From 1983, a splendid adaption of the Stephen King novel (about a man who awakes from a five-year coma only to find he has psychic abilities) by the brilliant David Cronenberg. The cast, led by the excellent Christopher Walken (rarely better than here) is ace: Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen, Brooke Adams and Tom Skerrit. Cronenberg twists the tension and adds the requisite amount of stomach-churning gore (and depraved behaviour, such as using a baby as a human shield). Sheen’s demagogic populist politician eerily resembles the current occupant of the White House, 33 years before he was elected.
Faced with an unintended pregnancy and a lack of local support, Autumn and her cousin, Skylar, travel across state lines to New York City on a fraught journey of friendship, bravery and compassion.
Hi Count.d, yes, it’s got the slip-on cardboard sleeve over the case. I bought it from Amazon - I happened to log onto the site just as it changed from none in stock to being able to order a copy.
We watched Richard Jewell last night on DVD, courtesy of Cinema Paradiso. A fascinating story about the security guard at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics who quickly went from a being hailed a hero to becoming the FBI’s prime suspect in the case. Good film - Recommended.
From 1979, another “gangs of New York” flick (the other picture in the same vein released that year was Walter Hill’s The Warriors – see above), this time directed and co-written by the formidable Philip Kaufman and considerably lighter in tone than the Hill movie. As one would expect, the costumes and soundtrack are absolutely fabulous, and there are great turns from cast members Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, Erland van Lidt, John Friedrich, Tony Ganios and Toni Kalem. Great and boisterous fun.
From 1959, an oddity written and directed by Cy Hell Drivers/Zulu Endfield. It’s a proto-Airport style thriller about a man, twisted and bitter after the death of his daughter, who plans to explode a bomb aboard a transatlantic flight (the killer is a passenger on the flight, of course). It’s rather stodgy and improbable, but does feature an incredible cast: Richard Attenboroiugh as the would-be bomber; the much-missed Stanley Baker as the pilot; the lovely Virginia Maskell; Marty Wilde; Patrick Allen; David Kossoff; Hermoine Badderley; Bernard Braden and Barbera Kelly; Diane Cilento; Mai Zetterling; Harry Secombe; Alun Owen; Paul Eddington; Peter Illing; Megs Jenkins; Cec Linder; and Dame Sybil Thorndike.
There’s also interest in the way the passengers divide into groups: the panickers; those who calmly accept the captain’s reassurances; the vigilantes; and the air crew. It’s also notable for the portrayal of a different, distant era of flying, in which planes are spacious places with multiple decks, bars and a complete lack of airport security.
The great Bob Fosse’s 1983 picture, based on the true story of Playboy model/aspiring actress Dorothy Stratten and her insanely jealous boyfriend Paul Schneider (who ended up murdering her and then killing himself) features excellent performances from Julia Roberts’ brother Eric as Schneider, Mariel Hemingway as Dorothy, and Cliff Robertson as Hugh Hefner. It’s a sobering tale of the dark side of the American dream.
Uneven but often hilarious 1988 Blaxploitation spoof from a young Keenen ivory Wayans, making his directorial debut. Features a classic cameo from Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear in Starsky & Hutch) as a pimp out of time. Look out too for Isaac Hayes, Chris Rock, Bernie Casey and Jim Brown. The immortal John Vernon (Dean Wormer in Animal House) is the baddie, mob boss Mr Big. Silly, a bit un-PC and rather amusing.
Not a film i can say I either like or enjoy, but certainly a film that I think every adult should see. As it opened my immediate impression was that this was a plagerisation of Tom Jones, I was VERY wrong.
Barry Lyndon is in no sense a caricature or untruthful, and yet while not being an antagonist Lyndon is far from being a protagonist; adult cinema indeed.
In Tom Jones you have a similar historic setting and a character who is full of good will and innocence. He proceeds through a series of adventures being essentially honest. Barry Lyndon is raised by a similarly relatively monied household and proceeds through his adventures being debased by his experiences, leading him to be an appalling husband and overweening father.
In ‘Into the Woods’ Sondheim gives us the lyric, ‘…careful what you say, children will listen’. When I look at the tales we are telling ourselves I fear for the future, but this film is an interesting stepping stone on this path to hell. With Tom Jones I believe you are encouraging people to become the best they can be. In Barry Lyndon you have a character who may well be objectively truer, and yet I would have preferred his downfall to be even greater; and this, for me, was the essential issue of the film. Whilst I was initially rooting for Lyndon through the first half of the movie once he had cuckolded his future wife’s husband his treatment of the wife and son just labelled him as a cad.
There is much here to admire. The cinematography, verisimilitude of natural lighting, framing and music are all superb.
For me this is a film for which I would like to add a new age range, 40+.
@MrUnderhill Barry Lyndon is my favourite Kubrick film (and his best IMO).
Like Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (1749), Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844) is a picaresque; both lead characters have things happen to them, rather than making them happen. However, as you say, Tom is a more sympathetic character than Barry. Both books are well worth reading BTW.
Robert Townsend’s directorial debut from 1987, an often hilarious satire on Hollywood’s attitudes to race. There’s no proper"story", it’s more a series of vignettes and so as one might expect, this makes the film somewhat uneven. But it hasn’t dated at all, and indeed feels more timely than ever, and the “homeboy film critics” and “black acting school” sequences are all-time classics.
