Tag Archives: Stanley Kubrick

Film Review

Actor’s Spotlight: Nate’s Top Ten R. Lee Ermey Performances

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Character actor R. Lee Ermey gained a whole bunch of traction from being casted by Stanley Kubrick and although he played many variations on the drill instructor archetype throughout his career, there’s also a host of varied, layered and always captivating appearances in this man’s work. Built like an all American tough guy and possessing of the badass presence to back it up, he’s embodied many cowboy, mercenary, law enforcement and the occasional regular joe type roles, these ten of which are my favourite!

10. Verne Plummer in DJ Caruso’s The Salton Sea

This is basically a minuscule cameo with one brief line but he’s playing against type and his quick presence in this beautifully dark neo-noir adds to an already eclectic cast. He and Shirley Jones play parents to Val Kilmer’s murdered wife, in a short but effective scene where they try and reconnect. The grief in all three is palpable and casting him was a nice touch.

9. Captain Phillips in JP Simon’s The Rift

This is one of those ‘underwater aliens’ SciFi horror schlock flicks that speckle the 80’s and 90’s like barnacle gemstones. Ermey plays the captain of a submarine that encounters mutant marine life, AI insubordination and deep sea extraterrestrials that wreak havoc in beloved, cheesy FX. His selfless reaction when he gets infected is something way more grounded than the film even deserves, and together with Ray ‘Leland Palmer’ Wise, he steals the show.

8. Conventioneer in Mike Figgis’s Leaving Las Vegas

Another cameo, but he always shone no matter the size of the role. Elizabeth Shue’s hooker tries to proposition him in a casino and his reaction is remarkably down to earth for that part of town. Affronted and insulted, he informs her he’s married, expresses disgust and moves on. It’s quick, wholesome and perfectly intoned.

7. Brisco County Sr in The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr

This is a fantastic, forgotten 90’s SciFi western with Bruce Campbell as the legendary gunfighter son of Ermey’s equally notorious but short lived bounty hunter. He doesn’t live past the pilot but his death basically kicks off all the action, plus he gets to display grit and badassery aboard a speeding locomotive.

6. Mr. Martin in Willard

A strange film about a weird dude (Crispin Glover) with an unhealthy affinity to rats, Ermey plays his domineering, asshole boss with that perfectly volcanic relish reserved for his villainous work. He and Glover have this oddly pitched but successful chemistry in an intense game of psychological warfare.

5. Police Captain in David Fincher’s Se7en

Many characters revolve around Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt’s harried detectives in Fincher’s dark horror masterpiece, one of which is Ermey as their stern, well spoken boss. Never given a name beyond the moniker of ‘Police Captain’, he’s a world weary veteran with haunted eyes and a restless, intuitive spirit.

4. Sheriff Buck Olmstead in Jeb Stuart’s Switchback

A salt of the earth small town sheriff, Buck does everything he can to help and befriend Dennis Quaid’s rogue FBI agent whose son is in the hands of a nasty serial killer. The character dynamic between the two carries the film and Ermey shows that when not being intense he can play mellow, compassionate fellows too. Underrated, beautifully photographed thriller as well, with a cool cast.

3. Clyde Percy in Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking

A grieving father full of quiet anguish and restrained outrage, he displays his talent for subtle drama in this examination of one death row inmate (Sean Penn) and the traumatic aftermath of his crimes rippling through a southern community. As he confronts a nun (Susan Sarandon) who is acting as counsel for his son’s killer, the bewildered sorrow and still burning sadness in his eyes, voice and mannerisms are palpable. Fantastic, against type performance from this actor.

2. Sheriff Hoyt/Charlie Hewitt in Marcus Nispel’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

This one is all fire and brimstone, illustrating the kind of menace, terror and outright fury he could inject into a performance. Charlie is the deranged patriarch of the homicidal backwoods family who birthed legendary serial killer Leatherface. The first film sees him slyly impersonate a local sheriff until the wheels slowly come loose and an unfortunate group of kids find out that he’s there to do anything but serve and protect. In the second film he goes straight up fucking bonkers though, steals the show in a barnstorming, show-stopping tirade of terrifying behaviour, murderous actions and sadistic, maniacal glee. He’s scarier than Leatherface himself in that one and cements a horror villain for the ages into canon.

1. Gny. Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket

This is the one that put him on the map, and the first of many times where he steals the show like a goddamn hurricane. Hartman is essentially a one note presence, but because of Ermey’s real life career as a drill instructor there’s a brash authenticity and jagged realism to his performance that is instantly magnetic.

-Nate Hill

Podcast

Paul Hirsch is here, the Force is with him by Kent Hill

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It is impossible to convey to those who weren’t there when STAR WARS was new – what it used to be like. For the third time since my existence began, I find myself faced with the end of yet another trilogy – the end of the Skywalker saga . . . ?

So it was with incredible nerves thundering tremulous throughout my body, that I sat down to talk with the man, and I want you to really think about this, who cut the scene in which Luke and Ben Kenobi discover the message hidden in R2. He cut Luke’s run, part of the final assault on the Death Star. He is even the man who suggested to George Lucas that Vader’s lightsaber be red and Obi-Wan’s be blue. As a STAR WARS fan . . . think about that. Think about the contributions of Paul Hirsch on the images that permeated our dreams and in some cases . . . shaped our destinies.

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On the eve of the Rise of Skywalker, it was a trip indeed to speak to and the read of the cinematic legacy of Mr. Hirsch. With his book A LONG TIME AGO IN A CUTTING ROOM FAR, FAR AWAY, Paul takes you back in time to a place when editors held the iconic images that flash before us on the silver screen…between their fingers.

My beloved Empire Strikes Back. Yes Paul came back for the sequel, but this is not merely an ode to the realm of Jedi’s and Rebels – it is a look inside the mind of a skilled craftsman of his art, and the journey which saw him mingle among the mighty company of the heavyweights of that last glorious era of Hollywood . . . the 70’s.

In a time when the men we would come to define as masters began their adventures in the screen trade: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma (with whom Paul cut frequently), Francis Coppola – oh, what a time. And it is not only the holy trilogy that has passed beneath the keen eyes of Hirsch – the work of other magnificent filmmakers like John Hughes, Joel Schumacher, George Romero,Herbert Ross, and Charles Shyer have all benefited from Paul’s expert touch.

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It took George’s clout to get him into Kubrick’s editing room. James Cameron boasted to him (referring to Titanic) that he made more money than the ‘WARS’ and didn’t have to make a sequel. He cringed at the idea of editing the helicopter sequence in Apocalypse Now for six months when Francis suggested it . . . yes folks . . . the cinema that has moved us to tears and had us on our feet cheering, has been before the eyes of my guest. And may the force be with him . . . always.

Ladies and Gentleman, please seek out the book, but until you do join me and Academy Award Winner . . . Paul Hirsch.

For Your Ears Only, Podcast

For Your Ears Only: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

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Tom and Frank out back with PTS’ first podcast of 2019. We discuss Lewis Gilbert’s second to last entry into the Bond franchise, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. We speak about Roger Moore’s continuation of Bond, the wonderful Barbara Bach, and Stanley Kubrick’s involvement.

Film Review

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

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Confession time: I saw Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining for the first time last night. I know, late to the party. Gotta say, I get the hype. From the first haunting, magisterial helicopter shots that follow Jack Torrence’s car up a gorgeous Montana mountain road to the icy snowbound finale in and around the deserted Overlook Hotel, this is one effective chiller that doesn’t quit, and succeeds in whipping up an atmospheric mania that culminates in the final shot, a simple black and white photograph that says it all. Nicholson is terrifying in every staccato gesture and possessed, ravenous glare as Torrence, a man who already has the capacity for volcanic violence if pushed, and all it takes is the seething malevolence of the hotel to push him right over that edge and turn him into a homicidal monster. Danny Lloyd is appropriately creepy as his kid and handles the dual voices thing in creepy fashion. My favourite performance of the film has to be Shelley Duvall though, and now it stands as one of my favourite works of acting in the horror genre itself. I’ve heard that Kubrick pushed her to some pretty dicey places to play Wendy Torrence, and fuck man she really got there. When shit starts getting freaky, she reacts in a raw, naturally progressive way that shatters all artifice and practically burns organically right into the celluloid, I believed her outright terror and her work pulled me right into the situation. Joe Turkel and and Philip Stone are super creepy as, shall we say, permanent residents of the Overlook, and Scatman Crothers is good if a little cartoonish as Halloran, the head chef who tries to help the Torrence family before it’s too late. Now, it’s no secret that Stephen King dislikes this film, and honestly I can’t see why anyone was surprised. I’m a huge King disciple and I’ve noticed that literally every other adaptation of his work but this one has felt like King, without really doing its own thing. Kubrick boldly went and made a totally different vision than King had, and that’s fine. This is a cold, desolate chiller with none of King’s trademark emotional beats or fiercely internal storytelling, and it works wonders as that. It isn’t perfect, some of the dialogue in the first half is awfully stilted and awkward, but that was sometimes a hallmark of the 70’s. I also wish there was more character development with Jack before he goes postal, it sort of makes it so you mostly only care about Wendy as opposed to the family as a unit, which would have been more effective. The film overall is brilliant though, particularly in score, cinematography and atmosphere. So many images are now iconic: the kaleidoscope carpet design, the room full of blood, those two creepy girls, that axe busting through the door, and they are all beyond fantastic, but some of my favourite frames are the ones less celebrated, like the stark moonlight through foggy snowdrifts outside, the sentinel hedge maze on the grounds, the opening vista shots of wilderness that suggest the horror comes from some vaguely elemental place. The score is a broad, varied soundboard of threatening death notes, ambient passages and startling cues. This is every bit the beloved horror piece I’ve always heard about, I’m glad I finally saw it, I enjoyed the hell out of it and I can’t wait to revisit.

-Nate Hill

Interviews

Space Operatic: An Interview with Stephen van Vuuren by Kent Hill

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I applaud anyone who makes their way on this crusade, some might say foolish crusade, to make a film. It can be a long, arduous, laborious. And thinking on that word laborious, now consider making a film that has to be stitched together using over 7 million photographs with animation techniques pioneered by Walt Disney on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. No CGI. And I know that sounds sacrilegious in this day and age where a film without CGI is like a day without sunshine.

However, the film that Stephen van Vuuren has, albeit laboriously, constructed In Saturn’s Rings, is a unique master-work that is as beautiful and immersive on the small screen I watched it on as I can imagine it being played in its large format form.

Sparked by Cassini‘s arrival at Saturn in 2004 and the media’s lack of coverage, van Vuuren produced two films. Photos from space missions — including images of Saturn taken by Cassini — were included. But van Vuuren was not satisfied with the results so he did not release them.

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While listening to the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber one day in 2006, van Vuuren conceived the idea of creating moving images of Saturn based on a pan-and-scan 2.5-D effect. The technique involves creating a 3-D perspective using still photographs.

After discussion with audiences at IMAX conferences, van Vuuren decided the film title Outside In (the title of the short version) was not a good match for the film’s sensibility. The Giant Film Cinema Association had been publicising the film and surveys it conducted supported this. It was during a discussion in 2012 about the film’s climax where he was describing Earth “in Saturn’s rings” that van Vuuren realized he had found his new title.

Although narration had originally been removed in 2009, by 2014 van Vuuren realized that a sparse narration was necessary for the film. This amounted to 5 pages and about 1200 words in total. After listening to many voice actors one stood out and he asked LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) to be the narrator for the film.

The culmination of these elements, plus a lot of hard work, has resulted in something that is essentially more than a film. Like Kubrick’s 2001 which inspired him, van Vuuren has crafted an experience of what it may by like to drift through the far reaches of space to the planet that has always been the physical embodiment of his childhood fantasies. And I for one am grateful he stuck to his guns and made a movie that, even though it’s not a tale from a galaxy far, far away, it is the universe at its most wondrous…

Interviews

“CHEESEBURGERS, NO BONES!” : An Interview with Mick Garris by Kent Hill

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It took a while to get a hold of Mighty Mick – but I’m glad I had the patience. See Mick Garris is one helluva talented man. His passage through the movies is a veritable plethora of Amazing Stories – apart from the show-of-the-same-name where he achieved career lift off.

Since those early days he has gone on to become a prolific writer, director, producer, author, podcaster – the list goes on. He made me laugh with Critters 2, he was the writer of The Fly 2, which was one of the only times a film has forced me bring up my lunch, and he has conducted wonderful and insightful interviews with fellow filmmakers – some, sadly, that are no longer with us.

Through it all Mick remains the soft-spoken gentleman with a passion for his work and cinema in total. He has had a long successful run of adapting the works of Stephen King for the screen. I have vivid memories of sitting through, night after night, his extraordinary adaption of The Stand. This he beautifully followed up with further adaptions of Bag of Bones and The Shining, in which King adapted his own book, and which Mick credits as one of the best screenplays he’s ever read.

He was instrumental in bringing together the Masters of Horror as he was composing the elements which formed great movies either under his pen, or benefiting from his exquisite direction. Follow this link ( https://www.mickgarrisinterviews.com/  ) to Mick’s site and check out the bona fide feast of delights for cineastes he has on offer. As I said to the man himself, “You have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, and I can’t wait to cut me a slice of whatever you serve up next.”

So, without further ado,  it is my privilege to present to you . . . the one, the only . . . Mick Garris.

Film Review, Podcast

The Auteur Series: Stanley Kubrick Volume II with Special Guest Raymond Benson

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Tim and Frank are back with author and film historian Raymond Benson for their second part of their Stanley Kubrick chat. They start with returning to 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY to talk about the music that Kubrick used, and continue through Kubrick’s filmography to EYES WIDE SHUT and AI. The three of them will be returning soon to discuss the filmography of David Lynch.  To learn more about Raymond, please visit his website here.