Apocalypse Tomorrow: The end of the World on Film

  The end of the world on film can be a risky business.  What’s the point of making a film about the end of the world when it could actually happen and there’d be no one left to patronise your movie? So what if you’d made a correct prediction; what good would that be? The end of the world is no longer merely the subject of apocalyptic hearsay, it is a serious issue,  especially when separated from the religious realm to which it has been relegated since (at least) the middle ages. The reason for this is that nuclear holocaust is an apocalypse of our own making and perhaps this is what makes it a good subject for drama.


 However audiences do not go to see movies to be confronted by reality, since instead they wish to escape from it. Serious issue movies walk the tightrope between sending out positive messages about humanity and at the same time, providing a certain entertainment value. So my theory is, if you can make a movie about the end of the world that’s entertaining, but you don’t win any awards for it,  then at least you should be remembered for attempting to walk that tightrope.

The movies in this brief list  are not science fiction. You could maybe class ‘The Seventh Sign’ as science fiction. But more of that later.  My worst   sins of omission are  War Game, and  Testament. I have seen both of these,  but so long ago, I can’t remember enough about them to write anything that would be of  interest. ‘Threads’ and ‘Miracle Mile’ I haven’t seen, but look forward to seeing in the future,  so these will also unfortunately be omitted.

As you may have figured out by now,  classifying films into a particular niche or genre is a big deal to me. What is omitted has the opportunity to become just as important as what’s not. So there’s no disaster films.  No Deep Impact,  Mad Max, or the Book of Eli. Or 28 Days Later. One of my glaring omissions is ‘Dr Strangelove’ because it’s a comedy. I don’t like it, to be honest. I think it’s too forced and obvious, as well as a tad on the cheap side. People may laugh, but it doesn’t make them feel particularly comfortable to be doing it.  Neither are there any titles that concern themselves with life AFTER the end of the world, (a concept invented by successful horror writers and the military industrial complex of Hollywood. Re-imagining  life after the holocaust makes some writers rich, but it can also lead to a misunderstanding of the basic concept of apocalypse. It is supposed to mean after all, that there will be NO survivors. But I digress.)

 I am referring to two particular examples of this sub-genre, ‘The Stand’, a television movie, and the Will Smith version of ‘I Am Legend’, and its cop-out ending, the rest  ruined by too many compromises and  its overuse of pointless Computer Generated Imagery. All  these titles are science fiction I know, but they act as a reminder of what the films I actually want to discuss,  deal with. That is, nuclear war in a realistic context, and how these titles engage the audience with important questions such as the existence  of a larger  morality,  the nature of political expediency, the advantages and disadvantages of human progress,  and other less fanciful, more earthbound  topics of interest than your normal borderline horror film with an apocalyptic scenario.

Hollywood does not have an easy time attempting to fictionalise something as disturbing as the prospect of the human race’s permanent annihilation.  In real life, the more strained diplomatic relations become, the easier it is to trot out lists like this, whose titles may have nostalgic value, but offer little  explanation of the new disputes on the world stage that have nothing in common with what’s gone on before. There is consensus for example, that the Cold War is  over; so what have the issues concerning that period in history  to do with us at this moment? There’s  sabre rattling going on right now as I write this,  concerning Iran and Russia, but the sabre rattling has nothing to do with  me  writing this particular post at this particular time. I have no control over world events and I don’t pretend to be a Cassandra, (or should I say snake oil salesman.) So, for the hell of it, (and if we’re all still here by the finish),  these are my favourite films about nuclear apocalypse and the end of civilisation as we know it today, Hollywood-style.  You may also find a  useful critical article here about The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode, a book about apocalyptic literature and other issues of interest concerning literary narrative outside my scope as a humble blogger.

On the Beach (1959): The films of Stanley Kramer are being reappraised these days,  mostly in their favour, and I think this is one of his best efforts. Based upon the novel by Nevil Shute, it has Anthony Perkins speaking with an Australian accent, and Ava Gardner wondering why she bothered to go to Melbourne to make a film about the end of the world. The population of the northern hemisphere has been decimated by an unexplained nuclear exchange, and Australia waits for the radiation to be blown in its direction, as it lays in wait as the last bastion of human civilisation. Gregory Peck is solid but unremarkable as an American submarine commander landed in Melbourne, and Fred Astaire is very touching as an Aussie scientist who feels partly responsible for what’s happened. The plot is a little slim, but these people are simply waiting to die, and I for one felt empathy for their situation.


  There are no pyrotechnics,  nor are there any big dramatic scenes of panicking people doing emotionally stressed out things. It seems that people die in their beds, and a hush of deathly quiet comes over a city once it’s been contaminated by radiation. ‘On the Beach’ is less interested in politics and/or history and more concerned with emotional trauma involving what it feels like to know that you are not a survivor at all, but just another victim. This is a downbeat message, but ‘On the Beach’ is admirable in that  it doesn’t pull its punches. It’s as honest as it was possible to be,  about the devastation which a worldwide  nuclear war would unleash, and the cruelty of a distant power elite who are never seen, but are the cause of this human catastrophe.   4 ½ stars

The Day After (1983): This was originally made for television, but ‘The Day After’ has its own stature as fine piece of work and at the time of its broadcast, the highest rated TV movie yet made up to that time. Set in the seemingly bucolic American state of Kansas, its folksy feel is undercut by a feeling of apocalyptic dread when revealed that a vast population has been set up for death by a smattering of nuclear installations that will be struck by  Russian missiles if World War III ever breaks out, which of course it does. There are a number of different storylines and sub-plots. But the story mainly concerns the survival of a farming family, and  an idealistic doctor (Jason Robards) who somehow carries on despite losing his family and home. There are a number of memorable set pieces including the onset of the Russian nuclear attack, taking place on a crowded highway of people in their cars attempting to leave ground zero. Another near the end of the film seems like a homage to the sequence in ‘Gone with the Wind’ that has Scarlett O’Hara tending to literally hundreds of sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. To me, this sequence is a superb visual metaphor for everything the film has been trying to say, the terrible cost of political brinkmanship in a crisis situation, and how a combination of government negligence and stupidity can mean the end of humanity as we know it. 


 The makeup is very good, in that injured people really seem that way and they haven’t been made up – their physical injuries somehow equate with what has happened to them and it’s not meant to be pretty.   ‘The Day After’ issues a disclaimer of sorts  at the end of the film, by warning the viewer that what they’ve just witnessed is nothing compared to the reality of what would happen if there was actually a nuclear attack against the United States. Directed by Nicholas Meyer with an excellent ensemble cast including Steve Gutenberg, Amy Madigan, and local Kansas people who were cast for the sake of the piece’s authenticity.  4 ½ stars

The Seventh Sign (1989): Not a big hit when first released, ‘The Seventh Sign’ was initially  dismissed as a load of religious hokum. This may be so, but its hokum  well produced and acted, with a believable and appealing female protagonist in the person of Demi Moore who gives a performance that would  best be described as heartfelt. She plays wife to a yuppie lawyer in Los Angeles, and a prospective mother who falls pregnant, but is worried about carrying the child to full-term. In walks a Christ-like figure who wants to rent their spare room, played by Jurgen Prochnow. Meanwhile,  husband Michael Biehn is struggling to save a man from execution who murdered his parents, his only defence being that it was a sin before God that they go on living without some kind of divine intervention. A young Jewish biblical scholar is consulted by Demi, in order that she brush  up on some of the pertinent prophecies as set down in the Revelation of St John.  Demi becomes convinced that the end of the world is nigh, and that the guff of souls is empty because God does not wish us carry on any longer. Curiously enough, not being religious myself,  I fell for ‘The Seventh Sign’ hook, line and sinker when I first saw it at the cinema.


 There are a number of compelling and beautifully photographed sequences of nature gone awry in various parts of the world, indicating that all is not well and that God is not  happy with us. These scenes are undercut by the constant flow of television images in the couple’s living room,  of constant war and unrest in a mad slaughterhouse of a world in which time may be running out, and divine intervention could provide relief to all our woes. I found this take on apocalypse within its original context of divine retribution compelling and strangely believable, because I think that director Carl Schultz does such a good job of making it  audience friendly. Personally I wouldn’t label ‘The Seventh Sign’ as either science fiction or religious fiction. It’s more a genre horror film that concerns itself with the end of the world in a refreshing and interesting way that is as thought provoking as it is entertaining.    3 ½ stars

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The Bedford Incident (1965): Starring (and produced by) Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Martin Balsam and Eric Porter, ‘The Bedford Incident’ makes the prospect of nuclear confrontation seem as suspenseful as it is onerous. Set on an American naval military boat as it patrols Arctic waters on the lookout for Russian submarines, ‘The Bedford Incident’ takes place at the height of Cold War tensions. It   illustrates a possible scenario where we have the case of a commander who is unfit to command, along with a demoralised and weary crew, pushed to their limits and liable to make disastrous mistakes because they are simply…human.  The film is carried along by audience expectations of how long it will take for someone in the crew to crack, or for the commander (Widmark) to stop playing a game of cat and mouse with a Russian sub he will not allow to surface.  A showdown seems inevitable,  with one side or the other pressing the nuclear button, thus starting a nuclear war between Russia and America. 


The macho atmosphere of all the guys together using a lot of technical, naval language running around giving each other orders is a bit of a turn-off, but this is undeniably  exciting and a reasonably thought-provoking film regarding first-strike capability and which side should have the right to claim it as their own.  By the last scene, the audience is mentally drained, and has pause to wonder what difference it makes who strikes first, if the result will eventually lead to annihilation. If I’m not mistaken, the James Harris who directed this is the same James Harris who produced a number of partner Stanley Kubrick’s films. It’s an excellent effort and I think still relevant today, when one considers the broken minds, as well as bodies that have tragically resulted from the extended wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  4 stars.

Failsafe (1964): The brainchild of produce Walter Bernstein, ‘Failsafe’  calls into question the nature of computerised warfare in which the parts have built-in  malfunction, and can inadvertently cause provocation toward the so-called enemy where none was originally intended. There seems to be a lot of trauma in the military, caused by their awareness of their responsibility.  They are protecting us in spite of ourselves, but not doing a very good job of it in the process.  Dan O’Herlihy and Walter Matthau represent opposing sides of the coin as respectively a military dove who believes in nuclear containment, and a civilian hawk who believes in the inevitability of nuclear war and the responsibility of America to rise out of the ashes and build a brave new world after. Washington’s political elite are portrayed as a bunch of careless hedonists who use the prospect of war as fodder for their pointless and trite dinner party conversations, whilst the rest of the population is left helpless in the face of possible destruction by its own side.


 ‘Failsafe’ is for a Hollywood movie, extremely downbeat and austere. I guess for a film about the end of the world, you couldn’t ask for more than that. An ensemble cast put together by director Sidney Lumet are all exemplary (listen to the audio commentary on the DVD for Lumet’s illuminating comments about the cast and other aspects of the making of the film.) This is probably the big daddy of all films concerning the end of the world, and for good reason. O’Herlihy’s dream of being the matador at the beginning of the film becomes a fulfilled prophecy by the end, and ‘Failsafe’ is perhaps the only commercial American film that does justice to its subject matter.  5 stars.

I gotta go to the zoo Mac. There's a tiger having a birthday party.

The China Syndrome (1979): As a suspense thriller about an accident at a nuclear power plant, and how an attempted cover-up is exposed by a television crew working for a local station, I would propose that The China Syndrome is an excellent film about the possibility of the end of the world, and how it would transpire.   Made, and then released at the time of a real accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the film initially caused a stir at a time when there was a significant anti-nuclear lobby attempting to limit the power and influence of the nuclear industry in the United States.  The  death of anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood in mysterious circumstances is reflected in an attempt on the life of one of the characters in this film in a sobering evocation of what can happen to whistle blowers when they dare to tell the truth to power.


 Looking back on ‘The China Syndrome’, to portray the film as merely a thriller would be doing it a disservice.  It is also a serious reflection on the need of a vigilant media in order for a democratic society to operate effectively. Among other things, The China Syndrome exposes the scary lack of public accountability within an industry that exists for profit, without taking into consideration the safety and well-being of its consumers, who are after all, citizens with their rights. Starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, all three who have their big moments, but Lemmon was a revelation to those of us who were only familiar with his comedic roles. Everything about ‘The China Syndrome’ works, and even the idea of the possibility of a ‘china syndrome’ situation happening in future, was enough for many of us to start building bomb shelters. Or at least move to Tasmania. 4 stars.

Creatures in Love Part I: Road Runner and Coyote

An existential desert back-drop as Coyote ponders next move

 I have a theory that the Coyote is in love with the Road Runner, but being totally inept,  he could never divert the  Road Runner’s attention away from the road. The Road Runner exists purely for the purpose of running along a stretch of desert road that lasts only as long as the running time of the story, (that is, cartoon),  but as far as Coyote is concerned, exists in eternity.  The Road Runner has an almost existential purpose of looking straight ahead, neither left nor right, in his determination to stick to his schedule of getting from one place to the next, inA a pointless journey of which only he knows its destination and purpose. The audience as well as the Coyote are well aware of this, but are compliant, in awe of the Road Runner’s determination to live his own life.

Did you ever see such running shoes?

 To Coyote, Road Runner is the prey, but Road Runner is blissfully unaware of this.  Hence the Coyote exists in a state of perpetual frustration, making a fool of himself, as Road runner shows off his superior attitude to life by constantly and easily escaping from the Coyote’s childish attempts at capture. Road Runner is modest, but also a show-off, with his expert ability to survive the travails and pointless hijinks  of the Coyote, always  at great costs to the Coyote’s physical well-being, whilst the Road Runner escapes without any injury. The well-being of the Coyote is even of less concern to the Coyote himself. He does not seem to care what happens to him, or what he does to himself, in order that he captures the Road Runner. The prize of his effort seems to be that once this has been achieved, all will be well, and the Coyote will be happy and fulfilled.

Glue on the road only worked if it was a truck

 Superficially at least, it appears that the  Coyote is chasing the Road Runner for food, but I think this is a diversionary tactic, in order  to make Coyote out to be smarter than he is.   Whether he catapults  himself out of a giant sling slot in the direction of  Road Runner; whether he positions himself in front of a giant truck only to get run over by  Road Runner; all of this points to the Coyote’s obsession with catching that which is the most inaccessible and closed off to him, thus the most inviting. Road Runner appears to be the only food supply there is.  There is nothing else in the desert available for the Coyote to eat.  A few empty tin cans are on the ground, which the Coyote kicks away in derision, knowing that his well-being is not being  provided for in the most rudimentary fashion.

Another ridiculous contraption doomed to failure

 The Road Runner is constantly oblivious to the existence of the Coyote. He is unafraid of the Coyote; he is alone in the wilderness, cut off from the Coyote and their desert backdrop in a fashion that is almost attractive in its singularity. The Road Runner seems perfectly calm and at ease. He is almost Zen-like in his acceptance of his fate as a cartoon character who exists only inso far as he is a moveable pencil drawing. In contrast, Coyote lives in a state of perpetual and constant dissatisfaction. He is not one with his environment. He constantly uses dynamite in an effort to attract Road Runner’s attention,  which leaves their desert environment in a state of mayhem, as Coyote  attempts to track Road Runner’s whereabouts,  which are always unsuccessful and ridiculous in both their rudimentary planning and execution.

 The Road Runner constantly rises above the Coyote’s efforts with a silly pointing of the tongue, but with dignity. He  silently berates the audience as well as  the Road Runner for their ineffectuality and inability to grasp his superior nature and ability. Does the Road Runner have any feelings for the Coyote? We will never know, but I think it’s certainly possible -  it’s the romantic in me.

Dynamite was often the funniest

The travails of the Coyote in attempting to capture the Road Runner exists in our collective imagination as a state of Nietzscheian  perpetual (or eternal),  recurrence. Every cartoon is exactly the same as the last. Like the trope of a horror movie that gets used by all  the best directors because they have nothing better to do than steal from the film which used the sequence originally. 

The Road Runner and Coyote also remind me of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Their love for each other will never be consummated; they don’t die but are both virgins and will never end up caring for anyone else. They still exist in our minds  after the story has been told over and over again, like a folk tale a Serbian peasant might once have told  his  children at bedtime.

Whatever Became of the All-Star Cast?

Whatever became  of the ‘all-star cast’? This is the question I ask myself in moments of unease when I look my DVD collection up and down, wondering if I will ever decide what movie it is I want to watch next. Should it be ‘The Towering Inferno’ or ‘The Poseidon Adventure’? ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ or ‘Mulholland Drive’?  And why is it with me that escapism usually wins out over art? I guess I was programmed that way, and I’m old enough now  not to complain and just enjoy it. 

Lewis who?

Once upon a time, movies were one of the  few sources of popular  entertainment available for the mass public. Television reached its zenith of popularity in the fifties, sixties and seventies, and it was  popular to the extent of eating into the movie industry’s profits in the fifties and sixties.  What about when going to the movies, (apart from following your favourite sporting team) was the chosen pastime for the majority of people, not only in America, but for people in virtually every corner of the globe who could afford to while away a couple of hours at their local flicks when they had the time or inclination? 

I recall a story my mother once told me, about maybe the first  bizarre case of mass audience stalking. Gary Cooper, who was a big star during the Depression was in a film called ‘The Plainsman”, and at the end he gets shot in the back by the baddie. Gary Cooper always played the hero and his fans loved him.  Gary’s fans found out where the actor who played the part of the baddie lived, and harassed him constantly day and night because he was the one who had killed ‘their Gary’. Apparently they were very upset.  Such was the power of movies to sway audiences who, because of economic circumstances, were in thrall of their heroes on the big screen to a degree that seems naïve to us today. Also, it goes to show how performers have always been treated as commodities by the Hollywood studio system, and also by the public.

 

Great silent screen star Mabel Normand

The movie industry is extremely  profitable, especially  in periods of the greatest economic hardship. I don’t have the box office receipts at my fingertips, but  it seems to be a provable fact  that any leisure activity that can take people’s minds off their problems is  bound to make its investors better off. This sounds like profiteering in the harsh economic climate of today, but a buck was a buck in those days, and there were no politically correct liberals running around telling people that it was a sin to make money off people when they could ill-afford it.  

In the days of silents it was discovered that audiences attended movies to see people that they like to watch on-screen. They wanted to know their names and they wanted to see them in as many movies as possible. Consequently the world was introduced to  such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Lon Chaney and lesser lights   known  by only the most ardent specialists in the genre of silents in the present-day.  To collect all of them all together on the one project must have seemed a difficult task, and the idea of assembling an all-star cast began proper with the advent of sound movies.

Silent movies aside, (the films of D.W. Griffith immediately spring to mind, but since I haven’t seen them I cannot include them in this discussion), I would say that the first  attempts to produce movies with all-star casts occurred as America was struggling with the economic disaster of the Great Depression. 

The book-ended films ‘Dinner at Eight’ and ‘Grand Hotel’ were  both produced by the MGM studio in the 1930’s. Both these  are what you would call comedy-dramas. The plots concern the private lives of rich socialites, down-at-heel actors and  elderly matriarchs, ‘disparate’ characters brought together for a dinner, or conversely, reservations at an exclusive hotel. The majority of Americans were poor and out-of-work at the time, and they fell for these films hard,  presumably for the escapism they offered in a time of economic despair and uncertainty. 

Irving Thalberg is credited with creating the concept of the ‘all-star’ cast since he was MGM’s most important producer, but he never formally asked for a credit on any film he worked on.  MGM was the studio in the ‘30s with the majority of the prestige. It had many stars signed to long-term contracts, and it must have seemed like a good idea to get them to work together.  Both movies were a big success with the public and the ‘all-star cast’ was launched onto an unassuming public. ‘Grand hotel’ and “Dinner at Eight’   were cast with  major names  such as Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery, John and Lionel Barrymore, a young Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler. This forms an important leitmotif of the all-star cast: few of the performers just mentioned are remembered in the popular imagination today, but  as interesting relics of a by-gone era, no matter how popular they may have been in their own lifetimes. 

The next film of any note   with an all-star cast was  ‘Gone With the Wind’, produced by David O Selznick as an independent producer.  Granted, Vivien Leigh was a new discovery after a much-publicised search for the ideal actress to play Scarlett O’Hara, so she was hardly a major star when she was picked for the part.  Many  better  known actresses were screen tested but were turned down for various and probably, long-forgotten reasons.  But there are a number of others in the cast who were well known to the public including Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel and Thomas Mitchell. 

The first movie I ever got taken to see

To flash forward twenty or so years on, Roadshow movies often used to have all-star casts and  depended heavily upon  casting  a number of well-known performers in the roles which would attract an audience. Film in America  had passed its pioneering period. Movies were coming to be regarded as a serious medium. To get audiences interested in  more serious subject matter, (adaptations of Broadway plays and books for example),  big casts of famous actors were assembled to ensure the studios managed to recoup their losses.  Roadshow movies were  initially conceived by an individual producer or Hollywood studio to have a big cast and a big budget. They were especially  made to a certain time-frame designated in pre-production,  in order that exhibitors, (ie the people who owned the cinemas),  could fit in a certain amount of showings per day that would make them a profit.

 

Forty, fifty years ago, people had stricter hours of work and could only go to the movies either at night or on the weekend. The busiest nights and the weekends  were called ‘no free list’ periods where booking was essential, and you just couldn’t show up to buy a ticket.  These were the days, when, after a movie was withdrawn from exhibition it would take years for it show up on live-to-air television (at least where I come from). Video tape was not made for domestic consumption, cable TV was merely an interesting idea, and digital entertainment was non-existent. There was also a certain snobbery involved that appealed to the upwardly mobile, in that you could boast to your neighbours about getting in to see ‘Spartacus’ on a Saturday night with the kids, when maybe the neighbours had tried but been unable to.

 Talented directors, most notably David Lean, were attracted to this more showier and commercial style of filmmaking than they had previously been used to. ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ were phenomenally successful  with audiences and critics and they boasted big casts of well-known actors, such as William Holden, Peter O’Toole, Anthony Quinn, and  Alec Guiness,  Also, the stories and themes were grandiose. They were ideal  middle-brow entertainment for undiscerning audiences, or audiences that were thirsty for more substance to their entertainment. 

Stop him! He's got a bomb!

Roadshow movies  gave the medium a certain reputation for prestige that it may not have known previously, and the ‘epic’ became Hollywood’s ideal export to the rest of the world. ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’; ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’; ‘The Ten Commandments’; ‘Ben-Hur’; ‘King of Kings’; ‘Doctor Zhivago’. These are just a handful of the roadshow films that dragged audiences back into the movie theatres and away from their television sets and with their all-star casts made money (hopefully but not always!)  for the Hollywood studios (and overseas investors) who funded them.  The roadshow film was also an effective method of displaying Hollywood’s superiority to television, with its normally 70mm ratio, stereo sound, big casts and grandiose and important historical, biblical or political stories.

Steve McQueen: 'when will you architects ever learn?'

As the seventies dawned, Hollywood seemed less interested in making roadshow films. For one thing, they were expensive, and sometimes took years to make. They involved extensive pre-production and filming away from the studio at remote locations around the world, in difficult conditions for the cast and crew. No matter how much mystique surrounded these epic movies, if they didn’t turn a profit, well, then, what was was the point of making them? Audience expectations also changed to include films that were ‘smaller’, and less influenced by the financial aspirations of the Hollywood studios.

We didn't know a swarm of bees could be so scary. And they weren't.

But all-star casts never really went out of fashion, and when the disaster movie was born, there seemed to plenty of takers for roles in films such as ‘Airport’ and its sequels, ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ ‘Earthquake’ 'The Swarm'  and a number of others. ‘Airport’, arguably one of the worst films to gain a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, kicked off this cycle of disaster films, with a cast heavily publicised as stupendous. But sadly, many of the players are less well known today. The cast includes Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Helen Hayes, Jean Seberg and Jacqueline Bisset. ‘The Poseidon Adventure’, which I happen to think is a very good film, has a excellent cast including Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens and others less well known today. ‘The Towering Inferno’ may be the best known of this cycle simply because of its cast including Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden and others. Sadly this cycle of disaster films reminds us of the ready-made redundancy of popular culture, when performers can be relegated to supporting parts or even to the scrap-heap as they become older, do not win any awards, or are less interested in making themselves better known to the public.

Iconic Poseidon Adventure poster

I for one, am nostalgic for movies with all-star casts. They are usually entertaining, fun to watch and offer the best that Hollywood, at least in the past, had to offer. Dare I wonder who would be cast in one of them these days? It’s a well-known fact that movie budgets are excessive, and people (including me) rail against films costing the gross national product of a small third world country that  flop with the audience, because they happen to be lousy. Maybe what Hollywood needs is more panache, and less political correctness. As a place as well as a state of mind, it would be far more fun, and entertaining for the rest of us. 

Growing up in Australia in the Sixties

The announcement of President Barack Obama’s visit to these shores has caused me to indulge in a wave of rosy nostalgia. Mainly concerning such things as  Australia’s relationship with America, and long hot summers spent frolicking aimlessly  on the beach. These two pre-occupations may not  have much in common but they are connected forever in my memory of growing up during the conflagration of the Vietnam war.

 Looking back, it seems a time when Australia was  tied to the coat-tails of America through a combination of realpolitik and what today we may think of as some kind of bizarre racial necessity. But am I falsifying my own memories?    News of what was going on in Vietnam at the height of the conflict, acted as a sober backdrop to my innocent summer holiday breaks whilst growing up and enjoying my  very conventional childhood summer holidays in Sydney.

 

Everyone listened to the radio in those days. I spent a lot of time with  relatives in a southern beachside suburb, every summer holiday for three years running,  where the Vietnam conflict could not have been further away. But the radio was always on, and in between the ad breaks and the Top 40 countdown of hits,  the Vietnam war  was the unofficial narrative of almost every Sydney radio station. In turn, the radio was something like the communal fire of olden times that members of the tribe crowded around, for comfort and a sense of belonging.  I also can remember a few of my favourite songs that were playing on the radio. Among them was ‘In the Year 2525’ by Zager and Evans; ‘Classical Gas’ by Mason Williams; ‘The Real Thing’ by Russell Morris;  ‘Arkansas Grass’ and “A Little Ray of Sunshine’ by Axiom, and the double A sided single of ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles which got played to death on all the major AM radio stations. For better or  worse, these songs made me what I am today.  By the end of this post, I will probably reach by circularity, the conclusion that it’s pointless to indulge in nostalgia in the first place, but  since I’ve barely started, this is a pointless observation to make. Then again, I am the master of pointless observation.

Ever since the British decline of influence in Asia, it has been assumed that the relationship between Australia and America has been, well, a good one. There’s no denying it. Americans and Australians  have the same background, the same language, the same political heritage of democracy and so on and so forth. Australian Prime Minister during the Second World War, John Curtin made it clear that, with the Japanese incursions so close to our shores, it was a  necessity to  forge closer ties with the United States. Ever since then, I believe that Australia has unfortunately been backed into a corner of appearing to be   junior partner to a more vocal and  powerful nation.  


 Yet also, if I allow myself, I recall a brief, shining moment when many Australians found it necessary to speak out against what they considered to be an unjust and unnecessary war.  See here.  It was as if we were acknowledging  something wrong with the relationship we had with America. It was somehow…one-sided. Dare I say…perhaps a little dysfunctional? (Not that we knew what that word meant in those days.)  I feel sorry for the young people who will grow up having no recollection  of any  opposition movement to injustice, and I am reluctant to point out the lack of such a thing to the war against terror, but there it is, and I would prefer not to dwell on it. 

Sojourning with my mother into the central business district by bus, we would pass the University of Sydney campus, and usually, during the Vietnam war, there were quite a few students sitting out in the local park either on strike, or protesting against the war. My older brother grew his hair long and was listening to a lot of loud music, a little scared that he may be drafted and picked out of a death lottery, after the Australian (Liberal Party) government opted to send more troops as reinforcement against a possible North Vietnamese victory. With the fateful transformation of Australian society there also came disappointment and disillusion, as the Liberal Party was swept from power in 1972 after 23 years to be replaced by a relatively young and forward looking government that within its first weeks recognised the People’s Republic of China. Symbolic perhaps, but unthinkable just a few years before. Unfortunately the Whitlam Labor  government was felled by many mistakes of its own making, (as well as appointing a man as  Governor General who had his own agenda,) but its achievements remained as an example to younger Australians like myself of the possibility of reform and change, and how it may  not be such a dangerous thing after all.

 At the risk of showing my age and lecturing people younger than myself, I think now, looking back on it, that the late sixties and early seventies was our own Australian spring, or ‘renaissance’, as many of us like to refer to those heady years. Maybe these days, outsiders can consider Australia as less of a partner in America’s wars, and more as an independent nation with its own interests and a desire to be thought of as more than just a junior partner to the world’s major power. 

100 Of My Favourite Movies in 30 words or less

I’m experimenting with this idea of short one-line reviews without the babbling on and spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet. This list is just a sample of some of my favourite films, some I’ve known all my life and others I’ve discovered on disc. They are in purely random order, and I do not use any ratings system, so if I tell you I think that it’s great and you don’t think so, you can’t blame me for it.  There aren’t too many that have been released in the last five years or so, so if you’re looking for new releases, this list will be of no use to you whatsoever. I don’t believe in preaching to the converted, so if you know what I’m talking about, then you’ll just know it. If you don’t know, then watch the movie and find out.

 Repulsion Catherine Deneuve goes crazy in front of Roman Polanski. Excellent film to watch again.

In a Lonely Place Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame are  two star-crossed lovers who could never make it last. Film noir with a bit of heart.

Night of the Hunter Robert Mitchum plays a suspect  preacher, after the  money that’s been left to two children in  a toy doll. Not for the faint hearted.

Duck Soup Supreme political satire of dictators, government and pomposity. No wonder  everyone loves it.

The Driver Ryan O’Neal the strong and silent type with  great stunt driving at the beginning, but not a very hopeful film.

Get Carter  Grimy, depressing, crass and totally engrossing. A great crime  film and totally unrelenting in its violence.

Species Improving with age, witty take on the alien genre. Sexy girl alien after a mate, and chased down before she decimates humanity.

Strangers on a Train Sly  undertones as Robert Walker plays a nutjob trying to lord it over Farley Granger. A pair of hopeless romantics.

Chinatown A chinese puzzle, for the audience and Jack Nicholson, with Faye Dunaway’s flawed iris thrown in.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir  A beauty from the classic era, haunting Herrmann score, beautiful photography and appealing Gene Tierney.

Escape from New York You can’t beat the original, why this worked is because Carpenter loves what he’s doing. He’s  a good storyteller who provides audience with interesting characters. In any genre.

Days of Wine and Roses Glum and downbeat, played to the hilt by Lemmon and Remick, but somewhat empty at its core, as if director had no other ideas.

Gaslight Old fashioned melodrama as Ingrid Bergman is driven to distraction by her shady husband in his pursuit of her dead Aunty’s jewels. Creepy and effective.

The Relic  Interesting combination of voodoo and body horror, but derivative and not very well cast in the lead roles.

The Unforgiven (1960) A  Freudian melodrama about miscegenation in the wild west. John Huston goes moody and it kind of works on its own modest level.

The Conversation Classic 70s cinema about politics, paranoia and the main character’s obsession with privacy. Innovative sound and a thrilling plot keeps us on our toes.

A Heart in Winter A thwarted love affair between a violinist and her violin maker. Sexy yet not provocative; haunting yet commonplace; contemplative yet interesting.

A number of shocking moments 

Dressed to Kill One of de Palma’s better films, owes a lot to Psycho but steals in style, and the story is better than critics would have you believe.

East of Eden I have always found this a bit stilted, and not at all the classic a lot of people claim it to be. But it grows on you I guess and James Dean has great presence.

Possession  A travesty of the 900 page book, but what do you want anyway? The 19^th century lovers go at it hammer and tongs and make Paltrow and Eckhart look anaemic.

French Connection Classic 70s cinema, great car chase, so good you forget how good it is. Hope to see again.

Near Dark A vampire western, sans the gothic clichés. Lance Henricksen looks like he needs a good feed. (Which he gets.)

Sid and Nancy Excellent examination of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen’s life together before their deaths.

Hombre A great cast do justice to interesting Western, with beautiful backdrops and racial sub-text.

Mississippi Burning Racial prejudice in the south; beautifully angry and hasn’t dated one iota.

Eye of the Needle Spy film set on a windswept island with romance and suspense. Old fashioned but fun to watch.

Lone Star  A soap opera set in Texas with a complicated plot and a very hot love scene later on.

Andersonville  Quasi documentary about prisoners in Andersonville who endured more than was their lot as the Civil War was ending. Harrowing.

California Suite  Filmed Neil Simon play about life in a hotel in Los Angeles. Three stories cobbled together but amusing and observant with good perfs.

Darren MacGavin in his funny hat

The Stepfather Excellent horror entry written by Donald Westlake. A serial killer marries women and kills them and their children  for not doing well at school. A scary guy.

The Verdict One of Paul Newman’s great performances in his mature years as an alcoholic lawyer with one last case left to redeem himself. Strangely religious and gratifying.

The Exorcist III  Effectively hammy, but loyal to the original material, with George C Scott in top form telling Ed Flanders about a carp in his bathtub.

The Seventh Sign A good apocalyptic entry, about a woman who believes her unborn child will be the last child before the end of the world. Who will believe her? Me.

Funny Face Classic Audrey Hepburn as a plain bookstore clerk is swept away to Paris to become a model. Every girl’s dream! Beautiful Gershwin songs make this special.

Drugstore Cowboy Gus van Sant directs. Quirky, funny, about life on the edge with  four prescription drug thieves trying to survive onto their next high. Gets religious by the end.

The Godfather Canonised 70s entry, violent, family oriented, Italians out of the mainstream, mafia hitmen buying canoli for their wives and lots of mayhem. A good show.

Blackadder Great Brit comedy series about a cunning public servant surviving the Elizabethan and Regency periods by sucking up to the upper classes. Hilarious and droll.

Ronald Reagan liked this film

Equus A great play is transformed seemingly intact about a disturbed adolescent with a religious obsession for horses. He must conform or sink. Richard Burton helps out.

Carrington  A tragic relationship ensues between a woman artist and English writer Lytton Strachey. A wonderful sense of period, this is excellent.

Wolf  This is less tedious than it deserves to be. Nicholson gets bitten by wolf and transforms from a beast of a man into a decent law abiding wolf. Pfeiffer goes along for ride.

Reversal of Fortune Plenty of  flashbacks but  a good examination of guilt and innocence as audience ponders whether Claus Von Bulow fluffed murdering his wife not once, but twice.

Reds A hagiography of American communist John Reed as interpreted by Warren Beatty. Not bad, but too much emphasis on romance at the expense of politics. Good anyway.

Barry Lyndon  Seventh heaven cinema.  Redmond Barry’s trials and tribulations will keep you on the edge of your seat for its extended running time.

Little Big Man A thinking man’s Forest Gump in the wild west told from the Indian’s point of view. Classic 70s cinema.

The 39 Steps  Another early Hitchcock with Robert Donat caught up in a deadly spy ring. Great ride.

Whatever is is, I'm against it

The Third Man Rainy streets, grimy sewers, Vienna was a bad place to be in 1947. A zither  and Orson Welles round it off.

Don’t Look Now Some of us can’t look but you should look at this. Things are not as they seem. Or maybe they are.

Frankenstein (1931) Karloff’s outstanding performance is a good selling point for this classic horror entry. Still disturbing.

Altered States Mad scientist experiments with brain, changes into  monkey,  almost loses his wife. Not as dumb as it sounds.

King Kong (1976) A remake dumber than the original but beautiful scenery and the romantic point is made obvious by end

Elephant Man A mainstream David Lynch film based on true story of civilised circus freak and his desire for acceptance.

Bridge on the River Kwai If war isn’t mad, then at least it’s silly. Guiness an obsessed martinet and a sweaty Holden. Great. 

The Invisible Man  HG Wells allegory about a scientist taking over the world so he can give it to his girlfriend. Hmm.

Taxi Driver Brilliant, disturbing, but is it also pointless. De Niro goes on rampage and we all go ‘hurrah’. Don’t know anymore.

He's doing it for Flora. True.

Jacob’s Ladder If anyone ever reads this, one cannot say ANYTHING about this film without giving the plot away. So I won’t say anything except that it’s kind of …scary…

Naked Lunch Respectable rendering of classic novel, plenty of gory effects but true to Burroughs vision. Writer’s block is not a pleasant experience, so just keep on writing.

Lifeboat  Unsung Hitchcock, terrific character study, if a bit talky. Some get to stay on board, others get tossed over. See if you can guess which ones.

Pretty Poison This sweet young girl hates her mother and finagles her impressionable boyfriend to get rid of her. Funny but not in the right way, which makes it interesting.

The Bedford Incident Another apocalyptic scenario as a mad naval captain plays cat and mouse with a Russian submarine in the Artic. Scary but somehow seems inevitable.

Rebel Without a Cause James Dean’s moment of glory, garish in wide screen, larger than life but somehow touching amidst the conventional melodrama.

Day of the Locust West’s novel gets the treatment and the riot at the end makes sense of the work in its totality. Otherwise, why would it be there. The other Homer Simpson.

American Graffiti Ensemble cast of nobodies who became somebodies is a good enough reason to watch this. Although it’s engaging with plenty of the great  songs that were recorded before the Beatles hit.

White Heat James Cagney goes crazy in the clink. Breaks out and causes more mayhem. His ma’s been murdered and all hell breaks loose. Classic noir and vintage Cagney.

Ordinary People Redford beat Scorcese for Best Director Oscar with this. Tyler Moore is a terrible mother. Hutton a neglected child. Sutherland a neglected husband. Bring on therapy.

The Hit Terence Stamp pleads for his life as a pair of henchmen make their way through the Spanish desert and attempt to assassinate him. Existential and essential gangster fare.

Pulp Another one of those ‘is it fiction or real life’ scenarios. By the time it’s over you won’t care, as long as everyone gets out alive. A Michael Caine triumph.

James Dean looking hurt in 'East of Eden'

1984 Don’t’ worry about this being a bore. It isn’t. John Hurt shines as Winston Smith, the last man in Europe with the temerity to use his brains. A definite prophecy of our brainless times.

Lust for Life A biography of Van Gogh. Douglas is neurotic, misunderstood and plain grumpy. The paintings look beautiful but as biography…well.. you decide.

Bride of Frankenstein Iconic gay horror directed by James Whale. Perhaps a little over-rated by the Hollywood boys but nonetheless compelling with a female monster and no Igor.

Lady Caroline Lamb The love affair between Byron and said Lamb. Melodramatic, beautiful to look at, a wonderful evocation of 19^th century Europe. But that’s all.

The Night Strangler/Stalker When TV shows had a reason for being. McGavin as indefatigable journalist investigating the paranormal and in trouble with his superiors. Fun and subversive.

Memento Have to watch it backwards to make any sense, compelling nonetheless. Loss of memory causes problems, but does that make audience delusional?

The Man Who Knew Too Much Is such a thing possible. Apparently, yes.

The best zombie movie ever.

The Wolfman A rueful examination of Nazi persecution of Jews in the Welsh countryside. Siodmak’s journey to Hollywood as a persecuted minority is extolled by the Left as life affirming.

Night of the Living Dead   We  aren’t dead yet but we deserve to be. The Vietnam war is blamed for practically everything including the zombiefication of Americans. Pity they can’t hit back.

White Zombie  Lugosi carries on as a magician in Caribbean who helps a man possess a woman he can neve have. Moody and atmospheric.

The Time Machine  George Pal without the puppets as Rod Taylor attempts to socially engineer a group of helpless natives into believing they’re British. What else is new

The Great Gatsby A deluded millionaire attempts to salvage an affair that died long ago. Money is blamed and everyone gets hurt. Lots of Charleston dancing.

Eyes Without a Face Mad French scientist experiments on his daughter. Crazy but easy to take. Like strychnine.

The Damned  A rich German family coping with the Nazi’s rise to power. Not very enlightening. Nice uniforms.

On the Beach  Melbourne as the last civilized place on earth. Great cast, dour but appropriately so for a movie about the end of the world.

The Lady from Shanghai  Misanthropic noir as Welles tries to get a handle on his Irish accent. Hayworth looks gorgeous and has a horrible husband.

Nixon Hopkins is miscast in title role but there are many other actors playing real-life characters who are stupendous. Stone’s somewhat personal vision of his bete noir, but arresting nonetheless.

Cassandra Crossing An all star cast liven up this disaster movie about an infectious disease breakout on a train for rich people. Harris and Loren make proceedings interesting.

A pensive Bogart pondering the infinite

Valley of the Dolls  A pulp novel becomes a pulp movie. This is so bad one can feel affection for it. Sharon Tate’s bust exercises a stand out. (No pun intended)

Jagged Edge Jeff Bridges is creepy as a man suspected of killing his wife, and has the good fortune to have his defence lawyer fall in love with him. Ludicrous but somehow believable.

Still of the Night  A great role for Meryl Streep as a strange girl who may know more than what she thinks she does. Psychiatrist Scheider investigates.

Dead Zone Walken is haunted as a medium who believes he can change the course of history. A cautionary handbook for all those people out there who think they can predict the future.

Midnight Express Life in a Turkish prison. Lots of hurla burla and a real life story replaced by a load of bunkum that never actually happened. Good Mroder score and potent.

Mary Reilly  Julia Roberts is very good in title role, as the maid of  Dr Jekyll who falls for her, as does his alter ego, Mr. Hyde. She is won by neither.

JFK This is exciting stuff with great cast, terrific detective work, terrifically edited and photographed. Except for the melodramatic and unnecessary family scenes this gets the highest recommendation.

Yes, Minister Jim Hacker is a hapless minister utterly dependent on his head public servant Humphrey Appleby, even though he doesn’t know it. Hilarious and droll and still prescient.

Whicha one is winnin', preacher?

African Queen Classic John Huston adventure about a religious spinster and a sea captain’s attempt to sink a German battleship in Africa c1914. Excellent entertainment.

Phantom of the Opera Lon Chaney pleads with Mary Philbin not to tear off his mask. But what does she do? Oh dear….Massive makeup job done by Chaney himself. Very tasty.

Absence of Malice A silly young slip of a girl thinks she’s a journalist and gets Paul Newman into all kinds of trouble. When will these feminists ever learn?

The Way We Were Streisand is great and sings the title song; Redford is a good actor and keeps up. Lots of politics surprisingly enough but the romance is paramount and verrry sad.

True Confessions This is a great unsung title. Duvall and de Niro work great together playing brothers up to their armpits in the death of the Black Dahlia. They learn to stick together.

Dr Strangelove  Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the war room! Sellers has a least three roles, George C Scott has only one. I think that’s unfair.

The Stand  A very long television movie in four chapters but an excellent version by King himself. Gary Sinise is handsome and heroic. Molly Ringwald adequate.

The War Lover Little known Steve McQueen title with Robert Wagner as his sidekick. They play pilots in the 2^nd world war who seem to be enjoying themselves. Unusual but profound.