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Classic Movie of the Week
OnM - September 21/02
******* Do... or do not. There is no try. ............ Yoda ******* Yo, Yoda my man... lighten up already, OK? ............ OnM ******* Stuff happens, right? It's a cliche because it's true. I had hopes that this week's column would feature a review of a film by a guest reviewer, a film that is one of my all time favorites, as it is of many other moviegoers. It's not a happy film, but it is a brilliant one, and after first suggesting the possibility of a guest review to the potential reviewer, it triggered a series of thoughts that eventually led to the pre-Buffy-premiere 'ambiguous warfare' concept that I've played around with for the previous two weeks. But, 'tis not to be, at least not this week. Due to the usual unforeseen circumstances (and I know them well, they play continual havoc with my life in the Realverse also), my guest has not yet completed the review. When it's ready, rest assured it will get posted, but not just right this mo. Nothin' to do but... pivot!! So here's the deal. As most of ya'all already know, during the official BtVS/Angel season, when new eps are airing each week, I try as best as possible to choose a film that relates in some fashion-- thematically, philosophically, style of cinematography, whatever-- to the ep and then extemporize. During the hiatus periods and especially during the long summer months, I allow for a much more freeform means of selection criteria, although even that can get to be at least partly organized, such as with the 'Guilty Pleasures' month of August or the 'Anniversary Specials' in February. This week being the last week before the new season, and with the planned guest column on temporary hold, I'm going to compromise. The film this week will be: 1) A film that involves conflict. 2) A film that ties in to a Jossian creation. 3) A film that is both brilliant and awful, sometimes at the same time. 4) A film about 'the best laid plans... etc' So, let's git a movin' now. You will have no doubt noticed that I started the column with one of the best-known cinematic quotes of recent genre film history. In the context of the scene in which the character speaks the line, it is a perfect fit, resonant with meaning. There is a dynamic that has occurred between Yoda and Luke, in which Luke is despairing of his abilities as a potential Jedi, and loses his faith in himself. Yoda cannot allow this to happen, for he foresees that Luke a crucial part of the future to be. Thus, the exceedingly grave nature of Luke's responsibilities must be clearly spelled out for him-- he cannot afford to fail. Thus, 'Do or do not-- there is no 'try'. Of course, Luke does fail, and Yoda must show him that that failure is all of his own doing. The tiny figure raises the spacecraft from the muck of the swamp, to Luke's stunned amazement. The question is, just what kind of a reading should one place on this entire scene? Did Yoda expect him to fail (watch his expression when Luke almost succeeds in raising the ship-- he seems almost startled), so that he could then illustrate that power has little to do with size, or youth, or other ephemera, but with confidence and a true understanding of oneself.? Was the 'do or do not' just a means-to-an-end statement, not the end statement itself? Or is the statement meant to be more literal? Is it really a matter of whether, in the reaching of the goal, one is successful or one is a loser? I rather prefer the first reading, myself. Surely, someone as old and wise as the little wrinkly alien guy understands that there is such a thing as a noble failure, a 'try' that perhaps did not move all the way over to 'do', but nonetheless made as best an effort as possible under the circumstances. Such is my opinion of Joss's new storytelling effort, Firefly, which debuted last Friday night. Such is also my opinion of one of director David Lynch's early substantive efforts, the 1984 film version of Frank Herbert's epic science-fiction novel Dune. It's still way too early to tell about Firefly. Joss is taking a big chance on trying to mix the normally disparate traditional science-fiction and Western genres together, and then further meld the melange with his trademark existentialist quirkiness. I think that he can succeed, and I personally see the few weaknesses in the opening ep as recoverable ones. There were a lot of strengths, and on the whole I enjoyed the hour. I especially loved the apt and interesting choice of music, and the special effects that worked to actively help suspend one's disbelief, rather than just scream 'look at me! I'm so damn clever and high tech!' The characters have potential to grow into detailed, three-dimensional people. A number of the professional TV critics whose reviews I read seem to be disappointed that the show is not another 'Buffy'. I hope not, since I don't want another Buffy. There is/should be only one, and thus all is right(eous) with the world. Lynch's Dune, which was made when he was still a relatively novice director, is a brilliant attempt to film what could very well be an unfilmable piece of literature. The novel upon which the screenplay is based is one of the most complex pieces of genre fiction ever written. Realizing it visually had to be a challenge even with the substantial budget ($44 million in 1984, about $100 million in today's dollars) the studio allowed, very reluctantly if I recall the press reports issued at the time the film was released. A large cast of experienced actors were chosen to play the various roles. It is obvious looking at the results that Lynch was willing to take chances on something plainly unconventional. When the film was released, the reviews were generally very negative. Part of the reason for this may have been that many film critics saw the original, full-length cut of the movie, and not the more widely distributed 'standard length' cut that the vast majority of audiences saw. I have seen both versions (the 'original cut' was aired a few years ago on cable) and the extra time tends to add a lot of exposition without really enlightening the viewer to a much greater extent as to just what is going on. People who were familiar with the novel could follow the proceedings, but even repeated viewings would have baffled most audiences. So, to me, the shorter version works just as well, maybe even better. Think of taking an entire season of Buffy or Angel, and trying to put together a condensation of all the events in a form that would play in under three hours. How would you do it? What would you leave out? I think this was the basic dilemma. Dune was a well known novel, but it was not in the class of, say, Tolkien's works. The studio would have been unlikely to consent to an arrangement similar to what was done for the Lord of the Rings last year, so it pretty much needed to be a single film. Faults or no, the attempt was sincere. First, like Joss and Firefly, Lynch and his creative staff made no attempt to present the story in a 'traditional' science-fiction fashion. Conventionally, if an adventure such as this was taking place 10,000 years in the future, everything would be sleek, metallic, and highly tech-y looking. People would probably be wearing shiny skin-tight silver plastic suits and not have any body hair. Instead, most of the time we see what looks like a renaissance-era aestheticism, except with occasional subdued flashes of technology. Light globes float under highly decorated anti-gravity carrier devices, moving just ahead of the people who desire the illumination. The viewscreen of a spaceship is framed in ornate gold relief sculptures. Travel through the vast reaches of space is achieved by the pure mental efforts of almost-but-not-quite-bug-like alien creatures whose bodies have been genetically mutated by the deliberate ingestion of 'The Spice" which is the secretion of the giant sand worms of Arrakis, the 'Dune' of the title. Nary a 'warp drive' is in sight. The evildoers of the story, in fact, are the ones who seem to lean towards 'traditional' technology, but only in a highly perverted form. It is always harsh, ugly, violent-- for example, the slaves and prisoners of the Harkonnen empire are fitted with 'heart plugs', allowing them to constantly feel the vulnerability of being killable at a second's notice. The vile Baron Harkonnen is depicted as being constantly diseased, not as a weakness, but as some perverse way of acknowledging the supposed power of evil over death. ('Degradation most Holy', comes to mind?) The acting is one area where I have no real certainty. The cast, as previously mentioned, is more than qualified from a talent and experience standpoint. However, they often recite their lines as if reading blankly from a cue-card-- stiffly, with a detached air. Did Lynch deliberately intend this, perhaps to further keep us in 'alien' territory? Or was it some more mundane cause, a genuine fault? I'm willing to overlook the occasionally stiff dialog and the series of more rushed events that make up the latter third of the film. (In the book, I personally found the parts about life with the Fremen and Paul's gradual 'evolution' into the Kwisatz Haderach the most interesting, but in the film, these get very short shrift compared to the buildup to and events after). The cinematography is stunning, and as long as you have read the novel, there is no real problem following the story. Would this have been a better film if Lynch could have broken it into two parts, perhaps with the dividing point set when Paul and Lady Jessica flee into the desert and are adopted by the Fremen? We'll never know, short of a remake-- what's done is done.
But is was a really superb try, even if the director, cast and crew 'did not' in some ways. If you haven't seen this movie for a long time, get yourself a DVD copy, the biggest screen you have, and Or is that 'spice'?
E. Pluribus Cinema, Unum, OnM
******* Technically, a little rain must fall: Dune is available on DVD, the review copy was on laserdisc. The film was released in 1984, with running time of 2 hours and 17 minutes for the 'standard' version, and supposedly 3 hours and 10 minutes for the 'long version'. The original cinematic aspect ratio is 2.35:1, which is likely preserved on the DVD edition. The film was produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis with associate producer José López Rodero. The screenplay was by the director, David Lynch, based of course on Frank Herbert's novel. The cinematography was by Freddie Francis, with film editing by Antony Gibbs. Production Design was by Anthony Masters, with art direction by Pier Luigi Basile. Set Decoration was by Giorgio Desideri and costume design was by Bob Ringwood. Special effects were by Terence J. Cox, Charles L. Finance, Barry Nolan, Carlo Rambaldi, Bruno Van Zeebroeck, Kit West, Albert Whitlock and Gary Zink. Additional visual and other effects were by Syd Dutton, Charles L. Finance, Judith Miller, Eric Swenson and Mark Whitlock. Original music was by Brian Eno, Roger Eno and Daniel Lanois (for the 'Prophecy Theme') and Steve Lukather, David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, Steve Porcaro and Joseph Williams (as 'Toto'). Additional music was by Marty Paich. The original theatrical soundtrack mix was 70mm 6-track for 70mm prints, and standard Dolby Surround for 35mm prints. Cast overview:
Francesca Annis .... Lady Jessica
******* Miscellaneous: 1) Did you know David Lynch at one time considered directing Return of the Jedi? Whooo..... 2) It may be of some background interest to note the films that came just before and after Dune in 1984, which were Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet (1986). Or maybe Lynch is just naturally strange this way, and still is. Your call. (But we thank him.) 3) The Unbearable Lightness of Search Engines: When I did the usual research on the IMDb to gather info for Dune, the list of films located included the recently reviewed flick Legally Blonde. Huh?? Well, it turns out that the search engine picked this film because in France, Legally Blonde was released as "La Revanche d'une blonde". Is that supposed to be "Revenge of the Blonde", I find myself wondering? Humm... loses something in the translation, doesn't it? Now I wonder how Darth Vader and the Emporer would have fared against Elle... 4) The world tinest Bene Gesserit witch, the sister of Muad'Dib / Paul Atreides, was played by a child actress named Alicia Witt. I certainly didn't remember the name, but years later a much older Ms. Witt played a role as Cybill Shepard's daughter on the TV series that bore her name. A stunning redhead (at least in the show) who could also play a mean piano, Alicia has starred in a variety of often off-beat productions. Check out this list if you've never seen her at work, or didn't know of her Lynchian connection. (Courtesy, as usual, of the IMDb): Alicia Witt: Actress - filmography
Two Weeks Notice (2002) .... June Carter
******* A Special One-Time Only Preface to the Question of the Week: The times they are a-changin', the folk prophet once proclaimed, and this is one of those times. It has been about a year and a half now that I have done this 'Classic Movie' column each week for you, and while I would very much like to continue, I have decided to take an extended leave from doing so, for at least the length of the next BtVS season. I have really enjoyed putting my thoughts down here each week, and I hope that you have been entertained by my efforts. Hey, you've read this far, haven't you? :-) The problem is not one of desire, it's that same old demon, Time the Avenger. Last season, I started doing long-form episode reviews of Buffy, and not surprisingly, my obsession being well known and regularly demonstrated here at ATPo, I enjoyed doing them also. I intend to begin doing them again, starting this very next week. This is a Buffy/Angel board, after all, so they even have the advantage of being directly on-topic, which is always a plus! Besides the planned ep reviews, I am currently engaged in extensively redesigning my company's web site, which will take much extra effort over a period of months, in addition to the daily demands of the regular audio/video grind. Since I can no longer do all of this in a week's time, the CMotW simply has to go and hibernate for a while. I may very well bring it back again next summer, depending of course on what happens with the show(s). If I see some film-related references during the course of viewing an ep, I will of course bring them to bear in the text of the review-- it's kind of in my nature at this point in time to see a lot of things more 'cinematically' than I have at any previous time of my life. I will miss this weekly outing, but unfortunately I know from many previous experiences-- all of them not ending well-- that if you allow something done for enjoyment to become an obligation, the joy will leave it. At one time, I was a devoted audiophile, and thought it would be fabulous to have a career in the field. Now, it is just a job that I begrudgingly put up with to make a living, and obligation is everything, and there is very little joy. I won't make that mistake again. I'm happy to be 'The Movie's' bitch, but I won't do without the joyous part anymore. And you, my loyal fans (all 9 or 10 of them!), deserve the pleasure too. So, I have planned to do one remaining regular column next week, thereby finishing out this month, and kicking off the new Mutant Enemy season. Unless the 1st ep of Buffy turns out to be something totally different than what I expect (nah, that never happens!!), I have a really good, and reasonably appropriate film in mind, and it'll be a fine one to sign off on. So, that's about it, except for one last thing-- if there is anyone out there who wishes to take over this weekly spot, or work in conjunction with several other ATPo-ers to keep the Classic Movie scene going, by all means, let me know, or just go do it. Regular visitors to this spot know that my occasional 'guest hosts' have done a fine job in sharing their own 'CineBuffy' knowledge and visions with the rest of us. I'd be very happy to have them take my place here, and will even help them along with doing so in any way that I can. I wish to very sincerely thank all of you who have supported my efforts here over the last 20 months, as your words of praise and encouragement have boosted my personal well being, and brought me to feel that I have developed at least some modest abilities in the field of writing, which is something that I have always wanted to do. You are the wind beneath my keyboard, which is good, 'cos it helps keep the dust out! Thank you! ..... :-) ... OnM
******* The Question of the Week: So, you wanna write a 'Classic Movie' column? If I can help in any way, just let me know, either by posting or better yet by e-mailing me at: objectsinmirror@mindspring.com In the meantime, as always, take care, and I'll see you next week! And Happy Buffy Premiere Day to one and all! :-) ******* Classic Movie of the Week - September 21st 2002 - Dune
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