I haven't posted at this blog in nine years-- am today because I'm closer to perfecting the technique of multidimensional fiction-- which I've been calling, in its latest iteration, hyper-pop.
The latest is this e-book novella, The Loud Boys, now available at Amazon's Kindle, at Kobo, and soon at other outlets-- with a print version coming. Check it out!
With Clint Eastwood’s film “American Sniper” receiving a flurry of attention, both bad and good, it might be time to examine his most famous Western movie, “Unforgiven,” made in 1992.
How good is it?
The American Film Institute ranks it #68 on its list of Top 100 Movies.
Yet I can think of at least one Western movie with similar themes that’s better than it. Namely, Marlon Brando’s 1961 flick “One-Eyed Jacks.”
“One-Eyed Jacks” is a better movie than at least half of those listed on the AFI list. As a work of art it’s better than all but a handful of them. Even that statement is modest. Is “One-Eyed Jacks” as deep in its subtexts and undercurrents as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”? Yes.
“One-Eyed Jacks” is a better film than “Unforgiven” on many levels, in many aspects. I’ll discuss here only one of them.
“One-Eyed Jacks” contains a scene when Sheriff Dad Longworth, played by Karl Malden, brutally whips Marlon Brando’s Rio in the center of town, with the community looking on. The sudden violence from the lawman comes as a surprise.
“Unforgiven” mimics this scene in two of its own. First, when Gene Hackman’s Sheriff beats up gunfighter English Bob, played by Richard Harris. The presentation is similar—a host of rifles and shotguns tell the gunman he has no chance. Hackman exhibits the power of authority over the cocky gunslinger.
Later in the movie, Hackman beats up protagonist Clint Eastwood, another aging gunfighter, in similar fashion, which sets up the film’s violent conclusion.
The scene in “One-Eyed Jacks” is superior, because it brings together several of the subtexts and themes that have been floating beneath the narrative. For the Malden character, his action is not simply a demonstration of authority. The beating is personal. It’s an explosion of tension which has been building between the two men from the film’s beginning.
There’s the self-hatred Malden feels for having betrayed his friend—hate which is projected onto Brando. There may be a deeper subtext, given that Brando was in effect his protege, having started riding with Malden from a young age. As the dialogue states, from when Brando’s character was little more than a kid. Is something psychosexual going on? It’s possible.
There’s the father-son dynamic, as expressed even in the characters’ names-- “Dad” and “Kid.” Adding to this is the fact that Rio has entered Dad’s stepdaughter, Louisa—transcendentally played by Mexican actress Pina Pellicer—and Dad knows or at least suspects this.
The beatings in “Unforgiven,” however powerful, contain none of this, and so carry less discomforting force. The greatest art will work its themes and meanings through every part of the narrative. “One-Eyed Jacks,” a true American movie masterpiece, accomplishes this.
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For more discussion of these two movies and other great Western films, pick up my ebook, ABOUT WESTERN MOVIES, available through Nook Books and Kindle.
Viewed carefully, the remastered 1964 Beatles movie, "A Hard Day's Night," reveals how an obscure Liverpool rock group was able to initiate massive cultural change.
The first thing Beatles' manager Brian Epstein did right with the film project was to not settle for the generic Elvis-movie route. Selected as director was the most cutting-edge talent to be found, Richard Lester. As a result, the editing was revolutionary, with unsurpassed style.
Every aspect of the film fits with the image Epstein wanted to present. From a business standpoint, perfect branding.
Note the pop art poster images of the Beatles behind the band as they play on stage. Note the witty interview excerpts. Note how even the George Harrison excursion into a fashion magazine office has a purpose. It says, subliminally, "These four guys are the height of fashion. They're the new arbiters of taste."
What director Lester did above all was keep the four young men in motion. Dynamic, not static. From the famous first chord of the title song, the Beatles are seen running and tumbling across the landscape. Their movement matches the hyperfast (for the time) editing.
All aspects of the presentation worked in harmony. That the young musicians could crank out catchy pop tunes on demand was the foundation of their success-- but without the look and style, their sense of newness, they'd have gone nowhere.
These are lessons which can be applied to a stagnant literary scene.
A new literary project I’m soon to be involved in is looking for writers. Talented writers. Exciting writers. Writers who have verve and personality in themselves and in their art. Writers who are ambitious to make noise, and writers who are eager to change the culture. Are any such writers out there? Let us know at:
THE CINEMA THEATER EXPERIENCE
WHY is the 55 year-old movie “Ben-Hur” with its leisurely pace and retro technology a vastly more satisfying cinematic experience than the state-of-the-art “Captain America” movie?
“Captain America: Winter Soldier” is forgotten the moment you leave the theater, while the images and music of “Ben-Hur” seen on a movie screen echo inside your head for weeks.
There are similarities between them. Both films present the theme of “order versus chaos”—as timely a theme as any now going, given that we’re on the brink of becoming a totalitarian society. The difference is that in “Captain America,” the Imperial Romans are everywhere, playing both good guys and bad guys. America—Washington D.C. specifically—is the New Rome, seat of the kind of power and empire which in “Ben-Hur” Messala lavishly praises. (Long-shot special-effect views of both Imperial towns show surprising similarities.)
Pontius Pilate tells Judah Ben-Hur not to judge the empire based on his experience with Messala, an overeager enthusiast—and anyway there’s no other choice. “The grown man knows the world he lives in, and for now, the world is Rome.”
This is also the message of “Captain America.” Despite rogue elements in the nation’s security apparatus, there’s no other choice but to rely on Shield’s superheroes and their agencies to protect the country. As Scarlett Johannsen’s Black Widow tells Congress at the end, “You need us.”
“Captain America” pays lip service to opposing totalitarianism, but its strategy is the same as the plan of the bad guys: Create a sense of chaos in order to justify the imposition of order. Which is exactly what “Captain America” and movies like it are doing. The difference between “bad guy” Robert Redford and “good guy” Samuel L. Jackson/Nick Fury is one of degree. Fury wants to take away only some of your freedoms.
“Captain America” is virtually the same movie as the recent “Iron Man III.” The same generic, monotonous techno-style musical score. Many of the same set pieces. There’s a freighter to be stormed; a corrupt politician inside D.C. betraying the country; plenty of aerial combat with amorphous high-tech planes; a plunge by the hero into an ocean; confusions about characters or even exactly what’s happening on screen. The plot complexities are given quickly and never fully explained. We know there’s a countdown of some sort; something vague will happen if something isn’t stopped; predictably it is stopped, though the heroes seem to have been or should’ve been killed many times over. Unlike the Roman Messala, they’re not vulnerable creatures. They never face the real consequences of their actions—as Messala in “Ben-Hur” so graphically faces them.
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Unlike “Captain America,” “Ben-Hur” has only three set pieces, all well prepared for. (The A.D.D. crowd would argue, too well prepared for.)
ONE.) The Roman sea battle with pirates. The special effects are dated, but appear no more fake than today’s CGI.
TWO.) The chariot race. All the overused fast crashes and speeding vehicles in today’s generic action movies don’t equal this sequence.
THREE.) The crucifixion/miracle sequence, the real climax of “Ben-Hur.” Its sound, music, and editing, combined with the story’s emotional climax, make it one of a kind. The emotion of family combined with spirituality make the effect overpowering.
