Podcasting Them Softly

Jack’s Back has the displeasure of sounding like a derivative, gore infested horror slasher movie thanks to its poster and plot summary. What else could one expect from a movie about a serial killer on the loose in modern day Los Angeles, replicating the gruesome Jack The Ripper murders precisely 100 years later?

The surprise of Jack’s Back is that it’s far from the slasher we might expect it to be, and is more in line with a moody mystery thriller, perhaps something Hitchcock would have crafted. Here is a movie that isn’t concerned with the gory details of the aforementioned copycat murders, but rather atmosphere, suspense, and a couple clever twists you genuinely won’t see coming. I can’t discuss any more of the film’s plot without spoiling something, and of course I don’t want to do that, but I will say that James Spader plays twin brothers, one a medical student, the other a small time felon, and that one of them is a prime suspect for the murders.

Taking into consideration that Jack’s Back was director Rowdy Herrington’s first feature film, it is easy to understand why it’s a flawed piece of work, but that’s not to say that the movie is terrible, it’s just in need of improvement. It’s as contrived as it sounds, but it’s nice to see those contrivances work in a way that actually tricks you into thinking you’ve got it all figured out, given how straight forward the plot is, until one final twist makes you think “You sure fooled me”. It doesn’t pull  the rug out from underneath you, but it sure tries real hard.

I am glad that in today’s world James Spader is having some semblance of a career resurgence these last couple years. I’ve always felt it a shame that such a gifted actor was seemingly thrown to the curb after David Cronenberg’s controversial Crash (no, not the Oscar winning one), which seemed to repulse the average movie goer and film critic. Here in Jack’s Back, Spader was given the opportunity to play the lead for the first time, and not a pawn in a formulaic slasher flick, but a thoughtful pair of twins with some dimensionality to them. I really enjoyed the subtlety with which he treated the actions of the twins, a fine example being a moment when the medical student twin takes an injured old woman’s mind off the pain she’s feeling with just a few simple questions and a humorous punchline.

It’s a pleasure seeing Spader in dual roles, which at the time and still today are quite the rarity. This isn’t like recent films Enemy and The Double, where the leads actors play two different subconscious versions of the same entity, but a very rare occasion where both characters feel like completely different individuals altogether, who just happen to be identical twins. Jack’s Back might not be a great movie, and I’m sure it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but for a first time director and a first time leading man at the time it’s quite the unique treat. Give it a look, it just might surprise you.

When I think about Apocalypse Now and the countless viewings I’ve undertaken over the years since I first watched it some ten or eleven years ago, two things always spring to the forefront of my mind like a bullet to the head: the horror, and the helicopter ride, and for good reason too.

I think the vision of Vietnam that director Francis Ford Coppola created is the epitome of hell, the stuff nightmares are born from. It’s as cold brutal, and unforgiving as anything I could ever fathom; a long bleak trip down the blackest tunnel into the fiery pits of man-made hell. Between the Doors, Wagner, and a Coppola score pounding against my eardrums like napalm strikes igniting the Vietnamese countryside, and the unforgettable, terrifying onslaught of violent imagery erupting across the screen, my mind often seems to shift into another dimension of itself, into a realm of utter despair and bleakness. The overwhelming power of Apocalypse Now comes from the way in which the film causes that shift in one’s mindset that takes you from a happy place, and throws you face first into the chaos of war. It’s a dehumanizing, soul killing experience, and yet also one of the most deeply fascinating I’ve ever encountered.

The horror I am referring to also encapsulates a disturbing monologue Kurtz gives to Willard late in the film, detailing the dismemberment of polio stricken children by the Viet Cong after Kurtz and his soldiers vaccinated them. “Then I realized they were stronger than we. They have the strength, the strength to do that. If I had 10 divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgement.” His madness seems to spring from this soul changing event, the discovery that this war cannot be won by those weaker in their hearts than the people they’re trying to overcome. Only hearts of darkness will win Vietnam. 

There’s also that line, “The horror. The horror.” It’s spoken with shallow breaths, whispered for only Willard to hear as it floats from the dying mouth of Kurtz and deep into our minds, residing prominently in our memories days after watching the film. It’s the first line I associate the film with every time I think about Apocalypse Now, without failure.

And then there’s the helicopter sequence, where Col. Kilgore’s choppers play Wagner’s Ride Of The Valkyries over the loudspeakers as they dive into enemy territory and wipe out everyone in the area, for the sole purpose of capturing a beach that offers great waves for the surfing enthusiast. I don’t know if such tactics were ever employed or not in Vietnam, and something tells me they likely weren’t, but in this film, in that moment, it’s nothing short of sheer brilliance. In a film that has one great sequence after another for its entirety, a rare feat in a sea of films that struggle for even just one great scene, the Ride Of The Valkyries sequence in its entirety is perhaps the most memorable scene in the entire film. Who could ever forget “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” anyways? 

After a gut wrenching viewing of Apocalypse Now, I can’t help but think about the film, every last grueling second of it. It might be the most dehumanizing, horrific, grotesque, and stressful war film ever concocted to date, but it’s also the most memorable and unforgettable. There are plenty of war films that are nearly as depressive and brutal, more patriotic and perhaps indulgently so, and more triumphant and proud than Apocalypse Now, but flag waving manufactured heroism doesn’t always make a great war film. Apocalypse Now is the great American war film, that coveted “M” word, because we’re talking about it all these years later as enthusiastically as if it came out just yesterday, and that’s no easy feat. Persistence goes a long way.

Roger Ebert hailed True Romance as a silly teenage boy’s fantasy come to life, fun and energetic, but absurd. I was a silly teenage boy the first time I saw the Director’s Cut of True Romance on DVD, and like some of my friends at the time, I loved it. I still feel like a silly teenager on the inside sometimes, and that part of me still loves watching this action packed piece of Hollywood entertainment. It might be silly, but that never bothered me before anyways.

True Romance requires a suspension of disbelief, to get your mind past the idea that in a single night, a young comic book store employee named Clarence with a love for Elvis and Sonny Chiba Kung-fu flicks, and the bombshell first time prostitute Alabama hired by Clarence’s boss to give Clarence a good time on his birthday, would ever fall so deeply, madly in love, that they marry the next morning after he kills her pimp, and then set out on a soon to be violent honeymoon with a bag full of cocaine that belongs to the mobsters hot on their tail. Although, this is a Quentin Tarantino screenplay, so most of this sounds like a slow drive to grandma’s house in Tarantino Land. 

Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette star as Clarence and Alabama, respectively, the seemingly ideal cinematic couple. Sure, they’re both a little bit cuckoo when you look at the direction the narrative takes, you must be a bit wacko to get married within hours of meeting, but the natural chemistry between the two actors generates a palpable sensation of honest love oozing from Clarence and Alabama. You really feel the passion between them when they kiss and flirt with each other.

The rest of the cast is rounded out by a director’s wet dream of character actors, including Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Christopher Walken, Michael Rappaport, Tom Sizemore, Christopher Penn, Bronson Pinchot, Saul Rubinek, and Dennis Hopper as the least crazy, perhaps even 100% normal character in the entire film. They all appear in one facet or another over the course of this ensemble piece, each adding their own unique stamp to the late Tony Scott’s coolest pure action movie. It’s a real pleasure seeing such a remarkable cast at the top of their game.

As strong as the two leads are, they just aren’t as good as my two favourite performances in True Romance, from Gary Oldman, and James Gandolfini. Oldman is almost obnoxiously over the top and nearly unrecognizable as Drexl Spivey, Alabama’s eccentric dead-eyed, scarred, dreadlocked pimp. In such a brief amount of screen time, he creates one of cinema’s most memorable movie villains, a nasty, vile, unpredictable psychopath.

The same can be said for Gandolfini as Coccotti’s underboss Virgil, a shotgun toting psycho in his own right, and the ultimate nightmare for the naive Alabama. He doesn’t get to say much, but what comes out of his mouth carries immeasurable contempt and cruelty, later witnessed physically manifested in his violent abuse of the strong willed Alabama. I genuinely felt afraid for her throughout their graphic struggle, despite my assumption she would eventually overcome Virgil in brutal fashion anyways. Gandolfini was always just that damn good.

Much has been made about the most popular sequence in the film, largely referred to as “the Sicilian scene”, a long conversation between Walken’s Don Vincent Coccotti, whose drugs Clarence and Alabama currently have in their possession, and Hopper’s Clifford, a former cop and Clarence’s estranged father. The popularity of the scene derives in part from the verbal duel between Coccotti and Clifford, which leads to one of the funniest moments in any film Tarantino had his hands on, invoking a big ole belly laugh for those open to the crude and otherwise offensive humour of the scene. It’s my favourite dialogue driven scene in the film, always captivating me with Tarantino’s linguistic flair, and the sharp delivery of the now classic lines by Walken and Hopper. Every single time I watch True Romance and Hopper says “You’re part eggplant.” to which Walken retorts, “You’re a cantaloupe.”, I laugh out loud, and hard.

And then of course, there’s the action. Fast, furious, brutal, and unflinching, the slew of volatile outbursts of stylish, balletic violence are both dazzling and brutal in the same breath, a hypnotic flurry of blood and death. As a teenager, I was completely blown away by just how violent and intense the imagery was. Even today I sometimes find myself picking my jaw off the floor after the infamous bloody final shootout, which you have to see to believe. Tony Scott directed the hell out of those action pieces, and it’s a joy to see their influence running rampant in today’s films.

When you analyze True Romance, the harder and deeper you look, the more likely you might be to find cracks in the foundation; it’s not the flawless masterpiece some might hope for. But if you take True Romance for what it is, a piece of entertainment, and you choose to view it on a superficial level only, you probably won’t find any cracks at all. Not every film has to be perfect to be great entertainment.

“You’re so cool. You’re so cool.”