"Hostiles"

One of the finest films I've ever seen ...
mature, candid ...


the frontier cruel to the bone, for everyone ...
death everywhere ... no one was free from it's chilled hand ...


scoundrels survive until their end; soldiers do their job ...


souls harden; spirits collapse ...


can there be any form of goodness in such a setting? No angels here, no clean hands ... but can there yet be some hope?


Can D.H. Lawrence's quote that sets the stage for the film yet be undone by better angels?

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted."

"Gold"

A riveting story ...

Gold-fever.

Wealth, power and foolishness.

Lies and more lies ...

The foolers and fools.

Drunk on dreams, and drunk on booze.

In the end, was he or was he not?
Did he know, or did he not?

Hee hee ... enjoy.

---------

Men and women who would destroy everything for their own gain. Who have fallen down at the feet of Mammon, thrown away their humanity, willing to eat one another for breakfast, wiping their mouth and their hands, on to the next feast.

The Fall - 2006

Charm without syrup ... a story without preaching ... a powerful tale of redemption without a goofy ending, The Fall.

Set in Hollywood during the earliest days of silent film making, a stunt man and a little girl find themselves in the same hospital, victims of a fall. He's lost the ability to walk; she has a broken collar bone. He's enjoying the Hollywood life; she's an immigrant child who picks fruit with her family.

He's utterly depressed but beguiled by the little girl to whom he starts telling tall tales, working into the stories her family members and experiences, firing her imagination.

But there's a dark side to his regard; he wants the young girl to get into the pharmacy and steal some morphine to "help me sleep," when, in fact, he wants to overdose and end his life. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, and in this case, the girl misunderstands his instructions and brings him only three pills (she pours the rest out) - not enough to end his misery.

I won't spoil the ending, but suffice to say it ends well, yet without any fairytale embellishment.

The little girl (Catinca Untaru) is stunningly good, playing her role with a genuine innocence, sweetness, that can only come from a real heart. She comes to love the story teller (Lee Pace) who, in turn, comes to love her, too, in spite of his depression and the subsequent guilt he feels in the light of her purity.

The film moves wonderfully from hospital to story - the tallest of tall tales; improbable and exciting, done with limited special effects, revealing the mind of a child pure in its loves and hopes ... and strikingly courageous.

Filmed in 16 different locations - South Africa, South Pacific, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Nepal, to mention just a few.

Glorious music, filming - a movie worth seeing.

Rambo

Okay, so I'm a sucker for Stallone.

I liked it.

Great soundtrack, good story, Rambo with his sullen, silent rage, and all the 50-caliber mayhem you could want.

I was particularly taken with the story and its portrayal of Christians. So often, Christians are simply stereotyped as either bigoted and shallow, or perverted and evil. Here, they're real people, with passion and compassion. They're shown interacting with the people: doctors dressing wounds and giving out medications; missionaries teaching the gospel - caught in the middle of a terribly difficult situation, where violence, sadly, has its place. The writer of Ecclesiastes said it well: "There is a time for war."

The soundtrack was one of the best - the visual beauty of the jungle and the river was captured well - reminded me of "Apocalypse Now" and "The Mosquito Coast."

The battle scene at the end - what we're all expecting - doesn't disappoint. Well choreographed, well filmed and edited, it's one of the best!

Is Stallone an actor?

Yes. I've never forgotten him in "Cop Land," one of Stallone's best performances. Here, in Rambo, Stallone, captures a character - troubled, alone, carrying huge demons of the soul, nonetheless, with a sense of justice and shreds of compassion. And like all beasts, here we see beauty taming him. The plot at this point might have gone south - a first kiss and then some steamy sex - but thankfully, the writers didn't go there. Rambo remains Rambo - a man looking at life from afar.

Stallone is criticized for this roll, but it touches a nerve in our spirit and tells a story lived by many. Veterans of war all carry some demons, but millions of human beings live lives of quiet desperation, never quite knowing who they are or where they're going, weighted down by some unnamed weight of rage.

In the end, we see him back in the US of A, on a country road by a weathered mailbox, and on it, the name Rambo. As the credits roll, we watch John walk the long driveway downhill to the farm where his father lives. How long has it been?

It's home for him.

And that's a good prayer ... for all the Rambos of our world - for they are many - to find home again ... if not literally, at least in their own soul and memories, or with a friend ... with God ... somewhere, somehow, to be reconciled and find peace.

Bella

Beautiful.

A wonderful love story ... Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award ... a man with a sad past, a women facing a troubled future ... she a waiter, he a cook, in his brother's restaurant ... helping one another.

A sweet story filled with hope ... terrific acting ... pathos ... the power of family love.

And a simple reminder: life is better when we help each other ... and we can!

The ending, though sweet, was confusing to me ... didn't track at all ... maybe it was me.

Blade Runner: Final Cut

The Landmark on Pico is awesome ... spent some good time in Barnes & Nobles, then off to see Blade Runner: Final Cut.

I saw the first (1982) and thoroughly enjoyed it, and enjoyed it again - especially the sound. Cleaned up digitally, it's impressive, although the sets and their technology seem dated, like watching an old Frankenstein film.

Who can forget Harrison Ford's wry smile and when threated, a perplexed, frightened visage? He's a gifted actor, playing the role with a sense of detached irony - "I don't wanna be here, but no choice, so I'll do it."

It's the ideas within that catch my attention: all life seeks its creator for answers, even if it's replicant-life and its creator an engineer. We're fearful of strangers. At the core of our humanness, even replicant humanness, is decency. Life is precious, and death is the inevitable enemy. We're often very alone, but who likes it? We all want to love and be loved.

In 1982, LA in the early 21st century seemed rather far away in time, but in 2007, 2019 is a short hop, but the LA envisioned in Blade Runner needs another century or so.

The sense of LA is medieval - cold, damp and brutish. No sunshine, only rain. Decrepitude on every corner, fortress-like mega-structures, off-world living, hyper technology, and the ageless issues of life: loneliness, power, hope, death, fear, kindness, courage, resignation, doubt and the ceaseless quest to understand who we are.

One of the theater attendants, with whom I was chatting prior to the screening, reminded me this version has no voice-over. I don't mind voice-over, but the film in its "final cut" doesn't need it - visually impressive with a hopeless appearance (what have we wrought?), a musical score that drives but doesn't overwhelm, superb performances by the entire cast - especially the smaller parts, played with disdain for the world in which they live, but like Deckard, who has a choice.

The tag-line for me: "Too bad she won't live, but then, who does?"

Michael Clayton

"The truth can be adjusted," and what a price we all pay for it.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen - in all respects ... acting, script, music, story, message.

Clooney is Oscar-caliber here ... a distracted father, a gambling addict, in debt to the mob for a failed restaurant, a "janitor" for a world-renown law firm. It's his job to clean up the mess, and no one can do it quite like Michael Clayton.

His good friend and fellow-attorney, one of the best and most ruthless, defending a huge agricultural conglomerate in a case against a product the company knows to be toxic, suddenly does the bizarre - in a hearing, he takes off his clothing and walks out of the room naked, declaring his love for one of the plaintiffs. Time for the janitor!

The story deepens and twists a thousands different ways ... the far-reaching influence of the powerful, the ruthless ambition of corporate heads, the dismissal of truth for profits, the do-anything mode of thought to survive, the simmering conscience that erupts in the strangest of ways, the remnants of compassion and decency lingering in our soul, and the enduring quality of truth.

A part of the Clooney-Soderbergh ouevre, along with The Good German (2006), Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck (2005), and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Michael Clayton explores the inner-workings of power, and the often tangled web of money and influence that takes governments and corporations, their leaders and their employees, down terrible paths.

Rated R - a tough and demanding film that exposes the raw nerve of power, and lifts up the possibility of redemption. A must-see film!

3:10 to Yuma - the movie

All right, I'm a sucker for hope.

I've never seen the original (1957) nor read Leonard's short story of the same title, so all I have is the current film.

Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are favorites of mine, and they deliver: Crowe is evil and intelligent, and Bale is stubbornly in need of money and determined to show his son the right way. Both are ruthless.

Though some reviewers have dissed the ending, I loved it - a parable of sorts - the courage of Bale elicits respect in Crowe, and Crowe responds, bloody and cruel, in such a way that Bale could achieve his goal - not the money, but the admiration of a son.

It's a tough and tangled world ... good and evil, wheat and weeds, all run together. We settle for moments of grace - we head for the 3:10 no matter what. The son is rightly impressed, and with a whistle, the train pulls away, and Crowe's horse comes a-running. Good and evil remain, having touched one another, effected and changed one another.

Hope and goodness are sometimes, often times, forged in blood. Evil, in a strange and incomprehensible fashion, becomes a partner with redemption.

I guess that's what the Cross is all about.

Calvary, the 3:10 to Yuma for Jesus.