls in love with and marries a beautiful Sicilian peasant girl, who is mistakenly murdered when his enemies track him down to Sicily. When Michael returns to America, he is not the same man that sat in his sister's wedding celebration at the start of the movie. He is older, wiser and surrounded as he has been by death and betrayal, those intervening years have been crucial to his character development. Like his father before him, he has chosen his path and has become a Don in waiting. This is an accolade that the older Don Corleone does not wait long to pass on to him, and although the old Don is still alive (surviving the five bullets Sollozo's assassins hit him with) he hands over the reins of power to Michael. Michael, now at the head of the business, accelerates the nefarious activities of the family. He seeks to relocate them to Nevada, but must tie up his New York business, split his territory between his Lieutenants Tessio and Clemenza fairly and settle old scores first. He uses his father as Consigliari, and Tom Hagen, the Families lawyer and Consigliari is quickly sidelined both because, as Michael tells him, he is not a wartime Consigliari, and because he needs his hands clean after the family re-settle in Nevada. The Assassination / Baptism scene is unparallelled, as Michael cuts down his enemies with a ruthlessness that maybe even the old Don did not possess, perhaps the reason why he stepped aside. These scenes are an interlinked series of brutal murders as Michael wipes the slate clean and assassinates anyone and everyone who have opposed the family. The genius is that the murders are interspersed with cutbacks to Michael standing as Godfather to his sister Connie's child, in Church, renouncing evil and Satan, as his Capo's and button men rampage through the remaining heads of the other five families. It is truly breathtaking film making. There has never been a better or stronger collection of actors ever assembled for any film before or since, and the dialogue is as memorable as anything ever committed to the page. There are no weak spots in this movie and the point to consider is that even though this is a film made against the background of crime and violence, and these play a huge part in what unfolds, it is essentially a film about family and loyalty. When the Corleone's decide to take murderous revenge on the heads of the other families, you do not turn from the screen at the savagery which is undoubtedly there to be seen, but instead, you root for Michael to be successful. There are simply too many memorable scenes to recount, but the final scene played out immediately after Michael orders that a Doctor be called for Connie because she is quite rightly hysterical (he has had her husband Carlo garroted out of revenge for Sonny's death) where Kay watches Michael's Capo's pay homage to him by kissing his hand/ring, while his Chief assassin, Neri slowly and deliberately closes the door in her face is the best ending in cinema history. I will end by stating that the Godfather II, is, if it were possible, even better. You will not regret watching this movie. It will stay with you for a long time after the final credits have rolled.
12 Angry Men (1957)
Supposing we get it wrong ?
The plot of this film unfolds entirely in a claustrophobic and uncomfortably hot jury room. The twelve angry men of the title are jurors and must decide the fate of a young man accused of killing his father. It does not help his case that he is poor and Hispanic, and not even the tone of voice of the Judge in the case seems to hold out any hope when giving instructions to the jury about their forthcoming deliberations. The evidence to convict, and thus send the man to the electric chair is overwhelming, and the first vote taken by the jurors is 11:1 to convict. Then Juror No 8 (Fonda) starts dissecting the evidence piece by piece in an almost forensic analysis of the facts. Is everything as it seems ? Of course not. The whole film is built around the concept of reasonable doubt and whether our individual prejudices will allow us to see it. The film offers no safe answer, as even the juror who was completely dispassionate about the whole affair turns out to be mistaken. A tour de force performance by Fonda as the Liberal everyman we all wish we could be, but with excellent performances all round, particularly from E G Marshall as the composed and evidence-led Juror No 4, and a scene stealer from Lee J Cobb as Juror No 3. This film is an object lesson in film making. The tension, which ratchets up nicely throughout the film as each successive vote is taken, is created entirely by the friction between the twelve protagonists. We are presented with a cross section of American society in the sixties, and undoubtedly we will agree with some of their perspectives and disagree with others, although in fairness to Lumet the unsympathetic characters are not difficult to spot and there are some powerful moments as their true characters are revealed. There is a valid question raised in the middle of the movie by Fonda's character: there is a man's life at stake: shouldn't they take some time to talk about it ? After all, supposing they get it wrong ? I think that whether you come away from this movie as a champion of the jury system will depend on whether you believe that your peers are indeed "twelve good men and true" as the one point this movie does make is that while the jury system is all we have, it is far from foolproof, an can easily be derailed by ignorance and prejudice. In this case, however it doesn't and this leads me to suggest an interesting aside. I believe that if this film was made again for a modern audience, and here I am also discounting the 1997 remake, so let's say a 2012+ audience, the director might wish to provide an ending where the Fonda character does not win through in the end, and the petty arguments and prejudices of the majority of the jury are too powerful to be overturned. However, for it's time and place, this is an almost perfect film, filled with excellent performances, and a Hollywood morality tale ending where goodness and common sense win through in the end. No wonder Fonda allows himself a Mona Lisa smile as he walks away from the Court House at the end of the movie. Brilliant.
Death Wish (1974)
We're not Pioneers any more, Dad!
This Bronson movie asks some of the right questions about vigilantism, but most people will remember it for its action scenes shot in a dark and somewhat dirty New York. It is not a straightforward morality tale, and the protagonist is not punished for his crimes at the end of the story. The truth is, you get to root for Bronson as a mild mannered architect who through personal tragedy discovers the catharsis of violent revenge. The movie doesn't glamorise vigilantism, and through Gardenia's cop weighs the balance of Bronson's revenge against the prospect of law abiding people everywhere taking up arms and settling their own grudges. It's an interesting film, given substance by Bronson and Gardenia, but particularly Bronson, who escalates from helplessness, to anger, to retribution. He is not a hero. He is an ordinary man pushed too far but it all starts to go off the rails when Bronson's deeply personal revenge catches the imagination of New Yorkers and his actions are broadcast on TV. Street crime drops radically. It puts the viewer in an awkward position, because Bronson's Paul Kersey is a sympathetic character, you want him to have his measure of revenge, coupled with the ironic situation that he is seemingly cutting violent crime as muggers and thieves stay off the streets. The prospect of summary justice dispensed by a grief stricken man with a gun should frighten us all, but we can't help sympathising with Kersey who has been badly wronged. Civilised he may be, but there is still a part of him that finds his son in law's solution of cut and run to be the act of a coward. An entertaining movie with good set pieces and action scenes. Bronson is as solid as ever and Gardenia's policeman is one of the stronger points of the film, and the scenes when both actors are on the screen together are credible and watchable. Due to this films success it spawned several sequels, the first Death Wish II coming some twelve years later. However the later films were made for an 80's audience and as a result all of the violence and sex had to be harder and more graphic than even this film to reflect the changes in the viewing public that took place in that twelve year period. This is the original and best, and it turned Bronson into a superstar.
Hard Times (1975)
There's no reason about it. Just money.
Walter Hill has a way of stripping action movies down to the bare minimum, both in terms of dialogue and story. There is hardly a story here at all. Broke drifter rides the rails into depression era New Orleans, and starts winning his way through the local bare knuckle boxing community. Simple. In Hill's hands, it's a masterpiece, and a large part of that is down to Bronson who was such an all encompassing screen presence. Bronson was 54 when this was filmed, but physically he looked about thirty, and he carried the fight scenes off with a certain style that even stands up today. His fight with Jim Henry (Tessier)is equally as good as the final battle with Street, and there are a several other good set piece fights as well as these two. Coburn deserves a mention as his wheeler dealer opportunistic fixer, and he steals a few of the non fight scenes, but Strother Martin as the opium addicted cut man, Poe, is equally deserving of praise "You are not, Mr Chaney, what Speed unfortunately refers to as a bleeder". Bronson moves through the film with a reserved laconic nonchalance in the non action scenes, but comes to life when he starts throwing punches. There's some funny and quotable dialogue, a scene where some less than sporting southern redneck gentlemen are given their come-uppance at Chaney's hands, and a no frills ending that makes you wish there was a Streetfighter II. But that would have spoiled things. Watching this is a great way to spend an evening, and this could be Charles Bronson's finest hour.
Hombre (1967)
If it bothers you, why talk about it ?
Newman is John Russell, a white man raised as an Apache. Travelling on a coach with a mixture of white men and women who make their loathing of him clear, they come to need him when he defends the coach against attack from Richard Boone's gang of outlaws, who want the stolen money carried by a fellow coach traveller, an always value for money Frederic March, playing a unscrupulous Indian agent. Newman is an island of self control and self reliance while his dismissive and arrogant travel companions, when the chips are down, turn out to be weak, unreliable, duplicitous and desperate. Only Diane Cilento shines as a tough and morally unshakable frontier woman, who doesn't exactly get the better of Newman's icy Russell, but certainly gives as good as she gets. Russell doesn't need or even like these people, and their bond is fragile as they despise what he is but need his unquestionable skill with a gun. They are afraid of him, and dislike him, but are more afraid of being left without his protection. Throughout the film Russell is seen to be a cold and calculating hero, and a hero he is, thrown into stark contrast by virtue of the evil that is Cicero Grimes (Boone), who in the final analysis reveals himself prepared to torture one of the female passengers to death to get his money. Ironically, it is the backbone of Cilento's Jessie, and the cowardice and the moral vacuum of the other coach travellers that spurs Newman into action. Dr Faver, the Frederic march character haughtily tells Russell "You've learned something about white people. They stick together!", a comment he makes after he is allowed back into the group after Russell turns him out into the waiting desert for trying to steal the money a second time, while Russell's back was turned. "They better" is Russell's somewhat laconic yet layered response. Dr Faver and the other coach travellers then look on while Faver's wife is left out in the desert sun to die. Only Russell understands the hellish mathematics of the situation, knowing it to be a trap, with a waiting Mexican gun hand (Vaquero) lying in wait behind a nearby wagon. Then Cilento's Jessie, perhaps for the first time in the movie, forces Russell's hand. With the whimpers of the tortured and dying woman in their ears, Jessie picks up the money bag and moves to go to her aid. Russell cannot and does not let this happen. He quickly assesses the situation and realises his best chance is if he doesn't have to concern himself with Vaquero. He hands his rifle to one of the coach party, a young man named Billy Lee and tells him if the Mexican gun hand draws on him (Russell), Billy Lee must shoot him. Billy Lee agrees, and Russell goes to confront Vaquero and Grimes, with Billy Lee and the travellers looking on. The end of the sixties saw a series of good westerns, but this is a great one, and all the supporting cast give solid performances, but it's Newman's show all the way.
Heist (2001)
It's his road game
Many of the reviews on this film mention the fact that it is overcomplicated and may have one twist too many. Good. I like to have to think about what's on the screen. If I want to switch off and simply stare, I'll watch a Transformers movie. For those viewers who like to keep on their toes and have to assess and maybe even re-assess what they are seeing this is a great movie. Snappy, quick fire dialogue, the kind of criminal, low life patois that Mamet does so well is peppered throughout the film, with staple Ricky Jay "cute as a Chinese baby" or "And there he goes!" getting some of the best lines. Top notch performances all round from all the cast members make this a classy, complex movie. Hackman's criminal mastermind is more than an equal to DeNiro's Neil McCauley in Heat but minus the sub-machine guns, and with a real world weariness about him, as he tries to ensure his last "thing" pays off. Delroy Lindo, Danny De Vito and Sam Rockwell don't let the side down either with strong support performances,and Rebecca Pidgeon as Hackman's much younger wife is diamond hard and dangerous as the only female in a world of double dealing Alpha males. Fans of the genre will be happy to watch it more than once as the web woven and the crossfire dialogue means there is always some new slant on events. Complex plotting, quotable dialogue, strong leads and supporting actors and David Mamet at the helm mean there are many worse ways to spend an evening.