Continuing with my binge with some different and older films . . .
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Director: Kenji Misumi
Country: Japan (Japanese with English Subtitles)
Genre: Action Drama
MPAA Rating: Unrated (I would rate it PG-13 for the subject material and swordplay)
This first of a series of 25 films produced from 1962 - 1973, plus a 26th many years later. Set in 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Century Japan, Zatoichi is a completely blind masseuse who is also an expert swordsman. Most Japanese swordsmen are Samurai or Ronin. Zatoichi is a Yakuza (gangster) without a top knot and is an itinerant wanderer who stumbles into adventures in his travels. In this first film, he finds himself working for a gambling den whose territory is being challenged by a rival gang. When the rival gang finds out Zatoichi has been hired they seek out and find their own expert swordsman and hire him. The film series was wildly popular in Japan, leading to its enormous number of sequels, and has remained popular, spawning a TV series as well. The first 25 films from 1962 - 1973 are available as a set from Criterion.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Director: Robert Altman
Genre: Dramatic Western
MPAA Rating: R
This is one of several of Altman’s films on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list. One of the more non-Western Westerns, or perhaps more precisely a Pacific Northwestern. Set shortly before 1900, McCabe (Warren Beatty), is an entrepreneur who rides into a remote Washington mining town to start up a gambling parlor and brothel for the nearly all male mining population. Shortly after he gets the building partially built and operating with three homely women (an understatement), Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie), a madame arrives. The two partner and the business becomes first rate albeit with some friction between them in spite of their mutual affection. McCabe is not quite the astute business man he thinks he is. Their success and that of the town’s mining eventually attracts a wealthy mining company and the consequences flow from the conflict it creates. Robert Altman directed M*A*S*H (1970) a year before this film which launched his directing career, along with The Long Goodbye (1973), Nashville (1975), and 3 Women (1977) in his heyday during the 1970’s. After that it was spotty until a couple very good ones in the early 1990’s, followed by Gosford Park (2001) and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), but his string of 1970’s hits was never repeated.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Director: Werner Herzog
Country: Germany (German with English Subtitles)
Genre: Biographical Drama
MPAA Rating: Unrated (I would rate it PG-13 for its subject material and themes)
German Title: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Everyone for himself and God against all)
This is one of several of Herzog’s films on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list. Based on the well-known (in Germany) true story of an early 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Century foundling, Kaspar was kept imprisoned in a cellar until he was in his teens, isolated from not only the outside world but all other human contact as well. He can hardly speak and is completely illiterate. Whoever had kept him confined puts him in a town square where he is discovered the next morning. Once he can speak, his genius emerges. Hauser’s tragically short life is accompanied by curiosity and semi-academic study. A number of his observations and comments about the life and society around him are profound, having the advantage of an outside observer of it without preconceptions or expectations. The film won the Cannes Special Jury Grand Prize (considered the #2 prize in competition there). It was entered as West Germany’s film for the Academy Best Foreign Film award, but didn’t make the cut for nomination. IMO, Werner Herzog is Germany’s finest, currently working post WWII director, most noted for Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), made just before this film, and Fitzcarraldo (1982). It’s one of several biographical dramas he has made, and his output of excellent documentaries has been quite prolific.
Live and Let Die (1973)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Genre: Action Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG (rated prior to PG-13 which is what it would have now)
Not only is this the first film with Roger Moore playing James Bond, it’s also known as the Blaxploitation Bond movie. Set in New Orleans and on a Caribbean island, over 90% of the cast is black and the plot includes significant Voodoo rituals. Other than the radically different cast, it has all of the typical features one expects in a James Bond film. The dialog is peppered with double entendres and sarcastic puns, the latter in particular when one of the villains dies. In addition, none of the Bad Guys can simply shoot Bond. They must have a convoluted and inventive method of dispatching him, which always enables an escape. Finally, there’s the required extended final chase scene and as usual, he makes off with the girl for an extended tryst at the end.
Risky Business (1983)
Director: Paul Brickman
Genre: Dramatic Comedy
MPAA Rating: R
One of Tom Cruise’s early movies made when he was 20 and his young age is quite obvious. It wasn’t his first feature film, but it was arguably his breakout role that propelled him into stardom. The scene near the beginning using a candlestick and then a fireplace shovel imitating a rocker in nothing but a dress shirt, briefs and socks is priceless. Cruise plays a high school senior from a well-to-do home (upper middle class). His parents go away on a vacation leaving him home on his own, a common teen film setup. The mayhem ensues from there as a good friend (debatable how good a friend he really is) spurs him on to engaging in some risky behavior. It was also Brickman’s directorial debut. Unlike Tom Cruise, Brickman’s motion picture career has been sparse with only a handful of directing credits and perhaps twice as many writer credits, but even that’s not very many.
Santa Sangre (1989; trans: Holy Blood)
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Country: Mexico (English Dialog)
Genre: Dramatic Horror & Art House
MPAA Rating: NC-17 (uncut)
On Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list, this film with its surreal elements is not for everyone, in addition to being a horror story that portrays some very graphic violence. I’ve highlighted its MPAA rating. A cut version was eventually created that just barely pulled it down into an R rating, but the DVD and Blu-ray I’ve found are uncut (NC-17). Its graphic depiction of violence is similar to Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977; Italy), and the original Swedish Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (2009; much more graphic than the US remake). Unlike many contemporary horror films which are little more than slasher porn, there is real story, not just the shell of a plot vehicle for the violence and horror. Not as surreal as some of Jodorowsky's other films, it has symbolism and structure similar to Luis Buñuel’s movies. It’s not one that would be found in mainstream theaters. The story is about a young man, Fenix, who was a performer in the Circus Gringo as its child magician with his trapeze artist mother Concha and his philandering father Orgo who owns the circus. Alma, a child deaf-mute high wire artist the same age befriends him and is his bright spot in the conflicts between his mother and father. Fenix witnesses a brutal fight between his mother and father, at the end of which his mother loses both her arms and his father commits suicide. He and Alma are separated. Fenix spends years in an insane asylum, before his mother persuades him to escape and act as her hands in her bizarre nightclub act. The horror accelerates from there with the unspeakable crimes the mother has her son performing for her. The movie is filled with colorful visuals, albeit with bizarre oddity, and at times hallucinatory and symbolic. Felix’s demons are fully revealed at the end as he is eventually freed from the real horror his mother and father inflicted on him as a child. Born in Chile, Jodorowsky’s films are heavily influenced by his upbringing, Chilean culture and Luis Buñuel. This film has achieved cult status with several of his much earlier movies from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (1971) and The Holy Mountain (1973).
John
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Director: Kenji Misumi
Country: Japan (Japanese with English Subtitles)
Genre: Action Drama
MPAA Rating: Unrated (I would rate it PG-13 for the subject material and swordplay)
This first of a series of 25 films produced from 1962 - 1973, plus a 26th many years later. Set in 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Century Japan, Zatoichi is a completely blind masseuse who is also an expert swordsman. Most Japanese swordsmen are Samurai or Ronin. Zatoichi is a Yakuza (gangster) without a top knot and is an itinerant wanderer who stumbles into adventures in his travels. In this first film, he finds himself working for a gambling den whose territory is being challenged by a rival gang. When the rival gang finds out Zatoichi has been hired they seek out and find their own expert swordsman and hire him. The film series was wildly popular in Japan, leading to its enormous number of sequels, and has remained popular, spawning a TV series as well. The first 25 films from 1962 - 1973 are available as a set from Criterion.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Director: Robert Altman
Genre: Dramatic Western
MPAA Rating: R
This is one of several of Altman’s films on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list. One of the more non-Western Westerns, or perhaps more precisely a Pacific Northwestern. Set shortly before 1900, McCabe (Warren Beatty), is an entrepreneur who rides into a remote Washington mining town to start up a gambling parlor and brothel for the nearly all male mining population. Shortly after he gets the building partially built and operating with three homely women (an understatement), Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie), a madame arrives. The two partner and the business becomes first rate albeit with some friction between them in spite of their mutual affection. McCabe is not quite the astute business man he thinks he is. Their success and that of the town’s mining eventually attracts a wealthy mining company and the consequences flow from the conflict it creates. Robert Altman directed M*A*S*H (1970) a year before this film which launched his directing career, along with The Long Goodbye (1973), Nashville (1975), and 3 Women (1977) in his heyday during the 1970’s. After that it was spotty until a couple very good ones in the early 1990’s, followed by Gosford Park (2001) and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), but his string of 1970’s hits was never repeated.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Director: Werner Herzog
Country: Germany (German with English Subtitles)
Genre: Biographical Drama
MPAA Rating: Unrated (I would rate it PG-13 for its subject material and themes)
German Title: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Everyone for himself and God against all)
This is one of several of Herzog’s films on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list. Based on the well-known (in Germany) true story of an early 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Century foundling, Kaspar was kept imprisoned in a cellar until he was in his teens, isolated from not only the outside world but all other human contact as well. He can hardly speak and is completely illiterate. Whoever had kept him confined puts him in a town square where he is discovered the next morning. Once he can speak, his genius emerges. Hauser’s tragically short life is accompanied by curiosity and semi-academic study. A number of his observations and comments about the life and society around him are profound, having the advantage of an outside observer of it without preconceptions or expectations. The film won the Cannes Special Jury Grand Prize (considered the #2 prize in competition there). It was entered as West Germany’s film for the Academy Best Foreign Film award, but didn’t make the cut for nomination. IMO, Werner Herzog is Germany’s finest, currently working post WWII director, most noted for Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), made just before this film, and Fitzcarraldo (1982). It’s one of several biographical dramas he has made, and his output of excellent documentaries has been quite prolific.
Live and Let Die (1973)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Genre: Action Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG (rated prior to PG-13 which is what it would have now)
Not only is this the first film with Roger Moore playing James Bond, it’s also known as the Blaxploitation Bond movie. Set in New Orleans and on a Caribbean island, over 90% of the cast is black and the plot includes significant Voodoo rituals. Other than the radically different cast, it has all of the typical features one expects in a James Bond film. The dialog is peppered with double entendres and sarcastic puns, the latter in particular when one of the villains dies. In addition, none of the Bad Guys can simply shoot Bond. They must have a convoluted and inventive method of dispatching him, which always enables an escape. Finally, there’s the required extended final chase scene and as usual, he makes off with the girl for an extended tryst at the end.
Risky Business (1983)
Director: Paul Brickman
Genre: Dramatic Comedy
MPAA Rating: R
One of Tom Cruise’s early movies made when he was 20 and his young age is quite obvious. It wasn’t his first feature film, but it was arguably his breakout role that propelled him into stardom. The scene near the beginning using a candlestick and then a fireplace shovel imitating a rocker in nothing but a dress shirt, briefs and socks is priceless. Cruise plays a high school senior from a well-to-do home (upper middle class). His parents go away on a vacation leaving him home on his own, a common teen film setup. The mayhem ensues from there as a good friend (debatable how good a friend he really is) spurs him on to engaging in some risky behavior. It was also Brickman’s directorial debut. Unlike Tom Cruise, Brickman’s motion picture career has been sparse with only a handful of directing credits and perhaps twice as many writer credits, but even that’s not very many.
Santa Sangre (1989; trans: Holy Blood)
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Country: Mexico (English Dialog)
Genre: Dramatic Horror & Art House
MPAA Rating: NC-17 (uncut)
On Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list, this film with its surreal elements is not for everyone, in addition to being a horror story that portrays some very graphic violence. I’ve highlighted its MPAA rating. A cut version was eventually created that just barely pulled it down into an R rating, but the DVD and Blu-ray I’ve found are uncut (NC-17). Its graphic depiction of violence is similar to Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977; Italy), and the original Swedish Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (2009; much more graphic than the US remake). Unlike many contemporary horror films which are little more than slasher porn, there is real story, not just the shell of a plot vehicle for the violence and horror. Not as surreal as some of Jodorowsky's other films, it has symbolism and structure similar to Luis Buñuel’s movies. It’s not one that would be found in mainstream theaters. The story is about a young man, Fenix, who was a performer in the Circus Gringo as its child magician with his trapeze artist mother Concha and his philandering father Orgo who owns the circus. Alma, a child deaf-mute high wire artist the same age befriends him and is his bright spot in the conflicts between his mother and father. Fenix witnesses a brutal fight between his mother and father, at the end of which his mother loses both her arms and his father commits suicide. He and Alma are separated. Fenix spends years in an insane asylum, before his mother persuades him to escape and act as her hands in her bizarre nightclub act. The horror accelerates from there with the unspeakable crimes the mother has her son performing for her. The movie is filled with colorful visuals, albeit with bizarre oddity, and at times hallucinatory and symbolic. Felix’s demons are fully revealed at the end as he is eventually freed from the real horror his mother and father inflicted on him as a child. Born in Chile, Jodorowsky’s films are heavily influenced by his upbringing, Chilean culture and Luis Buñuel. This film has achieved cult status with several of his much earlier movies from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (1971) and The Holy Mountain (1973).
John
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