So next on the boss's list? The Omen. Not the 2006 version, but rather the 1976 version with Gregory Peck.
All in all its a pretty uncomplicated film. The movie opens in an Italian hospital where a woman has just given birth to a stillborn child (thankfully we do not see this). The woman's husband, this dude played by Gregory Peck, decides at the urging of a Priest to adopt a child and raise him in place of the stillborn babe. "Your wife
'a, she never know'a the difference'a, capice?" So he does it.
In the fun filled two hour journey that follows we learn three things:
1. The child is the Anti-Christ (even though Johnny Rotten would, a couple years later, claim that title for himself).
2. The dude must kill the child in a Church to save the world.
3. If you get your head cut off by a pane of glass that has fallen from an out of control glass truck, its just so cool that it will replay three times. Three. No more, no less.
My boss at the crackerjack factory assured me it was frightening, but I did not find it to be especially scary (and believe me, I don't really do scary movies).
But this film is rather creepy and the final scene where the dude (I think his name is Robert) is preparing to kill the evil Satan child Damien is very disturbing. Damien is 5, after all. He doesn't realize he is the Anti-Christ yet, and he won't know that until college after a really bad experience with jungle juice forces himself to take a good hard look at himself in the mirror and ask himself "Who are you, Damien? Who are you? What in the hell am I doing in this place? Why am I majoring in coal mining when I know that inside of me there is an interpretive dancer just waiting to burst out?". No, as his dad lays his body on the altar, he is just a scared, confused little boy. Even though I know this child is the Anti-Christ and is going to bring about the Armageddon, well, I still found myself saying "Don't do it, The Dude whose name I can't remember! I would rather take the consequences of letting the Anti-Christ live than see you kill that poor little boy."
Well, guess what? It's a happy ending! The British police (did I mention that The Dude was the American ambassador to my adopted homeland?) shoot The Dude and the little boy goes to live with The Dude's best friend, the POTUS.
That's right. The President Of The United States of America.
And sometimes, as we have seen, the son of POTUS can one day become the POTUS himself. Maybe that is what The Omen is all about. Be afraid America. Be very afraid. If Damien was 5 in 1976, he's now 36 years old. A little too young to run for office just yet. But soon. Very soon....
Perhaps more frightening is Gregory Peck's left eyebrow. Good god man, he can cock that eyebrow. Gives me goosebumps it does.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Movies You May Not Like: The Deer Hunter
So, the next movie on my boss's list was "The Deer Hunter". I've seen the final hour or so several times, but never seen the whole thing.
I imagine many of you have seen it, but the plot is easy enough to summarize.
1. A bunch of guys finish their work at the mill (yo yo yo Western PA!) and go to a wedding. It goes on for a long time. Three of the men, Steven, Michael (played by DeNiro) and Nick (Christopher Walken) all good friends, are going to be shipping out to Vietnam in a few days.
2. Vietnam happens. All three of them end up as prisoners of the VietCong where they are forced to play Russian Roulette for their captors amusement. Michael, who is in special forces, manages to use the game to overcome his captors and rescues his three friends.
3. We see the aftermath of the war and how it effects everyone. Spoiler spoiler: no one is really changed for the better. Make sure you have some tissues handy, because this is a sad one.
The basic lesson of the film is one that we as a nation have become sadly well acquainted with as late (again): War is terrible. No, I didn't need this movie to teach me that, but I haven't seen many movies that really capture how hard it is for some of our veterans to come home, how difficult it is to live with trauma of combat. Typically, a war movie ends when the mission is achieved and glory is won. Often the great cost in lives lost and men wounded is seen as the price of war, but I've never seen any movie that focuses on what happens when the guys who survive come home in the way this one does.
The documentary "War", by Sebastian Junger, maybe comes close, in that you hear the soldiers in it wonder what they are going to do when they get home, and some of them fear that the war has left them hopelessly fucked up. What makes that documentary sadder is that the soldiers aren't actors and they are all so young. God, they are young. While the platoon Junger is following around does sustain wounded and has at least two men killed during their deployment, we get the sense that among the heaviest prices to pay are the burdens that these young men will be carrying for the rest of their lives.
We've known for years that war does this. It shatters lives. I'm not saying war is never an option - sadly, sometimes it is - but we must always ask ourselves if it is worth the cost in lives lost and destroyed. I wonder if often we find that it is not.
And the movie also portrays in great detail (and a fair bit of accuracy) a true Eastern Orthodox wedding, complete with the three turns around the altar and the massive quantities of alcohol consumed.
Speaking of which, here's a tip: If you are at your wedding and you are given a funny looking glass of wine to drink, and if you are told that if you spill any bad luck will follow you all the days of your life, try not to spill any.
You may ask yourself: why do the Russians introduce the possibility of bestowing a horrific curse upon two married people on one of the greatest days of their life? And how do the stalwart Russian people keep from falling flat on their faces in a philosophical sense in the face of such a horrific juxtaposition? How do they keep their balance and move on with their lives?
I will let this funny little singing milkman guy explain.
I imagine many of you have seen it, but the plot is easy enough to summarize.
1. A bunch of guys finish their work at the mill (yo yo yo Western PA!) and go to a wedding. It goes on for a long time. Three of the men, Steven, Michael (played by DeNiro) and Nick (Christopher Walken) all good friends, are going to be shipping out to Vietnam in a few days.
2. Vietnam happens. All three of them end up as prisoners of the VietCong where they are forced to play Russian Roulette for their captors amusement. Michael, who is in special forces, manages to use the game to overcome his captors and rescues his three friends.
3. We see the aftermath of the war and how it effects everyone. Spoiler spoiler: no one is really changed for the better. Make sure you have some tissues handy, because this is a sad one.
The basic lesson of the film is one that we as a nation have become sadly well acquainted with as late (again): War is terrible. No, I didn't need this movie to teach me that, but I haven't seen many movies that really capture how hard it is for some of our veterans to come home, how difficult it is to live with trauma of combat. Typically, a war movie ends when the mission is achieved and glory is won. Often the great cost in lives lost and men wounded is seen as the price of war, but I've never seen any movie that focuses on what happens when the guys who survive come home in the way this one does.
The documentary "War", by Sebastian Junger, maybe comes close, in that you hear the soldiers in it wonder what they are going to do when they get home, and some of them fear that the war has left them hopelessly fucked up. What makes that documentary sadder is that the soldiers aren't actors and they are all so young. God, they are young. While the platoon Junger is following around does sustain wounded and has at least two men killed during their deployment, we get the sense that among the heaviest prices to pay are the burdens that these young men will be carrying for the rest of their lives.
We've known for years that war does this. It shatters lives. I'm not saying war is never an option - sadly, sometimes it is - but we must always ask ourselves if it is worth the cost in lives lost and destroyed. I wonder if often we find that it is not.
And the movie also portrays in great detail (and a fair bit of accuracy) a true Eastern Orthodox wedding, complete with the three turns around the altar and the massive quantities of alcohol consumed.
Speaking of which, here's a tip: If you are at your wedding and you are given a funny looking glass of wine to drink, and if you are told that if you spill any bad luck will follow you all the days of your life, try not to spill any.
You may ask yourself: why do the Russians introduce the possibility of bestowing a horrific curse upon two married people on one of the greatest days of their life? And how do the stalwart Russian people keep from falling flat on their faces in a philosophical sense in the face of such a horrific juxtaposition? How do they keep their balance and move on with their lives?
I will let this funny little singing milkman guy explain.
Movies You May Not Like: Bull Durham
Got to be honest with you guys; didn't really like this one so much.
I mean, yeah, it had its moments. The movie may have been saved had I not had to watch Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner have sex for 10 minutes, with all apologies to Ms. Sarandon to whom I mean no disrespect (and who was pretty good in this movie, though her character was a little odd. She loves baseball. I mean, she really, really, really loves baseball). It was just...guh. Too much.
And that's all I have to say about that.
I mean, yeah, it had its moments. The movie may have been saved had I not had to watch Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner have sex for 10 minutes, with all apologies to Ms. Sarandon to whom I mean no disrespect (and who was pretty good in this movie, though her character was a little odd. She loves baseball. I mean, she really, really, really loves baseball). It was just...guh. Too much.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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