Revisiting The Big Chill

The Big Chill is a 1983 ensemble drama comedy, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and written by Kasdan and Barbara Benedek (for which they received a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination)

The story centers around a group of seven (originally eight) 1960s idealists who were close friends at the University of Michigan but have drifted apart since graduation. It is now 1983 (about fifteen years since their college days) and the seven are drawn together for a funeral when the eighth member of their group, the never seen Alex, kills himself.  After the services the seven friends, most of them spouseless, spend a long weekend in a large southern vacation home straight out of Pat Conroy. During their stay they have long talks, reminisce, drink wine, rekindle relationships, wonder about the dreams of youth, and wonder what drove Alex to take his own life.

[Side Note: Kevin Costner, one of my favorite actors, was cast as Alex and that is him as the corpse in the opening scenes. There were originally flashbacks with Costner but Kasdan eventually felt the flashbacks did not add to the present day story and cut the scenes]

I first saw the movie in the late 1990s, I was in middle school or early high school.  My parents gave me the 15th anniversary edition VHS tape for Easter (pictured above).  My mom and I watched it later that day, I was excited because my parents had repeatedly told me how much they liked the film and how good it was. During my first viewing I was less than enthralled, I did watch it all the way to the end, but I remember not enjoying it. Memory fails me as to why I did not care for the movie back then, it could be that the film is more of a character study and a series of scenes than a traditional narrative. It is not structured with a truly forward moving plot and when the vacation ends most of the characters return to the lives they had at the start of the film (except William Hurt's character, the pill popper, who decides to clean up his life) there is not a lot of change. Which may be Kasdan's point.

Several of Kasdan's films are what could be called concept stories where the audience is left to find the catharsis or climax on their own. For instance Continental Divide (1981), which he wrote but did not direct, about a cross country romance has a long drawn out ending where the characters keep catching trains extending their romance but end up exactly where they started promising to cross the country again. Wyatt Earp (1994) ends with a flashback that I believe is supposed to bring up the questions of legend and the history of the West but seems an odd climax to such a long film (I will say without the flashback the film would have no ending at all). Yet in Grand Canyon (1991) when his cast of characters finally reaches the natural wonder of the title the final shot and the looks on the actor's faces provides an immense catharsis for the viewer and I myself cannot explain why that ending works as well as it does.

Anyway back to The Big Chill, in the past few months of 2019 I caught the film on one of those unedited and without commercials TV channels. It was just starting with Glenn Close's character getting the phone call and segueing into the "Heard it Through the Grapevine" montage which expertly introduces each of the main cast. I sat and watched the entire film for the first time since that Easter Day of my youth and I was completely enthralled, even moved by the film.

I am sure this newfound connection is cause by the fact that I am now an adult and closer in age to the characters in the film than when I watched it as an adolescent. I have had a number of experiences and met people very similar to those depicted in the movie.

[Side Note: the characters are all caucasian, educated, upper class individuals. I have a feeling if you are a member of this demographic the film will hit you, it may be a miss if you are not I'm not sure.]

Kasdan and Benedek have created a group of seven characters so familiar that they are able to embody any number of real people that the viewer has known from their own past, which some critics have deemed causes them to be cardboard or shallow. The shallowness is most likely on purpose because all the characters have sold out to become upper middle class yuppies

Another major benefit is that Kasdan and his casting director selected a group of actors who became engrained in the popular films of the 1980s and 1990s (this film was at the start of many of their careers so this was also a bit of luck). For instance I cannot for the life of me remember any of the character names, I see them simply as William Hurt, Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and Jeff Goldblum. Each brings their everyday charm to their roles and considerable screen presence while still seeming like your next door neighbor.

The camaraderie of the cast shines through and while watching the film I truly believed they were all friends in college. This bond that comes through the screen is a credit to the filmmakers since none of the actors had previously worked on film together and save for Hurt none had worked with Kasdan before filming. This would be the beginning of a collaboration between Kline and Kasdan that to date has produced six movies together. The friendship depicted again conjures up my own memories of friends I could talk to all night, and stay in a vacation home with.

This movie more obviously than his other films, encompasses Kasdan's love of the past and a longing for an earlier time that runs through all his work. His screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) called on the Saturday Matinee Adventure Serials of the 1950s. Body Heat (1981) fully recreated film noir of the 1940s and 1950s and help solidify the neo-noir boom of the 1980s. Silverado (1985) was the first major studio western in nearly a decade and kickstarted the genres brief resurgence in the 1990s. The Bodyguard (1992) was conceived and written as a 1970s Steve McQueen vehicle, it would have sat nicely next to Bullitt and The Getaway. His most recent film Darling Companion (2012) focuses on a long married couple who must examine their past and forgive each other during a vacation weekend and could be seen as a bookend to The Big Chill.

While I may not see my own group of young friends often or ever again, when I watched The Big Chill they are enlivened on the screen in the words and faces of the actors.  Here Kasdan with his love of the past has created a film that speaks to a whole generation of Baby Boomers (and seemingly generations to come) that were and are wondering where the days of youth have gone.

Film Review: Manhunt "John Woo is Back!"(Released 2017)

Manhunt
Released 2017
Directed by JOHN WOO!
(Ryan's rating ★★★1/2 out of four)

I have to come right out and say it, I love John Woo.  As a boy growing up in the 1990s his Hong Kong urban action films were my favorites.  So this review may be a little biased.

Woo's lyrical film style where every main character carries two guns (usually Baretta 92FS) was termed by critics as "Bullet Ballet" or "Gun Fu" due to its stylized violence, choreographed like a dance sequence.  While characters jump, spin, tumble, and slide through the action scenes there is always an air of reality to the dance and that is Woo's gift, he takes things that are so over the top they should be terribly unbelievable but they become commanding in his hands.

Manhunt (released in Asia in 2017 and currently available on Netflix streaming) is Woo's first action drama in nearly twenty years.

The story follows Du Qui (Hanyu Zhang), a high powered corporate lawyer whose client is the giant Tenjin pharmaceutical company. The film opens in a bar (strikingly similar to the bars in The Killer and A Better Tomorrow) where two characters discuss how classic movies are sadly falling out of style. In a wink to the audience this will be a classic style Woo film. I do not want to reveal too much but a an exhilarating gun battle explodes so seamlessly I was hooked. 

After the opening credits we shift to several years later as the owner of Tenjin pharmaceutical appoints his ne'er-do-well son as the future head of the company during a large celebratory gala. Du Qui has also won several lawsuits in the company's favor.  He is planning on leaving Japan, but the company sends a beautiful woman to make sure Du Qui stays put.  Yet the next morning he wakes up next to the murdered woman and is quickly framed by some corrupt police officers.  He escapes and goes on the run to prove his innocence.

Enter Masaharu Fukuyama as the dedicated detective who is reaching his breaking point (in the same vein as Danny Lee in The Killer or John Travolta in Face/Off) who soon realizes that Du Qui is innocent.  This sets up one of Woo's most common themes, the similarity and/or eventual partnership of two men on opposite sides (usually of the law).  The detective and the lawyer team up with a woman they both know from their past and take it on the run to prove Du Qui's innocence and Tenjin's illegal activities.  The trio of two men and one woman is another common Woo theme (see Once a Thief and Hard Boiled).  The plot gets too complicated to recreate here but is surprisingly easy to follow while you are watching with all its additional information.

The Media Asia logo at the beginning is straight from those 1990s VHS tapes I watched growing up.  The film has a feeling of coming home while still being current and exciting.  If you are not a Woo fan or a fan of Hong Kong action cinema this may not be for you.  More cynical viewers will also need to put their mind into a place where jumping a few inches to the left allows you to avoid a massive amount of machine gun fire and a gunshot wound to the shoulder does not slow you down until the story needs you to slow down.   

But such is a John Woo film.  He rose to fame in Hong Kong in the 1980s and early 1990s with such classics as A Better Tomorrow, Once a Thief, and especially The Killer and Hard Boiled.  The latter two influenced countless film and filmmakers (Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and The Matrix to name a few). Less talked about in America is the harrowing Bullet in the Head which takes place during the Vietnam War as three friends try to use the war as a way to get rich quick in the smuggling trade through Hong Kong.  The popularity of these films in Asia and on home video in America led Woo to Hollywood in 1994 with a series of financially successful though often critically panned films (Hard Target (far better than it is given credit for), Broken Arrow, Face/Off (his best in America), and Mission Impossible 2).  After Paycheck (poorly received) Woo transitioned to making epic historical films, the first taste was Windtalkers, and returned to Asia to make Red Cliff and The Crossing (both of which were so long they were split into two theatrical films each).  As well as the video game Stranglehold (which I personally love and is a sequel to Hard Boiled).

Manhunt is a tribute to a Ken Takaura (the Clint Eastwood of Japan), one of Woo's heroes.  It is a true return to form and a tribute to everything I love about John Woo's filmmaking. While the plot is overly familiar, like many of Woo's films, the fast pace and Woo's touches keep it fresh.  Now don't get me wrong this is not a director going through the motions of the things that made him famous this is a director rediscovering his calling.  

Film Review: My Name is Nobody (released 1973)

My Name is Nobody 
Released 1973

Directed by Tonino Valerii

(Ryan's Rating: ★★1/2 out of four)

This Spaghetti Western (though filmed in New Mexico and Spain) is really a comedy spoof of the genre's manly image.  In particular the films of Sergio Leone (Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West) the man who basically invented the Spaghetti Western.  

Leone is credited with the story and was a Producer (though uncredited in some prints), fans have long debated how much input he had over the film as his hallmarks are all over the screen.  The two loner gunslingers with a mutual respect who work together, the "Mexican Standoffs", and even a revisit of the shooting off each others hats from For a Few Dollars More.  Also Leone's longtime composer Ennio Morricone provides a wonderfully off kilter score for this film.

Henry Fonda stars as Jack Beauregard a legendary gunfighter who wants to retire and sail across the sea.  Terrence Hill has more screen time but less lines as the title character Nobody.  The simple yet convoluted plot is really just an excuse to hang set pieces on, the basic story involves a gang of men trying to kill Beauregard as he is moving across the state to make his steamboat trip.  Nobody is a young fan of Beauregard and follows him along in an effort to convince Beauregard to go down in the history books by taking on the hundred and fifty men single handed.  There is also the business man who has a mineral mine that he is passing off as a gold mine...but that is confusing even when seeing the whole movie (this may have made more sense in the longer Italian version).

Since this is a Western spoof there is a running gag of Nobody never shooting anyone despite his ability with a gun.  He prefers to shoot glasses out of people's hands, or hit them with oversized circus props.  There are also joking references to Western lore, the gang is named "The Wild Bunch" and walking through a graveyard they find a tombstone for Sam Peckinpah.  Nobody's name also alludes to Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood.

This film is designed for lovers of Sergio Leone and film buffs, it will probably leave casual viewers cold.  It is overlong and can be slow moving, also while Hill gives a great performance sometimes his zany antics drag.  The shootout in the barbershop, and the bar sequence are wonderful Leone stylings.  Yet many of the tension building moments end in a comedic chuckle as opposed to the expected gunfights.  Even the climactic showdown with the Wild Bunch is more exciting for its widescreen beauty and staging than its action quotient.

The retiring gunfighter unable to escape their past became a common theme as the Western Genre dwindled in popularity in the 1960s (a trend that sadly continues into the present day).  Actors associated with playing cowboys were given valedictory swan songs, John Wayne's The Shootist, Randolph Scott's Ride the High Country (also one of the last for Joel McCrea), and Clint Eastwood's final Western Unforgiven to name a few.

Following that retiring theme this film would prove to be Fonda's final feature in the Western genre (discounting his cameo in son Peter's Wanda Nevada), it is a fitting cap to a career that includes such classics as My Darling Clementine (as Wyatt Earp), The Ox Bow Incident, and Once Upon a Time in the West (excellent in a rare villainous role) and that alone makes the film significant.

I have been wanting to see this movie for a number of years as a fan of Sergio Leone it adds to his all too brief film output.  So I was very happy to see it streaming as part of Amazon Prime.  I went in expecting a traditional western so I had to adjust my expectations as the film played on.  If you go in expecting a spoof instead of A Fistful of Dollars you'll be good.  Happy trails readers.

Film Review, Allied (released 2016)

Allied 
Paramount Pictures 2016
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
(Ryan's Rating ★★★ of four)

I am a fan of classic movies and films that are not in ultra high definition.  As well as movies where the special effects department is not directing the movie.  Do not get me wrong I like a good Marvel movie but at the end of the day I'll be watching Turner Classic Movies or the Western channel.

What I find so enjoyable and refreshing about Allied is that it could have been made in the 1940s (albeit minus the brief nudity and brief profanity) with Clark Gable and Greer Garson.  For those of you who do not enjoy classic films (yes I look down on you) because you feel they're slow or boring Allied moves at a clipped pace that kept me glued to the screen.

The story is set during WWII where two operatives, a Canadian working for the British (Brad Pitt) and a French spy (Marion Cotillard), meet in Casablanca on an assignment to assassinate a Nazi supporter.  They are undercover posing as a wealthy married couple who have charmed their way into the upper crust of the city.  This opening thirty or so minutes could have been a movie in itself but is really only act one in this film and it is some of the most enjoyable set up I have seen in a long time.

Needless to say the two spies fall in love, get married, and move to London (during The Blitz).  He takes a desk job for the military and she becomes a house wife raising their baby.  Then his superiors suspect his French wife of being a German operative and the rest of the film moves into a Hitchcockian mystery where Pitt's character and the viewer are unsure who to trust.

Pitt fits into this period piece exceptionally well and shows his movie star charisma and acting chops.  I for one always find Pitt hit or miss, he is very commanding on screen in everything but often I find his films underwhelming.  Here he succeeds with aplomb.

Cottillard is one of those performers that I have seen in about a dozen films but I can never remember where I have seen her.  This is probably due to her immense acting abilities which allow her to disappear into characters and also that she does not really make traditional blockbusters (for instance she is not associated with Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel).  She perfectly fits into the 1940s period and her performance is right on pitch.

Robert Zemeckis has made some of my favorite films (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Back to the Future Trilogy, Forrest Gump, and I Wanna Hold Your Hand).  Over the first decade of the 2000s he became a champion of motion capture digital filming which he used on the wonderful Polar Express and the less exciting Beowulf and A Christmas Carol (with Jim Carrey).  Now he appears to be returning to the more traditional live action films, with Allied he shows off his expert eye for framing, camera placement, wide shots, tracking, and long takes and especially pacing.  A film buff like Spielberg (his mentor) and Scorsese, Zemeckis pays homage to Billy Wilder and in particular Hitchcock (whom he previously emulated on the less successful What Lies Beneath in 2000).

Overall Allied is not the greatest film ever made but it is a very entertaining adventure thriller for adults with an eye for the classic which is something to be enjoyed.

Film Review The Death of Stalin (released 2018)

The Death of Stalin.  My Rating: ★★★ out of Four Stars.

This blog has taken on several different themes, it originally was intended as a blog about Hawaiian Music and the history of the music of Hawaii.  It then turned into a music review journal as I went through each CD in my album collection.  Then after a very long break it briefly became a creative non-fiction blog with life essays.  Now once again after a multi year break it is taking on a new life.

A co-worker of mine who is a film professor recently learned I had majored in film studies as an undergraduate and suggested I restart my blog with film reviews so here we are with another revamp.

My studies focused on film criticism and film history.  Growing up, I had wanted to be a film reviewer like some of my favorites Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and especially Leonard Maltin.  Maltin is still my all time favorite reviewer and historian.

At the 2018 California Independent Film Festival I had the great pleasure to meet Mr. Maltin, very very briefly, and see him give an informal talk when he was presented with the 2018 Golden Slate award for his years of film history.  During his talk amid the wonderful stories about Roy Rodgers, Jimmy Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn, Mr. Maltin mentioned The Death of Stalin as one of the best movies now playing.

I recently had the opportunity to see the film on DVD.  As the title indicates the plot deals with the week or so following the death of the Soviet leader and how his inner circle deal with the change of leadership.  Director Armando Iannucci, best known for creating the hit HBO series Veep, uses much of the same skills here satirizing political structures that he brings to his popular TV series.  The inner circle is a bumbling power hungry group of backstabbers played by an excellent cast of familiar faces.  Jeffrey Tambor is particualrly hilarious as the boneheaded Malenkov who takes over the role of Soviet leader.  Paddy Considine is wonderful in a small role as the nervous head of Moscow Radio.  The always reliable Steve Buscemi is great as the fast talking Nikita Khrushchev spouting zingers left and right.

While there are a number of laugh out loud moments throughout it should be noted that this is a dark comedy with serious moments as well as depictions of the Soviet death lists, the Russian prisons, executions, and a rather violent coup.  While most of the action in these scenes is just off screen or in long shot they can be disturbing (which is the intention).  The director mentions on the DVD special features that he did not want the film's humor to erase the fact that the real individuals depicted were ruthless leaders who murdered many of their people.

If it were about ten minutes shorter (it's an hour and forty seven minutes) it would have been a tighter and possibly stronger film but as it is will surely appeal to those who love black comedy and satire.  Is it as great as the reviews led me to believe, no, but it is a well made well acted film with some truly funny moments.