LEt sLeePing CorPses LiE: a zombie interlude

Zombies scare me. Fact. I'm not sure why ...they always have. I think it's the inevitabilty ...their patience, if you will...
Night of the Living Dead scared me & it is the classic - no denying it - like The Thing, it's that ending that caps it perfectly, creating a "WTF?" instead of an "aahhh, everything's ok..."
From that I would've jumped all the way to 28 Days Later or Dawn of the Dead(06), but Jorge Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is my personal favorite in the genre. I watched it again last night(partially in response to my spiritual tirade earlier) back to back with Slither, which I'll yammer on about at a different point, but I've sampled a lot of Zombie movies, and I think this is the one that both borrows and inspires best.
For starters, Danny Boyle is clearly a fan of this movie - with the "rage" eyes and faster "dead", 28 Days Later is almost a remake...
A friend commented that the movie looks like an Agatha Christie movie ...'til the Zombies show up. It has a very British/70's storytelling element to it ...with just that dash of Italian darkness ...almost like a Stephen King story.
They do some different things here, with the homicidal babies, and the relentless hobo ...things that stay with you a little longer, and despite it's tone, we eventually see blood aplenty.
The acting is great, and the inspector(played by Arthur Kennedy) is a fantastic character, making the film feel more like a mystery featuring the undead, as opposed to a "horror" film. The score is excellent, the suspense genuine, and the outcome is unpredictable. This is an excellent movie by almost any standard, and as I write this I can't wait to show it to someone new...

My Ultimate Zombie Fest would read something like this:

Night of the Living Dead(1968) Let Sleeping Corpses Lie(1974) Dawn of the Dead(1978) 28 Days Later(2002) Dawn of the Dead(2004) Shaun of the Dead(2004) Zombieland(2009) Let Sleeping Corpses Lie(2012) - A remake and functioning sequel/follow-up to Shaun of the Dead(by the same team, of course).

If you look for it - it has about 30 titles ("The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue" /"Don't Open the Window"), so you can pick your favorite...

It's worth it ...watch it on a misty night ...trust me.

Bill Murray & THE RAZOR'S EDGE

"America" - The last line of my favorite film.
Movies can inspire us ...affect us ...and sometimes they can answer questions we didn't know to ask...
This film, more than any other, sums up my truest philosophy on the human condition:

We all get what we truly want.

I was handed this new perspective at a time I was indulging something I thought I wanted, and it grabbed hold quickly. I was left with the question - what do I need(not want) and what does that need want? They are different. Our "learned personality" covets, and I believe this to be the downfall of North American culture.
I read a story by Kurt Vonnegut years ago called Harrison Bergeron ...about society bringing everyone down to the same level ...I think we do this to each other, but mostly to ourselves ...not so much misery loves company as impotence and fear adore company...
"Keeping up with the Jones'" has tragically created about a billion Harrison Bergerons ...only measuring ourselves against others - the "successful " ones, with no core sense of who or what we really are ...what we really need, to be the best possible version of this assemblage of gifts that any of us is.

Is life distracting us from obtaining our goals? ...or is distraction what we seek? Why does someone stay in an abusive relationship? ...what interior question is being addressed?
We measure ourselves against what we see to be success and decide it's too much ..too hard, and the fear is so warm ...

I believe we are searching, both consciously and un- , from the moment we wake til the moment we sleep, for what we truly desire in this world...
But what is it you seek ...what experience is guiding you? ..what pain or inspiration? ...what self-imposed limitation keeps that goal forever planted in the realm of the someday...?

"I didn't know I was lying, but I was." - I love that line.

Our protagonist, Larry Darrell is still a mystery to me ...but one I think of often. If honest answers are what we seek, how can life not be immeasurably rewarding?
What will make me happy? What will make this experience valuable while I'm in it? How do I affect others?
I honestly believe Bill Murray made Groundhog Day as a thematic sequel(or perhaps a philosophical follow-up) to Razor's Edge ...What is the value in anything ..anyone? How do I engage this experience unselfishly?
Beautiful.
But the lesson itself is not soft. What do you truly want? Honest answer...

At one point he visits an old friend who is not well ...listen to Larry's answer when his friend thanks him...

As for the film itself, John Byrum's direction is subtle and strong, allowing the film and the performances be patient when it's necesarry. Denholm Elliot could do no wrong in the 80's and the cinematography is gorgeous. My long-standing crush on Catherine Hicks remains undiminished ...Child's Play, Star Trek IV ...and she's great here(don't hate her)...as is Teresa Russell - lovely, vulnerable, sad.
And...
I love Bill Murray's performance as Larry Darrell, but I just love Bill Murray ...I think he knows who he is ...or at least, he's not afraid to look.
I could have discussed Ghostbusters - I think it's a perfect movie - Life Aquatic, Broken Flowers, etc...amazing, and I would give him the "best cameo of all time" award for Zombieland, but between the ultimate messages of Groundhog Day and Razor's Edge I think it's the personal philosophy of the actor that gets me most. GD feels more European in tone every time I see it ...and what a message - value what is valuable. That's it.
All the players in RE seek, and recieve ...but, like a great number of our lives I suspect, you have to look back at the question, and realize, that this and only this, provides the answer that is your day to day existence. What do I want?

Mr.Murray indulges both the exquisite beauty and the exquisite sadness that is life ...and honestly evokes that old idiom: If I didn't laugh I'd cry. I thank him and my friend Mike Goodfellow, who knew I should watch this movie...
It's like Jeopardy - sometimes the answer prompts the question itself.
I'm left with a question upon writing this. Do I want to be a filmmaker who measures himself against the works of others? No, I want to answer myself. The way the people on this list have, and then let the world form it's own questions to my answers.

There is a moment in The Razor's Edge when Larry is atop a mountain, burning his books to stay warm ...his last possessions. He is smiling - I envy that smile.

THE A TEAM ...yes, The A-Team

Okay, now you think I'm crazy ...hear me out.
The 2010 update of the 80's TV show The A-Team could easily be viewed as just another of the infinite # of remakes and sequels that Hollywood continues to churn out ..except for a few valid points.
What is the truest purpose of re-doing something? I believe the answer is "to do it better".
Seems simple right? Wrong, as we all know ...
So here's the catch ...this movie is better than the show ever was. My friend Travelin' Dave summed it up perfectly in noting that GIJoe did not succeed in making us feel that rush that the show gave us as kids ...The A-Team did. But we're not kids anymore so how does it work?
Give us what we want as adult filmgoers:
From the adrenaline fueled opening culminating in Hannibal Smith's classic line to the very end of the film when we get the iconic "If you have a problem..." AWESOME. Joe Carnahan and his team have such a genuine and obvious love for the original concept that a pervasive sense of pleasure threads the whole movie. Even the bad guys shine with great performances, nuanced dialogue, and actors who seem to be having at least as much fun as we are.
Noteworthy here is that Smokin Aces by the same director distinctly felt as though it's makers enjoyed the process far more than we did.

The film is fun ..it's that simple. The plot is neither complex nor insulting, providing a non-stop ride and plenty of time for every actor here to playaround, and even evolve a little. Watching Liam Neeson do George Peppard's Hannibal Smith is almost as fun as Chris Pine's Captain Kirk - reverence and reinvention abound. Bradley Cooper is charming beyond, and Rampage Jackson pays absolute tribute to Mr.T's BA Baracus ...buuuut Murdock was my guy.
I was a teen when the show debuted so I found it a little young even then, but Dwight Shultz's Murdock was a guaranteed laugh. Sharlto Copley(of District 9) has so much fun with this role, I'd see it again for him ...he is just so funny. Our introduction to "Howlin' Mad"(*spoilers*) has him stitching a thunderbolt into BA's wound and lighting Face on fire ...I missed dialogue because I was laughing ...great, again - good reason to go back to the theatre. Only last years Star Trek impressed me this much(in the realm of the reboot) and though I believe that to be a superior film to The A-Team, it actually accomplishes slightly less: Star Trek was a fantastic show that needed some help in recapturing the magic again... The A-Team was never a fantastic show, but one that resided firmly within camp & nostalgia ...and how to make it work as a film ...easy, make it really entertaining - take everything we liked about the show and inject it with steroids ...perfecto. In other words, do exactly what every filmmaker should set out to do - entertain us.
I guess I'm one of the few guys around who loves sequels and remakes ...these are our stories ...our youth, retold and rebooted and repackaged ...and every once in a while you get to hear a story you know you've heard before, but the guy telling it is telling it even better.

...and another THING...

I was right. I can watch it every day...then again - I am crazy, but it's just sooo good. The Thing is the type of film that I want to make. That's it...it's smart and consistent, with that flavor of character acting that I love - people that really feel like they're in those skins...Alien did it first, but this one is my favorite.
The whole film speaks in the voiced question of the original story...Who Goes There? ...at more than one turn we are left saying "Who was that? ..but who was that?" but like the book/screenplay of No Country for Old Men, The Thing is also remarkable for what isn't there: The men don't use words out of science fiction...they don't have the magic answer for us, so they feel real. Then there's the questions ..do they know if they've changed? Where is it from? The unanswered and unresolved compliment the story perfectly - no, they enhance it...I think this is what I despise most in a lot of the films of today...when they hand us not only ALL of the info we should have to discover ourselves, but usually even more than needed, making the experience not only stupid, but insulting...these "exposition scenes" I just can't stand...
Might be my favorite ending scene...no, Kane and Groundhog Day match it, but anyway, that ballsy ballsy ending is almost European in tone(and I still have no idea, much like Twelve Monkeys, what the truth is..) - I somehow doubt the upcoming remake will be so esoteric at it's edges...
Dean Cundey is a genius ...if genius means figuring out the absolute best look and feel to establish a tone for the story - it's pitch, if you will is perfect throughout, again more noticeable in films when it isn't. Though the story is messy the film is extraordinarily tidy - amazing.

So many cool posters for this film...

For three nights I've turned it on and turned away - used it as a radio show to go to sleep...awesome, with some freaky dreams to boot - I swear that score could hold up the whole film...simple, punchy, and creepy - there's a "dark inevitability" to it that unfailingly puts me in Antarctica, knowing I won't survive...or will I?
Had a discussion about "love" for film last night - love versus "like" or "really like" ...you film obsessos know what I mean...

I love The Thing, and like real love, it just keeps getting better.

SUPERMAN ..or December '78

I don't know why but I feel compelled to write about the boy who went to see this film with his father on a chill night in the winter of 1978. I was a young eight, and there was still a gray area between reality and film. You can guess the impact of an expensive, expansive, well-done Superhero movie on a wide-eyed dreamer...and not just any hero...this was SUPERMAN up there flying around... this was modern myth made real.
My world became bigger that year. The United States had farms in the middle and cities on the edge. I learned that not everyone was as polite as I was used to(only Superman, it seemed)...but Metropolis(New York) now existed to me...busy, bustling, loud and dangerous...what a world.

As the little girl with the comic book begins ..the onscreen curtains open ...that drum roll...
I do believe it was my first erection...actually, I'm quite certain it was...nothing sexual about it...certainly didn't understand, but I do remember the overwhelming sense of seeing something grand ...grander than anything I'd ever seen...an energy and enormity of scope that pulled me in and simply never let go.
So much emotion locked up in this...it was the 70's and things were different...and I was eight. Dad was a tall archetype father to me then and about midway between Superman and normal human beings. I don't remember if Pad (my little bro) was with us or not...probably, but it quickly became so "mine" that the film would hold its place throughout various stages of my life...with that John Williams Score serving as a pick-me-up more times than I can possibly count, even after the death of my own father.

And from that amazing title sequence to Krypton to Smallville - to the big city and the modern threat of a Nuclear exchange - This is pitch-perfect action/drama with lots of laughs; something I'm certain all the "adults" in the audience were very pleased about. The tone and pacing are classic, and the movie is beautifully shot, with extraordinary effects work, despite the distinct lack of pixels or rubber suits.
The story by Mario Puzo is solid and the cast is a virtual who's who for the era: Margot Kidder's weirdly sexy Lois ...Glenn Ford's truly fatherly Pa Kent, and of course Gene Hackman's Luthor ...sooo much fun, but Hackman's my favorite actor of the 70's, hands down. And oh, yeah ..MARLON BRANDO plays his father ...the greatest American actor ever !!..Marlon Brando is Superman's Dad - perfecto. In fact, there are a number of "father" themes running thru thoughout ..I still remember how I felt when Pa Kent took his pulse, and looked, with one expression, as though the one thing he was feeling was "I won't see Clark grow up ...I can't help him anymore..." Amazing.
There is an earnestness about this movie, as though each and every one of the players actually loves the character and the film...it felt then as though everyone in the world loved Supermen as much as I did.

...and then there's Chris Reeve.

The man charged with making us "believe a man can fly" - truly did.
Christopher Reeve stepped out of our "collective mind's eye" vision of Superman, and then spoke. The face, the body language, the Clark Kent - you could screen-test every actor who ever lived and never cast the character better. He gives off a sense of undeniable power and confidence while humanizing not just an alien but a guy in tights. It works because he works. This, and the wisdom of Richard Donner, are not lost on what is now an adult perspective on a movie that was made for everyone, but by adults. I note this element only because even the best of the many "superhero" films made since, feel a bit juvenile...like these director's did let the run the show, or that's at least what they thought we wanted. Superman always feels like adult filmmakers with the reverence of children...an almost fatherly perspective on the character, and a cohesive sense of "what" Supes really stands for, as opposed to more modern or convenient interpretations. Only The Dark Knight captured the same adult tone but with far less genuine love for it's title character.

The First Great Comic Book Film portrays the origins of not only Superman but of the entire industry itself. It started with him ...then Batman ...then Spider-man(which is an anti-hero remake of this movie)...etc. ..and now, just like the comic book industry - there's a whole messy slew...but it all comes back to the big guy - Superman is to comic books what Citizen Kane is to film...everything comes after.
Sadly, his relevance has seemed to wane in these more "modern" times, but perhaps nineteen seventy eight was the last time our society could, or would, truly embrace this character. It seems that this 2010 internet culture is more about propagating the idea that we are all "special" ...and the big blue boyscout doesn't really fit into the "GenY" model...apathy doesn't need to be saved, I guess. The simple fact is that no one looks up in the sky anymore ...they're too busy texting.
Perhaps the secret is that perceived perfection actually makes us very insecure..
...but if you look again, you'll see that his trials are not unlike all of ours ...does he/she love me? ...how to balance who I want to be and who I have to be? ...where did I come from? ...and what do I do now?

I'm not thrilled that I'm getting older, who is? but...
This movie...this distillation of so many stories and ideas of goodness and heroism...of modern myth into an actual motion picture...an epic film...this is a reason to be glad you were born in the 70's. Up 'til some points like this one I couldn't necessarily grasp my father's work ethic, but watching this movie - I understood a sense of duty - a responsibility to what you are, once you know what that is. SUPERMAN made me believe I could fly ...that is, do just about anything...
& sometimes Dad did too.
It was a good night.

"Get busy living, or get busy dying" ...The SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Hope. This word brings me back to my original inspiration for writing about film...Stephen King. A film is only as good as it's villain...and in this extraordinary film we have the most insidious bad-guy ever on the screen...DESPAIR. This is the greatest strength of Mr. King(in my humble opinion)...to find the hope in the horror...to create situations where the human response can only be tragic or terrified...and yet...

I had the rare privilege of a triple feature in october of '94...Quiz Show(good movie)...Ed Wood(great movie)...then Shawshank...
My friends went to see The Specialist as a fourth feature...I went to a local pub and talked about the three films I just enjoyed, and made people promise to see Shawshank(I'm pretty sure we came up with a shooter called "the hardest screw" but the details are hazy)...then met said friends who immediately declared me "smarter" than them...I just couldn't taint that experience...

And it still stands...It's a cool october day every time I watch it...and I'm alone with my own spirit.

The Shawshank Redemption is perfect. This is the best teaming of Director/Writer in the canon of SK films, and though The Green Mile and The Mist are fantastic(as are Misery and Stand by Me), Shawshank is simply in a different category. Frank Darabont seems to pull a Mike Nichols in that his director's presence feels invisible...feels more like a prism focusing the story and performances. He seems to have no need to stamp this film, like say Kubrick who destroyed The Shining then rebuilt his version...but rather subtly guiding something that has a life of it's own. Now, I'm sure Shawshank is Frank Darabont's vision but it almost feels like both he and SK were in the higher service of hope itself...that this tenet is the drive of every moment here. I love the expression on Andy's face when he answers, as though any other thought is foolish...

That there are things in this world
not carved out of gray stone. That
there's a small place inside of us
they can never lock away.. that they can never get at ..hope.

.. I do have to note Darabont's slow push here...in on Andy as he reveals what he really is...and though Red is offended by his belief(their one and only clash) he knows that Andy is daring to look at something bigger than them all...and that dangerous pain that the knowledge of something better can carry...extraordinary. We feel Andy's leadership here and I do hope we've all had the experience of watching someone and not understanding their strength. I've had this experience...offended people who thought I should be sadder when my life was difficult... fuck-you.

This story isn't just a favorite film...it's my philosophy...that there is something inside that cannot be taken by anyone or anything. And that true hardship...true despair...leads to the truth - to what is really important. In this, I think The Mist functions as a thematic sequel to Shawshank with the truest horror coming out of the result of true despair...the final lack of hope.
Shawshank also sums up my philosophy on suicide...this and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes "..that's the funny thing about life, it's never so bad it can't get worse..." ..or better. I've never understood that belief that this moment is worth dying for...to truly believe it'll never be good again...nuts to that.

Twenty people could have twenty reasons for loving this movie...
There's Tim Robbins' beautifully understated Andy Dufresne, the exceptional supporting cast, the claustrophobic stone walls of a real prison, the timeless feel, the menace of exceptional human villains(and ask yourself this..do I take more pleasure from watching evil gets it's come-upance? ..or from watching each supporting character evolve in Andy's light)...and then there's Morgan Freeman:
We all love Morgan Freeman...he's like that uncle who always had time for you but didn't put up with yer shit...his voice has intelligence and sadness in it...and hope. This is the story that made every filmmaker on earth want a Morgan Freeman VO...

Every time I watch this I'm saddened by Brooks' death...I hope that Red will get to the rock...and I cry when he does. I used to want to watch the next 2 hours of Red and Andy's story, but in this, too, is a lesson...
As we get older there is an immeasurable value to shared experience, especially shared pain. That beautiful end shot from high up...I wanted to see them up close...smile, hug...whatever, but it took a couple more viewings to realize we don't deserve to be there on that beach with them ...they earned it. If those of us watching want a moment so profound...we gotta go make 'em...we have to get busy living...