Change Your Image
jasondanyael
Reviews
Murder in Coweta County (1983)
The facts of the movie are that the non-bigoted aspect of the movie is not about the murder of a young black man.
This movie was notable for the sense that the word of a black man about what he witnessed and participated in, namely the burning and disposing of ashes of the body of the young white farmhand, who was killed for stealing cattle in the domain of Griffith's Wallace character. It is quite difficult to call a fact-based movie an allegory for a fictional tale, but the similarities are there. Truth be told, however Cash's Sheriff Potts' strength and honesty, to the point of protecting a family of blacks in pre-Civil Rights Georgia was remarkable in Southern law enforcement, especially RURAL law enforcement. Sheriffs and Supervisors were cash cows for the office-holders, much as the warden and correction officers in Shawshank Redemption. Beyond all this is the strength of the two leads. Griffith seemed eager to shed the skin of Andy Taylor once and for all, and this movie did that for me. Cash showed the side of himself that only his friends knew, the soft-spoken but firm Southern man who took no guff from people who broke the law, no matter their station in life. Interesting film, and in the terms of made-for-TV predating cable's dedication to excellence, this movie rates a 10.
The Hunted (2003)
Watched the movie in theaters opening night, decided maybe I was biased as to how good it really was, then upon seeing it today on release to DVD, realized my first call was still valid.**Minor, very minor S
This film served several emotional levels, not the least of which was the theme of regrets that permeated this film. Friedkin has always been a director that could satisfy several audiences at once. All the better when someone who not only likes his movies, but movies in general, and well-directed ones to boot, gets a chance to see a new work by him. Exploring the domain usually only mentioned by conspiracy buffs, Friedkin shows in this how each person's regrets color their lives with varied shades of that most deceptive of palettes-grey. Grey is a thematic statement in tis own rights, as the beginning of the film only shows colors in the firefights, the sparse greenery of a forest overgrown and filled with the debris of life, and the hell of fire and tracers in a wartorn land where red signifies the fire of conflict, the life of mankind running in rivers from the helpless. In the very skies of the countryside, solid gray from the Northwest rains, you realize again the hunters are doomed, their red-orange vests marking them as victims to die to the victim of warfare, Sgt. Halem. His character, which without the setup of the warscenes in Kosovo would seem over the top, is only the more tragic when he tries to act normal, to function on a conversational, honorable, level until he feels betrayed by the one man he most wants to talk to. He retreats to the only sanctuary he had ever found since his Dante's journey in Kosovo, only to find that his own problems have almost alienated the people he left behind months ago, off to complete a mission it turns out sealed his fate. This film has more to offer than the stunning, brutal realistic action. No wires, slo-mo or trickery to soften or exaggerate elements of the fights. Just the kind of brutality that "Hollywood" tries to shy away from, as it is something we instinctively cringe on seeing--the real fights most Americans have seen escalated to the point where their are no martial-arts judges to jump in and save the participants--no directors it seems to save the war-torn victims with a handy, quick cry of "Cut!" when the horror piles up and up. Friedkin's long takes, camera movement, and insistence on framing the film as if we were involved in the scene as a silent observer unable to leave the confines of this frightening reality where the good guys are not clearly nominated but we instead are stuck with the realistic choice: "the lesser of two evils", however necessary those evils might be. Whether it is "L.T.", who felt the need to walk away from teaching too many people how to kill too many people with minimal risk to himself, or the FBI agents, forced to sell their consciences through the demands for justice, protecting innocent people, or later, revenge. These heroes are as tarnished as anyone, but they have not snapped off the last bit of their sanity and bludgeoned their fellow man with the bloody stump. This is where Aaron Halem's character finally reveals himself as more than misunderstood. His defense of the people he killed "above and Beyond" was justifiable to himself in that they were armed, even though it was during a raid on their own home and they were not his targets, he killed them because he viewed them as combatants. He seems to have snapped to this decision through his war experiences, and after viewing what he viewed, through the grace of this director not making the PC choices about violence, we see all too much of what he sees, and of his reaction to it. I give it an A-, but I give A+'s out to those few movies that change my world. I almost was there with this film, but there were things I would have done differently, such as changed one particular scene from the deleted scenes instead of just cutting it off from the film completely. There were other style choices he made, coincidences I would work out in pre-production with the script, but nothing to detract from the film's message, thus still getting the film an A.
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
I find it odd that people find the need to claim this movie adds nothing new to the gorefest of previous days gone by.
Sorry to disagree, fellows, but what those of you who didn't like this movie fail to get--this wasn't really made for you. You prefer Ringu to "The Ring" you say. Kind of hard to do when the Japanese posters refer to the movie as Ring. Ringu is an American affectation for fans because we cannot pronounce like the Japanese without vowel clues. The movie stands alone on its own merit. Get over it. This movie does the very same thing. It mimics other movies, but also other genres, which is where the innovation comes in. This is David Lynch doing horror. This is Twin Peaks/Blue Velvet sensibilities meets Leatherface. This features imagery, edits, pacing, and acting that are more familiar to very different genres, but come to a nice head here.
Sure his wife is in the movie, but Lord knows she plays a psycho well. Her turn as the Dragula dancer and the Living Dead Girl must have prepared her well to be Baby. It features faces so familiar to fans of the 60's and 70's drive-in/B-house films that one has to blink twice to figure where they were seen before this. "Singled Out"'s Chris Hardwick, along with Karen Black, are nearly unrecognizable in this. So many others were in so many childhood episodes of seventies/eighties television that I was stunned to see them in such a film.
Then, there are the random acts of "WTF" that happen with astonishing timing. Just when you think, "Hmm, this is getting tame"---THAT's when they hit you.
*****SPOILER-MILD ***** In a standout scene, featuring the most stunning use of the long shot I have ever watched, the audience is drug from their watchers status and made to demand the conclusion of the "shot"(pun intended). I actually heard several people saying "Shoot, already" at the same time as me, all in a dead silent theater, and all at the exact moment the payoff came. We were a diverse audience, so it was NOT a referential thing. ***END SPOILER***
Sure it is not Magnolia, it is not Sixth Sense, it is not any film that you can go tell your friends you figured out before everyone else in the theater. It is what it is--gut-punching coolness with a turbo-charger dumping extra fuel to your "WOW!"-centers in your head. If you don;t like it, I wish you did. We might share a night reminiscing about classic horror. If classic horror, not THRILLERS", turns you on, then this is your E-ticket ride. I like all sorts of movies, but movies that don't wear berets and smoke cigarettes backwards hold special places in my heart. This movie got a reserved seat in my heart, but unfortunately for the bad guys in this one, not to my cranial or abdominal cavities, where they like to play.