Last Blog On The Left

I remember watching this movie on opening day back in 1997 and I can´t remember sitting there in the dark of the theatre thinking “Hey, I´m watching what will become a classic here!” I did have that same thought when I watched “Heat” on its opening day but that one wasn´t so hard to figure out. You had Robert De Niro and Al Pacino together for the first time, so that one was bound to become a classic whether it wanted to or not. But if you were to ask me today, which one I´d rather watch between “Heat” or “Cop Land”, I´d definitely go with “Cop Land” any day of the week. It is without a doubt the far superior film, in my book. “Heat” has got that obsessive gun-details going on, where Michael Mann has to show that he has done his research and I´m pretty sick of that these days. It´s a pretty pompous film where its director is fully aware, in every frame of the film, that “I am directing a classic here”. That is not the case with “Cop Land”. It kind of sneaks up on you and it wasn´t until a couple of years later, that I fully appreciated it.

Besides, if you think about it, “Cop Land” is a classic in the sense that this was probably the last time that we got to see Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel deliver some truly great performances. Remember that back in ´97 every other movie those guys starred in had some classic lines in them? What has Harvey Keitel been up to since then, you ask? Well, he´s been in such masterpieces as “National Treasure: Book of secrets”, “Be Cool” and “U-571” (to name the best of the movies on his resume. I´ll admit that these movies holds a certain value, since they are pretty entertaining but the tragic thing is that the Keitel we´re treated to in these flicks is the one that´s going on auto pilot. You can´t exactly compare Keitel´s turn in “Crime Spree” to “Bad Lieutenant”, can you?

It´s the same thing with Robert De Niro. Sure, he was pretty funny in “Meet the Parents”, “Analyze That” and “Stardust” but 1997 was the last time we had the pleasure of watching De Niro really act, both in “Cop Land” and in “Jackie Brown”. Since then it´s all been downhill, unfortunately. I don´t know what the hell happened. It seems that De Niro has been kind of out of it ever since Scorsese decided to make Leonardo Di Caprio his new muse. I remember hearing that De Niro was supposed to play the part that Daniel Day Lewis ended up doing in “Gangs of New York” but because De Niro refused to film in France, because of that whole brothel thing where he got arrested, Scorsese gave it to Lewis instead. If that´s the case, then it´s a crying shame!

You can´t deny the fact that De Niro has managed to create some pretty iconic performances in his career, and most of them has been with Scorsese. But the one he delivers in “Cop Land” isn´t mentioned that often when you speak about the “great De Niro performances” and I can´t for the life of me understand why. It´s a subtle performance of understated grandeur! This is why I´ve always preferred De Niro over Pacino. Imagine him in this role. He would´ve started shouting and screaming before the credits were over.

But De Niro and Keitel isn´t the only ones who delivers truly great performances in this flick. I think it´s pretty safe to say that Sylvester Stallone will never top the one he gives here, as the hearing disabled Sheriff Freddy Heflin, who has had a crush on Annabella Sciorra´s character since his teens. I know that Stallone was pretty damn great in the first “Rocky”-movie but this is his crowning achievement as an actor.

The story goes something like this: Policemen have always been the idols of Freddy Heflin. Due to being slightly deaf, Heflin could never pass the physical to become a police officer himself. However, because of his friendly, amiable nature, he’s managed to get himself elected Sheriff of a small New Jersey county outside of New York City, and he lives in a town where many NYPD cops also live. Mo Tilden (De Niro) is an Internal Affairs investigator for the NYPD, and his investigation of some crooked cops leads him to this small town, and to Sheriff Freddy Heflin. Heflin begins to help Tilden, and discovers that some of his heroes may not as righteous as Heflin would like to believe…

When you watch this movie today, it´s kind of amazing how many great actors director James Mangold managed to assemble for this picture: We not only get De Niro, Keitel, Sciorra and Stallone but also Michael Rapaport, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo and a slightly overweight Ray Liotta, who is also at the top of his game in this movie. The scene where he threatens Robert Patrick with a dart arrow in his nose is a classic.

Now, the reason why this is such a fantastic movie, except for the many great performances on display, are two things: the first thing is that it´s basically a western set in modern day society. There´s also a sadness to Stallone´s character that you don´t often see in your average cop movie. His lifelong crush on Liz, who he saved from drowning as a teenager and which is the reason why his lost his hearing on one ear, is extremely moving and involving. You can clearly see that she has feelings for him as well, and she is aware of the fact that if she were to have married him instead, she definitely would´ve been more loved, but he wouldn´t have been able to provide for her the kind of life that her husband Joey (Peter Berg) can. She realizes this too and there´s a melancholia to Stallone and Sciorra´s scenes that are absolutely heartbreaking. It kind of reminds me of something that James Gray would have come up with.

I can´t begin to tell you how great Stallone is in his portrayal of Freddy Heflin. Mangold knows to take advantage of his hangdog looks and he has never looked sadder than here. This is a man who´s gotten his heart chewed out, beaten and stomped on by life and Stallone walks a very fine line between being pathetic and endearing. In the first scene we meet him, he´s drunk as a skunk at the local bar, playing the pinball machine and when he runs out of coins he goes outside to unlock the parking meter to get some more. This is a pretty funny scene but it tells us a lot about this character. He´s playing the pinball machine while the cops he so admires at the other end of the bar are discussing something that he knows he will never be a part of, and it´s pretty clear that even though he´s the sheriff of this town no one takes him seriously.

Anyway, he stumbles outside to unlock the parking meter and drops the coins over the curb and that´s when Ray Liotta gives him the advice to home and sleep it off. There are a couple of scenes where get to see Heflin at home at night, one is after an encounter with Sciorra, and he´s laying on the couch, crying and listening to “Drive all night” and “Stolen car” by Bruce Springsteen and clutching the cover of his “The River” album. Now, I´ve always been especially fond of these types of Springsteen-tracks: the slow ballads about the people who spend their lives in the margins of our society and in these scenes with Stallone alone on his couch, director Mangold manages to touch upon something that very much resembles the kind of sadness one would feel when you realize that there is something very wrong with your life. It didn´t turn out the way you expected it to and when you know the reason why it didn´t, it has to be extra painful. We´ve all felt that at one point or another. Hell, if even a multibillionaire rock star like Bruce Springsteen can conjure up that feeling it´s not that unusual, it´s something that all human beings have in common and this is why Freddy Heflin is such a relatable character: he´s a decent guy who wants to do the right thing and who´s in love with the wrong woman. Who doesn´t like a guy like that?

But other than Stallone´s great performance, “Cop Land” really is a great western, updated to the late 1990´s. It basically comes down to the old “a man´s gotta do what a man´s gotta do”-type of thing and I can´t help it: I´m a sucker for that shit! I know that it´s predictable and some of you might even say that it s cliché-ridden but I say this is classic stuff. Hell, the scenes towards the end with Stallone escorting the prisoner almost borders on near mythic-stuff.

So, if you haven´t seen this one, you should! It´s a cracking thriller with a surprisingly mature streak of sadness running through it, with easily one of the best ensemble casts of the 90´s.

Until next time: take scare!

Thomas

It´s time to set aside our undying love for horror and other things as culturally high brow for a while, friends! While horror may be the favorite one of our movie children we still have to give some attention to the other kids as well. Just think of how attention-craving and unwilling to cooperate they will become when they grow up if we ignore them. That is why, my friends, I want to point your directions today towards an old Spaghetti western called “La Resa dei Conti” but most commonly known as “The Big Gundown”.

I love Spaghetti westerns! I know that there are a great many that are quite crappy but in almost every Spaghetti western I can always find some element that I love. There´s almost always at least one really inspired moment in most of them! And “The Big Gundown” is definitely no exception to this rule. It stars the late, great Lee Van Cleef and next to his roles in Sergio Leone´s “Dollars”-films, this is probably his best role. Next to “Death Rides A Horse”. That one was pretty goddamn great too, come to think of it.

Anywho, this one has a lot of things in common with Leone´s films. Sergio Donati who helped write the scripts for those are a co-writer and Leone´s frequent set designer Carlo Simi´s name show up in the credits, too. And then there´s the music… Apparently it´s written by this dude called Ennio Morricone. I don´t know about him but he seems like a pretty talented guy. The song during the credits is pretty catchy and the orchestral score is pretty cool, too.

All kidding, as we all know Ennio Morricone is one of the greatest composers ever. Whenever someone starts talking about classical composers like Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart and is trying to act all smart on your ass and starts rambling about their music, here´s what you do: start whistling the theme to “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and then punch them square in the face, ok? That´ll teach them to shut up about musical geniuses for a while.

Sometimes you gotta show ´em who´s in charge, friends. But anyway, back to “The Big Gundown”. It´s a great frickin´ film! You know how there are certain actors that weren´t just born to play cowboys but somehow comes across as real damn cowboys? You know, actors that doesn´t seem to belong in our time, in a weird way. Robert Duvall is one of those guys. Just look at “Lonesome Dove” and the fantastic “Open Range”. That guy is a genuine cowboy. He´s not faking it, I´m telling ya!

Well, Lee Van Cleef was one of those guys. Whenever you watch a film where he´s not in cowboy-gear, it doesn´t seem right. Well, he was in “Escape from New York” but that one was directed by John Carpenter, so naturally he works in that one. But you know, he did a couple of cop-movies in the 80´s and somehow that didn´t seem right. This was a man who was born to star in westerns and that´s really all there is to it. And thanks to Leone, the man had a pretty damn successful career in Europe, starring in a shitload of Spaghetti-westerns and if I´m not mistaken, “The Big Gundown” was the first one he made after “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. Here´s what the flick´s all about:

Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef), a famous gunman and bounty hunter, is sent to hunt down a Mexican small-time crook named Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian), who is accused of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Corbett is an experienced and successful lawman, but Cuchillo is very clever too. On this long hunt Corbett gets to know Cuchillo, and he gradually starts to doubt he´s guilty.

Not a very complicated story, but that´s the case with many of these types of westerns. It´s the way they´re executed that makes them so damn interesting. There were a whole string of Spaghetti westerns that were political in what they were trying to convey to the audience and “The Big Gundown” is no exception.

When you look at Leone´s work some might argue that they were indeed political, especially his last “western” “Duck, You Sucker” aka “A Fistful of Dynamite” starring James Coburn and Rod Steiger. That was a political film but what Leone was trying to say with it was how disillusioned he had become with politics and its machinery. That´s an opinion that I´m sure we´re all familiar with and that´s why I think that while it may not be Leone´s best film, it´s definitely one of his more interesting. Maybe not the first time around you watch it but it is if you take a closer look at it. Director Sergio Sollima hadn´t reached that state of anger or disappointment with this film. He does seem to have his filmmaker heart proudly placed to the left because this, at first glance deceivably simple western story, deals with such topics as prejudice, the working man being exploited for economic purposes and political trickery.

But like the great John Carpenter film “They Live” , which I´ve rambled about here, these layers are not hammered home too hard. It´s there if you wanna look for them and embrace them but if you don´t want to, this movie is just as easily enjoyable as a straight up western flick. Exactly the way I want my politics to be served!

That fucker who directed that flick “Crash” a couple of years back should sit up and take notes. You hear me, Paul Haggis? Don´t try to act like you don´t know what I´m talking about, ok? You hammered home the message so hard that I walked out of the theatre with a concussion and that´s not the way to go about it. Just remember that for future movies, ok? Thanks to “Crash” I haven´t yet dared to watch that “In the Valley of Elah” or whatever the hell it was called despite the fact that it stars one of my favorite actors, Tommy Lee Jones. That´s what you´ve done to me. You should stick to writing Bond movies and boxing films for Clint Eastwood. You see the difference there, Paul Haggis? Clint Eastwood didn´t hammer home his point, ok? Not like you did, with a god damn jackhammer, anyway.

Sorry about going off on a tangent there. I don´t know why I did that. I guess that I dislike “Crash” more than I knew I did.

Anyway, one of the things that Sollima does that I absolutely love about this film is that he has his hero, Corbett, start out as basically Eastwood´s character from the Leone films. He´s sort of a bounty hunter. He does his job and he´s very good at it. He doesn´t stay up at night around the campfire to sing songs or ponder the mysteries of life, ok? He catches the bad guys, brings the fuckers in and then that´s that. That´s how Lee Van Cleef rolls. But you see, when he starts pursuing Milians character, Cuchillo, he´s gradually forced to experience what Cuchillo experiences in terms of social injustice and bigotry. These events play out and Sollima handles it in a really great way. Like I said, he doesn´t hammer home his point and never once does it feel contrived or like he´s taking too much dramatic license.

That´s one of the things that I love about Spaghetti westerns: the twists and turns that the stories usually has. They really took the genre in a whole new direction and realized that they didn´t have to abide by the rules that the Hollywood westerns had to do. That´s why your average Spaghetti western is a hell of a lot more depraved, twisted, sadistic, violent, perverse and unpredictable than John Wayne ever got to be.

Now, don´t get me wrong. I love John Wayne as much as the next guy. I know that he was a fanatic republican and that he basically did a commercial for the Vietnam War with his film “The Green Berets” but I can´t help myself. It´s The Duke we´re talking about here! But no matter how great of a film “The Searchers” may be, it´s still a lot more fun watching basically any given Spaghetti western.

I´m not saying that Sergio Sollima is rivaling Sergio Leone´s cinematic genius with but this is a surprisingly competent film. But then again, not many people can beat Leone when it comes to creating spectacular cinematic landscapes and scenarios. The man was a master at every aspect of moviemaking: editing, sound design and cinematography. Christ, watch “Once Upon A Time In The West” again if you have any doubt. It´s a close to perfect film. That kind of showdowns, staring contests and opera-like displays of violence, you´ll only get in Leone´s films. Technical artistry at its best. That´s why a film like “The Big Gundown” is a bit more down and dirty. The camera shakes more, there´s a lot more zooms and stuff like that.

Another thing that they did really well in these old Spaghetti westerns was that they managed to populate the films with really bizarre, over-the-top characters and that´s something you gotta love. In this one we get a pretty crazy lady who runs a ranch and has a staff of lovesick ranch-hands working for her. Naturally, she doesn´t want anything to do with them but has instead her sights set on Van Cleef.

We also get an Austrian Baron who joins the posse. Where the hell did they find these actors? It´s like you´re watching a Fellini-film, with those faces.

This is a really, really good western. And like I mentioned, it has a pretty amazing score by Morricone. The title song is called “Run, Man, Run!”, which is also the name of another Spaghetti western starring Tomas Milian which was made the following year where he reprises the role Cuchillo. That one´s also pretty good but not in the same league as “The Big Gundown”. Unfortunately, there´s no Region 1 release of this and that sucks pretty hard.

However, the good people of Germany (not a phrase you get to say that often) have taken it upon them to release a DVD of this one and it even has the uncut version. It was truncated when it was released in the States and in that Van Cleef´s character doesn´t go through much of a change at all. The German release looks amazing, though! It is unfortunate that it doesn´t have the English soundtrack ´cause it´s just not the same listening to Van Cleef speaking Italian.

So there you have it… Sometime´s a man gotta do what a man´s gotta do, just like Van Cleef does in this film and what you have to do now is seek this one out and give it a try. I mean come on, who doesn´t love a good western? There´s not enough of them being made today but fortunately the Italians made about a thousand of them during their heyday back in the 60´s so we´re not up shit creek yet…

Until next time,

Thomas

I guess this is the kinda world we have now, after 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, global warming and all that shit: a world where a zombie movie, directed by George A. Romero, is quietly sneaked out on DVD in the Great Britain with no release in sight in United States. Is that the kind of world we wanna live in? I mean, this is George fuckin´ Romero we´re talking about here; the guy who practically invented the whole genre! Well, at least he gets to make zombie movies and I guess that´s a good thing. I remember the sad years between 1985 and 2005 when poor old George couldn´t raise the money to get another zombie movie off the ground. This meant that the 90´s would go without Romero´s biting social satire and comments on the state of the nation which is that´s a crying shame! We all know that “Night of the Living Dead” portrayed a nation in shock post-vietnam, “Dawn of the Dead” dealt with the 70´s escalating consumerism and “Day of the Dead” summed up a Reagan-controlled USA pretty neatly. I would have loved to see Romero´s take on the 90´s. But you know what they say, “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and my heart grew pretty goddamn fond during these 20 years.

That´s why it was such a joy to see Romero back in fine form when “Land of the Dead” opened back in 2005. This time around he was dealing with a USA who had been attacked by terrorists and invaded Iraq so naturally, George had some stuff on his mind. Then a weird thing happened. We only had to wait 2 lousy years until next installment in the ongoing zombie-saga arrived: “Diary of the Dead”! This time Romero had turned his attention towards today´s information society with internet and all that shit. Unfortunately, it felt like his ideas hadn´t had time to digest and the film was a disappointment. I learned to appreciate it a lot more the second time I watched it but it´s still the weakest of the bunch.

Which brings us up to date. Like I said, Great Britain has released his latest zombie-opus, “Survival of the Dead”, straight-on-DVD. I saw it the other night and I have mixed feelings about it, to say the least.

Most of the movie takes place on Plum Island – a refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families, The O´Flynns and the Muldoons, to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided: The O’Flynns, lead by Patrick (played by veteran actor Kenneth Welsh) believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons, lead by Seamus (Richard Fitspatrick), insist that afflicted loved ones be kept “alive” until a cure is found. Into this situation wander a small group of National Guard troops who have decided to strike out on their own in an effort to survive (the same troop who we got to meet briefly in a scene in “Diary of the Dead”). Can you smell a showdown coming on?

Now, let´s start with the good things. I like the fact that Romero has taken a minor character from “Diary…” and pretty much built a whole movie around him. I´m talking about the leader of the National Guard troop, Colonel Crockett (played by Alan van Sprang). I think that´s a pretty original take on the movie and Van Sprang does an ok job of portraying him. In some scenes he has that “TV-movie of the week”-style of acting where you react very strongly to anything that´s happening around you, but all in all he does a decent job.

I also like the fact that Romero has managed to make a modern day zombie western. The showdown between the two families could be straight out of any classic western and the shootout near the end reminded me of the classic one in “Gunfight at the OK Corral”, starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Other horror movie directors should take a cue from Romero in this regard. We need more western influences in today´s movies, if you ask me.

Another thing that´s pretty good is the fact that we can still rely on good old George to come up with some inventive ways to kill off a zombie. My favorite in this one is when Crockett fires off an emergency rocket into a zombies chest, which then forces his head to catch fire and Crockett takes the opportunity to light his cigarette. I´ve never seen that before.

Unfortunately, that´s about the things that I did like about the film. Don´t get me wrong, I am happy that Romero has made a new zombie movie but is this really what we want: that Romero keeps churning out zombie movies just because it´s the only movies he can get funding for nowadays, as opposed to the dry spell of 1985-2005?

Because this one feels a bit watered down to say the least. I sensed something wasn´t right when the movie opens with a scene that had the potential to be both intense and brutal but is instead ruined by CGI-animation that reminded me of something you´d see in an old episode of “Looney Tunes” when Bugs Bunny blows the head off the Coyote, or something like that. That didn´t bode well. CGI-gore is not my favorite kind of gore. I prefer it handmade.

Then we have the acting. It isn´t exactly top notch. For instance, there´s a death scene that takes place outdoors that has some pretty horrible dialogue. Right before he dies a character looks around, at the field and the trees, and whispers “Look how beautiful it is…”, just in case you didn´t get that death is a natural thing. Tomboy, the female soldier, is the character that stands out as the one with the most amount of bad, macho-like dialogue and I sincerely doubt that any actor alive could´ve made this character believable or memorable so I guess we can´t blame the actress Athena Karkanis. My advice to Romero, if he´s gonna make another “… of the Dead” movie is that he steers clear of the more emotional scenes in the future, unless he gets some actors that can handle it.

Then we have Romero´s particular brand of social satire that he has always included in his previous zombie films. What´s he trying to say with this one, then? I have no clue. Unfortunately, the whole film has a feeling of “Where haven´t we seen zombies before? In a fishing village!” to it. It´s like Romero was offered money to make a movie on two conditions: it has to have zombies in it and it has to take place on this island that we have at our disposal. Maybe Romero is trying something new here by attempting to make a more contained story but I´m afraid that by the end of the film, it has developed into some sort of bizarre triangle-family-drama between O´Flynn and his daughters. What makes this so sad is that what makes Romero´s zombie movies so great is the social commentary. I mean, look at “Day of the Dead”: it, too, has a contained setting but that didn´t stop him from making some comments and statements about how USA was doing at the time. When that is stripped away, I´m afraid that this is just another zombie movie.

But what makes me really, really sad about this movie is the fact that with this one Romero has once again been relegated to the straight-to-DVD-world and that´s a crying shame. I mean come on! This is a new zombie movie from George A. Romero and the release of it almost passed me by unnoticed. Gone is the “happening” of when “Land of the Dead” premiered. Hell, I even went out and got liquored up before watching it on opening night, that´s how excited I was that Romero was releasing a new zombie movie! When it comes to this one, I think I´m gonna have to start drinking to forget it, instead.

It pains me to say but the name of George A. Romero used to mean something to me. It meant gory, intelligent zombie movies that had something to teach us about the ways of the world. But unfortunately, between this and the clumsy, stupid voice over on “Diary of the Dead”, George Romero is just another director of  straight-to-DVD-zombie flicks with some bad actors in it.

I guess I could say more but I´m having trouble seeing what I´m writing. Tears are welling up. Where´s that bottle? Why, George? Why did you do it? Maybe I will appreciate it more when I watch it a second time around, like I did with “Diary of the Dead” but I sincerely doubt it.

Until next time: take scare!

Thomas

A lot can be said about Denmark: that they cannot be reasoned with, nor understood; that they are crazy enough to invent a snack made out of pork and that some of them have a hard time keeping themselves in line at soccer games. These things can be discussed and the opinions may vary but one thing we can all agree on is that when it comes to movies, Denmark is one of the more interesting countries in Europe. They´ve managed to breed such interesting directors as Nicolas Winding Refn (who´s responsible for the amazing “Pusher”-trilogy, as well as “Bleeder” and “Bronson”, which I reviewed here), Anders Thomas Jensen (who´s given us “The Green Butchers”, “Flickering Lights” and “Adam´s Apples”) and Lars Von Trier (who, once upon time, actually made interesting films instead of the crap he´s churning out these days). I think it´s safe to say that for a country as small as Denmark, that´s pretty impressive, right?

The Danes knows how to push the envelope in movies and they´re not afraid to make movies that venture a bit off the beaten path. That´s one of the things that makes them so superior to Swedish movies! They also seem to have the common sense to take a risk now and again on unknown, interesting directors. Unlike the Swedish Film Institute who keeps on financially supporting directors like Colin Nutley and Richard Hobert. I don´t know if you´ve heard about these old farts but I´ve had venereal diseases that have been more enjoyable than their latest movies. Take for example Colin Nutley´s latest movie “Angel”, which has to be the most embarrassing, most boring movie ever produced in Scandinavia. The titular “Angel” is a rock´n´roll singer, or at least what is Nutley´s idea of rock´n´roll and she is naturally played by Nutley´s wife Helena Bergström. To give you an idea of exactly how hard she rocks, we´re shown a couple of scenes with her rocking out on stage. Let´s just say that Nutley´s idea of loud rock´n´roll is probably something along the lines of a live album with Dire Straits. I´ve seen parking lots that have had more groove to them! This movie is filled with so many embarrassing lines and clichés that it pains me to just think of them. For instance, when Nutley wants to show exactly how decadent and wild Angel´s guitarist (played by an overweight Rolf Lassgård with frosted hair) is he drinks beer at noon and wears shades inside! Can you believe that? Kids nowadays, huh Colin? Shades inside the house! When the sun isn´t shining? Please Lord, let this decadence and madness stop!

That´s the state of Swedish movies and it´s pretty sad. Nutley is probably the most commercial successful director in Sweden and that makes me wanna weep and commit murder at the same time. Especially when I think about how I sat down the other night to watch this Danish little flick called “Frygtelig Lykkelig” aka “Terribly Happy”, which is one of the better thrillers I´ve seen in quite a while.

Robert (Jakob Cedergren ),is a police officer who´s sent from Copenhagen to a small Danish village as its new chief of police. He soon finds that the village people have their own set of rules and laws and are not ready to accept outside interference with their coda of justice. Although Robert at first tries to play everything by the book, he soon finds himself in the middle of the villager´s lies and schemes.

This movie is directed by Henrik Ruben Genz and I haven´t seen anything he´s done previous to this one but judging from how this movie looks, he has more talent in one sawed off fingernail than Colin fucking Nutley has in his whole family! Imagine what a guy like this could do on budget the size of Nutley´s crap-fests?

It´s pretty obvious that when it comes to thrillers, Genz is heavily influenced by the Coen brother´s movies like “Blood Simple” and primarily “Fargo”. I don´t know about you but I sure as hell think that if you´re gonna direct a movie, you can have a hell of lot worse role models, ok? These guys are responsible for some bona fide classics and one thing that I love about the Coen brothers is that they´ve never been afraid to mix the grimness with humor, no matter how bleak the movie may be. This is where Genz takes a cue from them: he manages to create a very bleak, miserable and damp atmosphere that runs through the movie. You know, the kind of atmosphere that you can understand why someone would allow themselves to do things that other people would consider insane. Kind of like in “Fargo”, come to think of it.

Genz also takes another cue from the Coen brothers and their masterpiece “Fargo” and that is that when the movie starts we´re told that “All events are true”. Now, “Frygtelig Lykkelig” is based on a novel by Erling Jepsen and I have no idea to what an extent the events that occur in the movie are rooted in reality but I think it´s safe to say that they´ve been embellished, ok? Kind of like in “Fargo” where it turned out that none of the events had occurred but that the brothers had just been inspired of a bunch of different incidents. I do like it, however, when a movie starts with a disclaimer like this and then boldly marches right out into left field without ever looking back. It gives a certain “Holy shit!”-vibe to the movie that I think you can only achieve by claiming that it´s “based on a true story”.

This one also follows the Coen style of filmmaking by populating it with a gallery of twisted characters. There´s the owner of the grocery store who wants Robert to punch out a young shoplifter, the doctor who appears to be getting high and supplying the hairdresser with drugs and then there´s Jörgen who may or may not be abusing his wife. The thing about this Jörgen character is that he is played by the greatest now living European actor, Kim Bodnia!

The role he´s most famous for is as Frank in the first “Pusher”-movie and if you´re not familiar with that one, you have some homework to do. He´s done some spectacular work since then, most notably in Winding Refn´s follow up to “Pusher”, “Bleeder” and in “Ekko” but in “Frygtelig Lykkelig” Bodnia gets to sink his teeth into the kind of role that he does best: a male chauvinistic, very hostile and aggressive, slightly psychotic guy. You know, not the kind you wanna spend a night on the town with. The scenes between Cedergren and Bodnia are this movie´s highlight and it´s a joy to watch them spar off each other. The scene at the bar when the two of them engage in a drinking contest is fantastic!

I have a weakness for this particular type of thriller, where an outsider comes into town and discovers that the locals have their special brand of justice and set of rules. I don´t know what it is about them but maybe it´s because they remind me of western movies? Robert could have easily been a sheriff riding into a dusty border town and the timelessness that this type of story has is one of the things that I appreciate. The fact that this is a story that would work just as well in any setting, in any country and in any different time in history is very appealing to me. Those are the best kind of stories: the stripped-down-to-the-essentials, basic, almost mythological ones. You can´t go wrong with that! It´s the same when you write a song. If you just keep it to the classic mold of “verse, chorus, verse, chorus”, you can´t go wrong. Well, I guess you can, but it´s a good start, right? Just ask the Ramones. Never underestimate the bare essentials.

The theme of secrets is a recurring one in “Frygtelig Lykkelig” and if you´ve ever lived in a small town, you know that there´s a lot of shit that goes on behind closed doors. It doesn´t matter in which part of the world you are, you can bet your ass that if there´s a red house with white picket fence, things aren´t as hunky dory as they seem. In this movie the secrets aren´t just the ones that we keep from each other but the Bog that is located just outside of the town, gets to symbolize everything that the town folks has buried through the years. Genz makes great use of this location in a couple of scenes and you can almost feel the dampness in the air.

So there you have it! The next time you find yourself looking around the DVD store for the latest European releases, instead of watching a French flick where everyone smokes Clover cigarettes and moans about their existential angst, ask the clerk if they got any new Danish releases instead. I´m outta here!

Until next time: take scare!

Thomas

So, I don´t know if you´re familiar with this guy J.T.Petty. A couple of years back he directed a movie called “Soft for Digging” which was pretty original. It didn´t have any dialogue in it if I remember correctly but he managed to make it work. After that he directed “Mimic: Sentinel”, which is part 3 in that franchise. That one was pretty entertaining for being a straight-to-DVD-sequel (a part three nonetheless!) but it was nothing extraordinary about it. That constituted my contact with the work of J.T. Petty up until now. I thought that he was a competent director working in the low budget section of horror filmmaking and I figured that “Sure, he´ll probably make some cool movies over the years but I won´t hold my breath on him creating a masterpiece…” Well, it don´t happen very often but as it turns out, I was wrong!

You see, his latest film “The Burrowers” has been released on DVD and this is one of the best horror films I´ve seen in a pretty long time! I knew that it was going to be good, I had read the reviews, but I didn´t expect it to be this good! Petty manages to combine two of my favorite genres in this one: the horror film and the western and he does a spectacular fucking job at it!

Here´s the lowdown: A band of courageous men sets out to find and recover a family of settlers that has mysteriously vanished from their home. Expecting the offenders to be a band of fierce natives, the group prepares for a routine battle. But they soon discover that the real enemy isn´t the Indians. It´s something else entirely…

You know, I´m gonna go ahead now and tell you what the enemy is so if you don’t wanna know this information before watching the movie you should probably avert your eyes right about now and go about doing the dishes or whatever it is you have to do instead of sitting in front of your computer all day long, ok? The real enemy is of course the Burrowers! Now, this is not a tribe of Indians as the lead characters thinks at first. This is creepy creature that lives underground and burrows their way through the ground. They inject humans with a poison that paralyzes them and then feeds on them.

You know, a couple of years back I watched another straight-to-DVD-horror-western called “Tremors 4: The Legend Begins” but that was a pretty shitty film. It was boring and by the time it was released, the filmmakers had managed to rob the series of the charm and suspense it initially had. “Tremors 4” went wrong in a lot of ways and what that movie did wrong, “The Burrowers” does right!

For starters, Petty is a smart enough filmmaker to know that a horror film does not poke fun at itself. Sure, “The Burrowers” has its fair share of laughs but it´s all character-based and it doesn´t make fun at the genre or itself. And even though this is a low budget affair, it doesn´t say anywhere that you have to have “low budget” actors, right? That´s why we get excellent performance from such fine actors as Clancy Brown, Doug Hutchinson, Karl Geary and Sean Patrick Thomas!

The thing that really sets this apart from a crappy film like “Tremors 4” that also tried to merge these two genres is the facts that if you go into this looking for either a western film or a horror film, not once do you feel cheated. This is a perfect marriage between the two genres! Sure, there have been attempts before but this is by far the best one yet! The anthology film “Into the Badlands” starring Bruce Dern had its good moments, “The Grey Knight” had some great atmosphere and Clint Eastwood´s “High Plains Drifter” had a dose of horror sprinkled on it but this is serious, fine, old school, all-out creature feature I´m talking about here!

The movie starts out as John Ford´s classic “The Searchers” with Karl Geary´s character Fergus Coffey discovering that his sweetheart Maryanne has been kidnapped by what they think is Indians. His employer, William Parcher (played by Tom Cruise´s cousin William Mapother who was pretty fucking freaky in the first season of “Lost” where he played Ethan), decides to help him and brings along his stepson to make a man out of him. On the way they meet up with a band of soldiers lead by Henry Victor (who, just by looking at him can tell he´s going to be an asshole, because he´s played by Doug Hutchinson, who is one of the best asshole-portraying actors around today) and civilian John Clay (the mighty, mighty Clancy Brown). Pretty soon the civilians understand that the soldiers doesn´t have a clue, so they decide to leave them.

Now, up until this point it´s basically a straight-up western. Sure, we get small hints of what´s to come thanks to a couple of close-ups of holes in the ground and stuff like that. The horrific things that occur in the film up until this point is “human horror”. You know, the horrible things that humans do to each other. For instance, there´s a pretty strong scene where Henry Victor decides to torture an Indian for information.

But when our heroes decides to leave the soldiers that´s when things start to get really hairy. And when I say “hairy”, I´m not talking about Clancy Brown´s beard, ok? I´m talking about being outdoors at night on the wide open spaces of the prairie and knowing that something´s waiting out there in the dark and it wants to frickin´ consume you, ok? That kind of “hairy”!

And what really sells these creatures is the acting in this film! There´s some serious fine acting going on in this flick and Petty, who also co-wrote the script, has managed to give them some realistic dialogue to work with. I was kinda reminded of “Deadwood” at times.

Now, you should go into this film expecting some sort of a monster-extravaganza, ok? This is a pretty subtle horror film. One thing that Petty manages to throw into the mix is something I really love when it´s done right and that is a message of politics. I absolutely love it when a filmmaker manages to create what at first seem to be a low budget genre movie but with a strong message of politics. Now, I´m not talking “They Live” here, it´s not that great, but Petty do manage to infuse the film with a message of racial morality and it´s not too obvious, either, which I am very grateful. He doesn´t beat our heads with it but it´s there for anyone who´s willing to read that into the movie.

You know, I think it´s a freaking shame that a film like this wasn´t released theatrically! It looks amazing and at no point is its low budget origins too obvious for the viewer. I would´ve absolutely loved to see this one on a big screen.

Another thing I absolutely love about the film is the fact that Petty hasn´t chosen the western setting just for a gimmick, it is absolutely essential to the film. Petty has realized that a monster movie is much more effective if it´s set in the past. That´s how I feel, anyway. I find it hard to buy into monster movies that are set in the present because it´s hard to believe that anything we don´t know of can exist in this day and age. I mean, there´s cameras everywhere and we´re being monitored constantly so how the hell is anything out of the ordinary supposed to be able to roam our streets. Do you understand what I´m getting at? A hundred years ago there were still a lot of uncharted territories in the world and it´s easier to buy into a mythological creature existing in that setting. Hell, can you imagine those wide open spaces of Dakota where “The Burrowers” is set? It´s not like you could pick up a cell phone and call someone for help in those days. That´s what´s so great about this film: Petty manages to capture that feeling of humans being alone in Mother Nature´s hands with no one to turn to except themselves.

Petty also manages to keep the tension alive by letting us know that these creatures are out there at all times, even though they may be out of sight. In that way, the movie kinda reminded me of “The Thing” and if you ever find yourself watching a movie and being reminded of “The Thing”, that´s probably a pretty good indicator that the movie you´re watching is pretty fucking good!

I wanna raise my hat to Petty (to be honest I don´t wear a hat because I look like a damn fool in a hat but if I was forced to wear a hat I think I´d wear one like that guy on the cover of the Monopoly game. That´s the kinda hat I would be raising now!) for keeping the effects practical, as well. When we do get a glimpse of the creatures they are gloriously devoid of CGI! Sure, there are CGI effects in the movie but Petty uses them pretty well. Hell, there´s a thing I´ve never ever seen before: when someone shoots a horse, the blood sprays from its neck. You never saw that in John Wayne´s movies…

I hope this movie sells a million copies so Petty gets to make a sequel. I smell a franchise coming on. Hey, according to one of the Indian characters the Burrowers appear every third generation and if that isn´t a great set-up for a franchise, tell me what is.

Listen, if you love westerns it´s pretty hard to come by a decent one these days, right? Sure, we got “Appaloosa” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by his friend and colleague who also turned out to be a coward and who shot the fucker in the back and who was called Robert Ford” but they´re not exactly a dime a dozen, right? But what we have here, like I mentioned earlier, is a movie that works perfectly as both a western and a horror film! It´s moments like this that we should be cherishing. Petty has proven to us that these two genres are perfect for each other! There´s no excuse anymore: he´s proven that it can be done so let´s start seeing more of these types of films in the future. Ok, Hollywood? You got that? Especially you fuckers who are right in the middle of making “Jonah Hex” right now! There´s no excuse!

So, my friend, you´d be a damn fool not to catch this one. Petty has managed to churn out a magnificently photographed horror-western that manages to be original, solid, scary and filled with great acting and a slight political message on the side! What the hell more do you want from a horror movie? Oh yeah, nudity… Sorry about that. There´s none of that in this one, ok? But I think you´ll enjoy it anyway, you big perv.

Until next time: stay ghoul!

Thomas

If you would ask me ”Who is the greatest human being who´s ever lived?”, I know who I would answer… hands down! The answer would be “Clint Eastwood”. I´m not joking. When it comes to Clint Eastwood, I never joke. Ever. I´m dead serious. Every boy, guy, or man has at one time watched a Clint Eastwood-movie and wished “Why can´t I be more like him?” If they tell you otherwise, they´re lying! I know I have wished that. I still do. I wish I could squint like him, have a gravelly voice like that and be a lot more stoic in real life. The thing is that I can´t. I´ve tried and I can´t keep my mouth from running. If I tried to act like Eastwood: squinting, raising my eyebrow and quietly mumbling, people would probably think that I had become retarded or something.

But anyway, I think that Eastwood´s managed to build an incredible body of work. One of my earliest movie watching-memories is watching “Dirty Harry” after my mother had fallen asleep. I basically grew up watching his films and I can find something I like about each and every one of them. He´s managed to steer clear of the horror genre, however. He´s flirted with the serial killer genre in movies like “Tightrope” and “Blood Work” but those films are definitely more thriller than horror. However, there is one film in Eastwood´s filmography that stands out. When I saw it in my early teens, I was pretty confused afterwards. Well, I was pretty confused before watching it too, come to think of it. After all, puberty was taking its toll on me. The film I´m talking about is “The Beguiled” and it´s as close as Eastwood´s ever come to make a horror film. It´s quite a bizarre film and I think it´s safe to say that it was ahead of its time. After all, this sucker was made back in 1971! I´m not quite sure what the term “psychosexual” means but I know it has something to do with Freud and he was a pretty weird guy, so I´m gonna use that term about this film. It´s psychosexual! I know that the term has something to do with our sexual drive but I´m too lazy to look it up but let me tell you: there´s a whole lot of sexual drive or libido going on in this movie!

Here´s the deal: During the civil war, injured Yankee soldier, John McBurney (played by Eastwood, who despite fighting in the civil war back in the eighteenth century manages to maintain a hairdo that is suspiciously 1970´s) is rescued on the verge of death by a teenage girl from a southern boarding school. She manages to get him back to the school, and at first the all-female staff and pupils are scared. As he starts to recover, one by one he charms them and the atmosphere becomes filled with jealousy and deceit.

That dirty old bastard! Basically, Eastwood treats the boarding school´s girls like a smorgasboard of females in different ages. Some of these girls are definitely jailbait, but that doesn´t stop a bedridden, horny, Yankee soldier. Anything goes. But wait a minute, this doesn´t sound like an Eastwood movie at all! And it´s directed by the guy who did “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and the first “Dirty Harry” movie? That´s right, fiends. This makes it all the more bizarre. Imagine the audience wandering into this one back in ´71. Apparently, the movie was marketed as a western so probably the masses were expecting something along the lines of Eastwood´s “Dollar”-films. What they got instead was a creepy-as-hell, Gothic western steeped in repressed sexual tension, where almost nothing happens, with almost no likable characters and a pretty bleak and downbeat ending. It´s a pretty nasty film, actually. There´s a sense of dread and creepiness that runs through the whole film. It never lets up and that is one of the film´s strengths. The opening scene is unforgettable: the girls carry the wounded Eastwood back to the school while we hear Eastwood´s voice on the soundtrack, singing some weird, old funeral hymn. It´s one of my favorite opening scenes ever! It sets the tone for the whole film to come. This is a film that actually manages to be both erotic and perverse at the same time. A warning: you may feel the need to take a shower after viewing this film. I know I did when I saw it the first time, but like I mentioned: puberty was raging, so give me a break!

This proves that while Eastwood is one of the few filmmakers working in Hollywood today that has the guts to make adult films, he did the same thing way back then. This is a very adult film and that´s why I like it. I´m not saying that to brag. I´m not particularly adult. There are many aspects of my life that have something obscenely immature about them, but I think I´m qualified enough to say that this is an adult film (not in the “adult”-way I know you´re thinking of, you pervs!). After all, I have managed to sit through almost all of Ingmar Bergman´s films and actually liked some of them. How´s that for adult, kids? You remember that book that was so popular a couple of years back, “Women are from Venus and men are from Mars”? After watching this movie, it is obvious that the guy who wrote that book didn´t have a clue. I´d rather trust the Clintster when it comes to life lessons and according to him and hard-guy director Don Siegel, you can´t forget about Venus. It´s a god damn battlefield, fiends! There´s a battle of the sexes raging and you better get in the trenches or take cover. What´s it gonna be? I´ve been missing in action in that damn war since the middle of the 90´s so I´m not gonna be able to help yout on that one…

So why did I bring this film up here? It´s not a horror film, is it? Well, it kinda is. It´s creepy enough and if you have the energy and willpower to sit through a film that was made before the nineties (I´m looking at you, Dr. Bonzzo!), you should definitely give this one a chance. I´ll guarantee that it is unlike anything you´ve ever seen. You gotta admire Eastwood´s guts for making the film. Instead of this one he could´ve just made another western along the lines of “Hang ´Em High”. I´m very happy that he didn´t choose that route. When you look back at Eastwood´s career, it´s pretty obvious now that “The Beguiled” was a turning point for him. After this one it seems that he tried to choose more mature films. For instance, that low-key drama where he travels around the United States, listening to sad country songs with his only friend, Clyde the magnificent ape (or orangutan or whatever he is)… Heavy stuff! All kidding aside, he really did make more mature and darker films after this so this actually an important film in American film history. Shortly after this, Eastwood and Siegel did “Dirty Harry” together but if I´m gonna be honest with you (which I always try to be, dear readers), John McBurney is a much more interesting character than the classic Harry Callahan. McBurney is not a nice man. He´s pretty conniving, his moral compass is waaay off center and he seems to be too horny for his own good. You never saw Harry Callahan in a situation like this, even though he was the one who earned the nickname “Dirty”. Hmmm… weird!

Whenever I watch this one, I´m always reminded by Peter Weir´s classic “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975). He must´ve watched this one before setting out to make his eerie tale of boarding school girls tangled up in weird shit. So give it a go, fiends! I think you might enjoy this off-beat, creepy, semi-horror tale. It wouldn´t hurt to give it a try. It´s worth seeing for the final scene alone (which I won´t spoil for you here). One thing is for certain, however… that southern hospitality that you keep hearing about is obviously a big bowl of bull!

Until next time: take scare & stay ghoul, fiends!

Thomas