Category: Film Review

Easily one of Ridley Scott’s most ambitious films, 1492: Conquest of Paradise is not without its flaws, but also, not without its merits, most of which stem from the enormity of the physical production; had the script been more historically accurate then we might have had one of the greatest epic adventures of all time. Instead, the finished form of this cinematic seafaring voyage feels caught in between trying to be something respectful and progressive, despite clearly being made from a place of true personal investment.

It’s also a staggering reminder of the power of REAL cinema: Actual ships, live extras, exotic locations, real fire, real water – this is how an epic action-adventure drama film should look and feel, and in terms of the sheer size and florid atmosphere that was conveyed, this is one of the most lush movies of its type. One of Scott’s grandest canvasses that he’s worked on, this was one of the last films he made before the beginning of the CGI/digital effects revolution, and it would certainly be interesting to see how he’d make the film if he attempted to re-tell the story today.

But, at times, the script feels like a mess, never giving you an accurate portrait of Columbus as a man, despite Scott and the rest of his team including some nice introspective beats and startling moments of violence which certainly pushed the edges of what the PG-13 rating allowed back in 1992. But where was the raping, and the murdering, and the pillaging, and the formation of the slave trade, and all of the stuff that we’ve come to learn that the real Columbus supervised and participated in? This film was written before some of the more controversial bits about Columbus were discovered, so in retrospect, with a fuller idea of who he was as a man, it’s a movie that feels at odds with itself in certain spots.

Clearly, being an attempt at blockbuster filmmaking, the thematic and story elements needed to be softened to appeal to the widest possible audience, but here, it feels especially glaring, given what we’ve come to know. At times, you can feel that the filmmaker’s were striving for something more complex than what the screenplay afforded them; Roselyne Bosch’s dialogue is occasionally hammy while the plotting lacks a certain level of grace that would bestow Scott’s future period epics, chiefly the masterful director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven.

But while this is a historically scrubbed effort, the technical details are astounding and the performances were solid all around. Gerard Depardieu was never less than excellent with what he was given, demonstrating gravitas and personal heft that helped to cut a convincing portrait of an impassioned explorer, even if speaking in English isn’t his strong suit. The supporting cast is diverse and odd in spots, but dominated by Michael Wincott in a genuinely nasty performance (his stock in trade), Sigourney Weaver, and Armand Assante.

The bravura musical score from Vangelis (Blade Runner, Alexander, Chariots of Fire) along with the stunning widescreen cinematography from Adrian Biddle (Thelma & Louise, Aliens, Reign of Fire) combined to create a fantastic sense of time and place, which is par for the course on a Scott film. And the director, as always, delivered on the visual front, crafting a film of enormous scope and polish; the final act has a hurricane sequence and gory battle that are two of the best set pieces he’s ever directed. Scott and Biddle found true beauty in their vision of the New World; the sumptuous and dreamy shot in which the ocean mist parts to reveal dry land for the first time is handled in such an operatic fashion as to induce goosebumps, while Columbus’ first steps on new soil register as an earth-shaking moment.

And the final moments are poetic in their sense of overall discovery and the loss of one’s ability to continue searching for the next challenge. I’ve just always taken exception to how noble they made Columbus out to be, considering all that we’ve learned from a revisionist perspective concerning his expeditions and attempts at conquering. Paramount released the film in time to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage back in 1992, and armed with a $50 million budget, Scott definitely pulled out all the visual stops you’d expect from him, but the public didn’t bite, and the film bombed in theaters, grossing less than $10 million domestic.

But it’s a work that deserves reconsideration, and thanks to Kino Lorber’s recently released Special Edition Blu-ray, the film looks and sounds considerably better than I remember, as some time ago I purchased a Region 4 DVD from Brazil/Portugal, where the image, while presented in anamorphic widescreen, seemed to have been smeared with dirt and grease or left out in the sun to bake. But Kino’s new transfer is better than anything I’ve previously seen, with solid colors and appropriate grit and grain, and always giving off that filmic look that’s become lost now that everything is shot digitally. And while only in 2.0 DTS-HD sound, the film sounds big and boisterous and all-encompassing while dialogue remains crisp and clean. Special features include a highly informative and excellent audio commentary from film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson and various deleted scenes that showcase more graphic violence which were obviously trimmed to avoid an R-rating.

‘Opera’ (1987) dir. Dario Argento

Dario Argento. I was such a dork for this guy back in high school. I even had t-shirts made from the posters of some of his films. I got the images from a big interview piece I read with him in a ‘Psychotronic Magazine’ I had picked up. Did lots of presentations on his work in high school and later in film school. I’m still a huge mark for this guy and he’s a huge influence on my own work. Definitely one of my filmmaking heroes.

Objective historical fact: Dario Argento revolutionized the horror genre at three different times with the films ‘The Bird With The Crystal Plumage’ (1970), ‘Profondo Rosso’ (1975) and ‘Suspiria’ (1977). Awe inspiring. Everything outside of that is subjective but undoubtedly he has left a serious cultural footprint on the cinematic landscape that cannot be ignored.

In my opinion, he has made three great films – ‘Suspiria’, ‘Opera’ and ‘Profound Rosso’ and three very good films – ‘Phenomena’ (1985), ‘Tenebre'(1982) and ‘The Bird with Crystal Plumage’. Love them! Then there’s the rest. Some would toss ‘Inferno'(1980) and ‘The Stendhal Syndrome’ (1996) in there. I hear ya. They contain some truly wonderful moments. Stuff I certainly couldn’t do. But I just don’t think they come together as well as those others.

‘Opera’ revolves around the troubled production of an avant-garde staging of ‘Macbeth’ and the understudy who must rise to the occasion after the original ingenue is injured. Naturally, there’s also a serial killer on the loose dispatching people in all sorts of imaginative and grizzly ways.

After this film, Argento would never again make something as accomplished or impressive from a production stand point. His camera would never move as confidently or innovatively. His pacing would never be as urgent. And his spellbinding blend of the macabre, the artistic and the banal would never work so well together. Cristina Marsillach would also never be equaled as the quintessential Argento heroine. She is visually and emotionally the perfect foil for Argento’s filmmaking. Supposedly they did not get along during filming. It’s a shame but the film is probably better for it.

The gag with the killer taping pins under our heroine’s eyes so she is forced to watch the murders is a gimmick that runs rather shallow, packing less and less a punch with each viewing though they definitely frame it up like it’s the hottest thing going and the marketing to this day still pushes it to the moon.

Legendary cinematographer Ronnie Taylor rocks the arena with this one, composing some of Argento’s finest shots. A bit where the killer shoots his gun through the apartment peephole is still one of the best sequences of its type ever lensed.

I want to go on record as saying I find this film unusually erotic. I’m a big horror film guy but I don’t normally find the films all that erotic. I don’t. Sure, there’s naked ladies and sex scenes scattered about but I don’t find the genre as intrinsically erotic as many would claim. But I find this movie sexually charged in a strange way even though there’s little to no superficial eroticism to be had. Make sense?

I’ll never forget the first time I watched this film (re-titled ‘Terror At The Opera’ for US consumption) and it came to its controversial existential conclusion. I ADORED IT. It cuts to the most ridiculous switcharoo committed in film history and then ends as an esoteric art film. It is silly yet endearing, poetic and, like the rest of the film, unlike anything I had seen in a horror film. It also brought a peaceful resolve to the hysterical madness that had proceeded it.

The psychology deployed in this film in regards to the mother/daughter/killer relationship gets the job done without being too trite. It’s not one note like in Hitchcock ‘Marnie’ (1964), for example. It is more along the lines of Mamet’s ‘House Of Games’ (1987) or Demme’s ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ (1991) though it falls short of the latter two films’ cerebral panache and opts instead for flinging literal insanity up on the screen with gallons of blood and Heavy Metal music.

When I was younger I used to intellectualize Argento’s work a lot more. Now I feel silly doing it. Maybe it’s because the later work is a little hit and miss but I think mainly it’s because I believe the artistry is in the alchemy and not so much the content. When I see people over analyzing the content like I used to it makes me kind of uneasy. It’s his unique blending of cinematic elements – bravura camera work, complex yet contrived narratives, international casts, daring soundtracks and immense blood letting all with a signature style that is the secret sauce. Argento has a style but he also has a tone and when the two work together – everything else becomes irrelevant.

For the most part, and with only a few recent exceptions, the studio-funded American action picture is dead. The PG-13 rating, the homogenized superhero film, and an over-reliance on CGI have become the new norms, with films like Con Air, The Rock, Air Force One, Face/Off, and Bad Boys 2 never feeling like they could be made again; those films, and many others, used computerized visual effects to ENHANCE their set-pieces, not OVERTAKE them. In recent years, I’ve been looking to Asia for as many imports as I can find, and one of the nastiest I’ve discovered in recent memory is the absolute blood and guts festival Headshot, from the directing duo of Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto. This hardcore ass-kicker was done in the vein of The Raid and The Raid 2, complete with that film’s enigmatic star Iko Uwais, who here slices and dices his way through an army of baddies with only one objective: Stay Alive. He’s suffering from amnesia after waking up from a coma, and lots of people are after him? But why? You’ll find out. There’s nothing deep or complicated here on a narrative level, with the brutally efficient script presenting archetypes and then letting the fisticuffs fly.

The martial arts choreography in this film is utterly stunning, mixing various fighting forms into the action in a smart way though the story, while the straight forward plotting is merely an excuse to showcase Uwais and all of the other fearless stunt performers, who went above and beyond the call of duty for our entertainment. Shooting in widescreen, Yunus Pasolang’s in-your-face cinematography gets the viewer extremely up close and personal to all the action, displaying each smack down with fresh and edgy camera angles, and a mix of shaky-cam and long-take shooting; it’s absolutely incredible on a technical level all throughout. Exceedingly violent and unrelenting almost to the point of madness, Headshot all but eviscerates the competition, and yet again shows how filmmakers from overseas are totally schooling everyone else when it comes to unadulterated and boundary-pushing action filmmaking. After premiering at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Headshot received an extremely limited theatrical release worldwide, and is now a streaming option on Netflix and Amazon, and also available on DVD for purchase. This film is only for total bad-asses who like their action cinema full-throttle, pulse-pounding, and exceptionally, nearly pornographically violent.