Coming Attraction

PRE-REVIEW OF “THE LONE RANGER” MOVIE

The big (only?) Western movie for 2013 is "The Lone Ranger." I've seen the trailer. The movie doesn't look promising.

Johnny Depp in white face. Is this a gag? Depp is a terrible choice for Tonto for numerous reasons. One being that he's the most overcivilized, foppish, overmannered pretentiously egoistical actor in Hollywood. Be ready for a stereotypical offbeat portrayal.

The movie itself will be hyperpaced and filled with special effects. The Western on speed, combined with Five Hour Energy.

The ideas look to be hypocritical and simplistic. A Custer-style Army officer is the bad guy. Expanding Capitalism is no doubt eviscerated. This from a movie produced by monster conglomerate Disney, and certain to be promoted by multi-national media conglomerates, with a bankable big name (Depp) paid many millions, and starring as Ranger, Armie Hammer, scion of the billion-dollar Armand Hammer empire. The story appears to be a celebration of primitivism, of the natural Native American way, while the movie itself is created in as high-tech a manner as possible, from advanced lenses to complicated computer-image graphics; hundreds of technicians everyplace, not a primitivist in sight. Least of all Mr. Depp, who's already back in glitzy sophisticated France tinkering with his wineries, more millions in the bank.

The most cynical movie ever made?

We'll see if it's entertaining. The popcorn pop images will move so fast no one will notice the ideas.

Greatest Movie Trailer Ever

That would be this one:

Keep in mind that when the movie was made, in 1960, no one had ever seen a film like it. It truly provided the “shock of the new.” With the trailer, Hitchcock starts out ridiculously slow, with a light-hearted theme, using his avuncular presence to set up the audience. Note that nothing important is given away about the plot, now familiar but then virtually unknown.

One can watch this trailer again and again for its own satisfaction. The movie trailer as work of art. Is there even a second place?

New Gatsby Movie

IN WRITE-UPS ABOUT the new “Great Gatsby” movie, commentators refer to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic work as “The Great America Novel.” Is it?

It’s a very good novel, beautifully written, with something to say about America, its dreams and its myth. But it’s also a fairly slight work. A couple other American novels are larger in scope and theme. They’re, well, greater. I’m thinking of Melville’s Moby Dick of course. But also two other works which have much to say about the American civilization: The Octopus by Frank Norris. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The two authors and their books come at America from completely different directions, but the novels are both large, intelligent, meaningful, and tremendously exciting.

Nothing against Fitzgerald in saying this. He was an extremely talented writer, who for various reasons didn’t reach his full potential.

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I have yet to see the new “Great Gatsby” movie. I’m concerned that, like the 70’s Robert Redford version, it’s well over two hours in length. Keeping in mind that the novel is a quick book—its quickness part of its effect.

If I were to make a film version of The Great Gatsby, it’d be no more than 90 minutes long. Shorter. It’d have a quick pace, and be something of a mystery, like the book. I’d shoot it in black-and-white. Gatsby be would somewhat tough looking, and indefinably ethnic. No pretty boy. Nick Carraway would be played by the standard Esquire magazine WASP. Much in the story, and its meaning would be implied. Suggest; don’t tell. I’d use 20’s Jazz Age music, but I wouldn’t make it slow and langorous, as in the 70’s version. I’d give it in quick snatches, making it fast, tinny, cheap. The overall effect I’d aim for wouldn’t be big budget—but the feel of a whiskey night getting drunk, sensitive, alive, as in the book.

Ten Underrated Movies

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

“AIRPORT” (1970 USA) Not the comedy, but one of the movies “Airplane” satirized. Like trains, airplanes and airports are intrinsically cinematic. Throw in a blizzard and a mad bomber. Pure entertainment. The film is also a rare celebration of what most Americans spend most of their time at: work.

“THE BRAVADOS” (1958 USA) Great Western posse chase film as Gregory Peck hunts down four of the toughest movie bad guys ever.

“ICE COLD IN ALEX” (1958 UK) One of the tensest, edge-of-your seat war movies ever made, about a British ambulance crew trying to escape Nazis in WWII North Africa.

“MAJOR DUNDEE” (1965 USA) Not Sam Peckinpah’s best film, but thematically his most ambitious. During the Civil War, a motley collection of soldiers and rebels, whites and blacks, discover their identity as Americans by leaving the country on an expedition into Mexico.

“THE MISFITS” (1961 USA) One of the greatest American movies, with perhaps the strongest acting, especially from Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. Their performances are so good they’re surreal. In the story, Clark Gable tries to prove himself against a Mustang stallion, while with his performance, the aging Gable tries to hold his own as an actor against the younger stars. His final scenes are harrowing. Also tragic and heroic.

“THE SICILIAN CLAN” (1970 FR) A great caper flick, but also a study of a mob family which predated “The Godfather.” As exciting a crime movie as ever made.

“THE SILENT PARTNER” (1978 CAN) Suspenseful battle of wits between bank teller and bank robber which is unpredictable right to the end.

“THOSE LIPS, THOSE EYES” (1980 USA) Starring Thomas Hulce and Frank Langella as novice and mentor, this little-viewed film captures the magic of theatre and acting.

“VIVA LAS VEGAS” (1964 USA) Colorful and ridiculously entertaining musical starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret, with explosive high-energy chemistry between them. Viva man and woman.

“WESTWARD THE WOMEN” (1951 USA) A wagon train full of mail order brides headed west encounters obstacles, and the women take over. A more truly feminist film than anything made now. See it and find out. Denise Darcel and Robert Taylor—she the aggressor!—make another hyper-dynamic movie couple.

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(UPCOMING: I’ll soon be examining and scientifically ranking the greatest Western movies of all time.)

Going Retro

WINSTON CHURCHILL once said he could look farther into the future than others, because he looked further back into the past.

I think of this quote in regard to rock musician Jack White. It applies to his latest album, but also to his recordings with The White Stripes. One sees his influences in his songs’ echoes: 60’s garage rock, from 13th Floor Elevator to The Amboy Dukes. Farther back, to the guitar and drum work on Everly Brothers’ songs like “Don’t Let the Whole World Know.”

Due to these motifs, reimagined, Jack White’s songs sound completely original and new. His collections show far more variety, a kaleidoscope of sound, than those of any other artist, most of whom are stuck in the recent and predictable now.

I believe that creative writers can do likewise. For my ebook Ten Pop Stories, I looked not at recent (stale) “literary” short story history, which every other writer is doing. Instead I read stories from the days when the form was exciting and popular—from writers like O. Henry and Frank Stockton. One doesn’t need to copy the stories to be influenced by them. Instead, capture their sense of magic, adventure, and fun.

The Greatest Movie Ever?

It’s come to my attention that the venerable publication Sight and Sound has ousted “Citizen Kane” from its top spot, in favor of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time

The difference in my own attitude may be demonstrated that I favor the word “movie” for the art over “film.”

Most of the choices listed are film school fodder. Some of them are badly, badly dated, like “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” or Keaton’s “The General.”

I made my own “Ten Best” movie list once, though I never finished posting it. My criteria were simple. I judged each movie as a movie—and not, say, as a work of literature. I valued the visual and aural experience, placing emphasis on photography and sound—but also the musical score, if it had one, which I judge to be a large component in the overall experience. I judged each movie as an experience, through watching and hearing the work in a theater, with the movie presented as it should be, on a big screen. (I’ve seen both “Vertigo” and “Citizen Kane” on movie screens.)

If I recall, Hitchcock had two works in my top ten: “Vertigo” and “North by Northwest.” (Another British director, David Lean, had two films on my list as well.) My top choice was unlikely: The medieval epic “El Cid,” made in 1961; directed by Anthony Mann.

Why this film? Seeing it, as I did in Manhattan a few years ago, was an overwhelming experience. The best cinematography ever—most of the movie shot outdoors. Colorful costumes; spectacular scenery.

The sound? The score by Miklos Rozsa is one of the best motion picture scores ever composed. It stays with you for hours, even days, after you’ve left the theater. Not just the music, but the clanking of swords and the pounding of drums, which accompany the most thrilling battle scenes ever put on celluloid.

There’s much more than this: romance; politics; plot. Larger-than-life characters and a one-of-a-kind bizarro ending. An assault on the senses. A stunning and still-relevant roller coaster ride, fantastic, mythic, and real at the same time, encapsulating everything great about movies and the movie-going experience.

But that’s just my choice. What’s yours?

Selling American Culture

At another blog, I posted about a Youtube video of an American film of fifty years ago.  http://kingwenclas.blogspot.com/2013/03/explaining-tea-party.html

The video was put together in Japan. This tells me that the biggest selling point of American culture is America itself. Specifically, the idea of America. The dream, which has always been powerful—especially for those in other countries and on other continents.

It’s a point abandoned by official American literature the past several decades. The trendy lit centers now, like McSweeney’s and n+a, have opted for a vague and meaningless internationalism. Fixed on either coast, they have little understanding of what America is about, or what it sounds like outside elite castles. They have scant interest in broadening their understanding.

The way is open for a new road. For a distinctive and distinctly American and populist literary art. It’s what I’ve proposed at this blog. It’s what the literary group Underground Literary Alliance was about. To follow that road would create opportunities which are as limitless the American horizon, and the American imagination.