I will begin the November Movie Extravaganza with a double barrel double bill of badass!
The Slug in the left:
Day of the Dead (1985)This is my personal favorite of the Dead series by George Romero, and in my opinion the most accomplished. And by accomplished I dont mean just in terms of make-up, which by the way attains a high water mark that the majority of horror flicks (before during and after) have yet to surpass.
It is also a master of tension and paranoia. The two prior films, while great, do not seem to reach the level of despair and doom that this movie delivers in its opening scenes, before racheting up the tension and unchecked aggression upon descending into the ground.
The movie accomplishes this on two fronts: 1.)Photography & Sound Design and 2.) Casting
The first you can contribute purely to Romero's sense of economy, covering his surroundings with deep focus lens and creative panning and dolly work. Most Director's when trying to make their scenes claustrophobic would shoot close to thier actors, use windowless doors and crowd their rooms with furniture and props. Romero does the opposite using long lens with deep focus down empty sterile corridors. He also blocks to cover a scene in one or two shots, there is very little use of cutaway which is odd Romero. This of course is most likely a product of a reduced budget. But its really a blessing in disguise because it boils the scenes down and they are more focused and less frantic. And with longer shots he really explores the space of each scene. For example the Lunch scene that damn near ends in a shootout. Romero parks the camera in a corner and watches Richard Liberty just walk into the vast cavernous room doubling as a caferteria and meeting room. He dwarfs his actors in their settings drowns them in cold ugly light. And in terms of sound design, Romero just lets his reverberate off the walls and all around.
Thats whats great in this movie is they really did shoot in a mine. So when shit really goes down and everyones going over the top, their voice is bouncing off the walls. This to me draws the tension.
The Casting of this movie was also a help. Romero is a fan of using no names in his movies, resorting to local theater and television actors. Joe Pillato, who plays Rhodes in this one, had a small scene in Dawn of Dead. He is back as the hotheaded Captain, although in my own little geeky mind he was Rhodes in Dawn and he has a run in with the heroes on his way to his grim fate. By the way I am not spoiling the movie, because its all pretty fucking grim. But Pillato is amazing in this movie, exploding in fury with classic lines like "I am running this monkey farm" and "all I have heard was a mouthful of greek salad".
The low point of the movie for me though is our main character played by the irritating Lori Caurdill. Not only is she an attrocious actor, but her character is unlikable and completely wrong and insane. There are too many instances where she fucks things up and contradicts herself, as well upsetting the status quo and getting everyone killed. Sure, everyone in this movie are on their last straws of sanity, but dont ask the viewer to follow a character's struggle when all they do is exercise poor decision making and naive assumptions.
I can go for days on the genius and the problems of this movie, but it really wouldnt help the point of this article which is to plug this movie and as simply as possible explain why it is good.
Which I will now do in haiku format:
Day of the Dead is
George Romero's third dead film
and his best so far.
If you want argue some of the points I brought up, and I am sure some of you do, drop me a line at Fridgemagnetman@gmail.com or call me.
Starship Troopers (1997)I just realized the genius of this movie when I rewatched about two months ago. When I first saw it I was in middle school playing with legos. And as a preteen boy I got endless joy out watching the bugs get shot to pieces and the humans get vivasected (yes its the word of the day). I would renact this same passion for years in computer games like Starcraft and Total Annihilation. But now as the mature and learned adult that I am I have become fascinated with how the character's interact and nature of how the movie deals with war and violence. The day to day of the federation civilization in the beginning bears repeated study.
And after several viewings I have come to the conclusion that this movie is amazing for one reason: that it can be argued that it is horribly acted and its heroes are two dimensional fashion models with guns who shoot pop up video game targets/enemies/bugs. Or it is a brilliant spoof on fascism.
This I will let you decide on your own if you choose to watch it. Just go forth with the knowledge that is could be both.
Paul Verhoeven is
a crazy man, this movie rules
balls, you should see it
No comments:
Post a Comment