What Art/World/HW Films Have You Been Watching?

I wasn't aware of this, but Kim Novak has already responded to THE ARTIST's use of the VERTIGO score. She called it "rape," and I'm quite sympathetic to her complaint.

Here are links to two stories on it:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/...itchcock-films/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/the-...-vertigo-279690

And the director's response:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/arti...navicius-279757

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Feb 18 2012, 07:38 AM

Hola everybody,

Not to be a totally humorless moppet but as someone who works with anti-CSEC (commercial sexual exploitation of children, eg, child sex slavery) and anti-genocide (featuring the horrific phenomenon of "war rape") groups, I find it completely offensive that people of privilege in the so-called First World casually deploy the word "rape," usually to hyperbolic effect, to signal displeasure over relatively trivial matters.

In the US, the Justice Departments estimates some 300K citizens under the age of 17 are trafficked for sex in any given year whilst the State Department figures some 10K non-citizen children are similarly exploited. The reasons behind it range from mind blowlingly fucked-up (as in a case that I've had firsthand knowledge about a woman who gave her 6-year old daughter as a birthday present to her 31-year old live-in boyfriend for a weekend of "fun") to just plain sad: such as when a local couple traded their 14-year old daughter's chastity to make their late car payments.

I'm just a plain old regular movie fan and don't have any particular strong convictions for or against cultural appropriation (though as a big fan of hip-hop and other "urban" genres, I suppose this puts me in the "pro" camp) but when people start tossing around the r-word with casual abandon, I say spend a few days volunteering at a battered women's shelter or rape crisis center and discover just how inflated your public rhetoric's become.

Speaking as a silent movie fan, though, I too found "The Artist's" post-modern re-creation/simulacrum of silent era artistry deeply flawed and unconvincing but not to the extant I'd start bandying about the language of sexual violation, domination, and exploitation.

I've not seen THE ARTIST yet, but I completely agree with Yi Lee about this and am disappointed with Ms. Novak (I recently showed BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE to my friend Nicole, who'd somehow never heard of it, and was stunned by how gorgeous she was in it).

That figure of 300,000 victims of underage sex trafficking in the U.S. has been debunked in a series of articles in the Village Voice. It was taken from a study that used that figure to describe the number of young people "at risk" of being exploited, which included anyone who ran away from home and children living on the U.S.-Mexican border. Here are links to two of the articles:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-06-29/new...her-demi-moore/
http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-06/new...in-trafficking/

You say you work with an anti-CSEC group, Yi Lee. I don't. Do those articles get their facts wrong? If so, how? The sexual exploitation of children is a horrific crime but I don't see how it helps the cause if anti-CSEC advocates make the problem sound far more widespread than it actually is. It reminds me of the feminist claim that incidents of domestic abuse shoot up on Super Bowl Sunday, an assertion that got widespread media exposure, although the exposure of its inaccuracy didn't.

Also, I appreciate your attempt at consciousness-raising regarding the use of the term "rape" in the discussion of admittedly trivial matters, and your points are well taken. I don't use the term lightly and I will think twice about repeating someone else's use of it in the future. However, it's kind of a losing battle on the rest of the internet, where "George Lucas rapes your childhood" pops up every time a new edition of any of the STAR WARS films is released. Here's a google search for that term:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-a...iw=1366&bih=563

Kim Novak's one person, and maybe Gloria Steinem or Oprah can have a one-on-one heart-to-heart with her about it, but how do you rein in all those rabid STAR WARS fanboys who don't consider Lucas's acts of "desecration" to be "relatively trivial" at all? Who's brave enough to try it on one of their forums? I think you'd need George Lucas for that.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Feb 18 2012, 08:25 AM

Despite a couple of very minor flaws and the fact that I was briefly taken out of the film when the aforementioned VERTIGO snatch kicked in, I loved THE ARTIST. It's been my favourite of the main clutch of Oscar nominees but I've managed to cram in a few more as I always do despite knowing I'll probably hate at least a couple of them.

The other Oscar nominees I caught recently:

Really enjoyed THE DESCENDANTS, far more than SIDEWAYS which I think is the only other Payne film I've seen, and while Clooney is very good in it I'd still give JD the nod ahead of him come Oscar night. The locations are shot beautifully, it's not quite as sentimental as I feared it would be, it was a nice surprise to see Sheriff Truman again and for once I didn't want to punch Matthew Lillard in the face within thirty seconds of him appearing. The right balance of comedy and drama with a decent cast even in the minor roles. The one weak point was perhaps the surf dude friend of Clooney's daughter, who I just couldn't buy actually lasting as long as he did in anyone's company.

WAR HORSE was a spectacular disappointment. From the false backgrounds to the dodgy accents everything in this film felt false. Against the backdrop of the Great War I'd expect something pretty serious but while this film tried it failed to convince me at all. I just couldn't take any of it seriously and felt like I was thinking "you are kidding" every five minutes, with ever increasing disbelief. I'm not a real animal lover so maybe it takes a bit extra to get me to sympathise with a horse (even one who apparently understands English and notions of self sacrifice) but to me this film was just bad. Perhaps it fairs better with the kids but I think my friend and I probably spent almost as long picking flaws with it as we did watching it. All I can say in its favour is that as far as Oscar nominated films go, it's better than THE IRON LADY.

Finally, MONEYBALL. Really enjoyed this one too - Pitt is excellent and pretty much makes the film for me, and again plenty of laughs despite being a solid drama piece. Not likely to get the same love here in the UK where baseball isn't a major sport, there were a few occasions where I just had to take the characters at their word over whether something was good or bad (he's going to put you where, to do what, how?) but then the same was true of MARGIN CALL which I also thought was excellent even if you just had to sit there and accept that things were bad because a financier told you so. Would like to see this one win the adapted screenplay Oscar, though I know it won't.

Hey Brian (and everybody else),

Three comments and that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

First, the numbers aren't wrong. The statistical modeling used to generate victim numbers are based upon computer models used in zoology to estimate animal extinction numbers given limited data. Not a perfect science just yet and still undergoing lots of refinement. I first got into all of this with Oxfam and Camfed when I was going to school in England. And although I'd be the first to admit that my teachers at Oxford and Cambridge might be complete tools at times, inept and incompetent they are not.

Second, one should always carefully consider one's sources when reading. Casual perusal of American alt weeklies will reveal that back page classifieds are rife with sex-for-pay adverts (fun fact for anyone reading this: if you've ever paid for sex in your lifetime, you've probably had sex with a child. Obviously, not yay.) The thrust of _The Village Voice's_ articles have been Ashton and Demi are idiots and therefore don't believe whatever garbage they spew. Fair enough, this may well be true.

This conversation kinda reminds me of debates I've followed in English, Chinese, and Japanese regarding the Nanjing Incident/Nanjing Massacre/Rape of Nanking. Ultra-nationalist Japanese textbook writers contend maybe 30 civilians died due to Imperial Army brutality within Nanjing's borders. Ultra-nationalist Chinese writers try to bump up the the 300K number up to 500K and beyond (lumping in neighboring massacres to the grand total. Ugh.) Irrespective of the exact numbers, any sensible human being would contend something very bad happened in Nanjing in 1937.

But returning to the _Voice's_ self-interested critique of Demi-Ashton's claims (those adverts generate revenue in the alt weeklies that run them), irrespective of exact bean counting technique employed and whether they're off by a factor of 10 or 100, something's very rotten in the kingdom of Denmark, so to speak. Whilst we're on the subject of nasty human brutishness, another anti-rape issue that I've worked on is prison rape. I don't usually mention it in casual conversation because, let's be honest, the topic is often played for laughs in Hollywood movies (such as in Kutcher's very own "Butterfly Effect.") Take a gander, this time from a more reputable source (or perhaps just exposing my ivory tower bias?):

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2...agination=false
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2...agination=false

Lastly, I'm not part of the PC police or here to constrain anyone's word choice as a word-nazi (ha, see what I just did there?) I think Ms. Novak's a wonderful actress and the great thing about living in a Western liberal democracy is that she can say whatever she wants, no matter how cray-cray (in a full page trade publication, no less.) I'm just here to keep it real. "Rape" isn't you getting ripped off when the restaurant you visited last night didn't accept your Groupon gift certificate. It's not when some beyond rich billionaire filmmaker thinkers with your childhood dreams because he, hell, I have not earthly idea why he does what he does (I have nothing bad to say about Mr. Lucas considering how much he's given to K-12 education over the decades despite whatever shortcomings he may have as an artiste.) It's not someone appropriating your artistic work for their own. No, rape is something real and horrible--see exhibits A, B, and C above--and I'm just calling a spade, a spade here. Do with it whatever you will.

Watched two excellent films this evening: THE WHISTLEBLOWER with Rachel Weisz, and Jerzy Skolimowski's latest, ESSENTIAL KILLING, with Vincent Gallo. ESSENTIAL KILLING is streaming on Netflix. More in-depth coverage at the link...


THE WHISTLEBLOWER and ESSENTIAL KILLING

This month I started a new blog devoted to film and anime. The link is in my signature. The idea arose from the sheer number of posts I've done for Mobius that I've never submitted because they were too long. I've done three entries on the blog so far. The last one is about Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE (1980), comparing the novel, the film, and the parts of Fuller's autobiography that deal with his WWII experiences. It was adapted from a post I originally intended for Mobius. The second entry is about "Ultra Q," a Japanese live-action sci-fi TV series from 1966 that paved the way for "Ultraman." I already have a blog devoted to Japanese pop music, but I wanted to do one on old movies and Japanese film and TV entertainment. And I'm sure I'll throw other stuff in there that I come across.

As a bonus for Mobius readers, here's a paragraph I cut from the BIG RED ONE entry for length, dealing with Fuller's celebrity encounters during the war, as related in both the novel and the Fuller autobiography (A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking):

"There are great stories in the novel (backed up by the autobiography) involving celebrities that are not in the movie. In one, Fuller presses for a meeting with Marlene Dietrich after she entertains the troops near the frontlines in Germany. He tells her to tell her agent, Charlie Feldman, one word, “Cigars.” Feldman happened to be Fuller’s agent in Hollywood at the time also. The full story is pretty amusing and is followed up in the autobiography by Fuller’s account of running into Dietrich in Hollywood after the war. Does she remember him? Not at first...
He also tells a story of Al Jolson entertaining the troops in Sicily during the Italian campaign and being a big hit, as was actress Anna Lee (HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY), who couldn’t sing or dance but was called upon by the men to “just stand there!” Adolphe Menjou (PATHS OF GLORY) came on and gave a speech imploring the men to kill Germans and the men booed him off the stage—they didn’t want to hear about killing, they’d had too much of it already. Fuller later ran into Menjou in Hollywood and made him uncomfortable by reminding him of that incident."

Great, Brian. Off to a good start.

Took in TAKE SHELTER (2011) last night. I was surprised to find no discussion of it on here (Tinta has reviewed it on his blog). Anyway, Michael Shannon plays a mid-30s construction worker who begins having bizarre dreams and believes he might be paranoid schizophrenic as his mother (played by Kathy Baker) had been diagnosed with that condition 25 years earlier. He becomes obsessed with the safety of his family and begins expanding a storm shelter behind their home. Writer-director Jeff Nichols fashions a film that can be read in many different ways. Is Shannon's character really ill or really cracking up due to the pressures of life? Interestingly, it reminded me closest in spirit to the early parts of Richard Dreyfus going nuts in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. It can be taken even further as some have viewed it as a pre-apocalypse film (that can work) or an allegory on the current state of the economy in the United States (that works too). It is a very measured film with a great performance in the lead by Shannon. The only thing that could have made it better is if Al Pacino had been the lead. "There's a stoooooorrrrrrrmmmmmm-ah cominnnnnnnn-ah!" ;-)

THE EAGLE (2011)
A Roman soldier (Channing Tatum) sets off north of Hadrian's Wall in order to find the missing "Eagle of the Ninth" and restore his family name, aided by his slave (Jamie Bell). Scottish director Kevin MacDonald certainly makes the most of his native country's landscapes when it comes to recreating the "savage" northern Britain but the film as a whole is a wasted opportunity. I've no idea if this is down to the movie or the book on which it's based (I've never read it) but what we get is a couple of fights, men talking about honour and lots of walking about in the hills. Of all the things that could go wrong with a film like this, making it boring is the worst sin. Neil Marshall's CENTURION, based on the same myth and beating this one to cinemas by a year, wasn't much better but was at least fun.

TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN (2010)
Based on a series of teen books, although very familiar to fans of RED DAWN, this Australian effort (which surprisingly achieved a widespread cinema release) sees a bunch of kids return from a camping trip in the wild to discover their town has been overrun as part of an invasion by a foreign (Asian) power. I'm not going to suggest that RED DAWN isn't ludicrous but it at least has nostalgia associated with it for someone like me who grew up with it. This effort on the other hand is just ludicrous. Australia is conquered inside 24 hours; a bunch of kids wage guerilla warfare after somehow turning from idiots to military genius, and so on. To say that suspension of disbelief is required would be an understatement. Some of the dialogue is so cringe-inducingly bad you'd swear it was actually written by teenagers, but thankfully the rest of it is actually so laughably bad it becomes enjoyable.

THE HELP (2011)
I was as surprised as anyone that I actually enjoyed this film as I was pretty much convinced I'd hate it. I only ended up watching it because of its Oscar hype, as I do, and it's fair to say (as others have before me) that while it's not a masterpiece it is worth watching for the impressive array of acting performances. Most of the attention has focussed on Davis and Spencer but I was also taken in by Chastain. I'll be honest, a year ago I had no idea who she was, now she really is a name I watch out for following her turns here, in THE TREE OF LIFE and in TAKE SHELTER which William mentions above.

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (2011)
I'm a big admirer of the films I've seen by Paulo Sorrentino but I was a bit nervous about this one - I have reservations when directors venture into languages other than their native tongue as it often sounds a bit off kilter and stilted. No such problems here however as, despite an English-speaking cast and being filmed in Ireland and the USA, this still looks and feels like a Sorrentino film. The quirkiness is amplified - to levels that will no doubt irritate some - and it possesses more humour than anything I've seen in any of the director's films until now, however there's still plenty of seriousness at its heart and it's as stylishly shot as ever. Few directors know how to use widescreen like Sorrentino. A strong cast (including David Byrne weirdly playing himself) is headed up by Sean Penn who is an absolute delight in a role as a washed up musician (a cross between Robert Smith, Edward Scissorhands and Ozzy Osbourne) who finds himself searching for his dead father's Nazi persecutor without any real plan of what he'll do when he finds him. A real oddity but a genuine joy.

TIM AND ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE (2012)—Directed by Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim. Stars Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Robert Loggia, Will Ferrell. Absurdist comedy by cult comic duo Tim & Eric contains a little more than one-one billionth the number of laughs as dollars promised in the title. Tim & Eric made their bones on Cartoon Network’s TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! and a handful of Funny or Dies shorts, but whatever value their peculiar style of humor has doesn’t translate to a ninety-minute feature.

Thin premise finds bumbling filmmakers Tim and Eric squandering a billion-dollar investment from theater-seat magnate Tommy Schlaaang (Loggia) on a three-minute romantic comedy starring a Johnny Depp lookalike. To pay back Schlaaang, Tim and Eric take a job managing a nightmarishly dilapidated mall inhabited solely by homeless people and stores that sell swords and used toilet paper (ha ha). Heidecker and Wareheim obviously carry some cachet in Hollywood and cashed it in big time to attract cameos by Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte (MACGRUBER), Zach Galifianakis (THE HANGOVER), and John C. Reilly (STEPBROTHERS).

The bits that work best seem better suited for shorts, such as spoofs of industrial films that interrupt the plot. Whatever talent Heidecker and Wareheim have as writers is wasted by their utter incompetence as performers. As directors, they’re no better; one bit involving wordplay between the stars should have been played in a two-shot, but by breaking the scene up into a series of close-ups, the timing is ruined. Which may actually be part of the joke, who knows. Nobody is funny in BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE, as an embarrassingly long and unfunny bit involving Ferrell’s love of TOP GUN demonstrates. Also with William Atherton (DIE HARD), Twink Caplan, Erica Durance, Ray Wise, Mark Cuban, and Michael Gross (FAMILY TIES).

TEXAS KILLING FIELDS (2011)—Directed by Ami Canaan Mann. Stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chloe Moretz, Jessica Chastain, Sheryl Lee. Subpar editing and sound mar this second feature by Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of director Michael Mann of HEAT and THIEF fame, who served as producer here. It barely squeaked into a few theaters in the fall of 2011—no doubt on the strength of producer Mann’s name—but without a cast of movie stars to carry the load of Don Ferrarone’s routine script, box office was dim.

Louisiana plays Texas City, Texas, where cops still use cassette tapes to record interrogations. Sensitive homicide detective Brian Haigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, THE RESIDENT) and his younger, brasher partner Mike Souder (AVATAR’s Sam Worthington) consider the murder of a teenage prostitute. A similar case pops up one county over, where Mike’s ex-wife Pam (Jessica Chastain, an Academy Award nominee for THE HELP) leads the investigation. Although it’s outside his and Mike’s jurisdiction, Brian can’t help looking into the case at Pam’s request, since both murders appear to be related.

It becomes clear the cops are after a serial killer who uses a remote bayou dubbed “The Killing Fields” by the locals to dump his victims. At times, TEXAS KILLING FIELDS resembles a straight procedural in CSI mode, and if Mann and Farrarone had stayed in that direction, it might have been a more successful film. However, Mann takes a lot of time away from the investigation to follow Anne (KICK-ASS’ Chloe Grace Moretz), the young daughter of a trashy mother (Sheryl Lee of TWIN PEAKS) who banishes her to walk the streets until her many “boyfriends” have gone home.

Moretz is quite good, as are Morgan and Chastain, but Haigh’s paternal relationship with Anne isn’t as interesting as Mann thinks it is. Following the mystery is tough because of Cindy Mollo’s editing, which often renders some scenes too long, others not long enough, and many out of order. Similarly, the recording of the actors’ slurry accents is unclear, which sometimes makes following plot points difficult. A third-act car chase is well handled. Jon Eyez, Jason Clarke (THE CHICAGO CODE), Stephen Graham (TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY), and Annabeth Gish (NIXON) add able support.

This post has been edited by Marty McKee on Mar 2 2012, 11:55 AM

Ha! Typo of the Year!

/fixed

TRUE CRIME (1999)—Directed by Clint Eastwood. Stars Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Denis Leary, Isaiah Washington. Larry Gross (48 HRS), Paul Brickman (RISKY BUSINESS), and Stephen Schiff (THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN) adapted a novel by Andrew Klavan (DON’T SAY A WORD), and producer/director Clint Eastwood compiled a remarkable supporting cast. Although TRUE CRIME never feels quite as sharp as it should, mainly because Clint is miscast in the lead by at least a decade and a half, it’s professionally crafted, smartly performed, and a diverting night at the movies.

Eastwood stars as Steve Everett, a burned-out screw-up of a newspaper reporter often seen chasing women at his favorite drinking hole (do you see what I mean about him being miscast?). Not that he’s thrilled about it, but he’s been assigned to interview Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington, later a regular on GREY’S ANATOMY), a convicted murderer due to be executed at midnight. However, after reviewing the case and hearing Beechum’s story first-hand, Everett is convinced of the man’s innocence and begins a race against the clock to gather the evidence to clear him before the gas pellets drop.

Seeing the wrinkly star making out with 29-year-old Mary McCormack (IN PLAIN SIGHT) may be a bit disconcerting, but if you hang with TRUE CRIME long enough, it’s likely to grow on you. Eastwood’s directing style seems detrimental to shooting a suspense thriller. The film is leisurely paced, and it isn’t exactly packed with action—I doubt Harry Callahan would think much of it—but Eastwood is one of Hollywood’s better storytellers, and he usually makes your journey with him a pleasant one.

Most of the pleasure comes from watching Clint trading barbs with Denis Leary (THE REF), great as Everett’s uptight city editor (who knows Steve is sleeping with his wife), and James Woods as their profane boss. If you’re a fan of character actors, you’ll get a kick out of seeing old-timers William Windom and Anthony Zerbe pop up too. Ignore the story contrivances, and enjoy the performances. You also get Diane Venora, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Frances Fisher, Michael Jeter, Michael McKean, Christine Ebersole, Laila Robins, Sydney Poitier, Frances Lee McCain, and Lucy Liu.

Watched a great location-filmed-L.A. noir, CRIME WAVE (1954), directed by Andre De Toth. It stars Sterling Hayden and two other cast members from THE KILLING--Ted de Corsia and Timothy Carey--filmed three-to-four years before Kubrick's film. Plus, Charles Buchinsky himself--20 years before DEATH WISH, where he'd play a character who routinely kills thugs like the one he plays here.






Dub Taylor's in it, too.

James Ellroy and Eddie Muller provide the commentary.

Full writeup on my blog.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Mar 3 2012, 07:22 AM

TRUE CRIME has a lot of problems, but I agree that if you stick with it through the often clunky first half, it definitely improves. One of Eastwood's problems as a director is that, with rare exception, especially during this period of his career, he seems to feel that every movie has to exceed two hours. TRUE CRIME tells a story that shouldn't take more than 95-100 minutes. It runs 127. There's a lot of awkward and unnecessary scenes, like all the screen time given to Bernard Hill and Michael McKean, for example. I remember reading some reviews at the time that praised the way Eastwood showed the whole process of preparing for an execution, but I just thought it slowed the movie down. Eastwood screwing around with Leary's wife is unnecessary. In fact, Leary's character is unnecessary, but it is entertaining watching Eastwood, Leary, and Woods jawing with one another. But worst of all is the "speed zoo" sequence with Eastwood maniacally sprinting through the zoo, pushing his daughter (played by his real daughter) in a stroller, rushing through his day with her so he can get back to work. As a comedy bit, it doesn't work, and as a character bit, it makes him look like a psycho. I know he probably just wanted to put his daughter in the movie and probably didn't have the heart to cut it, but that scene should've been the first thing to go. It's embarrassingly bad.

But like Marty says, if you can get through all of that, TRUE CRIME is a much better film in the second half when it finally gets focused and stays on track. Washington is terrific as the about-to-be-executed convict. Another round of editing and less of Eastwood stroking his own ego, and TRUE CRIME could easily be a top-tier Eastwood picture instead of a second-tier one. ABSOLUTE POWER and SPACE COWBOYS are similarly overlong, flawed films that have their strong points. I've been meaning to revisit it again, but I think A PERFECT WORLD is a very underrated work from Eastwood's '90s output.

LA MORT EN DIRECT [aka DEATH WATCH] (1980) - somewhat of a lost movie and a bit of an oddity. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, starring Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton and Romy Schneider, filmed entirely in Scotland. Predating the likes of VIDEODROME and THE TRUMAN SHOW, this future-set drama sees Keitel play Roddy, a man who has a camera fitted into his eye and spends his time following terminally ill Schneider in order to film footage for a new reality TV show. Far more relevant now than it probably was on release, the film certainly isn't well known here in the UK despite the Glasgow location work being a major part of the film's look (including moody shots of the Necropolis and a wonderfully daring tracking shot following a young Robbie Coltrane through a riverside market). The combination of Gothic architecture and run down urban decay - much of it now long since demolished - makes for a grimy, realistic vision of a less than utopian future. Fine performances and an atmospheric score that relies heavily on piercing string arrangements round off the package in what has to be one of my favourite discoveries of recent years.

RANGO (2011) - Oscar winning animated movie about a cowboy lizard which fares far better with its grown-up jokes and Westerns gags than it does with anything else. Patchy but enjoyable, one highlight has to be a genuinely WTF dream sequence which takes the Western influence about as far as it can go.

BLACKTHORN (2011) - on the more serious side of Westerns comes this follow-up to BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID. Butch, now an aging rancher named Blackthorn (Sam Shepherd), is alive and well and happy to have the world believe he's dead. Of course he's soon dragged back into the gunslinging world of bandits and robberies when he falls in with a young fugitive (Eduardo Noriega). The young cast employed in flashbacks can't really compete with Newman and Redford, but Shepherd is perfectly cast and Noriega (reminding me of a young Tomas Milian) does nicely too (along with an enjoyable minor role for Stephen Rea as Cassidy's former nemesis). A very different film to the original classic, it's a bit more glacially paced but enjoyable, with moments of nice character humour and absolutely beautiful to look at.

I think BLACKTHORN is one of the best 2011 releases that nobody saw. I watched it on Netflix Instant and bought the Blu-ray a few days later. It's a beautiful film, and would've looked incredible on a big screen, and contains what might be Sam Shepard's best performance.

I reviewed DEATH WATCH on here at some point a couple of years ago (at least I think I did). That really is a gem waiting for rediscovery. I've seen some reports online that Shout Factory is releasing it on DVD as a "Shout Select" (only available on their web site) title this summer. If so, I'm definitely picking that up. I have Embassy's pan & scan VHS, and that's a film that really needs to be seen in its intended format.