In KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, Ridley Scott gives us the evolution of an anachronistic humanist, one who learns not only that selfish, cruel, cowardly greedy, and vile Christians are no match for noble Muslims, but that Christianity and Islam pale in significance next to humanism, which he apparently discovers. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, while posing as a historical epic, is actually a time-travel movie: what would happen if a man with a thoroughly early-21st-century outlook found himself charged with defending 12th-century Jerusalem?
Fine – it’s anachronistic. But is it any good? Well, it is nicely costumed and decorated, the actors generally hit their marks, and it’s always nice to see Jeremy Irons get a big-budget paycheck. But I just couldn’t get past the film’s hamhandedness, it’s chronocentric love of modern ideologies, its near-total lack of shading or complexity in the creation of its characters. This isn’t a movie – it’s a puppet show. What a disappointment.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Ellen Burstyn is an amazing actress. In ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, she creates a title character so true to life that I actually forgot I was watching a movie. Alice’s fears, her frustrations, her hopes, and her development are the film; and Burstyn never puts a foot wrong through two full hours of running time.
Honestly, that about sums up my entire reaction to the film. Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, and even a young Jodie Foster appear in this early Scorsese film, but they’re already fading in memory next to Burstyn’s extraordinary performance. In her way, she’s every parent that ever was. See this film for her, and be glad.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Red Cliff
Wow. John Woo knocks it out of the park with the film he returned to China to make. Red Cliff is fantastic.
With Red Cliff, Woo adapts part of the Chinese epic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms to tell the tale of the Battle of Red Cliff. What’s the Battle of Red Cliff? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Around 200 AD, the Emperor of China had nearly consolidated his hold on the country. Through his general and prime minister, Cao Cao, he’d subjugated all but two of the regional warlords. That’s one way of looking at it – another perspective, that of the film, paints a rapacious prime minister manipulating a young emperor and warring for personal vendetta and personal gain, enslaving all but two noble houses and besmirching the emperor’s good name. Whatever your perspective, the fact remains that the emperor’s forces attacked the armies of Zhou Yu and Sun Quan at Red Cliff, a nearly impregnable redoubt fronted by river and backed by impassable terrain. The battle, fought on land and on water, incorporated every facet of warfare: tactical and strategic thinking, personal bravery, special warfare, technological innovation, information superiority, and plain luck. In short, the Battle of Red Cliff is stuff of which epics are made.
And John Woo is just the man to make it. Woo brought Hong Kong cinema to the world stage (Really, if you haven’t seen Hard Boiled, your life has no meaning.). He came to the US and made action pictures of variable quality, but he’s found his soul again in his native land. Woo knows how to do more than make doves fly: he can direct action, he can make dialogue fascinating, and he can create and convey the unique Chinese-ness of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the people and era he portrays.
One gets the sense that this was something of a Chinese national project: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, perhaps China’s finest film actor (Bullet in the Head, In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs (the superior original to Scorsese’s The Departed), 2046, Hero, and many more) plays Zhou Yu. Major Chinese pop star and increasingly respectable young actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers, Chungking Express, Returner) plays Zhuge Liange, the strategist who ultimately brings down Cao Cao. Fengyi Zhang (Farewell My Concubine) plays Cao Cao, Chen Chang (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; 2046) plays Sun Quan, and Vicki Zhao (So Close, perhaps the single greatest movie ever made) convinces us as an unlikely spy who creates perhaps the most interesting way to smuggle information ever. This is the Chinese A-list, brought together by Woo to recreate a moment in Chinese cultural history on par with the West’s siege of Troy.
And this director, these actors, sell every minute of it. Every negotiation, every planning session, every battle, every note sings with the richness of Chinese history and the driving fascination of compelling narrative. Red Cliff is a long, long film, yet I lost track of time while watching it and, when called away, marked the time until I could return to it. Red Cliff is amazing. It’s the best thing John Woo has ever done. I hope he never comes back to America.
With Red Cliff, Woo adapts part of the Chinese epic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms to tell the tale of the Battle of Red Cliff. What’s the Battle of Red Cliff? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Around 200 AD, the Emperor of China had nearly consolidated his hold on the country. Through his general and prime minister, Cao Cao, he’d subjugated all but two of the regional warlords. That’s one way of looking at it – another perspective, that of the film, paints a rapacious prime minister manipulating a young emperor and warring for personal vendetta and personal gain, enslaving all but two noble houses and besmirching the emperor’s good name. Whatever your perspective, the fact remains that the emperor’s forces attacked the armies of Zhou Yu and Sun Quan at Red Cliff, a nearly impregnable redoubt fronted by river and backed by impassable terrain. The battle, fought on land and on water, incorporated every facet of warfare: tactical and strategic thinking, personal bravery, special warfare, technological innovation, information superiority, and plain luck. In short, the Battle of Red Cliff is stuff of which epics are made.
And John Woo is just the man to make it. Woo brought Hong Kong cinema to the world stage (Really, if you haven’t seen Hard Boiled, your life has no meaning.). He came to the US and made action pictures of variable quality, but he’s found his soul again in his native land. Woo knows how to do more than make doves fly: he can direct action, he can make dialogue fascinating, and he can create and convey the unique Chinese-ness of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the people and era he portrays.
One gets the sense that this was something of a Chinese national project: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, perhaps China’s finest film actor (Bullet in the Head, In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs (the superior original to Scorsese’s The Departed), 2046, Hero, and many more) plays Zhou Yu. Major Chinese pop star and increasingly respectable young actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers, Chungking Express, Returner) plays Zhuge Liange, the strategist who ultimately brings down Cao Cao. Fengyi Zhang (Farewell My Concubine) plays Cao Cao, Chen Chang (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; 2046) plays Sun Quan, and Vicki Zhao (So Close, perhaps the single greatest movie ever made) convinces us as an unlikely spy who creates perhaps the most interesting way to smuggle information ever. This is the Chinese A-list, brought together by Woo to recreate a moment in Chinese cultural history on par with the West’s siege of Troy.
And this director, these actors, sell every minute of it. Every negotiation, every planning session, every battle, every note sings with the richness of Chinese history and the driving fascination of compelling narrative. Red Cliff is a long, long film, yet I lost track of time while watching it and, when called away, marked the time until I could return to it. Red Cliff is amazing. It’s the best thing John Woo has ever done. I hope he never comes back to America.
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