Archive for November 30, 2009

Monday Movie Review: The Omega Man

November 30, 2009 / / 2 comments

The Omega Man (1971) 8/10
Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) is the only survivor of biological war. With the world dying of plague, Neville developed a vaccine too late; and only he was treated. Everyone else is dead or mutated into vampire-like creatures lead by Matthias (Anthony Zerbe) that are blinded by daylight.

Giving a numeric rating to a cult classic is kind of a fool’s game. You know there’s a cheese factor, you know there are things that are overblown, and yet that’s part of its charm. I like to take my movies seriously, and I seriously think that Omega Man is a terrific movie, but there are definitely major flaws.

For one thing, the soundtrack is horrific. It’s a nightmare of seventies-style sweetness. At one point, Neville plays Theme from a Summer Place on the radio, and that’s pretty much the tone of the whole thing, including during the scary, horror, and action sequences. The soundtrack actively works against any tension the movie successfully builds (which is considerable). The other major flaw is the direction of the action sequences. Whether it’s a car chase or a fist fight, it’s very staged and posed and transparent; groan-worthy.

And yes, Omega Man is overblown. It sells its message too hard, and paints its metaphors with too broad a brush. But given the moody atmospherics, the intensity of the last-man-on-Earth scenario, and a powerful flow of events, I really don’t mind the broad brush.

Lots of people criticize Charlton Heston’s acting, but he holds the screen like a magnet. It requires something special to be alone on screen, babbling to your household objects, and retain audience interest. Heston’s dynamic presence makes it work. Is Neville crazy or just lonely? We are never sure, but neither is he, and that makes him sympathetic. It turns out, of course, that Neville is not the last man on Earth, and his vulnerability in the sudden presence of people after years alone is touching.

Matthias, we learn, is a former news reporter watching the plague unfold and reporting on it. Gradually, he comes to hate the technology that is destroying the world, and before succumbing, he has already turned his news broadcasts into polemics. Now, he is the cult leader of the mutant victims, called “the Family,” they celebrate the scars on their skin as cleansing them of the world’s sin. All this is very over the top, which, let’s face it, is what you want when you cast Anthony Zerbe. The Family is a mishmash that serves to criticize witch hunts, superstition, religious fervor, and anti-science bias, but the reality is that science did destroy the world. The Family is vile, monstrous, and not entirely wrong.

This is all very juicy stuff; our lone heroic survivor paints an iconic figure even before the messianic metaphors start flying. Visuals of an empty and abandoned Los Angeles are stunning, and paint a sharp contrast with Neville’s home, fully of knick-knacks, art, science, and luxury. My overall assessment is that Omega Man absolutely earns its cult status.

I am dreaming of…initiation?

November 20, 2009 / / 8 comments

A few days ago, I dreamed that someone I knew was an expectant father, and his wife was in labor. I was to be the labor coach and, while my friend waited nervously outside, I went in to attend to her.

When I entered, I discovered the “wife” was an elderly Native American; a shaman (I knew) in jeans, a red flannel shirt, and a headband. The shaman got up on the delivery table and spread his legs, and from between his legs a slit opened in his blue jeans and a head began to emerge.

Well.

Last night I dreamed that I was at a festival with friends Larry & Sabina. We were playing some sort of game or doing some sort of ritual, and they needed a drop of my blood to prove my good intentions. I knew they would prick a finger but then Sabina said that didn’t work and could I please turn around. It was, I think she said, for initiation, but I don’t know what she meant. I think it was still a sex game in my mind. She lifted my hair and took a slice from the top of my spine/base of my skull (exactly where my Kali eyes tattoo is, but I wasn’t aware of the tattoo in the dream). It was a plus-sign shaped cut and it hurt horribly. I felt like she was damaging my brain. I was terrified and angry. I cried out in pain but I was afraid to move. She cut my like that, with me holding still and crying out, for a long time. I was wondering, in the dream, if this was domestic violence.

Upon awaking, that dream plus the earlier one seem to add up to some kind of message about ritual or transformation, but I can’t put it all together.

Friday Random 10

November 6, 2009 / / Comments Off on Friday Random 10

1. Little Green — Joni Mitchell: Except the sound was screwed up, so now I have to figure out if I need to remove and re-upload this one.
2. Whispers from a Spiritual Garden — Yusef
3. Louisiana 1927 — Randy Newman
4. My Romance — Michael Feinstein
5. Know Now Then — Ani DiFranco
6. El Matador — Los Fabulosos Cadillacs: I had no idea this thing was on my iPod. Turns out it’s from the soundtrack of Grosse Point Blank, which is continually rewarding.
7. Don’t Touch My Hat — Lyle Lovett
8. Come Away With Me — Norah Jones: I almost want to remove this one, it’s so familiar and so beloved that it lacks something of the surprise and delight of using shuffle.
9. I Was Doing All Right — Annie Ross: Another one I didn’t know I had.
10. Farewell to Tarwathie — Judy Collins: I swear to the gods, I thought I removed this from my iPod already. It’s lovely, but not really iPod music, y’know?

Monday Movie Review: I’ve Loved You So Long

November 2, 2009 / / One comment

I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime) (2008) 8/10
Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has just gotten out of prison after fifteen years, and moves in with her sister, brother-in-law, and young niece.

I’ve Loved You So Long is a quiet film, quietly watching a broken woman be…broken. We don’t know about Juliette’s crime at first; as an American viewer, I did not at first realize that 15 years was an incredibly long sentence in the French prison system; a French viewer would know right away that the crime must be terrible indeed. Yet it is quickly clear to anyone that the revelation of the crime will be the film’s dramatic center. Perhaps the major flaw of the film is the obviousness of this structure: We know we’re building to The Big Confession, and when it comes, there’s a certain self-consciousness to it. Don’t get me wrong: It’s a moving scene, and Thomas is amazing, it’s just that it’s been over-broadcast; nothing can live up to a whole movie building to that one scene.

Which is a shame, because I’ve Loved You So Long excels in the small scenes. Thomas’s acting is delicate, and as she struggles to interact in a normal way, as she seeks work, as she tries to joke, she reveals herself and her story without apparent effort. She is like a vision of feeling; so obviously agonized that the denouement is almost unnecessary. As we begin to know how terrible Juliette’s crime is, we also can see, through her every pore, her regret and sorrow, and we cannot condemn her.

Of course, her family and the people who know her have struggles of their own. There is, apparently, a monster in their midst, but also a sister, a lovely woman, a friend. How to manage this contradiction?

Although freed from prison, Juliette is still imprisoned by her own deep loss and pain, and in allowing herself to be so raw, Kristin Scott Thomas shows us how many of us are truly imprisoned by invisible walls.

 
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